NCERT Solutions Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 1 - The Third Level

NCERT Solutions Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 1 - The Third Level

here you can get the NCERT solutions for class 12  English  Vistas chapter 1The third level!  We have Covered the all solutions of  NCERT  textbook English   Vistas Chapter 1.
Solutions Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 1
The Third Level

Page No:7

Read and Find Out

1. What does the third level refer to?

Answer

The third level refers to the subway of the Grand Central Station that

takes passengers to Galesburg, Illinois. The third level on the station was

a medium of escape for Charley, the narrator from the harsh realities of

modern life. It provided him a base where he could interweave fantasy

and reality.


2. Would Charley ever go back to the ticket-counter on the third level to

buy tickets to Galesburg for himself and his wife?

Answer

No, Charley would never go back to the ticket-counter on the third level

to buy tickets to Galesburg for himself and his wife because third level

was his imagination.


Reading with Insight

1.Do you think that the third level was a medium of escape for Charley?

Why?

Answer

Yes, I think that the third level was a medium of escape for Charley. Life

in modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worries and stress. Man

has to confront them all the times. The harsh realities of life make living

quite unpleasant and even unbearable. So he wants to escape into a

wishful world. Charley talks to his psychiatrist friend about the third level

at the Grand Central Station. His friend calls it “a walking-dream wish

fulfillment”. Charley possesses an escapist tendency. Even his stamp

collecting is a ‘temporary refuge from reality’.

2. What do you infer from Sam’s letter to Charley?

Answer

The way Charley came across Sam’s letter was surrounded in mystery.

Among his oldest first-day covers, he found an envelope. The envelope

containing the letter bore the address of his grandfather. It was written

on July 18, 1894. The postmark showed the Picture of President

Garfield. Generally the first day covers have blank papers in them, but

this one contained a letter. The letter was addressed to Charley. In the 

letter Sam had informed Charley that he was living on the third level. He

had also told Charley and his wife to keep looking for the third level.

Clearly, the letter was a product of Charley’s imagination.

3. ‘The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and stress.’

What are the ways in which we attempt to overcome them?

Answer

We can overcome the anxieties and insecurities bred by our inevitable

existence in the modern world by getting involved in some practical and

beneficial activities. Cultivating hobbies, spending time with family and

friends, going on trips and excursions, pursuing meditation and exercises

help us live a balanced and healthy life. Reading good books is

equivalent to having good friends with great insight. They not only

enrich us with the vast store of knowledge but also help us to learn from

other’s experience and stay rooted to some basic qualities of humanity.

Joining hobby classes or gym, attending social events like birthdays and

weddings, going for outdoor games, interacting meaningfully through

social-networking sites and writing diaries etc can also help us relieve

our worries and stay focussed and disciplined in life. Simple activities like

listening to music, playing with pets, an occasional dinner out, watching

cinema or plays or going to places like parks etc can go a long way in

helping us get rid of stress, boredom and insecurities.

4. Do you see an intersection of time and space in the story?

Answer

Yes, there are certain instances in the story that show an intersection of 

time and space. Firstly, the first two levels of Grand Central Station were

located in the present time while the third level existed in the 1890s.

Secondly, Charley and his wife, Louisa, live in the present time yet he

rushes to get old currency to buy two tickets to go to the Galesburg of

1894. Further, the old architecture of the platform at the third level is

different from the modern platforms of the first two levels. Besides, the

archaic manner of dressing by the people, and the newspaper, The

World, dated June 11, 1984 also overlaps with Charley’s real time world

and existence. Lastly, the letter that was mailed to Charley’s grandfather

on 18th July, 1894 highlights the intersection of time and space as the

sender (Charley’s friend Sam) and receiver (Charley himself) belong to

the present time.

5. Apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be a futuristic projection?

Discuss.

Answer

It is true that apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be a futuristic

projection. Before the Wright Brothers invented the first aeroplane,

nobody could have dared to believe that man could fly. Before

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, it would have been

impossible to believe in long-distance talks happening in the real-time

interface. Moreover, there are examples of inventions, like that of

inventing a modern-day sewing machine with a needle that has hole on

its wrong end, which were conceived in dreams but now are part of our

everyday reality.

All this emphasises that fantasies of one point of time that seem illogical

may turn out to be revolutionary things that change the future of the

mankind. Similarly, it would not be far-fetched to think about railway 

stations fitted with time-machine devices that would make travel from

one era to another just a matter of time.

6. Philately helps keep the past alive. Discuss other ways in which this is

done. What do you think of the human tendency to constantly move

between the past, the present and the future?

Answer

Besides philately, there are numerous other ways to help keep the past

alive. Collecting historical artefacts, paintings and inscriptions in a

museum, collecting and reading books (including autobiographies, biosketches, letters and diary entries) written in different eras, collecting

and viewing documentaries and other videos are all a few ways of

revisiting history. Besides, we can keep our culture and traditions alive

when we follow the rituals in ceremonies, treasure memories in the

form of videos, photographs and audio collections. Also, reviving old

monuments, buildings and other artefacts may prove a huge learning

opportunity to those visiting such places, and promote tourism at the

same time.

The capacity to oscillate between the past, present and future is a great

intellectual gift. This human tendency enables him to plan for the future

in the present by reaping benefits from the past. Consider a very simple

example of adopting a study technique for board exams. Considering the

past result (of class test or half yearly exams) a student makes a strategy

plan to address the weak areas more and score better in the future.

Thus, such a tendency helps in ensuring acceptance of the impact of

important decisions taken at any point of time and learning from them.

7. You have read ‘Adventure’ by Jayant Narlikar in Hornbill Class XI.

Compare the interweaving of fantasy and reality in the two stories.

Answer

In 'Adventure' Jayant Narlikar expressed that many world exist

simultaneously though they appear to be separated by time. He

expressed that the other world also existed and prospered with the

world we are aware of. On the other hand, In the third level, Charley a

young new york commuter wandering Grand Central Station by accident

finds a gateway that leads to a real past of 1894Seizing the oppurtunity

Charley attempts to escape the rat race by buying a one way ticket to his

childhood town of Galesburg. Not having proper currency for that

period, he forced to postpone his plan to escape to the past.


NCERT Solutions Class 12 English Vistas