The Great Automatic Grammatizator: Short Answer Questions
Question 1 : What does John Bohlen tell Knipe in the beginning of the story and how does the young engineer react ?
Answer: In the beginning of the story John Bohlen, the Chief of John Bohlen Inc. electrical engineers, appreciates Adolph Knipe for his contribution in developing the automatic computing engine.
He says that the machine they developed has the capacity to satisfy the increasing need of science, industry and administration for slowing complex mathematical problems rapidly.
Adolph Knipe’s response to this appreciation lacks enthusiasm and excitement. He does not look happy but looks quite bothered.
Question 2: Describe the activities mof the chief as observed by Knipe while sitting on the carpet.
Answer : While sitting on the carpet, instead of paying attention towards Mr. Bohlen’s words, Knipe looks at his movement and small details of his face. Knipe watches two small white hands of his chief, nervous fingers playing with a paperclip, unbending it, and straightening out the hair pin curves. He also notices the man’s face which he doesn’t like. His tiny mouth with the narrow purple – coloured lips. He notices that only the lower lip moved when he talks.
Question 3 : Explain Knipe’s thought’s and behaviour immediately after reaching his two room apartment.
Answer: After reaching his two – room apartment, Knipe threw his coat on the sofa, pour himself a drink of whisky and sits down in front of the typewriter on the table.
He acknowledges that Bohlen was right in his assessment of Knipe’s assessment is correct. He is not depressed because of a “woman” but because of his work.
Knipe’s thoughts then turn to the half finished sheet of typing still in the machine, which is headed “A Narrow Escape”. He takes a sip of whisky and feels its taste then he begins to read through the sheet. He is depressed and frustrated and is seeking solace in his writing to escape from his frustrations.
Question 4 : How does the narrator describe Knipe’s feeling at the moment he took some whisky and began saying “To hell with …..
Answer : At the moment when Knipe takes sip of wisky and begins to say, “To hell with….” the narrator describes his frustrations and his bitterness towards his work and current situation.
But exactly at that moment, his eyes and mouth begin slowly to open and he raises his head. He gazes at the wall opposite, with astonishment and become “absolutely motionless”. After a few seconds, a “subtle change” spreading over his face, his astonishment turns into pleasure. Initially very slight, only around the corners of his mouth spreading out, at last the whole face is open wide and shinning with “extreme delight”. It is the first time Adolph Knipe has “smiled in many, many months”.
Question 5 : How does he come to the conclusion that he can build an engine along the lines of the electric computer?
Answer: At first, Knipe believed that this idea of making a machine to produce stories quite “delicious” but “impracticable”. Then, he comes to the conclusion that it can be practically possible by applying the same principles of electric computer to language. He realises that English grammar is governed by rules that are almost mathematical in their strictness. So just as the electric computer uses pulses of electricity to solve mathematical problems, if an engine built along the same lines could be adjusted to arrange words in their right order according to the rules of grammar. If the engine is given the verbs, the nouns, the adjectives, the pronouns, and store them in its memory section as vocabulary and arrange for them to be extracted as required. Then feed it with plots and leave it to write the sentences.
Question 6 : Discuss the way Knipe convince Bohlen, to accept his proposal.
Answer: Mr. Bohlen’s main concern was the usefulness and profitability of the machine however Knipe explains his plan in very calm and composed manner. He convinces Bohlen that the machine has the potential to earn them a lot of profit as the magazines handsomely pay the published authors for their works. He suggests that they can fabricate writers by setting up their own literary agency. They will ask the writers to write for agency, pay their works at a low price and then publish them in different journals getting a much higher price. Knipe offers Bohlen to put his name on some of their writings. He feels happy imagining himself a famous writer. This he agrees to Knipe’s proposal and tells Knipe to develop the new machine.
Question 7 : What does Knipe tell Bohlen about his stories ?
Answer: Knipe tells Bohlen that he has written five hundred and six stories in his spare time in last ten years. He mentions that he has sent each story out to several magazines, but none of them have been accepted for publication. When Bohlen asks, Knipe replies that he has the creative urge.
Question 8 : How did the first writer react when he was approached to sign the contract ?
Answer: When Knipe approached the first writer of his list, a very great and wonderful writer. He told his story and produced a suitcase full of sample of novels and a contract for the man to sign which guaranteed him a large sum of money for life. The man listened politely, decided he was dealing with a lunatic person. He offered Knipe a drink, then firmly showed him to the door.
Question 9 : Why according to Knipe, the articles written by hand have no hope ?
Answer: Knipe claims “hand – made articles hasn’t a hope”. As they can not compete with mass – production. All the things in the market – carpet, chairs, shoes, bricks, crockery and anything one likes to mention are all machine – made now. Although their quality may be inferior but that doesn’t matter, its only the cost of production that counts. Then he compares stories with these things like carpets and chairs and said that no one cares how the stories are produced as long as they are delivered on time.
Question 10 : How does the narrator explain the feelings of Adolph Knipe and John Bohlen at the moment of completion of machine ?
Answer: The narrator describes the moment of completion of the machine, an “exciting moment” as the two men waited for this moment for six months. Both of them were nervous as they stood in the corridor before the control panel and got ready to run off the first story. By just pressing a button they will be able to generate stories and other articles that would make one a versatile writer. Mr. Bohlen was hoping from one foot to the other, quite unable to keep still.