A Question of Trust · Class 10 English · Footprints Without Feet: 135 MCQs with answers

As a good and respectable man who was not completely honest

The phrase is the story's own, and a textbook question asks why it is apt.

About fifty, unmarried, a lock-maker with two helpers and a housekeeper

Every detail is deliberately respectable.

Rare and expensive books

He buys them secretly through an agent.

Making locks

It is also exactly the skill his annual robbery requires.

Two weeks

He had looked at its rooms, its electric wiring, its paths and its garden.

About four hours

He laid out his tools with that in mind.

He was always careful not to leave any fingerprints

Which makes what he does later all the more damaging.

In the drawing room, behind a rather poor painting

A magazine article had already told the world so.

A bowl of flowers set off his hay fever

He sneezed, then sneezed loudly, and had to use his handkerchief.

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She asks whether he has a cold or hay fever

He answers truthfully before he has time to think.

Young, quite pretty and dressed in red, with a quiet but firm voice

The grey-haired woman of sixty is the real wife, who appears at the end.

To run

She answers that she would telephone the police, who would get him at once.

He takes off his gloves and offers her his lighter

He had worn those gloves all afternoon for one reason only.

That he does something for her first

He answers that he will do anything she says.

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Opened the safe within the hour, handed over the jewels and left happily

He believed he had been caught and let off.

Two days

On the third morning he was thinking about books again.

A policeman arrested him by noon for the Shotover Grange robbery

The charge was the one robbery from which he gained nothing.

That it was nonsense

From where she stood, it plainly was.

Working as the assistant librarian in the prison

A book-lover surrounded by books he cannot own.

Any mention of honour among thieves

The phrase is one of the two proverbs printed above the story.

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To pay for the rare books he loves, taking enough to last twelve months

It is an annual expense, planned like any other.

He had served one sentence, fifteen years earlier, in the prison library

The library detail is planted for the last paragraph of the story.

The family were in London and the two servants had gone to the movies

Horace watched them go, and reckoned on four hours.

About fifteen thousand pounds

Sold one by one he expected to get at least five thousand of it.

Live on it for a year and buy three books coming up for sale in the autumn

The whole robbery is arranged around a book sale.

With the kitchen key, which the housekeeper hung on a hook outside

He had noticed the key during his two weeks of watching.

He called it by its name, Sherry, and showed it affection

His rule is that a dog needs its right name and some love.

They take up too much room, and books suit a small house better

A burglar pausing mid-job to review his hobby.

A disorder of the nose and throat caused by allergy to pollen or dust

Which is why a bowl of flowers can ruin a burglary.

He went into the hall and cut its wire, finding it poorly built

He had spent his whole life among locks and safes.

1 and 2 only

His business was successful; the money was for books.

Two weeks spent studying the rooms, wiring, paths and garden

He also timed the robbery for the servants' afternoon off.

A lock-maker with a housekeeper and an allergy robs one safe a year to buy books

A good opening holds the respectability and the crime in the same line.

His lock-making business was successful enough to employ two helpers

The money was for rare books, not for bread.

Sherry — the small dog lying in the kitchen

Shotover Grange is the house he robs, the agent buys his books, and the woman in the drawing room is a stranger.

A careful, mild, respectable burglar begins a well-prepared robbery and starts sneezing

The sneeze is what the rest of the story grows out of.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: his age, unmarried state and housekeeper; the lock-making business with two helpers; the hay fever; the story's phrase about being good and respectable but not completely honest; the single sentence served fifteen years earlier in the prison…

A special treatment, if he discovers which plant affects him

She adds that he should see a doctor if he is serious about his work.

She had heard him sneezing from the top of the house

The hay fever is what brings her downstairs.

To get down, since anyone would think she had been away for a month

The dog's affection and her easy scolding do more than any claim could.

That she came back just in time, though she had not expected to meet a burglar

The amusement in it is what gives Horace hope.

To cut the wires and stop her doing anything for hours — and he withdraws it at once

Asked whether he would hurt her, he admits he was only trying to frighten her.

That he did not frighten her

Four words, and the last of his advantages is gone.

Because if she lets him go he will only rob someone else

Society, she says, must be protected from men like him.

He is no threat to society, steals only from the rich, has a good reason, and dreads prison

Every word of it is true, and every word of it is useful to her.

That she has always liked the wrong kind of people

The line is a confession, and Horace hears it as sympathy.

She promised her husband to bank the jewels, left them in the safe, and wants them for a party

It is a story about a small domestic disobedience — believable, and slightly embarrassing.

That he will have to break the safe — and she says it can be mended within the month

Her husband, she says, will not be back for a month.

1 and 3 only

She only says she would telephone them if he tried to run.

She was not the lady of the house at all, but another thief

The real wife is a grey-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty.

She never claims to own anything — she simply behaves as though she does

The method is the answer, so name it first.

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He thought of the books he wanted and knew he needed another safe

The books are the whole reason he steals.

His fingerprints were all over the room, since he had opened the safe without gloves

He had removed the gloves to offer her a cigarette lighter.

A grey-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty

Her flat dismissal of the story ends any hope Horace had.

The young woman in red, who kept the jewels

She took the jewels, left no fingerprints, and left Horace holding the evidence.

Set a thief to catch a thief

It took a thief to read Horace correctly and take everything he had.

Opening the safe bare-handed, which put his prints all over the room

The other two are failures of judgement; this one is evidence.

1 and 3 only

She called the story nonsense.

The woman in red was never the lady of the house, and the police were never told by her

The real wife, a woman of sixty, had never seen him in her life.

A fortnight of planning was undone by a stranger, a cigarette lighter and a pair of gloves

Name the three mistakes in the opening line, then explain each.

The young woman in red — a thief who is never caught

Sherry is the dog, and the real wife had never met Horace.

The wrong thief is caught, tells the truth, and is not believed

And the right thief is never looked for at all.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: opening the safe within the hour and leaving happily; the promise kept for two days; the thought of the books on the third morning; the arrest by noon; the fingerprints from working without gloves; the truthful defence and why it was disbeli…

That he is gentle, and prefers charm to force in everything

Nothing in his burglary involves violence of any kind.

A layout of every room, a photograph of the drawing room, and the fact that the painting hid a safe

Horace's thought about foolish owners of valuable things is fairly earned.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

He even quiets a guard dog by being kind to it.

It prepares the last line of the story, where he is back in one

He ends as the assistant librarian of a prison.

The money is a means to a hobby, not an end in itself

Each theft is budgeted to cover exactly twelve months.

A small joke about a comfortable man becomes the hinge of the plot

The sneezing is loud enough to be heard from the top of the house.

It admits the crime while keeping our sympathy for the man

The understatement is deliberate, and it shapes how we read everything he does.

It makes the reader like a burglar and admire his competence

Both feelings are needed before the trap closes on him.

His honest trade and his yearly crime use exactly the same skill

He says himself that he has lived with locks and safes all his life.

That much of his work had been done for him by a magazine

The article gave a plan of the rooms and named the hiding place.

Because the question about his sneezing is what traps him

He answers 'hay fever' before he can think, and the negotiation begins.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the two weeks of study and what he studied; the family in London and the servants at the movies; the four hours; the kitchen key on the hook and the gloves; the magazine article and what it revealed; the dog quieted by name; the tools laid out; the burglar…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should identify techniques with evidence: the respectable opening description; the mildness of the criminal record and the motive; the absence of violence (the key, the dog); the humour of the aside about pictures; the hay fever as a human weakness; the distance and carele…

She offers professional care to a man whose work is burglary

The word 'work' does a great deal of quiet damage in that sentence.

She crosses to the fireplace and straightens the ornaments

People only tidy their own mantelpieces.

She seems amused, so he thinks he can avoid trouble by handling her properly

That hope is exactly what she is cultivating.

That he had not expected to meet one of the family — saying her lie for her

The deception is complete once he puts it into words himself.

She is a thief herself, lecturing another thief

The reader only sees the joke on a second reading.

His fear of prison, which she repeats back to him as a question

She now knows exactly which lever to pull.

He never puts the gloves on again, so his fingerprints are all over the room

The fingerprints are what convict him two days later.

Horace himself, smiling

She simply agrees with the excuse he has invented for her.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

The dog, the ornaments and the household talk do all the work.

He is startled, ill, relieved by her manner, and desperate to avoid prison

A man being let off does not usually examine the terms.

It makes the kindness that follows feel like a real concession

A favour granted reluctantly is worth far more than one granted easily.

Any proof at all that the jewels are hers

He is too relieved to be suspicious.

That he is a mild man who prefers charm to force, even against himself

The same instinct that made him greet the dog by name now removes his gloves.

The lighter — the gloves come off, and the fingerprints begin

The dog in fact helps her, by greeting her like an old friend.

When she says she has always liked the wrong kind of people

A textbook question asks exactly this, and several answers can be defended.

It keeps the scene a conversation rather than a confrontation, which suits her purpose

Nothing she does is loud, and nothing she does is a demand.

The scene stays a conversation, which is the only ground on which she can win

An argument she could not win by force is settled by ordinary talk.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least five of her devices: the opening question about hay fever and the medical advice; the dog and the remark about a month; straightening the ornaments; the joke about coming back just in time and meeting a burglar; the silver cigarette box; the story o…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should follow the stages: the disarming opening; the admission about running and her reply about the police; the threat to cut the wires and immobilise her; her question about hurting her and his retreat; 'you didn't frighten me'; the plea and her sharp refusal on behalf o…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: why the gloves were worn (no fingerprints); the exact circumstances of their removal (the silver box, the cigarette, the lighter, his eagerness to please); the fact that nobody asked him to; his never putting them on again and opening the safe bare-handed;…

It was true — but it sounded exactly like an invention, and nobody believed it

He said the owner's wife had asked him to open the safe for her.

The story's third paragraph had said his first sentence was served in a prison library

The joke is planted on the first page and collected on the last.

It demolishes it — the only person who robs Horace is a colleague

Horace's anger at the phrase is the story's last word on it.

Trusting a stranger, removing his gloves, opening the safe himself

Judgement, habit and evidence — and he profited from none of it.

She read his mildness, his wish to please and his fear of prison in a few minutes

And he told her about the fear of prison himself.

A is false, but R is true

He walks out of the house unchallenged and is arrested much later, so the assertion is false. The reason is a true account of how he came to be blamed.

He is convicted by a safe he opened at somebody else's request

His trade, his crime and his conviction all use the same skill.

It is accurate in every detail and sounds exactly like an invention

Being truthful and being credible are not the same thing.

Horace trusts a liar, and when he tells the truth nobody trusts him

Trust is what he gives away and what he cannot get.

He did break in, cut an alarm and fully intend to steal the jewels

His intention was exactly the crime he was convicted of.

He is convicted of a theft he gained nothing from, while the real thief is never sought

The jewels left the house in somebody else's hands.

It lets his reasoning meet somebody who reasons the same way, and shows the result

The person with the better argument simply takes everything he has.

He recognises professional skill even when it has destroyed him

He calls her charming and clever, and in the same profession as himself.

Because the anger answers the proverb printed above the story

The textbook asks which of the two sayings the story illustrates.

Careful planning cannot protect a man from being read correctly

She studied the man; he had only studied the house.

It keeps the injustice alive after the story ends

She is free, and he is filing books in a prison.

It is Horace's own dry admission that he was beaten at his own trade

The narrator gives Horace the grace of naming it himself.

Whom can you trust, and who will trust you?

Horace answers both halves badly, through no fault of his planning.

Keeping his gloves on, whatever the courtesy required

Without the fingerprints there was nothing whatever to connect him with the room.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: evidence of the careful planning (two weeks, timing, key, gloves, dog, alarm); the three failures — trusting a stranger without proof, removing the gloves for the lighter, opening the safe himself; and the reasons in his character — mildness, the wish to pl…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Accept either verdict, if argued from the text. A strong answer should include: the case against him (breaking in, cutting the alarm, intending the theft, the weakness of his excuse); the case for unfairness (he gained nothing, the real thief escapes and is not pursued, he was con…