Four Centuries From Now
The play begins in a museum.
↳ We are the visitors to her exhibition.
📚 Chapter Learning Kit
The Book That Saved the Earth · Class 10 English · Footprints Without Feet
English 3 topics 135 leveled MCQs 60 flashcards 4 games Free
Shared by a Veda teacher · Generated with Veda AI · Oct 2026
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Veda Bites are swipeable micro-lessons — each one teaches exactly one idea. Here's a taste from this kit; the app has the full deck.
The Era of the Book
Why that century got its name.
↳ A set question — and the fourth verb is a joke about shelves.
The Invasion That Never Was
She gives the ending away at once.
The strangest thing a book ever did was to save the Earth — the Martian invasion of 2040 never really happened, because one book stopped it.
↳ The suspense is not what happened, but how it possibly could have.
Mars Control and a Library
The curtain opens on two places at once.
↳ An ordinary small-town library is about to save the planet.
What the Crew Are Doing
Three Martians, three kinds of confusion.
↳ Every one of them is holding a book and none of them knows it.
A Barn? A Haberdashery?
Their own guesses come first.
↳ Each guess is borrowed from something they already know.
📖 Smart notes
What you'll study, topic by topic
1
The Era of the Book, and the Ruler of Mars
A museum historian in the twenty-fifth century introduces the strangest thing a book ever did, and switches on a historiscope. On the other side of it sits Think-Tank, ruler of Mars, admiring himself in a mirror and plan…
- The play is by Claire Boiko, and it is set four centuries in the future. A Historian in the the twentieth-century section of a museum of anc…
- She calls the twentieth century the Era of the Book: books were written on every subject there is, from the ant eater to the Zulu people, te…
- The strangest thing a book ever did, she says, was to save the Earth. The Martian invasion of 2040 never actually happened, because one book…
~26 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
2
Sandwiches You Are Ordered to Eat
Three Martians land in a public library and cannot tell what a book is. Their commander declares the place a refreshment stand, the books sandwiches, and then — twice — changes his theory without ever admitting he was wr…
- Scene 2 is set in two places at once — Mars Space Control and the public library at Centerville on Earth — a few seconds after the first sce…
- Captain Omega opens and closes the card catalogue drawers in a confused fashion; Lieutenant Iota counts the books in a bookcase; Sergeant Oo…
- Their own guesses come first. Iota has counted two thousand of the peculiar items and thinks the place is some sort of storage barn; Oop, wh…
~27 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
3
Mother Goose Empties a Planet
Intelligence vitamins let the Martians read at last — and what they read is a book of nursery rhymes. Three rhymes later, Think-Tank has ordered the evacuation of Mars, and a historian five centuries on explains which bo…
- Omega lifts down a big volume of Mother Goose and holds it so that the audience can see the title. She reports pictures of Earthlings; Iota…
- Think-Tank becomes sharply interested, admits that these Earthlings may not be as backward as had been thought, and declares that the code m…
- A thought of magnificent brilliance immediately comes to Think-Tank: take the vitamins. The crew remove, present and swallow them on command…
~28 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
❓ Leveled MCQ practice
Try the smart MCQs from this kit
135 questions laddered from warm-up to topper-level, each with an explanation. A taste:
Who wrote 'The Book That Saved the Earth'?
Beginner
A Isaac Asimov
B Kenneth Lillington
C Claire Boiko
D J. H. Parker
Show answer & explanation
Claire Boiko
The other three appear only in the suggested reading.
Where does the play open?
Intermediate
A In the the twentieth-century section of a museum of ancient history
B At Mars Space Control, before the invasion fleet
C In the Centerville Public Library on Earth
D In a school classroom in the twenty-first century
Show answer & explanation
In the the twentieth-century section of a museum of ancient history
A Historian speaks there directly to the audience.
In which century is the framing scene of the play set?
Intermediate
A The twentieth
B The twenty-first
C The thirtieth
D The twenty-fifth
Show answer & explanation
The twenty-fifth
Four centuries after the events it describes.
Why was the twentieth century called the Era of the Book?
Intermediate
A There were books on every subject, teaching people how, when, where and why
B Because books were first printed during that century
C Because only books were allowed to be read in schools
D Because a famous book was written in every year of it
Show answer & explanation
There were books on every subject, teaching people how, when, where and why
From ant eaters to Zulus, says the Historian.
🃏 Flashcards
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60 flashcards in this kit — the app reviews them with spaced repetition so the right card returns on the right day.
🎮 Learning games
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Word Match
True False
Fill Blank
Word Scramble
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