BORES - LUCAS - BASIC ENGLISH NOTES - SEMESTER I - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 

BORES

Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.

1) How does the author show his humbleness in the beginning of the essay?

Ans:  A true bore is always conscious of his boorishness and usually thinking of himself as the most companionable men, to write as one of them is to acquit oneself of the stigma.

 

2) How can bores stop flourishing?

Ans:  The only remedy suggested by Lucas is to train ourselves to be offensive.

 

3) What are the requirements to write about bores?

Ans: The author says it requires a sense of superiority, assurance and self-confidence.

 

4) What is a true bore unconscious about?

Ans:  boorishness is a true bore unconscious about.    

 

5) What is the foundation stone of a bore?

Ans: Egotism is a bore’s foundation stone.

 

6) Why bores are happy?

Ans: Bores are happy because they have a lot to tell, and they also find listeners easily.

 

7) What is the tragedy of bores?

Ans: The tragedy is, they can always find their listeners, me almost first.

 

8) Who are bores?

Ans: A true bore is always conscious of his boorishness and usually thinking of himself as the most companionable men.

 

9) Who is the most repellent specimen of bores?

Ans: Of all bores the most repellent specimen is the one who comes close up; the buttonholing bore.

 

10) What is remedy against bores?

Ans: The only remedy suggested by Lucas is to train ourselves to be offensive.

 

11) What is the theme of the essay “Bores”?

Ans: The theme of sympathy, desperation, perseverance, awareness, alienation and ignorance.

 

12) How to avoid bores?

Ans: Lucas's friend to avoid the bore, so he engaged an attendant for this purpose. Whenever a bore came to him, the attendant would come to him to tell him that there was an urgent telephone call. The friend would take leave from the bore, and this way, the bore was forced to leave him.

 

13) What are the types of bores?

Ans: Buttonholing bore and word type of bore are the types of bores.

 

Explain the following statements with reference to their context.

1) I fear, everybody is a bore, because everybody now and again has a fixed idea to impart.

Ans:  The writer shows his humbleness in the beginning by acknowledging that he may also be a boring person so he could take the liberty about a bore. He explains that he cannot say that he is a bore with confidence because an important characteristic of a bore is that a bore himself does not know that he could described as a bore. He also wishes to avoid resentment from bores. Ironically, bores consider themselves to be very friendly. Bores usually have fixed ideas with which they life to impress everybody. However, everyone may not accept their interest as they may have different likes and dislikes. In the light of this statement, it could also be accepted that every now and then we all could be boring for someone and someone will have to bear the boredom we give them. Even the humblest person may feel that he is interesting when he is describing his personal experiences to others. He may actually be inflicting a lot of pain instead of pleasure to his listeners his uninteresting topic.

 

2) Egotism is beyond question the bore’s foundation stone.

Ans: In order to write about bores, a person must have a sense of superiority, assurance and self-confidence about himself. A true bore is egoistic as he is of the belief that what interests him and involves himself would certainly appeal to others. The ‘notorious bores’ can be also be assure of an audience because people are too kind to shun them away and therefore have to either listen and endure them. Bores as a rule are bores always, for egotism is beyond question the bore’s foundation stone; his belief being that what interests him and involves himself as a central figure must interest you. His Ego does not allow him to realize that he is a boring person. In fact, his ego supports his false notion for him that he is actually very interesting. His ego leads him to believe that the topic that interests him or involves him and on what he speaks about is actually very important to the listener. He thinks that by speaking on the topic he is getting due importance.

3) These are the happy men, these world’s axle-trees.

Ans: A bore is never short of topics because as long as he’s alive and has personal experiences, he always has something to talk about and his topics center around him simply because they have happened to them. Again due to obvious reasons his topics are those that are related to only him, so his topics usually are about himself and his house, his garden, his wife, his children, his car, his handicap, his health, his ancestry, the way people tell him their secrets and ask for his expert advice, his humorous way with waiters, his immunity from influenza, his travels, the way he is able to choose the best restaurants, his clothes, his dentist, his freedom from unimportant people, his extreme love and reverence to the beauty of nature, his likes despite the fact that he may have no interest in arts,  his victory over the income-tax people. These men are happy and think that the world exists because of them.

 

4) The tragedy is, they can always find their listeners, me almost first.

Ans: In a way, bores are never short of topics to speak on. The reason they speak so much is that always find listeners who have to listen to what they have to say. The writer is very disappointed that bores find him usually of all people to speak to. What is secret behind their success? How do they find their audience? The reason is the kindness that exists in human nature, which disallows the bored or uninterested listener from frankly telling the bore to go away as he is boring them. In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry.

 

5) Why can even notorious bores always be sure of an audience?

Ans:  In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry. The writer gives the example of a man he knew who made a page boy ( a boy who is employed to run errands) of his club to save him from a bore by quickly coming to him and informing him that he is wanted on the phone whenever the bore would try to speak with him. According to the writer, such a deceit will not give the bore the implicit message that he is being avoided and he will not feel disappointed.

 

6) For Heaven’s sake, go away, ‘you weary me.’

Ans: The reason is the kindness that exists in human nature, which disallows the bored or uninterested listener from frankly telling the bore to go away as he is boring them. In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry.  In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry. The writer gives the example of a man he knew who made a page boy ( a boy who is employed to run errands) of his club to save him from a bore by quickly coming to him and informing him that he is wanted on the phone whenever the bore would try to speak with him. According to the writer, such a deceit will not give the bore the implicit message that he is being avoided and he will not feel disappointed.

 

7) Astute, crafty men are seldom bores; very busy men are seldom bores.

Ans: The writer gives the example of a man he knew who made a page boy ( a boy who is employed to run errands) of his club to save him from a bore by quickly coming to him and informing him that he is wanted on the phone whenever the bore would try to speak with him. According to the writer, such a deceit will not give the bore the implicit message that he is being avoided and he will not feel disappointed. No disappointment could be seen on his frank and proud face. Why? Because to understand this, one needs to be clever, cunning and busy. A bore does not possess any of the three characteristics.

 

8) ‘Where should we be without our sense of humour?’

Ans: It is easier to deal with a bore who keeps distance but it is very difficult to deal with those who cannot keep within their limits. They come close to you, look directly into your eyes and tell you a joke which is not funny. Out of courtesy you have to laugh at their jokes as he accepts it from you. Another kind of bore that the writer describes is the one who starts narrating you funny story and once he starts his story he cannot get himself to stop despite you telling him that you have heard it before. It is very difficult to stop him.

 

9) ‘Nothing but my unfailing sense of humour saved me.’

Ans: Bores come close to you, look directly into your eyes and tell you a joke which is not funny. Out of courtesy you have to laugh at their jokes as he accepts it from you. Another kind of bore that the writer describes is the one who starts narrating you funny story and once he starts his story he cannot get himself to stop despite you telling him that you have heard it before. It is very difficult to stop him. There are other bores who keep on bragging,, using phrases which means they have high respect for humour or those who keep quoting someone else.

 

10) “Live and let live,” as my poor dear father used to say.’

Ans: A kind of bore that the writer describes is the one who starts narrating you funny story and once he starts his story he cannot get himself to stop despite you telling him that you have heard it before. It is very difficult to stop him. There are other bores who keep on bragging, using phrases which means they have high respect for humour or those who keep quoting someone else.

 

11) “You’ll dine with us this evening, won’t you?”

Ans: The writer informs us about an eccentric peer whom he does not remember well. The man had unconsciously developed a habit of thinking out loudly. One day he met an acquaintance in St. James’ Street, and, he thought, and thus spoke out in a voice audible to the acquaintance that he was irritated at the fact that it had been a great nuisance that he had met the man whom he did not like and because of the meeting he would have to invite him for dinner. After having spoken with himself, he invited the man for dinner.

 

12) “I’ll avoid that man in future; I know I bore him.”

Ans: The writer expresses the helplessness of a common man in front of a bore. The best thing to do would be to avoid the bore completely because it is very difficult for us due to our normal human nature to think aloud and let the bore know that we feel for him or to offend him. The problem is that no bore accepts that he is a bore despite your best efforts to give him hints to know of his boring nature.

 

13) “Good enough for Punch.”

Ans: The writer writes jokingly that if the weekly humorous paper- Punch for which he works and in which the essay is being published stops publication (although he hates the thought), then the bores may run out of topics to speak on because they get  a lot of their material from the said magazine.

 

Answer the following questions in 300 words.

1) Bring out irony in E.V. Lucas’s Bores.

Ans: The writer shows his humbleness in the beginning by acknowledging that he may also be a boring person so he could take the liberty about a bore. He explains that he cannot say that he is a bore with confidence because an important characteristic of a bore is that a bore himself does not know that he could described as a bore. He also wishes to avoid resentment from bores. Ironically, bores consider themselves to be very friendly. Bores usually have fixed ideas with which they life to impress everybody. However, everyone may not accept their interest as they may have different likes and dislikes. In the light of this statement, it could also be accepted that every now and then we all could be boring for someone and someone will have to bear the boredom we give them. Even the humblest person may feel that he is interesting when he is describing his personal experiences to others. He may actually be inflicting a lot of pain instead of pleasure to his listeners his uninteresting topic.

The reason is the kindness that exists in human nature, which disallows the bored or uninterested listener from frankly telling the bore to go away as he is boring them. In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry.  In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry. The writer gives the example of a man he knew who made a page boy ( a boy who is employed to run errands) of his club to save him from a bore by quickly coming to him and informing him that he is wanted on the phone whenever the bore would try to speak with him. According to the writer, such a deceit will not give the bore the implicit message that he is being avoided and he will not feel disappointed.

The writer informs us about an eccentric peer whom he does not remember well. The man had unconsciously developed a habit of thinking out loudly. One day he met an acquaintance in St. James’ Street, and, he thought, and thus spoke out in a voice audible to the acquaintance that he was irritated at the fact that it had been a great nuisance that he had met the man whom he did not like and because of the meeting he would have to invite him for dinner. After having spoken with himself, he invited the man for dinner. The writer expresses the helplessness of a common man in front of a bore. The best thing to do would be to avoid the bore completely because it is very difficult for us due to our normal human nature to think aloud and let the bore know that we feel for him or to offend him. The problem is that no bore accepts that he is a bore despite your best efforts to give him hints to know of his boring nature.

 

2) “Bores are actually frustratingly cumbersome to tolerate.’ Discuss.

Ans: Bores as a rule are bores always, for egotism is beyond question the bore’s foundation stone; his belief being that what interests him and involves himself as a central figure must interest you. His Ego does not allow him to realize that he is a boring person. In fact, his ego supports his false notion for him that he is actually very interesting. His ego leads him to believe that the topic that interests him or involves him and on what he speaks about is actually very important to the listener. He thinks that by speaking on the topic he is getting due importance. In a way, bores are never short of topics to speak on. The reason they speak so much is that always find listeners who have to listen to what they have to say. The writer is very disappointed that bores find him usually of all people to speak to. What is secret behind their success? How do they find their audience? The reasons is the kindness that exists in human nature, which disallows the bored or uninterested listener from frankly telling the bore to go away as he is boring them. In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry. In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry. The writer gives the example of a man he knew who made a page boy ( a boy who is employed to run errands) of his club to save him from a bore by quickly coming to him and informing him that he is wanted on the phone whenever the bore would try to speak with him. According to the writer, such a deceit will not give the bore the implicit message that he is being avoided and he will not feel disappointed.

The reason is the kindness that exists in human nature, which disallows the bored or uninterested listener from frankly telling the bore to go away as he is boring them. In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry.  In order to deal with bores, we act as cowards and we either beat their talks or try to escape them. On seeing them, many change their paths or leave the room in a hurry. The writer gives the example of a man he knew who made a page boy ( a boy who is employed to run errands) of his club to save him from a bore by quickly coming to him and informing him that he is wanted on the phone whenever the bore would try to speak with him. According to the writer, such a deceit will not give the bore the implicit message that he is being avoided and he will not feel disappointed. It is easier to deal with a bore who keeps distance but it is very difficult to deal with those who cannot keep within their limits. They come close to you, look directly into your eyes and tell you a joke which is not funny. Out of courtesy you have to laugh at their jokes as he accepts it from you. Another kind of bore that the writer describes is the one who starts narrating you funny story and once he starts his story he cannot get himself to stop despite you telling him that you have heard it before. It is very difficult to stop him.