Extracts of The Hack Driver | Class 10 | English | NCERT |

Extracts of The Hack Driver | Class 10 | English | NCERT |

Extract 1

After graduating with honours, I became a junior assistant clerk in a magnificent law firm. I was sent, not to prepare legal briefs, but to serve summons, like a cheap private detective. I had to go to dirty and shadowy corners of the city to seek out my victims. Some of the larger and more self-confident ones even beat me up. I hated this unpleasant work, and the side of city life it revealed to me. I even considered fleeing to my hometown, where I could have been a real lawyer right away, without going through this unpleasant training period.

Q1. Name the chapter.

Ans : The Hack Driver

Q2. Who is the author of The Hack Driver?

Ans : Sinclair Lewis

Q3. Who does the word ‘Summons’ mean?

Ans : Summons is an order to appear in person at a given time

Q4. Which literary device has been used in ‘Like a cheap private detective’?

Ans : Simile

Extract 2

“Lutkins? I saw him around here about an hour ago. Hard fellow to catch though — always up to something or other. He’s probably trying to start up a poker game in the back of Fritz’s shop. I’ll tell you, boy — is there any hurry about locating Lutkins?”

Q1. Who is ‘I’ in the first line

Ans : Oliver Lutkins

Q2. What was the job of the narrator?

Ans : The job of the narrator was to serve summons.

Q3. Why was the narrator in hurry to catch Lutkins ?

Ans : The narrator was in hurry to catch Lutkins for he had to catch the afternoon train back to the city.

Q4. Who was the hack driver ?

Ans : The hack driver was Oliver Lutkins himself.

Extract 3

As we climbed back into the hack, Bill concluded that since Lutkins had exhausted his credit at Gustaff’s he had probably gone to Gray’s for a shave. At Gray’s barber shop we missed Lutkins by only five minutes. He had just left — probably for the poolroom. At the poolroom it appeared that he had just bought a pack of cigarettes and gone out. So we pursued him, just behind him but never catching him, for an hour till it was past one o’clock.

Q1. Why was the narrator failing every time to catch Lutkins?

Ans : The narrator had no idea that the man enacting as the hack driver was not Bill but Oliver Lutkins himself. Bill (Originally Lutkins) was distracting him time and again with a different excuse.

Q2. Find out the synonym of the word ‘Tired’ from the extract.

Ans : Exhausted

Q3. What does the narrator mean by ‘So we pursued him’?

Ans : The narrator means to say that they followed him everywhere wherever the hack driver suggested.

Q4. What does the word ‘Distract’ mean?

Ans : It means to draw someone’s attention from something.

Extract 4

Bill made me sound very important, and the woman was impressed. She retired into the kitchen and we followed. She seized an iron from the old-fashioned stove and marched on us shouting. “You search all you want to — if you don’t mind getting burnt first.” She shouted and laughed at our frightened retreat.

Q1. Who has been referred as woman in this extract?

Ans : The woman is Oliver Lutkins’s mother.

Q2. Whom did she want to burn?

Ans : When the narrator and the hack driver started asking about her son, she ran towards them with an ablaze iron is if she wanted to burn both of them.

Q3. What made the woman laugh?

Ans : When the woman saw both the narrator and the hack driver’s retreat, she burst into laughter.

Q4. Find out the synonym of the word ‘Scared’ from the extract?

Ans : Frightened

Extract 5

On the way to the city I worried very little over my failure to find Lutkins. I was too busy thinking about Bill Magnuson. Really, I considered returning to New Mullion to practise law. If I had found Bill so deep and richly human, might I not grow to love Fritz and Gustaff and a hundred other slow-spoken, simple, wise neighbours? I pictured an honest and happy life beyond the strict limits of universities and law firms. I was excited. I had found a treasure. I had discovered a new way of life.

Q1. What did the narrator think of his hack driver?

Ans : According to the narrator, the hack driver was friendly and richly human. He had no idea that the man he was roaming here and there with, was Oliver Lutkins himself whom he had been looking for.

Q2. “I have found a treasure” Who is I and what has been referred as treasure in this extract.

Ans : ‘I’ is the narrator and meeting with good people and cherishing the moments spent with them has been referred as treasure.

Q3. Why was the narrator worried while returning to the city?

Ans : The narrator was scared because he was unable to find out Oliver Lutkins.

Q4. Find out the antonym of the word ‘Foolish’ from the extract?

Ans : Wise

Extract 6

What really hurt me was that when I served the summons, Lutkins and his mother laughed at me as though I were a bright boy of seven. With loving kindness they begged me to go with them to a neighbour’s house for a cup of coffee. “I told them about you and they’re anxious to look at you,” said Lutkins joyfully. “They’re about the only folks in the town that missed seeing you yesterday.”

Q1. Why were Lutkins and his mother laughing at the narrator?

Ans : They both were laughing at the foolery of the narrator. Moreover, they had succeeded in their plan which had been hatch to scare the narrator.

Q2. Who is the speaker of the last line of this extract?

Ans : Oliver Lutkins

Q3. What did Lutkins and his mother beg the narrator for?

Ans : They begged the narrator to have a cup of coffee. They were actually ridiculing him of his foolery.

Q4. What does the word ‘Folks’ mean?

Ans : Folks mean common people of a place.

We would love your reading of The Making of a Scientist, Madam Rides the Bus, The Sermon at Benares, Glimpses of India, The Proposal, Bholi, The Necklace, The Hack Driver, Amanda, Animals & The Tale of Custard The Dragon for better understanding of the chapters/poems and scoring higher.

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