Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Cold Within Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of After Blenheim, The Old Man at the Bridge and An Angel in Disguise so, you can check these posts as well.
The Cold Within Questions & Answers
Question 1: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) What brought the ‘six humans together’?
Answer: The bitter cold climate brought the six humans together by chance.
(b) What did each of them possess?
Answer: Each one of them possessed a stick of wood in their hands.
(c) What could these persons have done?
Answer: Each person could have given his stick of wood (log) to keep the fire burning (to get warmth) and could have saved each other from dying in the bitter cold.
Question 2: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) Who was the first man?
Answer: The first one was a woman who was a white (American).
(b) What had he noticed?
Answer: He (used for a human) had noticed that one of them in the group was a black (probably belonging to an African country).
(c) Why did he hold back his stick?
Answer: He held back his stick because he had noticed one black man around the fire. He suffered from racial prejudice so he refused to contribute (his log) to the dying fire.
(d) What kind of prejudice did he have in his mind?
Answer: He acted out of his racial prejudice as he did not want to warm the black and save him from the bitter cold.
The Cold Within Questions & Answers
Question 3: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) Who were trapped on the day of bitter cold?
Answer: Six human beings were trapped in the bleak and bitter cold. The first was a white woman, the second was a man who suffered from religious intolerance, the third was a poor man, the fourth was a rich man, the fifth was a black man and the sixth was a man who lacked generosity.
(b) What was needed for their survival?
Answer: They all needed a stick of wood to light the dying fire and warm themselves for their survival.
(c) What did the second man notice? What did he do?
Answer: The second man noticed that one of the human beings did not belong to his religion. He did not give his stick to add fuel to the dying fire.
(d) Why did he decide not to help a person of a different religion?
Answer: He decided not to help a person of a different religion because he suffered from the sin of racism and intolerance.
Question 4: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) Who do you think was the third man?
Answer: The third man was probably a poor man as he was wearing tattered (torn and worn out) clothes.
(b) Why did he decide not to ‘warm the idle rich’?
Answer: He felt that the rich do not work hard, they just exploit the poor so they do not deserve to live. He decided not to give his stick to warm the idle rich as he had feelings of bitterness and jealousy against the rich.
The Cold Within Questions & Answers
Question 5: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) Who were the other three men in the group referred to earlier?
Answer: The other three men referred to earlier, in the group were a white man (used for a human though it was a white woman), a man who lacked religious tolerance and a poor man.
(b) What was the rich man lost in his thoughts?
Answer: His greed for money kept the rich man lost in his thoughts. He was thinking of how to keep safe, what he had earned, from the poor, who he believed, were lazy and shiftless (without any goal in life).
(c) Why did he decide not to help the poor man?
Answer: He decided, not to help the poor man as he felt that the poor did not deserve to survive, they were lazy and shiftless. The rich man actually had the sins of greed and stinginess within him.
Question 6: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) What were the prejudices in the minds of the poor man and the rich man?
Answer: The poor man had feelings of bitterness and jealousy against the rich. He thinks that he should not use his log to warm the idle rich. The rich man is equally prejudiced against the poor. According to him, the poor are lazy and shiftless. He suffered from greed and stinginess.
(b) What did the black man’s face reveal?
Answer: The black man’s face revealed hatred and revenge for the white man.
(c) How could he hurt the white man?
Answer: The black man is full of hatred for the white people, he could hurt the white man, somehow, by holding back his stick and not contributing to add fuel to the dying fire which could help the white man to survive the bitter cold.
The Cold Within Questions & Answers
Question 7: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) What did each man fail to do?
Answer: Each man failed to contribute to add fuel to the dying fire (by not giving away his stick) which would warm them and help them to survive. They all failed to overcome the petty barriers of class, race and religion that divided them.
(b) What type of man, was the last person?
Answer: The last person was a man who lacked generosity. He was selfish and believed in giving only for his own profit.
(c) Why did he too, fail to part with his log of wood?
Answer: He too failed to part with his log of wood because he lacked generosity and would give only when he could gain something in return. In this situation he saw no profit, so he did not contribute to the dying fire.
Question 8: Read the lines given below and answer the questions:
(a) Who are ‘they’ referred to here? Where were they?
Answer: ‘They’ refer to the six men who were caught in extremely cold weather. They were all standing around a fire to warm themselves.
(b) What was the obvious cause of their deaths?
Answer: The six men refused to share their log to fuel the dying fire and keep each other warm because of some or the other prejudice (the cold within their hearts).The fire died out, all were found frozen to death in the morning.
(c) What do you mean by the ‘cold within’? How is it responsible for the death of the six persons trapped in bitter cold?
Answer: The ‘cold within’ means the lack of feeling in the heart, born out of selfishness, prejudice, malice etc. It is because of these negative feelings, that the six men did not give up their sticks of wood which could have kept the fire burning and kept them warm ,to survive. Because of the cold within them, these six human beings could not overcome the barriers of class, race and religion that divided them.
So, these were The Cold Within Questions & Answers.