The Next Voice You Hear: Solutions Meanings Summary

Summary

The theme of the story is honesty, peace and harmony, with very strong anti-war undertones. Please make sure not to get confused this for a particular God as espoused by any particular belief. The story deals with a serious topic humorously, as the Creator of the world i.e. God attempts to save the world, through radio broadcast to reach all people on Earth.

One evening, people hear a voice over the radio. It identifies itself as the voice of God. Though people don’t believe it at first, the next time God addresses the world, miracles begin to take place on the earth. The voice announces that it had to perform miracles so that people will actually believe that it is God who is talking to them and so that they will start appreciating the small miracles that take place on a regular basis in their lives. God’s intent in doing all this is to pass on his message of peace and love to humans, so that we do not destroy the world altogether, and go on to lead their lives as better human beings. He wanted to show humans how to love one another and save the planet and themselves from destruction.

Word-meanings

galaxy – A galaxy is a huge system or collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems; shades – darker and shadowy part or area; specks – very small spots. appear like dots; flashed the results – showed the latest results instantly; contemporary – existing or of the same time; patent – the exclusive right granted by a government to an inventor to manufacture, use or sell an invention; majestic – splendid, grand, beautifully impressive and great; cellar – a room especially underground for storage of food, wine; fade out – to slowly stop being seen or heard, diminish or disappear; benevolent – kind and generous; gaping – with the mouth wide open as in wonder or awe; agonising – worrying; demanded – asked; astonishment – surprise, amazement; serene – calm and peaceful; devoted – dedicated, used for the purpose of; unanimous – showing complete agreement; enthusiastically – with great eagerness, excitement and interest; utterance – vocal expression, spoken words; indignation – anger and strong displeasure; sombre – dull, not interesting or exciting, weak in colour; funeral – miserable; chuckle – laugh quietly and inwardly, to laugh in a suppressing manner; considerate – thoughtful and caring; modest – humble, free from pomp and affectation, decent, not much; understatement – making things less important and impressive than they really are; apart – away and separated; stroll – to walk in a relaxed and leisurely manner; deliberately – intentionally and not by accident; awe – feeling of wonder, admiration and fear, any strong feeling of respect, surprise or wonderment; theological – religious; diehard – traditionalist, who opposes changes to traditional systems and beliefs; forenoon – the time between dawn and noon; melted away – disappeared; virtually – almost, nearly; trudging – to walk with slow, tired steps; yellow dust – sand in the deserts of China, Mongolia, this dust takes form of clouds when the surface winds blow it and this cloud moves to other parts; Ozark – mountains in the US states of  Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeaster corner of Kansas; imminent – likely to happen soon or any moment; craven – cowardly, timid; scramble – rush or struggle to reach or get something, to climb quickly; blimp – a small airship; transmit – to send, spread or convey from one place to other; sizeable – fairly large; accustomed – usual and customary; potential – capacity; equipment – the things needed to for a particular purpose or activity like the electronic and computer equipment; seize-gun – a weapon used to propel (to push forward) missile to a distance; placard – a paperboard sign or notice posted or carried for public display, poster; barely – hardly, merely; protest – to oppose or disagree publicly; embarrassing – making you feel shy, uncomfortable and uneasy; swirl – circular motion of water; clutter – a mess of things, too many things in disorderly manner; popping – appear abruptly; drenching – wet; none the worse for – not harmed or damaged by; pant – to speak while gasping for breath; dripping – extremely wet and water falling by drops; trumpeted – spoke with a loud cry; beastly – nasty and very unpleasant; conscientious – knowledge or sense of right and wrong; tender – soft and gentle; cartel – a group of separate business firms to control pricing and production; admirable – appreciable and praise worthy; obsolete – outdated, no longer in much use; malefactor – a wrongdoer, criminal, crook.

Text Book Solutions

Comprehension

A. Answer these questions briefly.

1. Why did God choose to speak over the radio?
2. What was Flyod’s first reaction?
3. Why does the author refer to ‘I don’t know’ as humble words?
4. Describe how Australia prepared itself for the one-minute dip.
5. Why did the reporters flying over Australia become incoherent?
6. Complete this table.

Answer

1. God chose to speak over radio because a pronouncement out of the empty sky might have caused panic. But people were used to hearing voices on radio.

2. He stood gaping when he heard the voice.

3. He said so because before the broadcast people were different and only after God spoke, they realised that they could not be sure of many things.

4. The Australian radio stations felt God had chosen their country for a reason. They made arrangements for small airships to transmit eyewitness accounts of the one- minute submerge.

5. They grew incoherent with tension.

6. Answer as given below

B. Answer these questions with reference to the context.

1. Doylestown was not the only town that felt wonderment.
   a. What wonderment did Doylestown experience?
   b. What happened in the other parts of the world?
   c. What was the common reaction to the ‘wonderment’?
2. On Thursday another device was employed.
   a. What is another ‘device’?
   b. Who was this device employed for?
   c. Which device was employed previously?
3. The BBC man, chatted along as coolly as if he were describing a cricket match.
   a. What was the BBC man describing?
   b. Why do you think he was cool in his description?
   c. What is the tone of this sentence?

Answers

1. a. Doylestown experienced some magical moments. There was ‘God’ speaking over the radio.
   b. Other parts of the world had heard the same broadcast by God over the radio.
   c. Everyone was left wondering.
2. a. It was the radio.
   b. This device was employed for the ignorant and the superstitious.
   c. Radio transmitter.
3. a. The BBC man was describing the sinking of Australia.
   b. He is chatting along coolly because he felt that a minute under water would not do anyone any harm.
   c. The BBC man spoke as if he was a commentator for a cricket match, all the while keeping track of time and the happenings on and around the continent Australia.

C. Answer these questions.

1. Summarise in your own words God’s Thursday broadcast.
2. What miracles happened on Friday?
3. What was the effect of Friday’s broadcast?
4. What happened on Saturday?
5. Do you think God’s rest was well deserved? Do you think he achieved his purpose? Discuss.
6. Why do you think God calls the planet a school?
7. Do you think that if such a thing really happened on our planet, people will stir up their conscience? Give reasons.
8. What according to you is the main idea of the story?
9. Why do you think God spoke to people over the radio?
10. Why did the atheists sneak away in taxis?
11. Notice that the writer begins the story with suspense and continues the story and keeps it going till the end, where God reveals, though indirectly, his purpose in talking to mankind. Do you think God’s intervention helped the people?
12. What was the significance of God’s last message? Was it useful? Comment.

Answers

1. As human beings have stopped recognising natural miracles, such as a drop of water, pebbles, etc., God had to perform miracles which go against natural law, such as— a lion lying down with sheep, a lady being suspended in mid-air. He says he had to ignore the natural laws in order to convince difficult human beings. But for some diehards, he would perform yet another miracle and sink the whole of Australia for a minute.

2. On Friday, the voice said that his visiting Earth doesn’t necessarily have to mean that the world should come to an end, and it exhorted people to listen to their souls and do what it asked them to do.

3. On Friday, the voice said that his visiting Earth doesn’t necessarily have to mean that the world should come to an end, and it exhorted people to listen to their souls and do what it asked them to do.

4. Saturday was a busy day. Consciences were long buried. Dictators of half a country resigned. Many people experienced change of heart. The garage owners realised they could not fool their customers.

5. Yes. The way the world is going with wars, ecological imbalance, man usurping Nature, unless something drastic was done, nothing would have helped humanity.

This is the way God made them realise the purpose of creation—peaceful living. He does achieve his purpose.

6. He calls the planet a school because everyone is learning here and people should be open to embrace difference of thought, diversity and do good actions.

7. I think that the fear of God would impact the lives of the wrong doers and criminals once they realise that they would be punished if they improve their activities that harm others.

8. The main idea of the story is that the Earth and life on it must go as per the plan of creation by God. Peace and tranquillity with honest behaviour by human beings should prevail. If the system is at stake then the creator would intervene to bring the system to normal course of action as is shown in the story.

9. God wanted to warn them that they were destroying the planet due to their ways. The best way to get across people all over the world at the same time was to broadcast over radio.

10. Atheists do not believe in God and they were very embarrassed to see themselves as angels, therefore, they ran away in taxis.

11. No doubt that the story clearly shows in the end as how the consciences of people rose to bring honesty back. The fear of war was reduced to pieces as the war potential of the US and Russia was destroyed. Even the dictators resigned.

12. God said that people would still have problems, but they needed to listen to their hearts and live and learn. It was useful because people realised that God was watching over them, and it gave them a direction about how to live life.

Vocabulary

A. Pick out expressions from the text that refer to ‘God’ or the manner of his speech. Prepare another list of what you think ‘God’ should be like.

Answer

The expressions: strange, majestic voice; benevolent; peculiar; multilingual; serene, friendly voice; sombre and funereal; fatherly chuckle; considerate; his knowledge of human psychology was superb; lengthy and theological tone
Students can prepare another list of what they think ‘God’ should be like.

Grammar

A. The customer went home and told his wife about the conversation that they had with the manager. Write the conversation between the customer and his wife.

Answers

Customer: guess what happened at the department store today.
Wife: What happened?
Customer: The manager asked me if he could ask a few questions about shopping in their store.
Wife: What did you say?
Customer: I said that I would surely be happy to answer his questions.
Wife: What did he ask you?
Customer: He asked me how often I shopped there. I told him that I shopped there about twice a week.
Then he asked me why I had chosen their department store.
Wife: So what was your answer?
Customer: I told him that it was the cheapest and the best in the area.
Wife: Very true. What else did he ask?
Customer: He asked me how far our house from there was. I told him that it was two kilometres. Then
he asked me how I came for shopping. I told him that I came by car.
Wife: Did he ask anything else?
Customer: Yes. He asked me if I would like to say something else about their shop. To which I replied that
the people there were very friendly and helpful. They made shopping a joyful experience.
Wife: Was he happy to hear that?
Customer: Yes, he said. That it was very kind of me to say that. He thanked me.

B. Now write the rest of the conversation between Aarti and her parents reporting all the questions appropriately.

Answer

Answers may vary with other possible answers.

1. The teacher asked me what my name was.
2. She asked me why I wished to leave my present school.
3. She asked me what I like to do in my free time.
4. She asked me how I organised my study time.
5. She asked me how my parents could help the school in any way.
6. She asked me if I was required to stay back after school, how I would go back home.
7. She asked me how much pocket money I get and how I spend it.
8. She asked me what I would do if I did not get admitted there.