The purple Children

Answers orally

Ans1- A sentry is a soldier stationed to keep guard or to control access to a place. He is a guard or a watchman.

Ans 2- A curfew is a regulation requiring people to remain indoors between specified hours, typically at night.  A curfew is enforced usually in case of riots or clashes to maintain law and order.

Read and answer

Ans1- Ariana showed up at the camp calling out to her cat. She claimed that it had slipped out of the house and entered that area when the sentry questioned her. She was a young girl of fifteen who requested innocently to the sentry to let her in so she may look for her cat. She even pretended to cry and melted the sentry’s heart to gain entry. She convinced him that she meant no harm, he could accompany her without any fear as he had a gun with him.

Ans2- The boy came to the spot to hoist the native’s flag on the pole inside the camp of the British rulers. The Flag represented the desire of residents of Cyprus to be free and reunited with Greece. It was a mark of protest against the foreign British rule.

Ans3- The Sentry was duped by the Girl’s pretence of looking innocently for her cat. It was actually a poly to distract his attention so that her partner in crime , Andreas could hoist their flag on the pole inside the camp. The sentry was pulled up by the Major for being so naïve and getting hoodwinked by a young girl.

Ans 4- The sentry was young and inexperienced man. He was easily duped by Ariana,s act of looking for her cat. He had not yet learnt the ways o0f the native people to realize that the girl was playing on the emotions and trying to evoke his sympathy. He opened the gate to let her in and even helped her looked for her cat., thus getting distracted from his job of keeping a lookout. He was naïve as opposed to the major who was well aware of the local style of warfare. The sentry was unprepared as was seen by his surprise when Ariana threw the cat on his face.

Ans 5- The young children were strong supporters of the native party that was against the foreign British rule. They worked in unison to distract the sentry at the foreigner’s camp and hoist their own flag on a pole there. Ariana distracted the sentry’s attention after gaining entry inside the camp and Andreas hosted the flag. He even left ten feet of the flagstaff coiled round with barbed wire.

Ans 6- The sentry had used a spray gun that had marked part of Ariana’s face with a purple dye. The vegetable dye could not be washed off; it had to wear off over time. Andreas thought of a clever plan to save Ariana. All the children of the senior class dyed their faces from the foreheads to their chins in the purple of the vegetable dye. The one distinguish mark of the offender was the splatter of purple dye and now the major was presented with a whole bunch of children bearing similar dye marks.

                                THINK AND ANSWER

Ana 1- Ariana tried to divert the sentry’s attention to give a chance to Andreas to enter the camp and hoist the flag of the natives unnoticed.

Ans 2- Ariana didn’t move after finding the cats as Andréas had not yet jumped down from the wall. Their mission had not yet been completed.

Ans3- Andreas ran head down for the gate so that the sentry would not be able to see his face and recognize him later as a culprit. It could also be to escape the possible spray of the gun.

Ans 4- Ariana screamed as she  saw the sentry getting the spray gun ready. She wanted to startle him so that he would miss the mark.

Ans 5- The sentry used the spray gun as he wanted to mark the errant children with a purple dye that would help identify them later.

Reference to context

a.       Andreas said  this to Ariana.

b.      All’ refers to all the young children who had planned the entry and flag hoisting inside the camp of the foreign rulers as a mark of protest. They that included Andreas, Ariana, Niko, Christo and other children of their age.

c.       The ‘act’ was the entry into the British camp where their flag was hoisted as a mark of protest.

d.       Andreas realized that the only way to save Ariana was to dye the faces of all the children of the senior class in the purple of the vegetable dye! The major came to the school looking for an offender whose face was dyed purple and saw fifty three students of the senior from looking alike with purple-dyed faces.