Question:
Answer any one of the following questions in about 80 words:
(a) Describe 'Grand Central Station' as narrated by Charley in the lesson 'The Third Level'.
Answer any one of the following questions in about 80 words:
(a) Describe 'Grand Central Station' as narrated by Charley in the lesson 'The Third Level'.
(a) Describe 'Grand Central Station' as narrated by Charley in the lesson 'The Third Level'.
Updated On: Sep 24, 2026
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Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Note on narration:
In Jack Finney's 'The Third Level', it is the narrator Tom (not Charley, who is Tom's psychiatrist friend) who personally describes Grand Central Station and his discovery of its mysterious third level; the description itself, however, is accurately given below.
Step 2: Description:
Grand Central Station is portrayed as a huge, maze-like place with officially only two levels of train tracks. One night, while looking for a shortcut, Tom claims to have got lost and stumbled upon a smaller, dingier, old-fashioned third level — with old-style wooden ticket booths, gas lamps instead of electric lighting, locomotives with big funnels and headlights, and people dressed in the fashions of a bygone era. This third level, he realised, was actually a gateway into the peaceful, pre-war world of 1894, offering an escape from the stress and anxieties (nuclear fear, high taxes, crime) of modern life.
In Jack Finney's 'The Third Level', it is the narrator Tom (not Charley, who is Tom's psychiatrist friend) who personally describes Grand Central Station and his discovery of its mysterious third level; the description itself, however, is accurately given below.
Step 2: Description:
Grand Central Station is portrayed as a huge, maze-like place with officially only two levels of train tracks. One night, while looking for a shortcut, Tom claims to have got lost and stumbled upon a smaller, dingier, old-fashioned third level — with old-style wooden ticket booths, gas lamps instead of electric lighting, locomotives with big funnels and headlights, and people dressed in the fashions of a bygone era. This third level, he realised, was actually a gateway into the peaceful, pre-war world of 1894, offering an escape from the stress and anxieties (nuclear fear, high taxes, crime) of modern life.
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Top UP Board XII English Questions
- Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
It is clear that language is used for more than one purpose. The man who hits his thumb nails with a hammer and utters a string of curses is using language to relieve his feeling and needs no audience but himself. But when a philosopher uses language to clarify his ideas on a subject, he is using it as an instrument of thought. When two women gossip over the fence or two men exchange greetings as they pass in the street, language is being used to strengthen the bonds between the members of society. Language, it seems, is a multipurpose instrument. One function, however, seems to be basic — language enables us to influence people's behaviour and thereby makes human co-operation possible. Some animals co-operate especially the social animals like bees and ants, but human co-operation is more thorough, more detailed, more effective than that found anywhere in the animal kingdom. The human co-operation would be unthinkable without language.
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It is clear that language is used for more than one purpose. The man who hits his thumb nails with a hammer and utters a string of curses is using language to relieve his feeling and needs no audience but himself. But when a philosopher uses language to clarify his ideas on a subject, he is using it as an instrument of thought. When two women gossip over the fence or two men exchange greetings as they pass in the street, language is being used to strengthen the bonds between the members of society. Language, it seems, is a multipurpose instrument. One function, however, seems to be basic — language enables us to influence people's behaviour and thereby makes human co-operation possible. Some animals co-operate especially the social animals like bees and ants, but human co-operation is more thorough, more detailed, more effective than that found anywhere in the animal kingdom. The human co-operation would be unthinkable without language.
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It is clear that language is used for more than one purpose. The man who hits his thumb nails with a hammer and utters a string of curses is using language to relieve his feeling and needs no audience but himself. But when a philosopher uses language to clarify his ideas on a subject, he is using it as an instrument of thought. When two women gossip over the fence or two men exchange greetings as they pass in the street, language is being used to strengthen the bonds between the members of society. Language, it seems, is a multipurpose instrument. One function, however, seems to be basic — language enables us to influence people's behaviour and thereby makes human co-operation possible. Some animals co-operate especially the social animals like bees and ants, but human co-operation is more thorough, more detailed, more effective than that found anywhere in the animal kingdom. The human co-operation would be unthinkable without language.
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It is clear that language is used for more than one purpose. The man who hits his thumb nails with a hammer and utters a string of curses is using language to relieve his feeling and needs no audience but himself. But when a philosopher uses language to clarify his ideas on a subject, he is using it as an instrument of thought. When two women gossip over the fence or two men exchange greetings as they pass in the street, language is being used to strengthen the bonds between the members of society. Language, it seems, is a multipurpose instrument. One function, however, seems to be basic — language enables us to influence people's behaviour and thereby makes human co-operation possible. Some animals co-operate especially the social animals like bees and ants, but human co-operation is more thorough, more detailed, more effective than that found anywhere in the animal kingdom. The human co-operation would be unthinkable without language.
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It is clear that language is used for more than one purpose. The man who hits his thumb nails with a hammer and utters a string of curses is using language to relieve his feeling and needs no audience but himself. But when a philosopher uses language to clarify his ideas on a subject, he is using it as an instrument of thought. When two women gossip over the fence or two men exchange greetings as they pass in the street, language is being used to strengthen the bonds between the members of society. Language, it seems, is a multipurpose instrument. One function, however, seems to be basic — language enables us to influence people's behaviour and thereby makes human co-operation possible. Some animals co-operate especially the social animals like bees and ants, but human co-operation is more thorough, more detailed, more effective than that found anywhere in the animal kingdom. The human co-operation would be unthinkable without language.
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