The Third Level

Model Questions And Answers

1. Answer each of the following questions in about 30-40 words:

1.What does the third level refer to? What is the significance of the third level? (2001;
2004, Delhi)
Answer:
The third level is a medium of escape through which man yearns to be away from life’s
harsh realities. Modem life is devoid of peace and tranquility so man in his quest to seek
solace escapes to a place where his aim is to seek the realization of his dreams and
unfulfilled wishes of his subconscious mind.

2.What convinced Charley that he had reached the third level at Grand Central Station
and not the second level? (2010 Delhi)
Answer:
The general layout of the third level was different from that of the second level. It had
comparatively smaller rooms, fewer ticket windows and lesser train gates. The
information booth in the centre was made of wood and looked old. The place with its
brass spittoons did not look very bright. People were dressed like eighteen ninety. So
Charley was convinced it was not the second level.

3.How did Charley often get lost on the Grand Central Station? (2010 Delhi)
Answer:
The Grand Central Station was growing like a tree pushing out endless corridors,
doorways and stairs like roots. It had intricate and tangled pathways. The network of
passages was so complicated that instead of reaching his destination, one did tend to
move up and down to look for entries and exits. So, Charley often got lost on this
station.

4.How does Charley describe Galesburg as it used to be in 1894?

Answer: Charley describes Galesburg as a quiet, simple and peaceful place with big old
frame houses, huge lawns and tremendous trees. The summer evenings were rather
long and people sat out on their lawns in a peaceful world, men smoking cigars and
women waving palm-leaf fans.

5.What did Charley learn about Sam from the stamp and coin store?
Answer:
Ans: From the stamp and coin store Charley gets to know that Sam had bought old style
currency worth eight hundred dollars. This money was sufficient to set him up in a little
hay, feed and grain business in Galesburg.

6.Why did Charley rush back from the third level? (2012 Outside Delhi)
Ans: When Charley took out the modem currency to pay for the two tickets to
Galesburg, the ticket clerk accused him of trying to cheat him as this was not the
currency they used in eighteen ninety. He threatened to hand Charley over to the police.
Charley was frightened and he decided to rush back from the third level, lest he was
arrested and put into prison.

7. What kind of people did Charley ‘See’ at the third level?

Ans: Having worked late at the office Charley decided to take a train back home. So he
came to Grand Central Station and from the second level he got lost while ducking into
an arched doorway and found himself inside a tunnel. This tunnel took him to another
light of stairs and he found himself on the third level of the station. As compared to the
second level, the third level had smaller rooms, fewer ticket windows and train gates.
Everyone there was dressed in ‘eighteen-ninety-something’. Charley came across men
and women wearing 19th century dresses. Men sported fancy moustaches, beards and
sideburns. Tiny lapels, four-button suits, derby hats and pocket gold watches seemed to
be in vogue. Women were wearing fancy cut sleeves, long skirts and high-buttoned
shoes. Charley was confused to see people sporting old-fashioned clothes and hair
styles at the third level.

Answer the following questions in about 200 words.

1. Justify the title The Third Level.

The chapter Third Level deals with the theme of insecurity, fear, and war. The narrator,
Charlie seems also to be stressed. His longing for some idyllic and peaceful place like
Galesburg makes him stray to a corridor at Grand Central Station that takes him into the
past, year 1894.  

The people, their attire, ambience, the platform, everything on the platform, locomotive,
currency being used, the newspapers, magazines, etc., is old style. Only Charlie is an
exception. This hallucination of Charlie comes to an abrupt end when he has to flee
from there in hurry to save himself from being caught by the then cops.  

Later on, when he shares this experience with his psychiatrist friend, Sam, he ascribed
this phenomenon to the stress Charlie was facing and his hobby of philately through
which he tried to escape into an ideal world.
Sam, his psychiatrist friend also strays to the third level. Charlie finds a first day cover in
the collection of his grandfather’s stamp collection. Sam had somehow found the third
level. He had gone there and started a new business of hay, feed and grain.

Since the chapter deals with the third level at the Grand Central Station, New York, the title
‘Third Level’ is perfect for the story.  The third level is a medium of escape through which
man yearns to be away from life’s harsh realities. Modem life is devoid of peace and
tranquility so man in his quest to seek solace escapes to a place where his aim is to
seek the realization of his dreams and unfulfilled wishes of his subconscious mind.
The Tiger
1.How did the tiger king acquire his name? (Delhi 2009)
Ans: The Maharaja of Pratibandapuram was known as the Tiger King. He
got the name of Tiger King as tigers dominated his life and his mission to
live. He killed seventy tigers in ten years and also married a girl from a
State which had a large number of tigers in order to kill the next 30 tigers.

2.What led the Maharaja to start out on a tiger hunt? (All India 2010)
Answer:
The chief astrologer had predicted that a tiger would be the cause of the Maharaja’s death and
he should be particularly wary of the hundredth tiger. So the Maharaja banned the hunting of
tigers in his State and those who violated this law had to hand over their wealth and property to
the kingdom, while the Maharaja himself started out on a tiger hunt.