The Making of a scientist Summary

The Making of a Scientist Summary – The chapter, ‘The Making of a Scientist’ is a story about
the famous scientist Richard Ebright. Richie as his mother used to call him was a very curious
child right from his childhood. He had started collecting butterflies in his childhood and when he
was 2 years old, he had already collected all the 25 species found near his hometown. He
thought it to be an end of butterfly collection until one day his mother bought him a book named
‘The Travels of Monarch X’. This was a turning point in his life and he got much more interested
in dealing with science. He started with tagging butterflies which a task given at the end of the
book that his mother bought for him. Then, when he first entered the county science fair with a
slide of the frog tissue he lost. Everybody won something but his project did not win any prize. He
was sad but also understood that to win, he needed to do real experiments and not just make
neat and clean models. Then he wrote down to Dr. Urquhart at the University of Toronto, asking
him for ideas to make projects. He stayed busy during his high school, working on the long list
sent to him by Dr. Urquhart. Then, for the next year’s fair, he chose the project of looking at the
viral disease that killed nearly all the monarch caterpillars every few years. He thought that the
reason for this could be a beetle, so he started raising caterpillars in the presence of beetles but
could not get any results. So, when he showed his trial experiment at the county science fair, his
project won a prize. Then for the next year he made an experiment to show that the viceroy
butterflies copied monarchs. This project also made him win prizes. Then he started his research
as to the purpose of the 12 golden spots on the back of a monarch pupa. Everybody believed
that it was just a design but Dr. Urquhart thought otherwise. Then Ebright and another brilliant
science student got together and made a device that could show that the gold spots were
responsible for releasing a hormone that was necessary for its growth. With the help of
sophisticated instruments at one of the labs, he got a chance to work and found the chemical
structure of the hormone in the gold spots. Then, one day, while looking at the photo of the
chemical structure, he solved one of the biggest puzzles of life. He came to know how a cell
blueprints its DNA. It was a big breakthrough and was published in a magazine. He also had
many other interests and also admired his social studies teacher as he was the one who used to
give him new ideas. He was good at debating, public speaking and a great canoeist. He never
used to win for the sake of winning or for prizes but because he wanted to be the best at
whatever he used to do. It is shown in this chapter that with the right amount of curiosity, a bright
mind and the will to win for right reasons are the qualities needed to be a scientist. His mother
also played a big role in making him what he was as it was she who supported him throughout
his journey and bought him the book ‘The Travels of Monarch X’ which aroused his curiosity in
the field of science.

The Necklace Summary

 
The Necklace Summary – Mme. Matilda Loisel lived in an apartment with her husband M. Loisel
and was very unhappy and unsatisfied with what life had given her. She was unhappy with the
apartment’s shabby walls and the worn-out furniture. She was also irritated by the way her
husband reacted to the homemade food while she dreamt of royal dinners being served in
exquisite silver dishes. They were neither rich nor poor. She had to marry a clerk in the office of
the board of education just because her family couldn’t afford to give her dowry. She also hated
visiting her old friend Mme. Jeanne Forestier as she was a rich lady and Matilda envied her.
Whenever she visited her, she became sad and cried for days together. One day when her
husband returned home from work, he got an invitation to a party at the house of minister of
public instruction. Contrary to his expectation, Matilda was irritated and angry and threw the card
away. She was upset because she didn’t have anything to wear at such an extravagant party.
Her husband gave her 400 francs to buy a new dress, that he had been saving to buy a gun so
that he could go hunting with his friends. After buying the dress she was sad because she did not
have jewellery to make herself look more appealing and attractive. Her husband suggested that
she could borrow jewellery from her friend Mme. Forestier. When Mme. Loisel went to her
friend’s house and described the situation, she showed her the cupboard and asked her to
choose whatever she liked. Matilda chose a precious diamond necklace which was kept in a
black satin box.
They went to the minister’s party and all the men admired her as she was looking gorgeous in
her new dress and jewelry. They returned at 4 in the morning. By that time M. Loisel had already
dozed off in one of the rooms with three other men. They decided to leave and couldn’t find a
carriage. Finally, after walking for a while, they got a carriage which dropped them right outside
their door. Matilda realized that she did not have the necklace. M.Loisel went out to search the
railway tracks for the necklace. M. Loisel went to the police station, cab offices and also gave an
advertisement for reward to the person who returned the necklace. Meanwhile, he told his wife to
tell her friend that the clasp of the necklace had broken and had given it for repair. After a week,
when the necklace could not be found, they decided to replace it with a similar one. They found a
similar necklace priced at 36000 francs. Fortunately M. Loisel had inherited 18000 francs from
his father and the rest he borrowed.
It took them ten years to repay all the loans and in these years their lives changed drastically.
They moved to a smaller apartment and removed the maid. Matilda cooked the food and washed
the clothes herself. Even M. Loisel worked multiple jobs to repay the borrowed money. In these
years, Mme. Loisel started looking much older, her hair badly dressed, her voice became loud
and she became a normal person who would carry a basket to the grocery store, the butcher
store and the fruit store to buy their daily supplies. One day she met her friend Jeanne with a
child and decided to tell her the truth and explained how she was indirectly responsible for her
aged looks and her living conditions. She explained how she lost the borrowed necklace and had
to take a loan for replacing it. On hearing this, Jeanne told Matilda that the necklace that she had
borrowed was a fake one and was not worth more than 500 francs.

The Hack Driver Summary

 
The Hack Driver Summary – The narrator of the story explains that after completing his
graduation he started working with a famous law firm in the city. He was working as an assistant
clerk there. He was not very happy with his job of serving summons because sometimes he had
to face harsh situations while serving them. One day, he got the task of serving summons to
Oliver Lutkins who was a key witness in some case. He lived in a small town named New
Mullion.
The narrator was very excited to visit a small and beautiful town but his excitement ended by the
dull appearance of the town. He saw a hack driver standing at the platform who was very
cheerful and nice. He went up to him and enquired about Oliver Lutkins as he was new to the
town and wanted to find him. The driver told him that Oliver was a nasty man who owed debt to
many people. He also cunningly extracted information from the lawyer that he needed Lutkins for
some court case.
A deal was cracked between both- he decided to hire Bill’s hack and go on a search for Lutkins.
Bill somehow traps the lawyer in his story and they visit different places in search of Lutkins. He
always asks the lawyer stay behind. They go to Fritz’s to catch Lutkins while playing poker. But
he tells them that he has gone to Gustaff for a shave. At Gustaff’s they weren’t able to meet him
and were told that someone saw him at the pool room. Here also somebody said that he left the
poolroom after buying cigarettes.
Bill described Lutkins as a cunning man and guessed that he must have gone to gray’s for a 
shave. In the afternoon, Bill offered him to buy lunch from his wife as it would be less costly than
at the restaurant. They had lunch at wade’s hill which was a very beautiful place. By that time the
clerk was totally impressed by Bill’s nice and cheery nature. He had even started comparing
village people to city people. Later on, they went to search for Lutkins at his mother’s house on
the basis of information derived from one of his friends.
There the lady was horrible and they hurriedly left the place as she was about to attack them with
a hot iron rod. At last, the lawyer had to leave without serving summons to Lutkins. Next day he
was scolded badly by his chief and was again sent to New Mullion with a companion who knew
Lutkins. Upon reaching the station, the clerk happily pointed out that Bill was such a helpful
person to him search Lutkins.
At this time, the truth was revealed by his companion that the hack driver was none other than
Lutkins himself. The clerk felt so bad and ashamed of how he had been fooled by a villager.
Bholi Summary
Bholi Summary – The story opens up with the introduction of a little girl named Sulekha. She
was called ‘Bholi’ for being a simpleton. This was so because some part of her brain had got
damaged due to an injury during her childhood. She stammered and had pockmarks on her face
which she got when she had contracted smallpox at the age of two. She was a laughing stock for
everyone. Her father Ramlal was a Numberdar. He had three sons and four daughters, Bholi
being the youngest of all. Ramlal was always worried about her as it seemed impossible to marry
her with her having an ugly face and a dumb mind. One day, the Tehsildar visited their village to
inaugurate a girl’s primary school. He persuaded Ramlal to send his daughters to school.
Ramlal’s wife suggested to send Bholi to school, although she was against sending girls to
school because no boy would marry such a girl. She reasoned that as Bholi had no chance of
getting married, so she could go to school. In the beginning, Bholi was frightened to leave her
house but when for the first time in her life, she was dressed up and her hair was washed and
oiled, she felt that she was to visit a better place. In the school, she met a teacher who was very
kind and polite to her. She encouraged her to study and speak with confidence. This filled hope
in Bholi and she began to go to school every day. Years passed and her village upgraded into a
small town with some facilities like a cotton mill, a cinema and the primary school being
converted into a secondary school. One day Bholi’s parents decided to marry her to a lame old
man who was a widower but was rich and had not demanded any dowry. They thought it to be
the best marriage proposal for their dumb daughter and fixed up her marriage. On the wedding
day, the bridegroom arrived with great pomp and show which filled Ramlal with joy. The groom
discovered that Bholi had pock marks and demanded dowry in return for marrying her. He
demanded a sum of five thousand rupees. Ramlal begged for mercy and even placed his turban
in Bishamber’s feet but Bishamber Nath did not agree. Ramlal had to give the money in order to
save both his family’s honour and his daughter’s marriage. Bholi could not bear all this and
refused to marry a greedy old man. People accused her of being shameless. The wedding party
returned. The marriage ceremony ended without Bholi getting married. Her father was
surrounded by grief and said that now no one would marry her and what would she do in future.
To this, she replied that she would take care of her parents when they grew old and would teach
in her school. Her teacher who was quietly watching all this felt proud of her decision