Question 1:
Choose the right answer.
(i) Mr Willy Wonka is (a) a cook, (b) an inventor, (c) a manager.
(ii) Wonka-Vite makes people (a) older, (b) younger.
(iii) Mr Wonka wants to invent a new thing which will make people (a) younger, (b) older.
Answer:
(i) Mr Willy Wonka is an inventor.
(ii) Wonka-Vite makes people younger.
(iii) Mr Wonka wants to invent a new thing which will make people older.
Question 2:
Can anyone’s age be a minus number? What does “minus 87” mean?
Answer:
No, no one’s age can be a minus number. Here, “minus 87” means that the person had to wait eighty seven years before he could come back. He had taken a strong dose of Wonka-Vite and had therefore, disappeared.
Question 3:
Mr Wonka begins by asking himself two questions. What are they?
(i) What is _______________________________________________?
(ii) What lives ____________________________________________?
Answer:
(i) What is the oldest living thing in the world?
(ii) What lives longer than anything else?
Question 4:
(i) What trees does Mr Wonka mention? Which tree does he say lives the longest?
(ii) How long does this tree live? Where can you find it?
Answer:
(i) The trees that Mr Wonka mentioned are the Douglas fir, the oak, and the cedar. He said that a tree called Bristlecone pine lives the longest.
(ii) This tree lives for over 4000 years. It can be found upon the slopes of Wheeler Peak in Nevada, U.S.A.
Question 5:
How many of the oldest living things can you remember from Mr Wonka’s list? (Don’t look back at the story!) Do you think all these things really exist, or are some of them purely imaginary?
Answer:
With the exception of the 4000-year-old Bristlecone pine, the things mentioned in Mr Wonka’s list (e.g., the toe-nail clipping from a 168-year-old Russian farmer, the tail of a 51-year-old horse) are purely imaginary.
Question 6:
Why does Mr Wonka collect items from the oldest things? Do you think this is the right way to begin his invention?
Answer:
Mr Wonka collected items from the oldest things because he wanted to invent a something that would make people older. It was probably the right way to begin his invention as he wanted to make people older and therefore, the use of old things seems appropriate.
Question 7:
What happens to the volunteer who swallows four drops of the new invention? What is the name of the invention?
Answer:
The moment the twenty-year-old volunteer swallowed four drops of the new invention, he began wrinkling and shriveling up all over. His hair started dropping off and his teeth started falling out. Before Mr Wonka knew it, the volunteer had suddenly become an old man of seventy-five. The name of the invention was Vita-Wonk.
