2. The story “Birth” is an excerpt from which book?

3. Who is Andrew Manson in the story?

4. Who was waiting for Andrew and where?

5. Where does the Morgan family live?

B. Short Answer Questions – 2 marks

1. Who is Joe Morgan in the story? Who was he waiting for?

2. Why was Joe waiting for Andrew?

3. Where was Andrew led by Joe? Why Joe did not enter with the doctor?

4. How does Andrew console Susan’s mother?

5. What does Andrew feel about marriages?

6. What made Andrew feel a shiver of horror?

7. What confused Andrew? How did he save Susan?

8. What guesses did Andrew make about the condition of the lifeless child?

9. How did Dr. Andrew Manson revive the lifeless baby?

10. After the mother and the child were resuscitated, what was the condition of the room?

1.Joe Morgan is a driller in Blaenelly, a mining town. He is big, strong and heavy middle-aged person.
He was waiting for Dr. Andrew Manson.

2. Joe was waiting for Andrew because Joe and his wife Susan had been married for twenty years
and they were expecting their first child. Joe was waiting for the doctor to help Susan in the
delivering of the child.

3. Andrew was led by Joe to his house 12, Blaina Terrace as his wife was delivering their first child.

Joe was tensed as it happened after 20 years of their marriage, so he refused to go inside the house.

4. Andrew consolidated Susan’s mother by telling her not to fret as he would not run away.

5. Andrew believed that marriage was a peaceful and beautiful state. He loved Christine but the
conflict between his mind and heart left him confused and indignant. Andrew thought all marriages
were a dismal failure. He thought about Branwell who was foolishly devoted to a woman who
deceived him meanly. Then he thought of Edward page who was married to the ill-natured Blodwen,
and was now living unhappily, apart from his wife.

6. Dr Andrew Manson went to Morgan's to help Mrs Susan Morgan delivering her first child. It took
immense time and patience of more than an hour to do it and when he was successful, he noticed
that the infant was lifeless. Andrew looked at the still form of the baby and could not observe any
sort of movement in the baby that made him feel a shiver of horror pass through him.
7. As soon as Andrew was successful in delivering the child, he faced an instant shock of seeing a
lifeless baby and the mother Susan too. Andrew's heart provoked to resuscitate the stillborn child.
He looks the mother that lay in a hopeless state. He did not know who he should attend first. He
saved the mother by giving her the hypodermic syringe ,smashed a glass ampule and injected the
medicine.

8. Andrew made the newborn child delivered but the baby was lifeless. He saw the baby in the wet
newspapers under the bed, the body was white and soft, and head lolled on the thin neck, limbs
looked boneless. He concludes that the whiteness over the body meant suffocation caused by the
lack of oxygen.

9. Andrew saved the mother Susan first and then made efforts to revive the lifeless baby. He laid the
baby upon a blanket and gave it an artificial respiration. His second effort was to dip the baby
alternately in hot and cold water. Next, he rubbed the slippery child with a rough towel. Lastly,
Andrew pressed and released the baby's chest till it began to breathe and gave some hope of
survival.

10. After Andrew's efforts at resuscitating the mother and the child, the condition of the room was
very messy. It was littered with blankets, towels, basins and soiled instruments. The syringe of
hypodermic was pierced in the linoleum by its point. The ewer was knocked over and the kettle lay
on its side in a puddle of water.

D. Long Answer Questions- 5 marks

1. Write in brief sketch and achievements of Dr Andrew Manson.

2. What affected Andrew’s performance at Morgan’s house? How did it influence his career?

3. How are Andrew’s emotional, mental and physical states different from each other?

4. How would you defend that practice and observation makes a man with theoretical
knowledge perfect in his field?

answers

1. Andrew Manson was a fresh graduate from medical school. He was a dedicated and hard
working medical practitioner. He worked as an assistant to Dr Edward Page in a small mining
town. He was full of ideas and judged every case on its merit. He showed quite a mature
understanding of his patients. When he was torn between conflicts or dilemma, he took
prompt action. Dr Andrew Manson was a fresh graduate from medical school. At midnight
Joe asked Andrew to come home and check her wife as she was about to deliver the baby.
Andrew did not ask for a fee and immediately went with Joe to his house. He delivered the
baby but saw that it was lifeless and so was its mother. He got scared and confused whom to
revive first but decided to save the mother first and made various medical attempts to save
her. Then he again made attempts to revive the baby. He successfully brought them both
back to life and waited at their door until he was sure that things are normal.
2. Andrew returned to his house after midnight. His experience with Christine that evening
was not a cheerful one. Moreover, several episodes of gloomy wed pair also distressed him.
Outside his house was Joe Morgan waiting anxiously for the doctor. He led Andrew to his
house where his wife Susan was in labour. Both were set upon having this child. Andrew
decided to wait and give medical aid. He had no idea that the incident of that night would
give him not only the utmost fulfilment but also name and fame. He worked hard and very
sharply to save the life of the mother as well as her stillborn child.

3. When the story starts, the writer portraits Andrew as physically and emotionally tired. He
had returned from a very disappointing event with the girl he loves, Christine as they had
heated arguments. His heart and mind are filled with heavy thoughts. He believed that
marriage is a peaceful state and could not remember the miserable failures of many
marriages. At the end of the story, Andrew is shown physically exhausted but emotionally
cheerful and mentally alert. He is filled with joy and is satisfied in himself as he was
successful in reviving the mother and the baby. He believes that what he did was no less
than a miracle. This achievement helped him in overcoming physical fatigue and forgets his
personal issues and feelings.

4. A man with practical knowledge and experience has more chance of achieving the desired
results. In our day to day life, we meet compounders surpassing the doctors and the
physicians. A physician who has read the process of administering an injection but has not
done it with his own hands will fail in his attempt to administer the injection. On the
contrary, a compounder can surpass the physician because he has practical experience.
Similarly, if you have minutely observed a man doing his job to perfection you can apply that
very practical experience based on your keen observation and achieve success Dr. Andrew
applied that practical experience and knowledge and did his job efficiently and saved the
mother and the child. So, for success especially in the medical field especially, both bookish
information and realistic experience are essential. So studious knowledge or verbal data, if
not seasoned with practical experience, may prove useless and of no value.