NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 7 “The Interview” by Christopher Silvester offer comprehensive, accurate, and easy-to-understand answers to all textbook questions. This detailed study guide covers Think as You Read, Understanding the Text, Talking About the Text, Noticing Discourse Linkers and Signallers, and more. Also read the complete The Interview Summary to master the chapter and score high in your board exams!
The Interview Class 12 Questions and Answers
Think as you read (page 67)
Q.1. What are some of the positive views on interviews?
Ans.
- Some people claim that the interview, in its highest form, is a source of truth and, in practice, an art.
- It is a “supremely serviceable medium of communication”.
- Denis Brian says that today our most vivid impressions of our contemporaries come through interviews. Almost everything of importance reaches us through one person asking questions of another.
- Because of this, the interviewer holds a position of “unprecedented power and influence”.
Q.2. Why do most celebrity writers despise being interviewed?
Ans. They see themselves as its victims. They consider the interview an unwarranted intrusion into their private lives, and they feel it somehow diminishes them. V. S. Naipaul feels that some people are wounded by interviews and lose a part of themselves. Lewis Carroll had a “just horror” of interviewers, and Rudyard Kipling called interviewing immoral, a crime and an assault on a person.
Q.3. What is the belief in some primitive cultures about being photographed?
Ans. In some primitive cultures, people believe that if someone takes a photographic portrait of a person, he is stealing that person’s soul.
Q.4. What do you understand by the expression “thumbprints on his windpipe”?
Ans. Saul Bellow used this expression to describe interviews. A thumbprint on the windpipe suggests someone gripping the throat and choking a person. Bellow meant that an interview can feel like a painful, suffocating intrusion, as though the interviewer were pressing on the person’s throat and stopping him from expressing himself freely. (The textbook numbers this question 6, but it is the fourth question.)
Q.5. Who, in today’s world, is our chief source of information about personalities?
Ans. The interviewer. Today most of our vivid impressions of famous people come through interviews, in which one person asks questions of another.
Understanding the text
Q.1. Do you think Umberto Eco likes being interviewed? Give reasons for your opinion.
Ans. Yes, he seems to enjoy it. Reasons:
- He answers every question openly and in detail, and does not avoid any of them.
- He is witty and humorous and often laughs (“I work in empty spaces… (Laughs)”).
- He shares personal secrets, such as the idea of “interstices”, and tells stories “like a Chinese wise man”.
- He speaks frankly even about things that bother him, such as being known only as a novelist.
- He tells amusing anecdotes, such as his American publisher expecting to sell only 3,000 copies.
His relaxed, cooperative and cheerful tone shows that he is comfortable and enjoys talking about himself and his work.
Q.2. How does Eco find the time to write so much?
Ans. Eco says he works in the “interstices”, the empty spaces in our lives. He compares them to the empty spaces in atoms: if these were removed, the universe would become as big as his fist. In daily life, there are many such gaps, for example, while waiting for someone to come up in an elevator. He uses such moments to work. By the time the elevator reaches the third floor, he says, he has already written an article.
Q.3. What was distinctive about Eco’s academic writing style?
Ans. His scholarly writing was playful, personal and informal, unlike the usual dry, depersonalised academic style. At 22, when he presented his first doctoral dissertation, he told the story of his research, including his trials and errors, instead of simply giving conclusions after false hypotheses were corrected. A professor noticed this, but recognised that Eco was right and published the dissertation as a book. Since then Eco believed that scholarly books should tell the story of the research, so his essays always have a narrative quality.
Q.4. Did Umberto Eco consider himself a novelist first or an academic scholar?
Ans. He considered himself an academic scholar first. He says, “I consider myself a university professor who writes novels on Sundays. It’s not a joke.” He attends academic conferences and not meetings of Pen Clubs or writers, and he identifies himself with the academic community. It bothers him that most people know him only as “the novelist”.
Q.5. What is the reason for the huge success of the novel, The Name of the Rose?
Ans. Eco says the success is a mystery, and nobody can predict it. He admits that the medieval setting might have played a part, but many books on the medieval past were written before his. His American publisher expected to sell only 3,000 copies, but it sold two or three million in the U.S. He also believes that readers do not always want easy experiences, and that journalists and publishers wrongly assume people like only “trash”. He thinks that if he had written it ten years earlier or later, it might not have succeeded. Why it worked at that time remains a mystery.
Talking about the text
(Pair or group discussion, so here are points you can use.)
1. Talk about any interview that you have watched on television or read in a newspaper. How did it add to your understanding of the celebrity, the interviewer and the field of the celebrity?
Sample:
I recently read an interview of a cricketer in a newspaper. The interviewer asked not only about his matches but also about his early struggles, his training and how he handles failure. I learnt that behind his success lay years of hard work and discipline, which I had not known. The interviewer’s thoughtful and well-prepared questions drew honest answers, and showed that he had studied the player’s career. I also understood the pressures of professional sport, such as fitness, selection and public expectations. The interview made the celebrity seem more human, showed the skill of a good interviewer, and increased my understanding of the game.
(Use any interview you actually saw or read.)
2. The medium you like best for an interview: print, radio or television.
- Print: It is permanent and can be read at one’s own pace and re-read. It gives detail and depth and is edited carefully. But it lacks the voice and expressions of the speaker.
- Radio: It brings the voice and tone of the person, is easy to listen to while doing other things, and reaches distant areas. But there are no visuals, and one cannot go back easily.
- Television: It shows facial expressions, body language and the real personality of the speaker, and is lively and reaches a wide audience. But it can be short, sensational or influenced by the show’s style, and it is not easily revisited.
Sample opinion: I prefer print, because it allows detailed, thoughtful answers and can be re-read, while television is good for seeing the person’s personality.
3. Every famous person has a right to his or her privacy. Interviewers sometimes embarrass celebrities with very personal questions.
For: Celebrities are human beings, and fame does not take away their right to a private life. Prying into family matters, relationships or health can hurt and embarrass them. This is why writers like Kipling and Carroll hated interviews. Respectful, relevant questions should be asked.
Against: Public figures influence society, so some questions about their conduct are justified, and the public has an interest in them. Celebrities also gain publicity from the media.
Balance: Interviewers should ask questions about their public life and work, and respect personal boundaries. Celebrities can politely decline questions they do not wish to answer.
Noticing discourse linkers and signallers
Linkers: These connect the interviewer’s and interviewee’s words through reference pronouns (“that”, “this”, “which”) or by repeating words.
Examples from the interview:
- “…always doing the same thing.” → “Which is?” (Which refers to “the same thing”.)
- “Aah, now that is more difficult to explain.” (That refers to the question just asked.)
- “Not everyone can do that of course.” (That refers to writing an article in an elevator wait.)
- “Talking about novels…” → “You’ve written five novels…” (repetition of “novels”.)
- “Over 40.” → “Over 40!” (repetition.)
- “…which brings me to my next question.” (Which refers to the previous answer.)
- “Were you puzzled at all by this?” (This refers to the huge success of the serious novel.)
- “No. Journalists are puzzled.” (repetition of “puzzled”.)
- “That’s possible.” (That refers to the suggestion in the question.)
Signallers: When the topic changes, the speaker prepares the listener with phrases such as:
- “Which brings me to my next question…”
- “But let me tell you another story…”
Without such signallers, the flow of ideas in a conversation would not be smooth and continuous.
Writing
If the interviewer Mukund Padmanabhan had not got space to reproduce the interview verbatim, write a short report of the interview with the salient points.
“I Am a Professor Who Writes Novels on Sundays”: Umberto Eco
By Mukund Padmanabhan, The HinduUmberto Eco, professor at the University of Bologna and a renowned scholar of semiotics, literary interpretation and medieval aesthetics, became an international celebrity in 1980 with his novel The Name of the Rose, which sold more than 10 million copies.
Asked how one man does so many things, Eco said that he is really always doing the same thing, pursuing his ethical and philosophical interests through his academic work, novels and even children’s books on non-violence and peace. He finds time to write by working in “interstices”, the empty spaces in life, such as waiting for an elevator.
Eco explained that his informal, narrative style began with his first doctoral dissertation, in which he told the story of his research, including errors. Since then he has felt that scholarly books should do this, which is also why he started writing novels late, at about fifty. He began writing them by accident and not out of frustration, unlike his friend Roland Barthes.
Although he has written over forty scholarly works and only five novels, Eco is troubled that most people know him as a novelist. He regards himself as a university professor who writes novels on Sundays, though he admits that novels reach a larger audience.
On the novel’s success, Eco said that journalists and publishers wrongly believe that people like only “trash”. His American publisher expected to sell only 3,000 copies, but it sold two to three million in the U.S. He considers the success a mystery that nobody can predict.
Things to do
Interview a person whom you admire either in school or your neighbourhood and record it in writing.
Tips: Choose a person (a teacher, a sportsperson or a social worker). Prepare 8–10 questions in advance, ask politely, listen carefully, use linkers and signallers (“Which brings me to…”), and write the interview in question-answer form.
Sample (with a school teacher):
Interview with Mrs. Sunita Verma, our English teacher
Q: Madam, what made you choose teaching as a career?
A: I always loved books and enjoyed explaining things to others. Teaching allowed me to do both.Q: Which brings me to my next question. What is the most difficult part of your job?
A: Keeping every student interested. Each child learns differently, so I must keep changing my methods.Q: What advice would you give to students preparing for board exams?
A: Study regularly, revise often and do not fear failure. Fear is the biggest obstacle.Q: Talking about fear, have you ever felt nervous in the classroom?
A: Yes, on my first day! But the children’s smiles gave me confidence.Q: What gives you the greatest satisfaction?
A: When a former student comes back and says that I helped shape their life.Q: Thank you, madam, for your time and inspiring words.
A: You’re welcome. Best wishes to all of you.
