GIST
The Book, That Saved The Earth is a drama set in 25th century. A historian in the museum is telling the story about 20th century; the century of the books. He tells how an old book of rhymes, Mother Goose, saved the earth from Martian invasion. The invaders from Mars consider themselves too intelligent for the earthlings. They think they are superior race than the inhabitants of the earth. Think- Tank is the Commander-in-Chief and ruler of Mars. He is praised and flattered as the most intelligent and powerful creature in the whole universe. Various members from the invaders’ team enter a library. They are unable to identify what a book is. They make several wild guesses. Think-Tank gives ridiculous and fantastic interpretations of books. He calls them sandwiches and finally arrive at the conclusion that it must be a communication device for the earthlings. They try to decode what is written in the book. The book is full of nursery rhymes. Their encoding tells them that earthlings must have been on a mission to attack the Mars. Fearing that, they immediately leave the earth and fly away to the distant Alpha Centauri.
Key Points
• Think-Tank and Noodle contact Martian probe.
• Mars space control contacts probe on Earth.
• Think-Tank says the books in the Central Public Library are sandwiches.
• Oops is ordered to eat a book.
• Noodle suggests that the books are some sort of communication device.
• Probe one members swallow vitamins and reads the volume of Mother Goose.
• Omega reads out ‘ Mistress Mary’, quite contrary.
• Think-tank says earthlings have discovered how to combine agriculture with mining.
• Iota reads ‘Hey diddle diddle!’
• Think-Tank pronounces the lines read by Iota that earthlings have taught their animals musical culture and space techniques.
• Oops reads ‘Humpty-Dumpty’ and shows the picture of Humpty Dumpty to Think-Tank.
• Think-Tank is frightened thinking that the earthlings are planning to capture him.
• Think-Tank orders probe one to leave at once.
• Think- Tank decides to evacuate the entire planet of Mars. Noodle replaces Think-Tank and earthlings resume friendly contact with Mars.
Short Answer Questions :
Question.Think-Tank thinks that Earthlings are after him. What is the reason?
Answer. The crew of Think-Tank read about Humpty-Dumpty’s fall in the rhyme and showed the picture to Think-Tank. Think-Tank’s head resembled that of Humpty-Dumpty. This makes Think-Tank feel that earthlings were planning to invade Mars and capture him.
Question. What difficulty do the crew of the space probe face on Earth?
Answer.The space probe lands in a public library. The crew is shocked because the place looked very strange as they had no idea of books. They think the library to be some kind of storage barn.
Question. Why do the space probe crew take vitamins?
Answer.Think-Tank wanted the probe crew to find out what was in the books. So, the probe crew take vitamins to increase their intelligence. They are able to read the books after taking those vitamins.
Question. How does Think-Tank explain the books to his probe crew?
Answer. Think-Tank told his crew that the books were sandwiches. He even ordered his crew to eat them.Then, he called them communication devices and later he said that they were meant for watching.
Long Answer Question :
Question. Compare and contrast the characters of Noodle and Think-Tank
Answer. Noodle and Think-Tank have contrasting characters. Think-Tank likes to be called the ‘Great and the Mighty’. He orders and commands. He is the ruler of Mars, but has no intelligence.He thinks books to be sandwiches. He is wrong about everything. He demands that the crew obey him. He likes to pass on other’s idea as his own. He is a coward who simply boasts about his power.
Noodle, his apprentice, is very clever and wise. He corrects the mistakes of the ruler (Think-Tank) very gently. He never takes credit for his ideas. But he offers them to the ruler very gently. Think-Tank makes them as his own.
Question. How did one old book of nursery rhymes save the Earth from a Martian invasion?
Answer. The invaders from Mars considered themselves too intelligent for the earthlings. They thought they were a superior race than the inhabitants of the earth. As ordered by Think-Tank, the Commander-in- Chief and ruler of Mars who was praised and flattered as the most intelligent and powerful creature in the whole universe, various members from the invaders’ team entered a library. They were unable to identify what a book is. They made several wild guesses. Think-Tank gave ridiculous and fantastic interpretations of books. He called them sandwiches and finally arrived at the conclusion that it must be a communication device for the earthlings. They tried to decode what was written in the book. The book was full of nursery rhymes.
This book was totally misunderstood by the MartiAnswer. Think-Tank misunderstood the Phrases like ‘shell’, ‘silver ‘and ‘garden’. They gave him a false idea that earthlings grew silver and weapons. He started thinking that earthlings were very advanced technologically. The crew of Think-Tank read about Humpty-Dumpty’s fall in the rhyme and showed the picture to Think-Tank. Think-Tank’s head resembled that of Humpty-Dumpty. This made Think-Tank feel that earthlings were planning to invade Mars and capture him. So, he ordered them to cancel the invasion and they cancelled their invasion of Earth and went back. Thus one old book of nursery rhymes saved the Earth from a Martian invasion.
