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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
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    “The Sound Machine”, written by Roald Dahl talked about the unhealthy obsession of an amateur scientist, Klausner and his invention, the titular sound machine. According to Klausner, there were many odd inaudible sounds which cannot be heard by humans but using his machine, these sounds can be conveRead more

    “The Sound Machine”, written by Roald Dahl talked about the unhealthy obsession of an amateur scientist, Klausner and his invention, the titular sound machine. According to Klausner, there were many odd inaudible sounds which cannot be heard by humans but using his machine, these sounds can be converted to audible sounds. He informed Doctor Scott about this, who later said would catch up with him. He tried the sound machine in his garden and heard a piercing cry through it which the plants were making when they were being cut by Klausner’s neighbor, Mrs Saunders. That proved to him that even plants had emotions like humans. They too felt pain. It was a frightening noise that came just as the stem of a plant was cut. After Mrs Saunders went inside, Klausner tried this experiment once again by pulling out a daisy. He heard a faint crying noise. After repeating the process he came to realize that the cry wasn’t of pain but just a cry, a neutral, stony cry. It seemed to be an emotionless note, an emotion which humans were not aware of. The next day, Klausner went to the park and struck a tree’s trunk with an axe and heard the same piercing cry. He hurriedly went back home and called the doctor to test his theory. However things go wrong after this point. To make the doctor hear the sound, Klausner struck the tree again and a big branch from the tree crashed down and destroyed the sound machine. The doctor kept on saying that he hadn’t heard any sound and after some time, Klausner asked the doctor to apply iodine on the wound in the tree’s trunk where he had struck it. The doctor then told Klausner that he needed some change in life and took him back home.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
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    The story talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out daisies and striking trRead more

    The story talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out daisies and striking tree trunks to prove his theory. Nature needs to be appreciated and taken care of as otherwise it will get destroyed and then no matter how much “iodine” is applied on it, it won’t heal.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder

    The sound machine, made by Klausner, was actually a black box about three feet long, the shape of a child’s coffin. Klausner had created the sound machine to prove himself the existence of many odd inaudible sounds. The machine was designed to pick up sound vibrations that were too high-pitched forRead more

    The sound machine, made by Klausner, was actually a black box about three feet long, the shape of a child’s coffin. Klausner had created the sound machine to prove himself the existence of many odd inaudible sounds. The machine was designed to pick up sound vibrations that were too high-pitched for reception by the human ear, and to convert them to a scale of audible tones.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
    This answer was edited.

    Through this story, Roald Dahl, talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out dRead more

    Through this story, Roald Dahl, talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out daisies and striking tree trunks to prove his theory. Nature needs to be appreciated and taken care of as otherwise it will get destroyed and then no matter how much “iodine” is applied on it, it won’t heal.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
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    The themes of the story are obsession on Klausner’s part, instability, fear and dedication and nature versus science or the dark side of scientific advancement. Read summary of The Sound Machine

    The themes of the story are obsession on Klausner’s part, instability, fear and dedication and nature versus science or the dark side of scientific advancement.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
    This answer was edited.

    Klausner took the sound machine to the park to test his hypothesis whether plants can express emotions in their own way or not. He put the earphones on his head and switched on the machine. He listened for a moment to the faint familiar humming sound; then he picked up the axe, took a stance with hiRead more

    Klausner took the sound machine to the park to test his hypothesis whether plants can express emotions in their own way or not.

    He put the earphones on his head and switched on the machine. He listened for a moment to the faint familiar humming sound; then he picked up the axe, took a stance with his legs wide apart and swung the axe as hard as he could at the base of the tree trunk. The blade cut deep into the wood and stuck there and at the instant impact he heard a most extraordinary noise in the earphones. It was a new noise, unlike any he had heard- a harsh, noteless, enormous noise, a growling, low pitched, screaming sound, not quick and short like the noise of the roses. He tried his experiment there and came to the conclusion that his hypothesis might be true.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder

    Mrs Saunders was walking down the garden with a flower-basket on her arm. She was bending down, cutting yellow roses with a pair of scissors and putting them in her basket. Read summary of The Sound Machine

    Mrs Saunders was walking down the garden with a flower-basket on her arm. She was bending down, cutting yellow roses with a pair of scissors and putting them in her basket.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
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    The protagonist of the story, Klausner, was quite different from the other characters and the public at large in the story. He was an eccentric scientist who had an unhealthy obsession with his experiment. He gave all his time and energy in developing the sound machine. Not once was he seen in the sRead more

    The protagonist of the story, Klausner, was quite different from the other characters and the public at large in the story. He was an eccentric scientist who had an unhealthy obsession with his experiment. He gave all his time and energy in developing the sound machine. Not once was he seen in the story doing something else that didn’t involve his experiment. Mrs Saunders had always believed that Klausner, her neighbor, to be a rather peculiar person but when he asked her to cut another rose, she became convinced that he had gone completely mad but was harmless. Same with the doctor who applied wound at a tree just to humor Klausner as he didn’t want to face Klausner when he is displeased.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder

    The moral of the story is that unhealthy obsession can result in drastic occurrences in a person’s life. Klausner was obsessed with his sound machine, not once was he seen in the story doing something else. His obsession with the machine kept him aloof from the actual world. Through through his unheRead more

    The moral of the story is that unhealthy obsession can result in drastic occurrences in a person’s life. Klausner was obsessed with his sound machine, not once was he seen in the story doing something else. His obsession with the machine kept him aloof from the actual world. Through through his unhealthy obsession Klausner does shed some light on the fact that nature too has feelings just like the humans do, his obsession marked the climax of the story.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
    This answer was edited.

    Klausner’s obsession was with his sound machine and trying to prove that even plants can exhibit emotions like almost that of humans. At the end, he was so overcome to prove his hypothesis to the doctor, it ended up with the machine being destroyed. Read summary of The Sound Machine

    Klausner’s obsession was with his sound machine and trying to prove that even plants can exhibit emotions like almost that of humans.

    At the end, he was so overcome to prove his hypothesis to the doctor, it ended up with the machine being destroyed.

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