Class 10 English · Original EZT practice
The Book That Saved the Earth - Claire Boiko (Class 10 English, Footprints without Feet, Chapter 9)
The Book That Saved the Earth is Chapter 9 of Class 10 Footprints without Feet (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 56-68), Claire Boiko's comic play set in the twenty-fifth century. A Historian explains how, back in 2040, the Martian invasion of Earth was stopped - not by rockets, but by one dusty book of nursery rhymes. The vain Great and Mighty Think-Tank 'reads' Mother Goose and flees to Alpha Centauri, convinced the Earthlings are after him. This page gives a full summary, characters, theme, word meanings and fresh practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. Summary - rhymes against rockets
A twenty-fifth-century Historian welcomes visitors to the Museum of Ancient History: the twentieth century was 'the Era of the Book', and 'the strangest thing a book ever did was to save the Earth.' She turns on the historiscope to show the Martian invasion of 2040. In Mars Space Control, Think-Tank admires himself in his mirror and orders contact with the probe to 'that ridiculous little planet' - he wants to invade 'that primitive ball of mud called Earth before lunch.' In the Centerville Public Library, the crew is baffled by two thousand 'peculiar items'. Oop guesses they are hats ('maybe this is a haberdashery!'). Think-Tank declares the building 'a crude refreshment stand' and the books 'sandwiches' - and orders the crew to eat one. Sergeant Oop bites a corner: 'It was not delicious... dry as Martian dust.' Noodle's 'insignificant bit of data' - he has seen Earthlings use them as a communication device - becomes, in Think-Tank's mouth, 'communication sandwiches... Think-Tank is never wrong.' The crew holds books to their ears and hears nothing. Noodle's next 'cloudy piece of information' - Earthlings opened the sandwiches and watched them - makes them 'for eye communication'. The crew swallows intelligence vitamins and deciphers 'the code': Mother Goose rhymes. 'Mistress Mary, quite contrary' convinces Think-Tank that Earthlings 'can grow crops of rare metals' and 'high explosives'. 'Hey diddle diddle' tells him they have 'taught their domesticated animals musical culture and space techniques' - an 'interplanetary attack of millions of cows' may be coming. 'Humpty Dumpty' finishes him: the picture looks just like his own balloon brain. 'The Earthlings have seen me, and they're after me... It's an invasion of Mars!' He orders the entire planet Mars evacuated and flees 'a hundred million miles away... for Alpha Centauri', telling the crew to leave no traces. The Historian closes the show: five hundred years later Earthlings and Martians are friendly, Noodle has replaced Think-Tank, a model library stands in Marsopolis - 'but there is still one book that the Martians can never bring themselves to read... Mother Goose!'
2. Characters
Historian: the museum curator of the 'Department of the Twentieth Century' who narrates how a single book stopped the Martian invasion of 2040. Great and Mighty Think-Tank: Commander-in-Chief of Mars Space Control - a huge, egg-shaped 'balloon brain', vain, peevish and always wrong, who demands quicker answers even from his mirror. Apprentice Noodle: Think-Tank's bowing apprentice, who corrects his master's mistakes with humble 'insignificant bits of data' - and, the Historian reveals, later replaces him as 'the wise and wonderful Noodle'. Captain Omega, Lieutenant Iota, Sergeant Oop: the three-person crew of Probe One, who land in the Centerville Public Library and obediently try to eat, then listen to, then 'watch' the books.
3. Theme and word meanings
Books are powerful in ways the powerful cannot imagine: a humble nursery-rhyme book defeats a space fleet without a single weapon. Vanity is its own undoing: Think-Tank's terror flows from his self-obsession - he sees himself in Humpty Dumpty and reads invasion into every rhyme. True wisdom wears humility: Noodle, who calls his corrections 'insignificant bits of data', ends up ruling Mars as 'the wise and wonderful Noodle'. Word meanings from the textbook glossary: easel - wooden frame to support a blackboard or a picture; Zulus - an African ethnic group belonging to South Africa; apprentice - learner of a trade who has agreed to work for a certain period of time in return for being taught; peevishly - irritably; riffling - quickly turning over the pages of a book; barn - covered building for storing hay; haberdashery - shop which sells clothing, small articles of dress, pins, cotton, etc.; squiggles - scrawls, illegible writing or markings; decipher - find the meaning of something which is puzzling or difficult to understand; transcribe - write in full form from short-hand; levity - tendency to treat serious matters without respect, lack of seriousness.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Explain the Era of the Book
Choose the method: Everything, in print.
EZT practice question
Why was the twentieth century called 'the Era of the Book'?
Show the worked solution
- The Historian addresses a twenty-fifth-century audience for whom books are museum pieces.
- She explains that in the twentieth century books existed about everything, 'from ant eaters to Zulus'.
- And they did everything: they 'illustrated, educated, punctuated, and even decorated' - so the age belonged to the book.
Answer: Because books existed about everything, 'from ant eaters to Zulus' - they 'illustrated, educated, punctuated, and even decorated.'
Check: Quote the A-to-Z range and the four verbs - together they justify 'era'.
Watch for this: Do not say the twentieth century invented books - the label is about their dominance, not their origin.
Now try it yourself
What is 'the strangest thing a book ever did', according to the Historian?
Check your answer
Save the Earth - the claim the whole play then explains.
It is the hook that opens the historiscope.
List the wrong guesses
Choose the method: Hats, sandwiches, ear-phones.
EZT practice question
What three wrong guesses are made about the books in the library?
Show the worked solution
- Sergeant Oop guesses the 'peculiar items' are hats - 'maybe this is a haberdashery!'
- Think-Tank declares the building 'a crude refreshment stand' and the books 'sandwiches' - and orders one eaten.
- He then re-labels them 'communication sandwiches' for the ears, and finally decides they are 'for eye communication'.
Answer: Oop thinks they are hats ('a haberdashery'); Think-Tank declares them sandwiches in 'a crude refreshment stand'; he then re-labels them 'communication sandwiches' for the ears, then 'for eye communication'.
Check: Three stages in order: hats, food, ear-then-eye devices.
Watch for this: Do not credit Noodle with the guesses - his 'bits of data' are right; Think-Tank twists them into wrong conclusions.
Now try it yourself
What does Sergeant Oop report after biting a book?
Check your answer
'It was not delicious... dry as Martian dust.'
The tasting is the low point of the wrong guesses.
Study Noodle's method
Choose the method: Humility as strategy.
EZT practice question
How does Noodle correct Think-Tank without offending him?
Show the worked solution
- Noodle actually knows the truth - he has seen Earthlings use books as a communication device and watched them open and read them.
- He never contradicts directly: each correction arrives as a humble 'insignificant bit of data' or 'cloudy piece of information'.
- Think-Tank then repeats the idea as his own next point - 'Think-Tank is never wrong' - so the truth gets adopted without the vain master losing face.
Answer: He presents each correction as a humble 'insignificant bit of data' or 'cloudy piece of information', letting Think-Tank claim the idea as his next point.
Check: The formula: humble framing in, adopted idea out.
Watch for this: Do not read Noodle as genuinely ignorant - the Historian reveals he ends up as 'the wise and wonderful Noodle'.
Now try it yourself
What does the Historian reveal about Noodle's future?
Check your answer
He replaces Think-Tank and is remembered as 'the wise and wonderful Noodle'.
Humility, not vanity, wins the long run.
Decode Mistress Mary
Choose the method: Rhyme as threat report.
EZT practice question
What does Think-Tank conclude from 'Mistress Mary, quite contrary'?
Show the worked solution
- The rhyme speaks of a garden growing silver bells and cockle shells.
- Think-Tank decodes this as agriculture and mining combined: Earthlings 'can grow crops of rare metals such as silver'.
- Worse, 'cockle shells' become 'high explosives' - so he halts the invasion fleet before lunch.
Answer: That Earthlings have combined agriculture and mining - they 'can grow crops of rare metals such as silver' and 'high explosives' - so he halts the invasion fleet.
Check: Two decoded threats: rare metals and high explosives, both from one rhyme.
Watch for this: Do not say the rhyme frightens the crew - it is Think-Tank's interpretation that panics him; the crew just obeys.
Now try it yourself
What does 'Hey diddle diddle' add to Think-Tank's fears?
Check your answer
That Earthlings have 'taught their domesticated animals musical culture and space techniques' - an 'interplanetary attack of millions of cows' may be coming.
Each rhyme escalates the absurd threat assessment.
Explain the final panic
Choose the method: He sees himself.
EZT practice question
Why does the Humpty Dumpty rhyme panic Think-Tank into fleeing?
Show the worked solution
- The picture of Humpty Dumpty resembles Think-Tank's own 'Great and Mighty Balloon Brain'.
- 'Had a great fall' reads to him as a plan: the Earthlings mean to capture Mars Central Control - and him.
- He cries 'It's an invasion of Mars!', orders the whole planet evacuated, and flees 'a hundred million miles away... for Alpha Centauri', telling the crew to leave no traces.
Answer: The picture resembles his own balloon brain, and 'had a great fall' reads to him as a plan to capture Mars Central Control and him - 'It's an invasion of Mars!' - so he evacuates Mars and flees to Alpha Centauri.
Check: Two triggers: the lookalike picture and the 'great fall' line read as a threat.
Watch for this: Do not say the rhyme describes an actual Earth plan - the invasion exists only in Think-Tank's vanity.
Now try it yourself
Where does Think-Tank flee to?
Check your answer
Alpha Centauri - 'a hundred million miles away' - after ordering Mars evacuated.
The Commander-in-Chief deserts his own planet over a nursery rhyme.
Close the frame
Choose the method: Friendship, with one exception.
EZT practice question
What happens between Earth and Mars by the twenty-fifth century?
Show the worked solution
- Contact resumes after the failed invasion, and Earthlings and Martians become friendly.
- Noodle has replaced Think-Tank; Earthlings taught the Martians to read and built a model library in Marsopolis.
- One reservation remains: 'there is still one book that the Martians can never bring themselves to read... Mother Goose!'
Answer: They become friendly; Noodle has replaced Think-Tank; Earthlings taught the Martians to read and built a model library in Marsopolis - but Martians still cannot bring themselves to read Mother Goose.
Check: Friendship, new leadership, the library - then the one unread book as the closing joke.
Watch for this: Do not end the story at the flight - the Historian's frame carries the real ending.
Now try it yourself
Where does the model library stand?
Check your answer
In Marsopolis, built after Earthlings taught the Martians to read.
The invaders become the students - the book's final victory.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. Why 'the Era of the Book'?
Show answer and reason
Books covered everything 'from ant eaters to Zulus' and 'illustrated, educated, punctuated, and even decorated.'
The age belonged to print.
2. The three wrong guesses?
Show answer and reason
Hats (haberdashery), sandwiches (refreshment stand), communication devices for ear then eye.
Every guess but Noodle's is wrong.
3. The panic trigger?
Show answer and reason
Humpty Dumpty's picture matches Think-Tank's balloon brain; 'a great fall' reads as an invasion of Mars.
Vanity reads itself into the rhyme.
4. The ending?
Show answer and reason
Earth and Mars friendly, Noodle rules, a library in Marsopolis - but Martians still won't read Mother Goose.
The closing joke lands the theme.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Explain in two sentences how a book of nursery rhymes stops a Martian invasion.
- List Think-Tank's three wrong identifications of a book, in order, and who supplies the truth each time.
- Contrast Think-Tank and Noodle as leaders, using one quoted phrase for each.
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Questions about this practice page
- Which book saved the Earth in Claire Boiko's play, and how?
- A dusty old copy of Mother Goose - its nursery rhymes, misread as military codes, frighten Think-Tank into calling off the invasion and fleeing Mars.
- Who wrote The Book That Saved the Earth?
- Claire Boiko. The textbook names her as the author and carries no author note, so this page makes no further biographical claims.
- Why does Think-Tank call the books sandwiches?
- He reasons that 'Earth creatures are always eating', so the library must be 'a crude refreshment stand' and the items in it the Earth's staple food - and he orders Sergeant Oop to eat one.
- How does The Book That Saved the Earth end for Think-Tank and Noodle?
- Think-Tank evacuates Mars and flees to Alpha Centauri; five hundred years later the humble apprentice Noodle has replaced him as 'the wise and wonderful Noodle'.
- Where is The Book That Saved the Earth in the Class 10 book?
- Chapter 9 of the supplementary reader Footprints without Feet (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 56-68), by Claire Boiko.