CBSE Class 7 English Chapter 7 The Invention of Vita-Wonk NCERT Solutions

(i) Mr Willy Wonka is an inventor. He is known for creating fantastical and unusual confections and machines.

(ii) Wonka-Vite makes people younger. This was one of his earlier inventions designed to reverse the aging process.

(iii) Mr Wonka wants to invent a new thing which will make people older. This is a new challenge he sets for himself after his previous invention.

No, a person's age cannot be a minus number in reality. In the context of the story, "minus 87" is an imaginative way to describe someone who has become so much younger due to Wonka-Vite that they have effectively gone back in time by 87 years. It implies they have aged backward significantly, to the point of disappearing or ceasing to exist in their current form, as they had to wait 87 years to 'come back' to their original age.

Mr. Wonka begins his inventive process by asking himself the following two fundamental questions:

(i) What is the oldest living thing in the world?

(ii) What lives longer than anything else?

These questions guide his search for the secrets of longevity and aging.

(i) Mr. Wonka mentions several types of trees, including the Douglas fir, the oak, and the cedar. Among these, he identifies the Bristlecone pine as the tree that lives the longest.

(ii) The Bristlecone pine tree can live for over 4000 years. It is found growing on the slopes of Wheeler Peak in Nevada, U.S.A.

From Mr. Wonka's list, we can remember the Bristlecone pine (which lives over 4000 years). Other items mentioned, such as the toe-nail clipping from a 168-year-old Russian farmer and the tail of a 51-year-old horse, are likely purely imaginary. While the Bristlecone pine is a real, long-living tree, Wonka often includes fantastical elements in his lists to fuel his inventions.

Mr. Wonka collects items from the oldest things because his goal is to invent something that will make people older. By studying and using components from the longest-living organisms, he hopes to understand and replicate the secrets of longevity. It seems like a logical, albeit imaginative, approach for him to begin his invention, as he is directly seeking the essence of age and endurance from sources that embody it.

When the twenty-year-old volunteer swallows four drops of the new invention, he undergoes a rapid aging process. His skin begins to wrinkle and shrivel, his hair starts falling out, and his teeth loosen and fall. In a very short time, he transforms from a young man into an old man of seventy-five. The name of this invention is Vita-Wonk.

A burning candle goes out when you blow on it because the forceful stream of air from your breath does two things: it removes the hot gases that are feeding the flame, and it cools the wax vapor below its flash point. This rapid cooling and removal of fuel cause the flame to extinguish.

Here is the completed recipe for Easy Palak-Dal:

Easy Palak-Dal

INGREDIENTS

One onion

One cup dal

Two thin green chillies

Half a teaspoon red chilli powder

Eight small bunches of palak

Two tomatoes

Salt to taste

Wash and cut the vegetables; shred the palak. Put everything in a pressure cooker. Let the cooker whistle three times, then switch it off. Fry a few cumin seeds in oil and add to the palak-dal.