Challenge 1142

Spell That?

In Charles C. Cole’s The English Major: Omar spares Kipling Farr because of their common interest in literature and Omar’s inability to read English. What can Omar read, presumably? And what happens to Hiram Phelps?
In Michael J. D’Alfonsi’s The Price of the Necklace:
1. Who demands the quality of workmanship in the necklace: the customer, Rothington, or the craftsman, Thorne?
2. Why might Thorne not have asked Rothington for a deposit before beginning work on the necklace?
3. Why does Thorne feel he cannot accept Rothington’s treacherously reneging on his initial purchase offer? Does Thorne have any resolution to his problem other than murder?
In Alexandra Diorditsa’s Greta:
1. For what implicit reason might Greta’s account of her life take the form of a soliloquy rather than as a conversation with Jessica?
2. What is the genre of the story? Is it mainly Greta’s oral autobiography? Who’s the audience? At what age might most readers benefit from reading it?
In Gary Clifton’s The Curious Case of Otis Pool: Can you cite other stories in print, film or televison that use the theme of identity loss? Can any of them be classified as comedies?
In Maksym Popovych’s Whose Eyes Are These?
1. Does the story specify any particular war as being a part of the setting?
2. Why is the stranger going to shoot the “good doggo”? Because the dog is a pest? Because it can be made into good food? For some other reason?
3. How does the doggie’s conclusion reveal its particular spiritual orientation?
In Huina Zheng’s Teaching My Mom How to Read:
1. Chinese writing resembles Egyptian hieroglyphs in depicting words figuratively, symbolically and phonetically, sometimes in all three modes in the same word. What advantage might such a style of writing have had in ancient times?
2. Why might a phonetic script alone be preferable in writing names?
3. How might English modernize its spelling? Why would such a feat be impossible in French?

Responses welcome!