The Case of the Fifth Word Questions & Answers | Class 8 English | CBSE NCERT

(b) — The text says he "acted at once", cleared his desk, put on his hat and went home to dinner.

(c) — He asked himself, "Who would believe that the best detective alive was an eighth grader?" and so he said nothing.

(d) — "Smart" means intelligent and "quick" shows he acted without delay, as seen when he acted at once on a difficult case.

False. Encyclopedia, his son, solved the difficult cases for him before dinner was over.

Everyone thought that he must be the smartest police chief in the country. This was because he was known to be smart and quick.

Chief Brown knew from experience that dinner was when his case would be solved, because Encyclopedia solved his cases at the dinner table. So instead of worrying, he went straight home to the person who could crack the case.

(b) — The text clearly states he "didn't want to seem different from other boys".

(c) — Just as an encyclopedia is filled with facts from A to Z, so was his head; he read more than anyone in Idaville and never forgot a fact.

(d) — "Pals" is an informal word for friends; here it refers to the boys who knew Encyclopedia.

parents; teachers

His pals said that he was like a library and computer rolled into one, and more user-friendly. This shows how vast and reliable his knowledge was.

Yes, I think he was right to an extent because he wanted to live a normal life and keep his friendships natural. However, hiding one's gift completely may also not be necessary, as talents can help others when used wisely.

(b) — Encyclopedia and his mother knew that his staring at the soup meant he had a mystery he could not solve.

(b) — Chief Brown says two masked men held up the Diamond Mart on Sixth Avenue and got away with a million dollars' worth of jewellery.

(c) — "Matter-of-fact" means stating something plainly, without showing much emotion.

True. She asked whether he was mixed up in a jewellery robbery a few years ago.

He announced in a matter-of-fact manner that Tim Nolan had died the previous day. This became the starting point of the evening's mystery.

The Browns were a close family who shared everything, even police cases, at the dinner table. Both Mrs. Brown and Encyclopedia listened carefully and took a keen interest in the Chief's work.

(c) — Chief Brown states that the two men had met while both were in prison in South Carolina.

(b) — The text says they "became friendly because of shared interests".

(b) — Nolan settled in Idaville and started a small palm-tree nursery.

A small palm-tree nursery.

It tells us that the nursery earned him hardly enough money to survive. It was a poor, struggling business that did not make a real profit.

He did so deliberately so that his son could follow the case fully. Since Encyclopedia was the one who would solve the mystery, he needed all the background details, and the family discussed the case for his benefit.

(b) — During the hold-up one gunman's mask slipped, and a clerk thought she recognised Nolan, though she was not absolutely sure.

(b) — The clerk refused to testify against him, and no trace of the stolen jewellery ever turned up, so there was no proof.

(c) — A hunch is a strong feeling or intuition about something that is not yet proven.

False. The text says Davenport hasn't been seen since the hold-up.

His hunch was that Davenport and Nolan had decided to hide the loot until things cooled down. He believed the two men had committed the robbery together.

The thieves must have hidden it very carefully in a place no one would suspect. Since Davenport disappeared and Nolan stayed quiet, the secret of the hiding place remained safe for five years.

(c) — Officers Lewis and Maloney took the house apart but did not find one piece of the stolen jewellery.

(b) — The will left everything Nolan owned, including his palm-tree nursery, to Davenport.

(b) — Nolan had suffered from a bad heart for many years, and he had a stroke the morning before he died.

will

The death itself was no mystery, since Nolan died naturally of a stroke after years of bad health. The mystery lay in the circumstances around the will, which suddenly made Davenport the heir.

It suggests that Nolan wanted the will, and the message attached to it, to be found after his death. He was making a final effort to pass on something important to Davenport.

(b) — Chief Brown says nothing about the will itself was suspicious, only the sheet from his desk calendar that was clipped to it.

(c) — The sheet carried Davenport's name and address and, below them, the four words "Nom Utes Sweden Hurts".

(b) — "Leafed through" means to turn pages quickly while looking for something.

Nom Utes Sweden Hurts.

Chief Brown copied what Nolan had written on the sheet into his pocket notebook. He then showed the copy to Mrs. Brown and Encyclopedia.

She asks, "What do you make of the four words, Leroy?" She could not understand the words herself, so she turned to her son, trusting his skill to interpret them.

(b) — The text says he usually needed to ask only one question to solve a case before dessert was served.

(c) — He opened his eyes and asked whether there was a young fir tree in Nolan's palm-tree nursery.

(b) — Chief Brown confirms there is one young fir tree, on the south side of the house.

True. This is exactly how the text describes his habit of deep thinking.

He said "The four words say so," meaning the words themselves pointed to the existence of the young fir tree in the nursery. This was his first step towards cracking the code.

It shows that he solved cases through careful thinking and by asking the one right question, rather than through lengthy investigation. His single question about the fir tree put him on the path to the answer.

(a) — She stated that "Nom" is a shortening of "nominative", a grammatical term.

(b) — She treated each word as an ordinary word with a dictionary meaning, while the words were actually a disguised code for days of the week.

(b) — The text states she had taught English and other subjects in high school.

False. She confessed, "I can't figure it out."

According to Mrs. Brown, the Utes are an American Indian tribe. This was her attempt to find an ordinary meaning for the strange word.

It tells us that the code could not be cracked by knowledge of words alone. It needed fresh, imaginative thinking to see that the words were days of the week with letters removed — a lateral leap that only Encyclopedia could make.

(c) — Encyclopedia says that probably not a week or so ago, Nolan changed the hiding place.

(b) — Mrs. Brown guesses he tried to tell Davenport by phone and failed, so he wrote the four words as he was dying.

(b) — She says the four words will tell him where the jewellery is hidden.

address

Davenport would learn that Nolan had left him the palm-tree nursery. This gave him a reason to come forward and claim the property.

Nolan was cautious by nature, as a former thief who had escaped punishment once. A plain message could be read by the police, but a code would only be understood by Davenport, who was looking for a hiding place and shared the key to it.

(b) — Since the words were written on a sheet from a desk calendar, they stood for days of the week, which is the key to the code.

(a) — Nolan dropped the letters d-a-y and used the remaining letters to form the code words.

(c) — The unwritten fifth word was "Fir", or Friday; the jewellery lay hidden under it.

False. "Hurts" stood for Thursday, and the unwritten fifth word, "Fir", stood for Friday.

It was found inside a twenty-gallon jug of earth from which grew the young fir tree in Nolan's nursery. It was discovered exactly as Encyclopedia had foreseen.

The words Nom, Utes, Sweden and Hurts look like ordinary, unrelated words to a casual reader. Only Davenport, who had hidden the loot with Nolan and knew they had changed the hiding place, would read them as days of the week and search under the fifth word, the young fir tree.

Encyclopedia Brown was a young boy who lived in Idaville, USA. He was the son of the Chief of Police and, despite being young, often helped his father solve mysteries that even the police found difficult.

He was nicknamed Encyclopedia because his head was, like an encyclopedia, filled with facts from A to Z. He read more books than anyone in Idaville and never forgot a fact.

His pals said that he was like a library and a computer rolled into one, and more user-friendly. This comparison highlights his vast knowledge and helpful nature.

He did not sit around and worry. He acted at once — he cleared his desk, put on his hat, and went home to dinner, where Encyclopedia would solve the case before dinner was over.

At the dinner table on Tuesday night, Chief Brown stared at his cream-of-mushroom soup. Encyclopedia and his mother knew what that meant — he had a mystery he could not solve.

She said the name was familiar and asked whether he was mixed up in a jewellery robbery a few years ago. Chief Brown confirmed it had happened five years earlier.

Five years before the events of the story, two masked men held up the Diamond Mart on Sixth Avenue. They escaped with a million dollars' worth of jewellery.

During the hold-up, one gunman's mask slipped and a clerk thought she recognised Nolan, but she was not absolutely sure. She later refused to testify against him, and there was no proof.

They had met while both were in prison in South Carolina and became friendly because of shared interests. Davenport later came to live with Nolan a week before the hold-up.

Nolan settled in Idaville and started a small palm-tree nursery. However, the nursery barely yielded him a living.

His hunch was that Davenport and Nolan had decided to hide the loot until things cooled down. This explains why no trace of the stolen jewellery was ever found.

Chief Brown got a court order, and Officers Lewis and Maloney just about took Nolan's house apart. Even so, they did not find one piece of the stolen jewellery.

Nolan had suffered from a bad heart for many years. Yesterday morning he had a stroke, realised he was dying, and passed away.

With his last strength, Nolan managed to put his will on the kitchen table. The will left everything he owned, including his palm-tree nursery, to Davenport.

A sheet from Nolan's desk calendar was clipped to the will. On it were Davenport's name and address, and four puzzling words: Nom Utes Sweden Hurts.

She explained them as ordinary words: "Nom" as a shortening of nominative, "Utes" as an American Indian tribe, "Sweden" as a country in northern Europe, and "Hurts" as simply hurts. She then confessed she could not figure out the code.

He reminded her that Davenport had disappeared right after the hold-up, and that he and Nolan must have hidden the stolen jewellery together.

He had probably changed the hiding place of the jewellery a week or so before his death. He tried to tell Davenport by phone, failed to reach him, and so wrote the coded words in his final moments.

Nolan wrote the four words on a sheet from a desk calendar, so they stood for days of the week. He dropped the letters d-a-y from each day and formed new words: Nom = Monday, Utes = Tuesday, Sweden = Wednesday and Hurts = Thursday.

The unwritten fifth word was "Fir", or Friday. The jewellery was found inside a twenty-gallon jug of earth from which grew the young fir tree in Nolan's nursery.

Chief Brown was the Chief of Police of Idaville and was thought to be the smartest police chief in the country. He was smart, quick and practical — he never sat around worrying about a case, but acted at once by going home to dinner. He was honest enough to admit that his son solved his hardest cases, yet sensible enough to keep it secret, since nobody would believe the best detective alive was an eighth grader. He was also thorough, as seen in the way he collected facts and searched Nolan's house with a court order.

Encyclopedia never spoke of the help he gave his father because he did not want to seem different from other boys. This shows that in spite of his extraordinary intelligence, he was humble and down-to-earth. He valued friendship and a normal childhood more than praise. However, he could not escape his nickname, as only his parents and teachers called him Leroy; everyone else called him Encyclopedia. This mix of modesty and brilliance makes him a lovable character.

Five years before the story, two masked men held up the Diamond Mart on Sixth Avenue and got away with a million dollars' worth of jewellery. Chief Brown always believed that Nolan and his friend Davenport had pulled the hold-up. During the robbery, one gunman's mask slipped and a clerk thought she recognised Nolan, but she was not absolutely sure. She refused to testify against him, and no trace of the stolen jewellery was ever found. Without proof or a witness, the criminals could not be punished.

Until Encyclopedia asked his question, the four words — Nom Utes Sweden Hurts — seemed meaningless to both Chief Brown and Mrs. Brown. His single question, "Is there a young fir tree in Mr. Nolan's palm-tree nursery?", connected the mysterious code to a real object on Nolan's property. It showed that he had already glimpsed the answer: the words pointed to the tree. From that moment, the solution of the five-year-old mystery was only a step away.

The four-word code, "Nom Utes Sweden Hurts", is the heart of the mystery. It was Nolan's dying attempt to tell Davenport where the jewellery was hidden, after he failed to reach him by phone. Written on a sheet from a desk calendar, it cleverly disguised the days of the week — Monday to Thursday — with the letters d-a-y dropped. The code tests the reader's own thinking along with the characters, since neither the Chief of Police nor the teacher Mrs. Brown can crack it. Only Encyclopedia's critical thinking unlocks it, revealing the unwritten fifth word, Fir.

The text gives several hints of their closeness. The two men met while both were in prison in South Carolina and became friendly because of shared interests. When Nolan was released first, Davenport came to live with him a week before the jewellery hold-up. Even five years later, Nolan's dying act was to leave his entire property, including his palm-tree nursery, to Davenport, along with a secret message telling him where the loot was hidden. This trust in the midst of crime shows how closely the two were bound.

Several facts supported the Chief's belief. Both men were old prison friends with shared interests, and Davenport had arrived to live with Nolan just a week before the robbery. During the hold-up, a gunman's mask slipped and a clerk thought she recognised Nolan. After the robbery, Davenport disappeared completely, and no trace of the jewellery was ever found, even after a court-ordered search of Nolan's house. Finally, Nolan's will left everything to Davenport, which fitted the idea of partners sharing stolen wealth.

The title is perfect because the whole mystery centres on a message of four words — Nom, Utes, Sweden and Hurts — clipped to Nolan's will. Everyone tries and fails to decode them until Encyclopedia realises they are days of the week in disguise, formed by dropping the letters d-a-y. The real secret lies not in what was written, but in what was left unwritten — the fifth word, Fir (Friday), which marked the young fir tree under which the jewellery was hidden. The case is solved only when the fifth word is discovered, so the title captures the exact point of the puzzle.

Three qualities stand out. First, his knowledge: he read more books than anyone in Idaville and never forgot a fact. Second, his observation and thinking: he leaned back, closed his eyes, and needed only one well-chosen question — about the fir tree — to crack the case. Third, his patience and modesty: he sat quietly while his parents discussed the case, never boasted of his help, and did not want to seem different from other boys. Knowledge, thinking and humility together made him the best detective alive.

I would feel a deep, quiet pride in my son. For five years the Diamond Mart case had troubled me, and no search of my officers could find the loot. Yet Leroy, an eighth grader, needed only one question and a few seconds of thought to see what none of us could. I would also feel amused remembering that we were still on the soup when he solved it, and grateful that at least at our dinner table the "smartest police chief in the country" could be honest about who really solved his cases.

Encyclopedia Brown, whose real name was Leroy, was a young boy who lived in Idaville, USA. He was the only child of the Chief of Police, and he was an eighth grader. His nickname "Encyclopedia" described him perfectly: just as an encyclopedia is filled with facts from A to Z, so was his head. He read more books than anyone in Idaville and never forgot a fact, and his pals said he was like a library and computer rolled into one, and more user-friendly. Despite being the best detective alive, he was humble. He never spoke of the help he gave his father because he did not want to seem different from other boys. At the dinner table, he listened quietly while his parents discussed the case for his benefit, showing patience and respect. His method of working was remarkable: he leaned back, closed his eyes for his hardest thinking, and usually needed to ask only one question to solve a case before dessert. In this story, that single question — whether there was a young fir tree in Nolan's palm-tree nursery — led him to decode Nolan's dying message, Nom Utes Sweden Hurts, as days of the week in disguise, and to find the stolen jewellery under the unwritten fifth word, Fir. He thus combined knowledge, modesty, observation and sharp thinking in one unforgettable character.

Chief Brown was the Chief of Police of Idaville and was regarded by everyone as perhaps the smartest police chief in the country. He was smart and quick, and he had a practical temperament: when he came up against a case he could not solve, he did not sit around and worry; he acted at once — he cleared his desk, put on his hat and went home to dinner, where Encyclopedia would solve the case before dinner was over. This shows both his trust in his son and his sensible approach to problems. He was also modest and discreet: he would have liked to tell everyone about his only child's genius, but he knew nobody would believe that the best detective alive was an eighth grader, so he said nothing. As an investigator, he was thorough and by the book: he collected facts carefully, shared them at the dinner table, obtained a court order, and had his officers search Nolan's house thoroughly. He was honest about his limits, admitting "I can't figure it out" and asking his son for help. His pride in his son, though unspoken in public, shines through the story.

The central theme of the story is that knowledge, observation and critical thinking can succeed where force and routine fail. The Diamond Mart robbery had gone unsolved for five years; police searches, court orders and endless facts could not recover the loot. What cracked the case was a boy's well-stored knowledge and his ability to look at four strange words in a fresh way. Nolan's code — days of the week written on a calendar sheet with the letters d-a-y dropped — was simple, yet it defeated the Chief of Police and a former schoolteacher alike. The story also carries the message that real talent does not need to be showy: Encyclopedia never spoke of his help and did not want to seem different from other boys. Finally, it gently warns that crime does not pay in the end — Nolan died with his secret half-told, and the stolen jewellery was recovered exactly as his code revealed. Young readers learn to observe carefully, think laterally, and use their gifts with humility.

Three values stand out in Encyclopedia's character. The first is humility: even though he was the best detective alive, he never spoke of the help he gave his father, because he did not want to seem different from other boys; only his parents and teachers called him by his real name, Leroy. The second is patience and attentiveness: at the dinner table he sat quietly while his parents discussed the case for his benefit, listening to every fact before speaking. The third is disciplined thinking: he leaned back and closed his eyes when he did his hardest thinking, and he usually needed to ask only one question to solve a case — in this story, the question about the young fir tree. Behind these qualities lay his love of learning: he read more books than anyone in Idaville and never forgot a fact. Together these values show that excellence is built on knowledge, careful listening, focused thinking and a modest heart.

The story shows how much can be achieved through careful observation and logical thinking applied to ordinary details. Encyclopedia noticed what others overlooked: that the message was written on a sheet from a desk calendar, that calendars deal with days, and that the letters d-a-y could be dropped from the days of the week to form the strange words Nom, Utes, Sweden and Hurts. In the same way, in daily life a student who observes patterns in sums understands faster than one who memorises; a person who listens carefully to instructions avoids mistakes; and a shopkeeper who notices details about customers serves them better. Chief Brown's routine also teaches a life lesson: when stuck, he did not sit around and worry but acted at once — a habit worth copying before exams or matches. Even failure teaches, as Mrs. Brown's attempt shows: she had knowledge but no fresh angle. The message is that curiosity, patience and a questioning mind turn ordinary people into problem-solvers.

At dinner that Tuesday, I noticed Dad staring at his cream-of-mushroom soup, and I knew he had a case he could not solve. I listened quietly as he told Mom about Tim Nolan's death, the Diamond Mart robbery of five years ago, and the will that left everything to Daniel Davenport. What caught my attention was the sheet from Nolan's desk calendar clipped to the will, carrying Davenport's name and address and four words: Nom Utes Sweden Hurts. Mom, who had taught English, explained the words as "nominative", an Indian tribe, a country and "hurts", and gave up. But the calendar bothered me — calendars are about days of the week. I leaned back, closed my eyes and thought hard. If you remove the letters d-a-y from Monday, you get Nom; from Tuesday, Utes; from Wednesday, Sweden; and from Thursday, Hurts. So Nolan was listing days — Monday to Thursday — but not Friday. The fifth word was missing: Fir. I asked Dad whether there was a young fir tree in Nolan's palm-tree nursery, and he said there was one, on the south side of the house. I knew then the jewellery was buried in the earth of that tree, inside the twenty-gallon jug from which it grew — and I was right.

After the jewellery is found, Chief Brown says, "We'll find Davenport now that we know his address." I imagine the police tracing Davenport through the name and address written on the calendar sheet. When confronted, Davenport would first pretend to know nothing, but the evidence would be too strong: the will names him as heir, and the four-word code was meant for his eyes alone. The recovered jewellery — a million dollars' worth from the Diamond Mart — would be returned, and the five-year-old mystery of the Diamond Mart robbery would finally be closed. Davenport might argue that he never wrote the code, but the police could point out that only the hidden partner could have understood it. Chief Brown would get the credit publicly, though at home he would smile at his son across the dinner table, and perhaps that night there would be no mystery to discuss — only a peaceful dinner and dessert. Meanwhile, in Idaville, people would go on believing their police chief was the smartest in the country, never knowing the real detective was an eighth grader who never forgot a fact.