THE TIME MACHINE, H.
G WELLS – QUESTIONS (TEACHER)
CHAPTERS 1 AND 2
1. According to the Time Traveller, what is the Fourth Dimension?
2. How was the first Time Machine? What happened to it?
3. Which character, besides the Time Traveller, is late for dinner?
4. How do the other characters know that the Time Traveller has been
detained?
5. What kind of food does the Time Traveller crave?
6. What is one condition the Time Traveller sets before telling his story?
CHAPTERS 3 AND 4
1. What happens when the Time Traveller stops?
2. Where did he land?
3. How does the Time Traveller change the weather?
4. What did the Time Traveller do to be sure that the little people would not tamper with the time machine or
damage it?
5. In approximately what year had the Time Traveller landed?
6. What did the little people eat?
7. After eating dinner, what did the Time Traveller attempt to learn?
8. On his walk after eating, what did the Time Traveller notice about the small houses and cottages?
CHAPTER 5
1. Returning from his long walk, what causes the Time Traveller to panic?
2. What does the Time Traveller think he hears when he bangs his fist on the pedestal of the Sphinx?
3. How does the Time Traveller make a new friend?
4. What is his new friend’s name?
5. What lesson did the Time Traveller learn from his new friend?
6. What does the Time Traveller call the people from the lower world?
CHAPTERS 6 AND 7
1. What sound does the Time Traveller hear on his descent into the well?
2. What does he do when he feels a soft hand touching him?
3. Why is the Time Traveller unable to speak to the Morlocks using language he has learned?
4. How does the Time Traveller learn that the Morlocks are carnivorous?
5. What piece of equipment does the Time Traveller wish he had taken into the future?
6. Now that he has seen the Morlocks, what does the Time Traveller decide he must make for himself? What
does he decide to find?
7. Where does the Time Traveller decide to go after he returns to Weena?
8. Reclining under the stars, what food does the Time Traveller decide that the Morlocks must be eating?
CHAPTERS 8 AND 9
1. What, according to the Time Traveller, was the original purpose of the Palace of Green Porcelain?
2. What does the Time Traveller find that causes him and Weena to dance?
3. Why is Weena nervous as they go further into the gallery?
4. At night, what does Weena want to play with that troubles the Time Traveller?
5. Why are the Morlocks able to attack the Time Traveller when he sleeps by the fire?
6. Why can’t he light another fire?
7. The Time Traveller says that as the Morlocks attack him “The darkness seemed to grow luminous.” What
causes this?
8. What does the Time Traveller lose?
9. At the end of the chapter, what does he find?
CHAPTERS 10-12 AND EPILOGUE
1. How does the Time Traveller get inside the pedestal to his Time Machine?
2. What is the condition of the Machine? Why did the Morlocks take care of the machine?
3. After he finds the Machine, what causes the Time Traveller’s fear?
4. How does he fight off the Morlocks?
5. Where does the Time Traveller go in his Machine?
6. What kind of creature scares the Time Traveller and causes him to go further into the future?
7. Upon returning to his laboratory, what does the Time Traveller see Mrs. Watchett do?
8. After telling his story to his guests, how does the Time Traveller reassure himself that the story is really
true?
9. What does the Medical Man want to take with him?
10. Who returns the next day to visit the Time Traveller?
THE TIME MACHINE, H.G WELLS –
QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS
Chapter 1
What are the men discussing?
Who is at the dinner? What is the Time Traveller working on?
What do you understand by the expression ‘the fourth dimension’?
Chapter 2
If you could travel in time, where would you go?
Would you go forwards or backwards in time?
Would you experience a historical event or something that has not happened yet?
What would the world look like?
What would people be like?
Chapter 3
Where is the Sphinx? What is it? What does it look like? Do you like it? How is it related to the story?
What has happened to the Time Traveller? Where did he go? Why did he The Time Machine suddenly become
frightened? Who was the first person he saw? What were his first impressions?
Chapter 4
‘The people of the future’. Describe what they think the people of the future will look like using comparatives:
e.g. ‘the people of the future will be more intelligent than us and they will use less fuel than us’
Chapter 5
The strange people: What do they look like? Are they happy or sad? What do they do all day? Are they strong
or weak? How does the Time Traveller feel about these people? What type of society does he encounter?
Chapter 6
What happens to the Time Traveller? How does he get lost in Time? Where does he get lost?
Will he ever get back and, if so, how?
Chapter 7
What did the Time Traveller see in the early morning? Were these ghosts? If not, what were they?
Chapter 8
What does the word ‘Morlocks’ means. Is this a place, a person or a thing?
What conclusion does the Time Traveller come to about the relationship between the above ground and the
belowground people? Do you agree with him? Why do you think there are two types of creatures, one living
above ground, one below? Do they work together? Do they like each other? Why do you think one species live
below ground?
Chapter 12
What happens to Weena? What mistakes does the Time Traveller make, in your opinion? How did you feel
after you read this chapter?
Chapter 14
Do you think the world dies? Does the Time Traveller escape? If so, does he go forward or backward in time?
What happens to him? Say what you would like to happen.
