Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 7 — Evans Tries an O-Level by Colin Dexter
Welcome to HSLC Guru’s complete study guide for ASSEB (Assam State Board) Class 12 / HS 2nd Year English Vistas Chapter 7, “Evans Tries an O-Level” by Colin Dexter. Colin Dexter (1930–2017) was a celebrated English crime writer, best known for his “Inspector Morse” detective series set in Oxford. This suspenseful, witty story tells of James Roderick Evans, a clever prisoner nicknamed “Evans the Break,” who has already escaped from prison three times. When he requests permission to sit an O-Level German examination in his cell at Oxford Prison, the Governor takes elaborate precautions — locked gates, observation peepholes, a vetted invigilator (Reverend Stuart McLeery), prison officer Stephens on watch, and frisking before entry. Yet behind the bookish facade lies a meticulous plan: a bogus parson, a staged “wounded” exit, a coded question paper, and an accomplice masquerading as a prison officer. By the end, Evans has the last laugh — proving that intelligence, deception and patience can defeat even the tightest institutional security. This article gives you the full plot summary, summaries in Assamese (সাৰাংশ) and English, character sketches, themes, all NCERT textbook questions answered (Reading with Insight, Talking about the Text, Working with Words), additional short and long questions, MCQs and extract-based questions — perfectly aligned with the ASSEB HS 2nd Year English syllabus.
About the Author
Norman Colin Dexter (29 September 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English crime novelist, famous for creating the character of Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, the Oxford-based detective hero of thirteen novels and a long-running television series. Born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, Dexter studied Classics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, taught Latin and Greek for several years, and later joined the Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations as Senior Assistant Secretary — a role that gave him an insider’s understanding of how examinations are organised and policed. This professional knowledge, combined with his love of cryptic crosswords, classical references and Oxford settings, shapes “Evans Tries an O-Level.” Dexter received the Crime Writers’ Association’s prestigious Cartier Diamond Dagger in 1997 for outstanding services to crime literature. His writing combines tight plotting, witty dialogue, careful misdirection and an obvious affection for the city of Oxford — qualities that all surface in this story.
Summary (English)
James Roderick Evans, a habitual prison escaper nicknamed “Evans the Break,” is serving a sentence in Oxford Prison. He has already broken out three times. Despite this, he asks the Governor to let him sit an O-Level examination in German, which he has been studying with a tutor for six months. The Governor, eager to encourage rehabilitation but well aware of Evans’s reputation, agrees only after putting elaborate security in place. Evans’s cell, Number 2 in D Wing, is to serve as the examination room. A microphone is hidden in the cell so the Governor can listen in. Stephens, a tall, burly prison officer, is to keep watch through the peephole every minute or two. The invigilator is the Reverend Stuart McLeery, a parson from St Mary Mags, vetted and approved. McLeery is searched on arrival; only his Bible, a paper knife (to slit the sealed question paper), a Church Times, and an inflated rubber ring (which he claims is for haemorrhoids) are allowed in. Evans wears a filthy bobble hat “for luck.”
The exam begins at 9:25 a.m. and seems to proceed normally. The Governor, listening in, hears nothing suspicious — only McLeery reading out a correction slip (“On page 1, line 15, ‘proceed’ should read ‘precede'”) and announcing the time at intervals. At about 11:20 a.m. Stephens unlocks the cell to let McLeery out. He finds the parson slumped over the desk, blood streaming from a cut to his head. Evans, apparently, has knocked him out, dressed in his cassock, gown and dog-collar, and walked out of the prison disguised as McLeery — leaving the real McLeery (so it seems) bleeding in the cell. The semi-conscious McLeery insists on helping with the chase and directs the Governor to the Golden Lion Hotel in Chipping Norton, claiming Evans has gone there.
The Governor, now studying the question paper Evans left behind, decodes the clues himself. The “centre number 271” and “index number 313” point, on the Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire, to Chipping Norton; the German passage about a “Geheimagent” (secret agent) describes a meeting place; the correction slip (“proceed/precede”) tells Evans which six-figure grid reference to follow. The Governor drives to the Golden Lion, climbs the stairs alone and surprises Evans in his hotel room, still in his parson’s clothes. Evans calmly explains how it was done: the man who came in as McLeery was an accomplice; the real McLeery had been bound and gagged at home that morning; the rubber ring contained pig’s blood treated with sodium citrate so it would not clot; the “wound” was a fake; the bobble hat hid the cassock and dog-collar that Evans had put on under the parson’s gown. The Governor calls in two prison officers waiting outside in a van and hands Evans over, satisfied that he has won the round. But the silent officer in the back of the van is yet another accomplice. As the van turns onto the Oxford road, the handcuffs come off, the driver speaks in a broad Scots accent, and Evans tells him to make for Newbury. “Evans the Break” has escaped a fourth time. The con is masterful, and the Governor — who thought he had been “one jump ahead” — is one move behind once again.
সাৰাংশ (Assamese Summary)
জেমছ ৰডেৰিক ইভানছ অক্সফৰ্ড কাৰাগাৰৰ এজন কয়দী। তেওঁ ইতিমধ্যে তিনিবাৰ কাৰাগাৰৰ পৰা পলাই গৈছে, সেইবাবে তেওঁৰ উপনাম “ইভানছ দ্য ব্ৰেক”। তেওঁ গভৰ্ণৰৰ ওচৰত জাৰ্মান ভাষাৰ O-Level পৰীক্ষা দিয়াৰ অনুমতি বিচাৰে। গভৰ্ণৰে অনুমতি দিলে যদিও বহুতো সাৱধানতা অৱলম্বন কৰে — ইভানছৰ কোঠাটোতে পৰীক্ষা পতা হ’ব, এটা গোপন মাইক্ৰ’ফোন স্থাপন কৰা হ’ব, ষ্টিফেন্স নামৰ অফিচাৰে দুই-এক মিনিটৰ ব্যৱধানত পিপ-হ’লৰ মাজেৰে চাই থাকিব, আৰু ইনভিজিলেটৰ হিচাপে বিশ্বাসী পাদ্ৰী ৰেভাৰেণ্ড ষ্টুৱাৰ্ট মেক্লিৰিক পঠোৱা হ’ব। মেক্লিৰিৰ লগত থকা প্ৰশ্নপত্ৰ, বাইবেল, পেপাৰ-নাইফ আৰু এটা ৰবৰৰ ৰিং ভালদৰে চোৱা হয়। পৰীক্ষা ৯:২৫ বজাত আৰম্ভ হয়।
প্ৰায় ১১:২০ বজাত যেতিয়া ষ্টিফেন্সে দুৱাৰ খোলে, তেওঁ মেক্লিৰিক টেবুলত পৰি থকা দেখে — মূৰৰ পৰা তেজ ওলাই আছে। ইভানছে যেন তেওঁক আঘাত কৰি, পাদ্ৰীৰ পোছাক পিন্ধি কাৰাগাৰৰ পৰা ওলাই গৈছে। আঘাতপ্ৰাপ্ত মেক্লিৰিয়েই গভৰ্ণৰক পথ দেখুৱাই কয় — চিপিং নৰ্টনৰ গোল্ডেন লায়ন হোটেলত ইভানছ আছে। গভৰ্ণৰে প্ৰশ্নপত্ৰৰ “correction slip”ৰ “proceed/precede” সংকেত, “index number 313” আৰু “centre number 271” উদ্ধাৰ কৰি Ordnance Survey মেপত স্থানটো বিচাৰি পায়। তেওঁ হোটেললৈ গৈ ইভানছক ধৰে। ইভানছে গোটেই পৰিকল্পনাটো বুজাই দিয়ে — পৰীক্ষালৈ অহা মেক্লিৰি প্ৰকৃততে এজন সহযোগী, ৰিঙৰ ভিতৰত গাহৰিৰ তেজ আৰু ছ’ডিয়াম ছাইট্ৰেট আছিল, “আঘাত”টো নকল আছিল। গভৰ্ণৰে দুজন অফিচাৰৰ হাতত ইভানছক গতাই দিয়ে। কিন্তু ভেনৰ ভিতৰত থকা মৌন অফিচাৰজনো এজন সহযোগী। কিছু সময়ৰ পাছত হাতবেৰি খুলি, ছ’ট্চ মাতেৰে ড্ৰাইভাৰে দিশ সুধাত ইভানছে কয় — “নিউবেৰীলৈ চলোৱা।” এইদৰে ইভানছে পুনৰ চতুৰতাৰে পলায়, আৰু বুদ্ধিৰ প্ৰতিযোগিতাত কৰ্তৃপক্ষৰ ওপৰত জয়ী হয়।
Plot Summary (Step by Step)
- Set-up: In early March, the Governor of Oxford Prison calls the Examinations Board to register Evans for O-Level German. The Board sends a parson, the Reverend Stuart McLeery of St Mary Mags, to invigilate.
- Security plans: The cell is cleared of razor and nail-file, a microphone is hidden, Stephens is posted at the peephole, gates are locked, and McLeery is frisked at the gate.
- The exam begins (9:25 a.m.): McLeery announces a “correction slip” — page 1, line 15, “proceed” should read “precede.” Evans wears a dirty bobble hat “for luck.”
- The Governor listens in: Through the bug, he hears only the rustle of papers, McLeery’s announcements of the time, and a brief, polite conversation. Stephens checks every minute through the peephole.
- The “discovery” (11:20 a.m.): Stephens opens the cell and finds McLeery slumped, bleeding from the head. Evans appears to have escaped dressed as the parson.
- False trail: The wounded “McLeery” rallies, demands not to go to hospital and leads the chase to the Golden Lion Hotel, Chipping Norton.
- The Governor decodes the clues: The German passage, the correction slip, the index number 313 and centre number 271 give the OS map reference for Chipping Norton.
- The capture: The Governor finds Evans at the hotel, in clerical dress. Evans calmly explains the trick — the rubber ring held pig’s blood and sodium citrate; the man who entered the cell was a fake McLeery and Evans’s accomplice; the real McLeery was bound and gagged in his Broad Street rooms.
- The final twist: The Governor calls a prison van. The “silent prison officer” inside is yet another accomplice. The cuffs come off; the driver speaks broad Scots; Evans says “make for Newbury.” Evans escapes for the fourth time.
Character Sketches
James Roderick Evans
Evans is the central character — a young, clean-shaven, fair-haired prisoner of about thirty. The prison officers describe him as “a pleasant sort of chap, an amusing person, good at imitations” and a star turn at prison concerts. He has no record of violence and is officially a “congenital kleptomaniac,” but his real talent is escape — three breakouts have already given him the nickname “Evans the Break.” In this story he reveals himself as a brilliant planner: patient, observant, polite, calm under pressure, and able to anticipate every move of the prison authorities. He uses the O-Level itself as a long con — feigning intellectual self-improvement to get a face-to-face meeting with an outsider in his own cell. His conversations are full of low-key humour (“Bloody ‘ell. It’s cold in ‘ere, sir”). He treats his captors not as enemies but as players in a game of wits. By the end, he is firmly the most intelligent person in the story.
The Governor
The Governor is presented as a thoughtful, well-meaning, methodical administrator who genuinely believes in giving prisoners a chance. He calls the Examinations Board personally, vets the invigilator, sets up the bug, briefs Stephens — every precaution he can think of, he takes. He is intelligent enough to crack the German correction-slip code on his own and trace Evans to Chipping Norton. Yet his very pride in being “one jump ahead of Evans” becomes his weakness; he is too pleased with himself, too trusting of uniforms, and too eager to take personal credit. By handing Evans over to a “prison officer” he has not personally checked, he loses the fourth round. He is a sympathetic figure — capable but ultimately gullible.
Stephens
Stephens is a tall, burly, newly recruited prison officer assigned to watch through the peephole. He is conscientious at first — checking every sixty seconds — but, as the morning passes, becomes complacent because the scene through the peephole always looks identical. He is loyal, brave and willing (he insists on personally escorting “McLeery” to the front gate), but young and inexperienced. He is taken in by appearances, accepts the wounded parson without question, and ends up driving the wrong man to “hospital.” His character represents the limits of routine vigilance: an honest officer can still be defeated by a clever script.
Reverend Stuart McLeery
The reader meets two “McLeerys.” The man who enters the prison is, in fact, Evans’s accomplice — bespectacled, slightly hunched, devout-looking, carrying Bible and Church Times. He is a brilliant character actor: he sustains the role from the moment he steps through the gate, manages the fake correction slip, takes the staged blow to the head, fakes a head wound with sodium-citrated pig’s blood, and plays the wounded victim convincingly enough to direct the chase to a deliberate location. The real McLeery, we learn at the end, is the genuine parson from Broad Street, who has been bound and gagged in his own rooms while the impostor took his place. Both “McLeerys” together symbolise the central trick of the story — appearance versus reality.
Themes
- Intelligence over force: Evans never raises a hand. His only weapons are observation, patience, planning and the ability to read other people’s habits. The story argues that brains beat brawn — even thick prison walls are no match for a thinking man.
- Deception and appearance vs. reality: Almost every “fact” the Governor accepts at face value is a fabrication — the parson, the wound, the trail to Chipping Norton, the prison officer in the van. Dexter forces the reader to question what they think they have just read.
- The prison system and rehabilitation: The Governor’s effort to provide an O-Level shows a humane, modern prison ethos. But Evans cynically uses that very humanity as an attack surface. The story raises an awkward question: can institutions be too liberal for their own good?
- Cleverness vs. authority: Authority depends on routine, hierarchy and uniforms; cleverness depends on improvisation. When the two clash, Dexter suggests, individual cunning will normally outwit institutional procedure.
- Irony: The most “secure” exam in Oxford is the most spectacular escape vehicle. The Governor congratulates himself on out-thinking Evans at the very moment Evans is out-thinking him. The bobble hat, the rubber ring, the dog-collar — every “innocent” item is part of the plot.
- Crime as a battle of wits: The story belongs to the great tradition of English detective fiction in which crime is presented less as a moral horror than as an intellectual contest. The reader is invited to admire Evans even as the rules say they shouldn’t.
Understanding the Text (Reading with Insight)
Q1. Reflecting on the story, what did you feel about Evans’s having the last laugh?
Answer: Evans’s “having the last laugh” leaves a complicated feeling. On one level, the reader cannot help admiring his planning. He has built a long, careful con: months of German lessons, an accomplice for the parson role, a second accomplice as a “silent” prison officer, the rubber ring with sodium-citrated pig’s blood, the coded question paper, the carefully chosen Chipping Norton location. Every single detail has been thought through. When the cuffs come off in the back of the van and the driver asks where they should head, the joke is on the entire prison machinery — and that is intellectually satisfying. On another level, this is uncomfortable, because Evans is, after all, a convicted criminal whom the law has lawfully detained. The story plays with that discomfort. Colin Dexter clearly wants the reader to enjoy Evans’s success — the pleasant, non-violent kleptomaniac who beats the system with his brain — while still being aware that the Governor was simply doing his job and trying to be humane. The “last laugh” is therefore both a comic triumph and a sobering reminder that good intentions are not enough against a determined intelligence.
Q2. When Stephens comes back to the cell he jumps to a conclusion and the whole machinery blindly goes by his assumption without realising the hoax. Does it mean that the prison authorities are inefficient and incompetent? Discuss.
Answer: The prison authorities cannot fairly be called “inefficient.” The Governor took every reasonable precaution — he removed the razor and nail-file, fitted a microphone, frisked the invigilator, locked the gates, kept Stephens at the peephole and personally listened in to the recording. What the story actually exposes is not laziness but the limits of institutional thinking. The system relies on uniforms, routines and trust in identifiable figures of authority — a parson, a prison officer, a senior administrator. Evans’s plan does not break the rules; it borrows them. The wounded parson exits as a wounded parson. The prison van that arrives looks like a prison van. The “officer” inside wears the uniform. Stephens jumps to a conclusion because the visual evidence is overwhelming: a bleeding clergyman in the cell after a quiet exam can only mean one thing. The Governor accepts the accomplice in the van for the same reason. So the failure here is less about competence and more about the predictable psychology of rule-followers. A really intelligent criminal can always design a script in which a competent officer’s natural reactions become their own undoing.
Q3. What could the Governor have done to securely bring Evans back to prison when he caught him at the Golden Lion? Does that final act of foolishness really prove that “he was just another good for a giggle, was the Governor”?
Answer: The Governor made several avoidable mistakes at the Golden Lion. First, he should have called the Thames Valley Police, not driven up to the hotel alone with two unverified prison officers in a van. A genuine police escort, with marked vehicles, radio contact, and known officers, would have eliminated the possibility of an accomplice posing as a prison officer. Second, he should have personally identified each officer in the van — checked warrant cards and confirmed their names by phone with the prison before handing Evans over. Third, he should have travelled with Evans himself or assigned the journey to officers from his own staff who knew Evans by sight. Finally, he should have followed the van back to the prison rather than letting it drive off independently. As to whether he is “just another good for a giggle,” that is Evans’s last cynical comment — and it is partly fair, partly unfair. The Governor was clever enough to crack the code, brave enough to enter the hotel room alone, and humane enough to set up the exam in the first place. He was, however, vain enough to imagine he had already won, and that vanity is what Evans exploited. He is not a fool, but he is “good for a giggle” because the entire elaborate plan ultimately turns on the single human weakness of self-congratulation.
Q4. While we condemn the crime, we are sympathetic to the criminal. Is that the reason why prison staff often develop a soft corner for those in custody?
Answer: Yes — and the story plays with exactly this paradox. Criminals are people first. Prison staff who see them every day inevitably notice their humour, their loneliness, their small kindnesses, their family worries. Evans is described by the prison officers as “a pleasant sort of chap” who is good at imitations and a hit at concerts. The Governor tolerates his “filthy” bobble hat. Stephens is willing to let him keep his pen between his lips and his hat on his head. None of these officers approves of theft, but each has formed an everyday human relationship with the man in the cell. That is psychologically inevitable: empathy grows where there is daily contact. It is also professionally dangerous, because the soft corner can dim the officer’s vigilance — Evans counts on exactly this when, for example, he persuades the Governor that he wants to keep his hat “for luck.” The story therefore points to a deep tension in any prison system: humane treatment is morally right, but it can be exploited. Sympathising with the criminal does not mean approving of the crime, but it does mean that prison work is much harder than rule-books suggest.
Q5. Do you agree that between crime and punishment it is mainly a battle of wits?
Answer: Yes, in the sense the story dramatises, crime and punishment do play out as a battle of wits. Modern crime is rarely solved by physical force; it is solved by reasoning, evidence, observation and the patient assembling of small clues. The Governor in this story works exactly like a detective — listening to the bug, reading the question paper, interpreting the correction slip and finally locating Chipping Norton on a map. Evans, on the other hand, plans like a chess player, several moves ahead of his opponent. He chooses the German exam precisely because it provides legitimate cover for an outsider, a sealed paper, and printed numbers that can be turned into coordinates. Each side anticipates the other; each side bluffs. The walls and locks of the prison only matter if the human beings inside them can think faster than the man they are guarding. Force has its place, of course — the manhunt, the handcuffs, the prison itself — but it is intelligence that decides who wins. Dexter’s title, “Evans Tries an O-Level,” hints at this: it is, in the end, the Governor and the system who are being examined, and Evans who is setting the questions.
Talking about the Text
Q1. Discuss in pairs or small groups: “Crime never pays.”
Answer: The proverb “Crime never pays” reminds us that wrongdoing eventually attracts punishment, social rejection or guilt. Most criminals, however clever, are caught sooner or later, because crime requires hiding, lying and constant risk-management — a life that is exhausting and unsustainable. In real terms, even Evans’s victory in this story is temporary; he is on the run, separated from family and society, and bound to be hunted again. Yet stories like this one make us pause, because crime here seems to “pay” in the short term: Evans does walk free, and the reader is invited to enjoy it. That is the literary trick of crime fiction. In life, the proverb is broadly correct because crime corrodes character, relationships and freedom; in fiction, the trickster’s success is permitted because it is contained safely between the covers of a story.
Q2. “The methods used by the prison authorities to safeguard against Evans’s escape were highly effective.” Do you agree?
Answer: Each measure, taken alone, was sensible: removing dangerous tools, locking gates, frisking the invigilator, hiding a microphone, posting Stephens at the peephole, and choosing a parson rather than a stranger. The trouble is that effectiveness depends on the assumptions behind the measures. The Governor assumed that an Examinations Board parson must be the man he was expecting, that a wounded clergyman could not be a fake, that a uniformed prison officer in a prison van must be on his side. Once those assumptions were turned against him, the whole carefully built defence collapsed. So the methods were thorough but not “highly effective,” because they were vulnerable to social engineering — the most dangerous kind of attack against any institution.
Q3. “It is mainly through their dialogues that we get to know the characters in this story.” Discuss.
Answer: Dexter writes in a sharply visual but mostly conversational style. We learn about Evans almost entirely from how he speaks — his cheerful “Bloody ‘ell. It’s cold in ‘ere,” his polite “Thank you very much, sir,” his witty exchanges with Stephens, and his calm, almost professorial summing-up of the trick at the end. The Governor reveals himself in his crisp telephone manner, his dry instructions to staff, and his self-satisfied “I think we’ve got him.” Stephens emerges through his nervous reports through the peephole and his eager reassurances. Even the fake McLeery’s character is built up by the way he reads out the correction slip, calls the time, and — when “wounded” — speaks in clipped, urgent half-sentences. Description is sparse; dialogue does the work. By the time the climactic exchange between Governor and Evans takes place, we know each man so well from his speech that the surprise lands without any need for narration.
Working with Words
Q1. Look up the meanings of the words and expressions given below in the dictionary:
| Word / Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Kleptomaniac | A person with an irresistible compulsion to steal, often without economic motive. |
| Beam (verb) | To smile broadly and warmly; to radiate happiness or pride. |
| Smirk | A self-satisfied, smug or annoyingly pleased smile. |
| Twitterer | A person who chatters in a nervous, fluttery, bird-like way; a fussy or anxious talker. |
| Congenital | Existing from birth; an inborn trait or condition. |
| Rumpus | A noisy disturbance or commotion; a row. |
| Cock-a-hoop | Extremely pleased or proud; jubilant. |
| Invigilator | A person who supervises candidates during an examination. |
| Parson | A Christian clergyman, especially one in charge of a parish; a vicar. |
| Cassock | A long, close-fitting robe worn by clergy and choir members. |
| Dog-collar | A stiff white clerical collar that fastens at the back of the neck. |
| Sodium citrate | A chemical compound used as an anticoagulant; here it stops pig’s blood from clotting. |
| Bobble hat | A knitted woollen cap with a tuft (bobble) of yarn on top. |
| Geheimagent (German) | “Secret agent” — used in the German exam passage as a coded clue. |
Q2. Phrasal verbs from the story — meaning and use:
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning | Example sentence from the story |
|---|---|---|
| Fix up | To arrange / organise | The Governor decided to fix up the German O-Level for Evans. |
| Look out for | To be alert for | Stephens was told to look out for any suspicious behaviour. |
| Make for | To head towards | “Make for Newbury,” Evans tells the driver. |
| Break out | To escape, especially from prison | Evans had already broken out of jail three times. |
| Pick up | To collect / detain | The Governor hoped to pick up Evans at the Golden Lion. |
| Fall for | To be deceived by | The prison authorities completely fell for Evans’s plan. |
| Carry off | To succeed in doing something difficult | Evans carried off the most ingenious escape of his career. |
Additional Short Questions and Answers
Q1. Why was Evans nicknamed “Evans the Break”?
Answer: He had escaped from various prisons three times before this story begins, so the prison officers gave him this teasing nickname. The “Break” refers to “prison break.”
Q2. Why did the Governor agree to let Evans take the O-Level German examination?
Answer: Because the prison was supposed to encourage rehabilitation and self-improvement, and Evans had genuinely been studying German for six months with a tutor. Refusing without reason would have looked unkind and inflexible.
Q3. What precautions did the Governor take before the examination began?
Answer: He locked the cell from outside, posted Stephens at the peephole to watch every minute, hid a microphone in the cell, removed Evans’s razor and nail-file, frisked the invigilator at the gate, vetted the question paper, and listened in personally to the audio.
Q4. Who is McLeery, as far as the prison authorities know?
Answer: The Reverend Stuart McLeery — a parson from St Mary Mags, Oxford — sent by the Examinations Board to invigilate Evans’s German paper.
Q5. What items does the “parson” bring into the cell, and why is each accepted?
Answer: A sealed question paper, a yellow invigilation form, a Bible, a copy of Church Times, a paper-knife (to slit the paper) and an inflatable rubber ring (claimed to be for haemorrhoids). Each item is consistent with a clergyman’s exam-day kit, so each is allowed in.
Q6. What was actually in the rubber ring?
Answer: Pig’s blood mixed with sodium citrate. The sodium citrate prevented clotting so that the “wound” on the parson’s head would still bleed convincingly an hour later.
Q7. What was the trick in the “correction slip”?
Answer: The slip read: “On page 1, line 15, ‘proceed’ should read ‘precede’.” The change was a coded instruction. “Precede” told Evans to use the numbers preceding (i.e. the index number 313 and centre number 271) as map coordinates pointing to Chipping Norton.
Q8. Where did Evans go after escaping?
Answer: To Room 3 of the Golden Lion Hotel in Chipping Norton, where he waited in his parson’s clothes.
Q9. How did the Governor work out where Evans had gone?
Answer: By cracking the clues hidden in the question paper — the German passage about a “Geheimagent,” the index/centre numbers and the “proceed/precede” hint — and matching them to the Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire, which gave the location of the Golden Lion at Chipping Norton.
Q10. Who was the silent prison officer in the van at the end?
Answer: Yet another of Evans’s accomplices, dressed in a prison-officer uniform. He unlocked the handcuffs as soon as the van turned out of sight, and the driver — also an accomplice — drove Evans towards Newbury.
Q11. What was the role of the bobble hat?
Answer: Evans claimed it was “for luck” so the prison authorities would let him keep it on. Underneath, he was already wearing the cassock and dog-collar he would need for his disguise as the parson.
Q12. Why does the story say the real McLeery was bound and gagged?
Answer: So that the impostor could take his place at the prison without anyone realising. The real parson was tied up in his own rooms in Broad Street and did not turn up at the Examinations Board until later.
Q13. What does Evans say to the Governor at the moment of his “arrest” in the hotel?
Answer: He congratulates the Governor on his cleverness, calmly explains the entire trick — the rubber ring, the pig’s blood, the bound parson, the coded paper — and lets himself be handcuffed without any resistance.
Q14. Why does Evans not resist when the Governor catches him?
Answer: Because resistance is not part of his character — he is non-violent — and, more importantly, because he has already arranged the second escape in the prison van. He has no need to fight the Governor when he plans to walk free fifteen minutes later.
Q15. What does the title “Evans Tries an O-Level” mean ironically?
Answer: Evans does sit a German exam, but the real “examination” is of the prison’s security and the Governor’s intelligence. The story turns the title inside out: the prisoner is the examiner, and the system is the candidate that fails.
Long Answer Questions
Q1. Describe in detail the security arrangements made by the Governor for Evans’s exam. How did Evans turn each one to his own use?
Answer: The Governor’s plan was almost obsessive. The cell was emptied of any tool that could double as a weapon — razor, nail-file, anything sharp. The cell door was kept locked and the gates leading to it were locked at every point. A peephole watch was set up: Stephens, a tall, recently recruited officer, was to look in every minute or two. A microphone was hidden in the cell so that the Governor could listen live to whatever was said. The invigilator, a respectable parson named McLeery from St Mary Mags, was personally vetted and frisked at the gate; only items proper to a clergyman’s exam kit were allowed in. Even the question paper was sealed in front of witnesses. Every one of these measures, however, became part of Evans’s design. The locked cell forced contact with a single outsider — exactly what Evans wanted, because that outsider was an accomplice. The peephole watch became the very thing that “proved” the parson and Evans were both still inside, because Stephens kept seeing the same tableau through the hole. The microphone broadcast the staged correction slip and time-calls that Evans’s accomplice wanted the Governor to hear. The frisking confirmed that the parson was harmless, exactly because the harmful object — pig’s blood and sodium citrate — was hidden inside an “innocent” rubber ring. The vetted Examinations Board parson was, in fact, a kidnapped real parson and an impersonator. Evans’s plan worked precisely because the Governor had been so careful: the more elaborate the system, the more authority the system itself loaned to the impersonators inside it.
Q2. “Evans is not a criminal so much as a brilliant performer.” Discuss with reference to the text.
Answer: Evans is officially a “kleptomaniac,” but Dexter is far more interested in him as a performer than as a thief. Theft is mentioned almost in passing; what we actually watch is a man stage-managing a piece of theatre inside Oxford Prison. He chooses his costume — the bobble hat, the dog-collar concealed beneath it. He chooses his cast — the false McLeery, the false prison officer, the Scots driver. He writes the dialogue — the “correction slip,” the announcements of the time, the polite small talk. He blocks the action — the staged pose at the desk, the head down on the paper, the careful arrangement of pencils — so that every glance through the peephole shows the same convincing scene. He even plans the curtain call: the wounded parson rising heroically to lead the chase to a particular hotel. When the audience (the Governor) finally arrives at the Golden Lion, Evans gives him a smooth, charming explanation of how the trick was done — and then exits in the prison van, the second-act surprise. Reading the story this way explains why we feel sympathy for him. Theft would offend us; performance does not. Dexter is using the genre of detective fiction to remind us that the line between the criminal and the actor is, on stage at least, surprisingly thin.
Q3. How does Colin Dexter build suspense in “Evans Tries an O-Level”?
Answer: Dexter builds suspense by giving the reader exactly what the prison staff can see, and never more. Like Stephens at the peephole, we watch a quiet exam unfold — papers rustling, time being called, polite English silence. Yet from the very first paragraphs (“Evans the Break,” three previous escapes, the Governor’s worried phone call) we know that something is being prepared. This dramatic gap — readers and characters both feel that something must go wrong, but neither can say what — pulls us forward. Dexter then layers small, precise details: the bobble hat “for luck,” the rubber ring for “haemorrhoids,” the German correction slip, the visiting clergyman’s slightly off accent. Each one looks innocent on its own; each one is a fuse. When the cell door is finally opened on the wounded parson, the surprise lands because it has been so carefully prepared. After that, Dexter switches gears into a chase: the Governor decoding the question paper, driving to Chipping Norton, climbing the hotel stairs alone. We think the chase is the climax. The real climax — the silent officer in the back of the van — is held back until the very last paragraph, when Evans’s accomplice unlocks the cuffs and the driver speaks in broad Scots. By making the second twist quieter than the first, Dexter ensures the reader laughs and gasps in the same breath.
Q4. The Governor of Oxford Prison is both intelligent and humane. Why, then, does he lose to Evans? Discuss.
Answer: The Governor is genuinely intelligent — he organises the security, listens in to the live audio, and crucially solves the riddle of the question paper after Evans’s escape. He is genuinely humane, too — he agrees to the O-Level in the first place because he believes prisoners deserve a chance to better themselves. He is professional, polite and methodical. Yet he loses, for three connected reasons. First, he trusts uniforms and titles. A parson is a parson; a prison officer is a prison officer. Evans’s plan turns these visual signals into perfect disguises. Second, he is too pleased with his own cleverness in cracking the code. By the time he reaches the Golden Lion, he is already congratulating himself on being “one jump ahead.” That self-satisfaction makes him visit the hotel alone, hand Evans over to officers he has not personally checked, and let the van drive away unescorted. Third, he is dealing with an opponent who has had months to plan, and only one job to do — escape. Evans only has to find one hole in the system; the Governor has to plug them all. As Dexter shows, even the most thoughtful administrator, working alone against a single-minded criminal, will eventually leave one hole open. The story is not really a criticism of the Governor; it is a portrait of how thin the difference is between winning and losing in this kind of contest.
Q5. Bring out the irony in the story “Evans Tries an O-Level.”
Answer: The story is full of irony, layered at every level. The most obvious is the title: an “O-Level” is a basic British school examination, suggesting modest ambition, yet this exam is the most spectacular escape in Oxford Prison’s history. There is situational irony in every “precaution” the Governor takes. He removes razors and nail-files from a prisoner who never plans to use violence. He frisks an invigilator who is, in fact, an accomplice. He listens carefully to a microphone broadcasting an entirely scripted exam. He posts an officer at the peephole who provides cover for the whole illusion. The Reverend Stuart McLeery — a parson, the very figure of trust and propriety — turns out to be either an impersonator or, in his real version, a man bound and gagged in his own room. There is verbal irony in Evans’s politeness: every “thank you, sir” and “yes, sir” is, in retrospect, a private joke at the Governor’s expense. There is dramatic irony, finally, in the fourth escape itself. The Governor congratulates himself on having recaptured Evans, having “won,” at the very moment Evans is about to win. The handcuffs come off the moment the prison van turns the corner. Dexter uses this thick irony not to mock the Governor but to entertain the reader and to suggest, gently, that institutions which think they are watching are very often being watched.
Q6. “It is mainly a battle of wits.” Comment on this view of crime and punishment with reference to the story.
Answer: Dexter’s story is a textbook illustration of crime as a “battle of wits.” The Governor’s tools are the standard ones of state power: walls, locks, uniforms, microphones, frisking, and the law itself. Evans has none of these. He has only his brain — his ability to read the Governor’s mind, to predict each precaution, and to design a counter-move for it. The contest is decided not by force but by who can think further ahead. The Governor anticipates one move; Evans anticipates three. The Governor expects Evans to try to break the rules; Evans uses the rules. The Governor tracks the German question paper; Evans has built the trap inside the question paper. Even at the moment of capture, the Governor is making moves that Evans has already accounted for — including the prison van. The story therefore endorses the view that punishment, in modern fiction at least, is essentially intellectual. Force can detain a body, but force cannot keep up with a mind that is always one step ahead. The novel’s pleasure — and its mild moral discomfort — comes from showing that the cleverer fighter, criminal or not, is the one we end up rooting for.
Q7. Comment on the role played by Stephens in the unfolding of the plot.
Answer: Stephens looks like a minor character but is, in fact, central to the plot. He is the eyes of the prison — the man whose minute-by-minute glance through the peephole is supposed to guarantee that Evans is still in the cell. Because he is new and eager to please, he over-reports certainty: he sees what he expects to see, and he reports it confidently to the Governor. He is also the man who first opens the cell door, finds the wounded “McLeery,” and jumps to the most natural conclusion — that Evans has put on the parson’s clothes and gone. Most importantly, he is the one who personally drives the wounded “McLeery” to “hospital” and, in doing so, escorts the accomplice out of the prison. Without Stephens’s well-meaning energy, the trick simply could not work. Dexter uses him to make a quiet point about institutions: a system relies on the most junior, most enthusiastic and least suspicious officer at exactly the points where it is most vulnerable. Stephens is not stupid, only inexperienced; but inexperience, deployed against a planned con, is enough.
Q8. How does the story end? Why is the ending considered a “double twist”?
Answer: The story has two endings. The first ending is the apparent one: the Governor cracks the code, finds Evans at the Golden Lion in Chipping Norton, handcuffs him and hands him over to a prison van for the trip back to Oxford. At this point, both reader and Governor believe that Evans, however clever, has finally been beaten. The second ending arrives a few paragraphs later. The “silent” prison officer in the back of the van turns out to be an accomplice. As the van turns onto the Oxford road, he unlocks the cuffs. The driver, in a broad Scots accent, asks where to go. Evans says, “Make for Newbury.” This second twist undoes the first. It tells us that even the recapture had been built into Evans’s plan; he allowed himself to be caught at the hotel because he had pre-arranged the means of escape. The double twist is what makes the story memorable. Without the first ending, there would be no triumph for the Governor; without the second, there would be no triumph for Evans. Together, they create the perfect circle of the con: every move was planned, including the move that looked like a failure.
Q9. “Evans Tries an O-Level” can be read as a comment on the prison system as much as on Evans. Discuss.
Answer: The story is more than a “trick” tale. It quietly examines what a modern prison is for. The Governor approves the O-Level because he believes prisoners deserve education and the chance of a better life — that is the rehabilitation philosophy at the heart of progressive prison policy. Evans, by accepting the offer in bad faith, weaponises that philosophy. The story therefore raises an uncomfortable question: if rehabilitation requires trust, and trust can be exploited, what is the right level of trust to extend? Dexter does not answer this question, but he places it sharply on the page. The Governor’s defeat is not the defeat of a foolish man; it is the defeat of an ethically generous institution by a single intelligent prisoner. The reader is left to wonder whether prisons should treat all inmates as Evans, in which case rehabilitation is impossible, or as honest students, in which case Evans will always win. The ambiguity is the point. The story is funny on the surface and serious underneath — exactly the combination Dexter favoured.
Q10. Sketch the character of James Roderick Evans.
Answer: James Roderick Evans is a young, fair-haired prisoner in his early thirties — pleasant, witty, polite and apparently harmless. He has a thick Welsh-tinged way of speaking and likes to make people laugh; he is a popular star turn at prison concerts. Officially, he is a “congenital kleptomaniac” with no record of violence, but his real talent is escape, hence his prison nickname, “Evans the Break.” He is patient — he plans for months, takes German lessons for half a year, and waits for the perfect set-up. He is observant — he notices that a clergyman with a paper-knife and a Bible would be allowed in untroubled, that a microphone gives the prison a false sense of security, and that uniforms are accepted without verification. He is calm under pressure — when the Governor catches him in the hotel he simply talks, explains the trick and accepts the cuffs. He is loyal to his accomplices, who are loyal in return. Most strikingly, he is non-violent. The “weapon” of choice in his entire plan is pig’s blood. Evans is, in short, a delightful villain — the kind of criminal who appears mainly in fiction, where his cleverness can be admired without harm. Dexter clearly likes him, and the reader does too.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
Q1. Who is the author of “Evans Tries an O-Level”?
(a) R.K. Narayan (b) Colin Dexter (c) William Saroyan (d) Tishani Doshi
Answer: (b) Colin Dexter
Q2. What is Evans’s nickname?
(a) Evans the Slick (b) Evans the Break (c) Evans the Quiet (d) Evans the Quick
Answer: (b) Evans the Break
Q3. How many times had Evans escaped from prison before this story?
(a) Once (b) Twice (c) Three times (d) Four times
Answer: (c) Three times
Q4. In which prison is Evans being held?
(a) Reading (b) Oxford (c) Newbury (d) Chipping Norton
Answer: (b) Oxford
Q5. Which subject is Evans taking the O-Level in?
(a) French (b) Latin (c) German (d) English
Answer: (c) German
Q6. Who is appointed as the invigilator?
(a) Reverend Stuart McLeery (b) Mr Jackson (c) Stephens (d) The Governor
Answer: (a) Reverend Stuart McLeery
Q7. From which church does the parson come?
(a) St John’s (b) Christ Church (c) St Mary Mags (d) St Aldate’s
Answer: (c) St Mary Mags
Q8. Which officer is posted at the peephole?
(a) Jackson (b) Stephens (c) Bell (d) Carter
Answer: (b) Stephens
Q9. Why did Evans wear a bobble hat?
(a) For warmth (b) For luck (c) To hide a dog-collar and cassock (d) Both (b) and (c)
Answer: (d) Both (b) and (c)
Q10. What was inside the rubber ring?
(a) Air only (b) Money (c) Pig’s blood and sodium citrate (d) A weapon
Answer: (c) Pig’s blood and sodium citrate
Q11. Why was sodium citrate added to the blood?
(a) To darken it (b) To prevent clotting (c) To make it smell (d) To preserve it cold
Answer: (b) To prevent clotting
Q12. The “correction slip” said that “proceed” should read —
(a) preside (b) precede (c) proceed-on (d) succeed
Answer: (b) precede
Q13. What was Evans’s index number?
(a) 271 (b) 313 (c) 412 (d) 137
Answer: (b) 313
Q14. What was the centre number?
(a) 271 (b) 313 (c) 727 (d) 137
Answer: (a) 271
Q15. The Governor used which map to locate Evans?
(a) London Underground (b) Ordnance Survey of Oxfordshire (c) AA Road Atlas (d) Bartholomew’s Map
Answer: (b) Ordnance Survey of Oxfordshire
Q16. Where did Evans hide after escaping?
(a) Newbury (b) Banbury (c) Chipping Norton — Golden Lion Hotel (d) Reading
Answer: (c) Chipping Norton — Golden Lion Hotel
Q17. The accomplice in the back of the prison van was disguised as a —
(a) Doctor (b) Parson (c) Prison officer (d) Hotel waiter
Answer: (c) Prison officer
Q18. The driver of the prison van spoke in —
(a) Cockney accent (b) Welsh accent (c) Broad Scots accent (d) French accent
Answer: (c) Broad Scots accent
Q19. After being “rescued” from the van, Evans tells the driver to make for —
(a) Newbury (b) Banbury (c) Reading (d) London
Answer: (a) Newbury
Q20. Evans was officially described as —
(a) Violent offender (b) Murderer (c) Congenital kleptomaniac (d) Forger
Answer: (c) Congenital kleptomaniac
Q21. The German word “Geheimagent” used in the question paper means —
(a) Government officer (b) Secret agent (c) Criminal (d) Schoolmaster
Answer: (b) Secret agent
Q22. Stephens checked the cell through the peephole roughly every —
(a) 5 minutes (b) 10 minutes (c) 1–2 minutes (d) 30 seconds
Answer: (c) 1–2 minutes
Q23. The “wounded” parson, after the apparent attack, insisted on —
(a) Going to hospital immediately (b) Helping the Governor with the chase (c) Returning home (d) Calling the police
Answer: (b) Helping the Governor with the chase
Q24. The real Reverend Stuart McLeery was, at that moment —
(a) On holiday in Scotland (b) Dead (c) Bound and gagged in his own rooms (d) At the Examinations Board offices
Answer: (c) Bound and gagged in his own rooms
Q25. The dominant theme of the story is —
(a) Romance (b) Horror (c) Battle of wits between criminal and authority (d) Religion
Answer: (c) Battle of wits between criminal and authority
Extract-Based Questions
Extract 1: “Evans was quite a pleasant sort of chap. He had no record of violence, and was amiable enough — a star turn at the Christmas concert. But he was just a congenital kleptomaniac.”
(a) Who is being described?
Answer: James Roderick Evans, the central character.
(b) What two qualities of Evans does the passage point out?
Answer: He is pleasant, amiable and entertaining (he performs at concerts), and he has no record of violence.
(c) What does “congenital kleptomaniac” mean?
Answer: Someone born with an irresistible urge to steal, often without any economic motive.
(d) Why does this description matter to the plot?
Answer: Because it explains why the prison authorities under-estimate Evans. They expect a quiet thief, not the brilliant strategist he becomes.
Extract 2: “Whenever Stephens looked through the peephole the scene was much the same: Evans, his pen between his lips, his bobble hat pulled down over his ears; opposite him, McLeery seated slightly askew, a Bible at his elbow.”
(a) Where is the scene set?
Answer: Inside Evans’s cell during the German O-Level examination at Oxford Prison.
(b) What does the repeated identical scene suggest?
Answer: It suggests, deceptively, that nothing untoward is happening — exactly what Evans’s accomplice wants Stephens to believe.
(c) What is the literary value of this description?
Answer: It builds dramatic irony. The reader and Stephens see the same image, but only the reader (later) realises that the man in the parson’s clothes is an impostor.
(d) Why is the bobble hat important?
Answer: It hides Evans’s preparations — the dog-collar and cassock he is wearing under his prison clothes ready for the disguise.
Extract 3: “On page one, line fifteen, ‘proceed’ should read ‘precede’.”
(a) Who reads out this announcement, and why?
Answer: The fake Reverend McLeery (Evans’s accomplice) reads it aloud as if it were a routine examination correction.
(b) What is the hidden meaning of the slip?
Answer: “Precede” tells Evans to use the numbers preceding (the index number 313 and the centre number 271) as Ordnance Survey grid coordinates pointing to Chipping Norton.
(c) What does this trick reveal about Evans’s plan?
Answer: It reveals minute attention to detail. Even an apparently boring administrative correction has been carefully embedded to direct the next stage of the escape.
(d) Why is the Governor able to decode it?
Answer: Because, after Evans’s apparent escape, the Governor reviews the abandoned question paper and notices the clever pun on “preceding” numbers, which leads him to the OS map.
Extract 4: “It was the silent prison officer who unlocked the handcuffs. The driver, in a broad Scots accent, asked where they should make for. ‘Newbury,’ said Evans.”
(a) When in the story does this happen?
Answer: Right at the end, after the Governor has supposedly recaptured Evans at the Golden Lion and handed him over to a prison van for the journey back to Oxford.
(b) Who is the silent officer, really?
Answer: One of Evans’s accomplices in disguise.
(c) What does this final scene reveal about Evans’s planning?
Answer: That even his “recapture” was part of the plan; he had pre-arranged a second escape inside the very vehicle the Governor used to “take him back.”
(d) What is the literary effect of this twist?
Answer: It produces the famous “double twist” of the story. The first ending (Evans caught) seems final; the second ending (Evans free again) overturns it, and the reader is left admiring Evans’s foresight and laughing at the Governor’s premature satisfaction.
This complete chapter guide on “Evans Tries an O-Level” by Colin Dexter — including summary in English and Assamese (সাৰাংশ), plot, character sketches, themes, all NCERT Reading-with-Insight, Talking-about-the-Text and Working-with-Words questions, plus additional short and long answer questions, MCQs and extract-based practice — is designed for ASSEB Class 12 / HS 2nd Year English Vistas students preparing for the HS Final Examination. Bookmark HSLC Guru for more chapter-wise solutions across the ASSEB syllabus.