Practise with cards
One card at a time. Think of the answer, turn the card, and say whether you knew it. A card you did not know comes back in this round; one you knew returns a few days later.
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Every card in this chapter becomes new again.
How to use: Cover the Answer column with your hand, say the answer aloud in English, then lift your hand and check. 72 cards in all. Every answer has its book page beside it; if you are unsure, open that page of the book. Page numbers are from the 2026-27 reprint of Vistas.
What the stars mean: ★important · ★★very important
Set 1 — Charley and his psychiatrist friend (cards 1–10)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ★1 | Who tells Jack Finney’s story The Third Level? | Charley tells it himself; he says he is “just an ordinary guy named Charley”. (p. 2) |
| 2 | How old is Charley? | Thirty-one. (p. 2) |
| 3 | What is the name of Charley’s wife? | Louisa. Charley wanted to get home to her on the night he reached the third level. (p. 2) |
| ★★4 | What do the presidents of the New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads say about the levels of Grand Central Station? | That there are only two. They “will swear on a stack of timetables” to it. (p. 1) |
| ★★5 | How many levels of Grand Central Station does Charley say there are, and why? | Three, because he has been on the third level of Grand Central Station. (p. 1) |
| ★★6 | What did Charley’s psychiatrist friend say the third level at Grand Central Station was? | A waking-dream wish fulfillment. (p. 1) |
| ★7 | Why did Charley’s psychiatrist friend say Charley was unhappy? | He meant that “the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it”, so Charley just wants to escape. (p. 1) |
| ★8 | What do Charley’s friends call his stamp collecting? | A “temporary refuge from reality”. (p. 1) |
| 9 | Who started Charley’s stamp collection? | His grandfather. (p. 1) |
| 10 | Why does Charley say his grandfather did not need a refuge from reality? | Things were “pretty nice and peaceful in his day”. (p. 1) |
Set 2 — Grand Central and the corridor (cards 11–19)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | When did Charley’s strange experience at Grand Central Station happen? | One night last summer, when he worked late at the office. (p. 2) |
| 12 | Why did Charley decide to take the subway from Grand Central Station that night? | He was in a hurry to get uptown to his apartment, and the subway is faster than the bus. (p. 2) |
| 13 | How did Charley get lost in Grand Central Station? | He went down to the first level and then to the second level, where the suburban trains leave from, and ducked into an arched doorway heading for the subway. (p. 2) |
| ★14 | Why does Charley say it is easy to get lost in Grand Central Station? | Though he has been in and out hundreds of times, he is “always bumping into new doorways and stairs and corridors”. (p. 2) |
| 15 | Where did Charley’s earlier wrong turns in Grand Central Station take him? | Once a tunnel about a mile long brought him out in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel; another time he came up in an office building on Forty-sixth Street, three blocks away. (p. 2) |
| ★16 | What does Charley compare Grand Central Station to? | A tree: it is “growing like a tree, pushing out new corridors and staircases like roots”. (p. 2) |
| ★17 | What idea about Grand Central Station did Charley never tell his psychiatrist friend? | That for so many people through the years it has been “an exit, a way of escape”, and that this may be linked with the tunnel he got into. (pp. 2, 3) |
| ★18 | What did Charley notice about the corridor he was walking along before he reached the third level? | It began “angling left and slanting downward”; he thought that was wrong but kept on walking, hearing only the empty sound of his own footsteps. (p. 3) |
| 19 | What did Charley hear ahead in the corridor that told him there was open space? | A “hollow roar”, the sound that means open space and people talking. (p. 3) |
Set 3 — The third level: 1894 (cards 20–31)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ★20 | How did Charley come out on the third level of Grand Central Station? | The tunnel turned sharp left, and he went down a short flight of stairs. (p. 3) |
| ★★21 | How was the third level different from the second level of Grand Central Station? | The room was smaller, with fewer ticket windows and train gates, and the information booth in the centre was “wood and old-looking”. (p. 3) |
| 22 | What did the man in the information booth of the third level wear? | A green eyeshade and long black sleeve protectors. (p. 3) |
| ★23 | What lit the third level of Grand Central Station? | Open-flame gaslights; the lights were dim and sort of flickering. (p. 3) |
| 24 | What did Charley see on the floor of the third level? | Brass spittoons. (p. 3) |
| 25 | What did the man who pulled a gold watch from his vest pocket on the third level look like? | He wore a derby hat and a black four-button suit with tiny lapels, and he had a big, black, handlebar mustache. (p. 3) |
| ★26 | How were the people in the third-level station dressed? | Everyone was dressed like “eighteen-ninety-something”, with more beards, sideburns and fancy mustaches than Charley had ever seen. (pp. 3, 4) |
| 27 | What did the woman who walked in through the train gate of the third level wear? | A dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves and skirts to the top of her high-buttoned shoes. (p. 4) |
| 28 | What did Charley see out on the tracks of the third level? | A very small Currier & Ives locomotive with a funnel-shaped stack. (p. 4) |
| ★29 | Which newspaper was the newsboy selling on the third level? | The World, which, Charley says, “hasn’t been published for years”. (p. 4) |
| ★★30 | What date was printed on the front page of The World that Charley saw on the third level? | June 11, 1894. Charley found that front page later in the Public Library files. (p. 4) |
| 31 | What was the lead story on the front page of The World that Charley saw on the third level about? | Something about President Cleveland. (p. 4) |
Set 4 — At the ticket-counter (cards 32–40)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ★32 | What did Charley realise he could buy on the third level of Grand Central Station? | Tickets that would take Louisa and him anywhere in the United States they wanted to go, in the year 1894. (p. 4) |
| ★★33 | For which place did Charley want to buy two tickets on the third level? | Galesburg, Illinois. (p. 4) |
| 34 | How does Charley describe the town of Galesburg today? | A “wonderful town still”, with big old frame houses, huge lawns, and tremendous trees whose branches meet overhead and roof the streets. (p. 4) |
| ★35 | How does Charley picture the summer evenings in Galesburg in 1894? | They were twice as long: people sat out on their lawns, the men smoking cigars and talking quietly, the women waving palm-leaf fans, with the fire-flies all around, in a peaceful world. (p. 4) |
| 36 | In 1894, how far off were the two world wars, as Charley counts? | The First World War was still twenty years off, and World War II was over forty years in the future. (p. 4) |
| 37 | How many tickets could Charley pay for at the third-level ticket window? | He had enough for two coach tickets, one way. (p. 4) |
| ★38 | What did the clerk at the third-level ticket window do when Charley counted out his money? | He stared at Charley, nodded at the bills, and glanced at the cash drawer beside him. (p. 4) |
| ★★39 | Why did the clerk at the third-level ticket window refuse Charley’s money? | Charley had today’s money, but in 1894 “the money was old-style bills, half again as big as the money we use nowadays, and different-looking”. So the clerk thought Charley was trying to cheat him: “if you’re trying to skin me, you won’t get very far”. (p. 4) |
| 40 | What did Charley do after the clerk spoke to him at the ticket window? | He turned away and got out fast: “There’s nothing nice about jail, even in 1894.” (p. 4) |
Set 5 — Old money, Louisa and the lost corridor (cards 41–47)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ★★41 | What did Charley do during lunch hour on the day after he left the third level? | He drew three hundred dollars out of the bank, nearly all he and Louisa had, and bought old-style currency. (p. 5) |
| 42 | Where can old money be bought, and what must the buyer pay? | At almost any coin dealer’s, but you have to pay a premium. (p. 5) |
| ★43 | How much old-style money did Charley’s three hundred dollars buy? | Less than two hundred dollars in old-style bills. (p. 5) |
| 44 | Why did Charley not mind getting less old money for his three hundred dollars? | He says “I didn’t care”, because eggs were thirteen cents a dozen in 1894. (p. 5) |
| ★45 | Has Charley found the corridor to the third level again? | No. He has “never again found the corridor that leads to the third level at Grand Central Station”, although he has tried often enough. (p. 5) |
| 46 | How did Louisa react when Charley told her about the third level? | She was pretty worried and did not want him to look for the third level any more; after a while he stopped and went back to his stamps. (p. 5) |
| ★47 | Why are Charley and Louisa both looking for the third level every weekend now? | Because they now have proof that the third level is still there. (p. 5) |
Set 6 — Sam disappears; the first-day cover (cards 48–60)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ★★48 | Which friend of Charley’s disappeared? | Sam Weiner; nobody knew where he had gone. (p. 5) |
| 49 | Why did Charley suspect where Sam Weiner had gone? | Sam is a city boy, and Charley used to tell him about Galesburg, where Charley went to school; Sam always said he liked the sound of the place. (p. 5) |
| ★★50 | Where does Charley say Sam Weiner is? | In Galesburg, in 1894. (p. 5) |
| ★51 | What is a first-day cover? | An envelope that stamp collectors mail to themselves on the very first day of sale of a new stamp; the postmark proves the date. It is never opened, and blank paper goes inside. (p. 5) |
| ★★52 | What did Charley find among his oldest first-day covers one night? | One that shouldn’t have been there: an envelope that someone had mailed to his grandfather at his home in Galesburg. (p. 5) |
| ★53 | What date did the postmark show on the first-day cover that had been mailed to Charley’s grandfather in Galesburg? | July 18, 1894. (p. 5) |
| 54 | What stamp was on the first-day cover that had been mailed to Charley’s grandfather in Galesburg? | A six-cent, dull brown stamp with a picture of President Garfield. (p. 5) |
| ★★55 | What did Charley find when he opened the first-day cover addressed to his grandfather? | “The paper inside wasn’t blank.” It was a letter, signed Sam. (pp. 5, 6) |
| 56 | From what address does Sam write his letter to Charley? | 941 Willard Street, Galesburg, Illinois. (p. 6) |
| ★57 | How long had Sam been in Galesburg when he wrote his letter to Charley? | Two weeks. (p. 6) |
| ★58 | What does Sam ask Charley and Louisa to do in his letter? | To come back and keep looking till they find the third level: “It’s worth it, believe me!” (p. 6) |
| 59 | How much old-style currency did Sam Weiner buy at the stamp and coin store? | Eight hundred dollars’ worth. (p. 6) |
| ★★60 | What was Sam Weiner’s profession before he went to Galesburg in 1894? | He was Charley’s psychiatrist: “Why, Sam was my psychiatrist.” (p. 6) |
Set 7 — Who said it? (cards 61–65)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ★61 | Who says, “That ain’t money, mister”, and to whom? | The ticket clerk on the third level says it to Charley. (p. 4) |
| ★62 | Who writes, “I got to wishing that you were right. Then I got to believing you were right.”? | Sam Weiner, in his letter to Charley. (p. 6) |
| 63 | Who says, “Well, who doesn’t?”, and what does he add? | Charley; he adds “Everybody I know wants to escape, but they don’t wander down into any third level at Grand Central Station”. (p. 1) |
| 64 | Who says, “I wasn’t trying to escape from anything”, and what did he want that night? | Charley; he just wanted to get home to Louisa, his wife. (p. 2) |
| 65 | Who says, “That ought to set him up in a nice little hay, feed and grain business”, and about whom? | Charley, about Sam Weiner, who always said that was what he really wished he could do. (p. 6) |
Set 8 — Themes and how the story is told (cards 66–72)
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ★★66 | What does Charley’s longing for Galesburg in 1894 point to? | A wish to escape the worries of today. The psychiatrist friend says “the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it” (p. 1), while Charley pictures 1894 as “a peaceful world” (p. 4). (pp. 1, 4) |
| ★67 | How does the story make an impossible place feel believable? | By mixing it with real, checkable details: Charley found the front page of The World, dated June 11, 1894, “in the Public Library files”. (p. 4) |
| 68 | From whose point of view is the story told? | The first person: Charley tells it himself, as a man who calls himself “just an ordinary guy named Charley”. (p. 2) |
| 69 | Why might Charley stress that he is an ordinary man? | So that the reader can believe the event could happen to anyone; he says he passed “a dozen men who looked just like me”. (p. 2) |
| 70 | How does Charley keep the reader involved in his story? | He speaks to the reader directly: “Have you ever been there?” (p. 4) and “do you know what a first-day cover is?” (p. 5). (pp. 4, 5) |
| ★★71 | What is the twist at the end of the story? | The last line, “Why, Sam was my psychiatrist.”: Sam Weiner, who has gone to Galesburg in 1894, turns out to be Charley’s psychiatrist. (p. 6) |
| 72 | In what order does Charley tell his story? | He first argues about the third level with his friends (p. 1), then says “here’s what happened at Grand Central” (p. 2), tells what he did next day (p. 5), and ends with Sam’s letter (p. 6). (pp. 1–6) |
Last five minutes: revise these
Three levels: Charley says Grand Central Station has three levels, though the presidents of the two railroads would swear there are only two. (p. 1)
The psychiatrist’s view: Charley’s psychiatrist friend calls the third level a waking-dream wish fulfillment and says Charley is unhappy. (p. 1)
Dates: The World that Charley sees on the third level is dated June 11, 1894, and the first-day cover in his collection is postmarked July 18, 1894. (pp. 4, 5)
Money: Charley draws three hundred dollars, buys less than two hundred in old-style bills, and eggs cost thirteen cents a dozen in 1894. (p. 5)
The clerk: The ticket clerk stares at Charley’s bills and says “That ain’t money, mister”. (p. 4)
Sam: Sam Weiner disappears, and his letter from 941 Willard Street, Galesburg, Illinois, says he has been there two weeks. (pp. 5, 6)
The last line: The story ends with the surprise that Sam Weiner, who has gone to Galesburg in 1894, was Charley’s psychiatrist. (pp. 5, 6)
Theme: Charley’s longing for a peaceful 1894 Galesburg points to a wish to escape the worries of the modern world. (pp. 1, 4)