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1
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Processes, Systems, and Information, 2e (McKinney/Kroenke)
Chapter 7 Supporting the Procurement Process with SAP
1) Procurement is an operational process executed hundreds or thousands of times a day in a
large organization.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
Course LO: Discuss the role of information systems in supply chain management and
performance
2) Buying raw materials from an external vendor is an example of procurement.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
Chapter LO: 1
performance
3) Finding reliable suppliers is a procurement objective among organizations.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
4) Outbound logistics is the primary activity in the procurement process that involves receiving,
storing, and disseminating inputs to products.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
5) A company stores the products that it manufactures in its raw materials inventory.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
6) Products awaiting delivery to customers are stored in the finished goods inventory.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance

2
7) Prior to the implementation of SAP, the warehouse manager was responsible for the
maintenance of inventory levels.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 2
performance
8) A three-way match refers to the consistency in data between the invoice, purchase order, and
the receipt of goods.
Answer: TRUE
Chapter LO: 2
performance
9) Before the advent of SAP, most large organizations typically consolidated data in a single
database.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
AACSB: Information Technology
Chapter LO: 2
performance
10) Traditional procurement processes enabled the generation of real-time accounting reports.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 3
performance
11) A major disadvantage of implementing SAP is that it weakens the internal controls that exist
within an organization.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 3
performance

3
12) The purchasing agents in an organization had diverse training and experience prior to the
implementation of SAP, which in turn led to a variety of mistakes on the purchase order.
Answer: TRUE
Chapter LO: 3
performance
13) The structure of an industry can be determined by using Porter's five forces model.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
Course LO: Explain how IS can be used to gain and sustain competitive advantage
14) The steps required to install an ERP system is referred to as the implementation process.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
performance
15) Large organizations prefer to use SAP, Oracle, or Microsoft because they support the
integration of a wide variety of processes.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
16) A gap analysis is performed to identify the suitable ERP vendor for an organization.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
performance
17) Organizations can configure the industry-specific inherent processes programmed in SAP.
Answer: TRUE
Chapter LO: 4
performance

4
18) Organizations must create procedures instructing employees on how to use the SAP system
to execute its processes.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
performance
19) The use of the SAP procurement process in place of the traditional procurement process
signifies that the same major activities are conducted but with significant changes in the Order
activity.
Answer: TRUE
Chapter LO: 5
performance
20) A purchase requisition is a formal order sent to a supplier for the purchase of materials.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
21) Human actors initiate the purchasing request in an SAP system.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
22) A purchasing manager is responsible for the approval of a purchase request to be converted
into a purchase order.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance

5
23) During the procurement process, the purchase requests that are generated using SAP are
shared directly with suppliers.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
24) Every SAP screen has a title.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
25) Users can input data in the header section of an SAP screen.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
26) While using SAP, the purchasing manager must notify the corresponding suppliers after each
purchase order has been saved.
Answer: FALSE
Chapter LO: 5
performance
27) A three-way check must be performed in a procurement process before posting an outgoing
payment to a vendor.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance

6
28) Each actor involved in the procurement process interacts with SAP using a single, shared
screen.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
29) SAP systems store all procurement data in a single database.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
30) SAP makes procurement processes more responsive to customer demands.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
31) Organizations typically implement SAP systems for just one process.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
32) Supply chain processes are improved when processes share data.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance

7
33) SAP enables organizations to share real-time data with suppliers, but it slows down the
procurement process.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
34) Sharing data leads to an increase in the bullwhip effect in the supply chain.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
35) The bullwhip effect occurs when companies order more supplies than are needed due to a
sudden change in demand.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
36) Process integration occurs when processes are mutually supportive.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
37) SAP process integration enables organizations to quickly respond to new consumer demands.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
38) The implementation of SAP does not require existing employees to change or upgrade their
skills.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 7
performance

8
39) The adaptation of SAP may lead organizations to use more outsourcing.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 7
performance
40) SAP systems automatically track raw material inventory and generate purchase requisitions
when reorder levels are reached.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 7
performance
41) Augmenting reality with procurement data makes procurement and production activities
more efficient.
Answer: TRUE
Chapter LO: 8
performance
42) Transportation is the lowest cost activity of the procurement process.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
performance
43) Additive manufacturing is also known as two-dimensional printing.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
performance

9
44) ________ is the process of obtaining the goods and services needed by an organization.
A) Production
B) Procurement
C) Lead generation
D) Outbound logistics
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
45) A car manufacturer purchases components such as seat belts, fenders, window seals, and
panels from outside sources. This process of obtaining goods is called ________.
A) procurement
B) production
C) lead generation
D) outbound logistics
Answer: A
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Chapter LO: 1
performance
46) Which of the following activities in the value chain obtains raw material and semi-finished
goods needed for the production process of an operations activity?
A) inbound logistics
B) customer service
C) marketing and sales
D) lead generation
Answer: A
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
47) Which of the following is a written document that requests the delivery of a specified
quantity of a product or service in return for payment?
A) memorandum of association
B) purchase order
C) term sheet
D) itemized bill
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance

10
48) A software consulting firm sends a formal document to its supplier, requesting the delivery
of 50 desktop computers. This is an example of a(n) ________.
A) term sheet
B) memorandum of association
C) purchase order
D) itemized bill
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
49) The resources of a procurement process are referred to as ________.
A) shares
B) services
C) invoices
D) inventories
Answer: D
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
50) Raw materials inventory stores product components and other goods that are ________.
A) manufactured within an organization
B) assembled and ready to be shipped to customers
C) returned by customers
D) procured from suppliers
Answer: D
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
51) Finished goods inventory contains items that are ________.
A) used as inputs in the firm's manufacturing process
B) awaiting delivery to customers
C) returned by customers due to quality issues
D) procured from suppliers for the production process
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance

11
52) RSA Cycles, Inc. is a leading bicycle manufacturer. The company manufactures bicycles that
cater to different market segments. Which of the following items stored in RSA's warehouse is
considered finished goods inventory?
A) metal parts obtained from small suppliers
B) tires that are procured from a vendor
C) bicycles that are to be shipped to retailers
D) tools that workers use in the production process
Answer: C
Chapter LO: 1
performance
53) When does the lead time in a procurement process come to an end?
A) when an order arrives at the warehouse
B) when an invoice is received from the supplier
C) when ordered goods are reflected in the purchase order database
D) when an order is placed with a supplier
Answer: A
Chapter LO: 2
performance
54) Which of the following documents is received by a firm from its suppliers and contains
details such as the amount due to the supplier and the purchase order number?
A) memorandum of association
B) term sheet
C) itemized bill
D) purchase requisition
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 2
performance

12
55) Which of the following is a major concern for organizations having departments that build
their own systems?
A) information silos
B) centralized database
C) itemized bills
D) integrated systems
Answer: A
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 2
performance
56) Which of the following is a warehouse concern faced by organizations without an ERP
system?
A) lack of financial control
B) insufficient inventory
C) accuracy of the three-way match
D) product promotions
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 3
performance
57) ________ systematically limit(s) the actions and behaviors of employees, processes, and
organizational systems to safeguard assets and to achieve objectives.
A) Internal controls
B) Collaborative systems
C) Distributed systems
D) Augmented reality
Answer: A
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 3
performance

13
58) Which of the following is the first step in implementing an ERP system?
A) selecting an ERP vendor
B) creating a single inventory database
C) assessing the industry structure
D) configuring the ERP software
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
Course LO: Describe the uses of enterprise systems and enterprise resource planning
59) Akers Inc., an IT services company, selects SAP as the preferred ERP vendor to integrate its
supply chain with that of its business partners. In this case, which of the following steps would
Akers most likely take next in implementing the ERP system?
A) determining the structure of its industry
B) picking inherent processes
C) measuring the system performance
D) performing a gap analysis
Answer: D
Difficulty: Hard
Chapter LO: 4
performance
60) Organizations use ________ to identify where their process expectations differ from SAP
capabilities.
A) gap analysis
B) bottlenecks
C) three-way match
D) critical path method
Answer: A
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
61) Which of the following is the next step in implementing an SAP system after performing a
gap analysis?
A) evaluating ERP vendors
B) determining industry structure
C) crafting process objectives
D) creating a competitive strategy
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4

14
62) A(n) ________ is an internal company document that issues a request for a purchase.
A) term sheet
B) request tracker
C) itemized bill
D) purchase requisition
Answer: D
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
63) Which of the following statements is true about the effect of implementing SAP in the
accounting process?
A) Agents' training and experiences will vary leading to several mistakes in the purchase orders.
B) Real-time data sharing will reduce roll-up time.
C) Three-way discrepancies will take time to correct.
D) Weak internal controls will lead to limited scrutiny of purchases.
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
64) The systems manager of an organization issues a request to the purchasing manager for the
purchase of 15 new desktop computers. This document is an example of a(n) ________.
A) request tracker
B) purchase requisition
C) term sheet
D) itemized bill
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance

15
65) An organization shares ________ with its suppliers using SAP.
A) sales revenue information
B) purchase orders
C) purchase requests
D) warehouse statistics
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
66) Which of the following actions is most likely performed manually in a procurement process
using SAP?
A) notifying the supplier
B) generating a purchase request
C) approving a purchase requisition
D) creating a unique PO number
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
67) Which of the following is most likely the final activity of the procurement process after the
implementation of SAP?
A) approving a purchase requisition
B) generating an invoice
C) creating a goods receipt
D) posting an outgoing payment
Answer: D
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance

16
68) The returns management process in a supply chain manages ________.
A) returns of faulty inputs used in the production process
B) relationships with internal suppliers
C) returns of faulty products for businesses
D) financial returns from sales and other sources
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
69) Which of the following is an objective of the returns management process?
A) efficiently getting the defective products to the right supplier in the supply chain
B) automating and simplifying a variety of supply chain processes
C) determining the criteria for supplier selection and adding and removing suppliers
D) designing and integrating all supply chain processes
Answer: A
Chapter LO: 6
performance
70) SAP can reduce the lead time in procurement processes due to its ability to ________.
A) perform gap analysis
B) share real-time data
C) perform manual processes
D) decentralize information
Answer: B
Chapter LO: 6
performance
71) The ________ effect occurs when companies order more supplies than are needed due to a
sudden change in demand.
A) just-in-time
B) roll-up
C) bullwhip
D) Doppler
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance

17
72) A large manufacturing company offered a 40 percent discount on all its products for a short
period of time. As a result, the retailers ordered and stocked more products than needed in order
to cash in on the opportunity. This scenario exemplifies the ________.
A) just-in-time effect
B) roll-up process
C) Doppler effect
D) bullwhip effect
Answer: D
Chapter LO: 6
performance
73) Which of the following is a potential solution to the bullwhip effect?
A) increasing the number of levels in the supply chain
B) increasing manufacturing capacity
C) reducing the number of salespeople
D) sharing sales order data in real-time
Answer: D
Chapter LO: 6
performance
74) A ________ occurs when a limited resource greatly reduces the output of an integrated series
of activities or processes.
A) bottleneck
B) buy-in
C) three-way match
D) bullwhip
Answer: A
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance

18
75) Which of the following statements is true about the impact of SAP on organizations?
A) Organizations become less process-focused after implementing SAP.
B) Organizations tend to avoid outsourcing after implementing SAP.
C) Inter-departmental data sharing reduces after implementing SAP.
D) People require new sets of skills after implementing SAP.
Answer: D
Chapter LO: 7
performance
76) With ________, computer data or graphics are overlaid onto the physical environment.
A) radio-frequency identification
B) augmented reality
C) 3D printing
D) digital fabrication
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
performance
77) Radio-frequency identification technology is used in supply chains to ________.
A) enable audio authentication
B) facilitate 3D printing
C) enhance the sensory appeal of products
D) recognize and track items
Answer: D
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
performance

19
78) A manufacturer wants to keep track of all of its shipments to suppliers, retailers, and
customers until delivery. Which of the following is used for this purpose?
A) radio-frequency identification
B) roll-up technology
C) augmented reality
D) additive manufacturing
Answer: A
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
79) In additive manufacturing, objects are manufactured through the ________.
A) placement of integrated chips on objects
B) deposition of successive layers of material
C) superimposition of computer data on physical objects
D) use of computer graphics and animation exclusively
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
performance
80) Which of the following is a term that refers to selling a product or system for less than its
true price?
A) bottleneck
B) roll up
C) buy-in
D) bullwhip
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
Course LO: Discuss the ethical and social issues raised by the use of information systems
81) Describe procurement in an organization.
Answer: Procurement is the process of obtaining goods and services such as raw materials,
machine spare parts, and cafeteria services. Procurement is an operational process executed
hundreds or thousands of times a day in a large organization.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance

20
82) What are the main procurement activities?
Answer: The three main procurement activities are Order, Receive, and Pay. These three
activities are performed by actors in different departments.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance
83) Describe the importance of procurement as an organizational process.
Answer: Procurement is the most common organizational process. Every organization, from
single employee startups to Walmart, from county to federal governments, relies on its
Procurement process. For businesses that make products, procurement is a vital process as all the
raw material and parts needed for production or assembly must first be procured. However, even
firms that provide services depend on procurement. For example, hospitals need thousands of
health care products, and universities need food, equipment, landscaping services, and mascots.
Chapter LO: 1
performance
84) What are the typical procurement objectives of an organization?
Answer: Many organizations have similar procurement objectives; the most common are saving
time and money. According to some estimates, a well-managed procurement process can spend
half as much as a poorly managed procurement process to acquire the same goods. Other
procurement effectiveness objectives include finding reliable, high-quality suppliers; maintaining
good relationships with existing suppliers; and supporting other processes in the organization
such as sales and operations. Procurement processes also seek to be efficient–to be less costly
and to generate fewer failures, such as stockouts, errors, and products that need to be returned to
suppliers.
Chapter LO: 1
performance
85) Describe raw materials inventory and finished goods inventory.
Answer: Raw materials inventory stores components like bicycle tires and other goods procured
from suppliers. These raw materials must be on hand for assembly operations to occur in the
Production process. Finished goods inventory is the completed products awaiting delivery to
customers.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 1
performance

21
86) Define the term lead time.
Answer: The time required for a supplier to deliver an order is called the lead time. The lead
time ends when the order arrives at the warehouse and the Receive Goods activity occurs.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 2
performance
87) Explain the accounting problems faced by organizations using traditional procurement
processes.
Answer: One of the problems was to ensure that the three-way match was correct. When
discrepancies occurred, the accounting department had to begin a costly and labor-intensive
process that required several emails to the warehouse and the supplier to resolve. The other
accounting problem was that accounting reports always lagged; they were never up to the
minute. This was a result of not sharing real-time accounting data throughout the organization.
Chapter LO: 3
performance
88) What are internal controls?
Answer: Internal controls systematically limit the actions and behaviors of employees,
processes, and systems within the organization to safeguard assets and achieve objectives.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 3
performance
89) How do large organizations select an ERP system and determine process objectives and
measures?
Answer: Organizations begin by determining the structure of the industry, followed by pursuing
a competitive strategy. Next, they select an ERP vendor. Large organizations have realized that
only SAP, Microsoft, and ORACLE can support the wide variety of processes they want to
integrate. Once SAP is selected, organizations spend several months on a gap analysis
identifying where their process expectations and SAP capabilities differ. Once the gap analysis is
complete, the management crafts objectives and measures for each of the organization's
processes.
Chapter LO: 4
performance

22
90) Describe the steps that follow after the gap analysis is conducted.
Answer: Once the gap analysis is complete, the management crafts objective and measures for
the organization's processes. Next, inherent processes are selected and procedures are written for
employees on how to use SAP to execute those processes. Finally, the users are trained and the
system is tested.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 4
performance
91) Describe the purchase requisition activity after the implementation of SAP.
Answer: A purchase requisition (PR) is an internal company document that issues a request for a
purchase. This activity is automated in an SAP system, where a computer is the actor, not a
human. For example, a PR is automatically generated when the amount of raw material inventory
goes below the reorder point.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance
92) Describe the benefits of implementing SAP in the accounting process.
Answer: SAP enables the sharing of real-time data which limits the errors caused, and sharing of
real-time data reduces the roll-up time.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 5
performance

23
93) Describe the following:
(1) Supplier Relationship Management
(2) Returns Management
(3) Supplier Evaluation
Answer: The Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) process automates, simplifies, and
accelerates a variety of supply chain processes. Broader than the single procurement process,
SRM is a management process that helps companies reduce procurement costs, build
collaborative supplier relationships, better manage supplier options, and improve time to market.
The Returns Management process manages returns of faulty products for businesses. Efficiently
getting the defect to the right supplier and charging the right cost to each company in the supply
chain are the goals of the Returns Management process.
The Supplier Evaluation process determines the criteria for supplier selection and adds and
removes suppliers from the list of approved suppliers.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
94) When does the bullwhip effect occur?
Answer: The bullwhip effect occurs when companies order more supplies than are needed due
to a sudden change in demand.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 6
performance
95) Describe the changes that companies face while pursuing a procurement process with SAP.
Answer: When companies use SAP to improve their processes, the company changes in
significant ways. Some changes can be anticipated and are clear from the beginning. Other
changes are more subtle and less expected, such as the new sets of skills necessary to optimize a
supply chain. Another change that can be expected is that organizations become more process
focused; that is, they increasingly focus on the inputs and outputs of its processes to connect with
partner firms. Finally, the adoption of SAP may lead organizations to use more outsourcing.
Many firms outsource parts of their production to take advantage of other firms that can produce
a subassembly or service cheaper than they can.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 7
performance

24
96) Describe the concept of augmented reality (AR) with an example.
Answer: With augmented reality (AR), computer data or graphics are overlaid onto the physical
environment. Example: Google Glass uses AR to superimpose computer data on eyeglasses to
augment what the user sees when looking through the glasses. Using these glasses, warehouse
workers can look at the warehouse and see overlaid on top data about the location of a product
they are looking for, the arrival date of the next shipment of a particular item, or the weight of a
container. By augmenting reality with procurement data, organizations can save time looking for
items and make other procurement and production activities more efficient.
Chapter LO: 8
performance
97) Describe radio-frequency identification technology.
Answer: Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology can be used to identify and track
items in the supply chain. As small and as cheap as a grain of rice, RFID chips broadcast data to
receivers that can display and record the data. In the supply chain domain, suppliers put RFID
chips on the outside of boxes and shipping pallets so that when those boxes get to their
destination, the receiving company can know the contents of the box without opening it. This
makes tracking inventory faster and cheaper for all collaborating companies in a supply chain.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
performance
98) Describe how 3D printing technologies impact an organization's procurement process.
Answer: With 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, objects are manufactured through
the deposition of successive layers of material. Just as two-dimensional printers deposit ink in
two dimensions, 3D printers deposit material in three dimensions, layering material in the third
dimension as it dries. Rather than relying on suppliers for all its raw materials, organizations may
choose to "print" some raw materials in-house.
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter LO: 8
performance

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he was. And indeed there had, but she was no flesh-and-blood
female. The name of his lady was Victoria, whom the Greeks called
Nike and early confounded with the Pallas Athena, that sterile
maiden. And at the age of thirty-four she had Calvin Mulloy most
firmly in her grasp, for he had neither wife nor child, nor any close
friend worth mentioning—only his hungry dream for some great
accomplishment.
It had harried him to the stars, that dream of his. It had driven him
to the position of top survey engineer on the new, raw planet of
Mersey, still largely unexplored and unmapped. And it had pushed
him, too, into foolishnesses like this latest one, building a sailplane
out of scrap odds and ends around the Mersey Advance Base—a
sailplane which had just this moment been caught in a storm and
cracked up on an island the size of a city backyard, between the
banks of one of the mouths of the Adze River.
The sailplane was gone the moment it hit. Actually it had come
down just short of the island and floated quickly off, what was left of
it, while Calvin was thrashing for the island with that inept stroke of
his. He pulled himself up, gasping, onto the rocks, and, with the
coolness of a logical man who has faced crises before, set himself
immediately to taking stock of his situation.
He was wet and winded, but since he was undrowned and on solid
land in the semitropics, he dismissed that part of it from his mind. It
had been full noon when he had been caught in the storm, and it
could not be much more than minutes past that now, so swiftly had
everything happened; but the black, low clouds, racing across the
sky, and the gusts of intermittent rain, cut visibility down around
him.
He stood up on his small island and leaned against the wind that
blew in and up the river from the open gulf. On three sides he saw

nothing but the fast-riding waves. On the fourth, though, shading his
eyes against the occasional bursts of rain, he discerned a long, low,
curving blackness that would be one of the river shores.
There lay safety. He estimated its distance from him at less than a
hundred and fifty yards. It was merely, he told himself, a matter of
reaching it.
Under ordinary conditions, he would have settled down where he
was and waited for rescue. He was not more than fifteen or twenty
miles from the Advance Base, and in this storm they would waste no
time waiting for him to come in, before starting out to search for
him. No sailplane could survive in such a blow. Standing now, with
the wind pushing at him and the rain stinging against his face and
hands, he found time for a moment's wry humor at his own bad
luck. On any civilized world, such a storm would have been charted
and predicted, if not controlled entirely. Well, the more fool he, for
venturing this far from Base.
It was in his favor that this world of Mersey happened to be so
Earthlike that the differences between the two planets were mostly
unimportant. Unfortunately, it was the one unimportant difference
that made his present position on the island a death trap. The gulf
into which his river emptied was merely a twentieth the area of the
Gulf of Mexico—but in this section it was extremely shallow, having
an overall average depth of around seventy-five feet. When one of
these flash storms formed suddenly out over its waters, the wind
could either drain huge tidal areas around the mouths of the Adze,
or else raise the river level within hours a matter of thirty feet.
With the onshore wind whistling about his ears right now, it was only
too obvious to Calvin that the river was rising. This rocky little bit
sticking some twelve or fifteen feet above the waves could expect to
be overwhelmed in the next few hours.

He looked about him. The island was bare except for a few straggly
bushes. He reached out for a shoot from a bush beside him. It came
up easily from the thin layer of soil that overlaid the rocks, and the
wind snatched it out of his hand. He saw it go skipping over the tops
of the waves in the direction of the shore, until a wave-slope caught
it and carried it into the next trough and out of sight. It at least, he
thought, would reach the safety of the river bank. But it would take
a thousand such slender stems, plaited into a raft, to do him any
good; and there were not that many stems, and not that much time.
Calvin turned and climbed in toward the center high point of the
island. It was only a few steps over the damp soil and rocks, but
when he stood upright on a little crown of rock and looked about
him, it seemed that the island was smaller than ever, and might be
drowned at any second by the wind-lashed waves. Moreover, there
was nothing to be seen which offered him any more help or hope of
escape.
Even then, he was not moved to despair. He saw no way out, but
this simply reinforced his conviction that the way out was hiding
about him somewhere, and he must look that much harder for it.
He was going to step down out of the full force of the wind, when he
happened to notice a rounded object nestling in a little hollow of the
rock below him, about a dozen or so feet away.
He went and stood over it, seeing that his first guess as to its nature
had been correct. It was one of the intelligent traveling plants that
wandered around the oceans of this world. It should have been at
home in this situation. Evidently, however, it had made the mistake
of coming ashore here to seed. It was now rooted in the soil of the
island, facing death as surely as he; if the wind or the waves tore it
from its own helplessly anchored roots.
"Can you understand me?" he asked it.

There was an odd sort of croaking from it, which seemed to shape
itself into words, though the how of it remained baffling to the ear. It
was a sort of supplemental telepathy at work, over and above the
rough attempts to imitate human speech. Some of these intelligent
plants they had got to know in this area could communicate with
them in this fashion, though most could not.
"I know you, man," said the plant. "I have seen your gathering." It
was referring to the Advance Base, which had attracted a steady
stream of the plant visitors at first.
"Know any way to get ashore?" Calvin asked.
"There is none," said the plant.
"I can't see any, either."
"There is none," repeated the plant.
"Everyone to his own opinion," said Calvin. Almost he sneered a
little. He turned his gaze once more about the island. "In my book,
them that won't be beat can't be beat. That's maybe where we're
different, plant."
He left the plant and went for a walk about the island. It had been in
his mind that possibly a drifting log or some such could have been
caught by the island and he could use this to get ashore. He found
nothing. For a few minutes, at one end of the island, he stood
fascinated, watching a long sloping black rock with a crack in it,
reaching down into the water. There was a small tuft of moss
growing in the crack about five inches above where the waves were
slapping. As he watched, the waves slapped higher and higher, until
he turned away abruptly, shivering, before he could see the water
actually reach and cover the little clump of green.
For the first time a realization that he might not get off the island
touched him. It was not yet fear, this realization, but it reached deep
into him and he felt it, suddenly, like a pressure against his heart. As
the moss was being covered, so could he be covered, by the far-
reaching inexorable advance of the water.

And then this was wiped away by an abrupt outburst of anger and
self-ridicule that he—who had been through so many dangers—
should find himself pinned by so commonplace a threat. A man, he
told himself, could die of drowning anywhere. There was no need to
go light-years from his place of birth to find such a death. It made
all dying—and all living—seem small and futile and insignificant, and
he did not like that feeling.
Calvin went back to the plant in its little hollow, tight-hugging to the
ground and half-sheltered from the wind, and looked down on its
dusky basketball-sized shape, the tough hide swollen and ready to
burst with seeds.
"So you think there's no way out," he said roughly.
"There is none," said the plant.
"Why don't you just let yourself go if you think like that?" Calvin
said. "Why try to keep down out of the wind, if the waves'll get you
anyway, later?"
The plant did not answer for a while.
"I do not want to die," it said then. "As long as I am alive, there is
the possibility of some great improbable chance saving me."
"Oh," said Calvin, and he himself was silent in turn. "I thought you'd
given up."
"I cannot give up," said the plant. "I am still alive. But I know there
is no way to safety."
"You make a lot of sense." Calvin straightened up to squint through
the rain at the dark and distant line of the shore. "How much more
time would you say we had before the water covers this rock?"
"The eighth part of a daylight period, perhaps more, perhaps less.
The water can rise either faster or more slowly."

"Any chance of it cresting and going down?"
"That would be a great improbable chance such as that of which I
spoke," said the plant.
Calvin rotated slowly, surveying the water around them. Bits and
pieces of flotsam were streaming by them on their way before the
wind, now angling toward the near bank. But none were close
enough or large enough to do Calvin any good.
"Look," said Calvin abruptly, "there's a fisheries survey station
upriver here, not too far. Now, I could dig up the soil holding your
roots. If I did that, would you get to the survey station as fast as
you could and tell them I'm stranded here?"
"I would be glad to," said the plant. "But you cannot dig me up. My
roots have penetrated into the rock. If you tried to dig me up, they
would break off—and I would die that much sooner."
"You would, would you?" grunted Calvin. But the question was
rhetorical. Already his mind was busy searching for some other way
out. For the first time in his life, he felt the touch of cold about his
heart. Could this be fear, he wondered. But he had never been afraid
of death.
Crouching down again to be out of the wind and rain, he told himself
that knowledge still remained a tool he could use. The plant must
know something that was, perhaps, useless to it, but that could be
twisted to a human's advantage.
"What made you come to a place like this to seed?" he asked.
"Twenty nights and days ago, when I first took root here," said the
plant, "this land was safe. The signs were good for fair weather. And
this place was easy of access from the water. I am not built to travel
far on land."
"How would you manage in a storm like this, if you were not rooted
down?"

"I would go with the wind until I found shelter," said the plant. "The
wind and waves would not harm me then. They hurt only whatever
stands firm and opposes them."
"You can't communicate with others of your people from here, can
you?" asked Calvin.
"There are none close," said the plant. "Anyway, what could they
do?"
"They could get a message to the fisheries station, to get help out
here for us."
"What help could help me?" said the plant. "And in any case they
could not go against the wind. They would have to be upwind of the
station, even to help you."
"We could try it."
"We could try it," agreed the plant. "But first one of my kind must
come into speaking range. We still hunt our great improbable
chance."
There was a moment's silence between them in the wind and rain.
The river was noisy, working against the rock of the island.
"There must be something that would give us a better chance than
just sitting here," said Calvin.
The plant did not answer.
"What are you thinking about?" demanded Calvin.
"I am thinking of the irony of our situation," said the plant. "You are
free to wander the water, but cannot. I can wander the water, but I
am not free to do so. This is death, and it is a strange thing."
"I don't get you."

"I only mean that it makes no difference—that I am what I am, or
that you are what you are. We could be any things that would die
when the waves finally cover the island."
"Right enough," said Calvin impatiently. "What about it?"
"Nothing about it, man," said the plant. "I was only thinking."
"Don't waste your time on philosophy," said Calvin harshly. "Use
some of that brain power on a way to get loose and get off."
"Perhaps that and philosophy are one and the same."
"You're not going to convince me of that," said Calvin, getting up.
"I'm going to take another look around the island."
The island, as he walked around its short margin, showed itself to be
definitely smaller. He paused again by the black rock. The moss was
lost now, under the water, and the crack was all but under as well.
He stood shielding his eyes against the wind-driven rain, peering
across at the still visible shore. The waves, he noted, were not
extreme—some four or five feet in height—which meant that the
storm proper was probably paralleling the land some distance out in
the gulf.
He clenched his fists in sudden frustration. If only he had hung on to
the sailplane—or any decent-sized chunk of it! At least going into the
water then would have been a gamble with some faint chance of
success.
He had nowhere else to go, after rounding the island. He went back
to the plant.
"Man," said the plant, "one of my people has been blown to shelter
a little downstream."
Calvin straightened up eagerly, turning to stare into the wind.

"You cannot see him," said the plant. "He is caught below the river
bend and cannot break loose against the force of the wind. But he is
close enough to talk. And he sends you good news."
"Me?" Calvin hunkered down beside the plant. "Good news?"
"There is a large tree torn loose from the bank and floating this way.
It should strike the little bit of land where we are here."
"Strike it? Are you positive?"
"There are the wind and the water and the tree. They can move only
to one destination—this island. Go quickly to the windward point of
the island. The tree will be coming shortly."
Calvin jerked erect and turned, wild triumph bursting in him.
"Good-by, man," said the plant.
But he was already plunging toward the downstream end of the
island. He reached it and, shielding his eyes with a hand, peered
desperately out over the water. The waves hammered upon his
boots as he stood there, and then he saw it, a mass of branches
upon which the wind was blowing as on a sail, green against black,
coming toward him.
He crouched, wrung with impatience, as the tree drifted swiftly
through the water toward him, too ponderous to rise and fall more
than a little with the waves and presenting a galleonlike appearance
of mass and invincibility. As it came closer, a fear that it would, in
spite of the plant's assurances, miss the island, crept into his heart
and chilled it.
It seemed to Calvin that it was veering—that it would pass to
windward of the island, between him and the dimly seen shore. The
thought of losing it was more than he could bear to consider; and
with a sudden burst of panic, he threw himself into the waves,
beating clumsily and frantically for it.

The river took him into its massive fury. He had forgotten the
strength of it. His first dive took him under an incoming wave, and
he emerged, gasping, into the trough behind, with water exploding
in his face. He kicked and threw his arms about, but the slow and
futile-seeming beatings of his limbs appeared helpless as the
fluttering of a butterfly in a collector's net. He choked for air, and,
rising on the crest of one wave, found himself turned backward to
face the island, and being swept past it.
Fear came home to him then. He lashed out, fighting only for the
solid ground of the island and his life. His world became a place of
foam and fury. He strained for air. He dug for the island. And then,
suddenly, he felt himself flung upon hard rock and gasping, crawling,
he emerged onto safety.

He hung there on hands and knees, battered and panting. Then the
remembrance of the tree cut like a knife to the core of his fear-
soaked being. He staggered up, and, looking about, saw that he was
almost to the far end of the island. He turned. Above him, at the
windward point, the tree itself was just now grounding, branches
first, and swinging about as the long trunk, caught by the waves,
pulled it around and onward.
With an inarticulate cry, he ran toward it. But the mass of water
against the heavy tree trunk was already pulling the branches from
their tanglings with the rock. It floated free. Taking the wind once

more in its sail of leaves, it moved slowly—and then more swiftly on
past the far side of the island.
He scrambled up his side of the island's crest. But when he reached
its top and could see the tree again, it was already moving past and
out from the island, too swiftly for him to catch it, even if he had
been the swimmer he had just proved himself not to be.
He dropped on his knees, there on the island's rocky spine, and
watched it fade in the grayness of the rain, until the green of its
branches was lost in a grayish blob, and this in the general welter of
storm and waves. And suddenly a dark horror of death closed over
him, blotting out all the scene.
A voice roused him. "That is too bad," said the plant.
He turned his head numbly. He was kneeling less than half a dozen
feet from the little hollow where the plant still sheltered. He looked
at it now, dazed, as if he could not remember what it was, nor how
it came to talk to him. Then his eyes cleared a little of their shock
and he crept over to it on hands and knees and crouched in the
shelter of the hollow.
"The water is rising more swiftly," said the plant. "It will be not long
now."
"No!" said Calvin. The word was lost in the sound of the waves and
wind, as though it had never been. Nor, the minute it was spoken,
could he remember what he had meant to deny by it. It had been
only a response without thought, an instinctive negation.
"You make me wonder," said the plant, after a little, "why it hurts
you so—this thought of dying. Since you first became alive, you have
faced ultimate death. And you have not faced it alone. All things die.
This storm must die. This rock on which we lie will not exist forever.

Even worlds and suns come at last to their ends, and galaxies,
perhaps even the Universe."
Calvin shook his head. He did not answer.
"You are a fighting people," said the plant, almost as if to itself. "Well
and good. Perhaps a life like mine, yielding, giving to the forces of
nature, traveling before the wind, sees less than you see, of a
reason for clawing hold on existence. But still it seems to me that
even a fighter would be glad at last to quit the struggle, when there
is no other choice."
"Not here," said Calvin thickly. "Not now."
"Why not here, why not now," said the plant, "when it has to be
somewhere and sometime?"
Calvin did not answer.
"I feel sorry for you," said the plant. "I do not like to see things
suffer."
Raising his head a little and looking around him, Calvin could see the
water, risen high around them, so that waves were splashing on all
sides, less than the length of his own body away.
"It wouldn't make sense to you," said Calvin then, raising his rain-
wet face toward the plant. "You're old by your standards. I'm young.
I've got things to do. You don't understand."
"No," the plant agreed. "I do not understand."
Calvin crawled a little closer to the plant, into the hollow, until he
could see the vibrating air-sac that produced the voice of the plant.
"Don't you see? I've got to do something—I've got to feel I've
accomplished something—before I quit."
"What something?" asked the plant.

"I don't know!" cried Calvin. "I just know I haven't! I feel thrown
away!"
"What is living? It is feeling and thinking. It is seeding and trying to
understand. It is companionship of your own people. What more is
there?"
"You have to do something."
"Do what?"
"Something important. Something to feel satisfied about." A wave,
higher than the rest, slapped the rock a bare couple of feet below
them and sent spray stinging in against them. "You have to say,
'Look, maybe it wasn't much, but I did this.'"
"What kind of this?"
"How do I know?" shouted Calvin. "Something—maybe something
nobody else did—maybe something that hasn't been done before!"
"For yourself?" said the plant. A higher wave slapped at the very rim
of their hollow, and a little water ran over and down to pool around
them. Calvin felt it cold around his knees and wrists. "Or for the
doing?"
"For the doing! For the doing!"
"If it is for the doing, can you take no comfort from the fact there
are others of your own kind to do it?"
Another wave came in on them. Calvin moved spasmodically right up
against the plant and put his arms around it, holding on.
"I have seeded ten times and done much thinking," said the plant—
rather muffledly, for Calvin's body was pressing against its air-sac. "I
have not thought of anything really new, or startling, or great, but I
am satisfied." It paused a moment as a new wave drenched them
and receded. They were half awash in the hollow now, and the
waves came regularly. "I do not see how this is so different from
what you have done. But I am content." Another and stronger wave

rocked them. The plant made a sound that might have been of pain
at its roots tearing. "Have you seeded?"
"No," said Calvin, and all at once, like light breaking at last into the
dark cave of his being, in this twelfth hour, it came to him—all of
what he had robbed himself in his search for a victory. Choking on a
wave, he clung to the plant with frenzied strength. "Nothing!" The
word came torn from him as if by some ruthless hand. "I've got
nothing!"
"Then I understand at last," said the plant. "For of all things, the
most terrible is to die unfruitful. It is no good to say we will not be
beaten, because there is always waiting, somewhere, that which can
beat us. And then a life that is seedless goes down to defeat finally
and forever. But when one has seeded, there is no ending of the
battle, and life mounts on life until the light is reached by those far
generations in which we have had our own small but necessary part.
Then our personal defeat has been nothing, for though we died, we
are still living, and though we fell, we conquered."
But Calvin, clinging to the plant with both arms, saw only the water
closing over him.
"Too late—" he choked. "Too late—too late—"
"No," bubbled the plant. "Not too late yet. This changes things. For I
have seeded ten times and passed on my life. But you—I did not
understand. I did not realize your need."
The flood, cresting, ran clear and strong, the waves breaking heavily
on the drowned shore by the river mouth. The rescue spinner, two
hours out of Base and descending once again through the fleeting
murk, checked at the sight of a begrimed human figure, staggering
along the slick margin of the shore, carrying something large and
limp under one arm, and with the other arm poking at the ground
with a stick.

The spinner came down almost on top of him, and the two men in it
reached to catch Calvin. He could hardly stand, let alone stumble
forward, but stumble he did.
"Cal!" said the pilot. "Hold up! It's us."
"Let go," said Calvin thickly. He pulled loose, dug with his stick,
dropped something from the limp thing into the hole he had made,
and moved on.
"You out of your head, Cal?" cried the co-pilot. "Come on, we've got
to get you back to the hospital."
"No," said Calvin, pulling away again.
"What're you doing?" demanded the pilot. "What've you got there?"
"Think-plant. Dead," said Calvin, continuing his work. "Let go!" He
fought weakly, but so fiercely that they did turn him loose again.
"You don't understand. Saved my life."
"Saved your life?" The pilot followed him. "How?"
"I was on an island. In the river. Flood coming up." Calvin dug a
fresh hole in the ground. "It could have lived a little longer. It let me
pull it ahead of time—so I'd have something to float to shore on." He
turned exhaustion-bleared eyes on them. "Saved my life."
The pilot and the co-pilot looked at each other as two men look at
each other over the head of a child, or a madman.
"All right, Cal," said the pilot. "So it saved your life. But how come
you've got to do this? And what are you doing, anyhow?"
"What am I doing?" Calvin paused entirely and turned to face them.
"What am I doing?" he repeated on a rising note of wonder. "Why,
you damn fools, I'm doing the first real thing I ever did in my life!
I'm saving the lives of these seeds!"

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