The Grandfather's Silence: Choosing the Best Inference
Meera is practicing inference questions for the prose section. Her teacher gave an unseen passage:
Every evening, after closing his small repair shop, Rahim counted the day's coins twice. He wrote the total in a notebook with a pencil stub, erased it, and wrote it again. His son had offered him a calculator, but Rahim said the machine 'made mistakes it could not explain.' When the power failed, he lit a candle and counted by its light. Once, a customer returned to pay five rupees that had been left off the bill; Rahim thanked him and entered the amount only after checking the original bill twice.
The question asks: 'What does the detail about the calculator most likely reveal about Rahim?' The options are: (a) He is too poor to buy a calculator. (b) He distrusts results he cannot verify. (c) He is proud of his education. (d) He fears change. Meera's notes say (a) because of the pencil stub and candle. Her friend says (b).
1. Which option is best supported by the passage, and what makes the 'poverty' reading weaker? Answer in 60–90 words.
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Best option: (b) He distrusts results he cannot verify. The passage gives Rahim's own explanation for refusing the calculator: it 'made mistakes it could not explain.' That is a statement about verification, not cost. The pencil stub and candle show frugality or limited resources, but they do not show he could not afford a calculator - he was offered one and refused it. The double-counting and the re-checking of the original bill before entering the returned five rupees reinforce a habit of checking. So (a) is a possible circumstance but not the inference the detail most likely points to; (b) is directly tied to the stated reason. (c) and (d) have no textual support.
2. Meera wants to add one sentence to the passage that would make (b) stronger without repeating the calculator idea. Write that sentence and explain in one sentence why it strengthens the inference.
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Sentence: 'Before sealing the cash box, he asked his son to read the total aloud from the notebook.' Why it strengthens (b): It shows Rahim using an independent check on the arithmetic, which supports the idea that he wants results he can verify rather than simply trusting a machine or his own first count.
3. The last sentence says, 'Rahim thanked him and entered the amount only after checking the original bill twice.' If a question asked about the tone of this sentence, would 'grateful' be a complete answer? Justify.
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No. 'Grateful' explains 'thanked him,' but it ignores 'only after checking the original bill twice.' The words 'only after' and 'twice' make the sentence cautious and deliberate as well as thankful. A complete tone answer should name both elements - for example, 'measured, cautious gratitude' or 'quietly meticulous thanks.' A one-word answer would leave out half the evidence.