Reading an Unseen Passage: The Stepwell's Promise
In a PSEB Class 12 General English mock exam, students read this unseen passage: 'The stepwell had been silted for decades. When the NGO began de-silting in 2018, older residents recalled that the well once held water through June. The youth had grown up with tankers. The restoration team did not promise a miracle; they promised measurement-daily water-level readings posted at the panchayat office.' One student, Harpreet, answered the inference question: 'The writer says the stepwell was full of water and the village became rich.' Another student, Meera, wrote: 'The writer respects the team because they avoided big claims and gave the village facts it could check.' The teacher has to decide which answer the marking scheme rewards. The passage does not say the village became rich; it says the well once held water through June and that the youth knew only tankers. The phrase 'promised measurement' is the key. Harpreet also defined 'silted' as 'cleaned'.
1. Explain why Harpreet's answer would not earn the inference mark, using two specific details from the passage.
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Harpreet's answer fails because it turns a careful contrast into an unsupported conclusion.
- 'The stepwell was full of water' is not stated. The passage says it 'once held water through June' in older residents' memory; that is a recollection, not a present fact. The phrase 'had been silted for decades' suggests blockage, not fullness.
- 'The village became rich' has no textual basis. The passage mentions tankers and water-level readings, not income or prosperity.
An inference mark requires a claim that is supported by evidence, not merely plausible. Meera's answer works because she anchors her claim in 'did not promise a miracle' and 'daily water-level readings posted at the panchayat office'. The writer's attitude is conveyed through that contrast between miracle and measurement. Harpreet has guessed a happy ending; the passage deliberately refuses one.
2. Meera's answer is stronger. Write the two-sentence reasoning you would give the class explaining how 'promised measurement' reveals the writer's attitude.
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The phrase 'promised measurement' reveals the writer's approval because it contrasts the team's modesty with the grand language of miracles. They do not claim to restore the past; they offer something smaller and more honest-daily readings that the village can check. The detail 'posted at the panchayat office' matters: the evidence is public, not controlled by the NGO. The writer's attitude is therefore respectful, even admiring, but it is shown through what the team refuses to say as much as through what they do. In an exam answer, the reasoning should move from the quoted phrase to the implied quality-transparency, accountability, respect for the villagers' judgement-and then to the writer's tone.
3. Define 'silted' as used in the passage and explain why Harpreet's definition of 'cleaned' is a vocabulary error.
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In the passage, 'silted' means blocked or choked with fine sediment carried by water. The stepwell 'had been silted for decades', so it was not functioning; the NGO began de-silting, which is the process of removing that sediment.
Harpreet's definition, 'cleaned', describes the remedy, not the condition. It reverses the direction of the sentence: a stepwell that has been cleaned is not silted. The prefix de- in 'de-silting' signals removal, so the context makes the meaning clear. A good vocabulary answer should use the surrounding words-'for decades', 'began de-silting'-to fix the sense, rather than offering a loose synonym that fits the general topic of cleanliness but not the sentence.