Inference and Pronoun Reference in an Unseen Telugu Passage
An unseen Telugu passage is given to 26 Class 10 students: 'రైతు సోమయ్య పొలంలో బావి ఎండిపోయింది. అతను రెండు రోజులు ఆహారం తినలేదు. అప్పుడు అతని కుమారుడు ఒక పాత పంపును బాగు చేసి, వర్షపు నీటిని నిల్వ చేసే గొయ్యిని తవ్వాడు. మూడో రోజు సోమయ్య పొలంలో మొలకలు కనిపించాయి. అతను కుమారుడిని చూసి "నీవు నా కన్నులకు వెలుగు" అన్నాడు.' Question 1 asks, 'సోమయ్య రెండు రోజులు ఆహారం ఎందుకు తినలేదు?' Fourteen students answer 'అతను పేదవాడు కాబట్టి'. Question 2 asks for the meaning of the last sentence; nine students write only 'you are the light of my eyes'. The teacher must decide whether these are careless errors or evidence of a wrong strategy, and how to correct both without turning the lesson into a vocabulary list.
1. For each of the two answers, identify what is stated in the passage and what the student supplied from outside.
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Question 1: the passage states that the well in Somayya's field dried up and that he did not eat for two days. It does not state that he was poor. The student supplied a social assumption ('a farmer without water must be poor') and ignored the immediate cause in the text. A defensible answer must be anchored: 'అతని పొలంలో బావి ఎండిపోయింది; పంట ఏమవుతుందోనని ఆందోళనపడ్డాడు' - the well dried up and he was anxious about the crop. Poverty may be true in the real world, but it is not 'according to the passage'.
Question 2: 'నీవు నా కన్నులకు వెలుగు' literally means 'you are the light of my eyes', but in context it expresses the son's role in restoring hope: he repaired the pump and dug a rainwater pit, and the seedlings appeared. The student gave only the dictionary image and missed the figurative meaning. The answer should say: 'నీవు నాకు ఆశను, కొత్త జీవితాన్ని ఇచ్చావు' - you gave me hope/new life. The literal gloss is not wrong as a translation, but it is incomplete as comprehension.
2. Give a three-step routine students can use for unseen inference and pronoun/reference questions, using this passage as the model.
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Step 1 - Anchor the question. Underline the question word: 'ఎందుకు' asks for a cause; 'అర్థం' asks for meaning; 'ఎవరు/అతను' asks for a referent. Then locate the exact sentence, not the whole passage.
Step 2 - List only stated facts. For Question 1, the list is: బావి ఎండిపోయింది; రెండు రోజులు ఆహారం తినలేదు. Do not add 'పేదవాడు' unless the passage says it. If two facts are given, the answer must connect them: well dried up → worry → no food.
Step 3 - Resolve figurative language and pronouns. For 'నీవు నా కన్నులకు వెలుగు', identify who says it (Somayya), to whom (his son), and what the son did (pump repaired, pit dug, seedlings appeared). The figure means hope, not physical light. For pronoun questions, trace the nearest preceding noun that agrees in number and sense; 'అతను' in the last sentence refers to Somayya, not the son. Practise the routine on two more short passages so it becomes a habit, not a one-off correction.
3. Why is 'because he was poor' a tempting distractor, and how should the teacher mark it?
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It is tempting because it fits a familiar social script about farmers and drought. Students often import background knowledge when the passage is short and the question begins with 'ఎందుకు'. The answer sounds compassionate and plausible, so it feels correct even without textual evidence.
Mark it as incorrect if the question says 'according to the passage' or 'పాఠ్యభాగం ఆధారంగా'. The passage gives a different cause: the well dried up, and the farmer was distressed. If the question is openly inferential ('What can you infer?'), the answer could receive partial credit only if the student adds textual support; 'poor' alone is still unsupported. In feedback, do not simply say 'wrong'. Ask the student to point to the line that says 'పేద'. When the student cannot, replace the outside assumption with the stated cause. This teaches the difference between personal knowledge and passage evidence, which is the actual skill being tested.