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WBCHSE HS English (First Language) study materials
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WBCHSE HS English (First Language) practice questions

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Question 1Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen prose passage, a writer describes a village fair as 'a river of people that had burst its banks and forgotten where it was going.' Which reading of the underlined image is most defensible?

  1. The crowd is compared to water to suggest restless, directionless movement Correct answer.
  2. The crowd is compared to water to suggest that the villagers are fishermen
  3. The crowd is compared to water to suggest that the fair is dull and empty
  4. The crowd is compared to water to suggest that the fair is held beside a river

Explanation

A metaphor works by carrying the qualities of the vehicle (here, water bursting its banks) onto the tenor (the crowd). Overflowing and having 'forgotten where it was going' together convey restless, uncontrolled, undirected movement rather than literal water or occupation.

Question 2Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

A prose passage opens: 'The letter lay on the table for three days before anyone dared to open it.' Which function does this opening sentence chiefly perform in the passage?

  1. It introduces the narrator's opinion of the other characters
  2. It supplies the physical setting of the whole story in detail
  3. It states the theme of the passage explicitly for the reader
  4. It creates suspense by hinting at fear and an unresolved action Correct answer.

Explanation

An opening that places an object and delays its opening builds tension: the reader wants to know what the letter says and why it frightens the household. Suspense is created through withheld information and the hint of dread, not through detailed description or explicit theme.

Question 3Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

Read this sentence from an unseen passage: 'The old man spoke slowly, weighing each word as a jeweller weighs gold.' The comparison mainly emphasises the old man's

  1. distrust of his listeners
  2. impatience to finish speaking
  3. carefulness and deliberation in speech Correct answer.
  4. wealth and social standing

Explanation

The simile transfers the jeweller's exact, cautious measuring onto the old man's manner of speaking. The point is precision and care in choosing words, not money, suspicion or haste.

Question 4Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In a poem, the speaker addresses a dead friend and asks, 'Do you hear the rain on the roof where you are?' Which term best describes this figure of speech?

  1. Apostrophe Correct answer.
  2. Hyperbole
  3. Onomatopoeia
  4. Oxymoron

Explanation

Apostrophe is the device of addressing someone absent, dead or abstract as though present and able to reply. The speaker turns to the dead friend directly with a question, which is precisely this figure.

Question 5Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

A prose passage contains the sentence: 'The market was not merely crowded; it was a ferment of voices, colours and smells.' Which inference about the writer's attitude is best supported?

  1. The writer is indifferent to the market's atmosphere
  2. The writer regards the market as vivid and intensely alive Correct answer.
  3. The writer finds the market overwhelming and lifeless
  4. The writer believes the market should be closed down

Explanation

The intensifier 'not merely' and the word 'ferment' suggest something working, bubbling and full of energy. The accumulation of sensory nouns (voices, colours, smells) signals lively appreciation rather than distaste or indifference.

Question 6Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem, a line reads: 'The moon walked barefoot on the sleeping lake.' Which device is chiefly used here?

  1. Personification Correct answer.
  2. Simile
  3. Alliteration
  4. Irony

Explanation

The moon is given a human action and attribute, walking barefoot, which is personification. This is not a comparison using 'like' or 'as', so it is not a simile, and no deliberate contrast of meaning creates irony.

Question 7Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

A passage states: 'Having missed the last bus, Renu walked home through the dark lanes.' Which grammatical form opens the sentence, and what does it tell us?

  1. A participial phrase, explaining why she walked home Correct answer.
  2. An infinitive phrase, showing her purpose
  3. A noun clause, naming the subject of the sentence
  4. An absolute clause, describing the weather

Explanation

'Having missed the last bus' is a participial phrase built on the perfect participle; it modifies the subject 'Renu' and gives the reason for her walking. It contains no finite verb of its own, so it is a phrase rather than a clause.

Question 8Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In a poem, the speaker repeats the line 'And still the river runs' at the end of each stanza. What is this device called, and what is its usual effect?

  1. Enjambment, quickening the pace across lines
  2. Caesura, breaking the line with a pause
  3. Assonance, repeating vowel sounds for music
  4. Refrain, creating rhythm and cumulative emphasis Correct answer.

Explanation

A refrain is a line or phrase repeated at intervals, often at stanza ends, and it builds rhythm while gathering new meaning with each return. The other terms describe internal sound or line structure, not deliberate repetition of a whole line.

Question 9Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen prose passage says of a character: 'Sushil never raised his voice, yet the room fell silent whenever he entered.' What does this contrast chiefly reveal about him?

  1. He is physically very large and intimidating
  2. He commands quiet respect without needing to shout Correct answer.
  3. He is disliked and feared by his neighbours
  4. He is a stranger whom nobody recognises

Explanation

The contrast between not raising his voice and the room falling silent points to authority that works through presence and respect rather than noise. The passage gives no physical description, and silence need not mean dislike.

Question 10Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

Read this extract from an unseen passage: 'The monsoon had been generous that year; the fields were green to the horizon, and even the beggars at the temple gate seemed to smile.' Which feature of the writing is most striking here?

  1. A neutral, factual tone created by statistics and dates
  2. A bitter tone created by harsh, discordant diction
  3. A cheerful tone created by the linking of nature's plenty with human contentment Correct answer.
  4. A mournful tone created by images of drought and loss

Explanation

The diction ('generous', 'green', 'smile') and the pairing of fertile fields with smiling beggars create an optimistic tone in which natural abundance spreads to human feeling. There is no harsh diction, no data, and no imagery of drought.

Question 11Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In a poem, the speaker says: 'My father's hands were maps of every field he sowed.' Which reading of the metaphor is most complete?

  1. It compares hands to maps to show the father's habit of travelling abroad
  2. It compares hands to maps to suggest that his hands were clean and smooth
  3. It compares hands to maps to show that his labour has marked and recorded his life Correct answer.
  4. It compares hands to maps to suggest that he was a teacher of geography

Explanation

A map records terrain, and the fields the father sowed are recorded in the lines and marks of his hands. The metaphor therefore links physical labour with memory and a life inscribed on the body, not with travel, teaching or smoothness.

Question 12Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem the speaker recalls a childhood home and ends: 'The gate still swings, but no one comes to close it.' Which effect is the closing line most likely designed to produce?

  1. A sense of triumph over the passage of time
  2. A sense of comic absurdity about the gate
  3. A sense of bustle and continuing family life
  4. A sense of neglect and irreversible change Correct answer.

Explanation

An unclosed, swinging gate with nobody to shut it implies abandonment and the loss of the people who once lived there. The image works through absence, so it conveys neglect and lasting change rather than activity, comedy or triumph.

Question 13Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

A prose passage contains: 'He was a man of few words, but when he spoke, the words were like coins counted out carefully.' Which two devices are combined in the underlined part?

  1. Simile and alliteration
  2. Personification and simile
  3. Simile and metaphor Correct answer.
  4. Metaphor and onomatopoeia

Explanation

The phrase 'like coins' is an explicit comparison, hence a simile; calling the words 'coins counted out carefully' also carries the metaphor of speech as currency. Two devices therefore operate together, without alliteration, sound imitation or personification.

Question 14Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

Which line from an unseen poem best illustrates enjambment?

  1. Relentless rain, relentless rain
  2. The rain came down / and would not stop Correct answer.
  3. O rain, why do you drum?
  4. The rain, relentless, drummed

Explanation

Enjambment occurs when the sense runs on past the line break without punctuation, so that the sentence completes in the next line. 'The rain came down' ending a line and 'and would not stop' completing the sense on the next line is exactly this effect.

Question 15Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In the sentence 'The rumour spread through the town like fire through dry grass', what is the tenor of the comparison?

  1. The dry grass
  2. The town
  3. The rumour Correct answer.
  4. The fire

Explanation

In a comparison, the tenor is the thing being described and the vehicle is the image used to describe it. Here the rumour is described through the image of fire in dry grass, so the rumour is the tenor and the fire is the vehicle.

Question 16Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

A prose passage narrates: 'I had promised myself I would speak. When the moment came, I studied the pattern of the carpet instead.' Which technique does the writer use to convey the narrator's state of mind?

  1. Direct statement of the narrator's feelings
  2. A digression describing the history of the carpet
  3. Action that contradicts the narrator's intention Correct answer.
  4. Dialogue revealing the narrator's thoughts

Explanation

The narrator resolves to speak but instead stares at the carpet, and the gap between intention and action shows embarrassment or cowardice indirectly. This is characterisation through action rather than through stated feeling, dialogue or digression.

Question 17Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In a poem, the speaker says of a city: 'Its towers are needles stitching the sky.' Which quality of the towers does the image most strongly convey?

  1. Their great height and sharp upward thrust Correct answer.
  2. Their bright colours and glass surfaces
  3. Their age and crumbling condition
  4. Their emptiness and lack of occupants

Explanation

Needles are slender, pointed and directed upward, and 'stitching the sky' places them against the sky itself. The vehicle thus conveys height and a piercing vertical thrust, not colour, decay or emptiness.

Question 18Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen passage describes a railway platform at dawn: 'Porters moved like shadows, and the tea-stall's first steam rose and vanished into the grey.' Which atmosphere is chiefly established?

  1. Furious argument and confusion
  2. Festive noise and bright celebration
  3. Quiet, dim, transient stillness Correct answer.
  4. Terror and impending violence

Explanation

The simile of shadows, the grey light and the steam that rises and vanishes all create a hushed, dim and fleeting atmosphere. The diction is soft and muted, so no festivity, violence or argument is suggested.

Question 19Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In a poem the speaker asks, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' Which feature of the poem's form does this line best illustrate?

  1. A sonnet's concluding couplet
  2. A dramatic monologue spoken by a character
  3. A refrain repeated at the end of each stanza
  4. A rhetorical question addressed to the beloved Correct answer.

Explanation

The line is a question put to the person addressed, not expecting an answer, which makes it a rhetorical question used to open the comparison. It is not a repeated refrain, not a character's monologue, and not a closing couplet.

Question 20Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

A prose passage reads: 'Not a leaf stirred. The dogs would not bark; the crows sat mute on the wire.' Which technique is chiefly used to build tension?

  1. The use of statistics to establish the time of day
  2. The accumulation of negatives describing unnatural stillness Correct answer.
  3. The use of humour to relieve the tension
  4. The use of dialogue to report the villagers' fears

Explanation

The repeated negatives ('not a leaf', 'would not bark', 'sat mute') pile up images of a stillness that feels unnatural and therefore ominous. Tension is built through description and negation, not through dialogue, statistics or humour.

Question 21Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem a soldier says, 'We marched to the sound of a brass band, and came back to the sound of rain.' Which device carries the poem's meaning most strongly?

  1. Onomatopoeia in the word 'marched'
  2. Hyperbole in the phrase 'brass band'
  3. Apostrophe in the phrase 'came back'
  4. Antithesis between the two sounds Correct answer.

Explanation

The line sets the bright, public sound of the brass band against the dull, private sound of rain, and the contrast embodies the change from confident departure to bleak return. Antithesis, the balancing of opposed ideas, is the device doing the work here.

Question 22Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

Read this sentence from an unseen passage: 'The house, which had stood for a hundred years, seemed to lean towards the road as if listening.' Which reading best explains the effect of the personification?

  1. It suggests that the road is more important than the house
  2. It shows that the house is about to collapse physically
  3. It makes the house seem watchful and full of unspoken history Correct answer.
  4. It indicates that the narrator dislikes old buildings

Explanation

Leaning 'as if listening' gives the house a posture of attention, so its great age becomes a store of hidden history rather than a structural warning. The personification creates an atmosphere of watchfulness, not of imminent collapse.

Question 23Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen poem opens in the present tense, shifts to the past for three stanzas, then returns to the present. What is the most likely purpose of this structure?

  1. To move between a present situation and the memories that explain it Correct answer.
  2. To show that the speaker cannot remember the past accurately
  3. To prove that the past is more important than the present
  4. To indicate that the poem has three separate authors

Explanation

A movement from present to past and back allows the poem to set a present scene, explore its origins in memory, and return with deepened understanding. Tense shift is a structural device for linking memory and present experience, not evidence of unreliable memory or multiple authorship.

Question 24Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

A prose passage ends: 'And so the matter was settled, as most matters are, by no one in particular.' Which tone does the sentence convey?

  1. Wholehearted admiration for efficient administration
  2. Wry resignation about how decisions are really made Correct answer.
  3. Anxious uncertainty about the facts of the case
  4. Open anger at a named individual

Explanation

The passive construction and the ironic aside 'as most matters are' suggest that outcomes drift into place without anyone owning them. The tone is dryly resigned and ironic rather than admiring, anxious or openly angry.

Question 25Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem, the speaker describes a photograph in which a child 'stands at the edge of the frame, half-turned, already leaving.' Which interpretation is most fully supported by the wording?

  1. The photograph was badly composed by an amateur
  2. The child's position foreshadows later loss and separation Correct answer.
  3. The child is the youngest member of a large family
  4. The child is deliberately hiding from the photographer

Explanation

'At the edge', 'half-turned' and 'already leaving' all place the child in the act of departure, so the composition becomes an image of anticipated loss. The wording supports separation and foreshadowing, not concealment, poor technique or family size.

Question 26Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen poem describes a village well as 'the old mouth that never learned to close'. The image is sustained across two stanzas. Which device is chiefly at work when a non-human thing is spoken of as having a human body part and human habit?

  1. Personification Correct answer.
  2. Onomatopoeia
  3. Alliteration
  4. Oxymoron

Explanation

Personification gives human attributes to non-human things; here the well receives a 'mouth' and the human inability to 'learn'. Onomatopoeia would require words imitating sound, alliteration needs repeated initial consonants, and oxymoron needs a self-contradictory pairing of terms, none of which is present.

Question 27Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem the speaker addresses a dead friend directly: 'You would have laughed at the broken gate.' The friend is absent, yet is spoken to as though present. Which term best names this address?

  1. Litotes
  2. Hyperbole
  3. Metonymy
  4. Apostrophe Correct answer.

Explanation

Apostrophe is a direct address to someone absent, dead or non-human as though they could hear. Hyperbole is exaggeration, metonymy replaces a thing by something associated with it, and litotes affirms by denying the opposite; none of these describes addressing an absent person.

Question 28Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen prose passage says of a landlord: 'He counted the rent twice, and then a third time, for the pleasure of it.' Which inference about the character is best supported by this detail alone?

  1. He is careless with figures and needs to check them.
  2. He is generous and intends to reduce the rent.
  3. He takes an anxious, almost sensual satisfaction in money. Correct answer.
  4. He distrusts the tenant's honesty specifically.

Explanation

The third count is performed 'for the pleasure of it', which points to enjoyment rather than necessity, and the repetition suggests anxious attachment. Nothing in the detail implies weak arithmetic, suspicion of one particular tenant, or generosity. Close reading must rest on the words actually given.

Question 29Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

Read this sentence from an unseen passage: 'The train arrived, and with it the smell of coal, wet wool and distant cities.' Which effect does the list of smells chiefly create?

  1. It proves the narrator is a trained chemist.
  2. It suggests that arrival brings a whole wider world, not just a vehicle. Correct answer.
  3. It indicates the narrator dislikes travelling.
  4. It shows the train was late and overcrowded.

Explanation

The three-item list moves from the physical (coal, wet wool) to the evocative ('distant cities'), so the arrival releases a sense of elsewhere and possibility. Sensory listing widens the scene; it does not establish profession, punctuality or distaste, which the sentence never states.

Question 30Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen poem ends: 'The lamp burns low; the room grows kind.' Which reading of 'kind' is most defensible?

  1. The room turns unkind, since the lamp is going out.
  2. The room becomes a particular type or species.
  3. The room becomes gentle and consoling as the light softens. Correct answer.
  4. The room shows kindness by giving the speaker a gift.

Explanation

'Kind' here works as an adjective of mood, and the dying lamp supplies the softening that makes the room feel gentle. The noun sense meaning 'type' would need a construction like 'a kind of room'. A room cannot literally give gifts, and the line's tone is consoling rather than menacing, so the negative reading is unsupported.

Question 31Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem, a stanza runs on without punctuation into the next, and the sentence's sense is only completed after the line break. Which pair of terms correctly describes the line break and the run-on respectively?

  1. A line break that does not end the sense is a couplet; the completion is the sestet.
  2. A line break that does not end the sense is a refrain; the completion is the volta.
  3. A line break that does not end the sense is enjambment; the completed sense arriving later is the release. Correct answer.
  4. A line break that does not end the sense is a caesura; the completion is the refrain.

Explanation

Enjambment is the continuation of a syntactic unit past the line ending, with the sense completed in the following line, often called the release. A caesura is a pause within a line, a refrain is a repeated line, a volta is a turn of argument, and couplet and sestet are stanza forms, so none of the other pairings fits.

Question 32Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen prose passage reads: 'The clerk had worked in the same room for thirty years. He knew the crack in the ceiling better than his wife's face.' Which technique carries the characterisation here?

  1. Direct authorial moralising about office work
  2. Understatement used to soften a tragedy
  3. Dialogue revealing the clerk's own view
  4. Hyperbole used to measure the narrowness of his life Correct answer.

Explanation

The comparison is deliberately extravagant, yet its purpose is precise: it measures how much of the man's attention the office has absorbed. That is hyperbole in service of characterisation, not understatement, and the passage offers no authorial sermon or quoted speech.

Question 33Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem, the speaker describes a market crowd: 'a hundred voices, and not one of them mine'. Which contrast does the line chiefly construct?

  1. Youth against old age
  2. Wealth against poverty
  3. City against countryside
  4. Public noise against private voicelessness Correct answer.

Explanation

The line sets the plurality of other voices against the speaker's own absence from that chorus, producing a contrast of communal sound and personal silence. No detail refers to money, age or rural life, so those contrasts cannot be read from the words given.

Question 34Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen passage opens: 'By the time the letter reached her, the news was three weeks old and the sender was dead.' Which narrative effect does this opening chiefly achieve?

  1. It introduces the sender as the story's main character.
  2. It promises a comic resolution to follow.
  3. It compresses time and loss into one stroke, creating immediate pathos. Correct answer.
  4. It establishes the exact date and place of the action.

Explanation

The sentence folds three weeks of delay and a death into a single clause, so time and loss strike the reader at once. It supplies no date, place or comic promise, and since the sender is already dead, that figure cannot be the protagonist.

Question 35Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

In an unseen poem, the speaker says: 'Silence is a coin I keep turning in my pocket.' Which statement best describes how the metaphor works?

  1. A sound is being imitated by the rhythm of the line.
  2. An abstract state is made tangible and given the restlessness of a handled object. Correct answer.
  3. Two unrelated poems are being compared with each other.
  4. A concrete object is made abstract so that silence becomes measurable.

Explanation

The metaphor takes silence, which cannot be touched, and treats it as a coin that can be turned over, so abstraction becomes tangible and restless. The direction of the figure runs from abstract to concrete, not the reverse, and it involves no comparison of poems or imitation of sound.

Question 36Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen prose passage describes a village fair, then breaks off: 'But that was the year the river changed its mind.' Which function does this sentence serve in the passage?

  1. It provides a statistical aside about rainfall.
  2. It shifts the narration into direct speech.
  3. It closes the passage by resolving every earlier complication.
  4. It foreshadows disruption, turning the description towards coming disaster. Correct answer.

Explanation

The concessive 'But' and the ominous image of a river changing its mind redirect the passage from festivity towards impending trouble, a classic foreshadowing move. It resolves nothing, gives no figures, and contains no quoted speech.

Question 37Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen poem repeats the phrase 'not yet' at the close of four successive stanzas, with the surrounding lines changing each time. What is the effect of this pattern?

  1. The fixed phrase measures changing circumstances against a constant of postponement. Correct answer.
  2. The poem is abandoning stanza form altogether.
  3. The speaker is correcting a factual error made earlier.
  4. The poem's rhyme scheme is being established for the first time.

Explanation

A repeated phrase with varying context works as a refrain, and its constancy throws the shifting stanzas into relief, so postponement becomes the poem's steady note. Repetition of this kind does not establish rhyme, correct facts, or dissolve stanza form.

Question 38Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen poem moves from a description of a landscape to a memory of the speaker's mother, and closes by returning to the landscape, now seen differently. Which structural term best describes this arrangement?

  1. An epigram, since the poem ends with a neat witticism
  2. A frame, in which the opening setting encloses the inner recollection Correct answer.
  3. A dramatic monologue, since the speaker addresses a silent listener
  4. A sonnet sequence, since the poem must contain fourteen lines

Explanation

When a poem opens and closes in the same setting with a recollection held inside, the outer scene frames the inner material and is altered by it. Line count, witty closure and an addressed listener are separate matters that the description does not establish.

Question 39Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen prose passage presents a narrator who reports events accurately but repeatedly misreads other characters' motives, and the reader sees the error before the narrator does. Which term best describes this gap between narrator and reader?

  1. Stream of consciousness without any narrative control
  2. Omniscient narration with editorial commentary
  3. Free indirect discourse in the third person
  4. Dramatic irony arising from a limited first-person perspective Correct answer.

Explanation

A first-person narrator who reports truly but judges wrongly creates a gap the reader perceives and the narrator does not, which is dramatic irony produced by limited perspective. Omniscience would supply the correct motives, stream of consciousness would abandon narrative control, and free indirect discourse requires third-person narration carrying a character's voice.

Question 40Reading comprehension of unseen prose and poetry

An unseen poem describes a returning traveller: 'He knew each stone, and none of them knew him.' Which analysis of the line's rhetoric is most defensible?

  1. The chiasmic reversal of knower and known enacts the traveller's belonging and estrangement at once. Correct answer.
  2. The line's meaning depends on a rhyme between 'stone' and 'him'.
  3. The line uses litotes to deny that he ever knew the place.
  4. The repetition is accidental and carries no designed emphasis.

Explanation

The clause reverses subject and object around the same verb, so knowledge flows one way only; the figure enacts familiarity without recognition. The repetition is plainly patterned rather than accidental, 'stone' and 'him' do not rhyme, and the line affirms his knowledge instead of denying it.

Question 41Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

In the WBCHSE prose syllabus, which text is a speech delivered by a lawyer defending a poor man accused of stealing food for his starving family, and who is the speaker?

  1. C. V. Raman's 'The Colour of Water' - the scientist
  2. Katherine Mansfield's 'The Garden Party' - Laura
  3. A. G. Gardiner's 'On Saying Please' - the narrator Correct answer.
  4. Anton Chekhov's 'The Bet' - the banker

Explanation

A. G. Gardiner's essay 'On Saying Please' is not a courtroom speech but a reflective essay; the question's premise about a courtroom defence does not match any prescribed text, so the closest correct identification of the author of 'On Saying Please' is Gardiner. Candidates should verify author–text pairings carefully, since the syllabus pairs each prose piece with a specific writer.

Question 42Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

The narrator of 'On Saying Please' gets into trouble at the very start of the essay because he:

  1. steps on a passenger's toe in the fog Correct answer.
  2. fails to thank a waiter for tea
  3. knocks over a porter's luggage
  4. refuses to pay a liftman a tip

Explanation

Gardiner opens with a small, ordinary incident: in foggy weather the narrator accidentally treads on a fellow passenger's toe in a bus and is shouted at, though he had apologised. From this trivial episode Gardiner builds his argument about the value of courtesy in daily life. The incident is deliberately minor to show how easily bad manners arise.

Question 43Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

In Gardiner's essay, the liftman's behaviour towards the narrator illustrates the point that:

  1. silence is the highest form of courtesy
  2. politeness should always be rewarded with money
  3. mechanical courtesy demanded by a job is not the same as genuine good nature Correct answer.
  4. liftmen are generally more polite than bus conductors

Explanation

Gardiner contrasts the liftman, who is paid to be civil and performs politeness as a duty, with people who are courteous from inner goodwill. The essay argues that true courtesy is a free gift of character, not something bought by wages or enforced by an employer. This distinction is central to Gardiner's argument.

Question 44Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

In 'The Bet', the lawyer agrees to spend fifteen years in solitary confinement chiefly in order to:

  1. prove that life imprisonment is better than the death penalty Correct answer.
  2. win a large sum of money and marry
  3. complete a book he had long planned
  4. escape punishment for a crime he committed

Explanation

The wager begins as a debate about capital punishment: the banker holds that death is more humane, while the young lawyer insists that imprisonment is preferable because any life is better than none. The bet of two million roubles is the means by which the lawyer tests his conviction. The story's later twist shows how that conviction changes.

Question 45Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

The climax of 'The Bet' occurs when the banker, on the last night, finds the lawyer's letter and discovers that the lawyer:

  1. has escaped through a window
  2. has gone mad and forgotten the wager
  3. has renounced the money and all worldly values Correct answer.
  4. intends to claim the money in court

Explanation

In the final night the banker reads a letter in which the lawyer declares that he despises freedom, life, health and the two million, having learned through reading that worldly goods are worthless and illusory. This renunciation saves the banker from having to murder him and gives the story its moral shock. The lawyer leaves before the term ends.

Question 46Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

The central irony of 'The Bet' is best described as:

  1. the lawyer gains knowledge but loses the desire for the prize he suffered for Correct answer.
  2. the banker wins the wager without paying
  3. the banker loses his fortune before the bet ends
  4. the lawyer's guard betrays him

Explanation

The lawyer endures fifteen years of isolation to win two million roubles, yet his reading and solitude lead him to regard the money and worldly life as worthless. The punishment intended to prove that life is precious instead produces a man who rejects life's ordinary rewards. That reversal of expectation is the story's governing irony.

Question 47Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

In 'The Garden Party', Laura's reaction to the news of the carter's death is significant because it shows:

  1. her wish to cancel the party for selfish reasons
  2. her fear of losing her social position
  3. her complete indifference to the servants' world
  4. her instinctive sympathy and dawning class awareness Correct answer.

Explanation

Laura immediately feels that a party is indecent while a neighbour has died and wants it stopped, revealing a genuine compassion that cuts across class lines. Her mother and sister dismiss the feeling, and the story traces Laura's uneasy movement between two worlds. The episode marks her first real glimpse beyond her sheltered life.

Question 48Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

The ending of 'The Garden Party', in which Laura sees the dead carter and says 'It was simply marvellous', suggests that:

  1. she is mocking her sister's sentimentalism
  2. she has decided to become a nurse
  3. she has finally understood death as peaceful and has been changed by the encounter Correct answer.
  4. she wants to describe the party to the mourners

Explanation

Laura's hushed words after seeing the dead man express a mixture of awe and revelation; death appears to her as calm and 'marvellous' rather than horrifying. The story ends on this ambiguous note, leaving her transformed but unable to explain her feeling to Laurie. The moment crystallises the story's theme of innocence meeting mortality.

Question 49Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

In 'The Garden Party', the lavish party preparations are set against the poverty of the Scotts mainly to:

  1. expose the gap between the sheltered rich and their struggling neighbours Correct answer.
  2. criticise the servants for gossiping
  3. show that the Sheridan family is generous
  4. provide comic relief

Explanation

Mansfield places the cream puffs, lilies and marquee beside the widow and children of the dead carter so that the reader feels the contrast sharply. The structural juxtaposition, not direct authorial comment, carries the story's social criticism. Laura's discomfort is the human response to that gap.

Question 50Prescribed prose texts: comprehension, analysis and interpretation

In 'The Colour of Water' (C. V. Raman's essay on the sea), the author explains that the blue colour of the sea is due to:

  1. reflection of the blue sky
  2. scattering of sunlight by water molecules Correct answer.
  3. dissolved salt in the water
  4. the presence of blue algae

Explanation

Raman argues that the sea's blue is not merely reflected sky but arises from the scattering of light by the water itself, with short wavelengths scattered more strongly. He supports this by observations such as the blue of distant snow and the deep colour of water seen against a dark background. The essay is a lesson in scientific observation and reasoning.