Inference in a Short Story Opening
Read this short passage and answer the questions that follow. ‘The key turned easily, which surprised Elsa. She had expected the lock to be stiff after eleven years. Inside, the air was cold and smelled of pencil shavings. On the desk stood a photograph face down. She did not turn it over. Instead she counted the drawers: one, two, three, four. Each was empty except the last, which held a single red pencil, sharpened to a point.’ A question asks: ‘Which sentence best explains why Elsa does not turn over the photograph?’ The options are: A) She is afraid of what the photograph might show. B) She is not interested in old photographs. C) She has already seen the photograph. D) She is in a hurry to leave the room. A pupil chooses B because Elsa ignores the photograph and looks at the drawers. The teacher asks the pupil to check each option against the evidence and to explain the effect of the word ‘cold’ in the description.
1. Which option is best supported? Explain why B is tempting but weaker than A, and why C and D are not supported.
Read the worked answer
Answer: A is the best-supported option, though the passage implies it rather than stating it.
B is tempting because Elsa does turn away from the photograph and counts drawers instead. But ‘not interested’ does not fit the detail that she notices the photograph is face down and deliberately does not turn it over. A person with no interest might ignore it entirely; Elsa’s avoidance looks active.
A is stronger because the description creates unease: the air is cold, the photograph is face down, and she chooses not to look. ‘Afraid’ is an inference, not a fact, but it is the best fit among the options.
C is unsupported: nothing says she has seen it before; even if she had, she might still turn it over. D is unsupported: there is no mention of hurry, and counting four drawers suggests she is not rushing away.
2. What is the effect of the word ‘cold’? Use one other detail from the passage to support your answer.
Read the worked answer
Answer: ‘Cold’ creates an unwelcoming, slightly eerie mood. It makes the room feel abandoned or unused after eleven years, and it prepares the reader for Elsa’s uneasy behaviour.
One supporting detail is ‘smelled of pencil shavings’: this suggests the room has been closed up and unchanged for a long time. Another is the photograph ‘face down’, which hints at something hidden or avoided. Together, these details make Elsa’s decision not to turn the photograph over feel significant rather than accidental.
3. Grammar: In ‘The key turned easily, which surprised Elsa’, what does ‘which’ refer to, and what kind of clause does it introduce?
Read the worked answer
Answer: ‘Which’ refers to the whole fact that the key turned easily. It does not refer only to ‘the key’ or only to ‘easily’.
It introduces a non-defining relative clause. The comma matters: it shows that the clause is adding extra comment, not identifying which key is meant. A defining clause would not normally take a comma and would use ‘that’ rather than ‘which’ in careful standard English. So the clause is best described as a non-defining relative clause commenting on the preceding statement.