The Repair Café's Reluctant Founder
At the repair café in a Utrecht community centre, three Saturdays a month, forty volunteers fix broken toasters, lamps and bicycles. Last year they repaired 120 items and kept an estimated 900 kilograms of waste out of incinerators. Founder Marit Vos, a retired engineer, says: 'I never planned to run a small movement. I just hated throwing away a good plug. Now people arrive with things I cannot fix, and I have to say no. That is the hard part.' She adds that the café is 'a small victory against a throwaway economy, but only a small one.' A local newspaper recently described the café as 'a roaring success'. Marit shrugged when shown the phrase. A HAVO student is practising inference questions. She has to decide what the text suggests about Marit's attitude and how the newspaper's label compares with Marit's own view. She must avoid choosing an answer that is supported by only one word.
1. What does Marit's comment 'I just hated throwing away a good plug' mainly reveal about her motivation? Explain how two other details in the text support your answer.
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The comment points to a personal, practical irritation with waste, not a plan to lead a movement. Support: (1) she says she 'never planned to run a small movement', which confirms the café grew out of her habit rather than ambition; (2) she calls it 'a small victory ... but only a small one', which limits any claim of triumph; (3) she shrugs at the newspaper's phrase 'a roaring success', showing she does not accept the label. A weak answer would say only 'she cares about the environment'; the text gives a more specific motive: dislike of discarding usable objects.
2. A classmate writes: 'Marit is proud because the café is a roaring success.' Using two details from the text, explain why this answer is incomplete or misleading.
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The phrase 'roaring success' is the newspaper's wording, not Marit's. The text says she 'shrugged when shown the phrase', which suggests distance, embarrassment or disagreement rather than pride. Her own description is 'a small victory ... but only a small one', which explicitly downplays the achievement. The classmate has confused an external label with the founder's attitude. A complete answer would separate the journalist's evaluation from Marit's modest, waste-focused motivation.
3. What is the function of the numbers 'forty volunteers', '120 items' and '900 kilograms' in the opening? Do they prove Marit's attitude?
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They give concrete scale and impact: how many people help, how many repairs are done, and roughly how much waste is avoided. This makes the café's activity credible and measurable. They do not prove Marit's attitude: statistics show output, not feelings. Her attitude has to be inferred from her words ('I just hated...', 'only a small one') and her shrug. The numbers support the newspaper's positive label, but the text deliberately contrasts that label with Marit's own modest view.