Question 123
MediumOriginal questionThe water arrived at the school a day before it was expected, which was the only reason anyone was still there to see it. Mrs Baruah had come in on the Sunday to move the library books to the upper floor, and she had brought her son Dipen to carry the heavy boxes.
By noon the playground was a brown lake. By two, it was at the second step. Dipen, who was fourteen and had spent the morning complaining about the boxes, stopped complaining.
They carried everything they could reach: the books, the new computer, the that held forty years of names. When the stairs to the ground floor had disappeared under the water, they sat on the upper landing and watched it , slowly and quite calmly, into the classroom where Dipen had learnt to read.
"We saved the books," his mother said. It was not quite a question.
"Not the benches," said Dipen. "Not the blackboards." He was quiet for a while. "Not the drawings on the wall."
The rescue boat came at . Dipen climbed in last. From the water he looked back at the upper windows, where rows of books stood safe and dry behind the glass, and found that he was not sure whether he wanted to laugh or to cry.
A month later, when the school opened again in borrowed rooms, the library was the first thing to be unpacked.
"It was not quite a question." This suggests that Mrs Baruah's words "We saved the books"
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
"Not quite a question" means she was stating it, but also half asking for reassurance that it was true and that it mattered.
Dipen's reply, listing what they had not saved, answers that unspoken question.
Worth noting
Nothing in the scene is angry or joking. It is a quiet moment of loss.
- Concept
- Understanding a remark about how something was said
- Typical timeTypical
- 40 s
- Your timeYours
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Ten questions from Narrative passages, at your own pace.