Question 287
MediumOriginal questionMeenal had written her speech school uniforms, and she had written it well. She had practised it in front of the mirror, in front of her brother, and once, to his great , in front of her brother's friends. She knew it so well that she could have said it backwards.
Then the speaker, a quiet boy from the other school, stood up first and made every one of her points for her, and answered them.
He said that uniforms were meant to hide the difference between rich and poor, and then he pointed out, gently, that everyone could still tell whose uniform was new and whose had been worn by three older sisters. He said that uniforms saved time in the morning, and then he asked how much time his own mother had spent saving for a .
By the time Meenal walked to the microphone, her speech was a pile of arguments he had already knocked down. She looked at the first line, the one she had practised most, and could not make herself say it.
"I was going to tell you uniforms make us equal," she heard herself say. "I think I was wrong about why. They don't make us equal. They just make it harder to see when we're not. Maybe that's still worth something. I'm not sure."
She sat down to a silence she was certain was the worst she had ever caused. Then the quiet boy from the other school began to clap.
Why could Meenal not say the first line of her speech?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The first speaker had already answered all her points, so her speech had become "a pile of arguments he had already knocked down".
She could not make herself say a line she no longer fully believed.
Worth noting
The story says she knew the speech so well she could say it backwards. Forgetting is not the reason.
- Concept
- Inferring a character's reason from events
- Typical timeTypical
- 50 s
- Your timeYours
- —
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