Question 23
MediumOriginal questionThe science fair was at ten, and at a quarter to ten Irfan's volcano was a very cone of clay that did absolutely nothing.
He had tested it twice at home. Both times, when he poured vinegar into the baking soda, red foam had come rushing out of the top and down the sides, and his little brother had screamed with . Now, with the judges two tables away, he poured, and waited, and the volcano gave a small, sad bubble and stopped.
His friend Neha leaned over. "Did you use the same baking soda?"
He had not. At home, his mother had given him a fresh packet. This morning, in a hurry, he had taken the old tin from the back of the cupboard.
There was no time to buy more. So when the judges arrived, Irfan did not show them an . He showed them the sad bubble, and then he told them why it was sad: that the old baking soda had lost most of its power, that the needed fresh powder to make enough gas, and that he had learnt more about it in the last fifteen minutes than in the whole of the week before.
He did not win. But one of the judges wrote something on her sheet, and at the end of the day she came back to shake his hand.
What did Irfan decide to show the judges instead of an eruption?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The story says he "showed them the sad bubble, and then he told them why it was sad".
He turned the failure into an explanation of the science.
Worth noting
There was "no time to buy more", so he could not make a new, working volcano.
- Concept
- Following what a character chooses to do
- Typical timeTypical
- 50 s
- Your timeYours
- —
Ten questions from Narrative passages, at your own pace.