Question 150
HardOriginal questionEvery morning at five forty, the first bus from the stopped at the corner of Station Road, and every morning the same old woman got on with a steel and a folded umbrella, whatever the weather.
Harish, the driver, had been on the route for nine years. He knew that she worked in the kitchen of a hospital across the river, that she sat in the second seat on the left, and that she said "Ram Ram" when she got on and "Jai Shri Krishna" when she got off. He did not know her name.
One Monday she was not at the corner.
Harish waited, which he was not supposed to do. He waited one minute, then two. A passenger in the back began to complain. Harish pulled away, but he drove the rest of the route more slowly than usual, looking at every stop as if she might be at the wrong one.
On Tuesday she was back, with a on her wrist.
"I slipped," she said, before he could ask. "Only a ."
Harish nodded, and took her tiffin carrier and put it on the seat for her, which in nine years he had never done.
"You waited yesterday," she said. "The conductor on the second bus told me. You made them all late."
"Only two minutes," said Harish.
"Two minutes," she said, sitting down, "is a long time to be missed."
What does the old woman mean by "Two minutes is a long time to be missed"?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
Harish said he waited "only two minutes". She turns his words around: to be missed at all, for two minutes, means a great deal.
She is thanking him for noticing her absence.
Worth noting
She does not scold him for making others late; she is touched that he waited.
- Concept
- Interpreting a character's key line
- Typical timeTypical
- 55 s
- Your timeYours
- —
Ten questions from Narrative passages, at your own pace.