Question 315
MediumOriginal questionMr Fernandes had taught mathematics at St Joseph's for thirty-six years, and on his last day he taught the same lesson he taught every Friday: a problem on the board, and forty minutes to solve it.
The students had planned a . There was a card with everyone's names, a cake in the and a speech that Rhea had rewritten six times. But Mr Fernandes walked in, nodded at the class, and began writing numbers on the board as if it were any other Friday.
Rhea looked at the others. Nobody quite knew what to do. So they did what they always did: they opened their notebooks and started working.
The problem was harder than usual. For twenty minutes the only sound was on the board and pencils on paper. Then, one by one, the students began to see it. Rhea saw it last, and when she did, she looked up and found Mr Fernandes watching her, the way he always did, waiting for that exact moment.
When the bell rang, he put the chalk down.
"Every Friday for thirty-six years," he said, "I have watched somebody understand something they did not understand at the start of the lesson. It is the best thing I know." He paused. "I wanted to see it one more time."
Rhea never gave her speech. Nobody in the room thought it was needed.
The mood of the story's ending is best described as
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The ending is calm: chalk put down, a short speech about what mattered to him, and a room that understands.
The feeling is gentle and deeply felt rather than loud.
Worth noting
There is no cake-and-celebration scene; the farewell happens quietly in the lesson.
- Concept
- Identifying the mood of an ending
- Typical timeTypical
- 45 s
- Your timeYours
- —
Ten questions from Narrative passages, at your own pace.