Question 191
MediumOriginal questionOn his first day as an in the tailoring shop, Imran expected to sew. Instead, Ustad Karim gave him a box of buttons and told him to sort them.
On the second day, he sorted thread. On the third day, he swept the floor, and on the fourth he sorted the buttons again, because a customer's child had knocked the box over.
By the end of the second week, Imran was angry. "When will I learn to sew?" he asked.
The old tailor did not look up from his machine. "Tell me," he said, "how many kinds of white thread do we have?"
"Four," said Imran at once. "Cotton, silk, the thick one for buttons, and the cheap one for ."
"And where are the small pearl buttons?"
"Third drawer, left side, behind the ones."
Ustad Karim stopped the machine. "A tailor who does not know his own shop," he said, "spends half his day looking for things. You have learnt the shop. Tomorrow, you will learn to use the measuring tape."
On the next day, Imran measured his first customer. His hands shook a little, but he knew exactly where everything was, and when the old man asked for chalk, he had it ready before the sentence was finished.
What is the main idea of the story?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
Imran thought he was learning nothing, but sorting and sweeping taught him where everything in the shop was.
The tailor says a tailor who does not know his shop wastes half his day.
Worth noting
The ending shows the tasks were useful, so they were not a waste of time.
- Concept
- Finding the central idea of a story
- Typical timeTypical
- 45 s
- Your timeYours
- —
Ten questions from Narrative passages, at your own pace.