READING COMPREHENSION

 Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Lying in bed, Swami realized with a shudder that it was Monday morning. It looked as though only a moment ago it had been the last period on Friday; already Monday was here. He hoped that an earthquake would reduce the school building to dust, but that was a good building—Albert Mission School—had withstood similar prayers for over a hundred years now. At nine O’clock Swaminathan wailed, “I have a headache.” His mother said,

“Why don’t you go to school in a bullock cart?”

“So that I may be completely dead at the other end? Have you any idea what it is. means to be jolted in a cart?”

“Have you any important lessons today?”

“Important! Bah! That geography teacher has been teaching the same lesson for over a year now. And we have arithmetic, which means for a whole period we are going to be beaten by the teacher Important lessons!”

And Mother generously suggested that Swami might stay at home.

At 9:30, when he ought to have been lining up in the school prayer hall, Swami was lying on the bench in Mother’s room. Father asked him, “Have you no school today?”

“Headache,” Swami replied,

“Nonsense! Dress up and go.”

“Headache.”

“Loaf about less on Sundays and you will be without a headache on Monday.”

Swami knew how stubborn his father could be and changed his tactics. “I can’t go so late to class.”

“I agree, but you’ll have to; it is your own fault. You should have asked me before deciding to stay away.”

“What will the teacher think if I go so late?”

“Tell him you had a headache and so are late.”

“He will beat me if I say so.”

“Will he? Let us see. What is his name?”

“Mr Samuel.”

“Does he beat the boys?”

“He is very violent, especially with boys who come late. Some days ago a boy was made to stay on his knees for a whole period in a corner of the class because he came late, and that after getting six cuts from the cane and having his ears twisted. I wouldn’t like to go late to Mr Samuel’s class.”

“If he is so violent, why not tell your headmaster about it?”

 

“They say that even the headmaster is afraid of him. He is such a violent man.”

And then Swami gave a lurid account of Samuel’s violence; how when he started caning he would not stop till he saw blood on the boy’s hand, which he made the boy press to his forehead like a Vermillion marking. Swami hoped that his father would be made to see that he couldn’t go to his class late. But father’s behaviour took an unexpected turn. He became excited. “What do these people mean by beating our children? They must be driven out of service. I will see…..”

The result was he proposed to send Swami late to his class as a kind of challenge. He was also going to send a letter with Swami to the headmaster. No amount of protest from Swami was of any avail: Swami had to go to school.

By the time he was ready, father had composed a long letter to the headmaster, put in an envelope and sealed it.

“What have you written, father?” Swaminathan asked apprehensively.

“Nothing for you. Give it to your headmaster and go to your class.”

Swami’s father did not know the truth, that actually Mr Samuel was a very kind and gentleman.

(a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage. [3]

One word answers or short phrases will be accepted.

jolted (line 8)

stubborn (line 20)

avail (line 44)

(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

What did Swami wish for on a Monday morning? Why was his wish unlikely to be answered? [2]

Which sentence tells us that Swami’s father was completely unsympathetic to his son’s headache? [2]

In what way was Swami’s mother’s response different from his father’s? [2]

Why did Swami give a colourful account of Mr Samuel to his father? [2]

In what way did father’s behaviour take an unexpected turn? [2]

What was Swami finally ordered to do by his father? [2]

(c)

(i) In not more than 60 words describe how Swami tries to prove that Mr Samuel is a violent man. [8]

(ii) Give a title to your summary in 3(c). Give a reason to justify your choice. [2]

Answer:

(a)

jolted—be shaken roughly

stubborn—obstinate

avail—use