Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The gaps in the wall are made by hunters.

The poem opens 'The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair where they have left not one stone on a stone, but they would have the rabbit out of hiding, to please the yelping dogs.' The hunters pull stones down in search of rabbits, and the speaker repairs what they leave.

Rabbits and dogs are what the hunters are after and what they please, not the ones who break the wall. The poem says that no one sees the gaps being made, but the first lines name the hunters as the cause; nature is not given as a cause.

Answer: A

The neighbours meet in the spring season to fill the gaps in the wall.

The extract says 'at spring mending-time we find them there' (the gaps), and then 'on a day we meet to walk the line and set the wall between us once again'. They meet to repair the wall that stands between their land, which means filling the gaps.

They do walk along the line, but the walk is the way of finding the gaps, not the purpose. The poem does not say they meet to find out who broke the wall, as the hunters did and no one saw them do it, and lifting the stones is part of the repair and not the reason for meeting.

Answer: D

The neighbours use a spell to fix the irregular stones in the wall.

The extract says that some of the boulders are 'loaves' and some 'so nearly balls' and 'We have to use a spell to make them balance'. The spell, 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned !', is said to make the awkward, irregular stones stay balanced in place.

The spell has nothing to do with looking for rabbits or counting stones. The stones are not made to 'obey' in general; the purpose stated is to make them balance in the wall.

Answer: D

On the key's reading, the figure of speech in lines 9-10 is irony.

Lines 9 and 10 read 'And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again.' The neighbours come together in order to put a barrier between them, so an act of meeting is used to keep apart. The sense is the opposite of what the meeting would suggest, which is the nature of irony.

There is no like or as, so it is not a simile, and the lines do not give a human quality to a thing or call one thing another, so they are not personification or metaphor. The reading rests on the gap between the meeting and its purpose; the key could not be checked against a published commentary.

Answer: B

The figure of speech is a metaphor.

In 'And some are loaves and some so nearly balls', the stones are said to be loaves and balls, a direct identification without 'like' or 'as'. That implied comparison, describing the stones' rounded shapes by calling them loaves of bread and balls, is a metaphor.

A simile would make the comparison explicit with 'like' or 'as' ('some are like loaves'). Personification gives human qualities to things, which is not happening in this line. Irony says the opposite of what is meant or shows a contrast between expectation and reality, which the line does not do.

Answer: C

The hunters' main aim is to catch the rabbits.

The first lines say 'they would have the rabbit out of hiding, to please the yelping dogs'. The hunters pull the wall down to drive the rabbit out and catch it, and the speaker repairs the damage.

Pleasing the dogs is a side effect, not the aim, and the hunters do not intend to remove the stones for their own sake. They do not intend to make the neighbours rebuild the wall; that is an unintended result of their hunting.

Answer: D

Some people stroll alongside even after the train has started moving because the doors are still open.

The second paragraph says the train 'simply draws out of the station while people stroll alongside and with studied nonchalance, clamber on, one after the other through the still-open doors.' The open doors are what let them board while the train moves.

The passage does not say they reached the platform late, that they want to enjoy the scene outside, or that they enjoy boarding a moving train; these are guesses about their motives, while the open doors are stated.

Answer: B

What can prevent you from enjoying the train trip is that you are lonely by temperament.

The third paragraph says that you can make friends and allies quickly, 'or be anti-social and lonely for the whole of the journey', and adds 'Of course, it depends on your personality'. Isolating yourself, which suits a lonely temperament, spoils the trip, since 'you can't isolate yourself completely on a train'.

Strangers around you are the company you can make friends with, not an obstacle. Worry about luggage is solved by finding an ally to watch it, and the passage never says that other travellers might not trust you.

Answer: C

The statement that is not true is that the narrator does not enjoy a picnic in the train.

The narrator says Indians prepare properly for train travel 'so it becomes a picnic on wheels' and that 'I get excited when I am part of it'. So the narrator does enjoy it.

The other three are in the last paragraph: the excitement of moving on to a new place, the pleasure at the new acquaintances the narrator is going to make, and the thrill at the dissolving of the city skyline into rural landscape beyond the windows.

Answer: A

You are well informed about your fellow passengers even before you have entered the compartment.

The first paragraph says you have found your name on the passenger's list, 'together with the names of those in the compartment with you', so you already know your fellow passengers' names, ages, sex and destination. This is before boarding.

The passage does not say you learn about them after introductions, after interacting with them, or once you have settled in your seats.