Passage – 2 I was beginning to tire a little now. I had been cutting steps continuously for two hours, and Tenzing, too, was moving very slowly. As I chipped steps around still another corner, I wondered rather dully just how long we could keep it up. Our original zest had now quite gone and it was turning more into a grim struggle. I then realised that the ridge ahead, instead of still monotonously rising, now dropped sharply away, and far below I could see the North Col and Rongbuk glacier. I looked upwards to see a narrow ridge running up to a snowy summit. A few more whacks of the ice-axe in the firm snow and we stood on top. Which of the following is the most appropriate description of the area in which the narrator had been moving ?
- (a)A steep rocky slope
- (b)A peak with a flight of steps
- (c)A high peak covered with snow
- (d)A long ridge
Correct — C, A high peak covered with snow. Everything the narrator handles is snow — he cuts steps for two hours, whacks the ice-axe into 'firm snow', and climbs a narrow ridge 'running up to a snowy summit' with the North Col and Rongbuk glacier far below, which places him high on a snow-covered peak.
- (a)A steep rocky slope — Rock is never mentioned; the surface he cuts into and finally stands on is snow, and an ice-axe would be useless for cutting steps in rock.
- (b)A peak with a flight of steps — The steps are not a feature of the mountain at all — the narrator is cutting them himself as he climbs, which is why the going is so slow.
- (d)A long ridge — A ridge is mentioned, but it is described as narrow and it is only the last stretch; it does not describe the whole snow-covered area he had been moving through.
A comprehension item asking for the setting of a passage about a climb toward a snowy summit with Tenzing.
Setting questions are answered by collecting the physical nouns scattered through the passage rather than by any single sentence. Here snow, ice-axe, snowy summit, North Col and glacier all point the same way.
- Choosing a detail that appears in the passage but describes only one stretch of the ground covered.
Asked as a comprehension item requiring the setting to be built from several physical details rather than one line.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Read the lines and answer. 'Sand blew across the track, the water bottles were nearly dry, and no shade had been sighted since dawn.' The travellers were moving through
- (a)a desert
- (b)a marsh
- (c)a dense forest
- (d)a snowfield
Answer(a) a desert — the sand, the shortage of water and the absence of shade together fix the setting.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Read the lines and answer. 'The deck tilted, spray stung his face, and the coastline had long since dropped out of sight.' The narrator was
- (a)on a hill
- (b)at sea
- (c)in a harbour
- (d)on a river bank
Answer(b) at sea — deck, spray and a vanished coastline place him on open water.