My most interesting visitor comes at night, when the lights are still burning — a tiny bat who prefers to fly in through the open door, and will use the window only if there is no alternative. His object in entering the house is to snap up the moths that cluster around the lamps. All the bats I have seen fly fairly high, keeping near the ceiling; but this particular bat flies in low, like a dive-bomber, zooming in and out of chair legs and under tables. Once, he passed straight between my legs. Has his radar gone wrong, I wondered, or is he just plain crazy ? The bat entered the room
- (a)because there was no alternative
- (b)to eat the moths round the lamps
- (c)as it had gone mad
- (d)as it preferred to fly in through the open door
Correct — B, to eat the moths round the lamps. The passage gives the reason outright — 'His object in entering the house is to snap up the moths that cluster around the lamps.' To snap up is to catch and swallow quickly, so option (b) is that sentence in plainer words.
- (a)because there was no alternative — The passage uses 'no alternative' about the window, not about coming in at all: the bat 'prefers to fly in through the open door, and will use the window only if there is no alternative'.
- (c)as it had gone mad — Madness is raised only in the author's closing question, and he settles nothing there. It is in any case a guess about how the bat flies, not a reason for its coming.
- (d)as it preferred to fly in through the open door — That is how the bat gets in, not why it comes. The stem asks for the purpose of the visit, and the passage names a different thing as its object.
A detail item asking for a purpose, answered by the one sentence in which the passage states that purpose.
Every wrong option here is a true statement about the bat, which is what makes them dangerous. The stem asks why the bat entered, and only one sentence in the passage answers a why-question — the one that begins 'His object in entering the house is …'. The door, the window and the wild flying all belong to how it comes and how it behaves once inside.
- 'Object' in this sentence means aim or purpose, not a thing.
- 'Snap up' means to seize and eat quickly.
- Moths gather around lamps at night, which is what brings the bat indoors while the lights are still burning.
- Choosing a statement that the passage makes but that does not answer the stem.
- Carrying 'no alternative' across from the window to the entry itself.
Asked as a detail item where three of the four options repeat true statements from the passage that answer a different question.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen," said the conjuror, "having shown you that the cloth is absolutely empty, I will proceed to take from it a bowl of goldfish. Presto !" All around the hall people were saying, "Oh, how wonderful ! How does he do it?" But the Quick Man on the front seat said in a big whisper to the people near him, "He-had-it-up-his-sleeve." Then the people nodded brightly at the Quick Man and said, "Oh, of course"; and everybody whispered round the hall, "He-had-it-up-his-sleeve." "My next trick," said the conjuror, "is the famous Hindostanee rings. You will notice that the rings are apparently separate; at a blow they all join (clang, clang, clang)—Presto !" There was a general buzz of stupefaction till the Quick Man was heard to whisper, "He-must-have-had-another-lot-up-his-sleeve." Again everybody nodded and whispered, "The-rings-were-up-his-sleeve." The brow of the conjuror was clouded with a gathering frown. "I will now," he continued, "show you a most amusing trick by which I am enabled to take any number of eggs from a hat. Will some gentleman kindly lend me his hat? Ah, thank you—Presto !" He extracted seventeen eggs, and for thirty-five seconds the audience began to think that he was wonderful. Then the Quick Man whispered along the front bench, "He-has-a-hen-up-his-sleeve," and all the people whispered it on. "He-has-a-lot-of-hens-up-his-sleeve." The egg trick was ruined. It went on like that all through. It transpired from the whispers of the Quick Man that the conjuror must have concealed up his sleeve, in addition to the rings, hens, and fish, several packs of cards, a loaf of bread, a doll's cradle, a live guinea pig, a fifty-cent piece, and a rocking chair. The conjuror extracted seventeen eggs from the hat of
- (a) the Quick Man
- (b) his own
- (c) one gentleman from the audience
- (d) None of the above
Answer(c) one gentleman from the audience
Both are straight detail items answered by a single line, and both reward finding that line instead of reasoning from what usually happens. There the borrowed hat is settled by the words 'Will some gentleman kindly lend me his hat? Ah, thank you'; here the bat's purpose is settled by the sentence beginning 'His object in entering the house is …'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'His object in entering the house is to snap up the moths.' Here 'object' means
- (a)a thing that can be touched
- (b)an objection
- (c)an aim or purpose
- (d)a complaint
Answer(c) an aim or purpose.
- practice — not a real PYQ
According to the passage, the bat uses the window
- (a)always
- (b)only when there is no alternative
- (c)never
- (d)when the lights are off
Answer(b) only when there is no alternative.