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 ? After comparing the habits of the tiny bat with those of other bats, the author was
- (a)sure that this bat had lost its direction
- (b)not sure of its preferences
- (c)surprised to find that it was an expert flier
- (d)unable to give the correct explanation for its behaviour
Correct — D, unable to give the correct explanation for its behaviour. The passage closes on a question with two guesses and no verdict — 'Has his radar gone wrong, I wondered, or is he just plain crazy?' Putting up two possibilities and choosing neither is exactly the position option (d) describes.
- (a)sure that this bat had lost its direction — The faulty radar is only the first of the two guesses, and the 'or' that follows shows the author is not resting on it.
- (b)not sure of its preferences — The bat's preferences are the one thing the passage is sure about: it prefers to fly in through the open door and will use the window only if there is no alternative.
- (c)surprised to find that it was an expert flier — The author describes the low flying as odd rather than skilful. His response to it is puzzlement about the bat's navigation, not admiration of its flying.
A comprehension item on the author's state of mind at the end of the passage, decided by the fact that his last sentence is a question.
The comparison in the stem is the one the passage itself draws, between all the bats the author has seen and this one. Having drawn it, he does not explain the difference; he asks about it. That is why the option describing an unresolved puzzle beats the option that adopts one of his two guesses. Notice also that a wild-looking flight can be read as either incompetence or skill, and the author never decides which, which is why the option about an expert flier cannot be right either.
- A question mark at the end of a passage usually means the writer has left the matter open.
- 'Or' between two guesses shows that neither has been accepted.
- Bats find their way by echolocation, which is why the author reaches for the word 'radar' when the flying looks misjudged.
- Choosing the first of the two guesses because it is stated first and sounds definite.
- Turning the author's puzzlement into admiration because the flying is described vividly.
Asked as an inference item where the passage ends on a question and the wrong options each settle it in one direction.
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. ‘It was turning more into a grim struggle’ would mean
- (a) that after the long exertion he was feeling so weak that any further climbing meant a hard struggle with the forces of nature
- (b) that Tenzing was making the task more difficult
- (c) that strong cold wind was pushing him down from above and that he had to struggle with the forces of nature
- (d) that he was in a mood to give up ultimately
Answer(a) that after the long exertion he was feeling so weak that any further climbing meant a hard struggle with the forces of nature
Both ask what the narrator is feeling rather than what happened, and both offer wrong options that add a cause the passage never gives. There the cold wind is imported into the climber's exhaustion; here a faulty radar is promoted from a guess to a finding.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The author's attitude to the tiny bat at the end of the passage is best described as
- (a)puzzled
- (b)frightened
- (c)angry
- (d)indifferent
Answer(a) puzzled — he asks a question and answers it neither way.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Bats find their way in the dark chiefly by
- (a)smell
- (b)reflected sound
- (c)moonlight
- (d)touching walls
Answer(b) reflected sound — which is why the author calls it the bat's radar.