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 author calls the tiny bat an “interesting visitor”. This means
- (a)the bat visits him at night
- (b)the bat is interested in the moths
- (c)this bat has peculiar qualities
- (d)this bat surprises him by zooming in and out like a dive-bomber
Correct — C, this bat has peculiar qualities. The word 'interesting' is earned by everything that marks this bat off from the rest: it prefers the door and takes the window only if it must, it flies low while 'all the bats I have seen fly fairly high', it weaves among chair legs and under tables, and once it passed straight between the author's legs. 'Peculiar' means belonging to this one and to no other, which is exactly what that run of contrasts establishes.
- (a)the bat visits him at night — Coming at night explains the word 'visitor' and when the visit happens. It makes the bat regular, not interesting, and every bat is abroad at night.
- (b)the bat is interested in the moths — Chasing moths round a lamp is what any bat would do, and the passage gives it as the reason for the visit rather than as anything remarkable about this one.
- (d)this bat surprises him by zooming in and out like a dive-bomber — This is true but too narrow. The dive-bomber flight is one of several oddities, alongside the preference for the door and the pass between the author's legs, and only the general option accounts for all of them.
A comprehension item on why a writer chose a particular word, answered by gathering the details that justify it.
Option (d) is the real competitor, because it quotes the most vivid image in the passage. The test is coverage: 'interesting' is supported by four separate oddities, and the dive-bomber flight is only one of them. When one option names a single instance and another names the class it belongs to, and the passage supplies several instances, the class is the answer.
- 'Peculiar' has two senses — strange, and belonging exclusively to one person or thing — and both fit a bat that behaves unlike every other the writer has seen.
- The passage supplies at least four distinguishing habits: the choice of the door, the low flight, the weaving among furniture and the pass between the author's legs.
- The author's phrase is 'my most interesting visitor', a superlative, which points to a comparison with other bats rather than to any one act.
- Choosing the most vivid option when a broader one covers more of the evidence.
- Explaining 'interesting' by something true of every bat rather than of this one.
Asked as a comprehension item in which one wrong option is a genuine detail that accounts for only part of the answer.
Magda : Good morning, Mrs. Smiles. It's wet, isn't it? Mrs. Smiles : Yes, it is, isn't it? How are you today? All right? You haven't been studying too hard, have you? You look a bit pale. Magda : I don't, do I? Well, I haven't been out much lately. I don't like this weather a bit. Why, we haven't had a dry day for weeks, have we? Mrs. Smiles : No, I don't think we have. Let's see, you'll be going back home next month, won't you? Magda : Oh no, I'm not going back yet. My sister's coming over first. Mrs. Smiles : Oh, is she? You're looking forward to that, I expect. How long is it since you saw her? Magda : Nearly a year now. Yes, I am looking forward to it very much. Mrs. Smiles : She's coming over here to study? Magda : Yes, that's right. I shan't go back home until she's settled down. I don't think I ought to, ought I? Mrs. Smiles : Well, no, she's younger than you are, is she? Magda : Yes, she's only eighteen. Mrs. Smiles says, "You're looking forward to that." This means, Magda was _____ her sister's arrival.
- (a) expecting with pleasure
- (b) preparing hard for
- (c) thinking greatly about
- (d) watching with joy
Answer(a) expecting with pleasure
Both quote a phrase the speaker used and ask what it conveys, and both surround the answer with options that are near misses rather than plain errors. The way through each is to test every option against the whole of what the passage says, not against the phrase alone.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In 'this bat has peculiar qualities', the word 'peculiar' means
- (a)unpleasant
- (b)belonging to this one and unlike the rest
- (c)very common
- (d)poisonous
Answer(b) belonging to this one and unlike the rest.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of these does the passage NOT give as an unusual habit of this bat?
- (a)flying in low
- (b)weaving among chair legs
- (c)hanging from the ceiling all night
- (d)preferring the open door to the window
Answer(c) hanging from the ceiling all night — the passage never says it.