"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 brow of the conjuror was clouded with a gathering frown." The sentence means that the conjuror
- (a)was very pleased
- (b)was very sad
- (c)was rather angry
- (d)was very afraid
Correct — C, 'was rather angry'. A brow that clouds and a frown that gathers are the standard English picture of rising displeasure, and the passage has just supplied the cause: the Quick Man has explained away two tricks in a row and the whole hall has taken up his whisper. The sentence stands alone as a paragraph between the ruined rings trick and the conjuror's next announcement, which is where the temper turns.
- (a)was very pleased — A clouded brow is the picture of the opposite; pleasure shows as a clear or bright face.
- (b)was very sad — The frown answers a slight to his skill rather than any loss, and what he does next is announce another trick, not grieve.
- (d)was very afraid — Nothing in the hall threatens him; he is being belittled, not endangered.
'The brow was clouded' and 'a gathering frown' are both weather images borrowed for the face, and both signal displeasure building up rather than any single sudden feeling.
Read the sentence together with the paragraphs on either side of it. Before it the crowd has just repeated 'The-rings-were-up-his-sleeve'; after it the conjuror announces the egg trick. That setting decides between anger and sadness — his skill has been dismissed in public, and the word 'gathering' shows the feeling growing rather than passing off. The passage is the opening of Stephen Leacock's sketch 'The Conjurer's Revenge', from his collection Literary Lapses.
- 'Cloud' as a verb, and 'gather' used with 'frown', are weather words applied to the face.
- The option says 'rather angry', which matches irritation building up rather than open fury.
- Leacock's sketch is titled 'The Conjurer's Revenge', and the title itself points to anger rather than sorrow.
- Pairing a frown with sadness rather than with displeasure.
- Reading the quoted line on its own and skipping the paragraphs around it.
Asked as a comprehension item on the meaning of a figurative sentence in the passage.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'His face fell when he heard the news' means that he
- (a)looked disappointed
- (b)bent forward
- (c)was injured
- (d)smiled broadly
Answer(a) looked disappointed — a fallen face is the picture of disappointment.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In a piece of prose, a 'gathering storm' usually suggests
- (a)trouble building up
- (b)trouble that has passed
- (c)a sudden joy
- (d)a change of place
Answer(a) trouble building up — 'gathering' carries the sense of something growing.