"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
Correct — C, 'one gentleman from the audience'. The conjuror asks for the hat before he begins — 'Will some gentleman kindly lend me his hat? Ah, thank you' — and the thanks show that somebody in the hall handed one up. The seventeen eggs then come out of that borrowed hat.
- (a)the Quick Man — The Quick Man is placed on the front seat and does nothing but whisper; the passage never says he lent anything.
- (b)his own — The request to borrow a hat is the whole set-up of the trick.
- (d)None of the above — One option is supported word for word by the request and the thanks that follow it.
A detail item is answered by finding the line, not by recalling how such tricks are usually done.
The borrowing matters to the trick itself: a hat handed up by a stranger is supposed to prove that nothing was in it beforehand. That is why the conjuror asks for one, and it is also why the Quick Man's answer takes aim at the sleeve rather than at the hat. Two small words in the passage carry the whole answer — 'lend' and 'thank you'.
- The number of eggs the passage gives is seventeen.
- The conjuror's 'Ah, thank you' marks the moment the hat is handed over.
- The Quick Man's explanation for this trick is a hen up the sleeve, not anything about the hat.
- Answering from general knowledge of conjuring instead of from the text.
- Choosing 'None of the above' when one option is directly supported.
Asked as a straight detail item on the passage.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
How many eggs did the conjuror take from the hat?
- (a)seven
- (b)seventeen
- (c)seventy
- (d)twelve
Answer(b) seventeen — the passage states the number.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The conjuror obtained the hat by
- (a)buying it
- (b)borrowing it from the audience
- (c)using his own
- (d)taking it from the Quick Man
Answer(b) borrowing it from the audience — he asks a gentleman to lend him one.