Read the below passage and answer the questions:
I had a peculiar method of wandering without very much pain along the stormy path of life, although, in a physical as well as in a moral sense, I wandered almost barefoot, - I hoped, hoped from day to day; in the morning my hopes rested on evening, in the evening on the morning; in the autumn upon the spring, in spring upon the autumn; from this year to the next, and thus amid mere hopes, I had passed through nearly thirty years of my life, without, of all my privations, painfully perceiving the want of anything but whole boots. Nevertheless, I consoled myself easily for this out of doors in the open air, but in a drawing-room it always gave me an uneasy manner to have to turn the heels, as being the part least torn, to the front. Much more oppressive was it to me, truly, that I could in the abodes of misery only console with kind words.
I comforted myself, like a thousand others, by a hopeful glance upon the rolling wheel of fortune, and with the philosophical remark, "When the time comes, comes the counsel".
As a poor assistant to a country clergyman with a narrow income and meagre table, morally becoming mouldy in the company of the scolding housekeeper, of the willingly fuddled clergyman, of a foolish young gentleman and the daughters of the house, who, with high shoulders and turned-in toes, went from morning to night paying visits, I felt a peculiarly strange emotion of tenderness and joy as one of my acquaintance informed me by writing, that my uncle, the Merchant P -- in Stockholm, to me personally unknown, now lay dying, and in a paroxysm of kindred affection had inquired after his good-for-nothing nephew.
Who inquired after the narrator towards the end of the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → his uncle Merchant P-
At the end of the passage an acquaintance writes to the narrator that his uncle, the Merchant P-- in Stockholm, whom he had never met, was dying and "in a paroxysm of kindred affection had inquired after his good-for-nothing nephew". It is the uncle who asked about the narrator.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: his good-for-nothing nephew — Incorrect. Misread: the "good-for-nothing nephew" is the narrator himself, as the dying uncle calls him; he is the one inquired after.
Option 2: his father Stockholm — Incorrect. Misread: Stockholm is the city where the uncle lives; no father is mentioned.
Option 3: his housekeeper — Incorrect. Wrong part of the passage: the scolding housekeeper belongs to the clergyman's household, where the narrator lives; she plays no part in the news about the uncle.