Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
The fog had come down so thick that Imran could not see his own front wheel. He did not need to. Two winters of forty newspapers in Nishatganj had taught him the lanes by ear: the Mishras’ dog, which barked at everything and bit nothing; the hum of the transformer; the pothole after it, which he swerved round without seeing. The air was raw. It crept through his sweater.
He threw the papers over the gates, counting. Thirty-nine. The fortieth went two lanes out of his way, to old Rastogi ji, who had told the agency he would pay nothing extra and had got his way. Imran grumbled about those two lanes every morning. Not once in two winters had he missed them.
A torch beam wobbled out of the grey. Rastogi ji stood at his gate in a monkey cap and two shawls.
“Eleven minutes late.”
“Fog, uncle.”
“There was fog in 1962 also. The paper came at six.” He did not hold out his hand. “What does it say?”
Imran read under the torch: dense fog to continue, forty trains running late. Rastogi ji snorted, as if the fog were a guest who had stayed too long. On the verandah chair behind him lay the tablet his son had sent from Pune, a thin film of dust on its dark screen.
“And the cricket?”
Imran read that too, slowly, to the last run.
“Tomorrow, if it is like this, don’t come,” the old man said brusquely. “I will read it on that machine.”
“Ji, uncle.”
Neither of them believed it. At the corner Imran looked back. The torch was still pointed down the lane, lighting the fog for him until he turned.
As used in the passage, the word ‘raw’ in “The air was raw” means
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → cold and damp in an unpleasant way
Here raw describes the weather. It means cold and wet in a way that you feel on your body. The morning is foggy and wintry, and the air “crept through his sweater.” Example: It was a raw December morning, and the children waited for the bus with their hands in their pockets.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: in its natural state; not cooked or processed — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the common sense of the word, used for food or materials. Example: Cotton is sent to the mill as a raw material.
Option 2: new to something and without experience — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is another sense, used for people. Example: The coach was patient with the raw players in the junior team.
Option 3: red and sore, as skin that has been rubbed — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This sense is used for skin or a wound, not for air. Example: After the long climb, her heels were raw from the new shoes.