Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
The first bicycles reached India in the late nineteenth century. They came in with British officials and missionaries, and with a few rich Indians. Almost all of them were imported, and the price was far beyond what a farmer could pay. In a village, a bicycle was a novelty. Children ran behind it, and old men broke off their talk to stare at a man sitting high on two thin wheels.
This began to change after independence, when Indian factories started making bicycles in large numbers. Ludhiana in Punjab became the best-known centre. Firms such as Hero grew there from small units into big makers. As prices came down, the machine moved from the officer’s veranda to the farmer’s courtyard.
What it brought was distance. A milkman could now reach the town before his milk turned sour. A postman could cover several villages in a day. A small trader could tie a sack to the carrier and try a weekly market that had once been out of reach.
For children, and for girls most of all, the change went deeper. The nearest high school was often in another village, too far to walk, and many parents did not want their daughters on long, lonely roads. When state governments began to give bicycles to schoolgirls, as Bihar did from 2006, many more girls joined high school. On many rural roads today, the morning traffic is a line of girls in school uniform, riding two or three abreast, bags in the front basket.
The main purpose of the passage is to:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → explain how the bicycle went from a rare import to a way of reaching farther
The passage follows the bicycle from a costly foreign machine to a common one that let people travel farther.
- At first bicycles were “imported”, or brought in from other countries. Few villagers could pay for one.
- After independence, Indian factories made them and prices came down.
- Then the passage says, “What it brought was distance.” The milkman, the postman, the trader and the schoolgirls could all reach farther.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: compare the bicycles imported from Britain with those made in Indian factories — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage gives both stages, but it never compares the two kinds of bicycle.
Option 3: argue that state schemes giving bicycles to schoolgirls should cover boys too — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The schemes for girls are reported, not argued about. Boys getting bicycles is never raised.
Option 4: describe how Ludhiana grew into the leading centre of bicycle making in India — Incorrect. Too narrow: Ludhiana comes up in only two sentences of the second paragraph. Most of the passage is about what the bicycle did for village people.