Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.
I have good memories of St Cyprian's, among a horde of bad ones. Sometimes on summer afternoons there were wonderful expeditions across the Downs to a village called Birling Gap, or to Beachy Head, where one bathed dangerously among the boulders and came home covered with cuts. And there were still more wonderful midsummer evenings when, as a special treat, we were not driven off to bed as usual but allowed to wander about the grounds in the long twilight, ending up with a plunge into the swimming bath at about nine o'clock. There was the joy of waking early on summer mornings and getting in an hour's undisturbed reading in the sunlit, sleeping dormitory. There was also cricket, which I was no good at but with which I conducted a sort of hopeless love affair up to the age of about eighteen. And there was the pleasure of keeping caterpillars, which could be illicitly purchased for sixpence at a shop in the town, and, when one could escape long enough from the master who was ‘taking the walk’, there was the excitement of dredging the dew-ponds on the Downs for enormous newts with orange-coloured bellies. This business of being out for a walk, coming across something of fascinating interest and then being dragged away from it by a yell from the master, like a dog jerked onwards by the leash, is an important feature of school life, and helps to build up the conviction, so strong in many children, that the things you most want to do are always unattainable.
According to the writer, what belief do such school walks build up in many children?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → That what they want most to do will always stay out of their reach
On the walks, the boy finds something interesting.
- Then the master yells and drags him away.
- The passage says this helps to build up “the conviction” in many children. A conviction is a firm belief.
- The belief is that the things you most want to do are always “unattainable”. Unattainable means something you can never get or reach.
- So the children come to believe that what they want most will always stay out of reach.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: That the masters dislike children who wander off on their own — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The master only yells to bring the boy back. The passage says nothing about the masters disliking anyone.
Option 3: That nature is far more interesting than anything taught in class — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The boy does love the newts and the dew-ponds. But the passage never compares them with lessons in class.
Option 4: That obeying the rules is always rewarded in the end — Incorrect. Not mentioned: No reward is spoken of. The boy is only pulled away from what he likes.