Read the following poem and answer the next five question by choosing the correct options:
The Coromandel Fishers
Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light,
The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night.
Come, let us gather our nets from the shore and set our catamarans free,
To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings of the sea!
No longer delay, let us hasten away in the track of the sea gull's call,
The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are our comrades all.
What though we toss at the fall of the sun where the hand of the sea-god drives?
He who holds the storm by the hair, will hide in his breast our lives.
Sweet is the shade of the coconut glade, and the scent of the mango grove,
And sweet are the sands at the full o' the moon with the sound of the voices we love;
But sweeter, O brothers, the kiss of the spray and the dance of the wild foam's glee;
Row, brother, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea.
"To capture the leaping wealth of the tide". Choose the correct option which conveys the meaning of leaping wealth.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Fish
The fishermen set out "To capture the leaping wealth of the tide". The wealth of the sea is the catch on which their living depends, and it leaps in the waves: this can only be the fish. Calling the fish "wealth" shows how much the fishermen's livelihood depends on the sea.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Pearl — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: pearls lie inside oysters on the sea bed; they do not leap, and the poem is about fishing with nets, not diving for pearls.
Option 3: Shell — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: shells are lifeless and are not what fishermen go out with nets to capture.
Option 4: Coral — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: coral grows fixed to the sea bed; it cannot leap or be caught in nets.