Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
The fan above Board Three clicked on every turn, as if it were keeping score. Anvi had stopped hearing it an hour ago. Now she could hear nothing else.
Fourteen minutes on her clock, nine on his. The boy from Satara had a steel tumbler of water at his elbow that he had not touched since the opening. He had not looked up since move thirty either.
A draw would be enough. Sir had said so in the bus, twice, tapping the seat in front of him. “Half a point and you are in the state team. Don’t try anything clever.” She could see the draw clearly: queens off the board, pawns locked, a tame handshake over two scoresheets. It was safe. It was also how she had played all season, and she knew it.
The other move had come to her a minute ago, and it would not go away. Knight to f5. To the parents pressed against the glass door, it would look like a piece thrown away for nothing. To her it looked like a door left open. If she had read it right, his king had nowhere to hide in six moves. If she had read it wrong, she would be explaining it to Sir all the way home.
She picked up her pen and wrote nothing. Outside, her mother was holding the tiffin box in both hands, as though it might spill.
The boy shifted, glanced at the clock, and then, for the first time, at her. His face was calm. He was waiting for the queen trade. Everyone was.
That decided it. Anvi laid the pen down beside the scoresheet and reached for the knight.
As used in the passage, the word ‘tame’ in “a tame handshake over two scoresheets” means
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → flat and without any spirit or daring
Here tame means dull and unexciting, with no risk taken. Anvi pictures the draw: queens off, pawns locked, and a handshake. It is safe, but nothing bold happens in it. Example: After all the build-up, the film had a rather tame ending.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: kept by people and no longer wild — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the common sense of the word, used for animals. Example: The farmer’s son kept a tame parrot.
Option 2: gentle and willing to obey others — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This sense describes a person who does whatever he is told. Example: The new members were too tame to question the captain.
Option 3: reached quickly and without effort — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This describes something easy to get. It is not a meaning of “tame”.