Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
Biscuit slipped out of her collar near Gariahat market a little after dusk, when the first rockets of Kali Puja went up. She ran until the bangs were behind her, and then she ran some more.
When she stopped, it was under a parked lorry, flat on the warm tar, her ribs going in and out like a bellows. Buses ground past a few feet away. A boy selling balloons crouched and held out his hand. She watched the hand. She did not move, and after a while he went away.
The city she knew was a map of smells, and tonight half of it had been rubbed out. The air still tasted of gunpowder. She crawled out and lifted her nose anyway, turning it from side to side. Frying onions. Wet sacks outside a grain shop. Then, faint, the burnt-milk smell of the sweet shop on her own corner.
She kept to the edge of the road. At the big crossing she waited while two autos and a cycle-rickshaw went by. Then she bolted between a bus and a handcart and was on the far pavement before the traffic policeman could lift his whistle.
It was nearly ten when she turned into her lane. Mr Sen stood at the gate in his vest, a torch in one hand and her empty collar in the other. The beam wobbled on the wall. He did not call her name. He crouched, slowly, the way the balloon boy had, and waited.
She came the last few steps with her tail low and pushed her whole head against his chest.
Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Sympathetic: it stays close to the frightened dog, with quiet care and no fuss
A sympathetic tone shares and understands someone’s feelings. The writer follows Biscuit closely and shows her fear through small details, without big emotional words.
- We see her fear through her body: she lies flat, her ribs heave, and she will not take the boy’s hand.
- The ending is quiet. Mr Sen crouches and waits, and she pushes her head against his chest. No one cries or makes a speech.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Sentimental: it dwells on the dog’s suffering to move the reader to tears — Incorrect. Overstated: Sentimental means full of tender feeling, often too much of it. The writer uses short, plain sentences and never piles up sad words to make the reader cry.
Option 2: Comic: it treats the dog’s trip through the traffic as a string of jokes — Incorrect. Overstated: Comic means meant to make people laugh. The policeman who cannot lift his whistle in time is a small light touch, but the journey is mostly tense.
Option 3: Detached: it records what happens with no interest in what the dog feels — Incorrect. Contradicted: Detached means cool and distant, not involved. The writer keeps close to what Biscuit senses and feels, from her racing breath to her low tail.