Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
On her first morning Hema reached the school before the peon. The gate still stuck at the same place, and she still had to lift it on its hinge, as she had at nine. Inside, the Class Five room smelt of wet chalk and phenyl. Someone had painted the walls a hopeful green since her time. The map of India still said Bombay.
She pinned up her charts, paper planets and a sun of yellow crepe, and stepped back. They looked smaller than they had on her hostel bed in Pune.
Joshi Sir came in at ten past eight, as he always had, the register under one arm. He was headmaster now, and greyer, but he still cleared his throat before he spoke.
“Very colourful,” he said, with a pointed glance at the crepe sun. “In my day we managed with the blackboard.”
“Children remember what they can see, Sir.”
“Children remember what they are made to repeat.” He set the register on her table, squared it with the table’s edge, and left. Hema found she was standing very straight, hands behind her back, as she used to at nine.
The children rushed in, then went quiet, watching her. A thin girl in the front row put up her hand before anyone had asked anything.
“Madam, the last madam stayed one year. Will you also go back to the city?”
A few of them giggled. Hema laughed too, a moment late. She had an answer ready. She had practised it on the bus. Now it seemed to her the kind of thing one says to visitors.
“Open your books,” she said instead, “to page twelve.”
Outside, the gate banged shut on its old hinge.
Why does Hema not give the girl the answer she had practised on the bus?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → She senses that a prepared promise would sound empty to these children.
Hema drops her ready answer because it now feels false.
- The girl says that “the last madam stayed one year”. These children have seen a teacher leave before.
- Hema’s practised answer now seems “the kind of thing one says to visitors”. It is polite, but it is not real.
- Such words would not mean much to the children. So she says “Open your books” instead.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: She is annoyed that the girl has spoken out without being asked. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: Hema laughs with the children. Nothing shows that she is annoyed with the girl.
Option 2: She has already decided that she will leave the village after a year. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage never says what Hema plans to do. It only shows that she cannot answer easily.
Option 4: She fears that Joshi Sir will blame her for wasting class time. — Incorrect. Wrong reason: Joshi Sir has already left the room. Her reason lies in how her answer now sounds to her.