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.
The word ‘bolted’, as used in the passage, means:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → dashed off suddenly and at great speed
To bolt means to run away suddenly and very fast.
- Biscuit waits at the crossing. Then she shoots through the gap between a bus and a handcart.
- She is on the far pavement “before the traffic policeman could lift his whistle”. This shows how sudden and quick her run is. Example: The calf bolted when the truck sounded its horn.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: fastened something shut with a metal bar — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is another meaning of bolt, used for doors and windows. Example: Grandfather bolted the front door before going to bed.
Option 2: swallowed food down in a great hurry — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is another meaning of bolt, used for eating. Example: He bolted his breakfast and ran for the bus.
Option 3: moved forward slowly and with great care — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of creep. Example: The cat began to creep towards the pigeon.