Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
The school bus in our colony leaves at 7:10 am, so my cousin Tanvi, who is fifteen, sets her alarm for 5:45. Most mornings she sleeps through it. Her mother calls this laziness. The biology of adolescence suggests something less moral and more mechanical.
Every body keeps time with an inner clock, and one of its signals is melatonin, a hormone that tells the brain that night has come. In the teenage years, the evening release of melatonin begins later than it did in childhood, often by an hour or more. A fourteen-year-old lying awake at midnight is frequently not defying anyone. Her brain has simply not yet been told that it is time to sleep. The alarm, however, does not move. The loss is taken from the last hours of the night, when much of our dreaming sleep happens.
The effects are quiet, which is partly why they are ignored. A drowsy student does not faint in the assembly. She reads the same paragraph three times, snaps at her younger brother and reaches for a second biscuit. Anyone who has taught a first-period class knows the peculiar torpor of a room full of fifteen-year-olds at ten to eight.
Some schools, mostly abroad, have tried starting later, sometimes by as little as forty-five minutes. The reports are cautiously encouraging: fewer heads on desks, somewhat better attendance. The objections are practical, and not foolish. Buses must be rescheduled. Parents leave for offices that open at fixed hours. Evening tuitions get pushed later still, which rather defeats the purpose.
Tanvi’s school has not changed anything. She has stopped arguing with her mother, though, and now leaves her phone in the kitchen after ten. It is a small truce with a clock she never chose to set.
What can be inferred from the writer’s remark that a fourteen-year-old awake at midnight “is frequently not defying anyone”?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → What adults take for stubbornness is often the result of a body clock that has shifted later.
To defy someone means to refuse openly to obey that person.
- Adults often see a teenager awake at midnight as stubborn. Tanvi’s mother calls her lazy.
- The writer says the teenager is “not defying anyone”. Her brain “has simply not yet been told” that it is time to sleep, because melatonin comes later.
- So what looks like stubbornness is often the body clock at work.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Most teenagers stay awake late because they are worried about their studies. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage never speaks of worry about studies. It gives the late release of melatonin as the reason.
Option 3: Teenagers need less sleep than younger children, so midnight is a normal bedtime for them. — Incorrect. Misread: Their sleep comes later, but the passage never says they need less of it. The sleep they lose is shown as harmful.
Option 4: Parents should stop setting any rules about bedtime once their children reach their teens. — Incorrect. Overstated: The remark explains why teenagers stay awake. It gives no advice to parents about rules.