Read the following poem given below and answer the question.
A GIRL'S GARDEN
A NEIGHBOUR of mine in the village
likes to tell how one spring
When she was a girl on the farm, she did
A childlike thing.
One day she asked her father
To give her a garden plot
To plant and tend and reap herself,
And he said, "Why not?"
In casting about for a corner
He thought of an idle bit
Or walled-off ground where a shop had stood,
And he said, "Just it."
And he said, "That ought to make you
An ideal one-girl farm,
And give you a chance to put some strength
On your slim-jim arm".
It was not enough of a garden,
Her father said, to plough;
So she had to work it all by hand,
But she don't mind now.
She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow
Along a stretch of road;
But she always ran away and left
Her not-nice load,
And hid from anyone passing.
And then she begged the seed.
She says she thinks she planted one
Of all things but weed.
A hill each of potatoes,
Radishes, lettuce, peas,
Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn.
And even fruit trees.
And yes, she was long mistrusted
That a cider apple tree
In bearing there today is hers,
Or at least may be.
Her crop was a miscellany
When all was said and done,
A little bit of everything,
A great deal of none.
According to Robert Frost, the Father gave the girl a garden plot to help her :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → strengthen her arms and own a farm
The father states his purpose himself: the plot "ought to make you an ideal one-girl farm, / And give you a chance to put some strength / On your slim-jim arm". The plot would give her a farm of her own and make her thin arms stronger.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: reap vegetables and fruits trees — Incorrect. Wrong link: the vegetables and fruit trees are what the girl later planted; the father does not give the plot for them.
Option 2: get flowers and a garden — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the poem has no flowers, and the father even says the plot is "not enough of a garden" to plough.
Option 4: grow apples — Incorrect. Wrong part of the passage: the cider apple tree appears only at the end, as something that may be hers today; it is not the father's reason.