Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
There was only one small chink in the armour of austerity that had sat so heavily on my grandmother ever since I could remember: she had a secret fondness for jewellery.
She had stopped wearing jewellery, after she was widowed. But there was one piece of jewellery that she had never parted with. It was a long, thin chain with a tiny ruby pendant. She had never taken it off, at least not in my recollection. I wear it because He gave it to me, she explained to me once. You know your grandfather. It was the first thing He ever gave me in Rangoon, soon after we were married.
One afternoon I came home from school to find the radio blaring at the top volume in my grandmother’s room, upstairs. I ran in and found my mother lying prostrate on her bed, with her fingers jabbed against her temples and a wet cloth draped over her eyes.
What’s going on? I asked her.
Who’s to know but God? She said, Your Tha’mma went out of the house at ten this morning and came back a couple of hours later. She wouldn’t have anything to eat, instead she went upstairs and turned on her radio and it’s been going on like that ever since.
I ran upstairs and pushed my grandmother’s door open. I could only see her back. She was crouching over the radio.
Tha’mma! I shouted. What happened to your chain? What have you done with it?
She turned to look at me then. Her hair were hanging in wet ropes over her face; her eyes glazed and her spectacles had fallen off. I was frightened by the sight of her.
I gave it away, she said, her eyes glazed, unfocused eyes alighting, not on me but on a point on the wall above my head. Why Tha’mma? I said, why did you do that?
I gave it away, she screamed. I gave it to the fund for the war. I had to, don’t you see? For your sake; for your freedom. We have to kill them before they kill us; we have to wipe them out.
What do you think has made the narrator’s mother unwell?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The radio blaring at top volume and strange behaviour of the grandmother.
The narrator finds the mother "lying prostrate on her bed, with her fingers jabbed against her temples" and a wet cloth over her eyes. She explains that Tha'mma came back, would not eat, went upstairs and turned on her radio, "and it's been going on like that ever since". The loud radio and the grandmother's strange behaviour have made her unwell.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: She had an argument with Tha’mma. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage tells of no argument; the mother only describes what Tha'mma did.
Option 2: Her trip outside the house had made her unwell. — Incorrect. Wrong link: it was Tha'mma who went out of the house in the morning, not the mother.
Option 4: Listening to the News three times had made her sick. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about the news being heard three times.