Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.
I have good memories of St Cyprian's, among a horde of bad ones. Sometimes on summer afternoons there were wonderful expeditions across the Downs to a village called Birling Gap, or to Beachy Head, where one bathed dangerously among the boulders and came home covered with cuts. And there were still more wonderful midsummer evenings when, as a special treat, we were not driven off to bed as usual but allowed to wander about the grounds in the long twilight, ending up with a plunge into the swimming bath at about nine o'clock. There was the joy of waking early on summer mornings and getting in an hour's undisturbed reading in the sunlit, sleeping dormitory. There was also cricket, which I was no good at but with which I conducted a sort of hopeless love affair up to the age of about eighteen. And there was the pleasure of keeping caterpillars, which could be illicitly purchased for sixpence at a shop in the town, and, when one could escape long enough from the master who was ‘taking the walk’, there was the excitement of dredging the dew-ponds on the Downs for enormous newts with orange-coloured bellies. This business of being out for a walk, coming across something of fascinating interest and then being dragged away from it by a yell from the master, like a dog jerked onwards by the leash, is an important feature of school life, and helps to build up the conviction, so strong in many children, that the things you most want to do are always unattainable.
Which of the following best describes the writer’s feelings about his schooldays?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Mostly unhappy memories, with a few real joys that he still remembers
The writer says he has “good memories of St Cyprian's, among a horde of bad ones”.
- A horde is a very large crowd. So the bad memories are many. The good ones are fewer.
- He then lists the good times one by one: bathing at Beachy Head, the summer evenings, early reading, cricket and caterpillars. These are real joys, and he still remembers them well.
- But most of his schooldays were unhappy.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Fond memories of a time he now thinks was the best of his life — Incorrect. Overstated: He never calls it the best time of his life. The bad memories came in a “horde”.
Option 3: Bitter memories in which nothing good can be found — Incorrect. Contradicted: He does find good things. He says he has “good memories” of the school.
Option 4: Mixed memories in which the good times clearly outweigh the bad — Incorrect. Opposite meaning: His memories are mixed. But the bad ones are a large crowd. So the bad times weigh more, not the good.