Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
By the time the covers came on, Shankar’s Modern Hair Cutting Saloon held eleven men and two chairs. India needed thirty-four from twenty-six balls. On the old transistor, the commentator, shouting a minute earlier, began sadly to describe the clouds.
Shankar went back to the first chair, where Pillai sir had sat half-shaved for twenty minutes. Coming in, the retired teacher had told the shop that cricket wasted a nation’s afternoons. He had repeated this at every boundary.
“Finish it, Shankar,” he said now. “There is nothing to wait for.”
But when the razor came near his chin, he lifted one finger, and Shankar stopped. The radio said the groundsmen had begun sweeping water off the covers.
On the bench, the boys argued over the rain rule. The tea boy from next door, sent for the empty glasses, had not gone back. Two weather apps on two phones disagreed: heavy rain at the ground, said one; clear skies, said the other. The phones passed from hand to hand, as if one might yet be talked round.
Pillai sir gave an affected yawn. “In my day, men watched the sky for their crops,” he said. Then, in the same bored voice, he asked who was at the crease.
“Your old student, sir,” said Shankar. “The one you made stand on the bench for playing cricket in the corridor.”
Pillai sir looked into the mirror. “He could never do fractions,” he said at last. “But he always knew when to run.”
At six the umpires walked out. Shankar picked up the razor. Pillai sir pushed his hand gently away and turned his chair to face the radio. “Leave the other side,” he said. “I will come back for it.”
Why are the two phones passed from hand to hand in the shop?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → The two weather apps give opposite reports of the rain at the ground.
The passage says the two apps “disagreed”. One showed heavy rain at the ground and the other showed clear skies.
- The men pass the phones around “as if one might yet be talked round”.
- So they keep looking at the two phones, hoping one report will give way to the other.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: The radio has lost its signal, and the phones are showing the match instead. — Incorrect. Contradicted: The radio is still working. It reports that the groundsmen are sweeping water off the covers.
Option 2: The boys want to work out the new target under the rain rule. — Incorrect. Wrong link: The boys do argue about the rain rule, but the phones show weather apps. They are passed around because of the weather reports, not the target.
Option 3: The tea boy has to send word back to the shop next door. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The tea boy came for the empty glasses and stayed on. Nothing is said about him sending any message.