Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
Biscuit slipped out of her collar near Gariahat market a little after dusk, when the first rockets of Kali Puja went up. She ran until the bangs were behind her, and then she ran some more.
When she stopped, it was under a parked lorry, flat on the warm tar, her ribs going in and out like a bellows. Buses ground past a few feet away. A boy selling balloons crouched and held out his hand. She watched the hand. She did not move, and after a while he went away.
The city she knew was a map of smells, and tonight half of it had been rubbed out. The air still tasted of gunpowder. She crawled out and lifted her nose anyway, turning it from side to side. Frying onions. Wet sacks outside a grain shop. Then, faint, the burnt-milk smell of the sweet shop on her own corner.
She kept to the edge of the road. At the big crossing she waited while two autos and a cycle-rickshaw went by. Then she bolted between a bus and a handcart and was on the far pavement before the traffic policeman could lift his whistle.
It was nearly ten when she turned into her lane. Mr Sen stood at the gate in his vest, a torch in one hand and her empty collar in the other. The beam wobbled on the wall. He did not call her name. He crouched, slowly, the way the balloon boy had, and waited.
She came the last few steps with her tail low and pushed her whole head against his chest.
What can be inferred from the way Mr Sen behaves at the gate?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → He knows she has been badly scared and takes care not to startle her
Mr Sen moves quietly and lets Biscuit come to him. To startle means to give someone a sudden fright.
- “He did not call her name.” A loud call could frighten a dog that has run from loud bangs.
- He “crouched, slowly” and “waited”. He makes himself small and still, and he does not rush at her.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: He is annoyed that she ran away and means to scold her — Incorrect. Contradicted: He says nothing harsh. He crouches gently and waits, which is a welcome, not a scolding.
Option 3: He has given up hope and is about to go back inside the house — Incorrect. Contradicted: At nearly ten at night he is still at the gate with a torch and her collar. He is waiting for her, not giving up.
Option 4: He does not recognise Biscuit at first in the dark lane — Incorrect. Misread: He does not call her name, but not because he fails to know her. He crouches for her at once and waits for her to come.