Read the given passage and answer the four questions that follow:-

This is a story from long ago, when the last remaining traces of the British still lurked in their old haunts among the pristine Himalayan hills of Darjeeling. These were the early fifties, in other words.

I would spend entire days at a small, dusty bookshop with a faded, green sign over it- a sign painted with gold letters that said: "Mr Mun-Chee's Books." The paint was chipped at many places; you could barely see the second 's'. The shabby old shop was located in a cul-de-sac, a few hundred meters away from my own home. But inside, it was another world. On the floor stood staggering, towering piles of books, yellowed and aged, and the shelves lining all the walls were crammed with journals, lexicons and biographies, dramas, each laboriously cataloged and meticulously arranged. Mr Mun-Chee dealt mostly in antique books; first editions of books, long forgotten, books one hardly ever encountered anymore. There were sixteen editions of Jane Eyre, twenty-two of The Pickwick Papers, and fifty of The Pilgrim's Progress. It was not famous, but it was unique; customers barely ever walked in, as it was so hidden away in a run-down neighborhood. Tabby, the black Tom, my only possession, and I, were only disturbed five times that we spent there. And we spent nearly an entire year at the shop.

The shop was my sanctuary. After the daily ordeal of school, I invariably called out to Tabby and set out for the shop, to read, read, read, with Tabby curled up around my legs. 

Mr Mun-Chee's shop was not a new shop as _____.

its paint was chipped

The correct answer is Option (2) → its paint was chipped

While all the options describe conditions of an old shop, the text explicitly links the damaged sign to the shop's age:

"...a faded, green sign over it... The paint was chipped at many places; you could barely see the second 's'."

A chipped or faded sign is a direct, visible indicator of long-term wear and age, confirming it was not a new establishment. The text also mentions the shop was shabby and the books were yellowed and aged, but the most direct evidence related to its maintenance and structure provided in the options is the chipped paint on the sign.