Question

6. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
(Passage: 'I got home late on the day of the party. Although I had planned to be home early, the heavy traffic scuttled my plan...' — a father recounts arranging a birthday party for his son who came tenth in class, reflecting on his own difficult upbringing.)

(a) What was the writer's plan for his son?
(b) Why was the writer dissatisfied with his son's performance?
(c) State two challenges that the writer faced while growing up.
(d) What is the writer's attitude to life?
(e) What two pieces of evidence in the passage suggest that the writer's children were well cared for?
(f) ...no expenses...
(i) What is the grammatical name given to this expression as it is used in the passage?
(ii) What is its function?
(g) His lack of push was a weight on my shoulders. What figure of speech is used in the expression above?
(h) For each of the following words, find another word or phrase which means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage: (i) scuttled; (ii) ostentatiously; (iii) reputable; (iv) sprang; (v) well-groomed; (vi) reminiscences.

Accepted Answer

(a) The writer's plan for his son was to organize a party for him as a reward and incentive to motivate him to do better in his class position/studies, since the son had remained in the tenth position for the past two years despite the writer's belief that he could be the best in his class.

(b) The writer was dissatisfied with his son's performance because, although the son had made him proud by improving to a better position, the writer felt his son was not trying hard enough and could do better than being content with the tenth position; his lack of push/drive weighed on the writer as a father.

(c) Two challenges the writer faced while growing up: (i) His parents separated and his father took another wife who treated him with disdain. (ii) He had to work like a grown man on his father's farm to get produce to sell in order to pay his own school fees, despite the difficult circumstances of his upbringing.

(d) The writer's attitude to life is positive and optimistic/hopeful - he believes that 'every cloud has a silver lining', meaning that he maintains hope and a positive outlook even in difficult situations, trusting that good can come out of hardship.

(e) Two pieces of evidence suggesting the writer's children were well cared for: (i) The children attended some of the best schools. (ii) The children were always well-groomed.

(f) (i) 'No expenses' functions as a noun phrase in the sentence.
(ii) Its function is to serve as the object of the verb 'spared' (i.e., 'my wife had spared no expenses'), indicating the extent/completeness of the effort made in organizing the party.

(g) The figure of speech used in 'His lack of push was a weight on my shoulders' is a metaphor - comparing the emotional burden the writer felt directly to a physical weight, without using 'like' or 'as'.

(h) (i) scuttled - ruined/disrupted; (ii) ostentatiously - showily/pretentiously; (iii) reputable - respectable/well-regarded; (iv) sprang - arose/originated; (v) well-groomed - neatly/tidily dressed; (vi) reminiscences - memories/recollections.

NABTEB English Language 2024 Theory — Question 6

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