Question

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow [20]


Sita went to her grandfather and sat down beside him:

‘When you are hungry, tell me,’ she said and I will make the bread.’

‘Is your grandmother asleep?’

‘Yes. But she will wake soon. The pain is deep.’

The old man started across the river, at the dark, green of the forest, at the leaden sky, and said. ‘If

she is not better by morning, I will take her to the hospital in Shahganj. They will know how to

make her well. You may be on your own for two or three days. You have been on your own

before.’

Sita nodded gravely –She had been alone before; but not in the middle of the rains with the river

so high. But she knew that someone must stay behind. She wanted Grandmother to get well and

she knew that only Grandfather could take the small boat across the river when the current was so

strong.

Sita was not afraid of being left alone but she did not like the look of the river.

That evening it began to rain again. Big pellets of rain were scarring the surface of the river. But it

was warm rain and Sita could move about in it. She was not afraid of getting wet, she rather liked

it .In the previous month, when the monsoon shower had arrived, washing the dusty leaves of the

tree and bringing up the good smell of the earth, she had exulted in it, had run about shouting for

joy. She was used to it now, even a little tired of the rain but she did not mind getting wet. It was

steamy indoors and her thin dress would soon dry in the heat from the kitchen fire.

She walked about barefooted, bare legged. She was very sure on her feet. Her toes had grown

accustomed to gripping all kinds of rocks, slippery or sharp, and though thin, she was

surprisingly strong.

Black hair, streaming across her face. Black eyes. Slim brown arms. A scar on her thigh; when she

was small, visiting her mother’s village, a hyena had entered the house where she was sleeping ,

fastened on to her leg and tried to drag her away but her screams had roused the villagers and the

hyena had run off.

She moved about in the pouring rain, chasing the hens into a shelter behind the hut. A harmless

brown snake, flooded out of its hole, was moving across the open ground. Sita took a stick, picked

the snake up with it, and dropped it behind a cluster of rocks. She had no quarrel with snakes.

They kept down the rats and the frogs. She wondered how the rats had first come to the island-

probably in someone’s boat or in a sack of grain.

She disliked the huge black scorpions that left their waterlogged dwellings and tried to take

shelter in the hut. It was so easy to step on one and the sting could be very painful. She had been

bitten by a scorpion the previous monsoon and for a day and a night she had known fever and

great pain. Sita had never killed living creatures but now, whenever she found scorpions, she

crushed it with a rock! When, finally, she went indoors, she was hungry. She ate some parched

gram and warmed up some goat’s milk.

Grandmother woke once and asked for water and Grandfather held the brass tumbler to her lips.

The roof was leaking and a small puddle formed on the floor. Grandfather kept the kerosene

lamps alight. They did not need the light but somehow it made them feel safer.

It rained all night.




a. Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:


1. Why was Sita willing to stay alone? [2]


2. What had made Sita like the first monsoon shower? [2]


3. Why did Sita have a scar on her thigh?​

Answer 1

Answer:

It is un desirable

Explanation:

sorrry I cannot read it