Question

Summarize the passage given in your own words.



Later, armed with my license and a brand new straw hat purchased that very day in a nearby market, I went back to my lodgings to fetch my violin and get to work. I walked around until I found a busy lane, placed my hat on the ground, and started to play a tune. According to my experience in other countries, a few people should have stopped, if only out of curiosity, and then dropped some money into my hat before passing on by. But it didn’t work out that way here. No sooner had I started playing that everybody dropped what they were doing and crowded round me. They stood in stony silence, blocking the traffic, blotting out the sun, and treading my new straw hat into the ground. Again and again, I fished it out from under their feet for their contribution; it remained obstinately empty. Then I moved somewhere else. As soon as I started to play again, the crowd re-formed and encircled me. I saw in their faces an expression of gentle, childish pleasure, and carefree relaxation, but no hint of generosity.

This was all very well, but I was making no money, and there was scarcely room among the crowd to swing my arm. Every so often, I was compelled to stop playing, and to attempt some sort of a speech, begging the crowd to walk up and down a little, or to draw back and reveal my hat that was lying on the ground. A number of nearby soldiers, half understanding what I was trying to say, began to shout out instructions to the crowd on my behalf. The crowd screamed back, telling them to be quiet and to listen to my playing. In the meantime, nobody had moved.

Presently, a policeman appeared, his unbuttoned tunic somehow in keeping with a dirty rifle slung carelessly over his shoulder. He asked to see my license. He gave it a sleepy glance. Then, shifting his rifle to the other shoulder, he hooked my hat to the toe of his boot, tossed it high in the air, caught it, shook it, and turned to the crowd with anger on his face. ‘Look, not even half a peseta. Either pay or go.’ Turning to me he said, ‘Now, please continue.’ Giggling uneasily, the crowd backed away. There was a tinkle of a solitary coin on the pavement. The policeman picked it up, dropped it into the hat, and handed it to me with a polite bow. My career as a violin player in the streets of Valladolid had begun.

Answer 1

Answer:

Presently, a policeman appeared, his unbuttoned tunic somehow in keeping with a dirty rifle slung carelessly over his shoulder. He asked to see my license. He gave it a sleepy glance. Then, shifting his rifle to the other shoulder, he hooked my hat to the toe of his boot, tossed it high in the air, caught it, shook it, and turned to the crowd with anger on his face. ‘Look, not even half a peseta. Either pay or go.’ Turning to me he said, ‘Now, please continue.’ Giggling uneasily, the crowd backed away. There was a tinkle of a solitary coin on the pavement. The policeman picked it up, dropped it into the hat, and handed it to me with a polite bow. My career as a violin player in the streets of Valladolid had begun