CPE
Reading and Use of English |
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(Exit) |
Part 6: Gapped Text (Answers)
Instructions
You
are going to read an extract from a short story. Seven paragraphs have
been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-H
the one which best fits each gap (1-7). There is one extra
paragraph that you do not need to use.
Just at that
turning between Market Road and the lane leading to the chemist's shop
he had his 'establishment'. At eight in the evening you would not see
him, and again at ten you would see nothing, but between those times he
arrived, sold his goods and departed. Those who saw him remarked thus,
'Lucky fellow! He has hardly an hour's work a day and he pockets ten rupees
- even graduates are unable to earn that! Three hundred rupees a month!'
He felt irritated when he heard such glib remarks and said, 'What these
folks do not see is that I sit before the oven practically all day frying
all this ...'
At about 8.15
in the evening he arrived with a load of stuff. He looked as if he had four
arms, so many things he carried about him. His equipment was the big tray
balanced on his head with its assortment of edibles, a stool stuck in the
crook of his arm, a lamp in another hand and a couple of portable legs for
mounting his tray. He lit the lamp, a lantern which consumed six pies' worth
of kerosene every day, and kept it near at hand, since he had to guard a
lot of loose cash and a variety of miscellaneous articles.
He always arrived
in time to catch the cinema crowd coming out after the evening show. A pretender
to the throne, a young scraggy fellow, sat on his spot until he arrived
and did business, but he did not let that bother him unduly. In fact, he
felt generous enough to say, 'Let the poor rat do his business when I am
not there.' This sentiment was amply respected, and the pretender moved
off a minute before the arrival of the prince among caterers.
Though so much
probing was going on, he knew exactly who was taking what. He knew by an
extaordinary sense which of the jukta drivers was picking up chappatis
at a given moment - he could even mention the license number. He knew that
the stained hand nervously coming up was that of a youngster who polished
the shoes of passers-by. And he knew exactly at what hour he would see the
wrestler's arm searching for the perfect duck's egg. His custom was drawn
from the population swarming the pavement: the boot polish boys, for instance,
who wandered to and fro with brush and polish in a bag, endlessly soliciting
'Polish, sir, polish!' Rama had a soft spot for them.
It rent his
heart to see their hungry hollow eyes. It pained him to see the rags they
wore. And it made him very unhappy to see the tremendous eagerness with
which they came to him. But what could he do? He could not run a charity
show, that was impossible. He measured out heir half-glass of coffee correct
to a fraction of an inch, but they could cling to the glass for as long
as they liked.
He lived in
the second lane behind the market. His wife opened the door, throwing into
the night air the scent of burnt oil which perpetually hung about their
home. She snatched from his hand all the ecumbrances and counted the cash
immediately.
After dinner,
he tucked a betel leaf and tobacco in his cheek and slept. He had dreams
of traffic constables bullying him to move on and health inspectors saying
he was spreading all kinds of disease and depopulating the city. But fortunately
in actual life no one bothered him very seriously. The health officer no
doubt came and said, 'You must put all this under a glass lid, otherwise
I shall destroy it some day... Take care!'
Rama no doubt
violated all the well-accepted canons of cleanliness and sanitation, but
still his customers not only survived his fare but seemed actually to flourish
on it, having consumed it for years without showing signs of being any the
worse for it.
A Rama prepared a limited quantity of snacks for sale, but even then
he had to carry back remnants. He consumed some of it himself, and the rest
he warmed up and brought out for sale the next day.
B All the coppers that men and women of this part of the universe
earned through their miscellaneous jobs ultimately came to him at the end
of the day. He put all his money into a little cloth bag dangling from his
neck under his shirt, and carried it home, soon after the night show had
started at the theatre.
C No one could walk past his display without throwing a look at it.
A heap of bondas, which seemed puffed and big but melted in one's
mouth; dosais, white, round, and limp, looking like layers of muslin;
chappatis so thin you could lift fifty of them on a little finger;
duck's eggs, hard-boiled, resembling a heap of ivory balls; and perpetually
boiling coffee on a stove. He had a separate alluminium pot in which he
kept chutney, which went gratis with almost every item.
D His customers liked him. They said in admiration, 'Is there another
place where you can get six pies and four chappatis for one anna?'
They sat around his tray, taking what they wanted. A dozen hands hovered
about it every minute, because his customers were entitled to pick up, examine,
and accept their stuff after proper scrutiny.
E They gloated over it. 'Five rupees invested in the morning has
produced another five...' They ruminated on the exquisite mystery of this
multiplication. Then it was put back for further investment on the morrow
and the gains carefully separated and put away in a little wooden box.
F But he was a kindly man in private. 'How the customers survive
the food, I can't understand. I suppose people build up a sort of immunity
to such poisons, with all that dust blowing on it and the gutter behind.'
G He got up when the cock in the next house crowed. Sometimes it
had a habit of waking up at three in the morning and letting out a shriek.
'Why has the cock lost his normal sleep?' Rama wondered as he awoke, but
it was a signal he could not miss. Whether it three o'clock or four, it
was all the same to him. He had to get up and start his day.
H When he saw some customer haggling, he felt like shouting, 'Give
the poor fellow a little more. Don't begrudge it. If you pay an anna more
he can have a dosai and a chappati.'
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Source: Adapted from (Pre-2013 Revision) CPE Handbook
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