DELHI PRIVATE SCHOOL

GRADE 11
READING ASSIGNMENT 1

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

Even then my only friends were made of paper and ink. At school I had learned to read
and write long before the other children. Where my school friends saw notches of ink
on incomprehensible pages, I saw light, streets, and people. Words and the mystery of
their hidden science fascinated me, and I saw in them a key with which I could unlock a
Line 5 boundless world, a safe haven from that home, those streets, and those troubled days in
which even I could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me. My father didn’t like to
see books in the house. There was something about them—apart from the letters he
could not decipher—that offended him. He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he
would send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all my scatterbrained ideas if I
Line 10 didn’t want to end up a loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the mattress and
wait for him to go out or fall asleep so that I could read. Once he caught me reading at
night and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my hands and flung it out of the
window.
“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.” My
Line 15 father was not a miser and, despite the hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave
me a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like the other children. He was
convinced that I spent them on licorice sticks, sunflower seeds, or sweets, but I would
keep them in a coffee tin under the bed, and when I’d collected four or five reales I’d
secretly rush out to buy myself a book.
Line 20 My favorite place in the whole city was the Sempere & Sons bookshop on Calle Santa
Ana. It smelled of old paper and dust and it was my sanctuary, my refuge. The bookseller
would let me sit on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to my heart’s content. He
hardly ever allowed me to pay for the books he placed in my hands, but when he wasn’t
looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to collect on the counter before I left. It was only
Line 25 small change—if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance, I would probably have been
able to afford only a booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me to leave, I
would do so dragging my feet, a weight on my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have
stayed there forever.
One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I have ever received. It was an old volume,
Line 30 read and experienced to the full. “Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read on the
cover. I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who frequented his establishment
and, judging by the care with which he handled the volume, I thought perhaps this Mr.
Dickens was one of them. “A friend of yours?” “A lifelong friend. And from now on,
he’s your friend too.”
Line 35 That afternoon I took my new friend home, hidden under my clothes so that my father
wouldn’t see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead, and I read Great
Expectations about nine times, partly because I had no other book at hand, partly because

Line 40
I did not think there could be a better one in the whole world and I was beginning to
suspect that Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was convinced that I didn’t
want to do anything else in life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.

1. Over the course of the passage, the main focus shifts from a
a. general discussion of the narrator’s love of reading to a portrayal of an influential
incident.
b. depiction of the narrator’s father to an examination of an author with whom the
narrator becomes enchanted.
c. symbolic representation of a skill the narrator possesses to an example of its
application.
d. tale about the hardships of the narrator’s childhood to an analysis of the effects of
those hardships.
2. The main purpose of lines 1-6 (“Even... awaited me”) is to
a. introduce the characters who play a part in the narrator’s story.
b. list the difficult conditions the narrator endured in childhood.
c. describe the passion that drives the actions the narrator recounts.
d. depict the narrator’s aspirations before he met Sempere.
3. With which of the following statements about his father would the narrator most
likely agree?
a. He lacked affection for the narrator.
b. He disliked any unnecessary use of money.
c. He would not have approved of Sempere’s gift.
d. He objected to the writings of Charles Dickens.
4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
a. Lines 15-16 (“My father... children”)
b. Lines 21-22 (“The bookseller... content”)
c. Lines 22-23 (“He hardly... hands”)
d. Lines 35-36 (“That afternoon . . . see it”)
5. It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that the main reason that the
narrator considers Great Expectations to be the best gift he ever received is because
a. reading the book convinced him that he wanted to be a writer.
b. he’d only ever been given sweets and snacks as gifts in the past.
c. the gift meant that Sempere held him in high regard.
d. Sempere was a friend of the book’s author.
6. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
a. Lines 23-24 (“when... left”)
 b. Lines 29-30 (“It was... full”)
c. Lines 31-33 (“I was... them”)
d. Lines 39-40 (“Soon... done”)
7. The narrator indicates that he pays Sempere
a. less than Sempere expects him to pay for the books.
b. nothing, because Sempere won’t take his money.
c. the money he makes selling sweets to the other children.
d. much less for the books than they are worth.
8. As used in line 27, “weight” most nearly means
a. bulk
b. burden
c. force
d. clout
9. The word “friend” is used twice in line 33 to
a. underline the importance of the narrator’s connection to Sempere.
b. stress how friendships helped the narrator deal with his difficult home situation.
c. emphasize the emotional connection Sempere feels to reading.
d. imply that the narrator’s sentiments caused him to make an irrational decision.
10. Which statement best characterizes the relationship between Sempere and
Charles Dickens?
a. Sempere models his own writing after Dickens’s style.
b. Sempere is an avid admirer of Dickens’s work.
c. Sempere feels a personal connection to details of Dickens’s biography.
d. Sempere considers himself to be Dickens’s most appreciative reader.
11. Choose the appropriate synonym of the word incomprehensible used in the line
3 of the passage.
a. intelligible
b. clear
c. understandable
d. indecipherable
12. Find the word in para 1 that means ‘disorganized and lacking in concentration’.
a. notches
b. boundless
c. scatterbrained
d. mystery