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Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Every Monday, on his way back from work, Bipin Chowdhury would drop in at New Market to buy books. He had to buy at least five at a time to last him through the week. He lived alone, was not a good mixer, had few friends, and didn't like spending time in idle chat. Those who called in the evening got through their business quickly and left. Those who didn't show signs of leaving would be told around eight o'clock by Bipin Babu that he was under doctor's orders to have dinner at eight-thirty. After dinner he would rest for half an hour and then turn in with a book. This was a routine which had persisted unbroken for years.
Today, Bipin Babu had the feeling that someone was observing him from close quarters. He turned round and found himself looking at a round-faced, meek-looking man who now broke into a smile. [10]
'I don't suppose you recognize me'.
Bipin Babu felt ill at ease. It didn't seem that he had ever encountered this man before. The face seemed quite unfamiliar.
'Have we met before?' asked Bipin Babu.
The man looked greatly surprised. 'We met every day for a whole week. I arranged for a car to take you to the Hudroo falls. My name is Parimal Ghose'.
'Ranchi?'
Now Bipin Babu realized this man was making a mistake. Bipin Babu had never been to Ranchi. He smiled and said, 'Do you know who I am?' [20]
The man raised his eyebrows, and said, 'Who doesn't know Bipin Chowdhury?
'Bipin Babu turned towards the bookshelves and said, Youre making a mistake. Ive never been to Ranchi.
The man now laughed aloud.
What are you saying. Mr. Chowdhury? You had a fall in Hudroo and cut your right knee. I brought you iodine. I had fixed up a car for you to go to Netarhat the next day, but you couldn't because of the pain in the knee. Can't you recall anything? Someone else you know was also in Ranchi at that time. Mr. Dinesh Mukherjee. You stayed in a bungalow. You said you didn't like hotel food. I'll tell you more: you always carried a bag with your books in it on your sightseeing trips. Am I right or not?' [30]
Bipin Babu spoke quietly, his eyes still on the books.
'Which month in Nineteen fifty- eight are you talking about?
'The man said, 'October'.
'No, sir,' said Bipin Babu. I spent October Nineteen fifty- eight with a friend in Kanpur. You're making a mistake. Good day.'
But the man didn't go, nor did he stop talking.
'Very strange. One evening I had tea with you on the veranda of your bungalow. You spoke about your family. You said you had no children, and that you had lost your wife a decade ago. [40]
When Bipin Babu had paid for the books and was leaving the shop, the man was still looking at him in utter disbelief.
Bipin Babu's car was safely parked in Bertram Street. He told the driver as he got into the car, 'Just drive by the Ganga, will you, Sitaram.' Driving up the itrand Road, Bipin Babu regretted having paid so much attention to the intruder. He had never been to Ranchi. He had an
excellent memory.
Unless he was losing his mind!

How did he get rid of visitors who stayed late?

Solution
Verified by Toppr

If the visitors did not leave by eight, he would tell that his doctor had advised him to have dinner by 8:30. This would make the visitors leave.

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Similar Questions
Q1
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Every Monday, on his way back from work, Bipin Chowdhury would drop in at New Market to buy books. He had to buy at least five at a time to last him through the week. He lived alone, was not a good mixer, had few friends, and didn't like spending time in idle chat. Those who called in the evening got through their business quickly and left. Those who didn't show signs of leaving would be told around eight o'clock by Bipin Babu that he was under doctor's orders to have dinner at eight-thirty. After dinner he would rest for half an hour and then turn in with a book. This was a routine which had persisted unbroken for years.
Today, Bipin Babu had the feeling that someone was observing him from close quarters. He turned round and found himself looking at a round-faced, meek-looking man who now broke into a smile. [10]
'I don't suppose you recognize me'.
Bipin Babu felt ill at ease. It didn't seem that he had ever encountered this man before. The face seemed quite unfamiliar.
'Have we met before?' asked Bipin Babu.
The man looked greatly surprised. 'We met every day for a whole week. I arranged for a car to take you to the Hudroo falls. My name is Parimal Ghose'.
'Ranchi?'
Now Bipin Babu realized this man was making a mistake. Bipin Babu had never been to Ranchi. He smiled and said, 'Do you know who I am?' [20]
The man raised his eyebrows, and said, 'Who doesn't know Bipin Chowdhury?
'Bipin Babu turned towards the bookshelves and said, Youre making a mistake. Ive never been to Ranchi.
The man now laughed aloud.
What are you saying. Mr. Chowdhury? You had a fall in Hudroo and cut your right knee. I brought you iodine. I had fixed up a car for you to go to Netarhat the next day, but you couldn't because of the pain in the knee. Can't you recall anything? Someone else you know was also in Ranchi at that time. Mr. Dinesh Mukherjee. You stayed in a bungalow. You said you didn't like hotel food. I'll tell you more: you always carried a bag with your books in it on your sightseeing trips. Am I right or not?' [30]
Bipin Babu spoke quietly, his eyes still on the books.
'Which month in Nineteen fifty- eight are you talking about?
'The man said, 'October'.
'No, sir,' said Bipin Babu. I spent October Nineteen fifty- eight with a friend in Kanpur. You're making a mistake. Good day.'
But the man didn't go, nor did he stop talking.
'Very strange. One evening I had tea with you on the veranda of your bungalow. You spoke about your family. You said you had no children, and that you had lost your wife a decade ago. [40]
When Bipin Babu had paid for the books and was leaving the shop, the man was still looking at him in utter disbelief.
Bipin Babu's car was safely parked in Bertram Street. He told the driver as he got into the car, 'Just drive by the Ganga, will you, Sitaram.' Driving up the itrand Road, Bipin Babu regretted having paid so much attention to the intruder. He had never been to Ranchi. He had an
excellent memory.
Unless he was losing his mind!

How did Bipin Chowdhury find time to read five books a week?
View Solution
Q2
Reading passage:



A little boy was crying outside the school building. It was Asmita's brother, who went to music classes once a week. What he had forgotten was that the classes had been cancelled that day. Whoever attended music classes didn't remind him after school. Usually, Asmita would pick him up after his classes. He wondered how he would get back home. He realised that he would have to act quickly. He would have to choose which route he would want to take back home. He decided that he would take the road that went around the park. While he walked home he saw many people. Whoever saw him smiled and waved at him. He enjoyed his walk and reached home before sunset. He wondered why he had cried about it in the first place.

Tap the sentence with a noun clause that the author is likely to use to conclude the passage.
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Q3
Reading passage:

A little boy was crying outside the school building. It was Asmita's brother, who went to music classes once a week. What he had forgotten was that the classes had been cancelled that day. Whoever attended music classes didn't remind him after school. Usually, Asmita would pick him up after his classes. He wondered how he would get back home. He realised that he would have to act quickly. He would have to choose which route he would want to take back home. He decided that he would take the road that went around the park. While he walked home he saw many people. Whoever saw him smiled and waved at him. He enjoyed his walk and reached home before sunset. He wondered why he had cried about it in the first place.

Tap the noun clause in the sentence given.

It was Asmita's brother, who went to music classes once a week.
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Q4

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

Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.

These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie Erskine never realised. Poor Hughie! Intellectually, we must admit, he was not of much importance. He never said a brilliant or even an ill-natured thing in his life. But then he was wonderfully good-looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear-cut profile, and his grey eyes. He was as popular with men as he was with women, and he had every accomplishment except that of making money. His father had bequeathed him his cavalry sword, and a History of the Peninsular War in fifteen volumes. Hughie hung the first over his looking-glass, put the second on a shelf between Ruff's Guide and Bailey's Magazine, and lived on two hundred [pounds] a year that an old aunt allowed him. He had tried everything.

He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months; but what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears? He had been a tea-merchant for a little longer, but had soon tired of pekoe and souchong. Then he had tried selling dry sherry. That did not answer; the sherry was a little too dry. Ultimately he became nothing, a delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession.

To make matters worse, he was in love. The girl he loved was Laura Merton, the daughter of a retired Colonel who had lost his temper and his digestion in India, and had never found either of them again. Laura adored him, and he was ready to kiss her shoe-strings. They were the handsomest couple in London, and had not a penny-piece between them. The Colonel was very fond of Hughie, but would not hear of any engagement.

'Come to me, my boy, when you have got ten thousand pounds of your own, and we will see about it,' he used to say; and Hughie looked very glum on those days, and had to go to Laura for consolation.

One morning, as he was on his way to Holland Park, where the Mertons lived, he dropped in to see a great friend of his, Alan Trevor. Trevor was a painter. Indeed, few people escape that nowadays. But he was also an artist, and artists are rather rare. Personally he was a strange rough fellow, with a freckled face and a red ragged beard. However, when he took up the brush he was a real master, and his pictures were eagerly sought after. He had been very much attracted by Hughie at first, it must be acknowledged, entirely on account of his personal charm.

'The only people a painter should know,' he used to say, 'are people who are bête and beautiful, people who are an artistic pleasure to look at and an intellectual repose to talk to. Men who are dandies and women who are darlings rule the world, at least they should do so.’ However, after he got to know Hughie better, he liked him quite as much for his bright, buoyant spirits and his generous, reckless nature, and had given him the permanent entrée to his studio.

Adapted from ‘The Model Millionaire’ by Oscar Wilde

Choose the correct option for the questions given below:

What occupation did Alan Trevor pursue?


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Q5
Reading passage:



A little boy was crying outside the school building. It was Asmita's brother, who went to music classes once a week. What he had forgotten was that the classes had been cancelled that day. Whoever attended music classes didn't remind him after school. Usually, Asmita would pick him up after his classes. He wondered how he would get back home. He realised that he would have to act quickly. He would have to choose which route he would want to take back home. He decided that he would take the road that went around the park. While he walked home he saw many people. Whoever saw him smiled and waved at him. He enjoyed his walk and reached home before sunset. He wondered why he had cried about it in the first place.

Tap the correct noun clause to complete the sentence.
He wondered ________________.



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