"Lost Spring"

Each question will have four options:

Instructions: Read the following extracts carefully and choose the best option for each question.

Extract 1:

"Sometimes I find a rupee, even a ten-rupee note," Saheb says, his eyes lighting up. When you can find a
silver coin in a heap of garbage, you don’t stop scrounging, for there is always hope of finding more. It seems
that for children, garbage has a meaning different from what it means to their parents. For the children it is
wrapped in wonder, for the elders it is a means of survival.

Question 1: What does "garbage" primarily represent for the children in this extract?

A) A source of disgust and despair.

B) A treasure trove wrapped in wonder and hope.

C) A burden that they wish to escape.

D) A symbol of their parents' failed dreams.

Extract 2:

"Is your school ready?" I ask. "Soon," he answers, with a wide smile. A few days later I ask him, "Is your
school ready?" "It takes longer to build a school," he says. At times, sitting in my office, I feel the urge to ask
him about his shoes, about the game he loves. He never comes into my office wearing shoes. He wears a
pair of old tennis shoes, with holes in them. One day he runs out and waves at me from the fence. "I'm going
to play tennis."

Question 2: What does Saheb's repeated question about the school and his eventual statement reveal
about him?

A) He is impatient and demanding.

B) He is naive but holds onto a fleeting hope for a better life.

C) He is mocking the narrator's suggestion.

D) He is more interested in tennis than education.

Extract 3:

"I want to drive a car," Mukesh insists on being his own master. I ask, "Do you know anything about cars?" "I
will learn to drive a car," he answers, looking straight into my eyes. His dream looms like a mirage amidst the
dust of streets that fill his town, Firozabad, famous for its bangles. Every other family in Firozabad is
engaged in making bangles.

Question 3: What does Mukesh's desire to "drive a car" symbolize in the context of his family's profession?

A) His rejection of modern technology.

B) His aspiration to break free from generational labor.

C) His wish to become a taxi driver.

D) His ambition to leave Firozabad.

None of them know that it is illegal for children like him to work in the glass furnaces with high
temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light; that the law, if enforced, could get him and all those
20,000 children out of the hot furnaces where they slog their daylight hours, often losing the brightness of
their eyes.

Question 4: What is the primary issue highlighted regarding the children working in glass furnaces?

A) Lack of proper training.

B) The illegality and hazardous nature of their work.

C) Low wages paid to them.

D) Their inability to form unions.

Extract 5:

Few of them have enjoyed a full meal in their entire lifetime. They have not even eaten anything but rice and
lentils for many years. It is easy for them to sit and talk, and form a cooperative. But they know they will be
hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for doing something illegal. There is no leader among
them, no one who could help them see things differently.

Question 5: What is the main obstacle preventing the bangle makers from forming a cooperative?

A) Lack of interest in improving their lives.

B) Fear of police brutality and legal repercussions.

C) Absence of raw materials for bangle making.

D) Internal conflicts and disagreements.

Extract 6:

"Why not organise yourselves into a cooperative?" I ask a group of young men who have fallen into the
vicious circle of middlemen who trapped their fathers and forefathers. "Even if we get organised, we are the
ones who will be hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for doing something illegal," they say.
There is no leader among them, no one who could help them see things differently.

Question 6: What does the phrase "vicious circle of middlemen" imply about the bangle makers' situation?

A) They are benefiting greatly from multiple business opportunities.

B) They are caught in an inescapable cycle of exploitation and debt.

C) They have voluntarily chosen to work with various intermediaries.

D) They are part of a strong, well-organized trade network.

Extract 7:

Garbage is their gold. It is their daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. For a child it is
even more. I sometimes find a rupee, even a ten-rupee note, Saheb says, his eyes lighting up.

Question 7: The phrase "Garbage is their gold" is an example of which literary device?

A) Simile

B) Metaphor
C) Personification

D) Hyperbole

Extract 8:

Having nothing else to do, watching two young men playing tennis, I asked Saheb about it. "I like the game,"
he answers, content to watch it standing behind the fence. He is content to watch it standing behind the
fence. He goes inside when no one is around. He uses the swing.

Question 8: What does Saheb's act of watching tennis from behind the fence and using the swing when no
one is around signify?

A) His open defiance of social norms.

B) His secret desire for a normal, playful childhood.

C) His role as a security guard for the tennis court.

D) His disinterest in games and sports.

Extract 9:

The stench of garbage, the foul smell of their habitat, makes their lives a living hell. These are the
descendants of Bangladesh refugees. They have lived for more than thirty years without an identity, without
permits, but with ration cards that get their names on voters’ lists and enable them to buy grain.

Question 9: What is the most significant aspect of the refugees' identity in Seemapuri, as described in this
extract?

A) They have managed to secure permanent citizenship.

B) They have no legal identity but possess practical documents for survival.

C) They are struggling to obtain any form of identification.

D) They are completely cut off from governmental support.

Extract 10:

"My father is still a bangle maker. He has made a house for us to live in." The old woman, sitting beside her
husband, a man with a flowing beard, has seen enough to know that it is not just the glass bangles that form
a ring around the finger of a bride, but also the cycle of poverty that traps them.

Question 10: The "cycle of poverty" mentioned in the extract implies that the bangle makers are:

A) Continuously improving their economic status through hard work.

B) Stuck in a repetitive pattern of debt and hardship across generations.

C) Choosing to remain in their profession due to strong cultural ties.

D) Experiencing temporary financial setbacks that they can easily overcome.