(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options

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

A little later, when he went to the pump to wash, he saw the school children pouring by with their

satchels across their shoulders. They all wore the same clothes – grey shorts or skirts and light blue shirts

or blouses – faded and mended, and they all had their hair oiled and combed down very flat. Some

went by in laughing, racing groups, others had to be led by their mothers or grandparents to the school

building. This reminded him of his sisters in the village. The boys in the kitchen now looked at him with less hostility. Jagu seemed pleased with Hari too, and

sometimes handed him a glass of tea in the middle of the day. When he had a few moments to spare,

Jagu sat down at one of the long wooden tables, drummed loudly on it and sang a song in a dialect Hari

did not know. When he caught Hari listening and smiling, he smiled back. Then Hari knew that he too

had a village somewhere that he called home. It was just that he was a silent, hardworking, worried man

and had no time and no gift for speech.

It was the watch mender, Mr. Panwallah, who was truly a benefactor, the kindest and most helpful of

all. One afternoon, during those hot, still hours when there were no customers for a change, Hari was

standing in front of the eating house, idly watching the traffic because he was too tired to do anything

else, and Mr. Panwallah called to him to come and sit beside him on the bench behind the counter in his

shop.

“Want to help?” he asked. “Want to learn how to make a clock tick? I’m just going to open this big

grandfather clock sent to me for repair – you’ll be able to see the workings plain. Don’t often get a

piece like this anymore - wall clocks, yes, and electronic gadgets – but you don’t often come upon a

grandfather clock like this. It’s a real piece of luck, being able to show you one of this size. Look,” he said,

swinging open the door at the back and revealing the machinery to a fascinated Hari who felt as if the

door had opened into a new and strange house. Mr. Panwallah showed Hari what was wrong with it,

what had made it stop. “Interesting, isn’t it? How would you like to learn? Tell you what – I’ll take you

on as an apprentice. You don’t have much to do between two and four, do you? Of course you will have

to ask Jagu first. I can pay you a little, not much, and you can help me for two hours a day. Perhaps I can

make a watch mender of you.” -Village by the Sea, Anita Desai

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