Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. A certain…
2020
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
A certain king was travelling from one place to another in disguise because he wanted to check on his officers.
One day he was resting under a tree near a house which belonged to a goldsmith. He overheard a conversation between the father and the son in that house. The son was saying, "Father, don't worry, I shall cheat my customers fully." The king wanted to test him.
The next day the King sent for the son and said, "Make a gold crown for the temple goddess. Come to the palace every day and work on the crown."
The son agreed. He went every day and worked on the gold crown. In the evening when he returned home, he closed his room and used to work on something. He would go to bed late at night.
After some days he finished the work. On the last day before he went to the palace, he went to the river early in the morning to do puja. Then he went to the palace. After finishing the work he took the gold crown to the river to wash it. The soldiers went with him. He came back with the crown. The king was pleased at the work and also that the young man could not cheat him. He said, "You promised your father that you would cheat people fully. But now you know that you cannot." After some silence the young man replied, "I did cheat you fully, my lord."
"He overheard the conversation . . ." This means that
- A.
the King heard them talk over the roof of their house.
- B.
the King listened to the conversation without being seen.
- C.
the King heard the conversation over and over again.
- D.
the King could not hear the conversation fully.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
In reading-comprehension questions that ask what a phrase 'means', you are being tested on vocabulary-in-context: identify how a word is functioning in the passage, not just its dictionary sense in isolation. 'To overhear' something means to hear a remark or conversation by chance, without the speaker's knowledge or intention that you should hear it - it happens when the listener is present but unnoticed, not through deliberate or repeated listening.
In this passage, the king was travelling in disguise specifically to observe his officers unnoticed, and he was resting under a tree near the goldsmith's house when the father-son exchange took place. Neither the father nor the son knew he was there, so he caught their conversation without either of them noticing him. That is exactly the sense in which the passage says he 'overheard' the conversation.
heard them talk over the roof of their house - the passage places the king resting under a tree beside the house, not on any roof, so there is no textual support for this.
heard the conversation over and over again - 'overhear' describes catching a remark on a single, chance occasion, not repeated listening; nothing in the passage suggests the exchange was heard multiple times.
could not hear the conversation fully - the king clearly grasped the son's boast well enough to devise a test for him afterward, showing he heard and understood the exchange, not only part of it.
So the phrase means that the king caught the father-son conversation while remaining unnoticed by them - he listened to it without being seen.