Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow. My tea is nearly…
2024
Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow.
My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
It’s time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
For every night at tea time and before you take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.
Now Tom would be a driver and Maria may go to the sea;
And my papa’s a banker and as rich as he can be;
But I, when I’m stronger and choose what I’m to do,
O Leerie, I’ll go around at night and light the lamps with you
For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door;
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And O ! Before you hurry by with ladder and with light,
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him tonight !
The phrase, 'the sun has left the sky' indicates that -
- A.
it is morning
- B.
it is forenoon
- C.
it is afternoon
- D.
it is evening time
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: In a reading-comprehension extract, the time or setting of a scene is fixed only by the explicit clues the text gives — a habitual activity tied to a specific hour, a description of the sun’s position, or a recurring daily routine the speaker mentions — never by assumption.
Application: The stanza stacks several such clues together. ‘My tea is nearly ready’ places the moment at the household’s customary tea time; ‘the sun has left the sky’ states directly that the sun has already set, which happens only as day turns to night; and Leerie’s routine — he comes ‘every night at tea time’ with a lantern and ladder — is an activity carried out once daylight is gone. Read together, these clues fix the scene at the point where daylight has just ended.
Contrast:
‘It is morning’ would mean the sun is rising into the sky, the opposite of a sky the sun ‘has left’.
‘It is forenoon’ falls within full daylight, well before the sun sets, so it does not match a sky the sun has already left.
‘It is afternoon’ still has the sun above the horizon; the stanza’s pairing of tea time with the sun’s departure points to a later hour than this.
So the phrase ‘the sun has left the sky’ indicates that it is evening time, the hour at which the extract’s tea time, fading light, and Leerie’s lamp-lighting round all converge.