Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow. We were walking…
2024
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
We were walking across the garden when my daughter spotted a cluster of familiar red flowers. She pulled me to one side and then, looking excitedly at me as though she had a secret to share, she pulled me down to her height and whispered in my ears. I shot up straight almost as soon as she had finished her sentence. With my mouth ajar, I was about to tell her that it was probably not a good idea to do so when I was transported to the time when I was around her age.
It had been a rather long day from school and I was dead tired. I was walking along the pathway that was lined with many ixora plants when my friend grabbed me by the arm. Before I could do anything, he gleefully plucked a single flower from the cluster and showed it to me. Unimpressed, I was not about to be swayed by a puny flower and was about to admonish him when he turned the flower upside down to show me a tiny almost invisible thread-like thing that protruded out from its stalk.
He pulled the faint yellowish thread and right at the end of it, a tiny drop of nectar appeared. At least, that was what I think it was, as it was really quite sweet. That day we raided the ixora plants. We really had a lot of fun. I could still taste the sweetness till today. My daughter’s urgent tug brought me back to reality. I turned to my daughter and decided that she too needed to know the joy of tasting sweet nectar from beautiful blooms.
Identify the parts of speech of the underlined words.
"I was transported to the time when I was around her age."
- A.
noun, verb
- B.
adjective, preposition
- C.
noun, preposition
- D.
noun, adverb
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In English grammar, a word's part of speech is determined by the grammatical function it performs within its specific clause, not by its form alone. A preposition specifically introduces a relationship of place, time, direction, or approximation between a noun phrase and the rest of the clause, while a noun names a person, place, thing, or idea and typically occupies the object position after a preposition or verb.
Application:
In the clause "I was transported to the time when I was around her age," the word "time" follows the preposition "to" and serves as its object, naming the concept being referred to — this object-of-preposition role is the defining function of a noun.
In the phrase "around her age," the word "around" governs the noun phrase "her age" and expresses an approximate relationship (roughly her age) between that noun phrase and the surrounding clause — this relation-introducing role is the defining function of a preposition.
Combining both classifications gives "time" = noun and "around" = preposition, which matches the pairing noun, preposition.
Cross-check (ruling out the other pairings):
noun, verb is ruled out because "around" carries no tense marking and does not act as the clause's predicate; it precedes the noun phrase "her age", which is a relation-introducing role, not a predicate-forming one.
adjective, preposition is ruled out because "time" occupies the object slot directly after "to" and names a concept, rather than modifying a following noun, which is what an adjective would do.
noun, adverb is ruled out because "around" takes "her age" as its object and links that noun phrase to the clause, whereas an adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb without taking a noun-phrase object of its own.
Result: the underlined words "time" and "around" are a noun and a preposition respectively, so the pairing noun, preposition is correct.