Madam Rides the Bus · Class 10 English · First Flight: 135 MCQs with answers

There were no playmates of her own age on her street

Watching the street was, the story says, about all she had to do.

The bus that ran between her village and the nearest town

It came down her street once an hour, going one way and then the other.

She was too envious to listen and shouted 'Proud! proud!'

It was slang for disapproval, and the text says none of them really understood the word.

Six miles

The trip took forty-five minutes each way.

Forty-five minutes

Which is why the one-o'clock bus reached the town at one forty-five.

Sixty paise

Exactly the fare in both directions, and no more — which is why she cannot buy a drink in town.

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Some coins

She had said she simply had to go to town, and the money was her proof.

Gleaming white with green stripes down the sides

It was a new bus, and Valli devoured every detail of it with her eyes.

A canvas blind covered the lower part of the window and cut off her view

She peered over the blind — she had paid for the ride and meant to see all of it.

'There's nobody here who's a child. I've paid my thirty paise like everyone else.'

She said it haughtily, being annoyed by his attention.

'Are you all alone, dear?'

It is a kind question, and Valli answers it curtly.

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A young cow galloping in the middle of the road in front of the bus

Its tail was high in the air, and it kept running straight ahead of the bus.

She laughed until her eyes were wet

The conductor told her she had laughed enough and should save some for tomorrow.

Big bright shops, glittering displays of merchandise, and huge crowds

She simply gaped at everything, which is the last purely joyful moment of the day.

She stayed in her seat and paid another thirty paise

'I'm going back on this same bus' — the plan had always been a ride, not a visit.

Some fast vehicle had hit it after it left the road, and it lay dead there

Valli asked whether it was the same cow, and the conductor nodded.

The dead cow stayed in her mind and took all the pleasure out of the ride

She stayed fixed in her seat till the bus reached her village at twenty to four.

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It came past once an hour, carrying a different set of faces each time

The novelty is in the changing faces, which is exactly what feeds her curiosity.

A tiny wish crept in, grew, became stronger and stronger, and ended as an overwhelming desire

The stages are given deliberately: nothing causes the desire but repeated looking.

By listening to neighbours and regular passengers, and asking a few discreet questions

It took many days and months, and 'discreet' means she took care that nobody guessed why.

Thirty paise one way, so sixty paise in all

She could ride back on the same bus by keeping her seat and handing over another thirty paise.

That it was 'almost nothing at all'

She hardly handled such a sum in a whole month, so to her it was a fortune.

Leave at one, reach town at one forty-five, be home by about two forty-five

She calculated and recalculated, planned and replanned, until the whole thing fitted.

Because her mother napped during those hours every afternoon

Valli always used those hours for her 'excursions', so the absence would not be noticed.

Peppermints, toys, balloons and a ride on the merry-go-round

She saved whatever stray coins came her way and resisted every temptation to spend them.

Excursions

She has a grand word for small journeys long before she makes a real one.

Wistfully — longingly

Kindle is to set alight, thriftily means spending carefully, and stifled means suppressed.

1 and 2 only

The whole point of the nap from one to four is that her mother was not to know.

She is curious, patient, thrifty, determined and able to keep a secret

Everything that happens later on the bus follows from the character this section builds.

The name of the driver who took the afternoon bus

Her information is entirely practical: distance, fare, time and the rule about the return.

That she went over the same figures again and again for a long time

The doubling of the words is the story's way of showing how long the wish was held.

She saved sixty paise herself from stray coins over a long period

The saving, and what it cost her to save, is the heart of this section.

A wish formed at a doorway became a timetable, a fare list and sixty saved paise

A good opening gathers the wish, the research and the saving, which are the three parts of the answer.

Her 'excursions' meant standing at the door or walking in the village

Those same free hours, the story notes, would now carry her out of the village for the first time.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: no playmates and the doorway; the bus passing each hour with new passengers; the tiny wish growing into an overwhelming desire; listening to neighbours and regular passengers; a few discreet questions; six miles, thirty paise, forty-five min…

Just as it was about to leave the village and turn into the main highway

The bus slowed down to a crawl and the conductor put his head out of the door.

She insisted she could get on by herself

'You don't have to help me' is the first of many refusals on this journey.

He is a jolly sort, and is teasing a small girl who insists on adult treatment

'Make way for madam' is a joke — though by the end of the journey the word carries real courtesy.

It was the slack time of day

Slack time means a time when there is not much work, and it leaves Valli very visible.

She was overcome with shyness and avoided everyone's eyes

The commanding hand lasts about a minute; then she is an eight-year-old being laughed at.

A beautiful clock above the windshield

The overhead bars shone like silver and the seats were soft and luxurious.

Palm trees, grassland, distant mountains and the blue, blue sky

On the other side of the road were a deep ditch and acres and acres of green fields.

He had honestly been concerned for her safety

The text says so directly, which is why answers must not turn him into an unkind character.

That he stop calling her madam, and that he give her her ticket

She objects to the title and demands the ticket she has paid for.

'I'll remember' — said while mimicking her tone

Everyone laughed, and gradually Valli too joined in the laughter.

She might fall and hurt herself at a sharp turn or a bump

Her answer was 'I'm not a child, I tell you. I'm eight years old.'

The big holes in her ear lobes, her ugly earrings, and the betel nut she was chewing

The betel juice looked ready to run over her lip at any moment.

Curtly

Curtly means showing displeasure, and she called the woman's questions drivel.

“You needn’t bother about me” — she could look after herself

She turned her face towards the window and stared out.

1 and 2 only

Business was slack at that hour, so barely half a dozen people were travelling.

Two blasts of the conductor’s whistle, and the bus pulled away with a roar

It is the exact moment a journey planned over months finally begins.

He teased her, but kindly, and they were laughing together within minutes

He gives her the front seat, jokes with her, punches her ticket and later offers to buy her a drink.

She will accept a joke, but not pity or supervision

She laughs with the conductor, snaps at the elderly man and freezes out the elderly woman.

Valli tells the elderly woman where she is going in town

She says only 'You needn't bother about me. I can take care of myself', and turns to the window.

Valli spends her first bus ride defending an independence she has paid thirty paise for

The fare is the ground of every claim she makes, so a good opening names it.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: the bus about to turn into the highway; 'Stop the bus!' and the tiny hand raised commandingly; 'I'm the one who has to get on' and the coins shown; refusing the conductor's hand; the 'madam' joke and 'make way for madam'; the slack time and…

They ran towards the bus, stood helpless a moment, then rushed away in the other direction

The writer keeps the optical illusion exactly as it appears to somebody watching from a vehicle for the first time.

The more the driver honked, the more frightened it became

The horn, meant to clear the road, was making the situation worse — which is why it is funny.

A speck in the distance, growing bigger and bigger, then a tremendous roar and rattle

It shook the bus as it rushed past the crossing gate.

'she simply felt like taking a ride on the bus'

Nothing was the matter; the ride itself was the whole ambition.

She said she would be much too afraid all by herself

'All by myself? Oh, I'd be much too afraid' — her own admission.

'No, no — please, no,' firmly

She had already said she did not have enough money; a free treat she refused as well.

She greeted everything with the same excitement as before

The sentence is placed there so that the sight of the dead cow can destroy it.

Legs spreadeagled and a fixed stare in its lifeless eyes

The description is the most physical passage in an otherwise gentle story.

Her mother, awake and talking to a chatterbox aunt from South Street

The aunt asked where she had been very casually, not expecting a reply.

The aunt asked casually without expecting an answer, and the two women went on talking

So Valli just smiled, and the conversation carried on without her.

That we cannot know everything, and often cannot understand even what we know

It is an ordinary remark in a gossiping conversation, and it happens to be the lesson of Valli's day.

1 and 2 only

The bus reached the village at three forty; her mother napped until about four.

The bus slowed to a crawl and the cow moved off; it was later struck by some other fast-moving vehicle

Valli only asks whether it is the same cow, and the conductor nods.

Valli's thirty-paise ride buys her a town, a cow and, without warning, her first understanding of death

The best openings name both halves of the afternoon, the comedy and the loss.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: the bare landscape, hamlet and wayside shop; the bus seeming to gobble up vehicles and pedestrians; the trees running and rushing away; the cow galloping and the horn making it worse; laughing till there were tears in her eyes and the conduc…

He says the doorway was as enjoyable to her as other children's elaborate games

Watching the street gave her many new and unusual experiences, which is how the story treats her curiosity as a gift rather than a lack.

The writer's exact ear for how children actually talk

A borrowed English word, used constantly and understood by nobody, is a very precise piece of observation.

It shows she was gathering information without revealing her plan

Secrecy is part of the plan from the very beginning, long before she slips out during the nap.

It shows, without comment, how little money her family had

The same coin means two different things, and the story simply lets the two sentences stand side by side.

She had the money in her pocket and still refused herself the ride

She gave up a certain small pleasure for an uncertain larger one, which is a hard thing at eight.

The sight of the passengers set her own desires alight

Kindle means to set alight, and it is their ordinary faces that start the fire.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

The story calls them careful, painstaking, elaborate plans, and shows exactly how they were made.

So that the ride is understood as an achievement, not a whim

Months of saving and calculating stand behind a journey that lasts ninety minutes.

That she learns by observing rather than by being taught

Her whole timetable and fare list come out of listening and watching from that doorway.

Because a plan of this patience is remarkable in a child of eight

It is also why she insists on her age so fiercely once she is on board.

That the journey will become an induction into the mystery of life and death

It speaks of the gap between knowing that there is death and understanding it.

It keeps her likeable but real, rather than a model child

Shouting 'Proud! proud!' at a friend is not admirable, and the story records it anyway.

A girl who plans alone and pays her own way will refuse help and insist on being treated as an equal

'I can get on by myself' and 'I've paid my thirty paise like everyone else' both come straight out of this preparation.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should name at least five qualities with textual evidence: curiosity (the doorway, the watching); patience (many days and months of listening); secrecy and care (discreet questions, the nap from one to four); thrift and determination (sixty paise, the refused merry-go-roun…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should identify techniques with evidence: the child's point of view sustained throughout; repetition building longing (each hour, day after day; the stages of the wish); the glamour given to ordinary passengers ('kindle in her longings, dreams and hopes'); value measured b…

A tiny hand is raised commandingly — small and authoritative at once

The contradiction in that phrase contains her whole behaviour on the journey.

They keep the description inside a child's way of speaking

The exclamation that follows — 'Oh, it was all so wonderful!' — belongs to the same voice.

She has met exactly the same condition as every other passenger

On its own terms the claim is unanswerable, which is why the adults resort to teasing instead.

She can take teasing; what she will not accept is being dismissed

The relationship with the conductor stays warm throughout the journey because of moments like this.

New passengers got on and she was afraid of losing her seat

She is not persuaded by anybody's argument; she is outmanoeuvred by circumstances.

An honest picture of how children sometimes judge by appearance

The writer neither defends nor scolds her; he simply records what she thought.

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Both are true. The fare and the timing do not explain why three adults try to take charge of her.

Silver-bright bars, a clock and soft seats — exactly what a child would list first

The story's point of view never slips out of an eight-year-old's eyes.

Because Valli's own short sentences are the clearest evidence of her character

The textbook exercise on her character is built entirely out of lines she speaks here.

It keeps her an eight-year-old rather than a small heroine

The commanding hand and the avoided eyes are barely a minute apart, and both are true of her.

It marks the exact moment her long-planned journey finally begins

'May we start now, madam?' — and the bus pulled away roaring.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content must treat all three adults with evidence: the conductor (the madam joke, the mimicking, the shared laughter); the elderly man (his honest concern, the word 'child', 'I've paid my thirty paise like everyone else'); the elderly woman (her kind question, Valli's disgust at h…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should give at least five pieces of evidence with comment: the silver bars, clock and soft seats devoured with her eyes; the canvas blind and standing on the seat; the repetitions 'blue, blue sky' and 'green, green, green' and the exclamation; the judgement of the old woma…

How near the oncoming traffic seemed from inside the bus

'But lo! somehow it passed on smoothly' — the danger exists only in the way a child sees it.

The same eyes will look at the same cow, dead, a little later

Tears of laughter and sadness over one animal frame the whole afternoon.

She had studied the bus for months; the town she did not know at all

'Nothing to be afraid of about that,' she says of the ride, and she means it.

Her self-respect: she will not accept what she has not paid for

The offer would have cost her nothing, and she still refused firmly.

It lets the reader feel the change from comedy to loss without any explanation

The two pictures are placed one after the other and the reader does the rest.

The teasing word has become a genuine courtesy

He invites her to come whenever she feels like a bus ride — and to remember her fare.

Because she has just lived through exactly what her mother is describing

It is the only point in the story where her afternoon and her home life touch.

Both her secret journey and the death she has only now understood

The double meaning is the point: she covers her secret with a sentence that is also completely true.

Because the whole afternoon is hers alone and she will not explain it

She meant the smile to stay unexplained — and the story doubts anyone could have read it anyway.

Dramatic irony: the reader knows exactly how grown-up her afternoon has been

She says Valli pokes her nose into grown-up talk as though she were a grown lady, without guessing why.

A is true, but R is false

She takes a window seat gladly and looks out of it the whole way. The assertion holds, the reason is false.

Dry, affectionate and a little sad

Valli is safe, undiscovered and changed — and nobody in her house has the least idea.

It restores her happiness so that the dead cow can take it away

Placing the two sentences side by side is how the story makes the loss felt.

It marks the high point of her happiness, shortly before the day turns

She has been laughing till she cried; within the hour she will not look out of the window at all.

She has seen what death actually looks like, and keeps it to herself

Her secret smile is not only about the ride; it is about a knowledge she cannot share.

Some things cannot be explained to people who did not see them

Her mother has just said as much herself: we often cannot understand even what we know about.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: months of accurate information about the bus contrasted with the experience of riding it; specific discoveries on the journey; the cow alive and the cow dead, with her two reactions; the recognition that nothing was explained to her; the mother's remark on…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should cover at least five traits with evidence: curiosity and observation (the doorway, the listening); patience and determination (sixty paise, the merry-go-round); independence and pride ('I can get on by myself', 'I've paid my thirty paise', the refused drink); her fau…