question_answer

Direction (1-9): Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions.

1. Just the other day, I came across a 'Missing Person" advertisement. Usually these advertisements carry the photographs of missing foreign maids and I seldom pay any attention to them. This one, however, was different. I knew the girl in the photo. She used to attend the same Sunday School (we call it Children's Church these days) as my son. She is only 14.1 was concerned and troubled. My heart went out to her parents and I remarked so to my husband.

2. My 8-year-old daughter was sprawled in the room and overhead our conversation. Her remark, "Why would someone want to run away in December? What would happen to all her Christmas presents?" An innocent comment that brought relief to my tense emotions.

3. Where has the innocence of youth gone? Tina (not her real name) started running away from home when she was eleven. I remember the first time I saw her. A frail, sweet-looking girl that looked far older than eleven. She dressed in a mature fashion, unlike the way other girls her age were dressed. Otherwise she was quiet, at least in my presence. Occasionally though, I would overhear fragments of conversation between her parents. I detected dissatisfaction and discontent. I put that down to the fatal combination of pre-pubescent temperament and perhaps the pampering of doting parents. Whatever the case, she did not look like a little girl.

4. It is tempting to theorise why Tina turned out the way she did. More likely than not, her parents or family background would be blamed. Yet, as far as I know, Tina comes from a normal family. The mother is a homemaker and they are financially comfortable. She is the second child and attends a fairly reputable school. Her parents say that she became uncontrollable after she associated with some tnembers of a girl gang. Prior to that, they had been more concerned about the eldest child. Apparently, Tina was the child who gave no trouble.

5. I do not wish to comment on parenting techniques, since I am certainly no expert and I am not fully apprised of the situation. I would, however, like to appeal to all teenagers who are reading this. Before deciding to do anything that is forbidden, stop to think why you are not allowed to do it. Are adults such spoilsports that they would do anything to stop you from having fun? And if the consequences are heavy, are you able to bear them?

6. I was a teacher to teenagers for many years. My students respected me not because of my academic qualifications. It was also certainly not because of my size, since most of them towered over me. They respected me because I treated them like adults, but only when they behaved in a mature fashion. I attempted to teach them to act and think responsibly; I did not just make grown-up demands. Grown-up privileges do not come free; they come with responsibilities. Teens, what you must realise is that, at your age, you find it hardest to say 'no' to temptations. That is why there are so many restrictions to your freedom.

7. Also, do not seek counsel with someone of your own age group. What can that fellow classmate teach you that you do not already know. Make friends with a responsible adult and consult him or her. Seek a future, not momentary pleasure.

8. At Sunday School the other day, I was recounting the history of Albania and told the seven-eleven year olds how, at one point, one in three children were starving. One child asked a brilliant question, "Why didn't the people run away to a different country?" Our youths are often like that - innocent in thought but mature in demands. They think that even if they were to make the wrong choice, they can simply run away and start all over again. Unfortu- nately, there are only so many chances. There might come a point in time when there is no more turning back.

9. Teenagers tend to be sullen and unresponsive. They view approaches from adults with much suspicion. It is simply inconceivable to them that adults were once teenagers too. In this, adults are to be blamed. We often forgot that we too fumbled and we too were upset with our elders. When considering teenagers, we often are guilty of refusing to allow them to learn via experience, imposing on then proven paths that we think would lead to success. No child has ever learnt how to walk without falling; in the same way, no teenagers will learn without being given some level of freedom to formulate their own thoughts and shape their emotions. Adult supervision is essential, but they must be allowed to experiment within reasonable limits.

10. How then shall we live? As adults, we need to learn to increasingly extend our apron's strings and, one day, cut them off completely. As for those in their teens, I can only repeat what I said earlier, "Seek a future, not momentary pleasure".

Pick the option in which the meaning of Tumbled' is not the same as it is in the passage.

A) The baseball hitterfumbled his attempt to catch it.

B) The cricketer rumbled the catch.

C) He fumbled his lines, not knowing what to say.

D) He fumbled with the buttons on his shirt.