Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
“Never mind,” she said, “I can get on by myself. You don’t have to help me.”
The conductor was a jolly sort, fond of joking. “Oh, please don’t be angry with me, my fine madam,” he said.
1. What help did the girl decline?
2. Why did Valli board the bus?
3. What does the phrase ‘fond of’ mean?

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Her first journey - what careful, painstaking, elaborate plans she had had to make for it! She had thriftily saved whatever stray coins came her way, resisting every temptation to buy peppermints, toys, balloons, and the like, and finally she had saved a total of sixty paise.

1. What did she have to make careful plans for?

2. How did she save the money?

3. The word in the passage that means ‘miserly’ is?

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Valli always used these hours for her ‘excursions’ as she stood looking from the doorway of her house or sometimes even ventured out into the village; today, these same hours could be used for her first excursion outside the village.
1. What does ‘these hours’ mean in the given context?
2. What is meant by ‘excursions’ in this context?
3. The phrase ‘ventured out’ here conveys the sense of?

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Oh, it was all so wonderful!
Suddenly she was startled by a voice. “Listen, child,” said the voice, “you shouldn’t stand like that. Sit down.”
1. Why did she find ‘it’ wonderful?
2. Why was she startled by the concerned voice of a co-passenger?
3. What does the word ‘startled’ here mean?

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Struck dumb with wonder, Valli gaped at everything. Then the bus stopped and everyone got off except Valli.
1. What did Valli gape at?
2. Why didn’t Valli get off the bus?
3. What does ‘struck dumb’ here mean?