Unseen Passage for Class 5: The Library Card

  • 200 words
  • 5 questions
  • Ages 10–11
  • With answers

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Read the passage

The town library was a single room above a cloth shop, reached by a narrow staircase that smelled of old paper. It held perhaps two thousand books, and for a girl of eleven that was the same as infinite.

Lakshmi went every Saturday. The rule was two books at a time, returned within fourteen days, and she finished both by Tuesday without fail. For three months she asked the librarian, Mrs Fernandes, whether the limit might be raised, and for three months the answer was a firm no.

Then one Saturday Mrs Fernandes did not hand her two books. She slid a card across the desk with Lakshmi's name written on it and the word STAFF underneath.

"You will shelve returns for one hour each Saturday," she said. "Staff may borrow six." She did not look up as she said it, and she never mentioned it again.

Lakshmi shelved returns for four years. She learnt where everything was, which spines had begun to crack, and which books nobody had opened since before she was born. She now runs a chain of bookshops in three cities, and there is a framed library card in the office of every one of them.

Questions

  1. Where exactly was the town library?

    1. Next to a cloth shop
    2. In a single room above a cloth shop
    3. In the town hall
    4. Beside the school

  2. Why does the writer say two thousand books were "the same as infinite"?

    1. Because nobody could count them
    2. Because the library kept getting new books
    3. Because to a child of eleven that was more than she could ever finish
    4. Because the room was very large

  3. Why did Mrs Fernandes make Lakshmi a staff member?

    1. The library needed help urgently
    2. It was a way to let her borrow more books without breaking the rule outright
    3. Lakshmi had asked to work there
    4. Her parents requested it

  4. What does it suggest that Mrs Fernandes "did not look up" and never mentioned it again?

    1. She was busy with other work
    2. She regretted her decision
    3. She did not want to make a show of her kindness
    4. She was angry with Lakshmi

  5. Why is there a framed library card in every one of Lakshmi's shops?

    1. It is part of the shop's logo
    2. To remind her and others where her love of books began
    3. Because she collects old cards
    4. The shops were once libraries

Answers

Show the answer key
  1. In a single room above a cloth shopIt was a single room above a cloth shop, reached by a narrow staircase.
  2. Because to a child of eleven that was more than she could ever finishIt is not a literal claim. To an eleven-year-old reader, two thousand books felt endless.
  3. It was a way to let her borrow more books without breaking the rule outrightThe limit for members was two. Rather than change the rule, Mrs Fernandes found a way around it that Lakshmi could accept with dignity.
  4. She did not want to make a show of her kindnessDoing it without ceremony, and never bringing it up, shows she did not want thanks or attention for it.
  5. To remind her and others where her love of books beganThe card stands for the moment someone made room for her. She keeps it visible in every shop she now owns.

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