Introduction to Narrative Passage | English Language Preparation for CUET PDF Download

Narrative passages are the main type of passage in literature and tell a story. They usually have a plot, characters, and setting. Narrative passages can be fiction or nonfiction.

One way to identify a narrative passage is by looking for elements of storytelling such as dialogue, narration, and description. Another way to identify a narrative passage is by its purpose—to tell a story.

Narrative passages can be divided into two categories: short stories and novels. Short stories are usually around 3000 words or less, while novels can be anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 words or more.

One important thing to remember about narrative passages is that they are usually chronological. That means the events in the story happen in the order that they are told. This can be tricky to follow if you’re not used to it, so be sure to read slowly and pay attention to the details.

Example 1:

Directions: Read the following passage to answer the given questions based on it. Some words/phrases are printed in bold & underline to help you locate them while answering some of the questions. 

During the reign of king Veer, there lived a wise magistrate. Haripant’s verdicts were always just and people from all over vast kingdom came to him in ordered to settle their disputes. In the city where Haripant lived, there was a greedy ghee merchant named Niranjan. He always kept twenty barrels of ghee. Of these, fifteen would contain good quality ghee and the remaining could be adulterated. He would mix the two and sell it. This went on for a long time, till finally the people fed up of being cheated, complained to Haripant.

Haripant had the ghee examined and found to it be adulterated. He gave Niranjan a choice of punishment-drink the five barrels of adulterated ghee from his shop, or receive a hundred lashings, or pay a thousand gold coins to the treasury. Niranjan thought for a while. Losing a thousand gold coins was too much and a hundred lashings too painful. So he decided to drink the five barrels of ghee. Though Niranjan sold adulterated goods in his shop, he made sure his own food was of the best quality. So after drinking one barrel of ghee he began to feel sick. By the second barrel, he was vomiting. At this point he decided to opt for the lashings instead. But he was pampered and his body was unused to any harsh treatment. After ten lashes, he started trembling and by twenty he was giddy. ‘Stop!’ he screamed. ‘I will pay the thousand gold coins!’ And he handed them over.

So he ended up suffering all three punishments, something he did not forget in a hurry and the people of the city got to use only the best quality in their food from then on.

Example 2:

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are printed in bold & underline to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

In a small hill town there lived a thief. He was very smart and before breaking into houses for theft he used to enquire about the lifestyles of the people staying in that house. Then at the dead of night he used to commit theft.

Dhanpatrai was a moneylender living in the same town. He was thrifty and never wasted money. He had a daughter named Laxmi. The thief knew that Dhanpatrai was rich and he had a lot of jewellery with him. Smartly the thief found out the location of the house and designed the theft. One night, getting up to the roof of the house he started removing the roof-covering made of earthen tiles.

The moneylender heard the sound and was sure that a thief was on the roof of the house. Now he had to create some ploy. He hit upon a plan. “Laxmi, Laxmi” he called out to his daughter who was sleeping. “Laxmi, I hope our money-box and jewellery are kept in the ceiling.” he asked cleverly.

Generally, in hill area, to keep house warm in winter, houses have a thatched roofing and below that, a wooden ceiling. Certain things used to be kept in the space between the roofing and wooden ceiling. So when the thief heard the question put by Dhanpatrai, he thought that there was a ceiling below the thatched roof. So he jumped down.

But actually in the house there was no wooden ceiling. So the thief fell to the floor of the house which was about fifteen feet below and broke his leg.

Immediately the moneylender called all the neighbours and they handed over the thief to the police. He saved his house from being burgled, with his ingenuity.