Narrative Passage Solved Examples | English Language Preparation for CUET PDF Download

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. 

Sheela and Jairam were a poor old couple. Their only possession was a cow. Once, Jairam fell very sick. Soon all their money was used up in buying medicines and they realised that they would have to sell their cow in order to bear the rest of the expenses. Sheela decided to go to the market and sell the cow. She set off, leading the cow by a rope. 

On the way, she met four young men. They were the local bullies who enjoyed teasing and tormenting old people. When they saw old Sheela  with her cow, they decided to play a trick. One of them sneaked up behind her, untied the cow and tied goat in its place. Sheela had been walking immersed in thought, worried about Jairam. Suddenly she heard a goat bleating behind her. She turned around and was surprised to see that her cow had vanished. She was leading a goat to the market. The four bullies came up to her and said, “There is magic in the air in these days. See, it turned your cow into a goat.”Poor Sheela walked on with the goat. After a little while, the boys united the goat and tied a rooster in its place. The rooster crowed and Sheela was surprised again. The goat had turned into a rooster. The four bullies shouted, “Magic in the air, Grandma.” She resumed walking with the rooster in tow. After a few minutes the boys crept up again, untied the rooster and tied a log of wood in its place. A few moments later, Sheela realised that she was dragging a log of wood with a rope. Again, the bullies shouted, “Magic in the air, Grandma.” After a few minutes, the boys untied the log of wood to and ran away with it. 

When Sheela finally reached the market, she found that she had nothing but a rope in her hand. She came back home dejected, as she had lost the cow. She told Jairam the whole story. He immediately understood what had happened. “Make chapatti, vegetable and kheer for lunch tomorrow,” he said. “Cook for at least four people. I will come home with some guests. As soon as they come you must say, ‘I cooked what the rabbit told me. Come, eat your lunch. Leave everything else to me,” Jairam reassured her. 

The next morning Jairam went and borrowed two identical rabbits from a friend. He left one at home, tied the other one with a string and started walking towards the market with it. On the way, he too met the four bullies. ‘Hey grandfather!’ they yelled, “Your wife’s cow vanished yesterday. Where are you talking this rabbit now?” Jairam signed sadly and said,” This rabbit is like my son. It obeys everything I say. But now I am sick and we need money, so I am going to sell it in the market.” The bullies were surprised when they heard this. “Does it really understand what you say, Grandfather?” they asked. Jairam replied, “of course it does. Here, watch me.” Jairam turned towards the rabbit and said, “Hop home and tell Sheela to make chapattis, vegetable and kheer for four people.” Then he untied the string and let the rabbit hop away. He turned towards the four boys and said, “Come home and have lunch with me.” 

When they reached his house, his wife welcomed them and said, “I cooked what the rabbit asked me to cook. Come, eat your lunch.” She served the chapattis, vegetable and kheer to all  of them. The four bullies were stunned when they saw the rabbit sitting in the corner. They told Jairam, “We will buy your rabbit.” Jairam pretended to think and said, “It is very precious to me.” The four bullies immediately offered him a higher price. Jairam showed some reluctance. The moment he agreed to sell the rabbit they paid him the money and left with the rabbit immediately. The four bullies decided to test the rabbit’s abilities. They had been blackmailing a landlord for money. So they told the rabbit, “Go and tell the landlord to bring us the money within ten minutes.” The rabbit hopped off. They waited for an hour but the landlord did not come with the money. They marched to his house and yelled, “Give us the money and our rabbit.” The landlord had been waiting for a chance to teach these bullies a lesson. He ordered his strongest bodyguard to give them a good thrashing. Bleeding and bruised, they went back to Jairam’ “You fooled us. Return our money at once.” Jairam simply smiled and said, “The money has disappeared. There is magic in the air.”

Example2:

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

Once upon a time there was a royal elephant which used to reside in the premises of the king's palace. Elephant was very dear to the king, so he was well-fed and well-treated. There was also a dog who lived near the elephant's shed. He was very weak and skinny. He was always fascinated by the smell of rich sweet rice being fed to the royal elephant.

One day, the dog could no longer resist the aroma of the rice and some how managed to sneak into the elephant's mouth. He linked the rice so much, that he started going there daily to eat the rice. For days, the huge elephant didn't notice the small dog as he was busy enjoying the delicious food. Gradually, the dog grew bigger and stronger eating such rich food. Finally the elephant noticed him and allowed him access to the food.

The elephant enjoyed the company of the dog and started sharing his food with him. They also started spending time with each other and soon became good friends. They ate together, slept together and played together. While playing, the elephant would hold the dog in his trunk and swing him back and forth. Soon neither of them was happy without the other. They became great friends and didn't want to be separated from each other.

Then one day, a man saw the dog and asked the elephant-keeper, "I want to buy this dog. What price do you want for it? "The elephant-keeper didn't own the dog but sold it and extracted a sum of money from this deal. The man took the dog to his home village, which was far away. The king's elephant became very sad after this incident. He missed his friend a lot and started neglecting everything. He didn't want to do anything without his dear friend, so he stopped eating, drinking and even bathing.

Finally, the elephant-keeper reported this to the king; however he didn't mention anything about the dog. The king had a wise minister, who was known for his keen understanding of animals. The king ordered the minister, "Go to the elephant's shed and find out the reason for the elephant's condition". The intelligent minister went to the elephant's shed and found the elephant very sad. He examined the elephant and asked the elephant-keeper, "there is nothing wrong with this elephant's body, then why does he look so sad? I think this elephant is grief stricken, possibly due to the loss of a dear friend. Do you know if this elephant shared a close friendship with anyone?"

The elephant-keeper said, "There was a dog who used to eat, sleep and play with the elephant. He was taken by a stranger three days ago". The minister went back to the king and said, "Your majesty, in my opinion, the royal elephant is not sick, but he his lonesome without his dear friend, the dog". The king said, "You're right, friendship is one of the most wonderful things of life. Do you know where that dog is?"

The Minister replied, "elephant-keeper has informed me that a stranger took him away and he doesn't know his whereabouts". The king asked, "How can we bring back my elephant's friend and make him happy again?” The minister suggested, "Your Majesty, make a declaration, that whoever has the dog that used to live at the royal elephant's shed will be penalized". The king did the same and the man who had taken the dog, instantly turned him loose when he heard the proclamation.

As soon as he was freed, the dog ran back as fast as he could to the elephant's shed. The elephant was so delighted to see the dog that he picked his friend up with his trunk and swung him back and forth.  The dog wagged his tail, while the elephant's sparkled with happiness. The king was content to see the elephant happy once again and rewarded the minister for his wise judgment.

Example 3:

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. 

Vishnu Raman was an Indian magistrate who lived about a hundred years ago. He was famed for the fairness of his judgements. One day while the magistrate was walking through the market he saw a crowd outside a poultry shop. On enquiring what the matter was he learnt that a worker had accidentally dropped a heavy sack on a chicken, crushing it to death. The chicken was small, worth only about five rupees, but the owner of the shop had caught the worker by his throat and was demanding a hundred rupees. His argument was that the chicken would have grown into a plump bird in another two years and then it would have fetched him the amount he was asking for. Somebody in the crowd recognized the magistrate, and everybody made way for him.

 “Judge our case, your honour!” said the owner of the chicken, letting go of the worker and bowing respectfully to the magistrate. “This man, through his carelessness has caused the death of a chicken that would have fetched me a hundred coins in another two years!” Fear had made the worker’s speech incoherent. Nobody could understand what he was saying. “The price put on the chicken is hundred rupees”, said the magistrate, to the worker. “I advise you to pay the owner.” There was a gasp from the crowd. Everybody had expected the magistrate to favour the poor worker. The owner of the chicken was overjoyed. “They said you were fair in your judgements” he said, rubbing his hands in glee, “Now I can say there is no one fairer than you!”

 “The Law is always fair”, smiled the magistrate. “Tell me, how much grain a chicken would eat in a year?  "About half a sack”, said the poultry shop owner. “So in two years the chicken who died would have eaten a whole sack of grain”, said Vishnu Raman. “Please give the sack of grain you’ve saved to the worker.” The chicken owner turned pale. A sack of grain would cost more than hundred rupees. Frightened by the shouts from the crowd, he declared he would not take any money from the worker, and retreated into the safety of his shop in the end.