English Language Questions for CLAT | QB Set 54

Passage

When the old railway station at Devgarh was finally marked for demolition, few people objected. The new station, built half a kilometre away, had glass doors, electronic display boards and a waiting hall that remained cool even in May. By comparison, the old building seemed tired. Its yellow walls had faded into a colour somewhere between dust and memory, its wooden benches complained under the weight of passengers, and the clock above the ticket window had been seven minutes slow for as long as anyone could remember.

Yet every evening, after closing his stationery shop, Mr Sen walked to the abandoned platform and sat beneath the rusted iron roof.

As a boy, he had waited there for his father, who worked in another town and returned every Saturday on the 6:10 train. Years later, he had stood on the same platform to leave for college, clutching a suitcase that seemed too large for him. He remembered his mother waving until the train disappeared, though he could no longer recall what she had worn that day.

The authorities had placed a notice outside the station explaining that the land would be used for a commercial complex. Mr Sen read it several times. He did not oppose the plan. The town needed shops, offices and parking space. Progress, he understood, was rarely kind enough to ask permission from memory.

One evening, he found Tara, a seventeen-year-old school student, photographing the station.

“It will be gone next week,” she said.

“That is what they say.”

“So I thought I should save it.”

Mr Sen smiled. “In your phone?”

Tara lowered the camera. “Where else?”

He almost replied that some things could not be saved by photographing them. But the thought seemed unfair. His own memories were hardly more reliable. The station in his mind had sunlight where there may have been rain, voices where there may have been silence, and people who seemed younger every year.

Tara showed him one of her photographs. The broken clock occupied the centre of the frame, while weeds grew brightly between the tracks.

“It looks beautiful,” Mr Sen said, surprised.

“It is beautiful,” Tara replied.

He looked again. Perhaps beauty did not depend on keeping a place unchanged. Perhaps it sometimes depended on noticing it just before it vanished.

The following morning, Mr Sen brought Tara an old photograph of the station taken nearly forty years earlier. Together, they placed the two images side by side. Neither showed the station exactly as it had been. Yet, between them, something of the place seemed to survive.

Questions

1. Which of the following best captures the central idea of the passage?

(A) Modern development inevitably destroys everything that gives a town its identity.
(B) Memories become meaningful only when they are preserved through photographs.
(C) Places may disappear physically while continuing to survive through memory, attention and different forms of preservation.
(D) Older generations generally value heritage more deeply than younger generations.

2. What can most reasonably be inferred from Mr Sen’s response to Tara’s photograph of the station?

(A) He begins to recognise that Tara’s way of preserving the station may be different from, but not inferior to, his own memories.
(B) He realises that photographs are more accurate than personal memories and should therefore replace them.
(C) He becomes convinced that the station should be protected from demolition at any cost.
(D) He regrets having failed to photograph the station during his childhood.

3. In the sentence, “Progress, he understood, was rarely kind enough to ask permission from memory,” the author primarily suggests that:

(A) governments deliberately ignore the emotional attachment of citizens while planning development.
(B) economic development usually requires people to forget their past completely.
(C) personal memories have little practical value when compared with public infrastructure.
(D) change often takes place regardless of people’s emotional attachment to places associated with the past.

4. Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?

(A) Bitter and accusatory
(B) Nostalgic yet reflective
(C) Humorous and dismissive
(D) Urgent and confrontational

5. Which statement best explains the significance of the old and new photographs being placed side by side at the end of the passage?

(A) They establish that old photographs are historically more valuable than modern photographs.
(B) They prove that neither Mr Sen nor Tara properly understood the station when it still existed.
(C) They suggest that different perspectives and moments can together preserve an imperfect but meaningful sense of the past.
(D) They demonstrate that photographs can reconstruct the past with complete accuracy.

Answer Key

1. (C)
2. (A)
3. (D)
4. (B)
5. (C)

Detailed Explanations

1. Correct Answer: (C)

The passage explores how a physical place can disappear while continuing to exist through memories, photographs and the act of consciously noticing it. Mr Sen initially associates preservation mainly with memory, while Tara uses photography. By the end, the two approaches are brought together.

Option (A) is too extreme because Mr Sen does not condemn development. He accepts that the town needs shops, offices and parking. Option (B) incorrectly makes photography the only meaningful form of preservation. Option (D) is contradicted by Tara’s strong interest in preserving the station.

2. Correct Answer: (A)

Mr Sen initially seems sceptical when Tara says she wants to “save” the station in her phone. However, after seeing her photograph, he recognises something in the station that he had not noticed in the same way before. His surprise at finding the image beautiful suggests a shift in perspective.

Option (B) goes too far because the passage explicitly notes that both memories and photographs are imperfect. Option (C) is incorrect because Mr Sen never decides to resist the demolition. Option (D) is not supported by the passage.

3. Correct Answer: (D)

The phrase personifies “progress” as something that moves forward without consulting people’s memories or emotional attachments. Mr Sen understands that development may be necessary even when it changes or removes places that hold personal significance.

Option (A) wrongly attributes deliberate insensitivity to the government. The passage does not suggest such hostility. Option (B) is too absolute because development does not require forgetting the past. Option (C) misrepresents Mr Sen’s attitude, since he clearly values memories deeply.

4. Correct Answer: (B)

The passage is strongly nostalgic because Mr Sen remembers his father, his mother and important moments from his youth. At the same time, the narration is reflective rather than sentimental alone. It considers the unreliability of memory, the inevitability of change and different ways of preserving the past.

Option (A) is inappropriate because the passage contains no sustained anger or blame. Option (C) does not match the serious mood. Option (D) is also incorrect because there is no urgent demand for action.

5. Correct Answer: (C)

The final scene brings together Mr Sen’s old photograph and Tara’s recent one. The statement that neither image shows the station “exactly as it had been” reinforces the idea that preservation is always incomplete. However, when different perspectives are placed together, they allow “something of the place” to survive.

Option (A) creates a hierarchy between the two photographs that the passage does not support. Option (B) is unnecessarily negative and unsupported. Option (D) directly contradicts the passage’s emphasis on the imperfect nature of both memory and representation.