Home › Functional Skills English Level 2 › English › Reading Comprehension: Novella › Read these lines: "Scrooge had a very small fire…
Read these lines: "Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he could not replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part." What job does the detail about the coal-box do?
AIt explains why the office was newly built
BIt shows the clerk was careless with the fuel
CIt shows the master controlling even the fire
DIt proves the firm was close to going under
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. It shows the master controlling even the fire
1. The clerk cannot build up his own fire because the coal is kept in the master's room.
2. Even fetching the shovel brings a hint that he might lose his place.
3. So a small everyday need is held under the master's hand and used as a threat.
4. That detail turns meanness into daily power over another man, option C.
5. Carelessness would need the clerk to waste fuel, and he is given none to waste.
_Source: Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843), Stave I Marley's Ghost_
Related questions
Read these lines: "The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eyRead these lines: "It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting iRead these lines: "From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abjecRead these lines: "God bless us every one! said Tiny Tim, the last of all. He sat very cloRead these lines: "It matters little, she said, softly. To you, very little. Another idol Read these lines: "He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaRead these lines: "Clear away, my lads, and let us have lots of room here! There was nothiRead these lines: "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob, faltered Scrooge. Bu