Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
For some time Mother had greatly envied us our swimming, both in the daytime and
at night, but as she pointed out when we suggested she join us, she was far too old for that
sort of thing. Eventually, however, under constant pressure from us, Mother paid a visit
into town and returned to the villa coyly bearing a mysterious parcel. Opening this she
astonished us all by holding up an extraordinary shapeless garment of black cloth, covered
from top to bottom with hundreds of frills and pleats and tucks.
‘Well, what do you think of it?’ Mother asked.
We stared at the odd garment and wondered what it was for.
‘What is it?’ asked Larry at length.
It’s a bating-costume, of course,’ said Mother. ‘what on earth did you think it was?’
‘It looks to me like a badly-skinned whale,’ said Larry, peering at it closely.
‘You can’t possibly wear that, mother,’ said Margo, horrified, ‘why, it looks as though
it was made in nineteen-twenty.’
‘What are all those frills and things for?’ asked Larry with interest.
‘Decoration, of course,’ said Mother indignantly.
‘What a jolly idea ! Don’t forget to shake the fish out of them when you come out of
the water.’
‘Well, I like it, anyway,’ Mother said firmly, wrapping the monstrosity up again, ‘and
I’m going to wear it.’
‘You’ll have to be careful you don’t get waterlogged, with all that cloth around you,’
said Leslie seriously.
‘Mother, it’s awful; you can’t wear it,’ said Margo. ‘Why on earth didn’t you get
something more up to date?’
When you get to my age, dear you can’t go around in a two-piece bathing suit…. You
don’t have the figure for it.’
‘I’d love to know what sort of figure that was designed for,’ remarked Larry.
‘You really are hopeless, Mother,’ said Margo despairingly.
‘But I like it…. And I’m not asking you to wear it,’ Mother pointed out angrily.
‘That’s right, you do what you want to do,’ agreed Larry; don’t be put off. It’ll probably
suit you very well if you can grow another three or four legs to go with it.’
Mother snorted indignantly and swept upstairs to try on her costume.
Presently she called to us to come and see the effect, and we all trooped up to the
bedroom. Roger the dog, was the first to enter, and on being greeted by this strange
apparition clad in its voluminous black costume rippling with frills, he retreated
hurriedly through the door, backwards, backwards, barking ferociously.
It was some time before we could persuade him that it really was Mother, and even
then he kept giving her vaguely uncertain looks from the corner of his eye. However,
in spite of all opposition, Mother stuck to her tent-like bathing-suit, and in the end we
gave up.
In order to celebrate her first entry into the sea we decided to have a
moonlight picnic down at the bay, and sent an invitation to Theodore, who was the
only stranger that Mother would tolerate on such a great occasion. The day for the
great immersion arrived, food and wine were prepared, the boat was cleaned out and
filled with cushions and everything was ready when Theodore turned up. (a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage. One word
answers or short phrase will be accepted. (a) Peering (line 13) (a) ferociously (line 41) (a) immersion (line 49) (b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words: (b) Why did mother not join the swimming in the beginning? (b) Briefly describe her swimming costume. (b) What did Larry think it was? (b) Which sentence tells you that Margo thought it was old fashioned? (b) What was Leslie’s concern? (b) Why did mother think it was suitable? (c) (c) In not more than 60 words describe what happened after mother went upstairs to
try on her costume. (c) Give a title to your summary in 3(c)(i). Give a reason to justify your choice.
(c) The title is 'Mother's tent like bathing suit'.