Read the excerpt from the story ‘ The School for Sympathy’ and answer the questions that follow.
I had heard a lot about Miss Beam’s School, but I did not get the chance to visit it till last week. When I arrived at the school, I saw a girl of about twelve with her eyes covered with a bandage being led carefully between the flowerbeds by a little boy of eight. She stopped and asked who it was that had come in and he seemed to be describing me to her. Then they passed on. Miss Beam was all that I had expected middle-aged, authoritative, kind and understanding. Her hair was beginning to turn grey, and her round figure was likely to be comforting to a homesick child. We chatted for a while, and when I asked her some questions about her teaching methods, which I heard were simple, she said :
,… We teach only those things that are simple and useful to pupils- spelling, adding, subtracting, multiplying, writing, etc. The rest is done by reading to them and giving them interesting tasks. There are practically no other lessons.
1. On arriving at Miss Beam’s School whom did the author see?
2. Give a short description about Miss Beam.
3. Do you think Miss Beam’s school is different from other schools?
4. Why do you think, the writer wanted to visit Miss Beam’s School?
5. Pick out the word from the passage which means ‘ to make one feel calmer’.
