Question 1
Read the passage from the story ‘Vanka’ and answer the questions that follow:

Nine year old Vanka Zhukov, who had been apprenticed three months ago to Alyakhin the shoemaker, did not go to bed on Christmas eve. He waited till his master and mistress and the senior apprentices had gone to church, and then took from the cupboard a bottle of ink and a pen with a rusty nib, spread out a crumpled sheet of paper, and was all ready to write. Before tracing the first letter, he glanced several times anxiously at the door and window, peered at the dark icon, with shelves holding cobbler’s lasts stretching on either side of it, and gave a quivering sigh. The paper lay on the bench, and Vanka knelt on the floor at the bench.

1. How long has Vanka been with Alyakhin?
2. Why didn’t Vanka go to bed on Christmas eve?
3. What arrangements did Vanka make to write the letter?
4. … he glanced several times anxiously at the door and window. … Why did Vanka
look at the door anxiously?
5. Pick out a word from the passage that means ‘a block of wood shaped like a foot’.

Score: Questions 1 to 5 – 1 score each Time: 10 minutes

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Answer key

1. Three months.
2. He wanted to write a letter to his grandfather.
3. Waited till his master and mistress and the senior apprentices had gone to church, took from the cupboard a bottle of ink and a pen with a rusty nib, spread out a crumpled sheet of paper
4. To make sure that no one was watching him
5. Lasts