UPCAT Reading Comprehension practice question 13: Why had Delia planned to speak at the terminal specifically?
Correct answer
C. She expected the noise to soften the effect of her words.
The opening paragraph explains that the noise would carry half the sentence away and force her mother to lean in, which would soften what followed.
The Last Bus
Delia had rehearsed the sentence for three weeks. She would say it at the terminal, where the noise would carry half of it away and her mother would have to lean in, and leaning in would soften whatever came next.
But her mother arrived early, and she arrived with food. Two plastic bags of it, still warm, arranged in the order Delia would want to eat them. She set them on the bench and did not sit down.
"Manila is not far," her mother said, before Delia had opened her mouth. "Four hours. Less, if the road is clear."
Delia looked at the bags. Someone had woken at three in the morning to make what was inside them.
"I was going to explain," she said.
"I know what you were going to say." Her mother finally sat, smoothing her skirt with both hands, the way she did before difficult conversations at church. "I said the same thing to my mother. She let me finish. It took me eleven minutes." She looked up. "Go on, then. I will not interrupt."
And Delia, who had rehearsed for three weeks, found she could not remember the first line.
The question
Why had Delia planned to speak at the terminal specifically?
- Option A: She would have less time to be questioned before departure.
- Option B: She wanted witnesses present for the conversation.
- Option C: She expected the noise to soften the effect of her words.Correct
- Option D: She had not decided until she reached the terminal.
Why C is correct
The opening paragraph explains that the noise would carry half the sentence away and force her mother to lean in, which would soften what followed.