SSC CPO 2019 PYQ — Question 35

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:

To the great delight of children, schools were being hurriedly closed. Children of all ages and sizes were running helter-skelter, screaming joyously, "No school, no school. Tiger, tiger!" They were shouting and laughing and even enjoyed being scared. They seemed to welcome me. I felt like joining them, and bounded away from the restaurant door and trotted along with them, at which they gleefully cried, "The tiger is coming to eat us; let us get back to the school!" I followed them through their school gate while they ran up and shut themselves in the school hall securely. I ascended the steps of the school, saw an open door at the far end of a veranda, and walked in. It happened to be the headmaster's room, I believed, as I noticed a very dignified man jumping on his table and heaving himself up into an attic. I walked in and flung myself on the cool floor, having a partiality for cool stone floor, with my head under the large desk — which gave me the feeling of being back in the Mempi cave ... As I drowsed, I was aware of cautious steps and hushed voices all around. I was in no mood to bother about anything. All I wanted was a little moment of sleep; the daylight was dazzling. In half-sleep I heard the doors of the room being shut and bolted and locked. I didn't care. I slept. While I slept a great deal of consultation was going on. I learnt about it later through my Master, who was in the crowd - the crowd which had gathered after making sure that I had been properly locked up — and was watching. The headmaster seems to have remarked some days later, "Never dreamt in my wildest mood that I'd have to yield my place to a tiger." A wag had retorted, "Might be one way of maintaining better discipline among the boys."