KSET Exam 2017 Solved Paper

Question Numbers: 13-18
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions:
It was eleven O’clock when Mr. Pontellier returned from his night out. He was in an excellent humour, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and fast asleep. He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. She was overcome with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances.
He thought it very discouraging that his wife evinced so little interest in things which concerned him and valued so little his conversation. Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the bonbons and peanuts he had promised the boys. Not withstanding, he loved them very much and went into the adjoining room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure that they were resting comfortably.
Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit his cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke.
Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said and nothing had ailed him all day. But he assured her the child was burning with fever at that moment. He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once. He talked in a monotonous, insistent way.
Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaving her head down on the pillow. She said nothing and refused to answer her husband. When his cigar was smoked out he went to bed and in half a minute was fast asleep.
Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her night gown. She went out on the porch where she sat down in the wicker chair and began to rock gently to and fro. It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. There was no sound except the hooting of an old owl and the everlasting voice of the sea, that broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night.
The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier’s eyes. She went on crying there. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life.
An indescribable sense of oppression filled her whole being. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there upbraiding her husband or lamenting at fate. She was just having a good cry all to herself. The mosquitoes succeeded in dispelling a mood which would have held her there for long.
The following morning Mr. Pontellier was up in good time to take the carriage which was to convey him to the city. He was returning to the city, to his business. They would not see him again at home till the coming Saturday. He was eager to go, as he looked forward to a lively week in the financial centre.