Read the following passage and try to answer the questions given below:
His spirit inspired me with great respect. He seemed to have no strength, and he never once hit me hard, and he was always knocked down; but he would be up again in a moment, sponging himself or drinking out of the water-bottle, with the greatest satisfaction in seconding himself according to form, and then came at me with an air and a show that made me believe he really was going to do for me at last. He got heavily bruised, for I am sorry to record that the more I hit him, the harder I hit him; but he came up again and again until at last he got a bad fall with the back of his head against the wall. Even after that crisis in our affairs, he got up and turned round and round confusedly a few times, not knowing where I was; but finally went on his knees to his sponge and threw it up: at the same time panting out, “That means you have won.”
From “Great Expectations”
by Charles Dickens
Questions
- Whose spirit inspired the author with respect?
- What do you understand by “going to do for me”?
- How was “he” finally defeated?
- Why did “he” throw up his sponge?
- Give the opposites of the following words: strength, down, respect. won, hard.
Answers
- The author’s opponent inspired him with respect.
- “Going to do for me” in a fight, means, “defeat me”, or “knock me down.”
- “He”, that is, the author’s opponent, was finally defeated when he fell down and hit his head against the wall.
- “He” threw up his sponge as a sign of the author’s victory.
- strength – weakness
down – up
respect – disrespect
won – lost
hard – soft
