Read the following poem and answer the questions that follows:
Are You There?
My father and I shove back the furniture
to the four walls of the sitting room
then lie on the carpet wearing blindfolds,
his left hand holding my left hand
Are you there, Moriarty? he enquires, before tightening (I imagine) the grip on his rolled-up copy of yesterday’s Times. There is only one possible answer to that.
I give it while rolling away to the side but still clasping his hand, still in range, and sure enough he manages a direct hit. Now it is my turn, but the moment I lift my weapon I realise there is no reason to continue I can tell from his stillness, and the chill and stiffness of his fingers, he has been dead for a good while already.
Andrew Motion
The ‘weapon’ mentioned in the first line of the fourth stanza of the poem is
Correct Answer :
A Rolled-Up Newspaper.
Solution :
The correct option is: A Rolled-Up Newspaper.
Step-by-step Explanation:
1. In the second stanza of the poem, the narrator describes the game they are playing with their father. The father holds a "rolled-up copy of yesterday’s Times" to strike the narrator after asking the question, "Are you there, Moriarty?". The Times is a well-known daily national newspaper.
2. In the fourth stanza, the narrator states, "Now it is my turn, but the moment I lift my weapon I realise there is no reason to continue...". Since they are playing a game where they take turns striking each other with the same tool, the narrator's "weapon" refers to the same rolled-up newspaper (yesterday's Times) that was introduced earlier in the poem.
3. Therefore, the "weapon" mentioned in the poem is a rolled-up newspaper, which matches the option A Rolled-Up Newspaper.
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