Part A

What is a central idea of this story?

A young woman is rejected by her community due to circumstances beyond her control.

A young woman learns a lesson about life when she loses several family members to illness.

Mundra grows weary of her village life and leaves home in search of more opportunities in the city.

Mundra comes to accept the cruelty toward her and learns to ignore what others think of her.

Question 2
Part B

Which quotation from the story best develops the response to Part A?

“In the early days of the scourge Mundra's father and mother had died. At first their death had meant little to the child for she was no longer a part of their household.”

“But the child was so accustomed to all this treatment and so tired that she scarcely noticed how the people acted.”

“Towards the river, where the jungle lay, the tiger might be; down towards the well, where the village street joined the public highroad, there might be—the child did not know what, except that somewhere in that direction lay the great city.”

“Her hair had been cut off; her pretty jewelry had been taken from her; her coloured saris had been sold to a neighbour; and in place of all these belongings she had been given a few yards of white cotton to wrap about her and part of a ragged blanket for a bed.”