reading comprehension section 11 Detailed Explanation And More Example

DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

As I stepped out of the train I felt unusually solitary since I was the only passenger to alight. I was accustomed to arriving in the summer, when holiday-makers throng coastal resorts and this was my first visit when the season was over. My destination was a little village which was eight miles by road. It took only a few minutes for me to come to the foot of the cliff path. When I reached the top I had left all signs of habitation behind me. I was surprised to notice that the sky was already a flame with the sunset. It seemed to be getting dark amazingly quickly. I was at a loss to account for the exceptionally early end of daylight since I did not think I had walked unduly slowly. Then I recollected that on previous visits I had walked in high summer and how it was October.

All at once it was night. The track was grassy and even in daylight sghowed up hardly at all. I was terrified of hurtling over the edge of the cliff to the rocks below. I felt my feet squelching and sticking in something soggy. Then I bumped into a little clump of trees that loomed up in front of me. I climbed up the nearest trunk and managed to find a tolerabley comfortable fork to sit on. The waiting was spent by my attempts to identify the little stirrings and noises of animal life that I could hear. I grew colder and colder and managed to sleep only in uneasy fitful starts. At last when the moon came up I was on my way again.