Multiple choice

Peculiar

Directions: Some words in the verse below have been highlighted. Select the best meaning for the corresponding word.

Today the world is a little more my own.
No need to remember the pain
A blue frocked woman caused,
Throwing words at me like pots and pans, to drain
That honey-coloured day of peace,
"why don't you join the others,
what a peculiar child you are?”

 On the lawn, in clusters, sat my schoolmates sipping
Sugarcane, they turned and laughed;
Children are funny things, they laugh
In mirth at other's tears, I buried
 My face in the sun-warmed hedge
And smelt the flowers and the pain
The words are muffled now; the laughing faces only a blur.
The years have sped along, stopping briefly
at beloved halts and moving sadly on.
My mind has found an adult peace
No need to remember
That picnic day when I lay hidden
By the hedge, watching steel white sun
Standing lonely in the sky.

 

  1. Personal

  2. Strange

  3. Sad

  4. Special

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The woman asks 'what a peculiar child you are?' - she's calling the child unusual, odd, or strange because they're not joining the others and seem different. 'Strange' captures this sense of being unusual or odd. 'Personal' doesn't fit. 'Sad' isn't necessarily implied. 'Special' has too positive a connotation.