Grade 8 Reading Comprehension Exercises

Read the passage below and answer the following questions.

The Ultimate Wish

From time to time, I have encountered death. All the misery and sadness I witness point to the truth that we should cherish the time we have with our loved ones and never take them for granted.

I recall one of the patients I attended to in the Intensive Care Unit. He was a sixty-year-old man and an architect by profession. He was suffering from a stroke, and his heart being weak, was advised not to aggravate his critical condition with unnecessary anxiety. Yet, this man seemed to be a melancholic soul who would often gaze out of the window into the distance, lost in silent contemplation. I often caught him quietly wiping his tears away. It moved me to see an elderly person like him crying, and not having children to visit him. He was also a reserved person; the only time we talked was when he had to take his medicines.

One night, however, after having had the doctor and some of us nurses attend to him over a pseudo-seizure, he requested for me to stay behind. With a quivering voice and tears streaming down his face, he said, “My only wish is to see my daughter before I die.” Apparently he had quarreled with his daughter years ago. He had not approved of her boyfriend. He recounted that, she had shouted that she hated him, and left home. Mustering the little energy he had left, he managed to give me her contact number. As I hurriedly got up to give her a call, he tugged at my uniform and asked for a piece of paper. I had with me just a blue piece of paper, the kind which doctors use to write prescriptions.

As I hurried out of the room, I thought about the parents-to-be whom I often encountered at the gynecology ward, and the anticipation that always filled them during the pregnancy. I thought about how much joy the daughter must have brought him once upon a time, and the distress and hurt he must have undergone ever since she left home. My heart went out to this man with an ailing health and an even more ailing heart. No one deserved to die like this, I thought. Using the phone at the nurse’s station, I managed to contact the daughter and heard her tormented voice over the line. She said she would come immediately.

The man had passed out when I got back to the ward. I frantically checked for his pulse. There was none. Feeling absolutely aghast that he should die before the daughter could see him, I pressed the emergency button with prayerful fervor. Two doctors and their medical team rushed in like a gale and tried to resuscitate him, but all attempts were in vain. We finally resorted to electric shock, but still to no avail. He was finally pronounced dead.

As I left the room feeling cold and numb, I noticed a girl slumped against the wall in the corridor. It was the man’s daughter. She looked haggard and miserable. I helped her up and learnt that she had already been told the news. She had wanted to see her father badly, and I refused initially for fear that it might cause her great devastation, hut later relented due to her persistence.

She staggered into the room and sobbed with intense pain, burying her face in the sheets on which he as laid. She was inconsolable. After some time, she noticed a piece of paper on the bed. She poked it up, and alongside the different names of medicine were the weak scrawls, “Dear Helen, I love you and I forgive you. Please forgive me too. Dad.”

• What do you think is the narrator’s occupation? Give a reason to support your answer.
• Why was the old man advised not to have unnecessary anxieties?
• What made the narrator think that he was deeply troubled?
• Which word in paragraph 2 means ‘worsen’?
• Why did the writer think that the old man was a reserved person?
• What was his ultimate wish?
• Why did he want to fulfil this wish so badly?
• Why did he ask for a piece of paper?
• Which word in paragraph 3 has the meaning ‘narrated’?
• What crossed the narrator’s mind as she was about to make the phone call?
• “Two doctors and their medical team rushed in like a gale and tried to resuscitate him, but all attempts were in vain.”
  Which three consecutive words in the same paragraph has the same meaning as the words in bold above?
• What happened before the man was pronounced dead?
• What is the narrator’s purpose in telling us this story?
• Indicate T (true) or F (false) in the brackets.
  a) The old man had a quarrel with his daughter about the debts.
  b) The old man never had visitors in the hospital.
  c) The nurse denied the girl’s request to see her father but soon conceded to her request.
  d) The note the old man left was written on a prescription paper.
  e) The doctors and nurses did all they could to resuscitate the old man.
  f) The old man contacted his daughter and asked her to visit him.
  g) The writer showed compassion to the old man and his daughter.

Answer Scheme

• What do you think is the narrator’s occupation? Give a reason to support your answer.
  I think the narrator works as a nurse because she was in charge of taking care of the man and the passage says ‘some of us nurses’.
• Why was the old man advised not to have unnecessary anxieties?
  It was because it could aggravate his critical condition and damage his weak heart.
• What made the narrator think that he was deeply troubled?
  Him gazing out the window in silent contemplation and him shedding tears made the narrator think that he was deeply troubled.
• Which word in paragraph 2 means ‘worsen’?
  Aggravate
• Why did the writer think that the old man was a reserved person?
  The only time the old man talked to the writer was when he had to take his medicines.
• What was his ultimate wish?
  His ultimate wish was to see his daughter before he died.
• Why did he want to fulfil this wish so badly?
  He had not met his daughter for years since they had a quarrel over her boyfriend which made her leave home. Her parting worlds to him were ‘I hate you’ and the man wanted to ask for forgiveness.
• Why did he ask for a piece of paper?
  He asked for a piece of paper so that he could write a note to give to his daughter if he couldn’t survive to see her. He wanted to express his forgiveness towards her, and ask for her forgiveness.
• Which word in paragraph 3 has the meaning ‘narrated’?
  recounted
• What crossed the narrator’s mind as she was about to make the phone call?
  As she was about to make the phone call, the narrator thought about how much joy the old man’s daughter must have brought him when she was born, but the distress and hurt he felt ever since she left home.
• “Two doctors and their medical team rushed in like a gale and tried to resuscitate him, but all attempts were in vain.”
  Which three consecutive words in the same paragraph has the same meaning as the words in bold above?
  ‘to no avail’
• What happened before the man was pronounced dead?
  Before the man was pronounced dead, the doctors and their medical team tried to save him and even used electric shock, but he could not be saved.
• What is the narrator’s purpose in telling us this story?
  I think the narrator’s purpose in telling the story is so that we will cherish the time we have with our loved ones and never take them for granted.
• Indicate T (true) or F (false) in the brackets.
  a) The old man had a quarrel with his daughter about the debts. F
  b) The old man never had visitors in the hospital. F
  c) The nurse denied the girl’s request to see her father but soon conceded to her request. T
  d) The note the old man left was written on a prescription paper. T
  e) The doctors and nurses did all they could to resuscitate the old man. T
  f) The old man contacted his daughter and asked her to visit him. F
  g) The writer showed compassion to the old man and his daughter. T