Question Details

Read the following poem, and answer the question that follow (96-100)
‘This was Mr bleaney’s room he stayed
The whole time he was at the bodies, till
They moved him, ‘flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the sill.
Whose window shows a strip of building land,
Tussocky littered. ‘Mr bleaney’s took
My bit of garden properly in hand.’
Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no book
Behind the door, no room for books or bags—
‘I’ll take it. ‘So it happens that I lie
Where Mr bleaney lay, and stub my fags
On the same saucer-souvenir, and try
Stuffing my ears with cotton, wool, to drown
The jabbering set he egged her on yo buy,
I know his habits——what time he came down’
His preference for sauce to gravy, why
He kept on plugging at the four aways__
Likewise their yearly frame: the Frinton folk
Who put him up for summer holidays
And Christmas at his sister’s house in stoke
But if he stood and watched the frigid wind
Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed
Telling himself that this was home, and grinned,
And shivered, without shaking off the dread
That how we live measures our own nature,
And at his age having no more to show
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better, I don’t know.
Philip Larkin


In the third line ‘They refers to’

Options

A

Employers

B

Owners

C

Master

D

Manufacturers

Correct Answer :

Employers

Solution :

The correct option is Employers.

Let us analyze the poem to understand why the pronoun "They" in the third line refers to "Employers".
The poem is "Mr Bleaney" by the renowned English poet Philip Larkin. In the first stanza, the speaker is being shown a room by the landlady, who describes the previous tenant, Mr. Bleaney:
‘This was Mr Bleaney’s room. He stayed
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till
They moved him...’

The phrase "at the Bodies" is a colloquial mid-twentieth-century reference to working at a car-body assembly plant or factory (such as the Morris Motors plant or similar automotive manufacturing employers in England).
In this context, being "at the Bodies" means being employed at the factory.
Therefore, the pronoun "They" in "till / They moved him" refers to the management, organization, or employers at the factory who transferred or relocated him during his employment.

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  • SSC
  • intermediate
  • 1 hour
  • english, general awareness, general intelligence and reasoning, quant

  • SSC
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  • 1 hour
  • english, general awareness, general intelligence and reasoning, quant