Comprehension: Explicit and Implicit Meaning: Question 4

Read the following passage, then answer the questions that follow.

Priya had stayed forty minutes after everyone else had left to redraft the quarterly report for the third time. When her manager, Mr Holt, called her into his office the next morning, she brought two printed copies, one clipped and one loose, in case he preferred to mark it up by hand.

He did not take either. Instead, he gestured to the chair opposite his desk and turned his laptop screen slightly away from her, the way he always did before difficult conversations. "The figures are solid," he said. "Genuinely, some of the best analysis I've seen from someone six months in." He paused, tapping his pen twice against the desk. "But three people have mentioned that meetings run long when you present. I want you to think about why that might be, before our client call on Thursday."

Priya nodded and thanked him, keeping her voice level, though she gripped the edge of the loose copy tightly enough to crease it. Walking back to her desk, she did not stop at the coffee machine as she usually did. She sat down, opened the report, and began, unprompted, to cut the appendix she had spent an hour building the night before.

(a) According to the passage, what does Mr Holt say about the quality of Priya's analysis? [1]

(b) Explain what Mr Holt turning his laptop screen away from Priya, "the way he always did before difficult conversations," suggests about him. [2]

(c) In your own words, explain what Priya's actions after leaving the office suggest about how she has reacted to the feedback. [3]