Comprehension: Explicit and Implicit Meaning: Question 8

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

By early afternoon, the ridge path that had seemed so straightforward on the map had narrowed to little more than a suggestion between two stretches of heather. Ben checked his phone for the third time in ten minutes; the single bar of signal from that morning had disappeared somewhere around the last stile, and no amount of holding the phone above his head brought it back.

The sky, a flat, cheerful blue when they'd set out, had thickened into a bruised grey that pressed low over the summit ahead. What had been a light, pleasant breeze now snatched at the edges of his jacket, and somewhere behind the ridge, the light itself seemed to be draining out of the afternoon early. Ben found himself walking faster without quite deciding to, glancing back every few minutes at his younger sister, Freya, who was falling steadily behind despite matching his pace an hour ago.

"Not much further to the shelter," he called back, though he had, in truth, stopped being certain of that himself some time ago. He didn't mention the map, folded now into a small, damp square in his pocket, or that he had twice traced the same section of the path with his finger without finding the junction he was looking for. When the first fat drop of rain landed on the back of his neck, he simply pulled his hood up and kept walking, matching his voice to a calm he did not, entirely, feel.

(a) According to the passage, what has happened to the phone signal since that morning? [2]

(b) Explain what the description of the sky and light in paragraph two suggests about the situation Ben and Freya are walking into. [3]

(c) In your own words, explain what Ben's words and actions in the final paragraph suggest about the difference between how he appears and how he actually feels. [3]