Question

i need help

Answer 1

[Jack] went away, and presently Mary was at the window again, and this time she had a tray with
cups of tea and a plate of cake and bread-and-butter. I was prizing off the strips that held the
sash, very carefully, and my heart suddenly commenced to gallop, without any reference to me.
I'd never felt like that before, except once or twice. It was just as if I'd swallowed some
clockwork arrangement, unconsciously, and it had started to go, without warning. I reckon it was
all on account of that blarsted Jack working me up. He had a quiet way of working you up to a
thing, that made you want to hit him sometimes—after you'd made an retriceof yourself.

I didn't hear Mary at first. I hoped Jack would come round and help me out of the fix, but he
didn't.

'Mr—Mr Wilson!' said Mary. She had a sweet voice.

I turned round.

'I thought you and Mr Barnes might like a cup of tea.'

'Oh, thank you!' I said, and I made a dive for the window, as if hurry would help it. I trod on an
old cask-hoop; it sprang up and dinted my shin and I stumbled—and that didn't help matters
much.

'Oh! did you hurt yourself, Mr. Wilson?' cried Mary.

'Hurt myself! Oh no, not at all, thank you,' I blurted out. 'It takes more than that to hurt me.'

I was about the reddest shy lanky fool of a Bushman that was ever taken at a disadvantage on
foot, and when I took the tray my hands shook so that a lot of the tea was spilt into the saucers. I
embarrassed her too, like the damned fool I was, till she must have been as red as I was, and it's a
wonder we didn't spill the whole lot between us. I got away from the window in as much of a
hurry as if Jack had cut his leg with a chisel and fainted, and I was running with whisky for him.
I blundered round to where he was, feeling like a man feels when he's just made an retriceof
himself in public. The memory of that sort of thing hurts you worse and makes you jerk your
head more impatiently than the thought of a past crime would, I think.

(from Joe Wilson and His Mates by Henry Lawson)

Answer 2

Why did the narrator of the passage lie about his injury?
He was used to small injuries.
He wanted to put up a brave front before Mary.
He was afraid that he would have to take the day off from work.
He didn’t like anyone to think he was clumsy at work.

Answer 3

b