Use of the correct tense

Question

I am reading a book 'The hodge-heg'. We need to answer the question but I am stuck about the tense
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The question reads: How does the reader know that Pa doesn't like the names of Peony, Pansy and Petunia?
My son wrote: Pa had agreed reluctantly to these names because he liked noble-sounding names.
If the question is in the present but the story uses the past perfect and the simple past tense, so how do we answer this type of questions?

Has he answered correctly?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

JigneshbharatiHas he answered correctly?

The tenses are fine. You answer in the time frame of the book. However, we don't know why Pa was reluctant to accept the flower names for the girls. We only know that he wanted noble-sounding names for the boys and that he was reluctant when it came to the girls' names. I think the author thought the reader would surmise that Pa's reluctance stemmed from the same preference, but it could have been that he wanted some other class of names for girls—family names, gemstones, famous warships, whatever. The author doesn't say, but the way Pa singles out boys for nobility suggests that he had other motives as regards the girls.

Also, by the way, if they didn't want to expose the children to the horrors of Auntie Betty's grisly death, why doesn't the author show the same sensitivity about our children?

CalifJim · Answer

JigneshbharatiThe question reads: How does the reader know ...

The answer will be: The reader knows ... because ...

JigneshbharatiIf the question is in the present but the story uses the past perfect and the simple past tense, so how do we answer this type of questions?

Answer by beginning in the same tense as the question. After that you can usually use the present tense if you want to look at the story as a work of fiction that exists now as a book that you can touch and read. Or you can take the viewpoint of the story itself and answer in the past, in the time of the story.

JigneshbharatiHas he answered correctly?

I think that answer is acceptable. Here are the question and my answer for your comparison.

How does the reader know that Pa doesn't like the names of Peony, Pansy and Petunia?
The reader knows that Pa doesn't like those names because he agreed to them only reluctantly.

CJ

Use of the correct tense

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