English Literature - Reading Comprehension Passages

English Literature
English Literature - Reading Comprehension Passages

What does the phrase "the man who spreads birdlime all over you" suggest about the buttonholing bore ?

Read the following passage and answer the question:

Of all bores the most repellent specimen is the one who comes close up: the buttonholing bore. This is the kind described by a friend of mine with a vivid sense of phrase as ‘the man who spreads birdlime all over you’. A bore who keeps a reasonable way off can be dealt with; but when they lean on you, you are done. It is worst when they fix your eyes, only a foot away, and tell a funny story that isn’t funny. Nothing is so humiliating as to have to counterfeit laughter at the bidding of a bore; but we do it. The incurable weakness and benignancy of human nature once again! Then there is the bore who begins a funny story, and although you tell him you have heard it, doesn’t stop. What should be done with him? Another of the worst types of bore is the man who says ‘Where should we be without our sense of humour?’ He is even capable of saying ‘Nothing but my unfailing sense of humour saved me.’ There is also the man who says ‘“Live and let live,” as my poor dear father used to say.’

There was once an eccentric peer — I forget both his name and the place where I read about him — who had contracted, all unconsciously, the habit of thinking aloud; and in this world of artifice, where society is cemented and sustained very largely by a compromise between what we think and what we say, his thoughts were very often at variance with his words. One of the stories in the Memoirs in which I found him describes how he met an acquaintance in St James’s Street, and, after muttering quite audibly to himself for a few minutes as they walked side by side, ‘Confound it, what a nuisance meeting this fellow. I’ve always disliked him. But now that we have met I suppose I must ask him to dinner,’ he stopped and said with every appearance of cordiality, ‘You’ll dine with us this evening, won’t you?’

Options:

  1. The bore is slippery and vile.
  2. The bore is expert in spreading gossips.
  3. The bore brings crude humour to his story.
  4. The bore is hard to get away from as if stuck to you.

Right Answer: The bore is hard to get away from as if stuck to you.

Birdlime is a sticky substance that was smeared on twigs to trap small birds, which became fixed to it and could not fly away. By borrowing the image, the writer’s friend suggests that the buttonholing bore attaches himself to his victim so closely that escape becomes impossible. The context supports this reading, since the passage has just said that a bore who keeps a reasonable distance can be dealt with, but that once he leans on you and fixes your eyes from a foot away you are finished. The phrase is about inescapability rather than about slipperiness or gossip.

This question is part of English Literature - Reading Comprehension Passages, which has 8 practice questions with answers.

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