Which two traits can you infer about Mira in this excerpt from “Games at Twilight” by Anita Desai? The children, too, felt released. They too began tumbling, shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start. Start what? Start their business. The business of the children’s day which is—play. “Let’s play hide-and-seek.” “Who’ll be It?” “You be It.” “Why should I? You be——” “You’re the eldest——” “That doesn’t mean——” The shoves became harder. Some kicked out. The motherly Mira intervened. She pulled the boys roughly apart. There was a tearing sound of cloth, but it was lost in the heavy panting and angry grumbling, and no one paid attention to the small sleeve hanging loosely off a shoulder. “Make a circle, make a circle!” she shouted, firmly pulling and pushing till a kind of vague circle was formed. “Now clap!” she roared, and, clapping, they all chanted in melancholy unison: “Dip, dip, dip—my blue ship——” and every now and then one or the other saw he was safe by the way his hands fell at the crucial moment—palm on palm, or back of hand on palm—and dropped out of the circle with a yell and a jump of relief and jubilation.

THIS USER ASKED 👇

Which two traits can you infer about Mira in this excerpt from “Games at Twilight” by Anita Desai?

The children, too, felt released. They too began tumbling, shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start. Start what? Start their business. The business of the children’s day which is—play.
“Let’s play hide-and-seek.”
“Who’ll be It?”
“You be It.”
“Why should I? You be——”
“You’re the eldest——”
“That doesn’t mean——”
The shoves became harder. Some kicked out. The motherly Mira intervened. She pulled the boys roughly apart. There was a tearing sound of cloth, but it was lost in the heavy panting and angry grumbling, and no one paid attention to the small sleeve hanging loosely off a shoulder.
“Make a circle, make a circle!” she shouted, firmly pulling and pushing till a kind of vague circle was formed. “Now clap!” she roared, and, clapping, they all chanted in melancholy unison: “Dip, dip, dip—my blue ship——” and every now and then one or the other saw he was safe by the way his hands fell at the crucial moment—palm on palm, or back of hand on palm—and dropped out of the circle with a yell and a jump of relief and jubilation.

THIS IS THE BEST ANSWER 👇

A) Mira is more mature than the other children in the group and B) Mira is acting as the leader of the group of children

In this excerpt, Mira demonstrates her maturity by stopping the boys from fighting by pulling them apart. The author goes so far as to describe Mira as a “mother”, which also reinforces the idea that Mira has a higher level of maturity in caring for others, making choice A a correct answer. Moreover, Mira wants to take control of the situation and find a way to reassure the boys, which she does by telling them to circle and applaud. Therefore, option B is also a correct answer, because Mira is doing what a group leader would do in the same situation.

Option C, “Mira is pushing around other kids and hoping to win the game” is not correct as the conflict occurred as the children tried to determine their own roles in the game. The game hasn’t started yet, so Mira can’t be pushing anyone in hopes of winning a game that doesn’t exist.

Option D, “Mira is arrogant and gloomy and tries to interfere with children’s games” is also wrong because Mira separates the boys to prevent more fighting, without interrupting their game.