Passage 2: Prose

Read the following prose passage and answer questions 4-7.

The schoolroom was a large room with a lofty ceiling and whitewashed walls. The deadly statistical clock in it, which measured every second with a beat like a rap on a coffin-lid, muffled and faint. In a corner, stood a black board, on which stood a representation of flax, as it were in diagram. The space between the windows was filled with books, arranged in orderly shelving. The floor was bare. The titles of the books, themselves suggested a dry, hard course of study, and the books were arranged with a grim propriety that was far from being edifying.