The Day the Screens Went Quiet

Section A: Reading Comprehension

The Day the Screens Went QuietGrade 7 · ENGLISH

In Mira’s city, every street had a screen. The screens told people when to wake up, when to cross the road, which fruit was freshest, and which jokes were safe to laugh at. Nobody called the screens strange because they had always been there. At school, students copied answers from the lesson screen and repeated the daily promise: “The System remembers, so we do not have to.”

Mira did not like the promise. She liked remembering things herself: her grandmother’s old songs, the shortcut behind the library, and the smell of rain before the weather screen announced it. She kept a small paper notebook hidden inside her lunch bag. Paper was not banned, but it was considered wasteful. “Why write,” people said, “when the System stores everything?”

One morning, the screens went black. At first, people waited politely. Then the traffic lights froze, shop doors refused to open, and the school bell did not ring. The teachers looked nervous. Nobody knew the timetable because it had always appeared on the wall screen. Students whispered. Some laughed. Some looked frightened.

Mira opened her notebook. She had copied the weekly timetable because she liked the shape of the columns. “First period is science,” she told her class. “The lab is on the second floor.” Her friend Arjun stared at her. “How do you know?” Mira held up the notebook. For the first time, no one called it wasteful.

By noon, small groups of people were helping each other. An old fruit seller knew prices without a screen. A bus driver remembered the route map. Mira’s grandmother remembered a song that kept younger children calm. The city felt confused, but it also felt awake.

When the screens returned that evening, they flashed a message: ‘Minor interruption resolved. Please resume normal trust.’ Most people sighed with relief. Mira did not. She looked at her notebook and wrote one new sentence: ‘A memory kept by a person is a kind of freedom.’ The next day, three classmates asked if they could start notebooks too.

During the following week, the System worked normally again, but Mira noticed that people had changed in small ways. The fruit seller still used the price screen, yet he also taught his grandson how to add totals mentally. The bus driver printed a route map and pasted it near the front seat. At school, Mira’s teacher asked students to copy the timetable into their notebooks once a month. She did not say the System was bad; she said human minds should not become lazy.

Arjun, who once teased Mira for writing too much, began recording his grandfather’s stories about the city before the screens. He discovered that there had once been street plays, hand-painted signs, and markets where people remembered customers by name. Mira read his notes and felt less alone. The city was still full of screens, but now there were also pockets of memory moving quietly from person to person.

One evening, another message appeared on the public screen: ‘New memory-saving feature available. Personal notes will be stored automatically.’ Mira watched people admire the update. Then she touched the notebook in her bag. She was not against saving memories, but she knew storage was not the same as understanding. Her notebook did not simply hold information; it held choices, questions, and the shape of her own attention.

At home, Mira’s parents discussed the interruption at dinner. Her father said the screens made life easier, and Mira agreed. She liked safe crossings and fast weather alerts. Her mother added that ease becomes dangerous only when people forget their own skills. The conversation stayed with Mira. She did not want a world without technology. She wanted a world where people used technology without surrendering their judgment. That difference felt important, though it was hard to explain.

At school, the students were asked to write an essay titled ‘What I Remember Without Help.’ Some students wrote about recipes, prayers, cricket scores, or phone numbers. Others wrote about routes to relatives’ homes or the faces of people they loved. The essays filled a wall in the corridor. For once, the wall screen stood above them silently, while paper carried the louder message.

Mira did not expect everyone to change overnight. Some classmates soon forgot the worry they had felt during the blackout. Still, a few kept writing. That was enough for Mira. A city, like a person, could begin waking up one memory at a time.

Question 1mcq

What did the screens usually do in Mira’s city?

A.They only showed cartoons.

B.They repaired buildings.

C.They watered the plants.

D.They guided many parts of daily life.

Question 2mcq

Why did Mira keep a notebook?

A.The screens printed pages for her.

B.She liked remembering and recording things herself.

C.Her teacher forced everyone to write in paper books.

D.She wanted to sell it at school.

Question 3mcq

What happened when the screens went black?

A.Everyone immediately went home calmly.

B.The school closed forever.

C.The city became brighter.

D.People became unsure how to follow routines.

Question 4mcq

How did Mira help her class?

A.She unlocked every shop.

B.She used her copied timetable.

C.She fixed the screen wires.

D.She sang to the teachers.

Question 5mcq

What is the main idea of the passage?

A.Notebooks are more expensive than screens.

B.People should not depend completely on systems to think and remember for them.

C.Cities should not have schools.

D.Technology can never be useful.