Question

ead this sentence from paragraph 2 of the text.



"Nobody had bought anything from her the whole livelong day."



Based on the sentence, what does the word livelong mean?


hopeful


entire


brief


dull
Read the passage and answer the following question(s).



The Little Match Girl

Adapted from Andersen's Fairy Tales

1

It was terribly cold; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening—the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness, a poor little girl walked along the street, bareheaded with bare feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true, but they were very large slippers, which had been her mother’s. They were so large, the poor girl lost them as she scuffled across the street.

2

The little maiden walked on with her bare feet, which were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything from her the whole livelong day. No one had given her a single farthing.

3

She gazed into the windows of a nearby house and saw all the candles gleaming. She could smell the delicious roast goose that was served to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Tired and cold, she sat down in a corner between two houses to seek some shelter. She drew her feet close to her body, but she grew colder and colder. She did not dare go home for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money. Her father would be terribly angry. Anyway, her home was cold, too. The wind whistled through the roof even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.

4

Her hands were numbed with cold. “One little match,” she thought. “It would bring me such comfort.” And so she struck only one: “Rizscht!” It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it. The little girl felt that she was sitting before a large iron stove. When the little girl stretched out her feet to warm them by the stove, the match went out.

5

She struck a second match. The wall where the light fell became transparent like a veil, so she could see through to the room inside. In the room, she saw a table all set for dinner, with a steaming roast goose in the center. Then, the match went out, and there was nothing but the cold, damp wall.

6

She struck another match. She now sat beneath a huge Christmas tree decorated with cheerful pictures and a thousand lights. The girl raised her hands up to the lights — and the match went out.

7

The girl struck another match. Her grandmother stood before her with an expression of love.

8

“Grandmother, take me with you. When the match goes out, you will go away like the roasted goose and the Christmas tree.” She struck the whole bundle of matches just to keep her grandmother near her. The grandmother held onto the little girl, and they flew to a place where they would never be cold or hungry again.

9

In the morning, people saw the little girl, frozen but smiling, sitting against the wall. She held a bundle of burnt-out matches. “She wanted to warm herself,” people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother, she had entered on the joys of a new year.

Answer 1

entire

Explanation: "Livelong" here means the whole day — nobody bought anything from her all day long.