JAMB 2014 English Language · Question 1

The police are looking for the woman who farmed her children out to her neighbours.

Question

Select the option that best explains the information conveyed in the sentence. The police are looking for the woman who farmed her children out to her neighbours.

A.The police wanted the woman for allowing her children to destroy her neighbour's crops.
B.The woman and her children are in the habit of working in neighbour's farms and the police are not well disposed to this
C.The police may arrest the woman for allowing her neighbours to take care of her children.
D.The woman may be arrested for allowing her children to be a nuisance to her neighbours

Answer: C. The police may arrest the woman for allowing her neighbours to take care of her children.

Explanation written with AI and checked against the answer key

Analyze the question: The sentence uses the phrasal verb "farmed out." We need the option that best explains what it means.

Concept: To "farm out" something (or someone) means to send it away to be looked after or done by other people. For example, a company farms out work to contractors, and a parent may farm out children to relatives or neighbours to be cared for. It has nothing to do with agriculture here, even though "farm" appears in the phrase.

Step-by-step:

"The police are looking for the woman": the woman is wanted by the police, so she may be arrested.
"farmed her children out to her neighbours": she handed her children over to her neighbours to look after them.

Checking the options:

A. Wrongly takes "farmed" literally, as children destroying crops. Wrong.
B. Also reads "farmed" literally, as working on farms. Wrong.
C. The police may arrest her for letting neighbours take care of her children. This matches "farmed out" (handing children over for care) and the police looking for her. Correct.
D. Says the children were a nuisance to neighbours, which the sentence does not suggest. Wrong.

Tip: In "Select the option that best explains..." questions, watch for idioms and phrasal verbs. If an option takes the words literally (like crops and farms here), it is often a trap. Ask yourself: "Does this phrase have a figurative meaning?"

AI can make mistakes. Report anything that looks wrong.