Read the following passage and study the data carefully.
(1) Public libraries in the fictional district of Meghnagar have undergone a quiet transformation over the last five years. When the district introduced free membership for students in 2020 and added small digital-reading corners the following year, officials expected a modest rise in footfall. What they recorded instead was a steady climb that surprised even the planners. A district survey tracked the total number of registered members and the share of those members who were students.
(2) The report noted that the sharpest single-year jump came not in the launch year but the year after the digital corners opened, suggesting that it was the combination of free access and new facilities — rather than free access alone — that pulled readers in. Officials also observed that as overall membership grew, students came to make up a larger and larger slice of the total, so the libraries were increasingly becoming young people's spaces.
TABLE: Registered library members in Meghnagar district (2020-2024)
| Year | Total members (in thousands) | Student members (as % of total) |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 20 | 40% |
| 2021 | 26 | 48% |
| 2022 | 38 | 55% |
| 2023 | 45 | 60% |
| 2024 | 52 | 66% |
On the basis of the passage and the table, answer the questions that follow.
- What was the total number of registered members in 2022? (read-off, 1 mark)
- Between which two consecutive years did total membership rise most sharply? (comparison, 2 marks)
- Describe the overall trend in the student share of membership from 2020 to 2024. (trend, 2 marks)
- Roughly how many student members were there in 2024? Show your working. (calculation, 2 marks)
- The passage claims it was "the combination of free access and new facilities" that drove the rise. Which figure in the table best supports this claim, and how? (data-inference, 2 marks)
- Choose the correct option: over the five years, total membership has — (MCQ, 1 mark)
(i) fluctuated up and down (ii) remained steady (iii) increased steadily (iv) fallen
This is a case-based factual passage: prose about rising library membership in a district, paired with a five-year data table. The answers come from reading the table with its units and from simple arithmetic, not from opinion. Approach it by first registering the table's frame — title, that "total members" is in thousands and "student members" is a percentage — and only then reading off, comparing, finding trends and calculating. Every answer must quote the figure with its unit and year.
Read the frame first: The table's two columns measure different things — total members in thousands, and students as a percentage of that total. Confusing the two (e.g. treating "66" as 66 thousand students) is the classic trap; 66% is a share, not a count.
- Total members in 2022. (1 mark) Model answer: 38 thousand (38,000) members. How it is derived: A simple read-off — find the 2022 row, read the "total members (in thousands)" column, and state the figure with its unit.
- Sharpest single-year rise in total membership. (2 marks) Model answer: Between 2021 and 2022, when total membership rose from 26 to 38 thousand — a jump of 12 thousand, the largest year-on-year increase in the table. How it is derived: Do not look at the tallest value; look at the gaps between consecutive years: +6 (2020-21), +12 (2021-22), +7 (2022-23), +7 (2023-24). The biggest gap is the answer, and it matches the passage's note that the sharpest jump came "the year after the digital corners opened".
- Trend in the student share, 2020-2024. (2 marks) Model answer: The student share rose steadily and without interruption, climbing from 40% in 2020 to 66% in 2024 — so students grew to make up roughly two-thirds of all members. How it is derived: Scan the percentage column across all five years (40 → 48 → 55 → 60 → 66); every value is higher than the last, so the trend is a steady increase. State the start and end figures to make it precise.
- Approximate number of student members in 2024. (2 marks) Model answer: About 34 thousand (≈34,320) student members. Working: 66% of 52 thousand = 0.66 × 52,000 = 34,320 ≈ 34 thousand. How it is derived: This needs the two columns combined — take the 2024 total (52 thousand) and apply the 2024 student share (66%). Show the multiplication so the method earns marks even if rounding differs.
- Which figure best supports the "combination" claim? (2 marks) Model answer: The +12 thousand jump between 2021 and 2022 best supports it. Free membership began in 2020 yet 2020-21 grew by only 6 thousand; the much larger rise came after the digital corners opened in 2021, showing that access plus facilities together, not free access alone, drove the surge. How it is derived: This is a data-inference question — anchor to a specific figure and take one justified step that the passage itself invites. The prose links the biggest jump to the new facilities, and the table's gap figures confirm it, so the two agree.
- Overall pattern of total membership (MCQ). (1 mark) Answer: (iii) increased steadily. How it is derived: Every year's total is higher than the year before (20 → 26 → 38 → 45 → 52), so it is a steady increase — eliminate "fluctuated", "steady" and "fallen", which the figures contradict.
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