Why does Ruth delete the message 'Nearly home' before sending it?

By ten past eleven the shelter had stopped being a shelter. Rain slid sideways under its cracked roof and gathered in a grey puddle around Ruth's trainers. She checked the timetable again, though she knew it by heart: last bus 23:20, usually late, never early. Across the road, the chip shop shutters rattled down and a man in a yellow apron dragged out three bulging bags of rubbish. He did not look at her. Nobody did. Somewhere behind the retail park a fox screamed once, a sound so like a child's that Ruth's shoulders jerked tight. She told herself it was only an animal. Her phone, at four per cent, buzzed with her mother's third message: Are you OK? Where are you? She typed 'Nearly home' and then deleted it, because it was not true yet. At 23:26 two headlights swung round the corner, wobbling in the wet, and the bus sighed to a halt as though it, too, had been waiting all night.

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: B. She has not yet reached home

  1. Step 1: Read the sentence that follows: she deleted it 'because it was not true yet'.
  2. Step 2: So the reason is that she was not yet close enough to home for the message to be honest.
Answer
She has not yet reached home.
Why not the others: Her phone battery has run out before she can send it: The phone is at four per cent and is still buzzing, so it has not run out. She decides to telephone her mother instead of texting: The passage never says she makes a call. She is afraid the message will make her mother more angry: Her mother's messages ask if she is OK; there is no sign of anger.

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