What does the writer suggest by the line 'Nobody chooses the 11.40 night bus; it chooses you'?

Nobody chooses the 11.40 night bus; it chooses you. It crawls out of the depot like a tired animal, its windows fogged and its seats worn smooth by years of damp coats. Yet I have come to love it. Between the shift workers dozing against the glass and the students arguing cheerfully about nothing, there is a kind of democracy you rarely find in daylight. Nobody is performing. Nobody is in a hurry, because the bus itself refuses to be. Last winter, when my own life had slowed to a standstill after losing my job, that unhurried vehicle felt less like transport than a refuge: a lit room moving through a dark city, where I was neither judged nor expected to be anywhere at all.

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: D. People end up on it

  1. Step 1: Read the sentence closely: nobody picks the bus on purpose, yet people are still on it.
  2. Step 2: So the line implies passengers use it because they have to, not because they would choose it.
Answer
People end up on it.
Why not the others: The bus company selects passengers carefully according to who needs a late service: the sentence is a figure of speech, not a company policy. Passengers regard the bus as a luxury that only a lucky few are able to enjoy: the writer calls it a tired, worn vehicle, so luxury is not suggested. The writer believes the bus arrives at random so nobody can plan to catch it: the passage never says the timetable is unpredictable.

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