What is the passage mainly about?

A woman wanted the key to explain her father, not to open a door (The last paragraph states the turn: her real question was about her father, and an object cannot answer that.)

Where did the woman find the key?

In her late father's coat (The second paragraph says she had found it in her late father's coat.)

What did the wear on the teeth tell Pavel?

The key was used a great deal and then stopped being used. (He reads the marks as heavy use followed by a long period of no use at all.)

In this passage, hesitation means

a short pause before acting (Pavel says a lock makes an honest hesitation possible: it gives an honest person a moment to stop and think, not a barrier.)

The Key With No Lock: Level 3 Reading Comprehension Questions

Old Pavel repaired locks for forty years, and he believed that every lock was a small argument about trust. A lock does not stop a determined thief, he liked to say; it only makes an honest hesitation possible.

One October a woman brought him a key with no lock. She had found it in her late father's coat. It was brass, heavy, and stamped with a number that meant nothing to her. Could he tell her what it opened?

Pavel turned it under the lamp for a long minute. The wear on the teeth told him it had been used often, and then not at all for many years. Beyond that, he said, a key by itself says very little.

The woman looked disappointed, and he understood why. She had not come about a door. She had come hoping the key would explain her father, and no key does that.

Comprehension questions