Read the passage and answer the questions that follow on the basis of the…
2025
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow on the basis of the information provided in the passage.
Male lions are rather reticent about expending their energy in hunting. More than three quarters of kills are made by lionesses who are in front, tensely scanning ahead, the cubs lagging playfully behind and the males bringing up the rear, walking slowly, their massive heads nodding with each step as if they were bored with the whole matter. But slothfulness may have survival value. With lionesses busy hunting, the males function as guard for the cubs, protecting them particularly from hyenas.
According to the passage male lions generally do not go for hunting because
- A.
they do not like it.
- B.
they want lioness to get training
- C.
they wish to save their vigor for other things
- D.
they are very lazy
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept
In a reading-comprehension 'reason' question, the correct choice is the specific justification the passage itself gives for the described behaviour, restated in your own words, not an option that merely borrows familiar-sounding vocabulary from the passage without matching its actual explanation.
Application
The passage opens by noting that male lions are ‘reticent about expending their energy in hunting’ while lionesses do almost all the hunting. It then explains this apparent slothfulness directly: it ‘may have survival value’ because, while the lionesses are busy hunting, the males function as guards for the cubs, protecting them from hyenas. So the males are not withholding effort from hunting for no reason; they are conserving it for a different, necessary task, guarding the cubs. That is exactly the idea captured by the option that says they wish to save their vigor for other things.
Cross-check
“They do not like it”: the passage gives a functional reason for the restraint (conserving energy for guarding duty), not a statement of personal dislike; nothing in the passage says the lions dislike hunting.
“They want lioness to get training”: the passage never mentions training; the lionesses are already the ones doing almost all the hunting, so there is no basis for reading this as a training arrangement.
“They are very lazy”: the passage explicitly reframes the apparent slothfulness as purposeful, saying it ‘may have survival value’ for guarding the cubs, the opposite of aimless laziness.
So the passage's own stated reason matches: male lions hold back from hunting because they wish to save their vigor for other things (guarding the cubs).