Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that…
2025
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: Mr. Harding was not a happy man as he walked down the palace pathway, and stepped out into the close. His position and pleasant house were a second time gone from him; but that he could endure. He had been schooled and insulted by a man young enough to be his son; but that he could put up with. He could even draw from the very injuries which had been inflicted on him some of that consolation which, we may believe, martyrs always receive from the injustice of their own sufferings. He had admitted to his daughter that he wanted the comfort of his old home, and yet he could have returned to his lodgings in the High Street, if not with exultation, at least with satisfaction, had that been all. But the venom of the chaplain's harangue had worked into his blood, and sapped the life of his sweet contentment. 'New men are carrying out new measures, and are carting away the useless rubbish of past centuries!' What cruel words these had been- and how often are they now used with all the heartless cruelty of a Slope! A man is sufficiently condemned if it can only be shown that either in politics or religion he does not belong to some new school established within the last score of years. He may then regard himself as rubbish and expect to be carted away. A man is nothing now unless he has within him a full appreciation of the new era; an era in which it would seem that neither honesty nor truth is very desirable, but in which success is the only touchstone of merit. We must laugh at everything that is established. Let the joke be ever so bad, ever so untrue to the real principles of joking; nevertheless, we must laugh - or else beware the cart. We must talk, think, and live up to the spirit of the times, or else we are nought. New men and new measures, long credit and few scruples, great success or wonderful ruin, such are now the tastes of Englishmen who know how to live! Alas, alas! Under such circumstances, Mr. Harding could not but feel that he was an Englishman who did not know how to live. This new doctrine of Mr. Slope and the rubbish cart sadly disturbed his equanimity. 'The same thing is going on throughout the whole country!' 'Work is now required from every man who receives wages!' And had he been living all his life receiving wages, and doing no work? Had he in truth so lived as to be now in his old age justly reckoned as rubbish fit only to be hidden away in some huge dust-hole? The school of men to whom he professes to belong, the Grantlys, the Gwynnes, are afflicted with no such self-accusations as these which troubled Mr. Harding. They, as a rule, are as satisfied with the wisdom and propriety of their own conduct as can be any Mr. Slope, or any Bishop with his own. But, unfortunately for himself, Mr. Harding had little of this self-reliance. When he heard himself designated as rubbish by the Slopes of the world, he had no other resource than to make inquiry within his own bosom as to the truth of the designation. Alas, alas! The evidence seemed generally to go against him. The main cause of Mr. Harding’s unhappiness as he leaves the Bishop’s Palace is _____.
- A.
the loss of his house
- B.
the loss of his position
- C.
the need to live with his daughter
- D.
the thought-provoking words of the chaplain
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: In inference-based reading comprehension questions, the correct option is the one explicitly supported by direct textual evidence — especially where the passage itself uses contrast to rule other events out (‘he could endure X… but Y’) and then names the actual cause in its own words.
Application: The passage explicitly states that Mr. Harding could endure the loss of his house and his position — he could even have returned to his lodgings ‘with satisfaction’ had that been all. It then pivots with: ‘But the venom of the chaplain’s harangue had worked into his blood, and sapped the life of his sweet contentment.’ This sentence directly names the chaplain’s words as what actually destroyed his contentment, distinguishing it from the losses he could bear.
Cross-check — why each other option is ruled out by the passage's own words:
the loss of his house — the passage groups this with the loss of his position as something he ‘could endure’, so it is not what caused his unhappiness.
the loss of his position — the passage groups this with the loss of his house as something he ‘could endure’ too, so it is not the cause either.
the need to live with his daughter — never presented in the passage as a source of distress; there is no textual link between this and his unhappiness.
Result: The only cause the passage explicitly names as sapping his contentment is the thought-provoking words of the chaplain.