Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow…
2019
Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :
Learning a language under any circumstances requires hard work and concentration. However, the circumstances can make a difference in both quality and quantity. Most foreign language students learn in a classroom, from a text-book. In a classroom, language learning can be controlled so that all the necessary structures are taught. Highly motivated students can thus learn the language efficiently and quickly. Learning on the streets and in the markets from experience and need can be effective although the student learns only what he happens to need, in a haphazard way.
Some language students find this real-life situation more meaningful because the students' success in fulfilling their needs depends on their language ability. However, shop-keepers are more likely to be tolerant of incorrect grammar than classroom teachers, so mispronunciations and errors will not matter much. Nevertheless, the rewards are different for the type of language learning situations. They are immediate (goods, bought in a store) in the real-life but delayed until a quiz or oral recital for the classroom learner.
The kind of language learnt in each setting differs too. In the classroom, the student is more likely to learn the grammatical language of educated people. The language learnt out of necessity often lacks the fine details of the classroom variety and might include informal expressions such as slang. The people learning on the street must be easily understood. Therefore, they might actually sound more like native speakers — although not necessarily educated people. So a combination of classroom instruction and the experience of using language in the street will result in the best language learning of all.
'…… in a haphazard way.'
The word 'haphazard' means
- A.
dangerous
- B.
unorganized
- C.
safe
- D.
proper
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
In reading-comprehension vocabulary questions, a word's meaning is fixed by its surrounding context, not by its most common dictionary sense taken in isolation. Locate the clause built around the word, identify exactly what quality or action it is describing, and pick the option that names that same quality — discarding options that carry a different, unrelated connotation (risk, safety, formality) even if they look plausible on their own.
APPLICATION: The passage draws a contrast between classroom learning, which is controlled so that all necessary structures are taught in sequence, and street learning, where the student 'learns only what he happens to need' — picking up bits of language as situations come up, with no set plan or sequence. The clause '…… in a haphazard way' is describing exactly this absence of a plan or system.
CROSS-CHECK: Testing the other three options against the sentence's own logic shows why each fails to fit:
dangerous / safe — both are plausible only because 'haphazard' superficially resembles 'hazard', which does carry a sense of danger or risk. But 'haphazard' is not being used in that sense here; in current usage it describes the MANNER in which something is done, not whether it is risky or protected from risk. Neither option answers a question the sentence is asking.
proper — an unfamiliar, formal-sounding word can wrongly seem to describe formality or correctness itself, but the word's sense has to come from its role in the sentence (describing HOW the street learner picks up language), not from how sophisticated it sounds.
Reading the clause on its own terms — 'he learns only what he happens to need, in a haphazard way' — the word is describing manner: proceeding without any plan or system, i.e., unorganized.