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.
A text-book :
- A.
controls language learning.
- B.
motivates the students.
- C.
teaches what a student needs.
- D.
is an inexpensive tool of learning.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept: In a passage-based reading comprehension MCQ, the correct completion is the option that restates a fact the passage states explicitly, or a close paraphrase of it — not something merely plausible in general, and not something drawn from outside the passage. Every option must be checked against the literal wording of the passage; only the option that matches what the passage actually says is correct.
Application: The passage states that “in a classroom, language learning can be controlled so that all the necessary structures are taught,” and it opens by noting that “most foreign language students learn in a classroom, from a text-book.” Putting these together, the controlled, structured nature of learning is tied directly to the classroom/text-book setting — which is exactly what the completion “controls language learning” states.
Cross-check — why each other option fails against the passage’s own wording:
“motivates the students”: the passage attributes motivation to the students themselves (“highly motivated students can thus learn efficiently”), not to something the text-book does to them — this reverses who is doing the motivating.
“teaches what a student needs”: the passage ties learning “only what he happens to need” to street and market learning, not to text-book/classroom learning — this describes the wrong setting entirely.
“is an inexpensive tool of learning”: the passage never discusses the cost of a text-book anywhere, so this claim has no support in the text at all.
Hence the option that matches the passage’s own words is the one stating that a text-book controls language learning.