Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions by…
2019
Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :
With more than 3,000 languages currently spoken, English undoubtedly is amongst the richest of all languages. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about half a million words of which only 2,00,000 are frequently used. This is because, the balance 3,00,000 words are technical and not found in ordinary dictionaries. The only language that can come near English is Chinese.
Apart from being the richest language, English also boasts of being one of the most widely spoken, second only to Mandarin Chinese. This remarkable achievement is only because of the one thing that we all love to do – copy ! ‘Siesta’ for example is of Spanish origin. ‘Sputnik’ as you must be aware of, has a Russian origin. ‘Restaurant’ is from France and ‘Super’ from Germany. Even before the birth of the ‘genius’ of ‘drama’, William Shakespeare, the words ‘genius’ and ‘drama’ were adapted from Greek. Now, you must be wondering if English has anything original about it. Well, find it out ! Did you ever try to find out how many different words of English we use in our daily life ? Try to guess and then read on. A modern novelist has a vocabulary of anywhere between ten to fifteen thousand words.
William Shakespeare used thirty thousand words and the only writer to come close to him was James Joyce in ‘Ulysses’. We normally have a vocabulary of about ten thousand words of which only five thousand are used in everyday conversation. This leads to a limited variety of words. This is because we repeat a lot of words. In conversation and in writing, it is ‘the’. (Try counting it in this article and you will have proof of it.)
In our everyday conversation we use a limited number of words because :
- A.
our vocabulary is unlimited.
- B.
we are not a genius like Shakespeare.
- C.
everybody is not highly educated.
- D.
we repeat a lot of words.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: In a literal/factual reading-comprehension question, the correct option is the one that restates a fact or reason the passage states directly -- not a plausible-sounding assumption drawn from general knowledge about language, writers, or education.
Application: The passage's final paragraph gives the exact reason: 'We normally have a vocabulary of about ten thousand words of which only five thousand are used in everyday conversation. This leads to a limited variety of words. This is because we repeat a lot of words.' The very next line even points at 'the' as the most-repeated word in the article itself as proof. So the stated cause of the limited variety in everyday conversation is repetition of the same words.
Contrast (checking each option): Checking each distractor against the passage:
"our vocabulary is unlimited" -- contradicts the passage, which caps everyday vocabulary at about ten thousand words (five thousand actually used in conversation); the passage never claims an unlimited vocabulary.
"we are not a genius like Shakespeare" -- the passage does contrast an ordinary vocabulary with Shakespeare's thirty thousand words, but that comparison illustrates vocabulary range, not the article's own stated reason for repetition.
"everybody is not highly educated" -- education is never discussed anywhere in the passage; this brings in an assumption the text does not support.
Cross-check: Re-reading the same sentence confirms no other clause in the passage offers an alternative explanation -- the passage names exactly one cause, and only one option restates it.