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.
The best place to correctly and quickly learn a foreign language is :
- A.
only the classroom.
- B.
only the market place.
- C.
both the classroom and the market place.
- D.
home
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In an inference-based reading comprehension question, the correct option is the one that matches the passage's own explicitly stated conclusion rather than an idea imported from outside the text. When a passage weighs two methods against each other and then closes with a recommendation, that closing sentence is what the question is testing.
Application: The passage compares classroom learning and street/market learning across its three body paragraphs, weighing the strengths and limits of each. Its final sentence directly answers the question: "So a combination of classroom instruction and the experience of using language in the street will result in the best language learning of all." This sentence names both settings together as producing the best result for correct and quick language learning.
Cross-check: none of the other settings, taken alone, matches this concluding recommendation:
only the classroom — narrows the recommendation to one setting; the passage credits the classroom with controlled, efficient teaching of structures, but its closing sentence explicitly rejects any single setting as sufficient on its own.
only the market place — narrows the recommendation to the other setting alone; the passage notes that learning purely from real-life necessity is haphazard and lacks the grammatical detail a classroom supplies.
home — the passage discusses only the classroom and the street/market throughout; home is never mentioned as a place where language is learned.
Result: the option naming both the classroom and the market place together matches the passage's explicit conclusion.