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 :
The other day I received an unusual and very gratifying gift : I was given a tree. Or rather, I was given half-a-dozen trees, which would be planted on my behalf. I had been invited to give a talk to an organisation. After such events, the speaker is usually given a token gift. Sometimes the gift is that of a pen, or something useful. Often, the gift is in the form of a plaque or similar commemorative token. However well-meant, such gifts are destined to gather dust in forgotten corners. Which is why I was agreeably surprised to be given a scroll which attested that, in a designated plantation established for the purpose, six trees would be added in my name, as part of the ‘green’ movement being sponsored by the organisation.
In an increasingly environmentally conscious world, the gift of a living tree or plant makes for a perfect present. The tradition of giving and receiving gifts has increasingly become a highly evolved marketing exercise. Apart from festivals like Diwali, Holi, Christmas, Eid and others, a whole new calendar of celebratory events has been created to promote the giving of gifts : Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Teacher’s Day, Valentine’s Day and so on and on.
What do you give to people – friends, relatives, spouses, children, parents, employees, clients, well-wishers who have more or less everything, or at least everything that you could afford to give them as a gift ? Another shirt or kurta ? Another bottle of scent or after shave ? Another box of chocolates ? Another anything else ?
Why do you not very much care for it when you receive a shirt or a kurta as a gift ?
- A.
The giver had to spend a lot of money.
- B.
You already have so many of them.
- C.
You don’t like the colour.
- D.
You were not asked about your choice.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
In an inference-based reading-comprehension question, the correct option is the one conclusion that logically follows from a specific reason the passage itself supplies for the situation being asked about — not an idea, however plausible, that the text never actually states.
The paragraph right before the bolded question sets up exactly this reason: it lists recipients — friends, relatives, spouses, children, parents, employees, clients, well-wishers — who ‘have more or less everything’, and then asks ‘Another shirt or kurta? Another bottle of scent or after shave? Another box of chocolates?’. The repeated word ‘another’ together with ‘have more or less everything’ shows that such recipients already possess plenty of similar items, so one more shirt or kurta feels unwelcome precisely because the person already has so many of them.
‘The giver had to spend a lot of money’ introduces the cost of the gift, something the passage never mentions in connection with why a shirt or kurta goes unappreciated.
‘You don’t like the colour’ introduces a personal aesthetic dislike that the passage never raises anywhere.
‘You were not asked about your choice’ introduces the idea of being excluded from selecting the gift, which the passage never states either.
Since the passage explicitly frames these recipients as already having ‘more or less everything’, the reason the shirt or kurta is not valued is that the person already has so many of them.