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.
If asked, "What matters are related to health i.e. health decisions ?" most of us would answer – hospitals, doctors and pills. Yet we are all making a whole range of decisions about our health which go beyond this limited area of doctors, pills etc. For example, whether or not to smoke, take exercise, wear a seat belt, drive a motor bike, drink alcohol regularly etc. The way we reach decisions and form attitudes about our health is only just beginning to be understood.
The main paradox is why people consistently do things which are known to be very hazardous. Two interesting examples of this are smoking and not wearing seat belts. Addiction makes smokers keep on smoking and whether to wear a seat belt or not is affected by safety considerations. Taken together both these examples show how people reach decisions about their health. Understanding this process is crucial. Only then can we effectively change public attitude towards voluntary activities like smoking. Smokers run the risk of contracting heart disease, several times more as compared to non-smokers. Even lung cancer. Despite extensive press campaigns which have regularly told smokers and car drivers the grave risks they are running, the number of smokers and non-wearers of seat belts has remained much the same. Although the numbers of deaths from road accidents and smoking are well publicized, they have aroused little public interest.
If we give smokers the real figures of deaths caused by smoking, will it affect their views on the dangers of smoking? Unfortunately not. Many of the real figures are in the form of probable estimates, and evidence shows that people are very bad at understanding this kind of information.
Study the following statements :
(a) Though it is very dangerous, some people don't quit smoking.
(b) Whether or not to drink alcohol is not a health decision.
- A.
(a) is right and (b) is wrong.
- B.
(a) is wrong and (b) is right.
- C.
Both (a) and (b) are right.
- D.
Both (a) and (b) are wrong.
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept: In passage-based statement-evaluation questions, each given statement is checked strictly against what the passage itself states — a statement is right only when the passage directly supports it, and wrong when the passage states or implies the opposite. No information from outside the passage is used to judge a statement.
Application: Checking each statement against the passage:
(a) Though it is very dangerous, some people don't quit smoking — the passage's central paradox is exactly this: “people consistently do things which are known to be very hazardous,” with smoking as its lead example, and it explains that addiction keeps smokers smoking despite the well-publicized risk of heart disease and lung cancer.
(b) Whether or not to drink alcohol is not a health decision — the passage's opening lines list the range of health decisions people make beyond doctors and pills, explicitly naming “whether or not to smoke, take exercise, wear a seat belt, drive a motor bike, drink alcohol regularly” as health decisions.
Cross-check: Re-reading the opening paragraph confirms drinking alcohol is grouped in the very same list as smoking, exercise, and wearing a seat belt — the range of things the passage itself calls health decisions — which settles what the passage means by that list, independent of any single statement.
Hence, statement (a) is right and statement (b) is wrong — see the per-option notes below for why each of the other combinations does not hold up against the passage.