Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow. We were walking…
2024
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
We were walking across the garden when my daughter spotted a cluster of familiar red flowers. She pulled me to one side and then, looking excitedly at me as though she had a secret to share, she pulled me down to her height and whispered in my ears. I shot up straight almost as soon as she had finished her sentence. With my mouth ajar, I was about to tell her that it was probably not a good idea to do so when I was transported to the time when I was around her age.
It had been a rather long day from school and I was dead tired. I was walking along the pathway that was lined with many ixora plants when my friend grabbed me by the arm. Before I could do anything, he gleefully plucked a single flower from the cluster and showed it to me. Unimpressed, I was not about to be swayed by a puny flower and was about to admonish him when he turned the flower upside down to show me a tiny almost invisible thread-like thing that protruded out from its stalk.
He pulled the faint yellowish thread and right at the end of it, a tiny drop of nectar appeared. At least, that was what I think it was, as it was really quite sweet. That day we raided the ixora plants. We really had a lot of fun. I could still taste the sweetness till today. My daughter’s urgent tug brought me back to reality. I turned to my daughter and decided that she too needed to know the joy of tasting sweet nectar from beautiful blooms.
Read the following sentences :
Assertion (A) : The child was excited to share a secret with her mother.
Reason (R) : The mother was in disbelief and went down memory lane.
- A.
(A) is correct, but (R) is incorrect
- B.
Both (A) and (R) are correct
- C.
Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- D.
Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
In an Assertion–Reason item, first judge the truth of the Assertion (A) and the Reason (R) independently against the given text; only when both are true do you additionally check whether R actually states the CAUSE of A — i.e. whether A follows logically and chronologically FROM R — before concluding that R is the correct explanation of A.
Check Assertion (A): paragraph 1 says the daughter was "looking excitedly at me as though she had a secret to share" just before she whispered to her mother — this directly confirms A is true.
Check Reason (R): the same paragraph continues that the mother "shot up straight", stood "with mouth ajar", and was "transported to the time when I was around her age" — a stunned reaction plus a childhood flashback — so R is also supported by the text and is true.
Check the explanation link: the daughter's excitement and her whispered secret happen first in the narrative; the mother's stunned reaction and memory-lane flashback happen only afterward, triggered by that whisper. So R records a consequence of A, not a cause that explains why A occurred.
Conclusion: both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
“(A) is correct, but (R) is incorrect” fails because the passage directly narrates the mother's stunned reaction and flashback, so R is supported, not false.
“Both (A) and (R) are correct” is true as far as it goes but leaves unresolved whether R explains A — the very judgment this option set is built to test.
“Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)” reverses the passage's cause-and-effect order: the mother's reaction follows from the daughter's whisper, so R cannot be the reason FOR A.