JIPMAT 2024
VA
Reading Comprehension
Hard
Read the paragraph and answer the questions that follow.
All great thinkers live and move on a high plane of thought. It is only there they can breathe freely. It is only in contact with spirits like themselves they can live harmoniously and attain that serenity which comes from ideal companionship. I have always thought that the strongest argument in favour of the Baconian theory was, that no man, however indubitable his genius, could have written the plays and sonnets that have come down to us under Shakespeare's name who had not the liberal education of Bacon. How this habit of intercourse with the gods makes one impatient of mere men. The magnificent ideals that have ever haunted the human mind, and given us our highest proofs of a future immortality by reason of the impossibility of their fulfillment here, are splintered into atoms by contact with life's realities. Hence comes our sublime discontent. It may be spiritual or intellectual pride that is engendered on the high plane of intellectual life. But whatever it is, it becomes inevitable. A habitual meditation on the vast problems that underline human life, and are knit into human destinies. It is easy to understand, therefore, why such thinkers fly to the solitude of their own thoughts, or the silent companionship of the immortals; and if they care to present their views in prose or verse to the world, that these views take a sombre and melancholy setting from "the pale cast of thought"in which they were engendered.Given below are two statements : One is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).Assertion (A) : The passage presents a rationale behind the great writers' flight to the solitude of their thoughts and silent companionship of immortals.Reason (R) : They do so because they are melancholic and naturally averse to ordinary humanity and disgust of unregenerated masses.
Given below are two statements : One is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).Assertion (A) : The passage presents a rationale behind the great writers' flight to the solitude of their thoughts and silent companionship of immortals.Reason (R) : They do so because they are melancholic and naturally averse to ordinary humanity and disgust of unregenerated masses.
Correct Option: 3
- (1) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are correct and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A): Incorrect. Although both statements might be seen as true, Reason (R) does not directly explain why great writers seek the solitude of their thoughts, as Assertion (A) suggests, but rather attributes it to a general temperament.
- (2) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are correct but Reason (R) is NOT the correct explanation of Assertion (A): Incorrect. Reason (R) correctly identifies a characteristic but does not relate specifically to the rationale provided in Assertion (A) for why great writers seek solitude.
- (3) Assertion (A) is correct but (R) is not correct: Correct. The passage does provide a rationale for the solitude of great thinkers, relating it to their deep contemplative nature and not merely to melancholy or aversion to humanity as suggested by Reason (R).
- (4) Assertion (A) is not correct but (R) is correct: Incorrect. Assertion (A) is supported by the passage, which discusses the intellectual processes and choices of great thinkers, contrasting with the claim of Reason (R) which does not adequately support this rationale.