Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
Kabir has known about his history project for three weeks. It is due on Monday. On Saturday afternoon he clears his desk, sorts his books by colour and watches a video on how to stop procrastinating. By evening he feels oddly pleased with himself, as though something has been done.
His parents call this laziness. Psychologists who study delay tend to disagree. A lazy person is content to do nothing, and Kabir is anything but content: the project nags at him all weekend. What he is dodging is not effort so much as a feeling, the dull dread of a blank page and the fear that his work will not be good enough. Turning away from the task lifts that feeling at once. Seen this way, procrastination is less a failure of time management than a clumsy attempt to manage mood.
The trick works because the brain is a poor judge of time. A reward on offer now looms large, while the same reward a week away seems faint, and a cost due on Monday hardly feels real on Saturday. Economists call this present bias. To Saturday’s Kabir, the Kabir who will be gluing pictures to a chart at midnight on Sunday is almost a stranger, and his troubles feel like someone else’s.
None of this makes the habit harmless. Delay is a palliative: the relief lasts an hour or two, and the dread comes back, usually larger. Scolding oneself often backfires, since guilt is just one more unpleasant feeling to run from. Making the first step very small tends to work better.
On Sunday afternoon Kabir opens a blank file. He types a title, deletes it, and types it again.
The word ‘palliative’, as used in the passage, means:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → something that eases discomfort for a while without removing its cause
Palliative means something that eases pain or discomfort for a while but does not remove its cause.
- The writer says, “Delay is a palliative”, and at once explains it: the relief “lasts an hour or two”, and the dread comes back.
- Delay eases the bad feeling, but the project is still there. So the cause of the dread is not removed. Example: Cough syrup is only a palliative that quietens the cough without treating the infection behind it.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: something that removes a problem completely and stops it from coming back — Incorrect. Opposite meaning: This is the meaning of a cure. Example: Doctors are still searching for a cure for the common cold.
Option 2: a harmful habit that a person finds hard to give up — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of an addiction. Example: His addiction to mobile games left him little time for sleep.
Option 4: a sign that warns of greater trouble ahead — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of an omen. Example: The old villagers took the dark clouds as an omen of a bad harvest.