Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
A boatman on the Ganga will tell you that you hear the river dolphin before you see it. It comes up for air with a short puff, and that sound is why people along the river call it the susu. Then it slips back into water the colour of milky tea.
In water that muddy, eyes are of little use, and this dolphin has almost given up on them. Its eyes are tiny and have no lens. They can tell light from dark, and not much more. The animal finds its way by sound instead. It sends out a stream of clicks and listens for the echoes that bounce back from rocks, banks, fish and the river bottom. From these echoes it builds a picture of the water around it. Scientists call this echolocation. It also has an odd habit: it often swims on its side.
This way of living served it well for a very long time, in the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the rivers that feed them. The trouble is that the river has grown loud. Motorboats and ferries fill the water with the hum of engines, and the echoes the dolphin depends on come back muffled. Dams and barrages cut the river into pieces. Nets put out for fish trap dolphins too.
In 2009 India named the Ganga river dolphin its national aquatic animal. It is still listed as endangered. On a busy morning near a ferry ghat, the clicks of a susu and the drone of a diesel engine travel through the same brown water.
The writer’s attitude towards the dolphin’s situation can best be described as:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Quietly concerned: the facts are told calmly, but the rising noise is a worry
The writer stays calm, but is worried about the dolphin.
- The facts come in plain words: no lens, clicks and echoes, the year 2009, “still listed as endangered”. There is no loud warning.
- Still, the writer calls the noise “the trouble”. The last line sets the dolphin’s clicks against the drone of a diesel engine. This shows concern, which means worry about something that matters.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Hopeful: being named the national aquatic animal has put the dolphin on the road to safety — Incorrect. Contradicted: Hopeful means expecting things to turn out well. But the writer adds that the dolphin is “still listed as endangered”.
Option 3: Admiring: the dolphin’s skill with sound will carry it safely through the noisy river — Incorrect. Contradicted: Admiring means full of praise. But the writer shows that the noise makes the echoes come back “muffled”.
Option 4: Detached: the facts are set down with no sign of the writer’s own view — Incorrect. Contradicted: Detached means showing no feeling. A writer who calls the noise “the trouble” does show a view.