Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
The bridge I glued together from ice-cream sticks in Class 11 held fourteen kilograms before it cracked, and I was prouder of the crack than of the number. It split exactly where my calculations had said it would. For a week, I was certain I would be an engineer.
Over the Diwali break I redrew the menu card of the dhaba near our colony, for nothing, because the old one used four fonts and a clip-art chilli. The owner pinned it up. Nobody remarked on it. But he told me, a little puzzled, that fewer people now asked him what the dishes were. I found that oddly moving, as no load test had been.
People who mean well tell me to pick the safe one. I find that advice facile. Engineering is hardly safe for someone who would be mediocre at it, and design is not frivolous merely because its results are hard to measure. What separates the two, for me, is the kind of wrong I can live with. In engineering, a mistake announces itself: the beam gives way, the code refuses to run. In design, I could be wrong for years and only half suspect it. That ambiguity unsettles me more than any entrance exam.
My physics teacher says that good engineers are designers who have agreed to be checked. A designer at a college open day claimed nearly the opposite: she had trained as a mechanical engineer, then spent ten years unlearning the urge to be sure. I copied both remarks inside my rough notebook. They do not cancel out. The application form closes in three weeks, and I have filled in every box except the one for the course.
The writer’s main purpose in the passage is to
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → weigh the writer’s own doubts about two fields without settling them
The writer thinks aloud about engineering and design and does not make a choice by the end.
- The bridge made the writer feel like an engineer. The menu card gave a feeling that “no load test had been” able to give.
- The writer looks at both fields fairly. Engineering is “hardly safe” for someone who would be mediocre (only average) at it. Design is not frivolous (silly, not serious) just because its results are hard to measure.
- The two remarks in the notebook “do not cancel out”. The box for the course is still empty. So the doubts are weighed but not settled.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: argue that design deserves the same respect as engineering — Incorrect. Too narrow: The writer defends design in one sentence. But the passage is about the writer’s own choice, not about how much respect design deserves.
Option 2: show how one small design job made the writer give up engineering — Incorrect. Contradicted: At the end the writer has still not filled in the box for the course. Engineering has not been given up.
Option 3: warn students against career advice from well-meaning adults — Incorrect. Overstated: The writer finds one piece of advice too simple. The writer does not warn other students against all advice.