Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
The Green Blazer stood out prominently under the bright sun and blue sky. In all that jostling crowd one could not help noticing it. Villagers in shirts and turbans, townsmen in coats and caps, beggars bare-bodied, and women in multi-coloured saris were thronging the narrow passage between the stalls, and moving in great confused masses, but still the Green Blazer could not be missed. The jabber and babble of the market place was there, as people harangued, disputed prices, haggled, or greeted each other; over it all boomed the voice of a Bible-preacher and, when he paused for breath, from another corner the loudspeaker of a health van amplified on malaria and tuberculosis. Over and above it all the Green Blazer seemed to cry out an invitation. Raju could not ignore it. It was not in his nature to ignore such a persistent invitation. He kept himself half-aloof from the crowd: he could not afford to remain completely aloof nor keep himself in it too conspicuously. Wherever he might be he was harrowed by the fear of being spotted by a policeman; today he wore a loin-cloth and was bare-bodied, and had wound an enormous turban over his head, which over-shadowed his face completely, and he hoped that he would be taken for a peasant from a village.
He sat on a stack of cast-off banana stalks beside a shop awning and watched the crowd. When he watched a crowd he did it with concentration. It was his professional occupation. Constitutionally he was an idler and had just the amount of energy to watch in a crowd and put his hand into another person’s pocket. It was a gamble, of course. Sometimes he got nothing out of a venture, counting himself lucky if he came out with his fingers intact.
Why did the Green Blazer draw Raju's attention?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → It was too conspicuous in that crowd.
Conspicuous means easy to see or notice, standing out. The passage says the Green Blazer stood out prominently and that in all that jostling crowd one could not help noticing it. Though people in many colours filled the bazaar, "still the Green Blazer could not be missed". It drew Raju's attention because it stood out so plainly in the crowd.
Example: In a room full of black suits, her red dress was conspicuous.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: It was his favourite colour. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about Raju's likes in colour. The blazer caught his eye because it stood out.
Option 2: It was being sold at a nearby stall. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the blazer is worn by someone moving through the crowd, not sold at a stall.
Option 3: It merged well with the crowd. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the blazer did not blend in. It "could not be missed".
Note: In the original NTA paper, Option 2 read "It screamed to be followed". NTA accepted this option as a correct answer as well. To leave only one correct answer and avoid confusion for students, it has been changed here to "It was being sold at a nearby stall".
Advice for the exam: In the real exam, mark the answer that is grammatically or factually correct. If NTA’s provisional answer key marks a different option, challenge it during the answer-key challenge window and give the reason in one or two lines.