Read the following passage and answer the question given below:
Life did change for Tom and Maggie; and yet they were not wrong in believing that the thoughts and loves of these first years would always make part of their lives. We could never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it, - if it were not the earth where the same flowers come up again every spring that we used to gather with our tiny fingers as we sat lisping to ourselves on the grass - the same hips and haws on the autumn hedgerows - the same redbreasts that we used to call 'God's birds', because they did no harm to the precious crops. What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved because it is known?
The wood I walk in on this mild May day, with the young yellow-brown foliage of the oaks between me and the blue sky, the white star flowers and the blue-eyed speedwell and the ground ivy at my feet - what grove of tropic palms, what strange ferns or splendid broad-petalled blossoms, could ever thrill such deep and delicate fibres within me as this home scene? These familiar flowers, these well-remembered bird-notes, this sky, with its fitful brightness, these furrowed grassy fields, each with a sort of personality given to it by the capricious hedgerows - such things as these are the mother tongue of our imagination, the language that is laden with all the subtle inextricable associations the fleeting hours of our childhood left behind them. Our delight in the sunshine on the deep-bladed grass to-day, might be no more than the faint perception of wearied souls, if it were not for the sunshine and the grass in the far-off years which still live in us, and transform our perception into love.
What does the word "PERCEPTION" mean in the passage
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → opinion
- Perception means the way a person regards or understands something; an impression or view of it. In the passage, without the memories of childhood our delight in the sunshine and the grass would be only the faint impression of "wearied souls"; those memories turn that impression into love.
Example: Her perception of the city changed once she had lived there for a year. - Opinion means a view or judgement formed about something. It is the one option that matches this sense of "perception", a way of regarding something.
Example: In my opinion, the old library is the best place in town to study.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: habit — Incorrect. A habit is something one does regularly, often without thinking. It names a repeated action, not a way of regarding something.
Example: He has a habit of reading the newspaper before breakfast.
Option 3: reward — Incorrect. A reward is something given in return for good work or effort. It has nothing to do with how a thing is seen or understood.
Example: The team received a cash reward for winning the final.
Option 4: meaning — Incorrect. Meaning is what a word, sign or action expresses or stands for. It belongs to the thing being understood, not to the person's view of it.
Example: Look up the meaning of the word in a dictionary.