Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
On an overnight train to Madurai, the woman in the berth opposite mine wrote for almost an hour by the light of a small torch. Her notebook was fat and cloth-covered. She wrote slowly, now and then striking out a line. For five years I have helped build a note-taking app, so I watched her more closely than was polite.
When I asked, she said she had tried keeping a diary on her phone and given up. On the phone she kept deleting things. On paper a cancelled line is still there, so her second thoughts stay in plain sight. Months later she can look back and see how her mind moved, line by line. I think she has a point that people in my line of work rarely admit. An app is built to make writing smooth. It fixes spellings and saves the neat final version. A diary is not meant to be neat. It is meant to catch you before you have tidied yourself up. Her notebook also has no audience. It sends no reminders and waits for no likes.
None of this makes paper safer. A notebook can be left on a train or soaked in a leaking bag, and anyone can read it. Mine would be locked with a password and copied to the cloud. You also cannot search a stack of old notebooks for the day you first met someone. She agreed about the searching. About the rest she only shrugged and went back to her page, the torch held in her teeth.
Which of the following can be inferred about the writer from the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → The writer is ready to admit a weakness in the kind of product the writer helps to make.
The writer helps to build a note-taking app, yet agrees with the woman about what apps lack.
- The writer says she “has a point that people in my line of work rarely admit”. Line of work means job.
- Then the writer explains the point. An app is built to save “the neat final version”. A diary is not meant to be neat.
- So the writer openly accepts a weak point of apps like the one the writer makes.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: The writer has decided to give up the note-taking app and start a paper diary. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage says nothing about the writer changing habits. The writer still says “Mine would be locked with a password”.
Option 2: The writer feels the woman was careless to write in a notebook on a moving train. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The writer says a notebook can be left on a train. But this is a general risk of paper, not a comment that she was careless.
Option 3: The writer believes apps should stop correcting the spellings of their users. — Incorrect. Overstated: The writer only says an app “fixes spellings”. It does not say apps should stop doing so.