Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
Kabir has known about his history project for three weeks. It is due on Monday. On Saturday afternoon he clears his desk, sorts his books by colour and watches a video on how to stop procrastinating. By evening he feels oddly pleased with himself, as though something has been done.
His parents call this laziness. Psychologists who study delay tend to disagree. A lazy person is content to do nothing, and Kabir is anything but content: the project nags at him all weekend. What he is dodging is not effort so much as a feeling, the dull dread of a blank page and the fear that his work will not be good enough. Turning away from the task lifts that feeling at once. Seen this way, procrastination is less a failure of time management than a clumsy attempt to manage mood.
The trick works because the brain is a poor judge of time. A reward on offer now looms large, while the same reward a week away seems faint, and a cost due on Monday hardly feels real on Saturday. Economists call this present bias. To Saturday’s Kabir, the Kabir who will be gluing pictures to a chart at midnight on Sunday is almost a stranger, and his troubles feel like someone else’s.
None of this makes the habit harmless. Delay is a palliative: the relief lasts an hour or two, and the dread comes back, usually larger. Scolding oneself often backfires, since guilt is just one more unpleasant feeling to run from. Making the first step very small tends to work better.
On Sunday afternoon Kabir opens a blank file. He types a title, deletes it, and types it again.
What can be inferred from the remark that Kabir feels “oddly pleased with himself, as though something has been done”?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Tidying around the task gave Kabir a feeling of progress that the real work did not justify.
Kabir feels pleased even though he has not touched the project.
- On Saturday he clears his desk, sorts his books by colour and watches a video. None of this is the project itself.
- The words “as though something has been done” show that nothing real has been done. Only on Sunday afternoon does he open a blank file.
- So the busy work around the task gave him a feeling of progress that was not real.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Kabir has already finished a good part of his project and has earned a short rest. — Incorrect. Contradicted: On Sunday afternoon Kabir opens a “blank file”. No part of the project has been written.
Option 2: Watching a video about procrastination has finally taught Kabir how to stop putting things off. — Incorrect. Misread: The video is one more way of avoiding the project. He still leaves the work until Sunday.
Option 3: Kabir is only pretending to be cheerful so that his parents will not call him lazy again. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage never says he is pretending. The word “oddly” shows that his good feeling is real but strange.