Target Exam

CUET

Subject

English

Chapter

Comprehension - (Narrative / Factual)

Question:

Read the given passage and answer the four questions that follow:-

Just as he was about to enter the laboratory, Farley noticed that a great deal of activity was taking place in a nearby anteroom. The assistant tried to hurry him past but by dint of dragging his feet Farley managed to steal a quick glance into the room. The sight that met his eyes was so bewildering that he uttered no protest when his guide maneuvered him through the laboratory door. What he saw was this: the woman, Mangala was seated at the far end of the room, on a low divan, but alone and in an attitude of command, as though enthroned. By her side were several small bamboo cages, each containing a pigeon. On the floor, clustered around the woman's feet, were some half-dozen people in various attitudes of supplication. Two or three others were huddled against the wall, wrapped in blankets. Although Farley had glanced into their scarred, unseeing faces for more than an instant, he recognized at once that they, like the man he had seen in the bamboo thicket, were syphilitics, in the final stages of the terrible disease.

Now the young assistant began once again to perform the charade of the previous day, fetching slides, and hurrying back and forth across the room as though egging him on towards some extraordinary discovery. Farley went mechanically about the business of examining the slides they presented him.

His conscience called out to him to go outside and tell them not to waste their hopes on whatever quackery it was that this woman offered; to expose the falsehoods that she and her minions had concocted to deceive those simple people. It was his duty, he knew, to tell them that mankind knew on cure for their condition; that this false prophetess was cheating them of money they could ill afford.

Choose the word similar in meaning to the word - charade

Options:

Pretense

Candor

genuineness

Mission

Correct Answer:

Pretense

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (1) → Pretense

  • Charade (Noun) means an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance; a farce. In the context of the passage, the assistant's actions were a meaningless act designed to impress or deceive Farley.

  • Pretense (Noun) means an attempt to make something that is not the case appear true; a false show. This is a direct synonym.

  • Candor and Genuineness are antonyms, meaning honesty or truthfulness.

  • Mission means an important assignment or purpose (unrelated).