Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow:-
Day had broken cold and grey when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail. He climbed the high earth-bank where a little-travelled trail led east through the pine forest. It was a high bank, and he paused to breathe at the top. He excused the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o'clock in the morning. There was no sun or promise of sun, although there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day. However, there seemed to be an indescribable darkness over the face of things. That was because the sun was absent from the sky.
This fact did not worry the man. He was not alarmed by the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun. The man looked along the way he had come. The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was all pure white. North and south, as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white. The one thing that relieved the whiteness was a thin dark line that curved from the pine-covered island to the south. It curved into the north, where it disappeared behind another pine-covered island. This dark line was the trail-the main trail. But all this-the distant trail, no sun in the sky, the great cold, and the strangeness of it all had no effect on the man.
What was the man's attitude towards the cold weather?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → He was indifferent and did not see it as significant.
Indifferent means not concerned or bothered about something. The passage says the lack of sun did not worry the man and he was not alarmed; it ends by saying that the trail, the missing sun, the great cold and the strangeness of it all had no effect on the man. The cold did not matter to him at all.
Example: He remained indifferent to the noise outside and kept reading.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: He was fearful and hesitant to continue. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the passage says he was not alarmed, and he paused only to breathe, not out of fear.
Option 2: He was excited to face the challenge. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the cold had no effect on him at all, neither fear nor thrill, so there is no excitement.
Option 3: He was constantly worrying about the weather. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the passage states plainly that this fact did not worry the man.