Read the following passage and answer the question that follow:
Jawaharlal Nehru gave the following speech on the eve of India's Independence.
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
Freedom and power bring responsibility. That responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now. That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
Jawahar Nehru
Why is the future one of incessant striving?
(A) It is not of ease
(B) So we can fulfill the pledges we have taken
(C) It is heavy with the memory of sorrow
(D) It is sovereign
(E) It is brave
Choose the correct option.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (B) only
The speech says that the future is "not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken". Incessant means never stopping. The words "so that" give the reason for the striving.
(A) It is not of ease — Incorrect.
- Misread: this describes what the future is not.
- It is not a reason for the striving.
(B) So we can fulfill the pledges we have taken — Correct.
- This is the purpose given after "so that": the striving is needed to keep India's pledges.
(C) It is heavy with the memory of sorrow — Incorrect.
- Wrong link: it is the hearts of the people that are heavy with the memory of past sorrow, not the future.
(D) It is sovereign — Incorrect.
- Wrong link: the word "Sovereign" describes the Assembly and the people of India, not the future.
(E) It is brave — Incorrect.
- Wrong reason: Nehru asks whether "we" are brave enough to accept the challenge.
- Bravery is not given as a reason for the striving.