Read the passage carefully. Attempt Question:
At the table, a man unlike ordinary people was sitting motionless. He was a skeleton with the skin drawn tight over his bones, with long curls like a woman's and a shaggy beard. His face was yellow with an earthy tint in it, his cheeks were hollow, his back long and narrow, and the hand on which his shaggy head was propped was so thin and delicate that it was dreadful to look at it. His hair was already streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one would have believed that he was only forty. He was asleep. In front of his bowed head, there lay on the table a sheet of paper on which there was something written in fine handwriting.
"Poor creature!" thought the banker, "he is asleep and most likely dreaming of the millions. And I have only to take this half-dead man, throw him on the bed, stifle him a little with the pillow, and the most conscientious expert would find no sign of a violent death. But let us first read what he has written here..."
The banker took the page from the table and read as follows:
Tomorrow at twelve o'clock, I regain my freedom and the right to associate with other men, but before I leave this room and see the sunshine, I think it necessary to say a few words to you. With a clear conscience I tell you, as before God, who beholds me, that I despise freedom and life and health, and all that in your books is called the good things of the world.
Choose the best option:
The narrator was confident that he would be able to kill the MAN without using violence because _________.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The man was extremely weak
The banker calls the prisoner "this half-dead man", a skeleton with skin drawn over his bones. He thinks he has only to throw him on the bed and "stifle him a little with the pillow", and no expert would find any sign of a violent death. The man's weakness gives him this confidence.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: He carried a gun with him — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage has no gun in it, and a gun would leave the marks of a violent death that he wants to avoid.
Option 2: He was a very strong man — Incorrect. Wrong focus: the passage says nothing about the banker's strength; it stresses the prisoner's weakness.
Option 4: The man was very poor — Incorrect. Wrong reason: poverty would not make the killing easier; besides, the man is "dreaming of the millions" he is about to receive.