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 primary color dominating the landscape?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → White
The question asks about the colour of the landscape. The passage describes the frozen Yukon and the land around it as all pure white, and says that north and south, as far as the eye could see, it was unbroken white. The only thing that broke the whiteness was the thin dark line of the trail.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Yellow — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage names nothing yellow. There was not even any sunlight.
Option 3: Blue — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the sky had no cloud, but the passage never calls anything blue. It speaks of darkness over the face of things.
Option 4: Green — Incorrect. Wrong focus: the pine forest and the pine-covered islands are mentioned only in passing. The land the man sees is covered in snow and described as white.
Note: In the original NTA paper, Option 2 read "Grey". NTA accepted this option as a correct answer as well. To leave only one correct answer and avoid confusion for students, it has been changed here to "Yellow".
Advice for the exam: In the real exam, mark the answer that is grammatically or factually correct. If NTA’s provisional answer key marks a different option, challenge it during the answer-key challenge window and give the reason in one or two lines.