Tanvi, a student of history, is preparing a project on journeys made between the tenth and seventeenth centuries. She first asks why people left their homes at all. Then she imagines a young man reaching a faraway land, where the hills and rivers, the food, the speech and the forms of worship are all unfamiliar to him. She wonders how such newcomers reacted to what they met, and why only some of them left written records. Finally, she goes to the library hoping to find accounts of journeys written by women of that period.
How did most visitors to a new land react to the differences they met, and how did a few others react?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Many tried to adapt to the differences; a few exceptional ones noted them carefully in accounts
Option (1) Many kept to their own ways; a few exceptional ones tried to adapt to the differences — Incorrect. Adapting was the common response, and it was the many who did it. Keeping to one's own ways is no part of the usual reaction described.
Option (2) Many tried to adapt to the differences; a few exceptional ones noted them carefully in accounts — Correct. Most visitors try to adapt to the new land. Only a few, somewhat exceptional, write the differences down in accounts. This is why written records are few.
Option (3) Many noted the differences carefully in accounts; a few exceptional ones tried to adapt to them — Incorrect. The two groups are reversed here. Adapting was common; writing careful accounts was the rare response.
Option (4) Many kept to their own ways; a few exceptional ones noted the differences carefully in accounts — Incorrect. The second half is right, but the first half is wrong. Most visitors tried to adapt to the new land.
NCERT (2026-27): “Perceptions of Society FIVE (c. tenth to seventeenth century) “Those who visit or come to stay in a new land invariably encounter a world that is different:” “in terms of the landscape or physical environment as well as customs, languages, beliefs and practices of people. Many of them try to adapt to these differences; others, somewhat exceptional, note them carefully in accounts, generally recording what they find unusual or remarkable. …” |