Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
On the first Sunday of every month, a few dozen volunteers, most of them under twenty-five, gather at a lake on the edge of the city to drag out plastic and water hyacinth. Ask them why they come, and few mention the lake. A second-year student, her gloves black with silt, told me she had spent many nights last summer lying awake after reading about heatwaves. Out here, she said, her hands were busy and her head was quieter.
Surveys in many countries find that a large share of young people are worried about climate change. The tempting response is to treat this as a disorder to be managed. Most psychologists resist that. Climate anxiety is not listed as a mental illness, and many see it as a sane reaction to a real threat. The trouble lies less in the worry than in what it does when it has nowhere to go.
Where it should go is less obvious than the slogans suggest. “Just do something” is the usual advice, and it is not wrong. Studies of collective action suggest that working with others eases helplessness better than private fretting does. Yet action is no dependable cure. Young campaigners speak openly of burnout, and a teenager who believes the planet hangs on her weekends can end up more anxious, not less. The advice also loads a vast problem onto very young shoulders.
Some would call the Sunday clean-up Sisyphean. The lake will be choked with plastic again by March, and the climate will not notice. The volunteers would probably agree. They come anyway, and by noon the student with the silted gloves is arguing with a friend about which chai stall is worth the walk.
The word ‘Sisyphean’, as used in the passage, describes a task that
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → never ends, because its results keep being undone
A Sisyphean task is one that never ends, because its results keep being undone.
- The next line explains the writer’s use. The volunteers clean the lake, but it will be “choked with plastic again by March”. Choked means blocked and full. Their work is undone, so they must start again. Example: Keeping the kitchen floor clean with three puppies in the house is a Sisyphean job.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: puts the people who do it in danger — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of hazardous. Example: Cleaning the inside of a sewer is hazardous work.
Option 3: goes unnoticed and earns its doers no thanks — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of thankless. Example: Keeping the class register up to date is a thankless task for the monitor.
Option 4: is done mainly so that others will see it — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of ostentatious. Example: His ostentatious donation was announced on a huge banner at the gate.