Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions:
It is your duty to train and develop your mind and acquire knowledge, as much as you possibly can obtain. Knowledge is like a deep well, fed by perennial springs, and your mind is the little bucket that you drop into it: you will get as much as you can assimilate. The brain, which is the physical organ of the mind, is one of the two precious products of the aeons of evolution, the other is the imponderable 'Social Instinct'. This wonderful Brain, whose every convolution represents millions of years of Time, really distinguishes you from animals. Many animals have very powerful sense organs; the eagle, the ant and the dog have keener sense of sight than Man. But no animal has a more evolved Brain and Higher intelligence. If you do not develop and use this Brain to the utmost of your power, you are more akin to the beasts than to Homo sapiens.
Knowledge and mental self-culture confer untold blessings upon you. You will not be the victim of superstition and demagogy in religion and politics, not to be doped and duped by the priests and politicians of capitalism and so called Socialism: is this not a noble aim worth striving for? Most men and women today are not free and wise.
They are fleeced and fooled on account of their ignorance. Half the ills of man are due to ignorance.
According to the passage, knowledge and mental self-culture can bestow unimaginable blessings on us because:
(A) knowledge and mental self-culture will make us classy and elegant
(B) mental self-culture will help us get free of prejudice, and arrogance due to the wisdom we gain from knowledge
(C) knowledge will lead to a prosperous career only
(D) knowledge and mental self-culture will push us towards arrogance and superstitions
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (B) only
(A) knowledge and mental self-culture will make us classy and elegant — False.
- Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about style or elegance.
- The blessings it names are freedom from being fooled.
(B) mental self-culture will help us get free of prejudice, and arrogance due to the wisdom we gain from knowledge — True.
- The passage says that with knowledge we will not be the victim of superstition and demagogy and will not be fooled.
- Knowledge makes us free and wise, so this is the reason given.
(C) knowledge will lead to a prosperous career only — False.
- Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about a career, and "only" makes the statement narrower still.
(D) knowledge and mental self-culture will push us towards arrogance and superstitions — False.
- Contradicted: this is the reverse of the passage, which says knowledge saves us from superstition.
Tip: In this question the options do not follow the order of the statements (Option 1 = (A) only, Option 2 = (D) only, Option 3 = (B) only, Option 4 = (C) only). NTA often jumbles the options in this way, so after finding the correct statement, read the options carefully and mark the one with the right letter.