Read the given passage and answer the four questions that follow:-
Just as he was about to enter the laboratory, Farley noticed that a great deal of activity was taking place in a nearby anteroom. The assistant tried to hurry him past but by dint of dragging his feet Farley managed to steal a quick glance into the room. The sight that met his eyes was so bewildering that he uttered no protest when his guide maneuvered him through the laboratory door. What he saw was this: the woman, Mangala was seated at the far end of the room, on a low divan, but alone and in an attitude of command, as though enthroned. By her side were several small bamboo cages, each containing a pigeon. On the floor, clustered around the woman's feet, were some half-dozen people in various attitudes of supplication. Two or three others were huddled against the wall, wrapped in blankets. Although Farley had glanced into their scarred, unseeing faces for more than an instant, he recognized at once that they, like the man he had seen in the bamboo thicket, were syphilitics, in the final stages of the terrible disease.
Now the young assistant began once again to perform the charade of the previous day, fetching slides, and hurrying back and forth across the room as though egging him on towards some extraordinary discovery. Farley went mechanically about the business of examining the slides they presented him.
His conscience called out to him to go outside and tell them not to waste their hopes on whatever quackery it was that this woman offered; to expose the falsehoods that she and her minions had concocted to deceive those simple people. It was his duty, he knew, to tell them that mankind knew no cure for their condition; that this false prophetess was cheating them of money they could ill afford.
What do you think the woman, Mangala sitting in the anteroom was-
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → A Quack
A quack is a person who falsely claims to have medical skill and sells useless cures. Farley's conscience tells him to warn the patients not to waste their hopes on whatever quackery this woman offered; he calls her a false prophetess who was cheating them of money they could ill afford. All of this describes a quack.
Example: The villagers lost their savings to a quack who promised a magic cure.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: A Doctor — Incorrect. Wrong link: a doctor is trained and qualified to treat illness. In the passage the doctor is Farley, who sees the woman's work as cheating.
Option 3: A Naturopath — Incorrect. Not mentioned: a naturopath treats illness with natural methods such as diet, herbs and exercise. The woman uses no such methods; her pigeons and her air of command are part of a show.
Example: The naturopath advised him to eat more fruit and sleep early.
Option 4: A Reiki Master — Incorrect. Not mentioned: a Reiki master practises a Japanese method of healing by placing the hands on or near the body. Nothing of this kind is described in the passage.
Example: She took lessons from a Reiki master to learn relaxation.