Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:
Knowledge has many forms and it is available at many places. It is acquired through education, information, intelligence and experience. It is available in academic institutions, with teachers, in libraries, in research papers, seminar proceedings and in various organizations and workplaces with workers, managers, in drawings, in process sheets and on the shop floors. Knowledge, though closely linked to education, comes equally from learning skills such as those possessed by our artists, craftsmen, hakims, vaidyas, philosophers and saints, as also our housewives. Knowledge plays a very important role in their performance and output too. Our heritage and history, the rituals, epics and traditions that form part our consciousness are also vast resources of knowledge as are our libraries and universities. There is an abundance of unorthodox, earthy wisdom in our villages. There are hidden treasures of knowledge in our environment, in the oceans, bioreserves and deserts, in the plant and animal life. Every state in our country has a unique core competence for a knowledge society.
How is knowledge acquired according to the author?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → By getting skills and information
The author says knowledge "is acquired through education, information, intelligence and experience", and adds that it comes equally "from learning skills" such as those of artists, craftsmen, hakims and vaidyas. Skills and information are both named as its sources.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Only through formal education in schools and colleges — Incorrect. Too narrow: education is only one source; the passage stresses that knowledge also comes from skills, experience, villages and nature. The word "only" makes it false.
Option 3: Through hard work and sincerity — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about these qualities as ways of acquiring knowledge.
Option 4: By toiling day and night — Incorrect. Not mentioned: to toil is to work very hard for a long time; the passage says nothing of the kind.