One morning the whole world looked up in surprise, when Japan broke through her walls of old habits in a night and came out triumphant. It was done in such an incredibly short time, that it seemed like a change of dress and not like the slow building up of a new structure. She showed the confidence, the strength of maturity and the freshness and infinite potentiality of new life all at the same moment. The fear entertained was, that it was a mere freak of history, a child's game of time, the blowing up of a soap bubble, perfect in its colouring, hollow in its heart and without substance. But Japan has proved conclusively that this sudden revelation of her power is not a short-lived wonder, a chance product of time and tide, thrown up from the depth of obscurity to be swept away the next moment into the sea of oblivion.
The truth is that Japan is old and new at the same time. She has her legacy of ancient culture from the east,-the culture that enjoins man to look for his true wealth and power in his inner soul; the culture that gives selfpossession in the face of loss and danger, self-sacrifice without counting the cost or hoping for gain, defiance of death, acceptance of countless social obligations that we owe to man as a social being;-- the culture that has given us the vision of the infinite in all finite things, through which we have come to realize that the universe is living with a life and permeated with a soul, that it is not a huge machine which had been turned out by a demon of accidence or fashioned by a teleological God who lives in a far away heaven. In a word, modern Japan has come out of the immemorial East like a lotus blossoming in an easy grace, all the while keeping its firm hold upon the profound depth from which it has sprung.
How did Japan take the world by surprise? Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → by reflecting its power, confidence, maturity & potential in a very short time.
The passage says that Japan broke through her walls of old habits "in a night", in such an incredibly short time that it looked like a change of dress. In that moment she showed the confidence, the strength of maturity and the infinite potentiality of new life. The speed of this change, together with the power it revealed, is what took the world by surprise.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: by gradually rising from obscurity and oblivion. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the passage stresses the opposite of a gradual rise: the change was sudden, not "the slow building up of a new structure". Obscurity and oblivion appear only in the fear that Japan's rise might fade away.
Option 3: by showcasing its ancient heritage step by step. — Incorrect. Wrong part of the passage: Japan's ancient culture is discussed in the second paragraph as the root of its strength, but the world was surprised by a sudden change, not by a step-by-step display of heritage.
Option 4: by being victorious over all other countries and cultures. — Incorrect. Misread: the passage says Japan came out "triumphant" from her own old habits; it mentions no victory over other countries or cultures.