Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow:-
Day had broken cold and grey when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail. He climbed the high earth-bank where a little-travelled trail led east through the pine forest. It was a high bank, and he paused to breathe at the top. He excused the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o'clock in the morning. There was no sun or promise of sun, although there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day. However, there seemed to be an indescribable darkness over the face of things. That was because the sun was absent from the sky.
This fact did not worry the man. He was not alarmed by the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun. The man looked along the way he had come. The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was all pure white. North and south, as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white. The one thing that relieved the whiteness was a thin dark line that curved from the pine-covered island to the south. It curved into the north, where it disappeared behind another pine-covered island. This dark line was the trail-the main trail. But all this-the distant trail, no sun in the sky, the great cold, and the strangeness of it all had no effect on the man.
Why did the man pause at the top of the high earth-bank?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → To catch his breath
The passage says it was a high bank, and he paused to breathe at the top. To catch one's breath is to rest for a moment after hard effort until one can breathe normally again, which is why he stopped after the steep climb.
Example: After running up the stairs, she stopped on the landing to catch her breath.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: To admire the view — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about him enjoying the view; he paused to breathe and then looked at his watch.
Option 2: To look at the sun — Incorrect. Contradicted: there was no sun in the sky; it had been days since he had seen it.
Option 4: To decide which trail to take — Incorrect. Wrong time: he had already turned aside from the main trail onto the little-travelled one before climbing the bank; no choice is described at the top.