After reading the following passage, answer the questions which follow:
I must say that, beyond occasionally exposing me to laughter, my constitutional shyness has been of no great disadvantage to me. In fact, I can see that, on the contrary, it has been all to my advantage. My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest pleasure has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now, give myself the certificate that a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen. I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing. I have thus been spared many a mishap and waste of time. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.
The expression, "my constitutional shyness" in the given passage would mean _____.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The innate and natural shyness in the author
- Here constitutional does not refer to a country's Constitution. It means belonging to a person's basic nature or make-up. The author says his shyness was part of him and that he "naturally formed the habit of restraining" his thoughts. So "my constitutional shyness" is the shyness that came with his nature.
Example: Her constitutional dislike of noise kept her away from parties. - Innate means present in a person from birth, not learnt, which is the sense of constitutional here.
Example: The child has an innate talent for music.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Shyness mentioned in Article 1 in the Indian Constitution — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: this takes "constitutional" in its legal sense. The passage is about the author's own nature; no law is mentioned.
Option 2: Shyness prescribed as a mark of our democracy in the preamble of our Constitution. — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: the preamble is the opening statement of a constitution that sets out its aims. It says nothing about shyness; again the legal sense of the word is wrongly applied.
Example: The preamble of the Constitution begins with "We, the people of India".
Option 4: A shyness that the author pretends to derive some evil advantages in life. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the author's shyness is real, not pretended, and the advantages he names (economy of words, no thoughtless speech) are good ones, not evil.