Comprehension:
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Prolixity is not alien to us in India. We are able to talk at some length. Krishna Menon’s record of the longest speech ever delivered at the United Nations (nine hours non-stop), established half a century ago, has not been equalled by anyone from anywhere. Other peaks of loquaciousness have been scaled by other Indians. We do like to speak.
This is not a new habit. The ancient Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which are frequently compared with the Iliad and the Odyssey, are colossally longer than the works that the modest Homer could manage. Indeed, the Mahabharata alone is about seven times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey put together. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are certainly great epics: I recall with much joy how my own life was vastly enriched when I encountered them first as a restless youngster looking for intellectual stimulation as well as sheer entertainment. But they proceed from story to story woven around their principal tales, and are engagingly full of dialogues, dilemmas, and alternative perspectives. And we encounter masses of arguments and counterarguments spread over incessant debates and disputations.
The arguments are also, often enough, quite substantive. For example, the famous Bhagavad Gita, which is one small section of the Mahabharata, presents a tussle between two contrary moral positions—Krishna’s emphasis on doing one’s duty, on one side, and Arjuna’s focus on avoiding bad consequences, on the other. The debate occurs on the eve of the great war that is a central event in the Mahabharata. Watching the two armies readying for war, profound doubts about the correctness of what they are doing are raised by Arjuna, the peerless and invincible warrior in the army of the just and honorable royal family (the Pandavas), who are about to fight the unjust usurpers (the Kauravas).
Which hypothesis presented in the following, if true, would weaken the hypothesis presented in the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The leitmotif (an idea that is repeated) of war in the Mahabharata contributes to the epic's conciseness.
The passage claims that prolixity (using too many words) is part of the Indian tradition: the epics are "colossally longer" than Homer's works. If the Mahabharata were actually concise (short and to the point), the main example of that claim would fall, so this statement weakens it.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Talkativeness is a characteristic trait among some members of indigenous populations. — Incorrect. Wrong focus: the talkativeness of other peoples neither proves nor disproves that Indians "do like to speak".
Option 2: The famous Indian epics are supreme examples of elaborately written works. — Incorrect. Supports the hypothesis: the epics "proceed from story to story" and are full of "dialogues, dilemmas, and alternative perspectives".
Option 4: Celebrated Indian writings have a history of being long and convoluted. — Incorrect. Supports the hypothesis: it repeats the claim that "this is not a new habit". Convoluted means complicated and hard to follow.