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).
Choose the right option to fill in the blank:
The Bhagavad Gita _______________ of the Mahabharata.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → is a small chapter
The passage describes the Bhagavad Gita as "one small section of the Mahabharata". A small section of a book is a small chapter of it.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: is a prologue — Incorrect. Contradicted: a prologue is an introductory section at the beginning of a work; the passage places the Gita at the eve of the war, within the epic, not at its opening.
Option 2: is an epilogue — Incorrect. Contradicted: an epilogue is a concluding section at the end of a work; the Gita comes before the war, which is the central event.
Option 4: is a frivolous treatise — Incorrect. Contradicted: frivolous means not serious; the passage says its arguments are "quite substantive", a tussle between "two contrary moral positions".