CAT 2003 Slot 1 — VARC Question 33
The verse given below is followed by a set of questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one,
may there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time:
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting lthaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey,
without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean
In each of the questions, four different ways of presenting an idea are given. Choose the one that conforms most closely to Standard English usage.
- We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
- We are forced to falling back on the fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
- We are forced to fall back on fatalism as explanations of irrational events.
- We are forced to fall back to fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
Answer & solution
1
- B
2
- C
3
- D
4
Avoid the continuous form- falling in option 2 if you have a better option. So, we eliminate option 2.
‘Fall back to’ is incorrect usage. The phrase should be ‘fall back on’. With that option 4 can also be eliminated.
The sentence suggests that there is one explanation of irrational events. Therefore, we can eliminate option 3 because it uses the plural word explanations.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.