Curiously, the chiming of the hour seemed to have put new heart into him. He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage. He went back to the table, dipped his pen, and wrote: To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink —greetings! He was already dead, he reflected. It seemed to him that it was only now, when he had begun to be able to formulate his thoughts, that he had taken the decisive step. The consequences of every act are included in the act itself. He wrote: Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death. Now he had recognized himself as a dead man it became important to stay alive as long as possible. Two fingers of his right hand were inkstained. It was exactly the kind of detail that might betray you. Some nosing zealot in the Ministry (a woman, probably: someone like the little sandy-haired woman or the dark-haired girl from the Fiction Department) might start wondering why he had been writing during the lunch interval, why he had used an old-fashioned pen, WHAT he had been writing—and then drop a hint in the appropriate quarter. He went to the bathroom and carefully scrubbed the ink away with the gritty darkbrown soap which rasped your skin like sandpaper and was therefore well adapted for this purpose. He put the diary away in the drawer. It was quite useless to think of hiding it, but he could at least make sure whether or not its existence had been discovered. A hair laid across the page-ends was too obvious. With the tip of his finger he picked up an identifiable grain of whitish dust and deposited it on the corner of the cover, where it was bound to be shaken off if the book was moved.
According to the passage, what is the MAIN AND DECISIVE EVIDENCE to prove that the author has committed a thoughtcrime?
Show Hint
- Sandy-haired woman from the Fiction Department
- Gritty darkbrown soap
- Ink stains on the twofingers of his left hand
- Ink stains on the twofingers of his right hand
The Correct Option is D
Solution and Explanation
The question asks for the primary and conclusive piece of evidence that could prove the author (the character in the story) has committed a "thoughtcrime," which in this context is the act of writing his thoughts in a diary.
Step 2: Locating the Evidence in the Passage
The passage explicitly identifies the key piece of evidence. It states: "Two fingers of his right hand were inkstained. It was exactly the kind of detail that might betray you." This sentence directly links the ink stains on his right hand to the act of writing and the risk of being discovered.
Step 3: Evaluating the Options
(A) Sandy-haired woman from the Fiction Department: She is a potential accuser or "nosing zealot," not the evidence itself.
(B) Gritty darkbrown soap: This is the tool used to remove the evidence (the ink stains), not the evidence of the crime.
(C) Ink stains on the twofingers of his left hand: The passage specifically mentions the right hand, making this option incorrect.
(D) Ink stains on the twofingers of his right hand: This matches the text precisely and is described as the detail that could "betray" him.
Step 4: Final Answer
The passage clearly points to the ink stains on the character's right hand as the main and decisive evidence of his writing. Therefore, option (D) is the correct answer.
According to the passage, the author is living in a political system of a................state
Show Hint
- Liberal democratic
- Limited democratic
- Autocratic surveillance
- Diverse bureaucratic
The Correct Option is C
Solution and Explanation
The question requires us to infer the nature of the political system in which the author lives, based on the clues and descriptions provided in the passage.
Step 2: Analyzing Clues in the Passage
The passage contains several strong indicators of the political environment:
"The age of Big Brother": This is a direct reference to a totalitarian, all-seeing leader.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death": This shows that independent thinking is a capital offense, indicating extreme repression.
"Nosing zealot in the Ministry": This points to a system where citizens are encouraged to spy on each other for the state.
Fear of being discovered: The character's extreme paranoia and elaborate precautions (scrubbing ink, placing dust on the diary) show constant fear of state surveillance.
"Age of uniformity", "age of solitude": These phrases suggest a society where individuality is suppressed and people are isolated.
Step 3: Evaluating the Options based on the Analysis
(A) Liberal democratic \& (B) Limited democratic: These are incorrect. The system described actively suppresses freedom of thought and speech, which is the opposite of a democracy.
(C) Autocratic surveillance: This fits perfectly. "Autocratic" refers to a system with a single, absolute ruler (Big Brother), and "surveillance" describes the constant monitoring and fear of being watched.
(D) Diverse bureaucratic: While a bureaucracy ("the Ministry") exists, the defining characteristics are not its diversity but its oppressive control and surveillance. This option is not the best description.
Step 4: Final Answer
The combined evidence of a totalitarian figurehead (Big Brother), the criminalization of thought, and constant monitoring points to an autocratic surveillance state. Option (C) is the most accurate description.
Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
During Bentham’s lifetime, revolutions occurred in the American colonies and in France, producing the Bill of Rights and the Declaration des Droits deHomme (Declaration of the Rights of Man), both of which were based on liberty, equality, and self-determination. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Revolutionary movements broke out that year in France, Italy, Austria, Poland, and elsewhere. In addition, the Indus trial Revolution transformed Great Britain and eventually the rest of Europe from an agrarian (farm-based) society into an industrial one, in which steam and coal increased manufacturing production dramatically, changing the nature of work, property ownership, and family. This period also included advances in chemistry, astronomy, navigation, human anatomy, and im munology, among other sciences.
Given this historical context, it is understandable that Bentham used reason and science to explain human behaviour. His ethical system was an attempt to quantify happiness and the good so they would meet the conditions of the scientific method. Ethics had to be empirical, quantifiable, verifiable, and reproducible across time and space. Just as science was beginning to understand the workings of cause and effect in the body, so ethics would explain the causal relationships of the mind. Bentham rejected religious authority and wrote a rebuttal to the Declaration of Independence in which he railed against natural rights as “rhetorical nonsense, nonsense upon stilts.” Instead, the fundamental unit of human action for him was utility—solid, certain, and factual.
What is utility? Bentham’s fundamental axiom, which underlies utilitarianism, was that all so cial morals and government legislation should aim for producing the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism, therefore, emphasizes the consequences or ultimate purpose of an act rather than the character of the actor, the actor’s motivation, or the particu lar circumstances surrounding the act. It has these characteristics: (1) universality, because it applies to all acts of human behaviour, even those that appear to be done from altruistic mo tives; (2) objectivity, meaning it operates beyond individual thought, desire, and perspective; (3) rationality, because it is not based in metaphysics or theology; and (4) quantifiability in its reliance on utility.- CLAT PG - 2026
- Legal Studies
- Reading Comprehension
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights”.
This statement, in spite of literal inaccuracy in its every phrase, served the purpose for which it was written. It expressed an aspiration, and it was a fighting slogan. In order that slogans may serve their purpose, it is necessary that they shall arouse strong, emotional belief, but it is not at all necessary that they shall be literally accurate. A large part of each human being’s time on earth is spent in declaiming about his “rights,” asserting their existence, complaining of their violation, describing them as present or future, vested or contingent, absolute or conditional, perfect or inchoate, alienable or inalienable, legal or equitable, in rem or in personam, primary or secondary, moral or jural (legal), inherent or acquired, natural or artificial, human or divine. No doubt still other adjectives are available. Each one expresses some idea, but not always the same idea even when used twice by one and the same person.
They all need definition in the interest of understanding and peace. In his table of correlatives, Hohfeld set “right” over against “duty” as its necessary correlative. This had been done num berless times by other men. He also carefully distinguished it from the concepts expressed in his table by the terms “privilege,” “power,” and “immunity.” To the present writer, the value of his work seems beyond question and the practical convenience of his classification is convincing. However, the adoption of Hohfeld’s classification and the correlating of the terms “right” and “duty” do not complete the work of classification and definition.- CLAT PG - 2026
- Legal Studies
- Reading Comprehension
- Cite two evidences from the text to show that Indian youth is adapting itself to the needs of the job market.
- CBSE CLASS XII - 2025
- English Core
- Reading Comprehension
- In the line "it is indeed a single instrument, but it contains an arsenal of tools…", what does the phrase “arsenal of tools” refer to?
- CBSE CLASS XII - 2025
- English Core
- Reading Comprehension
- My Last French Lesson! Why, I hardly knew how to write! I should never learn any more! I must stop there, then! Oh, how sorry I was for not learning my lessons, for seeking birds' eggs or going sliding on the Saar! My books, that had seemed such a nuisance a while ago, so heavy to carry, my grammar, and my history of the saints, were old friends now that I couldn't give up and M. Hamel, too; the idea that he was going away, that I should never see him again, made me forget all about his ruler and how cranky he was.
Poor man! It was in honour of this last lesson that he had put on his fine Sunday clothes, and now I understood why the old men of the village were sitting there in the back of the room. It was because they were sorry, too, that they had not gone to school more. It was their way of thanking our master for his forty years of faithful service and of showing their respect for the country that was theirs no more.
(The Last Lesson)- CBSE CLASS XII - 2025
- English Core
- Reading Comprehension
Questions Asked in KLEE exam
- The smallest positive number which is divisible by the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 is
- KLEE - 2024
- Number System
- Two statements followed by two conclusions are given. Taking the given statements to be true even if they seem to be at variance from commonly known facts, read all the conclusions and then decide which of the given conclusions logically follow from the statements. Statements: 1. Mathematics is essential for all subjects.
2. Statistics is applied in Economics.
Conclusions: I. Mathematics is not needed in Sociology.
II. Economics is applied in Statistics.- KLEE - 2024
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