Comprehension
Read the following passage and answer the TWO questions that follow.
But as the behavioral economists like to remind us, we are already prone to all sorts of reductions as a species. It’s not just the scientists. We compress complex reality down into abbreviated heuristics that often work beautifully in everyday life for high-frequency, low-significance decisions. Because we are an unusually clever and self-reflective species, we long ago realized that we needed help overcoming those reductive instincts when it really matters. And so we invented a tool called storytelling. At first, some of our stories were even more reductive than the sciences would prove to be: allegories and parables and morality plays that compressed the flux of real life down to archetypal moral messages. But over time the stories grew more adept at describing the true complexity of lived experience, the whorls and the threadlike pressures. One of the crowning achievements of that growth is the realist novel. That, of course, is the latent implication of Prince Andrei’s question: “innumerable conditions made meaningful only in unpredictable moments” would fare well as a description of both War and Peace and Middlemarch, arguably the two totemic works in the realist canon. What gives the novel the grain of truth lies precisely in the way it doesn’t quite run along the expected grooves, the way it dramatizes all the forces and unpredictable variables that shape the choices humans confront at the most meaningful moments of their lives.
When we read those novels—or similarly rich biographies of historical figures—we are not just entertaining ourselves; we are also rehearsing for our own real-world experiences….
But as the behavioral economists like to remind us, we are already prone to all sorts of reductions as a species. It’s not just the scientists. We compress complex reality down into abbreviated heuristics that often work beautifully in everyday life for high-frequency, low-significance decisions. Because we are an unusually clever and self-reflective species, we long ago realized that we needed help overcoming those reductive instincts when it really matters. And so we invented a tool called storytelling. At first, some of our stories were even more reductive than the sciences would prove to be: allegories and parables and morality plays that compressed the flux of real life down to archetypal moral messages. But over time the stories grew more adept at describing the true complexity of lived experience, the whorls and the threadlike pressures. One of the crowning achievements of that growth is the realist novel. That, of course, is the latent implication of Prince Andrei’s question: “innumerable conditions made meaningful only in unpredictable moments” would fare well as a description of both War and Peace and Middlemarch, arguably the two totemic works in the realist canon. What gives the novel the grain of truth lies precisely in the way it doesn’t quite run along the expected grooves, the way it dramatizes all the forces and unpredictable variables that shape the choices humans confront at the most meaningful moments of their lives.
When we read those novels—or similarly rich biographies of historical figures—we are not just entertaining ourselves; we are also rehearsing for our own real-world experiences….
Question: 1
Which of the following is the BEST interpretation regarding reductive instincts?
Which of the following is the BEST interpretation regarding reductive instincts?
Updated On: Dec 6, 2024
- Reductive instincts tell us to reduce every situation to a heuristic.
- After the invention of storytelling, humans have overcome their reductive instincts.
- Reductive instincts can help us in handling uncertainty.
- Reductive instincts have to be overcome for survival in the real world.
- Reductive instincts led to compression of complex reality to moral messages.
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The Correct Option is
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Analyze the passage.
The passage discusses how humans naturally reduce complex realities into simplified forms, often as a way of managing their understanding. Storytelling is presented as a tool invented to address these reductive instincts and express complex realities in nuanced ways.
Step 2: Evaluate the options.
- Option 1: Incorrect. While reductive instincts simplify situations, they don’t reduce everything to heuristics.
- Option 2: Incorrect. Storytelling helps manage reductive instincts but does not eliminate them.
- Option 3: Incorrect. The passage does not explicitly connect reductive instincts to uncertainty.
- Option 4: Incorrect. The passage does not emphasize survival as a purpose of overcoming reductive instincts.
- Option 5: Correct. The passage explicitly states that reductive instincts led to storytelling that simplified reality into archetypal moral messages.
Final Answer: (5)
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Question: 2
Why would a realist novel consist of “innumerable conditions made meaningful only in unpredictable moments?”
Why would a realist novel consist of “innumerable conditions made meaningful only in unpredictable moments?”
Updated On: Dec 6, 2024
- To keep the reader engaged till the end of the novel.
- To bring in as much content as possible without making it seem forced.
- To showcase unexpected complexity while making it seem relevant in the given context.
- To show to the reader that realist novel does not work on expected lines.
- To engage the reader with realism and fantasy at the same time.
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The Correct Option is C
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Analyze the phrase “innumerable conditions made meaningful only in unpredictable moments.” The phrase highlights the unpredictable nature of events and how realist novels aim to portray the complexity of human life through such moments.
Step 2: Evaluate the options.
- Option 1: Incorrect. While engagement is important, it is not the primary focus of the phrase.
- Option 2: Incorrect. Including content without force is not central to the concept of unpredictability in realist novels.
- Option 3: Correct. Realist novels focus on presenting unexpected complexity to reflect the intricacies of life.
- Option 4: Incorrect. This option is irrelevant to the meaning of the phrase.
- Option 5: Incorrect. Realism and fantasy are not the focus of the passage or the phrase.
Final Answer: (3)
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