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GATE 2023 EC GA Q.8: solution and answer

GATE 2023 · ECGA Q.8 · 2 marks · MCQ

Which one of the following options can be inferred from the given passage alone?

When I was a kid, I was partial to stories about other worlds and interplanetary travel. I used to imagine that I could just gaze off into space and be whisked to another planet.

[Excerpt from The Truth about Stories by T. King]

  1. (A)

    It is a child’s description of what he or she likes.

  2. (B)

    It is an adult’s memory of what he or she liked as a child.

  3. (C)

    The child in the passage read stories about interplanetary travel only in parts.

  4. (D)

    It teaches us that stories are good for children.

See the question in the paper
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Answer and solution

ANSWER

(B) It is an adult’s memory of what he or she liked as a child.

Official answer: BSource: Official answer key, GATE 2023 EC (IIT Kanpur)

  1. Rule for 'inferred from the given passage alone': accept an option only if the passage's own words guarantee it. Reject anything that needs outside knowledge, or a moral that the passage does not state.

  2. Look at the time frame. "When I was a kid" and "I used to imagine" are both in the past tense, and "used to" marks a habit that no longer holds. So the narrator is no longer a kid and is looking back on his or her childhood.

  3. (A) says a child is describing what he or she likes now. The opening words "When I was a kid" rule this out: the speaker places childhood in the past, so the speaker is no longer a child, and the likings are reported in the past tense ("was partial to"). Rejected.

  4. (B) says an adult is remembering what he or she liked as a child. This follows directly. The speaker is past childhood, so grown up, and is recalling a childhood preference ("was partial to", "used to imagine"). Accepted.

  5. (C) comes from misreading the idiom. "Partial to" means fond of. It has nothing to do with reading a story "in parts", and the passage says nothing about how much of each story was read. Rejected.

  6. (D) draws a moral. The passage only reports a personal liking and a daydream. It never claims that stories are good for children. Rejected.

  7. Only (B) is guaranteed by the passage. Answer: (B).

KEY IDEA

Look at the tense and the time markers. "When I was a kid" and "used to imagine" place childhood in the past, so the speaker is a grown-up looking back. "Partial to" is an idiom meaning fond of.

WATCH OUT FOR

Taking "partial to" literally as "in part" and picking (C). Also common: picking (A) without noticing that "When I was a kid" means the speaker is no longer a child, or picking (D), a moral the passage never states.

From the GATE 2023 EC paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 18 Reading questions, with notes

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