Question 149
HardOriginal questionMother: Your father's cousin says science is the only choice.
Aditi: He says that about everything he chose himself.
Mother: That's not fair. He's a successful man.
Aditi: He is. And he tells us every Diwali how much he hates his job.
Mother: (laughs ) He does, doesn't he.
Aditi: Amma, I'm not saying science is wrong. I'm saying it isn't mine. When I read about the Mughal for my project, I forgot to eat lunch. When I do chemistry, I watch the clock.
Mother: You can't build a life on forgetting lunch.
Aditi: Why not? People who forget lunch over their work usually end up good at it.
Mother: And what if history doesn't give you a job?
Aditi: Then I'll have tried the thing I love and learnt something. If I choose science and fail, I'll have neither.
Mother: (after a long pause) Write down three jobs you could do with history. Real ones. We'll look at them together, and then we'll talk to your father.
Aditi: That's not a yes.
Mother: It isn't a no, either.
What is Aditi's argument in "If I choose science and fail, I'll have neither"?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
She says that if history fails her, she will still have "tried the thing I love and learnt something".
If science fails her, she will have neither the job nor the joy. Her argument weighs the two risks.
Worth noting
She is not saying science is too hard in general; she is comparing what each choice would leave her with if it went wrong.
- Concept
- Following a speaker's reasoning
- Typical timeTypical
- 55 s
- Your timeYours
- —
Ten questions from Poems and conversations, at your own pace.