03 Jan 2024

Daily practice questions for CLAT - (03 Jan 2024)



It was a Sunday morning at the most beautiful time in spring. George Benderman, a young merchant, was sitting in his private room on the first floor of one of the low, poorly constructed houses extending in a long row along the river, almost indistinguishable from each other except for their height and colour. He had just finished a letter to a friend from his youth who was now abroad, had sealed in a playful and desultory manner, and then was looking, elbows propped on the writing-table, out of the window at the river, the bridge, and the hills on the other shore with their delicate greenery.
He was thinking about how this friend, dissatisfied with his progress at home, had actually run off to Russia some years before. Now he ran a business in St. Petersburg, which had gotten off to a very good start but which for a long time now had appeared to be faltering, as his friend complained on his increasingly rare visits. So, he was wearing himself out working to no purpose in a foreign land. The exotic full beard only poorly concealed the face George had known so well since his childhood years, and the yellowish colour of his skin seemed to indicate a developing sickness. As he explained it, he had no real connection to the colony of his countrymen in the place and also hardly any social interaction with local families and so was resigning himself to being a permanent bachelor.
What should one write to such a man, who had obviously gone off course, a man one could feel sorry for but could not help? Should one perhaps advise him to come back home again, shift his life back here, take up again all the old friendly relationships there was certainly nothing to prevent that and in addition rely on the help of friends? But that amounted to the same thing as saying to him and the more gently one said it, the more wounding it would also be that his previous attempts had been unsuccessful, that he should finally give them up, that he must come back and allow everyone to gape at him as an eternal returned prodigal, that only his friends understood anything, and that he would be an overage child, who should simply obey his successful friends who had stayed home. And then was it certain that all the misery one would have to put him through had a point? Perhaps it would not even succeed in bringing him back home at all he said himself that he no longer understood conditions in his homeland so then he would remain in his foreign country in spite of everything, embittered by the advice and a little more estranged from his friends.

Question1:- The author’s friend complained about his increasingly rare visits to Russia, why is it so?
  • A. The author is personally not interested in visiting his friend
  • B. The author’s friend is least interested to call the author.
  • C. The author is selfish and writes letter for his personal work.
  • D. The reason is not given in the passage.
Answer is D is correct. The author’s friend is complaining of increasingly rare visits to Russia but the reason for this is not mentioned in the passage. Option (a), option (b) and option c are not the correct reasons. Hence, option (d) is correct.
Question2:- What is the tone of the author while describing his friend in the last paragraph of the given passage?
  • A. Condescending
  • B. Sarcastic
  • C. Cynical
  • D. Indignant
Answer is A is correct. Cynical means skeptical or doubtful which is not relevant here. Indignant means show to show anger or annoyance towards someone which is incorrect. The author is not trying to mock his friend here by using a sarcastic tone. George’s tone in the last passage is condescending. He condemns him, and yet he pities him; he considers persuading him to return, and yet is afraid of the responsibility connected with it. He keeps himself in a superior position to his friend. Hence, option (a) is correct.
Question3:- What can be inferred from the passage?
  • A. The author does not care about his friend who went to a foreign country.
  • B. His friend does not have any real connection with his countrymen.
  • C. The author has broken all ties with his friend.
  • D. The author does not know his friend exactly.
Answer is B is correct. It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s friend has gone to Russia to start some successful business and now his friend does not have any real connections with his countrymen. He has resorted himself to the life of a bachelor. Hence, option (b) is correct.
Question4:- Which of the following statement is true in regard to the passage given above?
  • A. Author’s friend was doing good business but now it is failing.
  • B. Author’s friend is wishing to come back to his hometown.
  • C. George is reluctant to call his friend back to his place.
  • D. George was writing a letter to his friend to tell him about his engagement.
Answer is A is correct. The information provided in options (b), (c) and (d) cannot be validated through the passage but the information provided in option a is correct. The author has clearly mentioned that his friend had gone to Russia to do something good in life, he even ran a successful business but that business is failing and his friend is not able to understand what to do. Hence, option (a) is correct.
Question5:- Find out the word from the passage that means “losing strength or momentum”?
  • A. Faltering
  • B. Prodigal
  • C. Propped
  • D. Estranged
Answer is A is correct. • The word faltering means losing strength or momentum
• The word Propped means support to keep in position
• The word estranged means no longer affectionate or close to someone.
• The word Prodigal means someone who spends a lot of money.
Clearly, option (a) is the correct answer.