Read the passage and answer the following five questions
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. We weep at what exceeds our expectations in serious matters; we laugh at what disappoints our expectations in trifles. We shed tears from sympathy with real and necessary distress; as we burst into laughter from want of sympathy with that which is unreasonable and unnecessary. Tears are the natural and involuntary response of the mind overcome by some sudden and violent emotions. Laughter is the same sort of convulsive and involuntary movement, occasioned by mere surprise or contrast. The serious is the stress which the mind lays upon the expectations of a given order of events and the weight attached to them. When this stress is increased beyond its usual intensity and strains the feelings by the violent opposition of good and bad, it becomes the tragic. The ludicrous is the unexpected relaxing of this stress below its usual intensity, by an abrupt transposition of ideas that takes the mind by surprise and startles it into lively sense of pleasure.
1. According to the passage which of the following is not true is case of tears and laughter?
(a) They are both involuntary reaction
(b) They are both the result of violent emotions
(c) They are both natural emotions
(d) They are both reaction to experiences of the would
2. The author implies that animals lack the ability to
(a) Perceive emotional change in humans
(b) laugh or weep
(c) evoke sorrow or laughter in humans
(d) respond strongly to external stimuli
3. We shed tears when
A. Something is tragic
B. Something is ludicrous
C. Something is surprising
D. Seriousness exceeds our expectations
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
(a) C & D only
(b) A & B only
(c) A & D only
(d) A, B & D only
4. It can be inferred from the passage that the ludicrous is most nearly opposite to the
(a) Serious
(b) Surprise
(c) Pleasure
(d) Unexpected
5. The author develops the passage primarily by
(a) Disproving a theory
(b) Citing authorities
(c) Presenting counter example
(d) Defining terms
ANSWERS
1 - b
2 - b
3 - c
4 - a
5 - d
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