The rule of the road means that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved, the liberties of everybody must be curtailed. When the policeman, say, at a road-crossing steps into the middle of the road and puts out his hand, he is the symbol not of tyranny but of liberty. You have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that you may enjoy a social order which makes your liberty a reality. We have both liberties to preserve — our individual liberty and our social liberty. That is, we must have a judicious mixture of both. I shall not permit any authority to say that my child must go to this school or that, shall specialize in science or arts. These things are personal. But if I say that my child shall have no education at all, then society will firmly tell me that my child must have education whether I like it or not. According to the author, the “rule of the road” implies
- (a)the rule regulating the traffic on the road
- (b)the principle on which a road is constructed to ensure safe traffic
- (c)unrestricted freedom for all to lead a happy life
- (d)restricted individual freedom to ensure freedom for all
Correct — D, restricted individual freedom to ensure freedom for all. The passage defines the phrase in its opening line — 'The rule of the road means that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved, the liberties of everybody must be curtailed.' Cutting back what each person may do, so that what everybody may do survives, is precisely what option (d) says.
- (a)the rule regulating the traffic on the road — The road is only the author's illustration. His defining sentence is about liberties, not about traffic regulation, and the passage soon leaves the road for the schooling of a child.
- (b)the principle on which a road is constructed to ensure safe traffic — Nothing in the passage concerns how a road is built. This reads 'rule of the road' as an engineering principle, which the author never touches.
- (c)unrestricted freedom for all to lead a happy life — This is the reverse of the defining sentence, which says the liberties of everybody must be curtailed. Unrestricted freedom for all is the very thing the rule of the road rules out.
A comprehension item answered by the sentence in which the author defines the phrase the stem asks about.
When a stem asks what a phrase implies according to the author, look for the line where the author explains it rather than for what the phrase would mean elsewhere. Here that line is the first one, and the answer is a plain paraphrase of it. Two options are built for readers who hold on to the literal picture of a road, and the passage supplies that picture only to make a point about liberty.
- 'Curtailed' means cut short or reduced, so the opening sentence is saying that everyone's freedom is deliberately reduced.
- The phrase 'in order that … may' states a purpose, which is why the sentence links the curtailment to the preservation of everyone's liberty.
- The passage uses the road, the policeman and a child's schooling as three illustrations of the same single idea.
- Answering from what 'rule of the road' means in ordinary traffic talk instead of from the author's definition.
- Choosing the pleasant-sounding option about freedom for all without noticing that it drops the restriction.
Asked as a comprehension item whose answer paraphrases the opening sentence of the passage.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen," said the conjuror, "having shown you that the cloth is absolutely empty, I will proceed to take from it a bowl of goldfish. Presto !" All around the hall people were saying, "Oh, how wonderful ! How does he do it?" But the Quick Man on the front seat said in a big whisper to the people near him, "He-had-it-up-his-sleeve." Then the people nodded brightly at the Quick Man and said, "Oh, of course"; and everybody whispered round the hall, "He-had-it-up-his-sleeve." "My next trick," said the conjuror, "is the famous Hindostanee rings. You will notice that the rings are apparently separate; at a blow they all join (clang, clang, clang)—Presto !" There was a general buzz of stupefaction till the Quick Man was heard to whisper, "He-must-have-had-another-lot-up-his-sleeve." Again everybody nodded and whispered, "The-rings-were-up-his-sleeve." The brow of the conjuror was clouded with a gathering frown. "I will now," he continued, "show you a most amusing trick by which I am enabled to take any number of eggs from a hat. Will some gentleman kindly lend me his hat? Ah, thank you—Presto !" He extracted seventeen eggs, and for thirty-five seconds the audience began to think that he was wonderful. Then the Quick Man whispered along the front bench, "He-has-a-hen-up-his-sleeve," and all the people whispered it on. "He-has-a-lot-of-hens-up-his-sleeve." The egg trick was ruined. It went on like that all through. It transpired from the whispers of the Quick Man that the conjuror must have concealed up his sleeve, in addition to the rings, hens, and fish, several packs of cards, a loaf of bread, a doll's cradle, a live guinea pig, a fifty-cent piece, and a rocking chair. "The egg trick was ruined." This means that
- (a) eggs were all broken
- (b) people were unconvinced
- (c) conjuror was disappointed
- (d) the trick could not be performed
Answer(b) people were unconvinced
Both ask you to restate a line of the passage in other words, and both punish the literal reading. There 'ruined' has to be understood from what the audience did, not from any broken egg; here 'the rule of the road' has to be understood from the author's own definition, not from traffic law.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In the line 'the liberties of everybody must be curtailed', the word 'curtailed' means
- (a)cut short or restricted
- (b)written down
- (c)widely praised
- (d)handed over
Answer(a) cut short or restricted — the sentence contrasts what is cut back with what is preserved.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'You have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that you may enjoy a social order which makes your liberty a reality.' The phrase 'in order that' introduces
- (a)a contrast
- (b)a purpose
- (c)a condition
- (d)an example
Answer(b) a purpose — it states why the submission is made.