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. The author is of the view that we should
- (a)have absolute individual liberty without any restrictions imposed by the society
- (b)have everything controlled by the society without any kind of individual liberty
- (c)try to strike a sensible balance between our individual liberty and our social liberty
- (d)have more of social liberty than individual liberty
Correct — C, try to strike a sensible balance between our individual liberty and our social liberty. The passage states it directly — 'We have both liberties to preserve — our individual liberty and our social liberty. That is, we must have a judicious mixture of both.' 'Judicious' means well judged or sensible, so a sensible balance between the two is the same prescription in other words.
- (a)have absolute individual liberty without any restrictions imposed by the society — The opening sentence has already ruled this out by saying the liberties of everybody must be curtailed. Absolute individual liberty is what the whole passage argues against.
- (b)have everything controlled by the society without any kind of individual liberty — The author refuses to let any authority choose his child's school or subject and calls those things personal, so he plainly does not want everything controlled by society.
- (d)have more of social liberty than individual liberty — The passage weighs neither kind of liberty above the other. A judicious mixture asks for balance, and this option smuggles in a preference the author never states.
A comprehension item on the author's prescription, answered by one sentence that names both liberties and asks for a mixture of them.
Three of the four options settle the matter in advance — all for the individual, all for society, or more of one than the other. The passage does none of those things: it says both must be preserved and that the mixture must be judicious. Once you notice that the answer must keep both terms alive and rank neither, only one option survives.
- 'Judicious' comes from the same root as judge and means showing good judgement, so a judicious mixture is a well-judged balance.
- The passage names two liberties and asks for both to be preserved, which rules out any option that abolishes one of them.
- The examples that follow, the choice of school and the fact of education itself, show the two liberties operating on different questions rather than one outweighing the other.
- Reading 'a judicious mixture' as a preference for one side.
- Choosing an extreme position because it is easier to state than a balance.
Asked as a comprehension item in which the wrong options are the two extremes and a tilt, and the answer is the balance the author actually asks for.
"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 author believes that the Quick Man was really
- (a) foolish
- (b) clever
- (c) wrong
- (d) right
Answer(a) foolish
Both ask for the writer's own position rather than for a fact in the story. There it has to be gathered from the way the whispering is described; here it is stated outright in one sentence, and the work lies in choosing the option that neither exaggerates nor tilts it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'We must have a judicious mixture of both.' The word 'judicious' here means
- (a)legal
- (b)sensible and well judged
- (c)hasty
- (d)generous
Answer(b) sensible and well judged.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The two liberties the author says we must preserve are
- (a)political and economic liberty
- (b)individual and social liberty
- (c)religious and personal liberty
- (d)civil and military liberty
Answer(b) individual and social liberty — both are named in one sentence.