NDA (II) 2019 General Ability Test · Question 43 of 148

Correct — D, By experience. The author states 'They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience', and adds that studies 'give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience' — so, in the author's view, experience is what perfects study.

• (a)By reflection — Reflection is never named in the passage as what perfects study; the text points to experience.
• (b)By application — The word 'application' does not appear; the author specifically credits experience, not application.
• (c)By conversation — Conversation relates to 'ornament ... in discourse', not to perfecting study — the perfecting agent the text names is experience.

A reading-comprehension item on what completes or perfects study, keyed to the line pairing studies with experience.

This item is based on the short passage printed above Questions 41-45 in the NDA-II 2019 GAT (Series A) — a verbatim extract widely known as Francis Bacon's essay 'Of Studies'. The passage reads: "Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider." The answer follows from 'They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience'.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the passage, natural abilities are compared to natural plants that need

  • (a)watering by teachers
  • (b)pruning by study
  • (c)sunlight of discourse
  • (d)no attention at all

  Answer(b) pruning by study — the text says natural abilities 'need pruning, by study'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  According to the passage, studies give forth directions 'too much at large' unless they are

  • (a)bounded in by experience
  • (b)written down carefully
  • (c)shared in discourse
  • (d)judged by rules

  Answer(a) bounded in by experience — the text says they must 'be bounded in by experience'.