Multiple choice

The young woman in the passage was uncomfortable because

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given question:

One of the most potent elements in body language is eye behaviour. You shift your eyes, meet another person's gaze or fail to meet it - and produce an effect out of all proportion to the trifling muscular effort you have made. When two people look searchingly into each other's eyes, emotions are heightened and .the relationship tipped toward greater intimacy.
In normal conversation, each eye contact lasts only about a second before one or both individuals look away. Because the longer meeting of the eyes is rare, it is weighted with significance when it happens and can generate a special kind of human-to-human awareness. Most of the time, a lingering look is inter­preted as a sign of attraction and this should be scru­pulously avoided except in appropriate circumstances. A young woman once complained. ‘That man makes me so uncomfortable, half the time when I glance at him he's already looking at me - and he keeps right on looking.'
Proper street behaviour requires a balance of at­tention and intention. You are supposed to look at a passer-by just enough to show that you are aware of his presence. If you look too little, you appear haughty or furtive; too much and you are inquisitive. Usually what happens is that people eye each other until they are about eight feet apart, at which point both cast down their eyes.
Much of eye behaviour is so subtle that we react to it only on the intuitive level. This has been demon­strated in elaborate experiments. Subjects sit and talk in the psychologist's laboratory, irrespective of the fact that their eye behaviour is being observed from be­hind a one-way vision screen. In one fairly typical ex­periment, subjects were induced to cheat while per­forming a task, then were interviewed and observed. It was found that those who. had cheated met the interviewer's eyes less often than was normal, an in­dication that 'shifty eyes' can actually be a tip-off to an attempt to deceive.

  1. the man appeared to be showing great interest in her with his prolonged gaze

  2. the man's sharp gazes would take the relationship toward greater intimacy

  3. because she feels that such gazes are dangerous

  4. she did not like the man who was looking at her
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A Correct answer
Explanation

The young woman describes a man who, when she glances at him, is already looking at her and 'keeps right on looking.' This prolonged, sustained gaze creates discomfort because it's interpreted as inappropriate interest or attraction. The passage earlier mentions that lingering looks are 'interpreted as a sign of attraction' and should be 'scrupulously avoided except in appropriate circumstances.'

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