Multiple choice

Directions: The short passage below is followed by a question based on its content. Answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage.

The message in the form of numerical data came to the Inca on pieces of string called quipus. The quipu only records numbers (as knots arranged like our decimal system) and I would dearly like to say, as a mathematician, that numbers are as informative and human a symbolism as words; but they are not. The numbers that described the life of a man in Peru were collected on a kind of punched card in reverse, a Braille computer card laid out as a knotted piece of string. When he married, the piece of string was moved to another place in the kinship bundle. Everything that was stored in the Inca's armies, granaries and warehouses was noted on these quipus. The fact is that Peru was already the dreaded metropolis of the future, the memory stone in which an empire lists the acts of every citizen, sustains him, assigns him his labors, and puts it all down impersonally as number.

What is the theme of the passage?

  1. The Inca empire was systematic in its recording of populace's C.V.

  2. The controlling acts of the ancient Incan rulers in Peru were very similar to those found in the modern day mechanical metropolises.

  3. Ancient Inca rulers were very harsh and strict about their diktats

  4. The Inca empire was well conversant with numbers much before the rest of the world was.

  5. The Inca empire presaged much of what we cherish as achievement of modern culture.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

 The line 'the fact is that Peru was already the dreaded metropolis of the future' immediately points to (2). Therefore, option (2) is the correct answer.

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