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.

If we are right in what we have been saying, most of the greatest men, other than artists, have been actuated in their important activities by motives unconnected with sex. If such activities are to persist, and are, in their humbler forms, to become common, it is necessary that sex should not over-shadow the remainder of a man's emotional and passionate nature. The desire to understand the world and the desire to reform it are the two great engines of progress, without which human society would stand still or retrogress. It may be that too complete a happiness would cause the impulses to knowledge and reform to fade.

What is the theme of the passage?

  1. Human progress is a continuous process.

  2. If everyone is happy, impetus to learning will stop.

  3. Growth of life is ephemeral and hence transitory.

  4. Sex is peripheral to the progress of humanity.

  5. It is continence, not indulgence that secures human progress.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

 Option (4) is the only statement connected to the passage. Human progress has been impelled by impulses unrelated to sex. None of the other options can be inferred from the passage. Therefore, option (4) is correct.

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