Multiple choice

Directions: Five alternative summaries are given below the text. Choose the option that best completes the essence of the text.

India and America are not always likely to share strategic interests. Nevertheless, we must remain friends in the sense of a higher commitment to certain values. Alliances based on interests are but transient. We should support America if it seeks to export the ideal of genuine liberal democracy around the world and warn it of the fate which befell earlier hegemons that chose to pursue narrow selfish interests. This position, as their friend in freedom, is what we owe them. Frankness, in other words, must be the primary virtue of our often strained, but nevertheless true friendship.

  1. India and America share common values of democracy and freedom. Therefore, it is in India’s own interest to support America if the latter supports democracy worldwide and caution it if it doesn’t.

  2. International relations ought to be based on common interests. Since India and America do not share strategic interests, their friendship can only be based on frankness.

  3. Selfless friendships are more enduring. India and America may not always have commonality of interests, but they must share ideological common ground and be mutually supportive on such shared values.

  4. Friendships based on mutual interest are longer-lasting. India and America do not share common interests. Yet India should support America where the latter is right.

  5. True friendship, based on mutual support and frankness, should define India’s relations with America.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The passage is concerned with the fact that friendship does not mean that the interests would be common, but ideologies do match. The idea has been expressed only in option (3). Options (2), (4) and (5) are contradicted in the passage as the only motive for friendship is values.

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