Multiple choice

Directions: In the following passage, the opening statement has been deleted. Which of the statements given below the passage, should precede the passage?

Most salesmen under the intoxication of their own exuberance seem to believe in what they say. Most experts whose expertise is only a pretentious sham behave as if they had been solemnly inducted into some kind of priesthood. Very few demagogues are so cynical as to remain undeceived by their own rhetoric, and some of the worst tyrants in history have been fatally sincere. We can leave the disentanglement of motives to the students of fraud and error, but we cannot afford to be taken in by the shams.

  1. Fraud is not the exclusive domain of the demagogues. It could well be an impostor.

  2. It does not matter whether the impostor is a deliberate liar or not. Some are, but the commonest enemies of mankind are the unconscious frauds.

  3. Why is it that people pretend to be sincere, when they are not? Why do they expect others to do their bidding without even applying their own mind?

  4. The world around us is rhetorical, rather than being logical. People hardly practice what they say.

  5. Some of the worst damages have been perpetrated by the people with the best intentions.
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B Correct answer
Explanation

The passage revolves around involuntary acts that result in shams. Statement (2) goes in the same line as it says; the commonest enemies are the unconscious frauds. This is a befitting answer.

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