Question

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
The psychological causes of unhappiness, it is clear, are many and various. But all have something in common. The typical unhappy man is one who, having deprived in the youth of some normal satisfaction, has come to value this one ' kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to the activities connected with it. There is, however, a further development which is very common in the present day. A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and oblivion. He then becomes a devotee of "pleasure". This is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive. Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide-the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness.
Which one of the following is the correct statement? Drinking helps the unhappy only to _______.
(a) forget their dissatisfaction
(b) get sublime happiness
(c) get the motivational needs fulfilled
(d) concentrate harder

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given passage and try to understand the context of the given passage. Choose the option which can best express the action being described while keeping in mind to focus on the reason unhappy people drink alcohol.

Complete answer: In the context of the question, we know that unhappiness can be caused by many reasons but the one thing unhappy people have in common is dissatisfaction. An unhappy man is only able to forget his dissatisfaction and problems in the state of drunkenness.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘forget their dissatisfaction’ is the correct option because unhappy people drink to forget their discontentment and dissatisfaction.
Option b- ‘get sublime happiness’ is an incorrect option because unhappy people do not receive any happiness by drinking but they can forget their problems.
Option c- ‘get the motivational needs fulfilled’ is an incorrect option because drunkenness does not help in fulfilling motivational needs.
Option d- ‘concentrate harder’ is an incorrect option because the state of drunkenness makes a person lose concentration.
The correct answer is Option ‘a’.

Note: Always remember that passage-based questions should only be solved after a thorough reading of the passage. You can also underline the important points in the passage for reference.