Question

Which option appropriately summarises the following.
Harry had a long day at work and was very tired at the end of the day. Because of his exhaustion, he became ill the next day.
A) Being exhausted after a long day of work, Harry became ill.
B) Harry became ill after working all due to exhaustion.
C) Exhausted from a long day of work, Harry fell sick.
D) Harry had a long day at work and hence, became ill from exhaustion the following day.

Answer 1

Hint: In the given question we have to select one option from the given options which briefs the main idea of the given sentence in a grammatically correct manner.
Meaning of the difficult word: Exhaustion - Extreme tiredness; physical or mental fatigue or both.

Complete answer:
Let us first try to understand what is the main idea in the given sentence or main information which must not be missed in the summary.
- The subject of the sentence ‘Harry’.
- Reason for tiredness.
- What happened due to tiredness?
These 3 points must be included in a sentence that appropriately summarises the given sentence. The sentence must not be very long. It must be modestly small in comparison to the given sentence.

Option A) It is an incorrect answer. It includes the information regarding the subject however, if being is used at the beginning of the sentence it must be followed by a noun/adjective/ prepositional phase i.e. it must function as a gerund. Being is not functioning as a gerund so the sentence is not grammatically correct.
Option B) It is an incorrect answer. The sentence is unclear.
Option C) It is the correct answer. It includes all the required information regarding the subject as well as the reason for tiredness. It maintains the brevity and thus it is correct.
Option D) It is an incorrect answer. Summarising is not about rewriting the sentence in our own words, instead, it implies writing in a manner that conveys the main idea while maintaining brevity. This sentence is very long.

Therefore the correct answer is option C. It includes all the 3 necessary conditions as well as maintains brevity.

Note: While writing a summary we should remember that we cannot include any additional information from our side which is absent in the given sentence/paragraph/ writing. Also, the important points must be clearly linked in the summary.