Directions : Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow (Q. Nos. 129 to 135) by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.
1. There is something we all want to do, although few of us readily admit it : Get rid of guests.
2. For nine months in the year, only my closest friends come to see me. Then, when temperatures start soaring in the plains, long-lost acquaintances suddenly remember that I exist, and people whom I am barely able to recognize appear at the front door, willing to have me put them up for periods ranging from six days to six weeks.
3. Occasionally, I am the master of the situation I inform them that the cottage is already bursting, that people are sleeping on the floor. If the hopefuls start looking around for signs of these uncomfortable guests, I remark that they have all gone out for a picnic.
4. The other day I received visitors who proved to be more thick-skinned than most. The man was a friend of a friend of an acquaintance of mine. I had never seen him before. But on the strength of this distant relationship, he had brought his family along.
5. I tried the usual ploy but it didn’t work. The man and his family were perfectly willing to share the floor with any others who might be staying with me.
6. So I made my next move. ‘I must warn you about the scorpions’, I said. The scorpion-scare is effective with most people. But I was dealing with professionals. The man set his son rolling up the carpet. ‘Sometimes centipedes fall from the ceiling’, I said desperately.
7. We were now interrupted by someone knocking on the front door. It was the postman with a rejected manuscript, his arrival inspired me to greater inventiveness.
8. ‘I’m terribly sorry’, I said, staring hard at a rejection slip. ‘I’m afraid I have to leave immediately. A paper wants me to interview the Maharishi. I hope you won’t mind. Would you like the name of a good hotel ?’
9. ‘Oh, don’t worry about us’, said the woman expansively. ‘We’ll look after the house while you are away.’
Which one of the following ploys does the author not use to get rid of unwanted guests ?
Correct Answer :
There is acute water scarcity.
Solution :
Correct Answer: There is acute water scarcity.
Explanation:
To determine which ploy the author does not use to get rid of unwanted guests, let us analyze the passage step-by-step:
1. He has already too many guests: In paragraph 3, the author states, "I inform them that the cottage is already bursting, that people are sleeping on the floor." Thus, this ploy is used.
2. The place is infested with scorpions: In paragraph 6, the author states, "‘I must warn you about the scorpions’, I said." Thus, this ploy is used.
3. Centipedes fall from the ceiling: In paragraph 6, the author states, "‘Sometimes centipedes fall from the ceiling’, I said desperately." Thus, this ploy is used.
4. There is acute water scarcity: Nowhere in the passage does the author mention water scarcity or use it as a ploy to drive guests away.
Therefore, the ploy not used by the author is "There is acute water scarcity."
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