Question Details

Read the passage given below
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. We weep at what exceeds our expectations in serious matters; we laugh at what disappoints our expectations in trifles. We shed tears from sympathy with real and necessary distress; as we burst into laughter from want of sympathy with that which is unreasonable and unnecessary. Tears are the natural and involuntary response of the mind overcome some sudden and violent emotions. Laughter is the same sort of convulsive and involuntary movement, occasioned by mere surprise or contrast. The serious is the stress which the mind lays upon the expectations of a given order of events and the weight attached to them. When this stress is increased beyond its usual intensity and strains the feelings by the violent opposition of good and bad, it becomes the tragic. The ludicrous is the unexpected relaxing of this stress below its usual intensity, by an abrupt transposition of ideas that the mind by surprise and startles it into lively sense of pleasure.


It can be inferred from the passage that the ludicrous is most nearly opposite to the

Options

A

Serious

B

Surprise

C

Pleasure

D

Unexpected

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option A

Serious

Solution :

The correct option is Serious.

To understand why this is the correct inference, let us analyze the definitions provided in the passage:
1. The passage defines the serious as: "the stress which the mind lays upon the expectations of a given order of events and the weight attached to them." When this stress is increased, it becomes the tragic.
2. The passage defines the ludicrous as: "the unexpected relaxing of this stress below its usual intensity, by an abrupt transposition of ideas..."

By comparing these two definitions, we can see that while the "serious" involves laying stress (and increasing it) on expectations, the "ludicrous" involves the "relaxing of this stress below its usual intensity." Therefore, the ludicrous is most nearly the opposite of the serious in the context of mental stress and expectation.

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