GATE 2021 XH5 – Question 21
Read this account adapted from García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera. After seeing his beloved, Florentino Ariza loses his appetite and voice and cannot sleep. Waiting for her reply brings diarrhoea, green vomit, disorientation and fainting. His mother fears cholera. His godfather, an old homeopathic practitioner, is initially alarmed by his weak pulse, hoarse breathing and pale perspiration. Examination finds no fever or pain, only a wish to die. Questioning Florentino and his mother identifies love as the cause of symptoms resembling cholera. The practitioner suggests linden infusions, rest and a change of air; Florentino instead wishes to enjoy his suffering. Which implications follow?
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Correct answer: (C) The practitioner can distinguish love from cholera.; (D) Love and cholera have similar symptoms in this account.
Explanation
D follows from the deliberate resemblance of the symptoms. C follows because examination and questioning resolve the initial uncertainty in favour of lovesickness. B confuses initial alarm with the final conclusion, while A claims a cure the narrative never demonstrates. Therefore select C and D; the passage is literary, not evidence for a medical treatment.