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GATE 2025 CE (CE2) – Question 6

General Aptitude · Verbal Aptitude: Grammar and Vocabulary · 2 marks · Multiple choice

"His life was divided between the books, his friends, and long walks. A solitary man, he worked at all hours without much method, and probably courted his fatal illness in this way. To his own name there is not much to show; but such was his liberality that he was continually helping others, and fruits of his erudition are widely scattered, and have gone to increase many a comparative stranger's reputation."
(From E.V. Lucas's "A Funeral")

Based only on the information provided in the above passage, which one of the following statements is true?

  1. The solitary man described in the passage is dead.
  2. Strangers helped create a grand reputation for the solitary man described in the passage.
  3. The solitary man described in the passage found joy in scattering fruits.
  4. The solitary man worked in a court where he fell ill.

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Correct answer: (A) The solitary man described in the passage is dead.

Explanation

The passage speaks of his "fatal illness" and of what he left behind ("to his own name there is not much to show"), so the man has died. The strangers' reputations were increased by his work, not the other way round. "Fruits" is a figure for his learning, and "courted" means that he invited the illness, not that he worked in a court.