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GATE 2019 ME (ME2) – Question 8

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

While teaching a creative writing class in India, I was surprised at receiving stories from the students that were all set in distant places: in the American West with cowboys and in Manhattan highrises with clicking ice cubes. This was, till an eminent Caribbean writer gave the writers in the once-colonised countries the confidence to see the shabby lives around them as worthy of being “told”.

The writer is surprised by the creative writing assignments of his students because ______.

  1. Some of the students had written stories set in foreign places.
  2. None of the students had written stories set in India.
  3. None of the students had written about ice cubes and cowboys.
  4. Some of the students had written about ice cubes and cowboys.

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (B) None of the students had written stories set in India.

Explanation

The teacher emphasizes that all stories were set in distant places despite being written in India. The surprising absence is therefore that **none was set in India,B**. Saying merely that some were foreign loses the passage’s stronger observation about every submission.