Question

Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

Although Louis Braille died when he was only forty-three years old, he succeeded in devising a system of reading and writing for the blind which is now taught all over the world. Braille lost his sight in an accident as a child. Nevertheless, he was able to complete his education at a school for the blind in Paris and became a teacher. In his day, the few books that were available for blind people were printed in big, raised type; the letters used were those of the ordinary alphabet. The reading of such books required an immense effort. Not only that, the writing was almost impossible, for a blind person was still restricted to an alphabet which was extraordinarily difficult to reproduce on paper. Braille's idea was to use raised dots, instead of raised letters. He evolved a system, which made use of only six dots in all. By various combinations of these dots, it not only proved possible to represent each letter of the alphabet but punctuation marks, numbers and musical notation as well. Reading and writing for the blind have thus become enormously simplified. The sensitive fingers of a blind person can travel rapidly over the dots; and there is a small machine, something like a typewriter, which enables the blind to write quickly and clearly.

Braille's System allows the blind ______.
A) to write with
B) to read easily
C) to read as well as write with ease
D) to read easily but to write with great effort

Answer 1

Hint: The passage should be searched for the keyword ‘system’. The given incomplete sentence is not an exact sentence from the passage but a paraphrased sentence of the passage’s meaning.

Complete step-by-step answer:

From the hint given to us, we know that passage should be searched for the keyword ‘system’. We also know that the given incomplete sentence is not an exact sentence from the passage but a paraphrased sentence of the passage’s meaning. We shall be looking for the keyword, ‘system’, first.
“He evolved a system, which made use of only six dots in all. By various combinations of these dots, it not only proved possible to represent each letter of the alphabet but punctuation marks, numbers and musical notation as well. Reading and writing for the blind have thus become enormously simplified. The sensitive fingers of a blind person can travel rapidly over the dots; and there is a small machine, something like a typewriter, which enables the blind to write quickly and clearly.”
After having found our keyword which we have underlined and marked with italics, we must read the following sentence in order to understand how it benefited the blind.
“Reading and writing for the blind have thus become enormously simplified.”
We read that the ‘system’ made reading and writing ‘simplified’ for the blind. Simplified also means easy.

We observe that option C is the closest in meaning to the given sentence in the passage. Hence, we can conclude that option C is the correct answer.

Note: It is to be noted that the passage is read thoroughly while looking for the keyword. It helps us understand the context and hidden meanings related to the passage.