Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?

Explore Courses UPSC Exam UPSC Test Series Free Notes EduRev Infinity

Open App

CAT Exam > CAT Questions > Direction: Read the passage given below and ...

Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.

There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’

Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?

a)
The fish are really stupid
b)
The fish did not like his music
c)
The fish were playing in the net
d)
All of the above
e)
None of these

Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?

Join for Free

Join for Free

Most Upvoted Answer

Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option...

Let's look at the following points

It is mentioned in the paragraph- he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’

The given line denotes that the fisherman called the fish stupid creatures because when he was playing his flute, they did not dance while they were dancing in the net when they were caught.

Hence, the correct option is (C).

Answered by Wizius Careers · View profile

View all answers Start learning for free

Explore Courses for CAT exam

Similar CAT Doubts

Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he play his flute?

View answer

Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’What is the meaning of the given phrase ‘One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped on a rock and began to play his time’ according to the context of the passage?

View answer

Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’With what could the fisherman succeed in catching fish?

View answer

Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’The fisherman had excellence in

View answer

DIRECTIONS for the question:Read the passage and answer the question based on it.The stylization underlying all existing writing systems is at the root of orthography, which literally means "drawing right" As long as writing was based on drawing a recognizable picture, its exact shape could vary. Once written symbols became a matter of convention, there was only a single way to spell them properly, or a single "orthography".A second factor that drew writing away from pictography was the problem of drawing pictures of abstract ideas. No picture could possibly depict freedom, master and slave, victory, or god. Frequently, an association of ideas did the trick. In cuneiform writing, a divinity was a star; the profile of a face with the mouth touching a bowl meant a ration of food. Unfortunately, clever as they were, these conventions only meant anything to the trained eye --the direct connection from picture to meaning was lost.Another trick consisted of exploiting the similarity between certain sounds to draw what were essentially visual puns. This is known by historians as the rebus principle. It involves the use of a pictogram to represent a syllabic sound. This procedure converts pictograms into phonograms. This kind of transcription of meaning progressively gave way to writing sounds. With the rebus principle, the Sumerians and the Egyptians gradually created an array of symbols that could transcribe any speech sound in their languages.The Egyptians and the Sumerians thus came very close to the alphabetic principle, but neither managed to extract this gem from their overblown writing systems. The rebus strategy would have allowed them to write a word or sentence with a compact set of phonetic signs, but they continued to supplement them with a vast array of pictograms. This unfortunate mixture of two systems, one primarily based on sound, the other on meaning, created considerable ambiguity.With the wisdom of hindsight, it is clear that the scribes could have simplified their system vastly by choosing to stick to speech sounds alone. Unfortunately, cultural evolution suffers from inertia and does not make rational decisions. Consequently, both the Egyptians and the Sumerians simply followed the natural slope of increasing complexity. Cuneiform notation added "determinative" ideograms to clarify the concept of the accompanying signs. Each marked the semantic categories of words: city, man, stone, wood, God, and so on. For instance, the character for "plow: accompanied by the determinative "wood; meant the agricultural tool. Determinatives also helped specify the meanings of words written in syllabic notation -a useful trick since any given syllable often corresponded to several homophone words (much like "one" and "won").Why do mixed writing systems appear to constitute such a stable attractor for societies throughout the world? The reason for this probably lies at the crossroads of multiple constraints: the way our memory is structured, how language is organized, and the availability of certain brain connections. Our memory is poorly equipped for purely pictographic or logographic script, where each word has its own symbol. The mere notation of sounds would be equally unsatisfactory. Reading would be comparable to decoding a rebus-it wood bee two in knee fish hunt. A mixed system using fragments of both sound and meaning appears to be the best solution.Excerpted from ‘Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene Page 184-193Q. From its inception in Mesopotamia, the "virus" of writing spread quickly to the surrounding cultures. The epidemic, however, remained confined, in all societies, to a small group of specialists. The complexity of this invention curbed its capacity to spread. Even in present-day China, scholars must learn several thousand signs. As recently as the 1950s, the rate of illiteracy in the adult Chinese population was close to 80 percent-before _________ and massive investment in education brought this figure down to about 10 percent.

View answer

Top Courses for CATView all

Quantitative Aptitude (Quant)

Verbal Ability (VA) & Reading Comprehension (RC)

Logical Reasoning (LR) and Data Interpretation (DI)

Crash Course for CAT

CAT Mock Test Series 2025

Top Courses for CAT

View all

Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?

Share with a Friend

Answer this doubt

Question Description
Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? for CAT 2025 is part of CAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the CAT exam syllabus. Information about Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for CAT 2025 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?.

Solutions for Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? in English & in Hindi are available as part of our courses for CAT. Download more important topics, notes, lectures and mock test series for CAT Exam by signing up for free.

Here you can find the meaning of Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? defined & explained in the simplest way possible. Besides giving the explanation of Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?, a detailed solution for Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? has been provided alongside types of Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice Direction: Read the passage given below and choose the correct option to answer the question that follows.There was once a fisherman who was also an excellent flute player. One day he took his flute and a fish basket, jumped up on a rock, and began to play his time. He was convinced that the fish would be enchanted by his music and leap into his basket willingly. Unfortunately, he did not catch a single fish. So he went home, brought his net, and threw it into the water. He caught so many fish that his basket overflowed. ‘Stupid creatures!’ he exclaimed, as he watched the fish twist and jump into his net.’ You did not dance when I played my flute, but when I am not playing, you can’t stop dancing!’Why did he call the fish ‘stupid creatures’?a)The fish are really stupidb)The fish did not like his musicc)The fish were playing in the netd)All of the abovee)None of theseCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? tests, examples and also practice CAT tests.

Explore Courses for CAT exam