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Question is based on the following passage.
This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.
My emotions are complicated and not
readily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that is
simultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certain
of the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t
5 know yet what form it will take, since I do not
understand quite what it is that the yearning desires.
For the first time there is borne in upon me the full
truth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hour
ago: that my motives in this undertaking are not
10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machinery
of my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for this
moment; its clockwork has moved exactly toward
this time and place and no other. Rising slowly from
the earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am
15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,
or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered with
the bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozen
supply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingers
and hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.
20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many have
died. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosing
this moment and no other when the south wind
will carry me exactly northward at a velocity of
eight knots, I have converted the machinery of my
25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,
as I understand each detail of the technique by which
this is carried out. What I don’t understand is why I
am so intent on going to this particular place. Who
wants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat
30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö like
a railway? The Danish ministers have declared from
their pulpits that participation in polar expeditions is
beneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I read
in a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to
35 be interpreted, except that the Pole is something
difficult or impossible to attain which must
nevertheless be sought for, because man is
condemned to seek out and know everything
whether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In
40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledge
that drove our First Parents out of the garden.
And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, this
wonderful place that everybody is so anxious to stand
on! What would you find? Exactly nothing.
45 A point precisely identical to all the others in a
completely featureless wasteland stretching around it
for hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, a
mathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madman
could take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The
50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadily
northward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,
perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with their
teacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth of
my own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and
55 poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.
What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is not
an ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. The
doctor was right, even though I dislike him.
Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what
60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and a
surrender to it.
readily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that is
simultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certain
of the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t
5 know yet what form it will take, since I do not
understand quite what it is that the yearning desires.
For the first time there is borne in upon me the full
truth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hour
ago: that my motives in this undertaking are not
10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machinery
of my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for this
moment; its clockwork has moved exactly toward
this time and place and no other. Rising slowly from
the earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am
15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,
or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered with
the bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozen
supply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingers
and hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.
20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many have
died. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosing
this moment and no other when the south wind
will carry me exactly northward at a velocity of
eight knots, I have converted the machinery of my
25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,
as I understand each detail of the technique by which
this is carried out. What I don’t understand is why I
am so intent on going to this particular place. Who
wants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat
30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö like
a railway? The Danish ministers have declared from
their pulpits that participation in polar expeditions is
beneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I read
in a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to
35 be interpreted, except that the Pole is something
difficult or impossible to attain which must
nevertheless be sought for, because man is
condemned to seek out and know everything
whether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In
40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledge
that drove our First Parents out of the garden.
And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, this
wonderful place that everybody is so anxious to stand
on! What would you find? Exactly nothing.
45 A point precisely identical to all the others in a
completely featureless wasteland stretching around it
for hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, a
mathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madman
could take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The
50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadily
northward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,
perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with their
teacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth of
my own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and
55 poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.
What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is not
an ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. The
doctor was right, even though I dislike him.
Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what
60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and a
surrender to it.
Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts from
- a)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.
- b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.
- c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.
- d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.
Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?
Most Upvoted Answer
Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted fro...
Choice C is the best answer. The narrator initially expresses uncertainty, or uneasiness, over his decision to set out for the North Pole: “my motives in this undertaking are not entirely clear” (lines 9-10). At the end of the passage, the narrator recognizes that because of this journey he is “on the brink of knowing . . . not an ethereal mathematical spot,” the North Pole, but himself (lines 56-57). Choices A, B, and D are incorrect because the narrator does not suggest that he fears going on the expedition, doubts his own abilities, or feels disdain for the North Pole.
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Community Answer
Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted fro...
Understanding the Narrator's Shift in Attitude
The passage illustrates a significant shift in the narrator's attitude toward his expedition to the North Pole. Initially, he expresses feelings of uncertainty and confusion regarding his motives for undertaking such a perilous journey.
Initial Uncertainty
- The narrator admits to a "vast yearning" but struggles to understand what it desires.
- He reflects on his unclear motives, stating that they are "not entirely clear."
- Questions arise about the worthiness of the North Pole: "What good is it! Can you eat it?"
Recognition of Motives
- As the journey progresses, he begins to confront the essence of his yearning.
- He acknowledges that this expedition is a culmination of his life's preparation, revealing a sense of destiny.
- He ultimately recognizes that the quest is more about self-discovery than the destination itself: "What I am on the brink of knowing... is not an ephemeral mathematical spot but myself."
Conclusion
- The narrator's initial disdain and skepticism transform into a deeper understanding of his motivations.
- By the end, he acknowledges that his journey is a reflection of his inner self, realizing he is driven by a complex mix of egotism and surrender.
This evolution from uncertainty about his motives to a profound recognition of them aligns perfectly with option 'C': "uncertainty of his motives to recognition of them." The passage captures the complexity of human motivation and the journey toward self-awareness.
The passage illustrates a significant shift in the narrator's attitude toward his expedition to the North Pole. Initially, he expresses feelings of uncertainty and confusion regarding his motives for undertaking such a perilous journey.
Initial Uncertainty
- The narrator admits to a "vast yearning" but struggles to understand what it desires.
- He reflects on his unclear motives, stating that they are "not entirely clear."
- Questions arise about the worthiness of the North Pole: "What good is it! Can you eat it?"
Recognition of Motives
- As the journey progresses, he begins to confront the essence of his yearning.
- He acknowledges that this expedition is a culmination of his life's preparation, revealing a sense of destiny.
- He ultimately recognizes that the quest is more about self-discovery than the destination itself: "What I am on the brink of knowing... is not an ephemeral mathematical spot but myself."
Conclusion
- The narrator's initial disdain and skepticism transform into a deeper understanding of his motivations.
- By the end, he acknowledges that his journey is a reflection of his inner self, realizing he is driven by a complex mix of egotism and surrender.
This evolution from uncertainty about his motives to a profound recognition of them aligns perfectly with option 'C': "uncertainty of his motives to recognition of them." The passage captures the complexity of human motivation and the journey toward self-awareness.
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Question Description
Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? for SAT 2026 is part of SAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the SAT exam syllabus. Information about Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for SAT 2026 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?.
Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? for SAT 2026 is part of SAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the SAT exam syllabus. Information about Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for SAT 2026 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?.
Solutions for Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? in English & in Hindi are available as part of our courses for SAT. Download more important topics, notes, lectures and mock test series for SAT Exam by signing up for free.
Here you can find the meaning of Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? defined & explained in the simplest way possible. Besides giving the explanation of Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?, a detailed solution for Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? has been provided alongside types of Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice Question is based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris, The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney. During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, afictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen powered balloon.My emotions are complicated and notreadily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that issimultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certainof the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t5 know yet what form it will take, since I do notunderstand quite what it is that the yearning desires.For the first time there is borne in upon me the fulltruth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hourago: that my motives in this undertaking are not10 entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machineryof my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for thismoment; its clockwork has moved exactly towardthis time and place and no other. Rising slowly fromthe earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am15 carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered withthe bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozensupply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingersand hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.20 Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many havedied. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosingthis moment and no other when the south windwill carry me exactly northward at a velocity ofeight knots, I have converted the machinery of my25 fate into the servant of my will. All this I understand,as I understand each detail of the technique by whichthis is carried out. What I don’t understand is why Iam so intent on going to this particular place. Whowants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat30 it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö likea railway? The Danish ministers have declared fromtheir pulpits that participation in polar expeditions isbeneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I readin a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to35be interpreted, except that the Pole is somethingdifficult or impossible to attain which mustnevertheless be sought for, because man iscondemned to seek out and know everythingwhether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In40 short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledgethat drove our First Parents out of the garden.And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, thiswonderful place that everybody is so anxious to standon! What would you find? Exactly nothing.45A point precisely identical to all the others in acompletely featureless wasteland stretching around itfor hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, amathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madmancould take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The50 wind is still from the south, bearing us steadilynorthward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with theirteacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth ofmy own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and55poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is notan ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. Thedoctor was right, even though I dislike him.Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what60 I do is both a challenge to my egotism and asurrender to it.Q. Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitudeshifts froma)fear about the expedition to excitement about it.b)doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.c)uncertainty of his motives to recognition ofthem.d)disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.Correct answer is option 'C'. 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