Vocabulary Based Questions - 4 | English for CLAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Tellson's Bank by Temple Bar was an old-fashioned place, even in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty. It was very small, very dark, very ugly, very incommodious. It was an old-fashioned place, moreover, in the moral attribute that the partners in the House were proud of its smallness, proud of its darkness, proud of its ugliness, proud of its incommodiousness.
They were even boastful of its eminence in those particulars, and were fired by an express conviction that, if it were less objectionable, it would be less respectable. This was no passive belief, but an active weapon which they flashed at more convenient places of business. Tellson's (they said) wanted no elbow-room, Tellson's wanted no light, Tellson's wanted no embellishment. Noakes and Co.'s might, or Snooks Brothers' might; but Tellson's, thank Heaven! Any one of these partners would have disinherited his son on the question of rebuilding Tellson's.
In this respect the House was much on a par with the Country; which did very often disinherit its sons for suggesting improvements in laws and customs that had long been highly objectionable, but were only the more respectable. Thus it had come to pass, that Tellson's was the triumphant perfection of inconvenience. After bursting open a door of idiotic obstinacy with a weak rattle in its throat, you fell into Tellson's down two steps, and came to your senses in a miserable little shop, with two little counters, where the oldest of men made your cheque shake as if the wind rustled it, while they examined the signature by the dingiest of windows, which were always under a shower-bath of mud from Fleet-street, and which were made the dingier by their own iron bars proper, and the heavy shadow of Temple Bar.
If your business necessitated your seeing "the House," you were put into a species of Condemned Hold at the back, where you meditated on a misspent life, until the House came with its bands in its pockets, and you could hardly blink at it in the dismal twilight. Your money came out of, or went into, wormy old wooden drawers, particles of which flew up your nose and down your throat when they were opened and shut.Your bank-notes had a musty odour, as if they were fast decomposing into rags again. Your plate was stowed away among the neighbouring cesspools, and evil communications corrupted its good polish in a day or two. Your deeds got into extemporised strong-rooms made of kitchens and sculleries, and fretted all the fat out of their parchments into the banking-house air.
Your lighter boxes of family papers went up-stairs into a Barmecide room, that always had a great dining-table in it and never had a dinner, and where, even in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty, the first letters written to you by your old love, or by your little children, were but newly released from the horror of being ogled through the windows, by the heads exposed on Temple Bar with an insensate brutality and ferocity worthy of Abyssinia or Ashantee.
[Extract from A tale of two cities from Charles Dickens]
Q1: Choose the word that best replaces the phrase "bursting open a door of idiotic obstinacy" while maintaining the context:
(a) Smashing
(b) Thwarting
(c) Prying
(d) Forcing
Ans: (d)
Sol: The phrase "bursting open a door of idiotic obstinacy" implies forcefully opening a door that seems unyielding or stubborn. The word "forcing" is the most appropriate synonym as it conveys the sense of overcoming resistance, similar to the original phrase.

Q2: What does the phrase "in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty" exemplify?
(a) Hyperbole
(b) Metaphor
(c) Archaism
(d) Personification
Ans: (c)
Sol: The phrase "in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty" is an example of an archaism. It refers to the year 1780 in a very formal and old-fashioned way, typical of the language style of earlier centuries.

Q3: Which of the following words is an antonym of 'dingy' as used in the context of the paragraph?
(a) Gloomy
(b) Bright
(c) Dull
(d) Shabby
Ans: (b)
Sol: In the paragraph, 'dingy' describes windows that are not clean or bright. Thus, the antonym would be 'bright', which means shining, light, and clear, the opposite of dull or dirty.

Q4: Identify the analogy in the statement: "Your deeds got into extemporised strong-rooms made of kitchens and sculleries."
(a) Deeds : Strong-rooms :: Valuables : Safes
(b) Kitchens : Sculleries :: Dining : Cooking
(c) Extemporised : Planned :: Impromptu : Prearranged
(d) Deeds : Papers :: Strong-rooms : Rooms
Ans: (a)
Sol: This analogy draws a parallel between deeds being kept in strong-rooms and valuables being kept in safes. Both pairs illustrate items of importance or value being stored in secure places.

Q5: What does the term 'Barmecide room' in the context imply?
(a) A room filled with treasures.
(b) A spacious and luxurious room.
(c) A deceptive or illusory room.
(d) A room used for storage.
Ans: (c)
Sol: 'Barmecide' refers to something that promises abundance but is actually illusory or nonexistent, originating from the story of the Barmecide feast in "The Arabian Nights," where a beggar is invited to a pretend feast with no real food. Thus, a 'Barmecide room' suggests a room that seems to offer something substantial but is actually empty or deceptive.