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NDA 1 2025 GAT, question 3

Topic: Reading comprehension

Directions · Q1 to Q5

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct option from the given options, based solely on the passage. Mark your answer on the Answer Sheet accordingly.

Passage · Q1 to Q5

An attempt to determine the number of languages in the world is affected by other factors. A few new languages do continue to be discovered, even these days, as unexplored regions of the world begin to be opened up. The discovery does not usually take place straight away. Often there are similarities with an already known language which make the investigators assume that what they have found is just a dialect of that language. Only after a considerable period of contact does it transpire that the speech is so different that it has to be considered a different language. It takes a language survey to establish the facts, and there are still many countries where such surveys are incomplete or have not even begun. The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be. Because many such peoples are bilingual or multilingual, and converse with outsiders in lingua franca, it may take a while before linguists come to realize that there is an ethnic language there at all.

Q3

Which one of the following statements is correct?

  1. (a) Language surveys have been conducted by all nations
  2. (b) There is hardly any language to be discovered in the world
  3. (c) All the languages are either complete languages or dialects of other major languagesCorrect answer
  4. (d) No new language needs to be discovered since all languages are known to the world

Solution.

Answer: (c) All the languages are either complete languages or dialects of other major languages

  1. (a) is false: the passage says surveys in many countries are incomplete or have not even begun.
  2. (b) and (d) are false: the passage says new languages continue to be discovered.
  3. (c) matches the passage's picture of speech being treated either as a dialect of a known language or as a separate language, so it is the only option left.

Trap: (c) is chosen by elimination; the passage never states it in these exact words, so rule out the three options that the passage contradicts.