In this section, you have short passages. After each passage, you will find some items based on the passage. Read the passage carefully and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based solely on the contents of the passage and the opinion of the author.
Passage:
In good many cases unnecessary timidity makes the trouble worse than it needs to be. Public opinion is always more tyrannical towards those who obviously fear it than towards those who feel indifferent to it. A dog will bark more loudly and bite more easily when people are afraid of it than when they treat him with contempt, and the human herd has something of this same characteristic. If you show that you are afraid of them, you give promise of good hunting, whereas if you show indifference, they begin to doubt their own power and, therefore, tend to let you alone.
If we are afraid of public opinion, the attitude of the people towards us is
- Asympathetic
- Bindifferent
- Cadmiration
- Druthless
Explanation
The passage says public opinion is more tyrannical toward those who obviously fear it, like a dog that barks louder at the frightened. Showing fear invites aggression, not sympathy or indifference. The author’s point is that fear emboldens the crowd. Hence option (d), ruthless, is correct.