Question

Instructions: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.

Passage (D. H. Lawrence, 1885-1930, from Apocalypse, 1931): “For man, the vast marvel is to be alive. For man as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive. Whatever the unborn and the dead may know, they cannot know the beauty, the marvel of being alive in the flesh. The dead may look after the afterwards. But the magnificent here and now of life in the flesh is ours, and ours alone, and ours only for a time. We ought to dance with rapture, that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos. I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea. My soul knows that I am part of the human race, my soul is an organic part of the great human soul, as my spirit is part of my nation. In my own very self, I am part of my family. There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters.”

By the last line, “It [has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of] waters”, the author means that the mind is only:

• A. a mirage
• B. an illusion
• C. magic
• D. a reflection

Hint:

Sunlight glittering on water is literally a reflection, not a trick of the eye or magic.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

The image used in the final line is very specific, “the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters”, so the best-matching option should describe exactly that kind of visual phenomenon.

1. A mirage: A mirage is a false image caused by heat and light bending, distinct from sunlight simply glinting off water; it implies something is not really there at all, which is stronger than the passage's image.
2. An illusion: Suggests something entirely false or deceptive, but sunlight glinting on water is a real, physical optical effect, not a trick of the mind.
3. Magic: Much too fanciful a word for the plain, natural image of light on water that the author uses.
4. A reflection: Sunlight glittering on water's surface is literally a reflection of the sun; the mind, in the same way, is described as a surface effect that depends entirely on something else (the sun) for its glitter, exactly the sense of “only a reflection”.

So the correct answer is option D, a reflection.