Question:

From the given options, choose the sentence that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Most people at their first consultation take a furtive look at the surgeon’s hands in the hope of reassurance. Prospective patients look for delicacy, sensitivity, steadiness, perhaps unblemished pallor. On this basis, Henry Perowne loses a number of cases each year. Generally, he knows it’s about to happen before the patient does: the downward glance repeated, the prepared questions beginning to falter, the overemphatic thanks during the retreat to the door.

Show Hint

Look at what the paragraph has just described (patients who judge the hands and walk away) and find the sentence that naturally continues about patients.
Updated On: Nov 4, 2026
  • Other people do not communicate due to their poor observation.
  • These hands are steady enough, but they are large
  • But Perowne himself is not concerned.’
  • But others will take their place, he thought.
  • Other patients don’t like what they see but are ignorant of their right to go elsewhere.
Show Solution
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The Correct Option is

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: Find the theme:
The paragraph is about patients judging the surgeon by the look of his hands. Henry Perowne loses some patients because of this, and he can tell it is going to happen from their glances, faltering questions and hurried thanks.

Step 2: Test the options:
(1) "Other people do not communicate due to their poor observation." - Unrelated; the paragraph is about patients who observe the hands closely, not people who fail to communicate.
(5) "Other patients don’t like what they see but are ignorant of their right to go elsewhere." - Fits. It continues the same topic by contrasting with those who leave: some patients are put off by the hands but do not know they can go elsewhere, so they stay.
(3) "But Perowne himself is not concerned.’" - The opening 'But' has nothing to contrast with, and the stray closing quote mark shows it is not a proper continuation of the narration.
(4) "But others will take their place, he thought." - Shifts to Perowne's thoughts about replacement patients and brings in a new idea ('their place') that the paragraph has not prepared.
(2) "These hands are steady enough, but they are large" - Moves to describing the hands themselves, a new point which would need a link sentence before it; it does not complete the idea of patients' reactions.

Step 3: Conclude:
Option (5) keeps the focus on patients' reactions and rounds off the paragraph smoothly.

Final Answer:
The correct option is (5): Other patients don’t like what they see but are ignorant of their right to go elsewhere.
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