Verbal Ability – Summary – The dominant hypotheses in modern

Slot – 3 – VA

Q. The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

The dominant hypotheses in modern science believe that language evolved to allow humans to exchange factual information about the physical world. But an alternative view is that language evolved, in modern humans at least, to facilitate social bonding. It increased our ancestors’ chances of survival by enabling them to hunt more successfully or to cooperate more extensively. Language meant that things could be explained and that plans and past experiences could be shared efficiently.

1. Since its origin, language has been continuously evolving to higher forms, from being used to identify objects to ensuring human survival by enabling our ancestors to bond and cooperate.
2. From the belief that humans invented language to process factual information, scholars now think that language was the outcome of the need to ensure social cohesion and thus human survival.
3. Experts are challenging the narrow view of the origin of language, as being merely used to describe facts and label objects, to being necessary to promote more complex interactions among humans.
4. Most believe that language originated from a need to articulate facts, but others think it emerged from the need to promote social cohesion and cooperation, thus enabling human survival.

Answer: 4
Solutions:
Option 1 distorts the meaning of the passage. Language did not evolve to higher forms but rather there are two alternative theories about why language evolved among humans.
Option 2 implies that scholars had one view of language earlier and now have another view of it. In actual fact there are two alternative views.
Option 3 misses out on the alternative view of why language evolved among humans – to ensure social cohesion so as to enable them to survive.
Option 4 summarizes the passage correctly. The dominant view (“most”) and the alternative view have both been explained.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.

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