2021 CSAT — Q73

Locate. This is a locate-the-detail question: retrieve the line about “the most truthful people”: “their use of words contains some measure of falsehood, more or less deliberate” — i.e., even good people mix a little falsehood into their true speech (semantic lies).

Test (qualifier-match). The habit is a mixing of true and false, and the intent is hedged (“more or less deliberate”), the amount partial (“some measure”). The option must preserve those hedges. (a) “mixing up the true and false” matches the mixing and stays neutral on degree and intent.

Eliminate by anatomy. (b) flips the passage’s level of certainty — “intentional mixing” hardens “more or less deliberate” into full intent. (c) is too strong for what the passage says — “falsification of facts” overstates “some measure of falsehood” into outright fact-fabrication. (d) is too strong for what the passage says — “complete concealment of truth” contradicts “some measure” (it is partial, not complete). The transferable rule: on a locate-the-detail question, pick the option that keeps the passage’s qualifiers (“some,” “more or less”); reject those that strengthen them. Key: (a).

“Even the most truthful people probably tell a good many more lies that might be regarded as semantic lies; their use of words contains some measure of falsehood, more or less deliberate.” — the habit ascribed to truthful (“good”) people is a mixing of some falsehood into true speech (semantic lies), with intent only “more or less” → (a) “mixing up the true and false,” which keeps the passage’s hedge. (b) hardens “more or less deliberate” into fully “intentional”; (c) “falsification of facts” and (d) “complete concealment” overstate “some measure of falsehood.”

The passage says even the most truthful people tell “semantic lies” — their words carry “some measure of falsehood, more or less deliberate.” So the habit found in good people is a partial, only-loosely- intentional mixing of true and false.

• (a) “mixing up the true and false” matches that, preserving the hedges. Correct.
• (b) over-strengthens intent to “intentional.”
• (c) over-strengthens to outright “falsification of facts.”
• (d) over-strengthens to “complete concealment,” against “some measure.”

Answer: (a).

This detail-locate is decided entirely on qualifier strength. The passage carefully hedges — “some measure of falsehood,” “more or less deliberate” — and three distractors each strip a hedge: (b) hardens the intent, (c) and (d) harden the extent. (a) is the only option that keeps the passage’s measured tone. Worth noting (a close call): (a) vs (b) is a genuinely close read — “more or less deliberate” does carry partial intent, so (b)‘s “intentional” is tempting. The decisive point is the hedge: the passage says “more or less deliberate,” so (a)‘s degree-neutral “mixing up the true and false” preserves the qualifier while (b) hardens it to full intent. The clean eliminations are (c) and (d), which plainly overshoot “some measure.”