2022 CSAT — Q53

Locate. This asks for the author’s view: find the line the author is committed against, not a stance the reader supplies. The passage admires children, who “do not look too forward nor too far backward,” and laments adults: “Perhaps we are too cautious, too anxious, too sceptical. Perhaps some of our cares would shrink if we thought less about them and entered with more single-minded enjoyment into the happiness that come our way.”

Test (commitment test). The author’s clear target is excessive anxious dwelling on past and future — over-caution, over-worry. (a) “worrying too much about the past and future” matches the child’s not-too-forward/not-too-backward contrast and the “too anxious” lament. Test the rest: (b) “thinking about presents” misreads ‘presents’ (gifts) as a habit the author opposes — he doesn’t; (c) “not being thrilled by new things” reverses the author (he is sympathetic, not condemning); (d) “giving and receiving joy only partially” is not what he is against.

Eliminate by anatomy. (b) misreads the passage — it confuses gift-giving with a worry habit. (c) gets the direction backwards — it opposes what the author actually sympathises with. (d) sounds reasonable, but is unsupported. The transferable rule: the author’s “against” is signposted by the qualities he names with disapproval — “too cautious, too anxious, too sceptical.” Key: (a).

“…they do not look too forward nor too far backward… Perhaps we are too cautious, too anxious, too sceptical. Perhaps some of our cares would shrink if we thought less about them and entered with more single-minded enjoyment into the happiness that come our way.” — the author commits AGAINST excessive anxious dwelling on past and future, praising the child’s not-too-forward/not-too-backward outlook. (a) “worrying too much about the past and future” matches. (b) “thinking about presents” misreads ‘presents’ (gifts) as a target; (c) reverses the author; (d) is not what he opposes → (a).

The author contrasts children’s single-minded joy with adults’ anxiety and over-thinking, and wishes adults would worry less about past and future and enjoy the present.

• (a) “worrying too much about the past and future” is precisely what he opposes. Correct.
• (b) misreads ‘presents’ (gifts) as a habit of thought.
• (c) reverses the author’s sympathy into condemnation.
• (d) is not a target of the passage.

Answer: (a).

Two reading moves crack this. First, the author’s disapproval is explicitly worded — “too cautious, too anxious, too sceptical” and the child’s “not too forward nor too far backward” — pointing straight at over-worry about past and future (a). Second, refuse the lexical bait in (b): ‘presents’ here means gifts, not the present moment; the option reuses the word to manufacture a target the author never attacks. (a).