Question

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Here are a couple of generalizations about England that would be accepted by almost all observers. One is that the English are not gifted artistically. They are not as musical as the Germans or Italians. Painting and sculpture have never flourished in England as they have in France. Another is that as Europeans go, the English are not intellectual. They have a horror of abstract thought, they feel no need for any philosophy or systematic 'world-view'. Nor is this because they are 'practical', as they are so fond of claiming for themselves. One has only to look at their methods of town planning and water supply. Their obstinate clinging to everything that is out of date and a nuisance, a selling system that defies analysis and a system of weights and measures that is intelligible only to the compiler of arithmetic books, to see how little they care about mere efficiency. But they have a certain power of acting without taking thought. Their word-famed hypocrisy - their double-faced attitude towards the Empire, for instance - is bound up with this. Also, in moments of supreme crisis, the whole nation can suddenly draw together and act upon a species of instinct, really a code of conduct which is understood almost by everyone, though never formulated.

Mere efficiency has __________________.

• A. no value for them
• B. little importance
• C. importance
• D. none of the above

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

little importance

In the ninth sentence, the author asks the readers to refer to some of the systems of the English like their system of weights and measures, their selling system that has nothing to do with analysis and their affiliation to everything that is outdated in order to see that they care very little about mere efficiency. Thus, mere efficiency has little importance to the English according to the author. B is the correct choice.

We reject the other options.