Question

Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

Although Louis Braille died when he was only forty-three years old, he succeeded in devising a system of reading and writing for the blind which is now taught all over the world. Braille lost his sight in an accident as a child. Nevertheless, he was able to complete his education at a school for the blind in Paris and became a teacher. In his day, the few books that were available for blind people were printed in big, raised type; the letters used were those of the ordinary alphabet. The reading of such books required an immense effort. Not only that, the writing was almost impossible, for a blind person was still restricted to an alphabet which was extraordinarily difficult to reproduce on paper. Braille's idea was to use raised dots, instead of raised letters. He evolved a system, which made use of only six dots in all. By various combinations of these dots, it not only proved possible to represent each letter of the alphabet but punctuation marks, numbers and musical notation as well. Reading and writing for the blind have thus become enormously simplified. The sensitive fingers of a blind person can travel rapidly over the dots; and there is a small machine, something like a typewriter, which enables the blind to write quickly and clearly.

Before Braille's invention, the blind had difficulty in reading because:

• A. there were only printed books.
• B. there were no schools for the blind.
• C. the few books available used the raised letters of the ordinary alphabet.
• D. the books meant for the blind were heavy.

Answer 1

The correct option is C the few books available used the raised letters of the ordinary alphabet.

The third sentence states that in spite of being blind, Braille completed his education at a school for the blind in Paris. Hence, the given answer is wrong. The fourth sentence tells us that books for blind people in Braille's days used raised letters of the ordinary alphabet and this made reading an immense effort. Thus, the correct answer is C.

We cannot accept A and D.