English Language Questions for CLAT | QB Set 49

Passage

A familiar complaint about the digital age is that social media has “destroyed” our attention spans. The claim is tempting because it matches everyday experience: a reader opens an article, notices a notification, checks a message, watches a short video and returns several minutes later having forgotten the argument. Yet the relationship between social media and attention is more complicated than the language of destruction suggests.

Social media platforms are designed around rapid shifts of attention. A user may encounter a joke, a political argument, an advertisement and a personal photograph within seconds. Each item asks for little commitment because another is immediately available. Repeated exposure to such environments may encourage a habit of scanning, switching and seeking novelty. Research has found associations between problematic social-media use and inattention, although researchers also caution that such findings do not by themselves prove that social media directly causes declining attention. 

The more useful concern may therefore be not whether people have lost the capacity to concentrate, but whether they have fewer opportunities to practise sustained concentration. Deep reading requires something different from scrolling. A difficult essay, novel or judgment may not reveal its value in the first few sentences. The reader must remember earlier ideas, recognise connections, tolerate uncertainty and occasionally reread a passage. Distractions during digital reading have been associated with poorer comprehension, suggesting that interruptions can interfere with precisely these processes. 

However, it would be a mistake to romanticise every long book while treating every digital activity as intellectually shallow. A person may scroll mindlessly through printed magazines just as easily as another may study a complex argument on a tablet. Technology influences behaviour, but it does not completely determine it. The important distinction is often between deliberate and automatic attention. Someone who consciously decides to spend fifteen minutes reading news summaries is doing something different from someone who repeatedly opens an application without intending to.

The deeper problem, then, may be the environment in which attention operates. Concentration has always required effort, but digital platforms place unusually convenient alternatives beside that effort. Deep reading asks the reader to remain with difficulty; social media frequently offers an escape from it. Protecting the ability to read deeply may therefore require neither abandoning technology nor blaming an entire generation. It may simply require recognising that attention is partly a habit: whatever repeatedly receives it becomes easier to attend to.

Questions

1. Which of the following best captures the central idea of the passage?

(A) Social media has permanently reduced the human capacity for concentration.
(B) Digital reading is inherently inferior to reading printed books.
(C) Social media may encourage fragmented attention, but deep reading depends largely on how attention is repeatedly practised and managed.
(D) Scientific research has conclusively established that social media causes inattention.

2. Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the author’s discussion of “opportunities to practise sustained concentration”?

(A) The ability to concentrate may weaken when behaviours requiring prolonged attention are practised less frequently.
(B) People who use social media regularly eventually become incapable of reading long texts.
(C) Concentration is an entirely natural ability that cannot be influenced by habits.
(D) Sustained attention is possible only when digital devices are completely avoided.

3. Why does the author compare a person “scrolling mindlessly through printed magazines” with someone studying a complex argument on a tablet?

(A) To argue that printed material creates more distractions than digital media.
(B) To demonstrate that the medium alone does not determine whether intellectual engagement is shallow or deep.
(C) To suggest that tablets should replace printed books for serious reading.
(D) To prove that social media has no effect on reading habits.

4. In the final paragraph, the phrase “digital platforms place unusually convenient alternatives beside that effort” most nearly means that:

(A) digital platforms eliminate the intellectual effort required for understanding difficult ideas.
(B) online platforms intentionally prevent users from reading demanding material.
(C) digital technology provides educational alternatives that make deep reading unnecessary.
(D) distractions and easier forms of stimulation are readily available when sustained concentration becomes difficult.

5. Which of the following best describes the author’s overall approach to the debate?

(A) Cautiously analytical, acknowledging possible harms while rejecting overly simplistic conclusions.
(B) Alarmist, presenting social media as an immediate threat to intellectual development.
(C) Nostalgic, arguing that society should return primarily to printed forms of communication.
(D) Dismissive, suggesting that concerns about attention and social media have no factual basis.

Answer Key

1. (C)
2. (A)
3. (B)
4. (D)
5. (A)

Detailed Explanations

1. Correct Answer: (C)

The passage does not claim that social media has permanently destroyed attention. Instead, it argues that environments built around rapid switching may encourage fragmented habits, while sustained attention can also be developed through repeated practice. The concluding idea that “attention is partly a habit” reinforces this position.

Option (A) is too absolute because the author expressly questions the idea that people have lost the capacity to concentrate. Option (D) is also incorrect because the passage specifically notes that an association between social-media use and inattention does not establish direct causation. Option (B) contradicts the author’s argument that deep engagement can occur on digital devices as well.

2. Correct Answer: (A)

The author shifts the question from whether people have lost their ability to concentrate to whether they are practising concentration less often. This implies that sustained attention behaves, at least partly, like a habit or skill: if it is exercised less frequently, maintaining it may become more difficult.

Option (B) exaggerates the author’s position by turning a possible behavioural tendency into permanent incapacity. Option (C) directly contradicts the passage’s emphasis on attention as a habit. Option (D) is also too extreme because the author does not advocate eliminating digital devices.

3. Correct Answer: (B)

The comparison is used to challenge a simple print-versus-digital distinction. A person can engage superficially with printed material, while another can engage deeply with demanding material on a digital device. The quality of attention therefore depends partly on behaviour and intention, not simply on the physical medium.

Option (D) is the closest distractor, but it goes too far. The author does not deny that social media can influence reading and attention; the point is only that technology does not completely determine behaviour.

4. Correct Answer: (D)

The phrase refers to how digital environments make alternative sources of stimulation—notifications, messages, videos or other content—extremely easy to access whenever demanding reading becomes uncomfortable. Deep reading requires staying with difficulty, whereas digital distractions offer an immediate alternative.

Option (A) is incorrect because digital platforms do not remove the effort needed to understand difficult ideas. Options (B) and (C) introduce claims about deliberate prevention and educational replacement that the author never makes.

5. Correct Answer: (A)

The tone is cautiously analytical. The author takes concerns about fragmented attention seriously and refers to research supporting them, but repeatedly resists sweeping claims. Statements such as “the relationship…is more complicated” and the warning against romanticising books show a balanced approach.

Option (B) is inconsistent with the author’s rejection of alarmist claims that social media has “destroyed” attention. Option (C) fails because the passage does not advocate abandoning technology. Option (D) is incorrect because the author clearly accepts that digital environments can create genuine challenges for sustained attention.