Fashion and Custom Passage

XAT 2010 · VALR · Easy · Reading Comprehension

Passage / data set

Analyse the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the questions that follow.

Fashion is different from custom, or rather is a particular species of it. That is not the fashion which everybody wears, but which those wear who are of a high rank, or character. The graceful, the easy, and the commanding manners of the great, joined to the usual richness and magnificence of their dress, give a grace to the very form which they happen to bestow upon it. As long as they continue to use this form, it is connected in our imaginations with the idea of something that is genteel and magnificent, and though in itself it should be indifferent, it seems, on account of this relation, to have something about it that is genteel and magnificent too. As soon as they drop it, it loses all the grace, which it had appeared to possess before, and being now used only by the inferior ranks of people, seems to have something of their meanness and awkwardness.

Question 1 of 2

Which phrase would be the best title of the passage?

  1. A.

    Proletariat fashion models and fashion shows

  2. B.

    Scourge of fashion

  3. C.

    The clothes maketh the man

  4. D.

    The man maketh the cloth

  5. E.

    Predicting fashion-trends and character

Question 2 of 2

Which is nearest to the central idea in the passage?

  1. A.

    Fashion improves grace of a person.

  2. B.

    Grace is indicated by the fashion adopted.

  3. C.

    Grace is a characteristic of imaginative persons.

  4. D.

    The contemporary nature of fashion portrays the society.

  5. E.

    Grace is a reflection of the person's rank or character.

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