The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
People spontaneously create counterfactual alternatives to reality when they think “if only” or “what if” and imagine how the past could have been different. The mind computes counterfactuals for many reasons. Counterfactuals explain the past and prepare for the future, they implicate various relations including causal ones, and they affect intentions and decisions. They modulate emotions such as regret and relief, and they support moral judgments such as blame. The ability to create counterfactuals develops throughout childhood and contributes to reasoning about other people's beliefs, including their false beliefs.

Question

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Lyric poetry is a genre of private meditation rather than public commitment. The impulse in Marxism toward changing a society deemed unacceptable in its basic design would seem to place demands on lyric poetry that such poetry, with its tendency toward the personal, the small scale, and the idiosyncratic, could never answer. There is within Marxism, however, also a strand of thought that would locate in lyric poetry alternative modes of perception and description that call forth a vision of worlds at odds with a repressive reality or that draw attention to the workings of ideology within the hegemonic culture. The poetic imagination may indeed deflect larger social concerns, but it may also be implicitly critical and utopian.

Answer 1

This paragraph examines counterfactual thinking, wherein individuals construct hypothetical scenarios divergent from reality to serve multiple objectives. These objectives encompass elucidating historical occurrences, strategizing for future endeavors, comprehending interpersonal dynamics and causal relationships, evoking emotional responses, and substantiating ethical judgments. The capacity for generating such counterfactuals emerges in childhood and facilitates the comprehension of others' beliefs. Option C effectively and accurately encapsulates these core concepts.
Option A primarily addresses future preparation, omitting the broader motivations behind counterfactual alternative development.
Option B fails to emphasize the developmental dimension and the diverse motivations for creation.
Option D presents an oversimplified view of counterfactual functions, erroneously suggesting that counterfactual reasoning aids in reversing past and future actions, which deviates from the passage's central theme.
The accurate option is (C): The construction of counterfactual alternatives to reality is undertaken for diverse reasons and is integrated into one's developmental progression.

The Correct Option is C

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