Question:easy

Statistics allows us to understand the reality. It indicates developmental directions. Statistics is good for exposing reality, but it can also be manipulated to perpetuate untruth and misunderstanding. Data has power to mislead people.

This paragraph best supports the statement that:

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The paragraph turns on the word "but" and ends with "Data has power to mislead people". Pick the option that repeats that ending.
Updated On: Jul 17, 2026
  • Words are more truthful than numbers
  • Study of statistics is more important than any other discipline
  • Numbers never lie
  • Numbers can be used to mislead people.
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The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

Treat this as a structure question rather than a reading question. The paragraph is a classic concession followed by a warning: it grants that statistics exposes reality, then turns with "but" to say statistics can be manipulated, and finishes with "Data has power to mislead people." When a writer concedes a point and then turns against it, the turn carries the message. The right option must sit on the far side of that "but".

  1. Words are more truthful than numbers: The passage compares nothing with anything. It talks only about statistics and data. Words are never mentioned, so this comparison comes from outside the passage and cannot be supported by it.
  2. Study of statistics is more important than any other discipline: The passage does say statistics is useful for understanding reality, but usefulness is not the same as being the most important discipline. No other discipline is even named, so there is nothing to compare against.
  3. Numbers never lie: This contradicts the passage outright. The writer says statistics "can also be manipulated to perpetuate untruth". An option that reverses the writer's own warning cannot be what the paragraph supports.
  4. Numbers can be used to mislead people: Statistics is nothing but organised numbers, and the last line says data has power to mislead people. Notice the passive framing in the option: numbers can be USED to mislead. That matches "manipulated", which implies a human hand behind the misleading. This is the writer's point restated.

So option (D) is correct. It is the only choice that repeats the paragraph's concluding warning instead of introducing a fresh comparison or reversing the writer.

Let's summarize:

  • In a concession-plus-warning paragraph, the message lies after the "but".
  • Options that reverse the writer's warning, like "numbers never lie", are automatic rejects.
  • Options that compare the topic with something never mentioned are outside the scope of the passage.

The paragraph best supports option (D): numbers can be used to mislead people.

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Top Questions on Statements and Conclusions

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Passage (extract): The work which Gandhiji had taken up was not only regarding the achievement of political freedom but also the establishment of a new social order based on truth and non-violence, unity and peace, equality and universal brotherhood and maximum freedom for all. A new order cannot be established without radically changing the mind and attitude of men towards property and, at some stage or the other, the 'haves' have to yield place to the 'have-nots'. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. It may even be that, like a gas kept confined within containers under great pressure, or water held back by a big dam, once the barrier breaks, the reaction will one day sweep back with a violence equal in extent and intensity to what was used to establish and maintain the outward egalitarian form. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. If egalitarianism is to endure, it has to be based not on the possession of the maximum material goods by a few or by all but on voluntary, enlightened renunciation of those goods which cannot be shared by others or can be enjoyed only at the expense of others.

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Passage (extract): In the political struggle, the fight was against a foreign power and all one could do was either join it or wish it success and give it his/her moral support. Experience shows that man values his possessions even more than his life because in the former he sees the means for perpetuation and survival of his descendants even after his body is reduced to ashes. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. The root cause of class conflict is possessiveness or the acquisitive instinct.

Which of the following statements is 'not true' in the context of the passage?
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