What strategy does the author use in paragraph (1) to highlight the seriousness of road accidents?
What strategy does the author use in paragraph (1) to highlight the seriousness of road accidents?
Options
Correct option: (A) use of statistics and emotional appeal.
Paragraph 1 cites hard data — '4.8 lakh road accidents... 1.72 lakh deaths' — and then immediately appeals to emotion with the line 'These statistics aren't just numbers; they represent lives lost and family dynamics changed forever,' combining fact and feeling to stress the problem's seriousness.
Marking Scheme
- 11 mark for selecting option (A), correctly identifying the combined use of statistics and emotional appeal as the author's strategy in paragraph 1.
Hint
Look for both a numerical fact and a sentence that turns that fact into a human/emotional consequence.
Quick Oral Answer
The author first gives hard statistics on accidents and deaths, then adds an emotional line reminding readers these numbers represent real lives and families — a combined statistics-plus-emotional-appeal strategy.
Analysis & Explanation
This question checks whether a student can identify the rhetorical technique an author uses to build an argument, not just recall facts.
Why (A) is correct
- The paragraph opens with precise statistics from an authoritative source (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways).
- It follows immediately with an emotional reframing — numbers become 'lives lost and family dynamics changed forever' — a classic pathos appeal layered onto logos (data).
Why the distractors are wrong
- (B) 'humour and satire' — the tone is sombre and factual, with no comic or satirical elements.
- (C) 'technical jargon and neutrality' — the language is plain and the tone is emotionally charged, not neutral.
- (D) 'personal anecdotes and optimism' — there is no personal story in paragraph 1; it is data-driven, and the tone is concerned, not optimistic.
Common Mistakes
- 1Confusing 'statistics and emotional appeal' with 'technical jargon and neutrality' simply because numbers are involved — numbers alone do not make a passage neutral if followed by emotional framing.
- 2Overlooking the second sentence of the paragraph, which supplies the emotional-appeal half of the correct answer.
- 3Choosing an option based on a general impression of the passage rather than paragraph 1 specifically, as the question requires.
Interesting Facts
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' actual 'Road Accidents in India' reports, India records among the highest numbers of road-accident fatalities in the world each year.
Combining statistics with an emotional appeal is a well-documented persuasive-writing technique often used in public health and safety campaigns to move audiences from awareness to action.
Over half of the accidents in the passage's data table are attributed to overspeeding (56%), making it by far the leading cause listed.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between 'statistics and emotional appeal' and 'technical jargon and neutrality' as answer choices?
Statistics and emotional appeal use data alongside language that evokes feeling, while technical jargon and neutrality would use specialised terms with a detached, unemotional tone — paragraph 1 clearly does the former.
Why is identifying an author's strategy an important reading skill?
It helps readers evaluate how a text is constructed to persuade or inform, distinguishing factual reporting from strategies designed to influence the reader's emotional response.