"We lived in a culture that denied any merit to literary works, considering them important only when they were handmaidens to something seemingly more urgent — namely ideology. This was a country where all gestures, even the most private, were interpreted in political terms."
The author's belief that ideology is not as important as literature is revealed by the word:
A. 'culture'
B. 'seemingly'
C. 'urgent'
D. 'political'
GATE 2017 · General Aptitude · Verbal Reasoning · medium
Answer: Option B: 'seemingly' — the adverb marks ideology's urgency as merely apparent, revealing the author's belief that literature holds equal or greater importance.
Identify the author's evaluative language: The passage describes a culture the author lived in and clearly disapproves of. The author must have embedded a qualifying word that shows his/her own judgment differs from the culture's judgment.
Test option A — 'culture': 'Culture' is a neutral noun labeling the context. It does not carry any evaluative charge about the importance of ideology versus literature.
Test option C — 'urgent': 'Urgent' on its own would endorse ideology's priority. But it is modified by 'seemingly', so 'urgent' alone is not the revealing word.
Test option D — 'political': 'Political' describes the mode of interpretation in the culture. It is descriptive, not evaluative of ideology's real vs. apparent importance.
Test option B — 'seemingly': The phrase 'something seemingly more urgent' inserts the adverb 'seemingly' to flag that the urgency is the culture's perception, not the author's endorsement. By calling it only 'seemingly' urgent, the author implies ideology is not REALLY more important than literature.