Question

the phantom rickshaw
by rudyard kipling (adapted excerpt)
this excerpt is from a collection of ghost stories written by rudyard kipling. this story is told through the narrator, jack, who has rejected the affections of mrs. wessington, an officer’s wife with whom he has had an affair. mrs. wessington insists that the end of their romance is a “hideous mistake” and is heartbroken further as jack becomes engaged to kitty, a younger woman he loves. eventually, mrs. wessington dies of a broken heart, and sometime after, jack makes a horrible discovery.
(1) while my walter? was cautiously feeling his way over the loose shale, and kitty was laughing and chattering at my side-while all simla, 3 that is to say as much of it as had then come from the plains, was grouped round the reading-room and peliti’s veranda-i was aware that some one, apparently at a vast distance, was calling me by my christian name. it struck me that i had heard the voice before, but when and where i could not at once determine. in the short space it took to cover the path from hamilton’s shop and the first plank of the cambermere bridge i had thought over half-a-dozen people who might have committed such a solecism, 4 and had eventually decided that it must have been some singing in my ears. immediately opposite peliti’s shop my eye was arrested by the
select the correct answer.
read the following sentences from the excerpt.
(10) in my room i sat down and tried calmly to reason out the matter. here was i, theobald jack pansay, a well-educated bengali civilian in the year of grace 1885, presumably sane, certainly healthy, driven in terror from my sweetheart’s side by the apparition of a woman who had been dead and buried eight months ago. these were facts that i could not blink. nothing was further from my thought than any memory of mrs. wessington when kitty and i left hamilton’s shop. nothing was more utterly commonplace than the stretch of wall opposite peliti’s. it was broad daylight. the road was full of people, and yet here, look you, in defiance of every law of probability, in direct outrage of nature’s ordinance, there had appeared to me a face from the grave, best matches how blink is used in the text.

ecall or remember clearly\
\acknowledge as real or true\
\admit to myself or kitty\
\ignore or get out of my mind\
reset
next

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze the context of "blink" in the text. The sentence says "These were facts that I could not blink", meaning the narrator can't ignore or dismiss the facts (the apparition of Mrs. Wessington). Let's evaluate each option:

• "Recall or remember clearly": The context isn't about recalling, but about dealing with the facts, so this is incorrect.
• "Acknowledge as real or true": The phrase "could not blink" here implies the narrator can't avoid acknowledging the reality of the apparition. This fits.
• "Admit to myself or Kitty": The context doesn't involve admitting to someone, so this is incorrect.
• "Ignore or get out of my mind": The opposite of "could not blink" would be ignoring, but the phrase here means the narrator can't ignore, so this option's definition is the opposite of how "blink" is used, making it incorrect.

Answer:

The option with "Acknowledge as real or true" (the second option in the list of choices).