Passage

Passage - 6 I must say that, beyond occasionally exposing me to laughter, my constitutional shyness has been of no disadvantage whatever. In fact I can see that, on the contrary, it has been all to my advantage. My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now give myself the certificate that a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen. I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing. I have thus been spared many a mishap and waste of time. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. We find so many people impatient to talk. There is no chairman of a meeting who is not pestered with notes for permission to speak. And whenever the permission is given the speaker generally exceeds the time-limit, asks for more time, and keeps on talking without permission. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.

For the author, silence is necessary in order to surmount

(a) constitutional shyness.
(b) hesitancy in speech.
(c) suppression of thoughts.
(d) tendency to overstate. ✓ UPSC's answer

Why the answer is (d)

• The passage explicitly states that 'Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth... is a natural weakness of man.'

• It immediately follows that 'silence is necessary in order to surmount it,' referring directly to the proneness to exaggerate.

• The author argues that a man of few words will 'measure every word,' preventing thoughtless speech or overstatement.

• Therefore, silence serves as a discipline to overcome the human tendency to exaggerate or overstate the truth.

• This aligns with option (d), which identifies the 'tendency to overstate' as the weakness to be surmounted.

Why the other options are wrong

(a) constitutional shyness.: Constitutional shyness is described as the author's inherent trait that led to the habit of silence, not the weakness that silence is used to overcome.
(b) hesitancy in speech.: Hesitancy in speech is mentioned as a former annoyance that became a pleasure, but the specific weakness silence surmounts is the proneness to exaggerate.
(c) suppression of thoughts.: The passage mentions the suppression of truth as part of the weakness, but the primary focus of the question's context and the option 'tendency to overstate' (exaggerate) is the direct counterpart to the 'exaggerate' mentioned in the text, making (d) the precise fit for the 'overstate' aspect of the weakness.

Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2015, held on 23 August 2015. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.