Question
Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I will move the world."
The sentence above is an example of a ___________ statement.
Official answer and solution
- Official answer
- A
- From
- Official GATE 2016 answer key
Solution
Differentiate between literal statements, figures of speech, and unrelated word forms.
Archimedes' famous quote expresses the theoretical mechanical advantage of levers by stating that with a sufficiently long lever and fulcrum, he could 'move the world'.
Because this statement uses extreme rhetorical exaggeration (hyperbole) and metaphor to convey the profound power of leverage, rather than describing a realistic physical act, it is a figurative statement.
Hence, the statement is 'figurative'.
A
Choosing 'literal', which would mean physically displacing the planet Earth.
The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.
Source
- Paper
- GATE 2016 Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) Session 1
- Question
- 3 of 65, printed as GA Q.3
- Section
- General Aptitude
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