Question

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Privacy-challenged office workers may find it hard to believe, but open-plan offices and cubicles were invented by architects and designers who thought that to break down the social walls that divide people, you had to break down the real walls, too. Modernist architects saw walls and rooms as downright fascist. The spaciousness and flexibility of an open plan would liberate homeowners and office dwellers from the confines of boxes. But companies took up their idea less out of a democratic ideology than a desire to pack in as many workers as they could. The typical open-plan office of the first half of the 20th century was a white-collar assembly line. Cubicles were interior designers’ attempt to put some soul back in.

• A. Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out the way their utopian inventors intended, as they became tools for exploitation of labor.
• B. Wall-free office spaces could have worked out the way their utopian inventors intended had companies cared for workers' satisfaction.
• C. Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out as desired and therefore cubicles came into being.
• D. Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out as companies don’t believe in democratic ideology.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

This question is of moderate difficulty. The passage is divided into two parts: the first discussing the dismantling of walls to overcome divisions, and the second addressing the unintended consequences due to selfish business interests.

Option 1 is the most suitable choice. It states that the intention was to make things democratic, but the result was the exploitation of labor by cramming as many people as possible into cubicles.

Option 2 is ruled out because asserting workers' satisfaction may be a stretch, as people can still be satisfied with their work in confined spaces.

Option 3, while close, doesn't capture the organizations' intentions. The inventor aimed to break down barriers, but organizations used it as a tool to exploit labor, deviating from the intended purpose.

Option 4 also misses the crucial point of highlighting the exploitation of labor, which is a significant aspect in the passage.