"This animal catches a man and straightway kills him; after he is dead, it weeps for him with a lamentable voice and many tears. Then, having done lamenting, it cruelly devours him. It is thus with the hypocrite, who, for the smallest matter, has his face bathed with tears, but shows the heart of a tiger and rejoices in his heart at the woes of others, while wearing a pitiful face."
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
Which animal is the author talking about in this text?
A) Crocodile
B) Lion
C) Panther
D) Tiger
E) Boa
IMAT 2025 · Question 3
Q3 - Reading skills
Pinned
The correct answer is A) Crocodile.
An animal that kills a man, weeps over him and then eats him: that's the crocodile, and it's where the phrase "crocodile tears" comes from. Medieval bestiaries said crocodiles wept over their victims, and Leonardo uses the image for hypocrites.
The tiger only shows up as a comparison ("the heart of a tiger"), so it isn't the animal being described.
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