Question

Which meaning of mute most closely matches its meaning in the following passage (paragraph 19)?

Before we leave this place, we always visit my great-grandmother’s buckskin dress. We mount the stairs and walk through the museum’s main hall—past the dinosaur bones all strung together, and the stuffed elephants lifting their trunks in a mute trumpet.

A. noun | a person lacking the ability to speak

B. noun | a device on a TV, phone or other appliance that turns off the sound

C. adjective | characterised by an absence of sound

D. adjective | refraining from talking, speechless

Answer 1

C — adjective meaning characterised by an absence of sound. The stuffed elephants look as if they're trumpeting but are silent, so "mute" describes being soundless.