A golfer is tricked out of his prize money: how do we determine whether he is (a) 充满智慧, (b) 非常善良, (c) 十分天真, or (d) 有些糊涂?

Question

This a problem from 新HSK5应试指南 (pages 133页 and 134页):

一位著名的高尔夫球手赢得了一场比赛。他领取了奖金支票后，一个年轻的女子向他表示祝贺并告诉说自己的不幸——她可怜的孩子得了重病，正在医院里，而他却无力支付大笔的手术费和医药费。高尔夫球手被她那深切的母亲感动了，二话没说就在支票上签上自己的名字，然后递给那个女子，并告诉她，希望她的孩子早日健康。

几天过后，一个高尔夫联合会的官员告诉他一个坏消息：他被那个女子骗了，她根本就没有孩子，甚至还没有结婚。“你是说根本没有一个小孩儿快离开人世了吗？”这个高尔夫球手问这位官员朋友。“是的，根本就没有！”朋友强调道。“这是我一个星期以来听到的最好的消息。”高尔夫球手长出了一口气。

(10) 根据上文，可以知道高尔夫球手：
A. 充满智慧 B. 非常善良 C. 十分天真 D. 有些糊涂.

B: 从高尔夫球手的话中知道，他不介意自己被骗，认为没人真的生病就是好消息了，因此可以知道，他是个善良的人。

A golfer 高尔夫球手, after wining some prize money, is told by a lady 女子 about her sick kid. The golfer gives her his prize money, but later finds out she lied, and she...

没有一个小孩儿快离开人世了
has no kids who are about to die.

When he finds out, he has a peculiar reaction:

这是我一个星期以来听到的最好的消息
This is the best news so far this week.

She has no kids, therefore she has no sick kids, therefore the golfer happy. The question asks about the golfer's personality, whether he is: 充满智慧 ("highly intelligent"), 非常善良 ("kindhearted"), 十分天真 ("highly naive"), 有些糊涂 ("a bit confused"). I understand the book's choice, but I don't see how I can exclude the other options.

Originally my answer was 有些糊涂, since he seems to misunderstand how the lady having no children and lying to him is a bad thing. But afterwards I thought he is 十分天真: his naivety led to him losing his prize money, and he didn't understand that he was swindled. However, perhaps I'm missing something. Or maybe it's not possible to completely exclude the options other than B.

Question: How can we exclude A, C, and D from being correct answers?

Answer 1

A: 充满智慧 (highly intelligent) — excluded, because the golfer was actually scammed, the lady lied to him:

她根本就没有孩子，甚至还没有结婚

D: 有些糊涂 (confused, unsure) — excluded, because the golfer was not in doubt about what to do. He didn't challenge the lady's story about the sick kid, and he didn't challenge the news that the kid didn't exist in the first place.

Now, C: 十分天真 (extremely naive) — this is the tricky one. The golfer was scammed, so he is naive in believing the lady's story and falling for the scam, however his reaction after realizing the scam supersedes this. Within the scope of the narration, it adds new (implicit) information about the golfer, i.e. that he's more relieved about no kid being actually sick than about the scam.

You exclude C because the focus of the story has shifted here:

这是我一个星期以来听到的最好的消息

So the solution is B: he's 非常善良, kindhearted.

If you remove this last sentence, the correct answer may very well be C.

Answer 2

If we describe the golfer 十分天真 or 有些糊涂, we are focus on why he was tricked. And the natural reaction of finding out the truth should be anger or regret. The unexpected reaction of he being glad shows his unique character and that's the main point of the story.

He could be 十分天真，有些糊涂 and 非常善良 at the same time, but the unique reaction indicated 非常善良 is what the story about

People who are not 天真 or 糊涂 can still be tricked, so the fact that the golfer was tricked doesn't prove he is 天真 or 糊涂, but the reaction of happiness for no kid is dying can only be explained as he is a very kind man

His worry for the 'kid' was so true, upon learning this kid doesn't exist, his worry was lifted. It is better than he wasn't tricked but a kid might die

If we didn't see his reaction, C and D would be correct.

If he was 充满智慧, he wouldn't be tricked in the first place.