Read these lines: "It is a still greater evil to me that I am self-educated. Now I am twenty-eight and am in reality more illiterate than many schoolboys of fifteen. It is true that I have thought more and that my daydreams are more extended and magnificent." As used in the quoted lines, the word "illiterate" most nearly means

1. 1. He calls being self-educated an evil, so the word that follows must describe a gap in his schooling. 2. 2. He measures himself against schoolboys of fifteen, which is a comparison of instruction rather than of ability. 3. 3. He adds that he has thought more than they have, so he is plainly not without learning of his own. 4. 4. Unable to read at all contradicts a man who reads and writes long letters, so only poorly taught fits. _Source: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)_