Reading Comprehension
| Dated: 11th of Aug, 2012 |
scroll on the bold to get the word meaning |
Passage: My profession progressed satisfactorily, but that was far from satisfying me. The Question of further simplifying my life and of doing some concrete act of service to my fellowmen had been constantly agitating me, when a leper came to my door. I had not the heart to dismiss him with a meal. So I offered him shelter, dressed his wounds, and began to look after him. But I could not go on like that indefinitely. I could not afford, I lacked the will to keep him always with me. So I sent him to the Government Hospital for indentured laborers.
But I was still ill at ease. I longed for some humanitarian work of a permanent nature. Dr. Booth was the head of the St. Aidan's Mission. He was a kind-hearted man and treated his patients free. Thanks to a Parsi Rustomji's charities, it was possible to open a small charitable hospital under Dr. Booth's charge. I felt strongly inclined to serve as a nurse in this hospital. The work of dispensing medicines took from one to two hours daily, and I made up my mind to find time from my office-work, so as to be able to fill the place of a compounder in the dispensary attached to the hospital. Most of my professional work was chamber work, convincing and arbitration. I of course used to have a few cases in the magistrate's court, but most of them were of a non-controversial character, and Mr. Khan, who had followed me to South Africa and was then living with me, undertook to take them if I was absent. So I found time to serve in the small hospital. This work brought me some peace. It consisted in ascertaining the patient's complaints, laying the facts before the doctor and dispensing the prescriptions. It brought me in close touch with suffering Indians, most of them indentured Tamil, Telegu or North Indian men.
The experience stood me in good stead, when during the Boer War I offered my services for nursing the sick and wounded soldiers.
The question of the rearing of children had been ever before me. I had two sons born in South Africa, and my service in the hospital was useful in solving the question of their upbringing. My independent spirit was a constant source of trial. My wife and I had decided to have the best medical aid at the time of her delivery, but if the doctor and the nurse were to leave us in the lurch at the right moment, what was I to do? Then the nurse had to be an Indian. And the difficulty of getting a trained Indian nurse in South Africa can be easily imagined from the similar difficulty in India. So I studied the things necessary for safe labour. I read Dr. Tribhuvandas' book, #Ma-ne Shikhaman# - Advice to a mother - and I nursed both my children according to the instructions given in the book, tempered here and there by experience as I had gained elsewhere. The services of a nurse were utilized-not for more than two months each time-chiefly for helping my wife and not for taking care of the babies, which I did myself.
The birth of the last child put me to the severest test. The travail came on suddenly. The doctor was not immediately available, and some time was lost in fetching the midwife. Even if she had been on the spot, she could not have helped delivery. I had to see through the safe delivery of the baby. My careful study of the subject in Dr. Tribhuvandas' work was of inestimable help. I was not nervous.
I am convinced that for the proper upbringing of children the parents ought to have a general knowledge of the care and nursing of babies. At every step I have seen the advantages of my careful study of the subject. My children would not have enjoyed the general health that they do today, had I not studied the subject and turned my knowledge to account. We labour under a sort of superstition that a child has nothing to learn during the first five years of its life. On the contrary the fact is that the child never learns in after life what it does in its first five years. The education of the child begins with conception. The physical and mental states of the parents at the moment of conception are reproduced in the baby. Then during the period of pregnancy it continues to be affected by the mother's moods, desires and temperament, as also by her ways of life. After birth the child imitates the parents, and for a considerable number of years entirely depends on them for its growth.
The couple who realize these things will never have sexual union for the fulfillment of their lust, but only when they desire issue. I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. The world depends for its existence on the act of generation, and as the world is the play-ground of God and a reflection of His glory, the act of generation should be controlled for the ordered growth of the world. He who realizes this will control his lust at any cost, equip himself with the knowledge necessary for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of his progeny, and give the benefit of that knowledge to posterity.
Q.1. What is the most suitable title for the passage;
(A) Knowledge to posterity
Wrong Answer
(B) Desires & temperament
Wrong Answer
(C) Spirit of Service
Right Answer
(D) Reflection of God's glory
Wrong Answer
Q.2. In the paragraph one, Indentured stands most opposite to;
(A) Apprenticed
Right Answer
(B) Conjugate
Wrong Answer
(C) Slaveholding
Wrong Answer
(D) Entangled
Wrong Answer
(E) Servile(a)
Wrong Answer
Q.3. Like Progeny is for Posterity;
(A) Dinosaurs to Elephants
Wrong Answer
(B) Wolf to Dogs
Right Answer
(C) Crow to cuckoo
Wrong Answer
(D) Allegators to Crocodiles
Wrong Answer
(E) Peacock to Turkeys
Wrong Answer
Q.4. In the sentence; The experience stood me in good stead, Stead is most opposite in meaning to;
(A) Obsolete
Wrong Answer
(B) Footing
Wrong Answer
(C) Role
Wrong Answer
(D) Station
Wrong Answer
(E) Faltering
Right Answer
 Sentence Equivalence Test by Month
July, 2012
Dated: 7th of july, 2012
Passage: Ideological theorists claim that the Soviets and the Americans so believed in the superiority of their respective values and beliefs that they were willing to fight a cold war to protect and advance them. Each nation perceived itself to be in a "do-or-die" struggle between alternative ways of life. According to foreign policy scholar Glenn Chafetz, a leading proponent of the ideology theory:
Ideology served as the lens through which both sides viewed the world, defined their identities and interests, and justified their actions. U.S. leaders perceived the Soviet Union as threatening not simply because the USSR was powerful but because the entire Soviet enterprise was predicated on implacable hostility to capitalism and dedicated to its ultimate destruction. From the earliest days of the Russian Revolution until the end of the cold war, Moscow viewed the United States as unalterably hostile. Even when both nations were fighting a common enemy, Nazi Germany, the Soviets were certain that the Americans were determined to destroy the Soviet Union.
Other scholars argue that the United States and the Soviet Union chose actions that would promote national self-interest, not ideology. That is, the nations were not primarily motivated by a desire to defend capitalism or communism but by the wish to strengthen their position in the world. These scholars reason that the highest priority of every nation is not to promote its ideology but to protect and promote its own self-interest. Thus, these theorists claim, the superpowers advanced their sphere of influence throughout the world in order to gain advantages, such as a valuable trading partner or a strategic military ally. Moreover, these scholars argue, the superpowers aligned themselves with allies who could protect their interests against those who threatened them. Historian Mary Hampton, a champion of the national interest theory, explains:
Had ideology been the sustaining force of the cold war, the stability and predictability of the relationship between the two states would not have emerged. Their mutual respect for spheres of influence, the prudent management of their nuclear relationships, and their consistent policy of checking global expansions without resort to direct confrontation are best explained by an analysis based on interest-motivated behavior. . . . From 1946 to 1990, the relationship between the United States and Soviet Union included both diverging and shared interests, and it was a combination of these interests that governed their conduct during the cold war.
Although the differences between these two interpretations of Cold War motivations are fairly clear, applying the theories to explain actual events during the period is more complicated. For example, even though a nation might claim that it deposed a leader in a Latin American nation because the ruler was despotic, the real reason might be that the Latin American country had some resource such as oil that the invading nation coveted. Conversely, invading nations are always vulnerable to charges that they are acting in self-interest when in reality nations often do become involved in other countries' affairs out of a genuine concern about human rights or other humanitarian issues. Both theories have been used to explain many U.S. and Soviet actions during the Cold War, leading to radically different interpretations of events.
Q.1. What should be the right title of the passage?
June, 2012
Dated: 30th of june, 2012
Passage: By reintroducing property tax in cities after two years, the Haryana government has achieved the twin objective of raising resources for the cash-strapped municipal corporations and making the state eligible for funds available under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The burden on citizens is insignificant. The government has also imposed a fire tax of 10 percent on non-residential buildings and approved the proposal of the Town and Country Planning Department to increase the licence fee for residential plots, group housing colonies and industrial areas.
All taxes are unwelcome. Since they impact election outcomes, populist governments avoid taking hard decisions to mobilise resources for development and, instead, resort to borrowings, which is easier. After the abolition of octroi, which hampered the easy movement of goods across cities, municipalities are hard-pressed for funds and unable to regulate urban growth. There has been an urban explosion in the country. Legal and illegal residential colonies have mushroomed everywhere. Lack of resources impairs municipalities ability to meet the housing and civic needs of people moving to cities. As a result, slums encroachments on public land come up. Instead of resisting revenue-raising measures, awakened citizens in Haryana and elsewhere should demand wider roads to eliminate traffic jams, supply of enough clean drinking water, a functioning sewerage and scientific waste disposal. Some municipalities generate power from waste.
Urbanisation inevitable as villagers move to cities in search of work and education. Unless the local bodies are financially empowered to effectively manage migration, the result would be urban chaos, which incidentally is the case at present. Municipalities have to price their services reasonably and find innovative means of generating cash other than taxes. Some borrow money through market bonds. Central and state governments have to allocate more resources to civic bodies as cities, being repositories of knowledge and technology, lead the path to future growth.
Q.1. What should be the right title of the passage?
(A) Property tax should be imposed.
Wrong Answer
(B) People should be taxed heavily.
Wrong Answer
(C) Municipalities need cash to plan growth.
Right Answer
(D) Heavy taxes should be accepted.
Wrong Answer
Dated: 4th of june, 2012
Passage: Every now and then the plight of harassed NRI wives catches our attention. The government not only sits up and takes notice of their unenviable predicament but also makes the right noises. The Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab has now promised strict laws to deal with the menace. To the list of many initiatives that the Punjab government has undertaken to protect "nowhere brides" a helpline and a website have already been added. Indeed, in a state home to thousands of NRI brides left in the lurch, any move that will bring relief to them is welcome.
It's been quite a while since the problem of fraudulent marriages involving NRI grooms has come to light. Efforts have been made at both the individual and macro level to help women caught in the web of deceit and cheating. While former Union Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia has always picked up the cudgels on behalf of hapless women, Perneet Singh, a passport officer at jalandhar, has used passport confiscation as a tool to ensure justice for the victims of what in common parlance are known as "holiday marriages". The Ministry of Overseas Affairs and the National Commission of Women too have taken several steps, including the setting up of a special NRI cell, to offer guidance to women in distress. However, justice continues to elude deserted wives.
While the number of "nowhere brides" in Punjab during the last 10 years is estimated to be around 10,000 only 159 cases have been registered in the last three years. Certainly, the problem has a social angle too and is, in a way, a manifestation of the obsessive fascination to migrate abroad. While the proposed law stipulates complete verification of NRI grooms, parents would do well to check their antecedents themselves too. However, there is no denying that the problem can only be addressed through legal methods. Till unsuspecting brides are not helped by strict laws involving the governments of other countries as well, girls will continue to be exploited at the hands of unscrupulous NRIs who have made a mockery of the sacred institution of marriage.
Q.1. What should be the right title of the passage?
(A) Fraudulent marriages involves NRI grooms.
Wrong Answer
(B) Justice elude deserted wives .
Wrong Answer
(C) Strict laws alow can bring soccour
Right Answer
(D) Holiday marriages is a fun.
Wrong Answer
(E) D. galeata produces twice as many offspring per individual in any given period of time as does D.hyalina.
Wrong Answer
Dated: 1st of june, 2012
Passage: During the day in Lake Constance, the zooplankton D. hyalina departs for the depths where food is scarce and the water cold. D. galeata remains near the warm surface where food is abundant. Even though D. galeata grows and reproduces much faster, its population is often outnumbered by D. hyalina.
Q.1. Which of the following, if true, would help resolve the apparent paradox presented above ?
(A) The number of species of zooplankton living at the bottom of the lake is twice that of species living at the surface.
Wrong Answer
(B) Predators of zooplankton, such as whitefish and perch, line and feed near the surface of the lake during the day.
Right Answer
(C) In order to make the most of scarce food resources, D. hyalina matures more slowly than D. galeata.
Wrong Answer
(D) D. galeata clusters under vegetation during the hottest part of the day to avoid the sun's rays.
Wrong Answer
(E) D. galeata produces twice as many offspring per individual in any given period of time as does D.hyalina.
Wrong Answer
May, 2012
Dated: 25th of may, 2012
Passage: I enjoyed A Dream of Light & Shadow: Portraitsof Latin American Women Writers for the same reasons that, as a child, Iavidly consumed women's biographies: the fascination with how the biographical details of another female's life are represented and interpreted.
A Dream offers a rich read, varied in both the lives and texts of the women portrayed, and the perspectives and styles of the sixteen essayists. Yet, as an adult, I have come to demand of any realy "great book a self-consciousness about the tenuous nature of representations of reality, a critical contextualization of florid detail, and a self-awareness of the role of ideology in our lives. In these critical senses, A Dream is inadequate.
Q.1. Which of the following best describes the functions of the second sentence ("A Dream...essayists") in the context of the passage as a whole ?
(A) To give examples of how A Dream presents fascinating portraits that display awareness of the tenuous nature of representations of reality.
Wrong Answer
(B) To elaborate on how A Dream fulfills the author's childhood criteria for a pleasurable book.
Right Answer
(C) To suggest that the author enjoyed A Dream for reasons more sophisticated than the reasons she enjoyed certain books as a child.
Wrong Answer
(D) To illustrate ways in which the author finds A Dream to be inadequate in certain critical senses.
Wrong Answer
(E) To imply that A Dream is too varied in focus to provide a proper contextualization of the biographical details it offers.
Wrong Answer
Q.2. The auther of the passage suggests that A Dream falls short in which of the following respects ?
(A) It does not appear to recognize that representations of reality can be unreliable.
Right Answer is (A) and (C)
(B) It seems to focus on stylistic variety at the expense of accuracy of detail.
Wrong Answer
(C) It offers a wealth of detail without sufficient critical examination of that detail.
Right Answer is (C) and (A)
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