DIRECTIONS for Questions 1 to 5: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
At the heart of the enormous boom in wine consumption that has taken place in the English speaking world over the last two decades or so is a fascinating, happy paradox. In the days when wine was exclusively the preserve of a narrow cultural elite, bought either at auctions or from gentleman wine merchants in wing collars and bow-ties, to be stored in rambling cellars and decanted to order by one's butler, the ordinary drinker didn't get a look-in. Wine was considered a highly technical subject, in which anybody without the necessary ability could only fall flat on his or her face in embarrassment. It wasn't just that you needed a refined aesthetic sensibility for the stuff if it wasn't to be hopelessly wasted on you. It required an intimate knowledge of what came from where, and what it was supposed to taste like.
Those were times, however, when wine appreciation essentially meant a familiarity with the great French classics, with perhaps a smattering of other wines — like sherry and port. That was what the wine trade dealt in. These days, wine is bought daily in supermarkets and high-street chains to be consumed that evening, hardly anybody has a cellar to store it in and most don't even possess a decanter. Above all, the wines of literally dozens of countries are available in our market. When a supermarket offers its customers a couple of fruity little numbers from Brazil, we scarcely raise an eyebrow.
It seems, in other words, that the commercial jungle that wine has now become has not in the slightest deterred people from plunging adventurously into the thickets in order to taste and see. Consumers are no longer intimidated by the thought of needing to know their Pouilly-Fume from their Pouilly-Fuisse, just at the very moment when there is more to know than ever before.
The reason for this new mood of confidence is not hard to find. It is on every wine label from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States: the name of the grape from which the wine is made. At one time that might have sounded like a fairly technical approach in itself. Why should native English-speakers know what Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay were? The answer lies in the popularity that wines made from those grape varieties now enjoy. Consumer effectively recognize them as brand names, and have acquired a basic lexicon of wine that can serve them even when confronted with those Brazilian upstarts.
In the wine heartlands of France, they are scared to death of that trend—not because they think their wine isn't as good as the best from California or South Australia (what French winemaker will ever admit that?) but because they don't traditionally call their wines Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. They call them Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou or Corton-Charlemagne, and they aren't about the change. Some areas, in the middle of southern France, have now produced a generation of growers using the varietal names on their labels and are tempting consumers back to French wine. It will be an uphill struggle, but there is probably no other way if France is to avoid simply becoming a specialty source of old-fashioned wines for oldfashioned
connoisseurs.
Wine consumption was also given a significant boost in the early 1990s by the work of Dr. Serge Renaud, who has spent many years investigating the reasons for the uncannily low incidence of coronary heart disease in the south of France. One of his major findings is that the fat-derived cholesterol that builds up in the arteries and can eventually lead to heart trouble, can be dispersed by the tannins in wine. Tannin is derived from the skins of grapes, and is therefore present in higher levels in red wines, because they have to be infused with their skins to attain the red colour. That news caused a huge upsurge in red wine consumption in the United States. It has not been accorded the prominence it deserves in the UK, largely because the medical profession still sees all alcohol as a menace to health, and is constantly calling for it to be made prohibitively expensive. Certainly, the manufacturers of anticoagulant drugs might have something to lose if we all got the message that we would do just as well by our hearts by taking half a bottle of red wine every day!
1. The tone that the author uses while asking "what French winemaker will ever admit that?" is best described as
1. caustic 2. satirical 3. critical 4. hypocritical
2. What according to the author should the French do to avoid becoming a producer of merely oldfashioned wines?
1. Follow the labeling strategy of the English-speaking countries
2. Give their wines English names
3. Introduce fruity wines as Brazil has done
4. Produce the wines that have become popular in the English-speaking world
3. The development which has created fear among winemakers in the wine heartland of France is the
1. tendency not to name wines after the grape varieties that are used in the wines.
2. 'education' that consumers have derived from wine labels from English speaking countries.
3. new generation of local winegrowers who use labels that show names of grape varieties.
4. ability of consumers to understand a wine's qualities when confronted with "Brazilian upstarts".
4 Which one of the following, if true, would provide most support for Dr. Renaud's findings about the effect of tannins?
1. A survey showed that film celebrities based in France have a low incidence of coronary heart disease.
2. Measurements carried out in southern France showed red wine drinkers had significantly higher levels of coronary heart incidence than white wine drinkers did.
3. Data showed a positive association between sales of red wine and incidence of coronary heart disease.
4. Long-term surveys in southern France showed that the incidence of coronary heart disease was significantly lower in red wine drinkers than in those who did not drink red wine.
5. Which one of the following CANNOT be reasonably attributed to the labeling strategy followed by wine producers in English speaking countries?
1. Consumers buy wines on the basis of their familiarity with a grape variety's name.
2. Even ordinary customers now have more access to technical knowledge about wine.
3. Consumers are able to appreciate better quality wines.
4. Some non-English speaking countries like Brazil indicate grape variety names on their labels.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 6 to10: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Right through history, imperial powers have clung to their possessions to death. Why, then, did Britain in 1947 give up the jewel in its crown, India? For many reasons. The independence struggle exposed the hollowness of the white man's burden. Provincial self-rule since 1935 paved the way for full self-rule. Churchill resisted independence, but the Labour government of Atlee was anti-imperialist by ideology. Finally, the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in 1946 raised fears of a second Sepoy mutiny, and convinced British waverers that it was safer to withdraw gracefully. But politico-military explanations are not enough. The basis of empire was always money. The end of empire had much to do with the fact that British imperialism had ceased to be profitable. World War II left Britain victorious but deeply indebted, needing Marshall Aid and loans from the World Bank. This constituted a strong financial case for ending the no-longer profitable empire.
Empire building is expensive. The US is spending one billion dollars a day in operations in Iraq that fall well short of full scale imperialism. Through the centuries, empire building was costly, yet constantly undertaken because it promised high returns. The investment was in armies and conquest. The returns came through plunder and taxes from the conquered.
No immorality was attached to imperial loot and plunder. The biggest conquerors were typically revered (hence titles like Alexander the Great, Akbar the Great, and Peter the Great). The bigger and richer the empire, the more the plunderer was admired. This mindset gradually changed with the rise of new ideas about equality and governing for the public good, ideas that culminated in the French and American revolutions. Robert Clive was impeached for making a little money on the side, and so was Warren Hastings. The white man's burden came up as a new moral rationale for conquest. It was supposedly for the good of the conquered. This led to much muddled hypocrisy. On the one hand, the empire needed to be profitable. On the other hand, the white man's burden made brazen loot impossible.
An additional factor deterring loot was the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. Though crushed, it reminded the British vividly that they were a tiny ethnic group who could not rule a gigantic subcontinent without the support of important locals. After 1857, the British stopped annexing one princely state after another, and instead treated the princes as allies. Land revenue was fixed in absolute terms, partly to prevent local unrest and partly to promote the notion of the white man's burden. The empire proclaimed itself to be a protector of the Indian peasant against exploitation by Indian elites. This was denounced as hypocrisy by nationalists like Dadabhoy Naoroji in the 19th century, who complained that land taxes led to an enormous drain from India to Britain. Objective calculations by historians like Angus Maddison suggest a drain of perhaps 1.6 percent of Indian Gross National Product in the 19th century. But land revenue was more or less fixed by the Raj in absolute terms, and so its real value diminished rapidly with inflation in the 20th century. By World War II, India had ceased to be a profit center for the British Empire.
Historically, conquered nations paid taxes to finance fresh wars of the conqueror. India itself was asked to pay a large sum at the end of World War I to help repair Britain's finances. But, as shown by historian Indivar Kamtekar, the independence movement led by Gandhiji changed the political landscape, and made mass taxation of India increasingly difficult. By World War II, this had become politically impossible. Far from taxing India to pay for World War II, Britain actually began paying India for its contribution of men and goods. Troops from white dominions like Australia, Canada and New Zealand were paid for entirely by these countries, but Indian costs were shared by the British government. Britain paid in the form of nonconvertible sterling balances, which mounted swiftly. The conqueror was paying the conquered, undercutting the profitability on which all empire is founded. Churchill opposed this, and wanted to tax India rather than owe it money. But he was overruled by Indian hands who said India would resist payment, and paralyze the war effort. Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India, said that when you are driving in a taxi to the station to catch a life-or-death train, you do not loudly announce that you have doubts whether to pay the fare. Thus, World War II converted India from a debtor to a creditor with over one billion pounds in sterling balances.
Britain, meanwhile, became the biggest debtor in the world. It's not worth ruling over people you are afraid to tax.
6. Why didn't Britain tax India to finance its World War II efforts?
1. Australia, Canada and New Zealand had offered to pay for Indian troops.
2. India has already paid a sufficiently large sum during World War I.
3. It was afraid that if India refused to pay, Britain's war efforts would be jeopardized.
4. The British empire was built on the premise that the conqueror pays the conquered.
7. What was the main lesson the British learned from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857?
1. That the local princes were allies, not foes.
2. That the land revenue from India would decline dramatically.
3. That the British were a small ethnic group.
4. That India would be increasingly difficult to rule.
8. Which of the following was NOT a reason for the emergence of the 'white man's burden' as a new rationale for empire-building in India?
1. The emergence of the idea of the public good as an element of governance.
2. The decreasing returns from imperial loot and increasing costs of conquest.
3. The weakening of the immorality attached to an emperor's looting behaviour.
4. A growing awareness of the idea of equality among peoples.
9. Which of the following best captures the meaning of the 'white man's burden', as it is used by the author?
1. The British claim to a civilizing mission directed at ensuring the good of the natives.
2. The inspiration for the French and American revolutions.
3. The resource drain that had to be borne by the home country's white population.
4. An imperative that made open looting of resources impossible.
10. Which one of the following best expresses the main purpose of the author?
1. To present the various reasons that can lead to the collapse of an empire and the granting of independence of the subjects of an empire.
2. To point out the critical role played by the 'white man's burden' in making a colonizing power give up its claims to native possessions.
3. To highlight the contradictory impulse underpinning empire building which is a costly business but very attractive at the same time.
4. To illustrate how erosion of the financial basis of an empire supports the granting of independence to an empire's constituents.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 11 to15: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
The controversy over genetically modified food continues unabated in the West. Genetic modification (GM) is the science by which the genetic material of a plant is altered, perhaps to make it more resistant to pests or killer weeds, or to enhance its nutritional value. Many food biotechnologists claim that GM will be a major contribution of science to mankind in the 21st century. On the other hand, large numbers of opponents, mainly in Europe, claim that the benefits of GM are a myth propagated by multinational corporations to increase their profits, that they pose a health hazard, and have therefore called for government to ban the sale of genetically-modified food.
The anti-GM campaign has been quite effective in Europe, with several European Union member countries imposing a virtual ban for five years over genetically-modified food imports. Since the genetically-modified food industry is particularly strong in the United States of America, the controversy also constitutes another chapter in the US-Europe skirmishes which have become particularly acerbic after the US invasion of Iraq.
To a large extent, the GM controversy has been ignored in the Indian media, although Indian biotechnologists have been quite active in GM research. Several groups of Indian biotechnologists have been working on various issues connected with crops grown in India. One concrete achievement which has recently figured in the news is that of a team led by the former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru university, Asis Datta — it has successfully added an extra gene to potatoes to enhance the protein content of the tuber by at least 30 percent. It is quite likely that the GM controversy will soon hit the headlines in India since a spokesperson of the Indian Central government has recently announced that the government may use the protato in its midday meal programme for schools as early as next year.
Why should "scientific progress", with huge potential benefits to the poor and malnourished, be so controversial? The anti-GM lobby contends that pernicious propaganda has vastly exaggerated the benefits of GM and completely evaded the costs which will have to be incurred if the genetically-modified food industry is allowed to grow unchecked. In particular, they allude to different types of costs.
This group contends that the most important potential cost is that the widespread distribution and growth of genetically-modified food will enable the corporate world (alias the multinational corporations – MNCs) to completely capture the food chain. A "small" group of biotech companies will patent the transferred genes as well as the technology associated with them. They will then buy up the competing seed merchants and seed-breeding centers, thereby controlling the production of food at every possible level. Independent farmers, big and small, will be completely wiped out of the food industry. At best, they will be reduced to the status of being subcontractors.
This line of argument goes on to claim that the control of the food chain will be disastrous for the poor since the MNCs, guided by the profit motive, will only focus on the high-value food items demanded by the affluent. Thus, in the long run, the production of basic staples which constitute the food basket of the poor will taper off. However, this vastly overestimates the power of the MNCs. Even if the research promoted by them does focus on the high-value food items, much of biotechnology research is also funded by governments in both developing and developed countries. Indeed, the protato is a by-product of this type of research. If the protato passes the field trials, there is no reason to believe that it cannot be marketed in the global potato market. And this type of success story can be repeated with other basic food items.
The second type of cost associated with the genetically modified food industry is environmental damage. The most common type of "genetic engineering" involved gene modification in plants designed to make them resistant to applications of weed-killers. This then enables farmers to use massive dosages of weedkillers so as to destroy or wipe out all competing varieties of plants in their field. However, some weeds through genetically-modified pollen contamination may acquire resistance to a variety of weed-killers. The only way to destroy these weeds is through the use of ever-stronger herbicides which are poisonous and linger on in the environment.
11. The author doubts the anti-GM lobby's contention that MNC control of the food chain will be disastrous for the poor because
1. MNCs will focus on high-value food items.
2. MNCs are driven by the motive of profit maximization.
3. MNCs are not the only group of actors in genetically-modified food research.
4. Economic development will help the poor buy MNC-produced food.
12. Using the clues in the passage, which of the following countries would you expect to be in the forefront of the anti-GM campaign?
1. USA and Spain. 2. India and Iraq.
3. Germany and France. 4. Australia and New Zealand.
13. Genetic modification makes plants more resistant to killer weeds. However, this can lead to environmental damage by
1. wiping out competing varieties of plants which now fall prey to killer weeds.
2. forcing application of stronger herbicides to kill weeds which have become resistant to weak herbicides.
3. forcing application of stronger herbicides to keep the competing plants weed-free.
4. not allowing growth of any weeds, thus reducing soil fertility.
14. According to the passage, biotechnology research
1. is of utility only for high value food items.
2. is funded only by multinational corporations.
3. allows multinational corporations to control the food basket of the poor.
4. addresses the concerns of rich and poor countries.
15. Which of the following about the Indian media's coverage of scientific research does the passage seem to suggest?
1. Indian media generally covers a subject of scientific importance when its mass application is likely.
2. Indian media's coverage of scientific research is generally dependent on MNCs interests.
3. Indian media, in partnership with the government, is actively involved in publicizing the results of scientific research.
4. Indian media only highlights scientific research which is funded by the government.
DIRECTIONS for Questions16 to 20: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Social life is an outflow and meeting of personality, which means that its end is the meeting of character, temperament, and sensibility, in which our thoughts and feelings, and sense perceptions are brought into play at their lightest and yet keenest.
This aspect, to my thinking, is realized as much in large parties composed of casual acquaintances or even strangers, as in intimate meetings of old friends. I am not one of those superior persons who hold cocktail parties in contempt, looking upon them as barren or at best as very tryingly kaleidoscopic places for gathering, because of the strangers one has to meet in them; which is no argument, for even our most intimate friends must at one time have been strangers to us. These large gatherings will be only what we make of them if not anything better, they can be as good places to collect new friends from as the slavemarkets of Istanbul were for beautiful slaves or New Market for race horses.
But they do offer more immediate enjoyment. For one thing, in them one can see the external expression of social life in appearance and behaviour at its widest and most varied, where one can admire beauty of body or air, hear voices remarkable either for sweetness of refinement, look on elegance of clothes or deportment. What is more, these parties are schools for training in sociability, for in them we have to treat strangers as friends. So, in them we see social sympathy in widest commonality spread, or at least should. We show an atrophy of the natural human instinct of getting pleasure and happiness out of other human beings if we cannot treat strangers as friends for the moment. And I would go further and paraphrase Pater to say that not to be able to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, even when we meet them casually, is on this short day of frost and sun which out life is, to sleep before evening.
So, it will be seen that my conception of social life is modest, for it makes no demands on what we have, though it does make some on what we are. Interest, wonder, sympathy, and love, the first two leading to the last two, are the psychological prerequisites for social life; and the need for the first two must not be underrated. We cannot make the most even of our intimate social life unless we are able to make strangers of our oldest friends everyday by discovering unknown areas in their personality, and transform them into new friends. In sum, social life is a function of vitality.
It is tragic, however, to observe that it is these very natural springs of social life which are drying up among us. It is becoming more and more difficult to come across fellow-feeling for human beings as such in our society and in all its strata. In the poor middle class, in the course of all my life. I have hardly seen any social life properly so-called. Not only has the grinding routine of making a living killed all desire for it in them, it has also generated a standing mood of peevish hostility to other human beings. Increasing economic distress in recent years has infinitely worsened this state of affairs, and has also brought a sinister addition class hatred. This has become the greatest collective emotional enjoyment of the poor middle class, and indeed they feel most social when they form a pack, and snarl or howl at people who are
better off than they.
Their most innocent exhibition of sociability is seen when they spill out from their intolerable homes into the streets and bazaars. I was astonished to see the milling crowds in the poor suburbs of Calcutta. But even there a group of flippant young loafers would put on a conspiratorial look if they saw a man in good clothes passing by them either on foot or in a car. I had borrowed a car from a relative to visit a friend in one of these suburbs, and he became very anxious when I had not returned before dusk. Acid and bombs, he said, were thrown at cars almost every evening in that area. I was amazed. But I also know as a fact that my brother was blackmailed to pay five rupees on a trumped up charge when passing in a car through one such locality.
The situation is differently inhuman, but not a whit more human, among the well-to-do. Kindliness for fellow human beings has been smothered in them, taken as a class, by the arrogance of worldly position, which among the Bengalis who show this snobbery is often only a third-class position.
16. The word 'they' in the first sentence of the third paragraph refers to
1. Large parties consisting of casual acquaintances and strangers.
2. Intimate meetings of old friends.
3. New friends.
4. Both (1) and (2).
17. In this passage the author is essentially
1. showing how shallow our social life is.
2. poking fun at the lower middle class people who howl at better off people.
3. lamenting the drying up of our real social life.
4. criticizing the upper class for lavish showy parties.
18. The author's conception of 'social life' requires that
1. people attend large gatherings.
2. people possess qualities like wonder and interest.
3. people do not spend too much time in the company of intimate friends.
4. large parties consist of casual acquaintances and intimate friends.
19. The word 'discriminate' in the last sentence of the third paragraph means
1. recognize 2. count 3. distinguish 4. analyse
20. What is the author trying to show through the two incidents in the paragraph beginning, "Their most innocent exhibition of sociability…"?
1. The crowds in poor Calcutta suburbs can turn violent without any provocation.
2. Although poor, the people of poor Calcutta suburbs have a rich social life.
3. It is risky for rich people to move around in poor suburbs.
4. Achieving a high degree of sociability does not stop the poor from hating the rich.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 21 to 25: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Modern science, exclusive of geometry, is a comparatively recent creation and can be said to have originated with Galileo and Newton. Galileo was the first scientist to recognize clearly that the only way to further our understanding of the physical world was to resort to experiment. However obvious Galileo's contention may appear in the light of our present knowledge, it remains a fact that the Greeks, in spite of their proficiency in geometry, never seem to have realized the importance of experiment. To a certain extent, this may be attributed to the crudeness of their instruments of measurement. Still an excuse of this sort can scarcely be put forward when the elementary nature of Galileo's experiments and observations is recalled. Watching a lamp oscillate in the cathedral of Pisa, dropping bodies from the leaning tower of Pisa, rolling balls down inclined planes, noticing the magnifying effect of water in a spherical glass vase, such was the nature of Galileo's experiments and observations. As can be seen, they might just as well have been performed by the Greeks. At any rate, it was thanks to such experiments that Galileo discovered the fundamental law of dynamics, according to which the acceleration imparted to a body is proportional to the force acting upon it.
The next advance was due to Newton, the greatest scientist of all time if account be taken of his joint contributions to mathematics and physics. As a physicist, he was of course an ardent adherent of the empirical method, but his greatest title to fame lies in another direction. Prior to Newton, mathematics, chiefly in the form of geometry, had been studied as a fine art without any view to its physical applications other than in very trivial cases. But with Newton all the resources of mathematics were turned to advantage in the solution of physical problems. Thenceforth, mathematics appeared as an instrument of discovery, the most powerful one known to man, multiplying the power of thought just as in the mechanical domain the lever multiplied our physical action. It is this application of mathematics to the solution of physical problems, this combination of two separate fields of investigation, which constitutes the essential characteristic of the Newtonian method. Thus, problems of physics were metamorphosed into problems of mathematics.
But in Newton's day the mathematical instrument was still in a very backward state of development. In this field again Newton showed the mark of genius by inventing the integral calculus. As a result of this remarkable discovery, problems, which would have baffled Archimedes, were solved with ease. We know that in Newton's hands this new departure in scientific method led to the discovery of the law of gravitation. But here again the real significance of Newton's achievement lay not so much in the exact quantitative formulation of the law of attraction, as in his having established the presence of law and order at least in one important realm of nature, namely, in the motions of heavenly bodies. Nature thus exhibited rationality and was not mere blind chaos and uncertainty. To be sure, Newton's investigations had been concerned with but a small group of natural phenomena, but it appeared unlikely that this mathematical law and order should turn out to be restricted to certain special phenomena; and the feeling was general that all the physical processes of nature would prove to be unfolding themselves according to rigorous mathematical laws.
When Einstein, in 1905, published his celebrated paper on the electrodynamics of moving bodies, he remarked that the difficulties, which surrounded the equations of electrodynamics, together with the negative experiments of Michelson and others, would be obviated if we extended the validity of the Newtonian principle of the relativity of Galilean motion, which applies solely to mechanical phenomena, so as to include all manner of phenomena: electrodynamics, optical etc. When extended in this way the Newtonian principle of relativity became Einstein's special principle of relativity. Its significance lay in its assertion that absolute Galilean motion or absolute velocity must ever escape all experimental detection. Henceforth absolute velocity should be conceived of as physically meaningless, not only in the particular realm of mechanics, as in Newton's day, but in the entire realm of physical phenomena. Einstein's special principle, by adding increased emphasis to this relativity of velocity, making absolute velocity metaphysically meaningless, created a still more profound distinction between velocity and accelerated or rotational motion. This latter type of motion remained absolute and real as before. It is most important to understand this point and to realize that Einstein's special principle is merely an extension of the validity of the classical Newtonian principle to all classes of phenomena.
21. According to the author, why did the Greeks NOT conduct experiments to understand the physical world?
1. Apparently they did not think it necessary to experiment.
2. They focused exclusively on geometry.
3. Their instruments of measurement were very crude.
4. The Greeks considered the application of geometry to the physical world more important.
22. The statement "Nature thus exhibited rationality and was not mere blind chaos and uncertainty" suggests that
1. problems that had baffled scientists like Archimedes were not really problems.
2. only a small group of natural phenomena was chaotic.
3. physical phenomena conformed to mathematical laws.
4. natural phenomena were evolving towards a less chaotic future.
23. Newton may be considered one of the greatest scientists of all time because he
1. discovered the law of gravitation.
2. married physics with mathematics.
3. invented integral calculus.
4. started the use of the empirical method in science.
24. Which of the following statements about modern science best captures the theme of the passage?
1. Modern science rests firmly on the platform built by the Greeks.
2. We need to go back to the method of enquiry used by the Greeks to better understand the laws of dynamics.
3. Disciplines like Mathematics and Physics function best when integrated into one.
4. New knowledge about natural phenomena builds on existing knowledge.
25. The significant implication of Einstein's special principle of relativity is that
1. absolute velocity was meaningless in the realm of mechanics.
2. Newton's principle of relativity needs to be modified.
3. there are limits to which experimentation can be used to understand some physical phenomena.
4. it is meaningless to try to understand the distinction between velocity and accelerated or rotational motion.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 26 to 30: The poem given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one,
may there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey,
without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
26. Which of the following best reflects the central theme of this poem?
1. If you don't have high expectations, you will not be disappointed.
2. Don't rush to your goal; the journey is what enriches you.
3. The longer the journey the greater the experiences you gather.
4. You cannot reach Ithaka without visiting Egyptian ports.
27. The poet recommends a long journey. Which of the following is the most comprehensive reason for it?
1. You can gain knowledge as well as sensual experience.
2. You can visit new cities and harbours.
3. You can experience the full range of sensuality.
4. You can buy a variety of fine things.
28. In the poem, Ithaka is a symbol of
1. the divine mother. 2. your inner self. 3. the path to wisdom. 4. life's distant goal.
29. What does the poet mean by 'Laistrygonians' and 'Cyclops'?
1. Creatures which, along with Poseidon, one finds during a journey.
2. Mythological characters that one should not be afraid of.
3. Intra-personal obstacles that hinder one's journey.
4. Problems that one has to face to derive the most from one's journey.
30. Which of the following best reflects the tone of the poem?
1. Prescribing 2. Exhorting 3. Pleading 4. Consoling
DIRECTIONS for Questions 31 to 35: In each of the questions, four different ways of presenting an idea are given. Choose the one that conforms most closely to Standard English usage.
31. A. The running of large businesses consist of getting somebody to make something that somebody else sold to somebody else for more than its cost.
B. The running of a large business consists of getting somebody to make something that somebody else will sell to somebody else for more than it costs.
C. The running of a large business consists of getting somebody to sell something that somebody else made for more than it cost.
D. The running of large businesses consist of getting somebody to make something else that somebody else will sell to somebody else for more than it costs.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
32. A. From the sixteenth century onwards, people started feeling disdainful and self-conscious about their body and its products that led to a heightened focus on emotional and bodily regulations.
B. The heightened focus on controlling the body and emotions comes from disdain and selfconsciousness about the body and its products, found in the sixteenth century.
C. From the sixteenth century onwards, a growing disdain for and self-consciousness about the body and its products took hold, leading to a heightened focus on emotional and bodily regulation.
D. The heightened focus on emotional and bodily regulations started from the sixteenth century onwards, when people felt disdain and self-consciousness about the body and its products.
1. A 2.B 3. C 4. D
33. A. We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
B. We are forced to falling back on the fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
C. We are forced to fall back on fatalism as explanations of irrational events.
D. We are forced to fall back to fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
34. A. Creativity in any field is regarded not only as valuable for itself but also as a service to the nation.
B. Creativity in any field is not regarded only as valuable on its own, but also as a service to the nation.
C. Creativity, in any field, is not only regarded as valuable, but also as a service to the nation.
D. Creativity in any field is regarded not only as valuable in itself but also as a service to the nation.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
35. A. If precision of thought had facilitated precision of behaviour, and if reflection had preceded action, it would be ideal for humans.
B. It would be ideal for humans if reflection preceded action and precision of thought facilitated precision of behaviour.
C. It would be ideal for humans if precedence of reflection was followed by action and precision of thought, by precise behaviour.
D. It would have been ideal for humans, if precise action and behaviour preceded precise reflection.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
DIRECTIONS for Questions 36 to 40: The sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of
sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
36. A. A few months ago I went to Princeton University to see what the young people who are going to be running our country in a few decades are like.
B. I would go to sleep in my hotel room around midnight each night, and when I awoke, my mailbox would be full of replies—sent at 1:15 a.m., 2:59 a.m., 3:23 a.m.
C. One senior told me that she went to bed around two and woke up each morning at seven; she could afford that much rest because she had learned to supplement her full day of work by studying in her sleep.
D. Faculty members gave me the names of a few dozen articulate students, and I sent them e-mails, inviting them out to lunch or dinner in small groups.
E. As she was falling asleep she would recite a math problem or a paper topic to herself; she would then sometimes dream about it, and when she woke up, the problem might be solved.
1. DABCE 2. DACEB 3. ADBCE 4. AECBD
37. A. Four days later, Oracle announced its own bid for PeopleSoft, and invited the firm's board to a discussion.
B. Furious that his own plans had been endangered, PeopleSoft's boss, Craig Conway, called Oracle's offer "diabolical", and its boss, Larry Ellison, a "sociopath".
C. In early June, PeopleSoft said that it would buy J.D. Edwards, a smaller rival.
D. Moreover, said Mr. Conway, he "could imagine no price nor combination of price and other conditions to recommend accepting the offer."
E. On June 12th, PeopleSoft turned Oracle down.
1. CABDE 2. CADBE 3. CEDAB 4. CAEBD
38. A. Surrendered, or captured, combatants cannot be incarcerated in razor wire cages; this 'war' has a dubious legality.
B. How can then one characterize a conflict to be waged against a phenomenon as war?
C. The phrase 'war against terror', which has passed into the common lexicon, is a huge misnomer.
D. Besides, war has a juridical meaning in international law, which has codified the laws of war, imbuing them with a humanitarian content.
E.Terror is a phenomenon, not an entity—either State or non-State.
1. ECDBA 2. BECDA 3. EBCAD 4. CEBDA
39. A. I am much more intolerant of a human being's shortcomings than I am of an animal's, but in this respect I have been lucky, for most of the people I have come across have been charming.
B. Then you come across the unpleasant human animal—the District Officer who drawled, 'We chaps are here to help you chaps,' and then proceeded to be as obstructive as possible.
C. In these cases of course, the fact that you are an animal collector helps; people always seem delighted to meet someone with such an unusual occupation and go out of their way to assist
you.
D. Fortunately, these types are rare, and the pleasant ones I have met more than compensated for them—but even so, I think I will stick to animals.
E. When you travel round the world collecting animals you also, of necessity, collect human beings.
1. EACBD 2. ABDCE 3. ECBDA 4. ACBDE
40. A.To avoid this, the QWERTY layout put the keys most likely to be hit in rapid succession on opposite sides. This made the keyboard slow, the story goes, but that was the idea.
B. A different layout, which had been patented by August Dvorak in 1936, was shown to be much faster.
C. The QWERTY design (patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to Remington in 1873) aimed to solve a mechanical problem of early typewriters.
D.Yet the Dvorak layout has never been widely adopted, even though (with electric typewriters and then PCs) the anti-jamming rational for QWERTY has been defunct for years.
E. When certain combinations of keys were struck quickly, the type bars often jammed.
1. BDACE 2. CEABD 3. BCDEA 4. CAEBD
DIRECTIONS for Questions 41 to 45: In each question, the word at the top of the table is used in four different ways, numbered 1 to 4. Choose the option in which the usage of the word is INCORRECT or INAPPROPRIATE.
41. Bundle
1 The newborn baby was a bundle of joy for the family.
2 Mobile operators are offering a bundle of additional benefits.
3 He made a bundle in the share market.
4 It was sheer luck that brought a bundle of boy-scouts to where I was lying wounded.
42. Distinct
1 He is distinct about what is right and what is wrong.
2 Mars became distinct on the horizon in the month of August.
3 The distinct strains of Ravi's violin could be heard above the general din.
4 Ghoshbabu's is a distinct case of water rising above its own level.
43. Implication
1 Everyone appreciated the headmaster's implication in raising flood relief in the village.
2 This letter will lead to the implication of several industrialists in the market scam.
3 Several members of the audience missed the implication of the minister's promise.
4 Death, by implication, is the only solution the poem offers the reader.
44. Host
1 If you host the party, who will foot the bill?
2 Kerala's forests are host to a range of snakes
3 Ranchi will play the host to the next national film festival.
4 A virus has infected the host computer.
45. Sort
1 What sort of cheese do you use in pizza?
2 Farmers of all sort attended the rally.
3 They serve tea of a sort on these trains.
4 Let's sort these boys into four groups.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 46 to 50: There are two gaps in each of the following sentences. From the pairs of words given, choose the one that fills the gaps most appropriately. The first word in the pair should
fill the first gap.
46. The British retailer, M&S, today formally ______ defeat in its attempt to _____ King's, its US subsidiary, since no potential purchasers were ready to cough up the necessary cash.
1. admitted, acquire 2. conceded, offload
3. announced, dispose 4. ratified, auction
47. Early ______ of maladjustment to college culture is _______ by the tendency to develop friendship networks outside college which mask signals of maladjustment.
1. treatment, compounded 2. detection, facilitated
3. identification, complicated 4. prevention, helped
48. The ______ regions of Spain all have unique cultures, but the _______ views within each region make the issue of an acceptable common language of instruction an even more contentious one.
1. different, discrete 2. distinct, disparate
3. divergent, distinct 4. different, competing
49. A growing number of these expert professionals _____ having to train foreigners as the students end up _____ the teachers who have to then unhappily contend with no jobs at all or new jobs with drastically reduced pay packets.
1. resent, replacing 2. resist, challenging
3. welcome, assisting 4. are, supplanting
50. Companies that try to improve employees' performance by _____ rewards encourage negative kinds of behavior instead of _____ a genuine interest in doing the work well.
1. giving, seeking 2. bestowing, discouraging
3. conferring, discrediting 4. withholding, fostering
At the heart of the enormous boom in wine consumption that has taken place in the English speaking world over the last two decades or so is a fascinating, happy paradox. In the days when wine was exclusively the preserve of a narrow cultural elite, bought either at auctions or from gentleman wine merchants in wing collars and bow-ties, to be stored in rambling cellars and decanted to order by one's butler, the ordinary drinker didn't get a look-in. Wine was considered a highly technical subject, in which anybody without the necessary ability could only fall flat on his or her face in embarrassment. It wasn't just that you needed a refined aesthetic sensibility for the stuff if it wasn't to be hopelessly wasted on you. It required an intimate knowledge of what came from where, and what it was supposed to taste like.
Those were times, however, when wine appreciation essentially meant a familiarity with the great French classics, with perhaps a smattering of other wines — like sherry and port. That was what the wine trade dealt in. These days, wine is bought daily in supermarkets and high-street chains to be consumed that evening, hardly anybody has a cellar to store it in and most don't even possess a decanter. Above all, the wines of literally dozens of countries are available in our market. When a supermarket offers its customers a couple of fruity little numbers from Brazil, we scarcely raise an eyebrow.
It seems, in other words, that the commercial jungle that wine has now become has not in the slightest deterred people from plunging adventurously into the thickets in order to taste and see. Consumers are no longer intimidated by the thought of needing to know their Pouilly-Fume from their Pouilly-Fuisse, just at the very moment when there is more to know than ever before.
The reason for this new mood of confidence is not hard to find. It is on every wine label from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States: the name of the grape from which the wine is made. At one time that might have sounded like a fairly technical approach in itself. Why should native English-speakers know what Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay were? The answer lies in the popularity that wines made from those grape varieties now enjoy. Consumer effectively recognize them as brand names, and have acquired a basic lexicon of wine that can serve them even when confronted with those Brazilian upstarts.
In the wine heartlands of France, they are scared to death of that trend—not because they think their wine isn't as good as the best from California or South Australia (what French winemaker will ever admit that?) but because they don't traditionally call their wines Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. They call them Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou or Corton-Charlemagne, and they aren't about the change. Some areas, in the middle of southern France, have now produced a generation of growers using the varietal names on their labels and are tempting consumers back to French wine. It will be an uphill struggle, but there is probably no other way if France is to avoid simply becoming a specialty source of old-fashioned wines for oldfashioned
connoisseurs.
Wine consumption was also given a significant boost in the early 1990s by the work of Dr. Serge Renaud, who has spent many years investigating the reasons for the uncannily low incidence of coronary heart disease in the south of France. One of his major findings is that the fat-derived cholesterol that builds up in the arteries and can eventually lead to heart trouble, can be dispersed by the tannins in wine. Tannin is derived from the skins of grapes, and is therefore present in higher levels in red wines, because they have to be infused with their skins to attain the red colour. That news caused a huge upsurge in red wine consumption in the United States. It has not been accorded the prominence it deserves in the UK, largely because the medical profession still sees all alcohol as a menace to health, and is constantly calling for it to be made prohibitively expensive. Certainly, the manufacturers of anticoagulant drugs might have something to lose if we all got the message that we would do just as well by our hearts by taking half a bottle of red wine every day!
1. The tone that the author uses while asking "what French winemaker will ever admit that?" is best described as
1. caustic 2. satirical 3. critical 4. hypocritical
2. What according to the author should the French do to avoid becoming a producer of merely oldfashioned wines?
1. Follow the labeling strategy of the English-speaking countries
2. Give their wines English names
3. Introduce fruity wines as Brazil has done
4. Produce the wines that have become popular in the English-speaking world
3. The development which has created fear among winemakers in the wine heartland of France is the
1. tendency not to name wines after the grape varieties that are used in the wines.
2. 'education' that consumers have derived from wine labels from English speaking countries.
3. new generation of local winegrowers who use labels that show names of grape varieties.
4. ability of consumers to understand a wine's qualities when confronted with "Brazilian upstarts".
4 Which one of the following, if true, would provide most support for Dr. Renaud's findings about the effect of tannins?
1. A survey showed that film celebrities based in France have a low incidence of coronary heart disease.
2. Measurements carried out in southern France showed red wine drinkers had significantly higher levels of coronary heart incidence than white wine drinkers did.
3. Data showed a positive association between sales of red wine and incidence of coronary heart disease.
4. Long-term surveys in southern France showed that the incidence of coronary heart disease was significantly lower in red wine drinkers than in those who did not drink red wine.
5. Which one of the following CANNOT be reasonably attributed to the labeling strategy followed by wine producers in English speaking countries?
1. Consumers buy wines on the basis of their familiarity with a grape variety's name.
2. Even ordinary customers now have more access to technical knowledge about wine.
3. Consumers are able to appreciate better quality wines.
4. Some non-English speaking countries like Brazil indicate grape variety names on their labels.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 6 to10: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Right through history, imperial powers have clung to their possessions to death. Why, then, did Britain in 1947 give up the jewel in its crown, India? For many reasons. The independence struggle exposed the hollowness of the white man's burden. Provincial self-rule since 1935 paved the way for full self-rule. Churchill resisted independence, but the Labour government of Atlee was anti-imperialist by ideology. Finally, the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in 1946 raised fears of a second Sepoy mutiny, and convinced British waverers that it was safer to withdraw gracefully. But politico-military explanations are not enough. The basis of empire was always money. The end of empire had much to do with the fact that British imperialism had ceased to be profitable. World War II left Britain victorious but deeply indebted, needing Marshall Aid and loans from the World Bank. This constituted a strong financial case for ending the no-longer profitable empire.
Empire building is expensive. The US is spending one billion dollars a day in operations in Iraq that fall well short of full scale imperialism. Through the centuries, empire building was costly, yet constantly undertaken because it promised high returns. The investment was in armies and conquest. The returns came through plunder and taxes from the conquered.
No immorality was attached to imperial loot and plunder. The biggest conquerors were typically revered (hence titles like Alexander the Great, Akbar the Great, and Peter the Great). The bigger and richer the empire, the more the plunderer was admired. This mindset gradually changed with the rise of new ideas about equality and governing for the public good, ideas that culminated in the French and American revolutions. Robert Clive was impeached for making a little money on the side, and so was Warren Hastings. The white man's burden came up as a new moral rationale for conquest. It was supposedly for the good of the conquered. This led to much muddled hypocrisy. On the one hand, the empire needed to be profitable. On the other hand, the white man's burden made brazen loot impossible.
An additional factor deterring loot was the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. Though crushed, it reminded the British vividly that they were a tiny ethnic group who could not rule a gigantic subcontinent without the support of important locals. After 1857, the British stopped annexing one princely state after another, and instead treated the princes as allies. Land revenue was fixed in absolute terms, partly to prevent local unrest and partly to promote the notion of the white man's burden. The empire proclaimed itself to be a protector of the Indian peasant against exploitation by Indian elites. This was denounced as hypocrisy by nationalists like Dadabhoy Naoroji in the 19th century, who complained that land taxes led to an enormous drain from India to Britain. Objective calculations by historians like Angus Maddison suggest a drain of perhaps 1.6 percent of Indian Gross National Product in the 19th century. But land revenue was more or less fixed by the Raj in absolute terms, and so its real value diminished rapidly with inflation in the 20th century. By World War II, India had ceased to be a profit center for the British Empire.
Historically, conquered nations paid taxes to finance fresh wars of the conqueror. India itself was asked to pay a large sum at the end of World War I to help repair Britain's finances. But, as shown by historian Indivar Kamtekar, the independence movement led by Gandhiji changed the political landscape, and made mass taxation of India increasingly difficult. By World War II, this had become politically impossible. Far from taxing India to pay for World War II, Britain actually began paying India for its contribution of men and goods. Troops from white dominions like Australia, Canada and New Zealand were paid for entirely by these countries, but Indian costs were shared by the British government. Britain paid in the form of nonconvertible sterling balances, which mounted swiftly. The conqueror was paying the conquered, undercutting the profitability on which all empire is founded. Churchill opposed this, and wanted to tax India rather than owe it money. But he was overruled by Indian hands who said India would resist payment, and paralyze the war effort. Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India, said that when you are driving in a taxi to the station to catch a life-or-death train, you do not loudly announce that you have doubts whether to pay the fare. Thus, World War II converted India from a debtor to a creditor with over one billion pounds in sterling balances.
Britain, meanwhile, became the biggest debtor in the world. It's not worth ruling over people you are afraid to tax.
6. Why didn't Britain tax India to finance its World War II efforts?
1. Australia, Canada and New Zealand had offered to pay for Indian troops.
2. India has already paid a sufficiently large sum during World War I.
3. It was afraid that if India refused to pay, Britain's war efforts would be jeopardized.
4. The British empire was built on the premise that the conqueror pays the conquered.
7. What was the main lesson the British learned from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857?
1. That the local princes were allies, not foes.
2. That the land revenue from India would decline dramatically.
3. That the British were a small ethnic group.
4. That India would be increasingly difficult to rule.
8. Which of the following was NOT a reason for the emergence of the 'white man's burden' as a new rationale for empire-building in India?
1. The emergence of the idea of the public good as an element of governance.
2. The decreasing returns from imperial loot and increasing costs of conquest.
3. The weakening of the immorality attached to an emperor's looting behaviour.
4. A growing awareness of the idea of equality among peoples.
9. Which of the following best captures the meaning of the 'white man's burden', as it is used by the author?
1. The British claim to a civilizing mission directed at ensuring the good of the natives.
2. The inspiration for the French and American revolutions.
3. The resource drain that had to be borne by the home country's white population.
4. An imperative that made open looting of resources impossible.
10. Which one of the following best expresses the main purpose of the author?
1. To present the various reasons that can lead to the collapse of an empire and the granting of independence of the subjects of an empire.
2. To point out the critical role played by the 'white man's burden' in making a colonizing power give up its claims to native possessions.
3. To highlight the contradictory impulse underpinning empire building which is a costly business but very attractive at the same time.
4. To illustrate how erosion of the financial basis of an empire supports the granting of independence to an empire's constituents.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 11 to15: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
The controversy over genetically modified food continues unabated in the West. Genetic modification (GM) is the science by which the genetic material of a plant is altered, perhaps to make it more resistant to pests or killer weeds, or to enhance its nutritional value. Many food biotechnologists claim that GM will be a major contribution of science to mankind in the 21st century. On the other hand, large numbers of opponents, mainly in Europe, claim that the benefits of GM are a myth propagated by multinational corporations to increase their profits, that they pose a health hazard, and have therefore called for government to ban the sale of genetically-modified food.
The anti-GM campaign has been quite effective in Europe, with several European Union member countries imposing a virtual ban for five years over genetically-modified food imports. Since the genetically-modified food industry is particularly strong in the United States of America, the controversy also constitutes another chapter in the US-Europe skirmishes which have become particularly acerbic after the US invasion of Iraq.
To a large extent, the GM controversy has been ignored in the Indian media, although Indian biotechnologists have been quite active in GM research. Several groups of Indian biotechnologists have been working on various issues connected with crops grown in India. One concrete achievement which has recently figured in the news is that of a team led by the former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru university, Asis Datta — it has successfully added an extra gene to potatoes to enhance the protein content of the tuber by at least 30 percent. It is quite likely that the GM controversy will soon hit the headlines in India since a spokesperson of the Indian Central government has recently announced that the government may use the protato in its midday meal programme for schools as early as next year.
Why should "scientific progress", with huge potential benefits to the poor and malnourished, be so controversial? The anti-GM lobby contends that pernicious propaganda has vastly exaggerated the benefits of GM and completely evaded the costs which will have to be incurred if the genetically-modified food industry is allowed to grow unchecked. In particular, they allude to different types of costs.
This group contends that the most important potential cost is that the widespread distribution and growth of genetically-modified food will enable the corporate world (alias the multinational corporations – MNCs) to completely capture the food chain. A "small" group of biotech companies will patent the transferred genes as well as the technology associated with them. They will then buy up the competing seed merchants and seed-breeding centers, thereby controlling the production of food at every possible level. Independent farmers, big and small, will be completely wiped out of the food industry. At best, they will be reduced to the status of being subcontractors.
This line of argument goes on to claim that the control of the food chain will be disastrous for the poor since the MNCs, guided by the profit motive, will only focus on the high-value food items demanded by the affluent. Thus, in the long run, the production of basic staples which constitute the food basket of the poor will taper off. However, this vastly overestimates the power of the MNCs. Even if the research promoted by them does focus on the high-value food items, much of biotechnology research is also funded by governments in both developing and developed countries. Indeed, the protato is a by-product of this type of research. If the protato passes the field trials, there is no reason to believe that it cannot be marketed in the global potato market. And this type of success story can be repeated with other basic food items.
The second type of cost associated with the genetically modified food industry is environmental damage. The most common type of "genetic engineering" involved gene modification in plants designed to make them resistant to applications of weed-killers. This then enables farmers to use massive dosages of weedkillers so as to destroy or wipe out all competing varieties of plants in their field. However, some weeds through genetically-modified pollen contamination may acquire resistance to a variety of weed-killers. The only way to destroy these weeds is through the use of ever-stronger herbicides which are poisonous and linger on in the environment.
11. The author doubts the anti-GM lobby's contention that MNC control of the food chain will be disastrous for the poor because
1. MNCs will focus on high-value food items.
2. MNCs are driven by the motive of profit maximization.
3. MNCs are not the only group of actors in genetically-modified food research.
4. Economic development will help the poor buy MNC-produced food.
12. Using the clues in the passage, which of the following countries would you expect to be in the forefront of the anti-GM campaign?
1. USA and Spain. 2. India and Iraq.
3. Germany and France. 4. Australia and New Zealand.
13. Genetic modification makes plants more resistant to killer weeds. However, this can lead to environmental damage by
1. wiping out competing varieties of plants which now fall prey to killer weeds.
2. forcing application of stronger herbicides to kill weeds which have become resistant to weak herbicides.
3. forcing application of stronger herbicides to keep the competing plants weed-free.
4. not allowing growth of any weeds, thus reducing soil fertility.
14. According to the passage, biotechnology research
1. is of utility only for high value food items.
2. is funded only by multinational corporations.
3. allows multinational corporations to control the food basket of the poor.
4. addresses the concerns of rich and poor countries.
15. Which of the following about the Indian media's coverage of scientific research does the passage seem to suggest?
1. Indian media generally covers a subject of scientific importance when its mass application is likely.
2. Indian media's coverage of scientific research is generally dependent on MNCs interests.
3. Indian media, in partnership with the government, is actively involved in publicizing the results of scientific research.
4. Indian media only highlights scientific research which is funded by the government.
DIRECTIONS for Questions16 to 20: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Social life is an outflow and meeting of personality, which means that its end is the meeting of character, temperament, and sensibility, in which our thoughts and feelings, and sense perceptions are brought into play at their lightest and yet keenest.
This aspect, to my thinking, is realized as much in large parties composed of casual acquaintances or even strangers, as in intimate meetings of old friends. I am not one of those superior persons who hold cocktail parties in contempt, looking upon them as barren or at best as very tryingly kaleidoscopic places for gathering, because of the strangers one has to meet in them; which is no argument, for even our most intimate friends must at one time have been strangers to us. These large gatherings will be only what we make of them if not anything better, they can be as good places to collect new friends from as the slavemarkets of Istanbul were for beautiful slaves or New Market for race horses.
But they do offer more immediate enjoyment. For one thing, in them one can see the external expression of social life in appearance and behaviour at its widest and most varied, where one can admire beauty of body or air, hear voices remarkable either for sweetness of refinement, look on elegance of clothes or deportment. What is more, these parties are schools for training in sociability, for in them we have to treat strangers as friends. So, in them we see social sympathy in widest commonality spread, or at least should. We show an atrophy of the natural human instinct of getting pleasure and happiness out of other human beings if we cannot treat strangers as friends for the moment. And I would go further and paraphrase Pater to say that not to be able to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, even when we meet them casually, is on this short day of frost and sun which out life is, to sleep before evening.
So, it will be seen that my conception of social life is modest, for it makes no demands on what we have, though it does make some on what we are. Interest, wonder, sympathy, and love, the first two leading to the last two, are the psychological prerequisites for social life; and the need for the first two must not be underrated. We cannot make the most even of our intimate social life unless we are able to make strangers of our oldest friends everyday by discovering unknown areas in their personality, and transform them into new friends. In sum, social life is a function of vitality.
It is tragic, however, to observe that it is these very natural springs of social life which are drying up among us. It is becoming more and more difficult to come across fellow-feeling for human beings as such in our society and in all its strata. In the poor middle class, in the course of all my life. I have hardly seen any social life properly so-called. Not only has the grinding routine of making a living killed all desire for it in them, it has also generated a standing mood of peevish hostility to other human beings. Increasing economic distress in recent years has infinitely worsened this state of affairs, and has also brought a sinister addition class hatred. This has become the greatest collective emotional enjoyment of the poor middle class, and indeed they feel most social when they form a pack, and snarl or howl at people who are
better off than they.
Their most innocent exhibition of sociability is seen when they spill out from their intolerable homes into the streets and bazaars. I was astonished to see the milling crowds in the poor suburbs of Calcutta. But even there a group of flippant young loafers would put on a conspiratorial look if they saw a man in good clothes passing by them either on foot or in a car. I had borrowed a car from a relative to visit a friend in one of these suburbs, and he became very anxious when I had not returned before dusk. Acid and bombs, he said, were thrown at cars almost every evening in that area. I was amazed. But I also know as a fact that my brother was blackmailed to pay five rupees on a trumped up charge when passing in a car through one such locality.
The situation is differently inhuman, but not a whit more human, among the well-to-do. Kindliness for fellow human beings has been smothered in them, taken as a class, by the arrogance of worldly position, which among the Bengalis who show this snobbery is often only a third-class position.
16. The word 'they' in the first sentence of the third paragraph refers to
1. Large parties consisting of casual acquaintances and strangers.
2. Intimate meetings of old friends.
3. New friends.
4. Both (1) and (2).
17. In this passage the author is essentially
1. showing how shallow our social life is.
2. poking fun at the lower middle class people who howl at better off people.
3. lamenting the drying up of our real social life.
4. criticizing the upper class for lavish showy parties.
18. The author's conception of 'social life' requires that
1. people attend large gatherings.
2. people possess qualities like wonder and interest.
3. people do not spend too much time in the company of intimate friends.
4. large parties consist of casual acquaintances and intimate friends.
19. The word 'discriminate' in the last sentence of the third paragraph means
1. recognize 2. count 3. distinguish 4. analyse
20. What is the author trying to show through the two incidents in the paragraph beginning, "Their most innocent exhibition of sociability…"?
1. The crowds in poor Calcutta suburbs can turn violent without any provocation.
2. Although poor, the people of poor Calcutta suburbs have a rich social life.
3. It is risky for rich people to move around in poor suburbs.
4. Achieving a high degree of sociability does not stop the poor from hating the rich.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 21 to 25: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Modern science, exclusive of geometry, is a comparatively recent creation and can be said to have originated with Galileo and Newton. Galileo was the first scientist to recognize clearly that the only way to further our understanding of the physical world was to resort to experiment. However obvious Galileo's contention may appear in the light of our present knowledge, it remains a fact that the Greeks, in spite of their proficiency in geometry, never seem to have realized the importance of experiment. To a certain extent, this may be attributed to the crudeness of their instruments of measurement. Still an excuse of this sort can scarcely be put forward when the elementary nature of Galileo's experiments and observations is recalled. Watching a lamp oscillate in the cathedral of Pisa, dropping bodies from the leaning tower of Pisa, rolling balls down inclined planes, noticing the magnifying effect of water in a spherical glass vase, such was the nature of Galileo's experiments and observations. As can be seen, they might just as well have been performed by the Greeks. At any rate, it was thanks to such experiments that Galileo discovered the fundamental law of dynamics, according to which the acceleration imparted to a body is proportional to the force acting upon it.
The next advance was due to Newton, the greatest scientist of all time if account be taken of his joint contributions to mathematics and physics. As a physicist, he was of course an ardent adherent of the empirical method, but his greatest title to fame lies in another direction. Prior to Newton, mathematics, chiefly in the form of geometry, had been studied as a fine art without any view to its physical applications other than in very trivial cases. But with Newton all the resources of mathematics were turned to advantage in the solution of physical problems. Thenceforth, mathematics appeared as an instrument of discovery, the most powerful one known to man, multiplying the power of thought just as in the mechanical domain the lever multiplied our physical action. It is this application of mathematics to the solution of physical problems, this combination of two separate fields of investigation, which constitutes the essential characteristic of the Newtonian method. Thus, problems of physics were metamorphosed into problems of mathematics.
But in Newton's day the mathematical instrument was still in a very backward state of development. In this field again Newton showed the mark of genius by inventing the integral calculus. As a result of this remarkable discovery, problems, which would have baffled Archimedes, were solved with ease. We know that in Newton's hands this new departure in scientific method led to the discovery of the law of gravitation. But here again the real significance of Newton's achievement lay not so much in the exact quantitative formulation of the law of attraction, as in his having established the presence of law and order at least in one important realm of nature, namely, in the motions of heavenly bodies. Nature thus exhibited rationality and was not mere blind chaos and uncertainty. To be sure, Newton's investigations had been concerned with but a small group of natural phenomena, but it appeared unlikely that this mathematical law and order should turn out to be restricted to certain special phenomena; and the feeling was general that all the physical processes of nature would prove to be unfolding themselves according to rigorous mathematical laws.
When Einstein, in 1905, published his celebrated paper on the electrodynamics of moving bodies, he remarked that the difficulties, which surrounded the equations of electrodynamics, together with the negative experiments of Michelson and others, would be obviated if we extended the validity of the Newtonian principle of the relativity of Galilean motion, which applies solely to mechanical phenomena, so as to include all manner of phenomena: electrodynamics, optical etc. When extended in this way the Newtonian principle of relativity became Einstein's special principle of relativity. Its significance lay in its assertion that absolute Galilean motion or absolute velocity must ever escape all experimental detection. Henceforth absolute velocity should be conceived of as physically meaningless, not only in the particular realm of mechanics, as in Newton's day, but in the entire realm of physical phenomena. Einstein's special principle, by adding increased emphasis to this relativity of velocity, making absolute velocity metaphysically meaningless, created a still more profound distinction between velocity and accelerated or rotational motion. This latter type of motion remained absolute and real as before. It is most important to understand this point and to realize that Einstein's special principle is merely an extension of the validity of the classical Newtonian principle to all classes of phenomena.
21. According to the author, why did the Greeks NOT conduct experiments to understand the physical world?
1. Apparently they did not think it necessary to experiment.
2. They focused exclusively on geometry.
3. Their instruments of measurement were very crude.
4. The Greeks considered the application of geometry to the physical world more important.
22. The statement "Nature thus exhibited rationality and was not mere blind chaos and uncertainty" suggests that
1. problems that had baffled scientists like Archimedes were not really problems.
2. only a small group of natural phenomena was chaotic.
3. physical phenomena conformed to mathematical laws.
4. natural phenomena were evolving towards a less chaotic future.
23. Newton may be considered one of the greatest scientists of all time because he
1. discovered the law of gravitation.
2. married physics with mathematics.
3. invented integral calculus.
4. started the use of the empirical method in science.
24. Which of the following statements about modern science best captures the theme of the passage?
1. Modern science rests firmly on the platform built by the Greeks.
2. We need to go back to the method of enquiry used by the Greeks to better understand the laws of dynamics.
3. Disciplines like Mathematics and Physics function best when integrated into one.
4. New knowledge about natural phenomena builds on existing knowledge.
25. The significant implication of Einstein's special principle of relativity is that
1. absolute velocity was meaningless in the realm of mechanics.
2. Newton's principle of relativity needs to be modified.
3. there are limits to which experimentation can be used to understand some physical phenomena.
4. it is meaningless to try to understand the distinction between velocity and accelerated or rotational motion.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 26 to 30: The poem given below is followed by five questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one,
may there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey,
without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
26. Which of the following best reflects the central theme of this poem?
1. If you don't have high expectations, you will not be disappointed.
2. Don't rush to your goal; the journey is what enriches you.
3. The longer the journey the greater the experiences you gather.
4. You cannot reach Ithaka without visiting Egyptian ports.
27. The poet recommends a long journey. Which of the following is the most comprehensive reason for it?
1. You can gain knowledge as well as sensual experience.
2. You can visit new cities and harbours.
3. You can experience the full range of sensuality.
4. You can buy a variety of fine things.
28. In the poem, Ithaka is a symbol of
1. the divine mother. 2. your inner self. 3. the path to wisdom. 4. life's distant goal.
29. What does the poet mean by 'Laistrygonians' and 'Cyclops'?
1. Creatures which, along with Poseidon, one finds during a journey.
2. Mythological characters that one should not be afraid of.
3. Intra-personal obstacles that hinder one's journey.
4. Problems that one has to face to derive the most from one's journey.
30. Which of the following best reflects the tone of the poem?
1. Prescribing 2. Exhorting 3. Pleading 4. Consoling
DIRECTIONS for Questions 31 to 35: In each of the questions, four different ways of presenting an idea are given. Choose the one that conforms most closely to Standard English usage.
31. A. The running of large businesses consist of getting somebody to make something that somebody else sold to somebody else for more than its cost.
B. The running of a large business consists of getting somebody to make something that somebody else will sell to somebody else for more than it costs.
C. The running of a large business consists of getting somebody to sell something that somebody else made for more than it cost.
D. The running of large businesses consist of getting somebody to make something else that somebody else will sell to somebody else for more than it costs.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
32. A. From the sixteenth century onwards, people started feeling disdainful and self-conscious about their body and its products that led to a heightened focus on emotional and bodily regulations.
B. The heightened focus on controlling the body and emotions comes from disdain and selfconsciousness about the body and its products, found in the sixteenth century.
C. From the sixteenth century onwards, a growing disdain for and self-consciousness about the body and its products took hold, leading to a heightened focus on emotional and bodily regulation.
D. The heightened focus on emotional and bodily regulations started from the sixteenth century onwards, when people felt disdain and self-consciousness about the body and its products.
1. A 2.B 3. C 4. D
33. A. We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
B. We are forced to falling back on the fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
C. We are forced to fall back on fatalism as explanations of irrational events.
D. We are forced to fall back to fatalism as an explanation of irrational events.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
34. A. Creativity in any field is regarded not only as valuable for itself but also as a service to the nation.
B. Creativity in any field is not regarded only as valuable on its own, but also as a service to the nation.
C. Creativity, in any field, is not only regarded as valuable, but also as a service to the nation.
D. Creativity in any field is regarded not only as valuable in itself but also as a service to the nation.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
35. A. If precision of thought had facilitated precision of behaviour, and if reflection had preceded action, it would be ideal for humans.
B. It would be ideal for humans if reflection preceded action and precision of thought facilitated precision of behaviour.
C. It would be ideal for humans if precedence of reflection was followed by action and precision of thought, by precise behaviour.
D. It would have been ideal for humans, if precise action and behaviour preceded precise reflection.
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
DIRECTIONS for Questions 36 to 40: The sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of
sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
36. A. A few months ago I went to Princeton University to see what the young people who are going to be running our country in a few decades are like.
B. I would go to sleep in my hotel room around midnight each night, and when I awoke, my mailbox would be full of replies—sent at 1:15 a.m., 2:59 a.m., 3:23 a.m.
C. One senior told me that she went to bed around two and woke up each morning at seven; she could afford that much rest because she had learned to supplement her full day of work by studying in her sleep.
D. Faculty members gave me the names of a few dozen articulate students, and I sent them e-mails, inviting them out to lunch or dinner in small groups.
E. As she was falling asleep she would recite a math problem or a paper topic to herself; she would then sometimes dream about it, and when she woke up, the problem might be solved.
1. DABCE 2. DACEB 3. ADBCE 4. AECBD
37. A. Four days later, Oracle announced its own bid for PeopleSoft, and invited the firm's board to a discussion.
B. Furious that his own plans had been endangered, PeopleSoft's boss, Craig Conway, called Oracle's offer "diabolical", and its boss, Larry Ellison, a "sociopath".
C. In early June, PeopleSoft said that it would buy J.D. Edwards, a smaller rival.
D. Moreover, said Mr. Conway, he "could imagine no price nor combination of price and other conditions to recommend accepting the offer."
E. On June 12th, PeopleSoft turned Oracle down.
1. CABDE 2. CADBE 3. CEDAB 4. CAEBD
38. A. Surrendered, or captured, combatants cannot be incarcerated in razor wire cages; this 'war' has a dubious legality.
B. How can then one characterize a conflict to be waged against a phenomenon as war?
C. The phrase 'war against terror', which has passed into the common lexicon, is a huge misnomer.
D. Besides, war has a juridical meaning in international law, which has codified the laws of war, imbuing them with a humanitarian content.
E.Terror is a phenomenon, not an entity—either State or non-State.
1. ECDBA 2. BECDA 3. EBCAD 4. CEBDA
39. A. I am much more intolerant of a human being's shortcomings than I am of an animal's, but in this respect I have been lucky, for most of the people I have come across have been charming.
B. Then you come across the unpleasant human animal—the District Officer who drawled, 'We chaps are here to help you chaps,' and then proceeded to be as obstructive as possible.
C. In these cases of course, the fact that you are an animal collector helps; people always seem delighted to meet someone with such an unusual occupation and go out of their way to assist
you.
D. Fortunately, these types are rare, and the pleasant ones I have met more than compensated for them—but even so, I think I will stick to animals.
E. When you travel round the world collecting animals you also, of necessity, collect human beings.
1. EACBD 2. ABDCE 3. ECBDA 4. ACBDE
40. A.To avoid this, the QWERTY layout put the keys most likely to be hit in rapid succession on opposite sides. This made the keyboard slow, the story goes, but that was the idea.
B. A different layout, which had been patented by August Dvorak in 1936, was shown to be much faster.
C. The QWERTY design (patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to Remington in 1873) aimed to solve a mechanical problem of early typewriters.
D.Yet the Dvorak layout has never been widely adopted, even though (with electric typewriters and then PCs) the anti-jamming rational for QWERTY has been defunct for years.
E. When certain combinations of keys were struck quickly, the type bars often jammed.
1. BDACE 2. CEABD 3. BCDEA 4. CAEBD
DIRECTIONS for Questions 41 to 45: In each question, the word at the top of the table is used in four different ways, numbered 1 to 4. Choose the option in which the usage of the word is INCORRECT or INAPPROPRIATE.
41. Bundle
1 The newborn baby was a bundle of joy for the family.
2 Mobile operators are offering a bundle of additional benefits.
3 He made a bundle in the share market.
4 It was sheer luck that brought a bundle of boy-scouts to where I was lying wounded.
42. Distinct
1 He is distinct about what is right and what is wrong.
2 Mars became distinct on the horizon in the month of August.
3 The distinct strains of Ravi's violin could be heard above the general din.
4 Ghoshbabu's is a distinct case of water rising above its own level.
43. Implication
1 Everyone appreciated the headmaster's implication in raising flood relief in the village.
2 This letter will lead to the implication of several industrialists in the market scam.
3 Several members of the audience missed the implication of the minister's promise.
4 Death, by implication, is the only solution the poem offers the reader.
44. Host
1 If you host the party, who will foot the bill?
2 Kerala's forests are host to a range of snakes
3 Ranchi will play the host to the next national film festival.
4 A virus has infected the host computer.
45. Sort
1 What sort of cheese do you use in pizza?
2 Farmers of all sort attended the rally.
3 They serve tea of a sort on these trains.
4 Let's sort these boys into four groups.
DIRECTIONS for Questions 46 to 50: There are two gaps in each of the following sentences. From the pairs of words given, choose the one that fills the gaps most appropriately. The first word in the pair should
fill the first gap.
46. The British retailer, M&S, today formally ______ defeat in its attempt to _____ King's, its US subsidiary, since no potential purchasers were ready to cough up the necessary cash.
1. admitted, acquire 2. conceded, offload
3. announced, dispose 4. ratified, auction
47. Early ______ of maladjustment to college culture is _______ by the tendency to develop friendship networks outside college which mask signals of maladjustment.
1. treatment, compounded 2. detection, facilitated
3. identification, complicated 4. prevention, helped
48. The ______ regions of Spain all have unique cultures, but the _______ views within each region make the issue of an acceptable common language of instruction an even more contentious one.
1. different, discrete 2. distinct, disparate
3. divergent, distinct 4. different, competing
49. A growing number of these expert professionals _____ having to train foreigners as the students end up _____ the teachers who have to then unhappily contend with no jobs at all or new jobs with drastically reduced pay packets.
1. resent, replacing 2. resist, challenging
3. welcome, assisting 4. are, supplanting
50. Companies that try to improve employees' performance by _____ rewards encourage negative kinds of behavior instead of _____ a genuine interest in doing the work well.
1. giving, seeking 2. bestowing, discouraging
3. conferring, discrediting 4. withholding, fostering
