TEST

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Each of the following questions presents four statements, of which
three, when placed in appropriate order, would form a contextually
complete paragraph. Pick the statement that is not part of the
context.


1.
a)
You may say that even if they do not speak English well themselves,
they at least understand it when the speaker is a foreigner; the
better he speaks the harder it is to understand him.
b)
But if you shout "Please! Charing Cross! Which way?" you will have no
difficulty and half a dozen people will give you directions at once.
c)
In London nine hundred and ninety nine out of every thousand people
not only speak bad English but speak even that very badly.
d)
Therefore the first thing you have to do is to speak with a strong
foreign accent, and speak broken English: that is English without any
grammar and then every English person will at once know that you are a
foreigner, and try to understand and be ready to help you.



DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 4: Each of the following questions
presents four statements, of which three, when placed in appropriate
order, would form a contextually complete paragraph. Pick the
statement that is not part of the context.


2.
a)
Extracting common elements from various episodes helps us learn rules
that govern our environment, preparing us for similar experiences and
that ability is fundamental to higher cognition.
b)
Bees may not be able to tell tales about being under fire in flights
over Iraq, but they do demonstrate remarkable memory ability.
c)
That's what makes them valuable models to researchers trying to find
the roots of complex brain functions in the simpler structures
preserved across species over many millions of years of evolution.
d)
And because they have a mere 960,000 neurons compared with the human
complement of about 85 billion, they probably need to economize on
storage and processing.


Each of the following questions presents four statements, of which
three, when placed in appropriate order, would form a contextually
complete paragraph. Pick the statement that is not part of the
context.


3.
a)
Auschwitz, for the Jews, and not only for them, was a destination with
no return ticket, a place of gas and ashes.
b)
But some did survive; those sent the other way on the ramp to be
worked to death for Hitler's Reich, except of course that it might
just be, if they were resilient enough, that the 1,000-year Reich
expired in flames before them.
c)
One of the great merits of Rosenberg's book is the way he contrives to
relive his father's life forwards, not prejudging events through the
prism of the outcome, but imbuing each stage of what he calls "the
project" with a kind of tender hope.
d)
The most important word in the title of Goran Rosenberg's beautifully
wrought book, "A Brief Stop on the Road From Auschwitz," is the
unlikely one that precedes the name of the Nazi death camp.

Each of the following questions presents four statements, of which
three, when placed in appropriate order, would form a contextually
complete paragraph. Pick the statement that is not part of the
context.


4.
a)
The way you get over this natural tendency to sell yourself short is
by setting small goals, making plans, and working on them each day.
b)
Social problems resulting from learned helplessness may seem
unavoidable; however, when induced in experimental settings learned
helplessness resolves with the passage of time
c)
People who get stuck in a comfort zone, if it is combined with learned
helplessness, find it very difficult to move forward.
d)
In this way, you gradually develop greater courage and confidence,
like building up a muscle and as you become more confident in yourself
and your abilities, you can set even larger goals.

The sentences given in the following questions, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Figure out the most logical
order of sentences that constructs a coherent paragraph and enter that
sequence in the input box given below the question. For example, if
you think that (A)(B)(C)(D)(E) is the most logical order of sentences
that constructs a coherent paragraph, then enter ABCDE in the input
box.


5.(A) Chernobyl's engineers, peering outside, wondered what had happened.

(B) Within hours they would be dead, having suffered exposure to
massive radiation doses.

(C) With power surging out of control, expanding gas literally blew
the lid off the huge reactor and spewed pulverized graphite from the
reactor's inner core onto the surrounding grounds like black snow.

(D) Unable to accept a reactor failure, they simply could not believe
their eyes, even with obvious evidence falling from the sky.

(E) The explosion of Chernobyl nuclear power plant created a
nightmare, the consequences of which will last for thousands of years.

The sentences given in each of the following questions, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a
letter. From among the four choices given below the question, choose
the most logical order of sentences that constructs a coherent
paragraph.


6.(a) And the good news is that you have complete control over your
mental pictures for good or for ill.

(b) Your performance on the outside is always consistent with your
self-image on the inside.

(c) The choice is upto you.

(d) You can choose to feed your mind with positive, exciting success
images, or you can, by default, allow yourself to be preoccupied by
failure images.

(e) Your self-image is made up of the mental pictures that you feed
into your mind prior to any event.
a)
bacde
b)
beadc
c)
eadcb
d)
adceb

The sentences given in each of the following questions, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a
letter. From among the four choices given below the question, choose
the most logical order of sentences that constructs a coherent
paragraph.


7.(a) Increasingly, managers have to rely on the judgment of these
experts who "do not fit neatly together into a chain-of-command
system" and "cannot wait for their expert advice to be approved at a
higher level."

(b) Solid state physicists, computer programmers, systems designers,
operation researchers, engineering specialists − such men are assuming
a new decision-making function.

(c) Today, the managers are losing their monopoly on decision-making
and there is no longer a strict allegiance to hierarchy.

(d) This silent but significant deterioration of hierarchy, now
occurring in the executive suite as well as at the ground level of the
factory floor, is intensified by the arrival on the scene of hordes of
experts − specialists in vital fields so narrow that often the men on
top have difficulty understanding them.

(e) At one time, they merely consulted with executives who reserved
unto themselves the right to make managerial decisions.
a)
deabc
b)
dcbea
c)
becda
d)
caebd

8 in each of the following questions, there are sentences or
fragments of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify and select the
sentence(s) or fragments of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms
of grammar and usage, including spelling, punctuation and logical
consistency.



Select all that are correct:

a)
Kazuo Ishiguro, Man Booker winner in 1989 with The Remains of the Day,
is famously slow writer.
b)
His late novel, The Buried Giant, has been published just and took a
full ten years to write.
c)
He has written 'only' seven novels in all. Imagine his surprise, then,
when he discovered that there were two other novels that had somehow
slipped his memory.
d)
When sorting about his papers recently he came across two books that
pre-date his official first novel A Pale View of Hills (1982).
e)
Ishiguro's words to an interviewer makes it clear that they will never
be seen in print.

9.DIRECTIONS for questions 8 to 10: In each of the following
questions, there are sentences or fragments of sentences that form a
paragraph. Identify and select the sentence(s) or fragments of
sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms of grammar and usage,
including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency.



Select all that are correct:

a)
Education is humanity's best hope and effective means in the quest to
achieve sustainable development.
b)
This powerful statement was made in 1997 in UNESCO report, Educating
for a Sustainable Future.
c)
Five years later, it was bought to the attention of the world leaders
at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development,
d)
paving out the way to the establishment of the United Nations Decade
for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).
e)
UNESCO was designated as the lead agency for implementing the Decade
and has helped catalyse, guide, co-ordinate and document related
efforts around the world.


10 In each of the following questions, there are sentences or
fragments of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify and select the
sentence(s) or fragments of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms
of grammar and usage, including spelling, punctuation and logical
consistency.

Select all that are correct:

a)
As a middle-class boy growing up in Oxford at the turn of the 20th
century, young Lawrence (of Arabia) was idiosyncratic certainly.
b)
He was sceptical over received truths, easily bored but passionate
about medieval history, cathedrals and brass rubbings.
c)
He would hang at building sites and gather fragments of pots which he
reconstituted and delivered to museum curators.
d)
Now, his biographers have to be diggers and restorers, sifting a mass
of evidence and gluing the bits of his mysterious life together.
e)
But these bits never quite constitute a whole, comprehensible human
being; much about Lawrence remains an enigma.

The following question presents four statements, of which three, when
placed in appropriate order, would form a contextually complete
paragraph. Pick the statement that is not part of the context.


11.
a)
However, like all scientific theories, the theory of evolution is
subject to continuing refinement as new areas of science emerge or as
new technologies enable observations and experiments that were not
possible previously.
b)
In everyday usage, "theory" often refers to a hunch or a speculation;
when people say, "I have a theory about why that happened," they are
often drawing a conclusion based on fragmentary or inconclusive
evidence.
c)
Like these other foundational scientific theories, the theory of
evolution is supported by so many observations and confirming
experiments that scientists are confident that the basic components of
the theory will not be overturned by new evidence.
d)
Many scientific theories are so well-established that no new evidence
is likely to alter them substantially, for example, no new evidence
will demonstrate that the Earth does not orbit around the sun
(heliocentric theory), or that living things are not made of cells
(cell theory).

The sentences given in the following question, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a
letter. From among the four choices given below the question, choose
the most logical order of sentences that constructs a coherent
paragraph.


12.(a) Likewise, Seyfert galaxies were suspected to be "industrial
accidents" because their enormous and directed energy output had no
initial explanation.

(b) This has been suspected several times.

(c) Pulsars, when first discovered, were called little green men
(LGM), because of the precise repetition of their pulses (they rival
the best atomic clocks).

(d) One way that astronomy might find evidence of an extraterrestrial
civilization is that conventional astronomers, studying stars,
planets, and galaxies, might serendipitously observe some phenomenon
that cannot be explained without positing an intelligent civilization
as the source.

(e) Eventually, natural explanations not involving intelligent life
have been found for all such observations to date, but the possibility
of discovery of intelligent life remains.
a)
cedba
b)
dbeca
c)
dbcae
d)
dabec

14.Recent updates to Google's search algorithms (Panda and Penguin)
have caused many website owners to doubt whether they know what hit
them before they took action. Since Penguin and Panda target two
different issues, it's extremely important to know the exact algorithm
update that hit your website. Panda targets low quality content, thin
content, duplicate content, etc., while Penguin targets webspam (and
at this point it's heavily targeting unnatural inbound links). So, if
you incorrectly believe you were hit by Penguin and start addressing
links, then you would be wasting your time… On the flip side, if you
incorrectly believe you were hit by Panda and start addressing low
quality content, then you could also be wasting your time. And to make
matters worse, both Penguin and Panda will be rolled out periodically.
That means you won't know if your latest refinements actually made a
difference until Pandas and Penguins come knocking on your door again.

What does the above paragraph imply?
a)
Google believes that earlier algorithms have not been able to
differentiate between high and low quality content.
b)
Google is making significant shifts in its value system and is
changing focus from customers to users.
c)
Google has drawn the ire of a lot of users due to changes in its
search ranking algorithms.
d)
You should not prune your links if you were hit by Panda, and you
should not gut content if you were hit by Penguin.


Four alternative summaries are given below the text. Which of the
options best captures the essence of the text?


13.Real and false intuition confused even highly talented thinkers
like Lee Iacocca. Both originate in the subconscious mind and call on
information and experiences stored there. As with conscious thinking,
subconscious patterns can produce both valid and invalid results.
Thus, as with conscious thinking, we must test the validity of
subconsciously produced thoughts. With intuition, however, we must
exercise special care because, unlike conscious reasoning, we cannot
objectively monitor the subconscious intuitive process.
a)
Real and false intuition confused even highly talented thinkers like
Lee Iacocca. Both arise in the subconscious and yield confusing
results which need testing.
b)
While real intuition arises in the conscious mind and produces valid
results, false intuition arises in the subconscious mind and produces
invalid results.
c)
Intuition which emerges from the subconscious mind needs to be
validated with special care because unlike conscious thinking, the
intuitive process cannot be controlled and just like conscious
thinking, it may yield erroneous results.
d)
Intuition needs to be monitored with care as like conscious thinking,
it often produces both valid and invalid results.

15.Those who have followed the curriculum revision movement in recent
years no doubt have been impressed by the frequency of the word
'tentative', as used in describing the courses of study. Sometimes the
impression is given that the most prominent characteristic of the
'curriculum planner' is his persistent inability, or refusal, to make
up his mind. It should be added at once, of course, that the practice
of re-examining fixed courses of study, handed down from one year, and
even from one generation to the next, is an utterly wholesome one. The
question to be raised is not regarding the values of flexibility and
openness to changing conditions, but whether or not 'tentativeness'
carried beyond a certain point may not be a signal of weakness in an
educational position. Some educators would say that the problem is
whether or not an educational programme can go on indefinitely without
deciding what it is educating for.

Which of the following is nearest to the central idea of the paragraph?
a)
The best possible way to redesign curriculum is by incorporating last
minute changes and simultaneously keeping the course curriculum open
for further revisions.
b)
Tentativeness in curriculum design leads to too much of flexibility
and openness, thereby challenging and defeating the idea of content
updation.
c)
The curriculum revision movement is especially marked by the word
'tentative' while describing the courses of study.
d)
In recent years, curriculum planners have not been able to adequately
describe course composition and objective.


ead the following passage which consists of two extracts and answer
the questions given below it.

Extract 1:

Reading takes your focus of attention off your everyday troubles as it
relaxes and transports you to seemingly better places of fantasy
worlds. Reading can give you an insight into different cultures and it
can open your mind up to new ways of thinking, perceiving and doing
things. Reading is still the best source of information available and
it can give you a distinct edge in life. It feeds your hungry mind
with an endless supply of knowledge and information which it seeks.
Reading improves the quality of conversations. Your vast array of new
found knowledge will help you to become more involved in discussions,
you will be more able to instigate much more variable and interesting
levels of conversations. Reading can intrigue you while at the same
time, it can stimulate your imagination, arouse your curiosity and
unleash the creative part of your mind into action. And Mark Twain
quoted, "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who
cannot read".

In his classic essay, "Of Studies", Francis Bacon writes, "Crafty men
contemn books, simple men admire them, and wise men use them. Read not
to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to
find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to
be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to
be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with
diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and
extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less
important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled
books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh
a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And
therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if
he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read
little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth
not".

Extract 2:

Born into a milieu where reading was rare and deriving little pleasure
from the activity, I have found myself in the delicate situation of
having to express my thoughts on books I haven't read. I also find it
unsurprising that so few texts extol the virtues of nonreading.
Indeed, to describe your experience in this area demands a certain
courage, for doing so clashes inevitably with some internalized
constraints. The first constraint is the obligation to read. We still
live in a society where reading remains the object of a kind of
worship. This worship applies particularly to a number of canonical
texts − the list varies according to the circles you move in − which
it is practically forbidden not to have read if you want to be taken
seriously.

The second constraint is called the obligation to read thoroughly. If
it's frowned upon not to read, it's almost as bad to read quickly or
to skim, and especially to say so. For example, it's virtually
unthinkable for literary intellectuals to acknowledge that they have
flipped through Proust's work without having read it in its entirety;
though this is certainly the case for most of them.

The third constraint concerns a tacit understanding in our culture
that one must read a book in order to talk about it. I think it's
totally possible to do justice to a book and carry on an engaging
conversation about a book you haven't read in its entirety or even
opened; and perhaps with someone else who hasn't read it either. Our
propensity to lie when we talk about books is a logical consequence of
the stigma attached to non-reading, which in turn arises from a whole
network of anxieties rooted (no doubt) in early childhood.

The concept of nonreading is unclear, and it is often hard to know
whether we're lying or not when we say that we've read a book. The
very question implies that we can draw a clear line between reading
and not reading, while in fact many of the ways we encounter texts sit
somewhere between the two. ___________________________________ In the
case of books we have supposedly read, we must consider just what is
meant by reading, a term that can refer to a variety of practices.
Conversely, any books that by all appearances we haven't read exert an
influence on us nevertheless, as their reputations spread through
society.



16. What does the word 'contemn' mean in the context of the passage?
a)
condemn
b)
scorn
c)
eulogize
d)
scrutinize

17. What does Francis Bacon indicate can be done with the meaner sort of books?
a)
Replace them with other eclectic reading sources.
b)
Use the opportunity to explore a tough subject through mental
association and a casual ramble of the mind.
c)
Appoint and empower a scribe to make extracts.
d)
Chew and digest them thoroughly.


18. DIRECTIONS for question 84: Select one or more answer choices
according to the directions given in the question.

Which of the following statements can be understood from the passage?


Select all that apply:

a)
Extract 1 throws light on the importance of reading and how one should
read. Extract 2 presents the non-reader's experience and the
constraints a non-reader faces because of the value society places on
reading.
b)
Bacon proposed the statement: Listening is a dying art, we hardly
listen to understand, we only listen to refute or reply.
c)
The last para of Extract 2 can be best completed by: Between a book
we've read closely and a book we've never even heard of, there is a
whole range of gradations that deserve our attention.
d)
The last para of Extract 2 can be logically completed by: It is easier
to be objective about a book if you have no personal experience with
it.
e)
A person who favours the reading habit would echo the view that
reading can help to broaden one's mind or it can keep one intrigued in
a story line and prompt the power of curiosity.

19. What can be inferred about the three constraints against reading
discussed in Extract 2?
a)
The second and the third constraints are necessarily dependent on the
first constraint. The second constraint is similar to the first but
nonetheless distinct.
b)
The first constraint is a facilitating condition for the second and
third constraints. The three constraints mentioned in the correct
sequence in the extract are the obligation to read thoroughly, the
obligation to read a book before discussing it and the obligation to
read.
c)
For the third constraint to be considered valid, one has to
acknowledge both the first and second constraints as invalid.
d)
The third constraint and the first constraint are independent.


Four alternative summaries are given below the text. Which of the
options best captures the essence of the text?


20."What a delightful place Yorkshire is," said Mrs. Karen as they sat
down near the great clock, after parading the room till they were
tired; "and how pleasant it would be if we had any acquaintance here."
This sentiment had been uttered so often in vain that Mrs. Karen had
no particular reason to hope it would be followed with more advantage
now; but we are told to "despair of nothing we would attain," as
"unwearied diligence our point would gain"; and the unwearied
diligence with which she had every day wished for the same thing was
at length to have its just reward, for hardly had she been seated ten
minutes before a lady of about her own age, who was sitting by her,
and had been looking at her attentively for several minutes, addressed
her with great complaisance in these words: "I think, madam, I cannot
be mistaken; it is a long time since I had the pleasure of seeing you,
but is not your name Karen?"
a)
Though Mrs. Karen had often wished for acquaintances at Yorkshire, it
was unlikely that her wish would be fulfilled. But now she was
approached by a lady who claimed to know her.
b)
Mrs. Karen had diligently wished everyday that she would meet an
acquaintance in Yorkshire, and finally her wish was fulfilled, as the
lady she had hoped to meet addressed her.
c)
Mrs. Karen's assiduity in waiting for an acquaintance in Yorkshire was
rewarded when a lady who seemed to know her spoke to her.
d)
Just as Mrs. Karen had begun to despair of meeting anyone she knew in
Yorkshire, a lady who had been observing her for a while started
speaking to her.



Business process re-engineering (BPR) is a business management
strategy, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and
business processes within an organization.

BPR seeks to help companies radically restructure their organizations
by focusing on the ground-up design of their business processes.
Re-engineering emphasizes a holistic focus on business objectives and
processes related to them, encouraging full-scale recreation of
processes rather than iterative optimization of subprocesses. BPR
doesn't try to change the behaviour of workers and managers. Indeed,
it takes advantage of talents and unleashes ingenuity.

In 1990, Michael Hammer, professor at MIT, published the article
"Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate" in HBR, claiming that
the major challenge for managers is to obliterate forms of work that
do not add value, rather than using technology for automating it. At
the heart of business reengineering, lies the notion of discontinuous
thinking − abandoning the outdated rules that underlie current
business operations: "Customers don't repair their own equipment."
"Local warehouses and superficial reorganizations are necessary for
good service." "Merchandising decisions are made at headquarters."
These rules are based on assumptions about technology, people and
goals that no longer hold.

Reengineering starts with a high-level assessment of the
organization's mission andcustomer needs. Basic questions are asked,
such as "Does our mission need to be redefined? Are our strategic
goals aligned with our mission? Who are our customers? Are the
suggested techniques for change transferrable to other organizations
in other lines of business? Could they be applied to companies as a
whole instead of only to small, discrete parts of an organization?"

Within the framework of this basic assessment of mission and goals,
re-engineering focuses on the organization's business processes. As a
structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a business
process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled,
and improved. It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated
altogether. Re-engineering identifies, analyses and re-designs an
organization's core business processes with the aim of achieving
dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost,
quality, service, and speed.

Many successful companies in the past had not changed the businesses
they were in; rather, they had significantly altered the processes
they followed in these businesses − or even replaced these old
processes entirely. This process change was accompanied by an equally
radical change in the shape and character of those parts of the
organization that were involved in performing it. It struck us that
these companies were achieving dramatic results in part because they
would accept nothing less. They weren't asking "How can we do what we
do faster?" or "How can we do what we do better?" or "How can we do
what we do at a lower cost?" Instead they were asking "Why do we do
what we do at all?" We discovered that most of the companies we
examined that had succeeded in radically changing one or more of their
processes had, albeit unknowingly, used a common set of tools and
tactics.

Re-engineering recognizes that an organization's business processes
are usually fragmented into subprocesses and tasks that are carried
out by several specialized functional areas within the organization.
Re-engineering maintains that optimizing the performance of
subprocesses can result in some benefits, but cannot yield dramatic
improvements if the process itself is fundamentally inefficient and
outmoded. Re-engineering focuses on re-designing the process as a
whole in order to achieve the greatest possible benefits to the
organization and their customers. This drive for realizing dramatic
improvements by fundamentally re-thinking how the organization's work
should be done distinguishes re-engineering from process improvement
efforts that focus on functional or incremental improvement.

Reengineering can't be carried out in small and cautious steps. It is
an all-or-nothing proposition that produces dramatically impressive
results. Most companies have no choice but to muster the courage to do
it. Reengineering is the hope for breaking away from the ineffective,
antiquated ways of conducting business.



21. Which of the following choices exemplifies the concept of
discontinuous thinking?
a)
Customers don't repair their own equipment; merchandising decisions
are made at headquarters; local warehouses are necessary for good
service.
b)
The lab attendant in the chemistry laboratory of a college can be
empowered to take college management-related decisions.
c)
Short-term thinking, risk aversion and top-down decision making.
d)
Junior experts like computer programmers, systems designers, operation
researchers, engineering specialists can provide consulting to other
companies to optimise productivity.

22. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage
about business process reengineering?
a)
The organizations which implemented business process reengineering
chose radical change over the less painful remedy of steady,
incremental improvements that most businesses usually prefer.
b)
Business process reengineering aims to decrease manual interventions
in the work place, emphasises managerial control and therefore
justifies downsizing.
c)
Reengineering focuses on optimizing the performance of subprocesses.
d)
Business reengineering is based on a philosophy that would have "us"
become more like "them" and this involves instilling behavioural
changes in workers and managers.

23. According to the passage, companies that had implemented Business
Process Reengineering would have
a)
deliberately used a common set of tools and tactics to change their
processes and improve their performance.
b)
created a product high in quality, supplied that product at a fair
price, and provided excellent service.
c)
significantly altered the processes they followed in their business
and had asked different and more relevant questions from those asked
by other organizations.
d)
simply accomplished tasks to satisfy the internal demands of the organization.

24. All of the following steps differentiate BPR from process
improvements that an organization may undertake EXCEPT
a)
Radical process changes accompanied by equally radical changes in the
shape and character of those parts of the organization that were
involved in performing them.
b)
Realizing dramatic improvements by fundamentally re-thinking how the
organization's work should be done with a holistic focus on business
objectives and processes related to them.

In each of the following questions, there are sentences or fragments
of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify and select the
sentence(s) or fragments of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms
of grammar and usage, including spelling, punctuation and logical
consistency.



Select all that are correct.

a)
Amidst the grim backdrop over a war-torn Vienna, Karl Landsteiner's
scientific explorations in the areas of hematology, immunology and
bacteriology
b)
cemented his place in history as one of the most influential figures
in modern medicine.
c)
He is noted for having distinguished first the main blood groups in
1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood
groups
d)
from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood,
and having identified, with Alexander S. Wiener the Rhesus factor in
1937 thus
e)
enabling physicians to transfuse blood without endangering the patient's lives

c)
Identifying and abandoning the outdated rules and fundamental
assumptions that underlie current business operations.
d)
A bureaucratic approach to making decisions, assessing missions and
goals, and performing reorganizations within the company.




It seems appropriate to start our survey of trends in traditional and
present-day linguistics by asking how linguists tend to define
(explicitly or implicitly) the scope of their discipline. Linguistics
is a term which covers certain types of scientific approaches to
language; it does not denote all sciences or scientific activities
that are concerned with language and the use of language.

What then is the traditional content of linguistics? Originally, i.e.
through most of our long history almost up to the 19th and 20th
centuries, it contained phonology, grammar (especially morphology and
syntax (which, however, did not consider word order very much) and
some of their semantic aspects), logic, and rhetorics, and also
philology (text interpretation etc.). Later, philology was
(temporarily) relegated from linguistics (because it did not study
language for its own sake), and something similar happened to logic
and rhetorics. Hence, according to our 20th century conception,
linguistics is basically phonology, grammar (morphology, syntax) and
semantics (especially word semantics; sentence semantics is a rather
recent rediscovery). In the 1970's logic and rhetorics have also been
reincorporated under the headings of (formal) semantics and
pragmatics, respectively.

In a more global perspective, the linguists' approach(es) to language
must be considered narrow, and this is also true of today's
linguistics. For example, one very important aspect of language which
is seldom or never discussed in linguistics (and this also applies to
psycho-linguistics) is the question why people use language, for what
purposes utterances and written messages are compiled and used.
Instead the typical linguist's attitude is this: Given that people use
messages formulated in natural languages, i.e. in terms of linguistic
expressions, how are these expressions structurally organized, and
what meanings can be attached to the expressions qua items in an
abstract, supra individual linguistic code. Accordingly, linguistics
in the usual traditional (though still widely accepted) sense is
narrow in scope, (Lyons, 1981:36, has proposed the term
'microlinguistics' for it). Many scientific studies of the structure,
function and use of language simply do not belong to linguistics in
this traditional sense. Such fields as the psychology, sociology and
philosophy of language are concerned with linguistic phenomena, but
they are said to do so from the vantage points of other disciplines
(outside linguistics). Such scholars as Wundt, Mead and Wittgenstein
do not belong to the history of linguistics, although they made
contributions to the study of language which compete quite well with
those of, say, Humboldt, Sapir, Saussure and Chomsky. Even such
borderline disciplines as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and
neurolinguistics do not really count as linguistics proper, according
to many scholars in the field.

Another interesting field that is concerned with linguistic phenomena
but from the vantage point of other related disciplines is social
semiotics. Social semiotics expands on Saussure's founding insights by
exploring the implications of the fact that the "codes" of language
and communication are formed by social processes. The crucial
implication here is that meanings and semiotic systems are shaped by
relations of power, and that as power shifts in society, our languages
and other systems of socially accepted meanings can and do change. The
Semiotic Learning framework uses social semiotics theory as one of its
foundational conceptual approaches. Social semiotics, developed by
Halliday and Kress among others, raised out of the Saussurean school
of thought. Saussure claimed that we use language not only to
communicate but to construct our world, and when he distinguished
between langue, the abstract structure of a language, and parole, the
way it was actually used in practice, he directed his attention to the
former. Subsequent developments from this movement and focus on
langue, on the abstract structures of a language, were structuralism
and also positivist approaches to signification and interpretation.
Social semiotics, on the other hand, focussed on language as it was
actually used, on parole, thus taking the rich and fuzzy world of
social, cultural and political spheres into
account.____________________



26. Which of the following questions does the passage mainly answer?
a)
What is the traditional content of linguistics and microlinguistics?
b)
How is linguistics studied by linguistics?
c)
How has linguistics evolved over the 19th and 20th centuries?
d)
How narrow is the scope of linguistics as considered currently?

27. Which of the following questions reflects the primary concern of a
traditional linguist?
a)
Why do people use language?
b)
How are linguistic expressions structurally organized? What meanings
can be attached to linguistic expression in an abstract, supra
individual linguistic code?
c)
Why are utterances and written messages compiled and used?
d)
Both (B) and (C).


28. Which of the following is true about Wundt, Mead and Wittgenstein?
a)
They belong to psychology, sociology and philosophy.
b)
They did not make any significant contribution to the study of language.
c)
They are not mainly concerned with the study of linguistic phenomena.
d)
Their contributions to the study of language were better than those of
Sapir, Saussure and Chomsky.


29. Which of the following sentences can conclude the last paragraph
of the passage?
a)
Social semiotics explicitly takes a non-positivist approach as it
focuses on the contexts, prerequisites and conditions of possibility
for a meaningful dialogue to occur.
b)
Social semiotics focuses on social subjectivity and therefore takes a
non-cognitivist approach: instead of referring to meaning-making as
something that is done by the minds, it points to the role of social
practices within communities.
c)
Social semiotics may be understood as a discourse on meaning-making
where the aim is to examine the functions and the effects of the
meanings we make in every day life as we communicate, within
communities, organisations and society.
d)
In a playful way, social semiotics is known to have developed out of
what Saussure dismissed and put to the side, thus working on what was
inside Saussure's 'dustbin'.



The sentences given in the following questions, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Figure out the most logical
order of sentences that constructs a coherent paragraph and enter that
sequence in the input box given below the question. For example, if
you think that (A)(B)(C)(D)(E) is the most logical order of sentences
that constructs a coherent paragraph, then enter ABCDE in the input
box.


30.(A) This provides the clue as to why divinity or consciousness
would also escape our attempt to grasp it objectively.

(B) But since the mystical never shows up there, it must not exist.

(C) Moreover, our mind cannot fully grasp the same mind since most of
its real substance is engaged in grasping.

(D) Reductionists, on the other hand, claim that if a mystical element
really exists, then it would show up at the lowest level of matter.

(E) Thus, mind always eludes complete objectification of the same mind.

(F) Lower-level scientific analysis is incapable of grasping quality
differences at higher levels.


Scientific theories can be clearly distinguished from all other
theories in that they bear a special mark − falsifiability. Said
Popper: Any scientific theory could be shown to be false if some
conceivable observation were true. As Popper represents it, the
central problem in the philosophy of science is that of demarcation,
i.e., of distinguishing between science and 'non-science', under which
heading he ranks, amongst others, logic, metaphysics, psychoanalysis,
and Adler's individual psychology. Popper is unusual amongst
contemporary philosophers in that he accepts the validity of the
Humean critique of induction, and indeed, goes beyond it in arguing
that induction is never actually used by the scientist. However, he
does not concede that this entails the scepticism which is associated
with Hume, and argues that the Baconian / Newtonian insistence on the
primacy of 'pure' observation, as the initial step in the formation of
theories, is completely misguided: all observation is selective and
theory-laden − there are no pure or theory-free observations.
Popper, then, repudiates induction, and rejects the view that it is
the characteristic method of scientific investigation and inference,
and substitutes falsifiability in its place. It is easy to obtain
evidence in favour of virtually any theory, and such 'corroboration',
should count scientifically only if it is the positive result of a
genuinely 'risky' prediction, which might conceivably have been false.
For Popper, a theory is scientific only if it is refutable by a
conceivable event. Every genuine test of a scientific theory, is
logically an attempt to refute or to falsify it, and one genuine
counter-instance falsifies the whole theory. Popper's theory of
demarcation is based upon his perception of the logical asymmetry
which holds between verification and falsification: it is logically
impossible to conclusively verify a universal proposition by reference
to experience, but a single counter-instance conclusively falsifies
the corresponding universal law.

Every genuine scientific theory is prohibitive, in the sense that it
forbids, by implication, particular events or occurrences. It can be
tested and falsified, but never logically verified. Thus Popper
stresses that it should not be inferred from the fact that a theory
has withstood the most rigorous testing, for however long a period of
time, that it has been verified; rather we should recognise that such
a theory has received a high measure of corroboration and may be
provisionally retained as the best available theory until it is
finally falsified, and/or is superseded by a better theory.

While advocating falsifiability as the criterion of demarcation for
science, Popper explicitly allows for the fact that in practice a
single conflicting or counter-instance is never sufficient
methodologically to falsify a theory, and that scientific theories are
often retained even though much of the available evidence conflicts
with them, or is anomalous with respect to them. Scientific theories
arise genetically in many different ways, and the manner in which a
particular scientist comes to formulate a particular theory may be of
biographical interest, but it is of no consequence as far as the
philosophy of science is concerned. Popper stresses in particular that
there is no unique way, no single method such as induction, which
functions as the route to scientific theory, a view which Einstein
personally endorsed with his affirmation that 'There is no logical
path leading to [the highly universal laws of science]. They can only
be reached by intuition, based upon something like an intellectual
love of the objects of experience'. Science, in Popper's view, starts
with problems rather than with observations − it is, indeed, precisely
in the context of grappling with a problem that the scientist makes
observations in the first instance: his observations are selectively
designed to test the extent to which a given theory functions as a
satisfactory solution to a given problem.

Popper claimed scientific beliefs are universal in character, and have
to be so if they are to serve us in explanation and prediction. For
the universality of a scientific belief implies that, no matter how
many instances we have found positive, there will always be an
indefinite number of unexamined instances which may or may not also be
positive. We have no good reason for supposing that any of these
unexamined instances will be positive, or will be negative, so we must
refrain from drawing any conclusions. On the other hand, a single
negative instance is sufficient to prove that the belief is false, for
such an instance is logically incompatible with the universal truth of
the belief. Provided, therefore, that the instance is accepted as
negative we must conclude that the scientific belief is false.




31. What is the primary purpose of the author of the passage?
a)
To indicate that science allows the possibility of rejecting a theory
or hypothesis through induction.
b)
To prove that actual scientific work does not follow the scheme of
conjecture and refutation as laid out by the idea of falsifiability.
c)
To explain how a set of shared scientific beliefs evolve into a paradigm.
d)
To show that existing scientific methodologies permit the development
of scientific theories that can be, at best, only approximations of
highly universal laws of science.

Select one or more answer choices according to the directions given in
the question.

32 Which of the following observations, experiments or scenarios
suggest an application of the concept of 'falsification' as discussed
in the passage?


Select all that apply:

a)
Re-examining the conclusion that "it has snowed in Massachusetts every
December in recorded history" in the light of the observation of a
single year when it did not snow in Massachusetts in December.
b)
Re-examining the claims of ten independent witnesses who said that
John Depp committed the murder using a single finding that throws
light on certain facts such as John actually addressing a gathering at
the time of the murder and the murder weapon having no fingerprints of
John.
c)
Re-examining the conclusion that all uranium isotopes exhibit
radioactivity in the light of the observation of a single uranium
isotope that does not exhibit radioactivity.
d)
Re-examining a statement such as 'rape is a heinous crime' when the
speaker of such a statement was caught in the crime of rape.
e)
Re-examining Darwin's theory that all life forms evolved from simple
life forms in the light of the finding of the fossil of a complex life
form that predates all known life forms.


33. Which of the following can be understood from the passage?
a)
A summary of the boldface part of the text is − We can only induce
that a scientific belief is false but cannot induce that it is true.
b)
Corroboration of a scientific theory is not valid if it is the
positive result of a prediction which might conceivably have been
true.
c)
A scientific attitude implies endless questioning and cannot lead to
strong beliefs.
d)
Science focuses on anomalies and exceptions so that fundamental truths
can be uncovered.

34. The author of the passage is most likely to agree with which of
the following?
a)
When a scientist formulates a scientific theory, he should also
address the scientific question from the philosophical point of view
and not just from the biographical angle.
b)
Verification provides a rationale for not rejecting a claim.
c)
All scientific theories are inherently prohibitive and all reasons for
rejecting a scientific belief are provided by falsification.
d)
The number of negative instances of a scientific belief exceeds the
number of positive instances of a scientific belief.