SM1001902

READING COMPREHENSION
Reading Comprehension is generally designed to test the passage already read and mentally form a linkage of
your ability to read a passage and understand its all ideas expressed in the passage while simultaneously
contents and your ability to draw inferences on the basis weeding out redundant statements.
of what you read. In other words, your ability to grasp the
contents of the passage in a relatively short span of time The passages given in MBA entrance exams do not
is what is being tested. conform to any standards as regards the subject matter or
the length of the passage. While the subjects covered can
The Reading Comprehension section in MBA entrance be as wide ranging as Sciences (like Botany, Zoology,
exams are also no different in this respect, i.e., you are Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy), Social Sciences (like
expected to read the given passage, understand its Psychology, History, Economics, Politics, Sociology),
contents well and answer the questions given at the end Humanities (like Literature, Art, Music) or Current Affairs
of the passage - all this to be completed in the limited (Social, Political, Economical), the student is not expected
time that is given. to have any prior knowledge of the topics given.
Hence, the two important things in Reading As regards the length of each passage, it is normally in the
Comprehension are range of 400 words to 1200 words. A number of MBA
entrance exams, give 10 to 20 questions in Reading
Reading Speed and Comprehension of the Passage Comprehension based on three to four passages. Some
passages can be very complex in nature while others
For good performance in RC area, you need a combination may be simple in nature and easy to understand.
of the above. Let us look at the two aspects individually and
understand them in detail before we get into the techniques ASPECTS TO CONSIDER
of attempting Reading Comprehension.
(1) Should I read the passage first or the questions first?
While reading skill cannot be evaluated on a "number of
words per minute" scale, reading speed can definitely be There are people belonging to both schools of
measured. A person who can read faster can answer thought. There are also people who say that once you
more questions in the given time than a person with a read the passage, you should remember all the points
slower reading speed, other things remaining equal. It is and answer the questions without referring back to
this reading rate or your speed of reading that you have the passage. Such a thing is, almost, humanly
to aim at improving. There is no overnight solution to impossible and hence you should not keep that as
this. Constant and extensive reading will improve your your objective when you are reading a passage.
reading rate. Check your reading speed today (take any Let us discuss the issue of reading the questions
passage, count the number of words, note the time taken first before reading the passage. A passage is
to read it and calculate the speed in words per minute) written in a logical manner and hence when you
and keep a record of it. Then, keep checking your speed read a passage, you will be able to follow the ideas
once a week and tabulate the same. Check whether your without great difficulty. Since questions will not be
speed has increased over time with practice. However, given in any order, reading unrelated questions and
do not become complacent if your speed has increased. remembering them can pose difficulties. However,
scanning through the questions quickly can be
This brings us to the second point, i.e., understanding of helpful when the passage is very long. (Even here,
the passage. A person may be able to read the passage when you go through the questions, you need not
much faster than others but if he is not able to answer the remember the questions or the answer choices
questions pertaining to the passage, then the speed is of because it may prove counterproductive.)
no use at all. It is essential to grasp the meaning of the
passage while reading. While you are reading, you should In general, you will do well if you first read the
constantly think, evaluate, reason out, judge and correlate passage and then go to the questions. However, this
with what has already been read. A good vocabulary "reading" is not detailed reading to understand all
would enable you understand the nuances and grasp the the points that the author is making. It should be
meaning of various issues discussed in the passage. more of scanning in nature. The main objective at
While an attempt can be made to point out various this stage should be to KNOW what points the
categories of questions that may be asked, you will author is trying to make rather than UNDERSTAND
basically have to draw on the resources built by wide and the points. Once the points are known, when you go
extensive reading and rely on your own vocabulary. No to the questions, depending on what the question
coaching is possible regarding understanding and asked is, you can get back to the relevant part of the
analysing the problem. However, we are going to take you passage and read that portion in detail to
through an extensive set of tests on Reading understand what the author is saying and then
Comprehension to ensure that you get thorough practice. answer that particular question.
In addition to good vocabulary, you should also develop (2) It will be a good idea to ask the questions "who, what,
the ability to zero in on the central theme of the passage. why, when and how" when you read the passage.
This can be developed by extensive reading practice as
well as proper concentration at the time of reading the (3) The questions can pertain either to parts directly
passage. You should also consciously develop the habit contained in the passage or related to implications
of correlating each new sentence read with the part of and inferences. Sometimes you may be asked to
Triumphant Institute of Management Education Pvt. Ltd. (T.I.M.E.) HO: 95B, 2nd Floor, Siddamsetty Complex, Secunderabad – 500 003.
Tel : 040–27898195 Fax : 040–27847334 email : info@time4education.com website : www.time4education.com SM1001902/1
comment on the tone of the passage or to choose a (g) From among a given set of statements, identifying
title for the passage or to identify the main idea in the true or false statement as per the passage.
passage but you are hardly ever asked for your (h) Questioning the author: Asking the author an
"opinion" on the passage. appropriate follow up question or seeking a
factual basis or justification for a point of view
The following are the major categories of questions presented in the passage.
that are asked:
(4) The questions need not be in the order of the text
(a) Main idea of the passage/title for the passage given in the passage.
(b) Specific details – basically reproducing what is
(5) Where you have to choose a title for the passage or
given in the passage
identify the main theme of the passage, check the
(c) Drawing inferences/implications
opening and closing sentences of each paragraph,
(d) Determining the meaning of words/phrases as
particularly the opening sentence of the first
used in the passage.
paragraph and the last sentence of the last
(e) Application of the ideas expressed in the
paragraph. At the same time, be wary about answer
passage to other situations
choices that are too specific or too broad.
(f) Tone of the passage
NOTE ON IDENTIFYING THE TONES OF PASSAGES
Questions on the ‘tone’ of a passage can be worded in different ways. For instance
(1) Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?
(2) The tone of the passage is ………..
(3) The author’s approach / tone / style of writing can be best described as ……
On occasion, the question may require the test taker to identify the tone of a particular statement in the passage.
For instance
The tone that the author uses when making the statement ………. can be best described as.
Adjectives like ‘caustic’, ‘critical’, ‘satirical’ etc will be given as answer choices. The student is required to select the
most appropriate choice.
What does ‘tone’ mean?

The word ‘tone’ refers to the general attitude that the author displays towards the topic that is discussed in the passage.
Classification of tones
Tones of passages can be broadly classified as positive, negative and neutral. Negative tones can be further classified
as very negative and mildly negative.
Method of identifying the tone of a passage
The tone of a passage can be discerned by studying the nature of the adjectives / nouns / verbs that the author uses to
express his views on the topic under discussion.
Therefore, the reader should focus on the statements that the author makes, not on statements that the author quotes
somebody else as saying.
Once key adjectives / nouns / verbs are identified, they should be analysed carefully.
The following questions will be helpful
(1) Is it a negative word or a positive word?
(2) Is it a mild word or a strong word?
(3) Does the author mean what he says or is he being sarcastic or ironic?
(4) Is there a pattern in the nature of adjectives / nouns / verbs used in the passage? Are they all negative or positive?
If all the key adjectives / nouns / verbs used in the passage are negative, then it can be safely concluded that the
overall tone is negative.
Adjectives that describe various types of tones
Given below are adjectives that describe various types of tones of passages.
(1) Adjectives used to describe very negative tones
The tone of passage can be described as being ..….. if the adjectives / nouns / verbs used suggest that the author
acerbic, scathing, cutting, biting, vituperative, vitriolic, is very harsh towards somebody.
searing, trenchant, harsh, vicious or caustic
belligerent, bellicose or aggressive is very hostile towards somebody or something.
derisive, contemptuous, ridiculing, scornful, mocking or is making fun of somebody or something with a view to
disparaging belittling it or showing it in poor light.
incendiary or inciting is trying to stir up strife.
provocative is trying to irritate or annoy somebody.
(2) Adjectives used to describe moderately negative tones
The tone of a passage can be described as being …… if the adjectives / nouns / verbs used suggest that the author
angry or indignant is annoyed about something that he considers unjust or unfair.
apathetic or indifferent has adopted an uncaring attitude towards the issues mentioned.
biased, coloured, partisan, prejudiced, bigoted or is partial to a certain viewpoint with inadequate justification.
chauvinistic
condescending, patronising, supercilious or disdainful thinks himself superior to others and tends to talk down to
them.
cynical believes that people are motivated in all their actions only by
selfishness; in other words denying the sincerity of people’s
motives and actions, or the value of living.
skeptical has his doubts about something (e.g. the motives behind
somebody’s actions, the fulfilment of a promise made, the
outcome of a course of action).
dogmatic, opinionated or peremptory is arrogantly and positively stating something as the truth
without caring to support his claim with evidence.
obsequious is overly submissive to a person or an organisation.
critical is finding fault with somebody or something.
hypocritical is pretending to be what he is not or being self-righteous
when discussing the issue on hand.
sarcastic or sardonic is jeering at or taunting somebody using ironic and biting
remarks.
satirical is using ridicule, sarcasm, irony, etc to expose, attack or
deride vices, follies, stupidities and abuses.
pessimistic, negative or gloomy expects misfortune or the worst possible outcome in the
given circumstance.
(3) Adjectives used to describe positive tones
The tone of a passage can be described as being ….. if the adjectives / nouns / verbs used suggest that the author
optimistic, positive, sanguine, cheerful or buoyant is hopeful of the prospects of something or somebody and
feels that good things are in store.
humourous has tried to present the topic in a funny and amusing manner
with an express view to entertain the reader.
introspective or contemplative has attempted to analyse his own mind, feelings, actions,
motives etc.
laudatory, acclamatory, complimentary or adulatory is praising something or somebody he considers praiseworthy.
motivating, inspiring or encouraging has tried to encourage somebody to do something constructive.
commiserating or sympathetic has pity or compassion for somebody’s suffering.
(4) Adjectives used to describe tones that are neither positive nor negative
The tone of a passage can be described as being …… if the adjectives / nouns / verbs used suggest that the author
neutral does not favour one point of view over another.
apologetic is expressing regret for something he has said or done.
emotional was moved at the time of writing.
(5) Other adjectives that can be used to describe the nature or type a passage
A passage can be said to be …… in nature if ……..
speculative it surmises or ponders over various aspects of a given
subject or various outcomes of a course of action.
romantic the views expressed are fanciful and impractical.
humanistic the author evinces keen interest in human affairs, nature,
welfare, values etc.
technical it extensively uses terminology that is specific to a certain field.
didactic its author has attempted to instruct his readers through the
passage.
narrative it essentially details a story or incident.
descriptive it attempts to describe a person, place, thing or concept in detail.
evocative it encourages the reader to construct a mental picture of a
place or an event.
PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE -- Compare the points that you have written down with
YOUR READING COMPREHENSION the text read to see whether you left out any
important points.
As already mentioned, you will be given a number of -- If you now find that a point that appeared in your
practice tests in Reading Comprehension to enable you summary/list was also given in the original text, it
to get sufficient practice in this important area. Please means that you have been able to memorize what
remember that in this area, unlike in other areas like you have read.
Mathematics where you will be able to assess and see -- If you find that a point that is there in the text has not
for yourself on a regular basis, how much knowledge you appeared in your summary but you now consider it
have added on and how much improvement in speed to be an important point, then spend a few moments
trying to think about this point and as to why you
you have achieved, there will not be such clear
could not recollect it as an important point when you
indicators. However, performance in Reading
were doing this exercise.
Comprehension will improve only with practice and that -- This exercise done regularly over a period of time
requires a lot of effort and determination on your part. will certainly help you improve your reading speed
In addition to the test papers you take, you will have to put as well as your ability to understand and retain what
in at least 45 minutes of reading practice per day to improve you read. But, as already mentioned, only regular
practice can help you in this regard.
your reading speed and comprehension. You need to take
up serious reading material for practice - newspaper In order to facilitate your regular practice, take a fresh
editorials, editorials in general magazines like Frontline or exercise note book, preferably with foolscap size pages in it.
business magazines like Business India or other articles in After reading the passage once, write down the time you
such magazines, general books on a wide variety of have taken to complete the passage at the top of the
subjects like Psychology, Sociology, Technology, etc. page. (Keep a separate page for each passage you
read). Now count the number of words in the passage.
For each article or piece of a book that you read, go Number of words divided by the number of minutes
through the following process: taken to read the passage gives you your speed of
reading in "words per minute". After this calculation,
-- Read the article/passage enter the same in a table. A format of this table is given
-- Write down 5 to 10 (or up to 20 for longer passages) below. Maintaining a record of your reading speeds will
important points from the passage in a separate give you a clear picture of how you are progressing in
note book. your reading practice over a period of time.
EXAMPLE OF TABLE TO ENTER READING SPEEDS (in words per minute)
Reading Speed (Enter your speed in WPM under the type of topic you have read)
Date Economic Political Social Sciences Pure Sciences Others
1.1.13 140 170 180
2.1.13 130 175 175
Make a conscious attempt to read a wide range of topics mentioned that you should use a separate page for each
to develop your reading speed. You will note that your passage you read. You have already written down the
speeds will be higher in areas/topics with which you are number of words the passage has on this page. Your
familiar. Keep a copy of this table at the back of your speed in WPM that you entered in the table should also be
exercise note book and observe the gradual entered on this page because it pertains to this passage.
improvement. Make an entry of at least two passages in Now, write the following details on that page:
this table every day. A sample entry of speeds of three
passages read on two days is shown in the table. -- Title of the passage
After you read each passage and enter your speed in the -- Main idea of the passage in one sentence
table above, you should write down a few points -- Important points from the passage (as a summary of
summarising the passage you just read. We have already the passage)
-- Words given in the passage whose meanings you you should continue reading the passage and not stop
do not know. (These should be used as a part of there or go back to read the sentence again.
your vocabulary improvement exercise discussed
separately under Verbal Ability section.) While you should certainly adopt ways that improve your
speed and reduce the "blocks" for improving your speed,
The important points can range from 10 to 20 depending regular reading practice still remains the most important
on the length of the passage. factor in improving your performance in reading
After the important points are written down, check back comprehension.
with the passage and see whether all important points For exams like CAT, which emphasise on reading
have been covered. comprehension skills, a reading speed of about 350 to 400
words per minute is required. For most of you, the
PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE reading speed will be in the range of 120-150 words per
YOUR READING SPEED minute. It takes regular practice of three to four months
for an appreciable increase in your reading speed.
First let us try to answer one question. Why does the
reading speed differ from person to person? Let us take PRACTICE PASSAGES
a statement "If you ask me to choose one important
quality that led me to success, I will choose PATIENCE." In the following pages, thirty passages are given which
If a person whose reading habits are not honed reads you can use for your basic reading practice. These will
the above sentence, he will read one word at a time, i.e., serve only as a starting point - you have to supplement
his span of vision allows him to read only one word for the passages given here with passages selected from
each eye movement he makes. This span of vision can various sources as mentioned in the earlier part of the
be improved with conscious effort and can cover/ read chapter. You can use one or two passages (out of the
three to five or more words at once i.e., in one eye 30 passages) per day for your practice.
movement. So, the span of vision is one main reason for
the difference in reading speeds. Naturally, you should Of the thirty passages, passages 1 to 10 are printed in
be interested in increasing your span of vision. Let us three columns per page so that the width of each column
take the same statement considered above. is small enough to be used for practising eye-span
* * improvement. In these passages, when you read the
"If you ask me to choose one passage, try to read as follows: In the column that you
* * are reading, read one complete line at a time. Try taking
important quality that led me to in all the text in that line at one time - without moving the
* * eye across the line. Once you read one line, move your
success, I will choose PATIENCE". eye down to the next line and take in the text in that line
again at one go without any horizontal movement of the
Try to focus your sight on the asterisk on the underlined eye. This way, you will be able to improve your eye-span
set of words and make an attempt to read one complete by training your eye to get used to the width of the
set of underlined words (on left and right side of asterisk) column. In addition to these ten passages, you should
at one time - without having to move your eye from left to also use newspaper columns for this practice to improve
right. Initially you might find it difficult to work with this your eye-span. Get enough practice to ensure that you
technique. Regular practice will make you comfortable. are able to read the text in one line at one time.
Hold a pen or pencil in your hand when you are reading
so that it helps you concentrate better on the passage. Passages 11 to 20 are printed in two columns. The
This habit also helps you to underline important points in column width here is more than in passages 1 to 10. You
the passage while you are reading. should train your eye now for this column width - the
same way you did with the earlier set of passages. Once
Another simple technique which will develop your ability
you are sure that you are comfortable in reading one line
to absorb written words is reading a page by inverting it.
at a time, i.e. your eye-span has improved to enable you
You will not be able to understand anything that is
take in the entire text in one line without any horizontal
written but this exercise helps your mind to pick up
movement of the eye, then you can move to the last ten
words faster than it is used to, as it develops
passages.
acquaintance with words from different angle. You will
experience it when you start reading the page in the Passages 21 to 30 are printed in full-page width. Now,
ordinary reading position after such an exercise. train the eye to take in the text in each line in two
installments (because your eye is already used to half
When you are learning some good reading habits, you
the width of the line).
should also unlearn certain bad reading habits. Over a
long period of time you might have acquired the habit of All through the period when you are practising the
reading and re-reading the same set of words in the above, you should supplement the practice with regular
passage thinking that it helps you understand the reading of newspapers, magazines and books.
passage better. This approach eats up your precious
time in the exams. Unless you make a conscious attempt In the last section of the book, practice tests are given
to unlearn it, you will not be able to perform at your best. which you should take after your basic reading practice
You should also keep in mind the fact that the examiner mentioned in earlier sections is over. You should take
is not going to ask you each and every detail in the each test in the allotted time. While taking the test, you
passage which implies that you need not have to read it
should keep in mind all the points discussed in the test-
"THOROUGHLY" to answer the questions in this section.
taking sessions for Reading Comprehension.
So, even if you do not understand a part of the passage,
PRACTICE PASSAGE − 1
But now things are changing. As References to removing salt from
There are vast amounts of water on more parts of the world face seawater can be found in stories and
earth. Unfortunately, over 97% of it is prolonged droughts or water legends dating back to ancient times.
too salty for human consumption and shortages, desalination is on the But the first concerted effort to
only a fraction of the remainder is rise. In California alone some 20 produce drinking water from
easily accessible in rivers, lakes or seawater-desalination plants have seawater was not undertaken until
groundwater. Climate change, been proposed, including a $300m the 16th century, when European
droughts, growing population and facility near San Diego. Several explorers on long sea voyages began
increasing industrial demand are Australian cities are planning or installing simple desalting equipment
straining the available supplies of constructing huge desalination on their ships for emergency use.
fresh water. More than 1 billion plants, with the biggest, near These devices tended to be crude
people live in areas where water is Melbourne, expected to cost about and inefficient, and boiled seawater
scarce, according to the United $2.9 billion. Even London is building above a stove or furnace.
Nations, and that number could one. According to projections from
increase to 1.8 billion by 2025. Global Water Intelligence, a market- An important advance in desalination
research firm, worldwide came from the sugar industry. To
One time-tested but expensive way
desalination capacity will nearly produce crystalline sugar, large
to produce drinking water is
double between now and 2015. amounts of fuel were needed to heat
desalination: removing dissolved
the sugar sap and evaporate the
salts from sea and brackish water.
Not everyone is happy about this. water it contained. Around 1850 an
Its appeal is obvious. The world’s
American engineer named Norbert
oceans, in particular, present a Some environmental groups are
Rillieux won several patents for a
virtually limitless and drought-proof concerned about the energy the way to refine sugar more efficiently.
supply of water. “If we could ever plants will use, and the greenhouse His idea became what is known
competitively—at a cheap rate—get gases they will spew out. A large today as multiple-effect distillation,
fresh water from salt water,” desalination plant can suck up and consists of a cascading system
observed President John Kennedy enough electricity in one year to of chambers, each at a lower
nearly 50 years ago, “that would be power more than 30,000 homes. pressure than the one before. This
in the long-range interest of
means the water boils at a lower
humanity, and would really dwarf
The good news is that advances in temperature in each successive
any other scientific accomplishment.”
technology and manufacturing have chamber. Heat from water vapour in
According to the latest figures from reduced the cost and energy the first chamber can thus be
the International Desalination requirements of desalination. And recycled to evaporate water in the
Association, there are now 13,080 many new plants are being held to next chamber, and so on.
desalination plants in operation strict environmental standards. One
around the world. Together they recently built plant in Perth, This reduced the energy
have the capacity to produce up to Australia, runs on renewable consumption of sugar refining by up
55.6m cubic metres of drinkable energy from a nearby wind farm. In to 80%, says James Birkett of West
water a day—a mere 0.5% of global addition, its modern seawater- Neck Strategies, a desalination
water use. About half of the capacity intake and waste-discharge consultancy based in Nobleboro,
is in the Middle East. Because systems minimise the impact on Maine. But it took about 50 years
desalination requires large amounts local marine life. Jason Antenucci, for the idea to make its way from
of energy and can cost several times deputy director of the Centre for one industry to another. Only in the
as much as treating river or Water Research at the University of late 19th century did multi-effect
groundwater, its use in the past was Western Australia in Perth, says the evaporators for desalination begin to
largely confined to wealthy oil-rich facility has “set a benchmark for appear on steamships and in arid
nations, where energy is cheap and other plants in Australia.” countries such as Yemen and Sudan.
water is scarce.
No. of words : 720 Time taken to read : minutes Reading speed: w.p.m
Summary of the passage:
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
form. Between –10°C and –22°C, it air around the icy tip and then
There is something about
is ice flowers again, and below that, draws them in electrostatically. At
snowflakes that scientists cannot prisms once more. about 1,000 volts this effect races
leave alone. Johannes Kepler, the away-the more pointed thee tip, the
man who worked out the orbits of the Dr Hallett is building on Nakaya’s stronger the field becomes, and as
planets, wrote a book about them as work to look at how such things as more water molecules attach
a new-year present for his patron. humidity affect the process. It may themselves to it, the tip becomes
Robert Hooke, Issac Newton’s low- sound esoteric, but the hopes that more pointed.
born rival who came up with insights understanding the conditions needed
about gravity that Newton may have for particular sorts of flake to form will Unlike Dr Hallett’s convection-
stolen, first applied the microscope enable meteorologists to give out grown snowflakes, Dr Libbrecht’s
to them. And Rene’ Descartes once accurate warnings of air-pockets that electrically generated crystals have
wrote, “So perfectly formed in pilots should avoid in order to prevent no obvious applications. Sadly,
hexagons, and of which the six sides their aircraft icing up. And if that were they do not even offer much insight
were so straight, and the six angles not practical enough, others are into thunderstorm snow. But they
so equal, that it is impossible for men looking at the role snowflakes have in do demonstrate the importance
to make anything so exact.” But in catalyzing the transformation of of unstable conditions in imparting
this as in so many things, Descartes ozone into normal oxygen. to snowflakes their famous
was wrong. For John Hallett of the diversity.
Desert Research Institute in, Ozone is a version of oxygen with
appropriately, Nevada, is really three atoms per molecule, whereas Exact mathematical explanations of
rather good at making snowflakes. normal, everyday oxygen has only this diversity are some way off, but
Dr Hallett is one of a small band of two. At ground level ozone is a people are working on them.
latter-day snowflake researchers. He dangerous pollutant, but at altitude Jon Nelson, of Ritsumeikan
makes his flakes in a chamber that it blocks the passage of harmful University, in Japan, has calculated
mimics the swirling balance between ultraviolet light. Understanding the that the most important property
wind and gravity in which natural role of snowflakes in catalyzing the involved is the surface tension of
snowflakes form. He then compares change from one sort of oxygen to the tiny clusters of water molecules
flakes grown in these controlled the other should provide insights from which snowflakes form. This
conditions with natural flakes formed. into how ozone is distributed in the can vary in non-obvious ways as
atmosphere. temperature alters. That variation,
The details are surprisingly he believes, dictates the way snow
complicated. Experiments done in Another way of growing snowflakes crystals grow. His model predicts
the 1930s by Ukichiro Nakaya, a is to use an electric field. This is the that these clusters will change
Japanese scientist, showed that approach employed by Ken size at the temperatures at which
whether snow forms in the flat and Libbrecht, of the California Institute newly forming snow alters from
flowery shapes that grace of Technology. Starting with a small flower mode to prism mode,
Christmas cards, or as hexagonal piece of frost on an electrode, he and vice versa. And, yes, this,
prisms that look like cross sections has grown ice stars and flowery and the instability that Dr Libbrecht
through pencils, depends on the stalks of impressive beauty. The demonstrates, is probably
temperature. The six-petalled ice method works because the sufficient to make every snowflake
flowers grow in air warmer than –3° electrical field polarizes the electric different.
C. between –3° and –10°C, prisms charge on water molecules in the
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
even enables cardiologists to test That is because telemedicine holds
Few places on earth are as
and reprogram pacemakers or great promise within mainstream
isolated as Tristan da Cunha. This implanted defibrillators from the healthcare. Countless trials are
small huddle of volcanic islands, other side of the globe. In short, under way to assess technology
with a population of just 269, sits in when a patient in Tristan da Cunha that can monitor people who have
the middle of the South Atlantic, enters Dr Van der Merwe’s surgery, been diagnosed with heart
1,750 miles from South Africa and he may as well be stepping into the conditions, or diseases like
2,088 miles from South America, University of Pittsburgh medical diabetes, from the comfort of their
making it the most remote centre. It is a great comfort to local own homes. Rather than having
settlement in the world. So it is a residents, says Dr Van der Merwe, their devices periodically checked
bad place to fall ill with an unusual knowing that specialist at a clinic, some pacemaker
disease, or suffer a serious injury. consultations are available. patients can now have their
Because the islands do not have an implants inspected via mobile
airstrip, there is no way to evacuate Most of the technology this requires phone. That way, they need only
a patient for emergency medical visit the clinic when it is absolutely
is readily available, and it was
treatment, says Carel Van der necessary.
Merwe, the settlement’s only surprisingly simple to set up, says
doctor. “The only physical contact Paul Grundy, a health-care expert
Similarly, BodyTel, based in
with the outside world is a six to at IBM. The biggest difficulty, he
Germany, is one of several firms to
seven day ocean voyage,” he says. says, was to install the satellite-
have developed sensors based on
“So whatever needs to be done, internet link. In theory, this sort of Bluetooth wireless technology that
needs to be done here.” long-distance telemedicine could go can measure glucose levels, blood
much further. In 2001 a surgeon in pressure and weight, and upload
Nevertheless, the islanders have New York performed a gall-bladder
access to some of the most the data to a secure web server.
removal on a patient in Paris using Patients can then manage and
advanced medical facilities in the
world, thanks to Project Tristan, an a robotic-surgery system called Da monitor their conditions, even as
elaborate experiment in Vinci. Although that was they give updates to their doctors.
telemedicine. This field, which technologically impressive, it may Honeywell, an American industrial
combines telecommunications and not be where the field is heading. giant, has devised a system that
medicine, is changing as patients can use at home to
technology improves. To start with, For advances in telemedicine are measure peak flow from their lungs,
it sought to help doctors and less to do with the tele- than with ECG, oxygen saturation and blood
medical staff exchange information, pressure, in order to monitor
the medicine. In the long term, it
for example by sending X-rays in conditions ranging from lung
may be less about providing long-
electronic form to a specialist. That disease to congestive heart failure.
distance care to people who are Doctors continually review the data
sort of thing is becoming unwell, and more about monitoring
increasingly common. “What we are and can act, by changing the
people using wearable or implanted patients’ medication, for example, if
starting to see now is a patient- sensors in an effort to spot
doctor model,” says Richard they spot any problems.
diseases at an early stage. The
Bakalar, chief medical officer at
emphasis will shift from acute to This sort of thing appeals to both
IBM, a computer giant that is one of
chronic conditions, and from patients and healthcare providers
the companies in Project Tristan.
treatment to prevention. Today’s alike. The patients keep their
A satellite-internet connection to a stress on making medical treatment independence and get to stay at
24-hour emergency medical centre available to people in remote home, and it costs less to treat
in America enables Dr Van der them. And as populations age in
settings is just one way
Merwe to send digitised X-rays, developed countries, the prospect
telemedicine can be used—and it is
electrocardiograms (ECGs) and of being able to save money by
merely the tip of a very large treating people at home looks
lung-function tests to experts. He iceberg that is floating closer and
can consult specialists over a video increasingly attractive.
closer to home.
link when he needs to. The system
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Towards the end of the 11th technological clock stopped in both But even as India's technological
century, while tardy Europeans kept countries, even as it accelerated in powers make a splash in the world,
time with sundials, Su Sung of Europe. This peculiar loss of they stir only the surface of its own
China completed his masterpiece: a momentum, noted Joseph vast society. India produces more
water clock of great intricacy and Needham, a great historian of engineering graduates than
accuracy. Standing almost 12 Chinese science, takes some America. But it has only 24
metres (40 feet) tall, Su's “Cosmic explaining. Why, he asked, did the personal computers for every 1,000
Engine” wavered, it is said, by only science of Galileo emerge “in Pisa people, and fewer than three
a few minutes in every 24 hours. but not in Patna or Peking”? broadband connections. India's
From twin tanks filled by servants, a billion-strong population cuts both
steady flow of water was cupped In his book “The Lever of Riches”, ways. Whenever an Indian
and spilled by a series of buckets Joel Mokyr settles on a simple demographic appears as a
mounted on a wheel. The rotation explanation for China's numerator, the resulting number
of the wheel turned the clock, as technological stagnation: the looks big. But whenever its
well as an astronomical sphere and country's imperial state lost interest. population is in the denominator,
globe that charted the movement of Its purposes were better served by the number looks small. It is like
the sun, moon and planets. Drums continuity than by progress, and looking at the same phenomenon
beat 100 times a day; bells chimed there was no rival source of power from opposite ends of a telescope.
every two hours. A replica, and patronage to pick up the As of now, India matters more to
painstakingly built with threads it dropped. Roddam technology than technology does to
contemporary methods, now turns Narasimha of India's National India.
in Taiwan's National Museum of Institute of Advanced Studies
Natural Science. reaches a similar conclusion for This is a pity. India and China still
India. “Up to the 18th century, the have more to gain from the
Clockmaking was only one scientific East in general was strong and adoption and assimilation of
endeavour in which China and India prosperous, the status quo was technology than from invention per
comfortably led the world before the comfortable, and there was no
se. Some of their best minds are
15th century. China outstripped great internal pressure to change
adding generously to the world's
Europe in its understanding of the global order,” he writes.
stock of knowledge, but the more
hydraulics, iron-smelting and
That diffidence no longer hampers urgent task for the countries
shipbuilding. Its machines for
either state. Both China and India themselves is to make wider use of
ginning cotton, spinning ramie and
throwing silk seemed to lack only a are now restless with technological know-how that already exists.
flying shuttle and a drawbar to ambition. China's government does Indeed, the World Bank has
match the 18th-century contraptions not have the luxury of choosing calculated that India could quintuple
that launched Britain's Industrial between progress and stability; it the size of its economy if it only
Revolution. Clean your teeth with a cannot enjoy social peace without caught up with itself—that is, if the
toothbrush, rebuff the rain with a economic advance. For the past 30 mediocre firms in its industries
collapsible umbrella, turn a playing years it has tried to turn the clock closed the gap with the best. Both
card, light a match, write, pay–or forward. By 2015 its research countries miss out when policies to
even wipe your behind–with paper, scientists and engineers may promote invention, such as China's
and you register a debt to China's push for “indigenous” innovation or
outnumber those of any other
powers of invention. India's recent patent laws, serve to
country. By 2020 it aims to spend a
bigger share of its GDP on research stymie diffusion.
India's genius, then as now, was in
software not hardware. Its ancient and development (R&D) than the
European Union. A year in China, foreign residents
civilisations ushered in a
say, is like ten years outside. Its
“mathematical revolution” from the
India, for its part, surveys the future clock is already turning rapidly. But
fifth century, when Aryabhata
with uncharacteristic optimism. Its the cogs and levers that drive
devised something like the decimal
technological confidence has grown technological progress are as
system. In the seventh century
Brahmagupta explained that a immeasurably thanks to the intricate and delicate as Su Sung's
number multiplied by zero was success of its software and IT firms. mechanism. China's government is
zero. By the 15th century, Madhava The heirs to Aryabhata and in danger of trying to do too much.
had calculated pi to more than ten Brahmagupta, India's digital Its monumental efforts to educate
decimal places. ambassadors have won acclaim for and train have filled the tanks of its
their mastery of ones as well as innovation engine. Now it is time for
After the 15th century, however, the zeros. it to just let the water flow.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
rates as high as several metres a scientist and director of NASA's
Unlike most apparently intractable century. In the mid 1990s, as part of Goddard Institute for Space Studies
problems, which have a tendency to a study funded by the European – warns that we could see a one to
go away when examined closely Union, we discovered that in the two metre rise this century and
and analytically, the climate change Mediterranean region there was a several more in the next. Other
predicament just seems to get close correlation between how climate scientists too, forecast
bigger and scarier the more we quickly sea levels went up and substantially greater rises than the
learn about it. down during the last ice age and IPCC, whose prediction excludes
Now we discover that not only are the level of explosive activity at any consideration of future changes
the oceans and the atmosphere volcanoes in Italy and Greece. in polar ice sheet behaviour. A
conspiring against us, bringing worst-case scenario could see a
But how can rising sea levels cause return to conditions that prevailed
baking temperatures, more volcanoes to erupt? The answer
powerful storms, floods and ever- around 14,000 years ago, when sea
lies in the enormous mass of the levels rose 13.5 metres (44ft) - the
climbing sea levels, but the crust water pouring into the ocean basins
beneath our feet seems likely to join height of a three-storey house - in
from the retreating ice sheets. The the space of about 300 years.
in too. addition of over a hundred metres Such a dramatic rise in coming
Looking back to other periods in our depth of water to the continental centuries would clearly spell
planet's history when the climate margins and marine island chains, catastrophe for our civilisation, with
was swinging about wildly, most where over 60% of the world's low-lying regions across the planet
notably during the last ice age, it active volcanoes reside, seems to vanishing rapidly beneath the
appears that far more than the be sufficient to load and bend the waves. Just a one metre (3.28ft)
weather was affected. The solid underlying crust. rise would threaten one third of the
earth also became restless, with an world's agricultural land, two metres
This in turn squeezes out any
increase in volcanic activity, (6.56ft) would make the Thames
magma that happens to be hanging
earthquakes, giant submarine flood barrier redundant and four
around waiting for an excuse to
landslides and tsunamis. At the rate metres (13.12ft) would drown the
erupt. It may well be that a much
climate change is accelerating, city of Miami, leaving it 37 miles
smaller rise can trigger an eruption
there is every prospect that we will (60km) off the US coast.
if a volcano is critically poised and
see a similar response from the ready to blow.
planet, heralding not just a warmer As sea levels climb higher so a
future but also a fiery one. Eruptions of Pavlof volcano in response from the world's
Alaska, for example, tend to occur volcanoes becomes ever more
Several times in the past couple of during the winter months when, for likely, and perhaps not just from
million years the ice left its polar meteorological reasons, the volcanoes. Loading of the
fastnesses and headed towards the regional sea level is barely 30cm continental margins could activate
equator, covering much of the (12in) higher than during the faults, triggering increased numbers
world's continents in ice sheets over summer. If other volcanic systems of earthquakes, which in turn could
a kilometre thick, and sucking water are similarly sensitive then we could spawn giant submarine landslides.
from the oceans in order to do so. be faced with an escalating burst of Such a scenario is believed to
As a consequence, at times when volcanic activity as anthropogenic account for the gigantic Storegga
the ice was most dominant, global climate change drives sea levels Slide, which sloughed off the
sea levels were as much as 130m ever upwards. Norwegian coast around 8,000
lower than they are today; sufficient years ago, sending a tsunami more
to expose land bridges between the Notwithstanding the recent than 20 metres (66ft) high in places
UK and the continent and Alaska prediction by the Intergovernmental across the Shetland Isles and onto
and Russia. Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the east coast of Scotland. Should
that sea levels in 2100 will be a Greenland be released from its icy
Each time the ice retreated, sea measly 18-59cm (7-23in) higher, carapace, the underlying crust will
levels shot up again, sometimes at Jim Hansen – eminent climate start to bob back up, causing
earthquakes well capable of change driven by human activities. falling temperatures, as a veil of
shaking off the huge piles of glacial Global warming is not just a matter volcanic dust and gas reduces the
sediment that have accumulated of warmer weather, more floods or amount of solar radiation reaching
around its margins and sending stronger hurricanes, but is also a the surface. Maybe the Earth is
tsunamis across the North Atlantic. wake-up call to Terra Firma. It may trying to tell us something. It really
be no coincidence that one would be worth listening before it is
The Earth is responding as a single, outcome of increased volcanic too late.
integrated system to climate activity is likely to be a period of
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
recycle waste and replenish Large populations living in
A great milestone in the human
resources. The tipping point was megacities consume massive
saga is urbanization, a the exhuming of large amounts of amounts of the Earth's energy to
development similar in magnitude stored sun, first in the form of coal maintain their infrastructures and
to the agricultural era and the deposits, then oil and natural gas. daily flow of human activity. The
Industrial Revolution. For the first Sears Tower in Chicago alone uses
time in history, a majority of human Harnessed by the steam engine more electricity in a single day than
beings will be living in vast urban and later the internal combustion the city of Rockford, Ill., with
areas, many in megacities and engine and converted to electricity 152,000 people. Even more
suburban extensions with and distributed across power lines, amazing, our species now
populations of 10 million or more, fossil fuels allowed humanity to consumes nearly 40 percent of the
according to the United Nations. create new technologies that net primary production on Earth --
We have become "Homo Urbanus." dramatically increased food even though we make up only one-
production and manufactured goods half of 1 percent of the animal
Two hundred years ago, the average and services. The unprecedented biomass of the planet. This means
person on Earth might meet 200 to increase in productivity led to less for other species to use.
300 people in a lifetime. Today a runaway population growth and the
resident of New York City can live The flip side of urbanization is what we
urbanization of the world.
and work among 220,000 people are leaving behind on our way to a
world of hundred-story office buildings,
within a 10-minute radius of his home No one is really sure whether this high-rise residences and landscapes
or office in midtown Manhattan. turning point in human living of glass, cement, artificial light and
Only one city in all of history -- arrangements ought to be celebrated, electronic interconnectivity. It's no
ancient Rome -- boasted a lamented or merely acknowledged. accident that as we celebrate the
population of more than a million That's because our burgeoning urbanization of the world, we are
before the 19th century. London population and urban way of life have quickly approaching another historic
been purchased at the expense of watershed: the disappearance of the
became the first modern city with a
vast ecosystems and habitats. wild. Rising population; growing
population over 1 million in 1820. consumption of food, water and
Today 414 cities boast populations building materials; expanding road
of a million or more, and there's no Cultural historian Elias Canetti once
remarked that each of us is a king in and rail transport; and urban sprawl
end in sight. continue to encroach on the remaining
a field of corpses. If we were to stop
wild, pushing it to extinction.
As long as the human race had to for a moment and reflect on the
rely on solar flow, the winds and number of creatures and the amount Scientists tell us that within the
currents, and animal and human of Earth's resources and materials lifetime of today's children, the wild
power to sustain life, the population we have expropriated and consumed will disappear from the face of the
remained relatively low to in our lifetime, we would be appalled earth. The Trans-Amazon Highway,
accommodate nature's carrying at the carnage and depletion used to which cuts across the entire expanse
capacity: the biosphere's ability to secure our existence. of the Amazon rain forest, is
hastening the obliteration of the last more just 35 years from now. It arrangements on a human scale.
great wild habitat. Other remaining boggles the mind and is
wild regions, from Borneo to the unsustainable for Earth. I don't want In the great era of urbanization we
Congo Basin, are fast diminishing to spoil the party, but perhaps the have increasingly shut off the
with each passing day, making way commemoration of the urbanization of human race from the rest of the
for growing human populations in the human race in 2007 might be an natural world in the belief that we
search of living space and resources. opportunity to rethink the way we live. could conquer, colonize and utilize
the riches of the planet to ensure
It's no wonder that we are Certainly there is much to applaud our autonomy without dire
experiencing the greatest wave of about urban life: its rich cultural consequences to us and future
mass extinction of animal species in diversity and social intercourse and generations. In the next phase of
65 million years. We are losing its dense commercial activity. But the human history, we will need to find
50 to 150 species to extinction per question is one of magnitude and a way to reintegrate ourselves into
day, or between 18,000 and 55,000 scale. We need to ponder how best the rest of the living Earth if we are
species a year. By 2100 two-thirds to lower our population and develop to preserve our own species and
of the Earth's remaining species are
sustainable urban environments that conserve the planet for our fellow
likely to be extinct.
use energy and resources more creatures.
Where does this leave us? Try to efficiently, are less polluting and
imagine 1,000 cities of a million or better designed to foster living
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
judges by expert witnesses and evidence: such as chemical
Forensic science has become a
helps solve crimes from fraud and signatures or insect colonizers like
hot subject due to US television forgery to assault, rape, murder and blowfly maggots and flesh-eating
shows such as CSl: Crime Scene terrorism. Forensics can even help beetles. The accuracy of dating with
Investigation and Law and Order. uncover secret nuclear weapons maggots has recently been called
Forensics university courses have programs, smuggled plutonium and into question, however. In the
proliferated as students flock to this thwart trafficking of drugs and absence of these clues – in burnt
glamorous and exciting scientific endangered species. remains for example – radioisotopes
discipline. can reveal time of death.
The reality may be more mundane, Dead bodies yield many clues.
but forensic scientists do invaluable Forensic pathologists and Researchers continue to study the
work linking evidence from crime anthropologists study them for decomposition of pig and human
scenes – such as fingerprints, injuries indication violence and corposes to better understand what
injuries, weapons, DNA, computer cause of death. Toxicology can happened after we die. Find a
data, drugs and counterfeit goods – indicate the presence of alcohol, detailed description of the process
to criminals themselves. Forensic drugs and poisons – arsenic in of decomposition here.
scientists also help solve crimes by Napoleon’s hair, for example. Dental
reconstructing faces from skulls, and records are often used to identify Injuries can hint at crimes in the living,
sometimes animating or virtually unknown bodies – such as 75% of the dead – and even the long dead;
ageing them, or studying corpses to Thailand’s victims of the 2004 Asian such as 5000-year-Otzi the ice man,
pinpoint the cause and time of death. Tsunami and Saddam Hussein’s discovered in the Alps in 1991.
sons killed in Iraq in 2003. Analysis of stab wounds, for example,
Criminals almost always leave can tell whether the blow was meant
evidence at crime scenes, or A body’s state of decomposition, can to be fatal, and if the wound is the
unwittingly collected it. Our ability to indicate the time of death. This is product of murder or suicide.
detect this evidence is continually easy to estimate within 12 to 24
improving, and many court cases hours of death, but later than that, Bite marks are present in 8 out of
rely it. It is presented to juries and investigators must use indirect 10 sexual assaults and many
homicides in the US. Forensic a UV ray guns and pocket-sized labs Despite the incredible value of
odontologists attempt to match that can detect traces of drugs and forensics, criticism has been levied
these to suspects’ teeth. Bite marks other substances. An X-ray that it is not always sufficiently
left on chewed objects, such as fluorescence scanner, developed for scientifically rigorous – even though
food or pencils, can even link use in space by NASA, could help it is often taken as infallible proof in
people to crimes. However, critics detect when a suspect has fired a court. Expert witnesses can be
argue that there are no universally gun, and there is even a washing selective in what they present, and
consistent methods for comparing machine that filters out forensic jurors also have trouble
bite marks. Now, a new animated evidence from soil. understanding complex information,
method to create 3D statistics and the probability or
reconstructions of marks is helping Matching fingerprints is one of the errors in forensic analysis.
to make this less subjective and best-known methods of linking
more accurate. suspects to crimes. Questions have also been raised
over the degree of error in matching
Blood is often found at crime fingerprints, bullet casings, bite
scenes, and measuring splatter marks and even DNA profiles –
from gunshot wounds can give vital DNA fingerprinting, or profiling, is now
examples exist of bone marrow
clues about what happened. superseding traditional fingerprint
donors, and relatives of criminals,
Forensic scientists can also check for matching as a more rigorous method.
being implicated for crimes they did
semen stains – a trick Japanese wives First developed in 1985 to diagnose
not commit.
can use to reveal cheating husbands. genetic illness, it is now commonly
Crime scene investigators also have used in criminal investigations.
other tools at their disposal, such as
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
familiar one: finding a way to pay methods undercount the number of
Forget what you’ve heard. The
for the news in a media online news consumers, possibly by
American newspaper audience is environment in which online quite a lot.
alive and as large as it’s ever been. advertising is worth exponentially
No, the newspaper business isn’t less than print advertising. Not to be - The average newspaper earned a
exactly thriving economically, and sanguine – it’s serious problem. But pre-tax profit of about 18.5% in
that’s not likely to change any time it’s a damn sight less serious than it 2007, through many major
soon. Even so, newspapers are still would be if newspapers were metropolitan papers – full-service
profitable, if less so than they were haemorrhaging readers, too. news sources whose costs are
in their glory days. traditionally higher than strictly local
Here are a few highlights from the papers – are earning so little that
From what alternative universe am report: they may be firting with losses in
I reporting? From the universe
- Print circulation continues to drop the not-too-distant future. Still,
defined by The State of the News
at a precipitous rate – down 2.5% within three to five years it may
Media 2008, a massive annual
daily and 3.5% on Sunday become feasible to eliminate the
report produced by the Washigton-
compared to the previous year. But print edition of these papers
based Project for Excellence in
the “unduplicated audience” for altogether, saving 35% of their
Journalism. Though hardly
newspaper websites – that is, costs.
Pollyannaish in tone, the report
does make clear that the public still people who don’t get the print
edition at all – is growing so quickly - User-created content has not
wants what newspapers are giving
that the total newspaper audience been nearly as important as media
them, even if they would,
may actually be increasing. No one futurists had predicted it would be,
increasingly, prefer to receive that
can say for sure because methods and the gatekeeping function
content online rather than in print.
of measuring online readership are played by traditional journalism
Thus the dilemma remains a so hazy. If anything, though, current remains more or less intact.
So what are we to make of all this? readers could be and probably are neither the time nor the inclination
It’s hard to say. In many respects, lying: the 40-minute figure is based to do their own reporting or to sift
the report notes, the newspaper on polling, whereas the online through the mounds of content
business is sick and getting sicker, figure is derived from more precise produced by other users. Most
with newspaper companies losing methods of measurement. If you people don’t want to grow their own
market value at staggering rates get bogged down at work and loss food or perform their own surgery,
and news budgets and reporting out that week’s papers unopened, either.
staffs being slashed. The editors of well, who’s to know?? The web
many large papers are trying to eliminates that kind of uncertainty, No one quite knows what the
reinvent their organizations by shifting power from the publisher to newspaper of the future will look
emphasizing local news – yet, in the advertiser. like. The best guess is that the
many cases, they aren’t being successful ones will be all or mostly
allowed to spend enough money Despite the daunting challenges online, and will combine
even to do that properly. facing the newspaper business, authoritative reporting with
The State of the News Media 2008 elements of citizen journalism and
And though online readership gains contains within it seeds for other forms of reader involvement.
are making up for print losses, there optimism. Even those of us who The State of the News Media report
are some vital differences. The have great hopes for certain types shows that we’re getting there – if
biggest: print readers spend an of citizen journalism know that most only the elusive answer to the big
estimated 40 minutes a month with people still want an edited, economic questions can be found.
online papers. Of course, the print professional news product, having
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
military force, or station of birth.” taxes, censorship, crime and fraud
In the early days of the internet, the are now features of the virtual
idea that it represented an entirely Where Mr Barlow and other cyber- world, too. Gamers who make real
new and separate realm, distinct Utopians found the separation money selling swords, gold and
from the real world, was seized between the real and virtual worlds other items in virtual game worlds
upon by both advocates and critics exciting, however, critics regarded it may now find that the tax man
of the new technology. Advocates as a cause for concern. They wants to know about it. Designers
liked the idea that the virtual world worried that people were spending of virtual objects in ‘Second Life’, an
was a placeless datasphere, too much time online, communing online virtual world, are resorting to
liberated from constraints and with people they had never even real-world lawsuits in order to
restrictions of the real world, and an met in person in chat rooms, virtual protect their intellectual property.
opportunity for a fresh start. This game worlds and, more recently, on And several countries have
view was expressed most clearly in social-networking sites such as managed to impose physical
the “Declaration of the ‘MySpace’ and ‘Facebook’. A study borders on the internet to enforce
Independence of Cyberspace” carried out by the Stanford Institute local laws, from censorship in China
issued by John Perry Barlow, an for the Quantitative Study of Society to France's ban on the sale of Nazi
internet activist, in February 1996. in 2000, for example, found that memorabilia.
“Governments of the industrial heavy internet users spent less time
world, you weary giants of flesh and talking to friends and family, and At the same time, however, some of
steel, I come from cyberspace, the warned that the internet could be the most exciting uses of the
new home of mind,” he thundered. “the ultimate isolating technology”. internet rely on coupling it with the
“Cyberspace does not lie within real world. Social networking allows
your borders. Our world is different. Both groups were wrong, of course. people to stay in touch with their
We are creating a world that all may The internet has not turned out to friends online, and plan social
enter without privilege or prejudice be a thing apart. Unpleasant activities in the real world. The
accorded by race, economic power, aspects of the real world, such as distinction between online and
offline chatter ceases to matter. Or “augmented reality” technology to the physical world, not a
consider Google Earth, which puts blends virtual objects seamlessly separate space. Rather than seeing
satellite images of the whole world into views of the real world, making the real and virtual realms as
on your desktop and allows users to it possible to compare real buildings distinct and conflicting, in short, it
link online data with specific with their virtual blueprints, or tag makes sense to see them as
physical locations. The next step is real-world locations with virtual complementary and connected. The
to call up information about your messages. resulting fusion is not what the
surroundings using mobile Utopians or the critics foresaw, but
devices—something that is starting All these approaches treat the it suits the rest of us just fine.
to become possible. Beyond that, internet as an overlay or an adjunct
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
maths respectively. This time students was so poor. That,
Spooked by the effects of
science took centre stage. conveniently, disguised what is now
globalisation on their low-skilled apparent: that the excellent results
citizens, rich countries have been At the top are some old stars: of 2000, when the country came
pouring money and political energy Finland as usual did best for all- seventh in reading and well above
into education. In the United States, round excellence, followed by average in both maths and science,
it has been proclaimed that no child South Korea (which did best in were a statistical blip. This time
will be left behind. Whether this reading) and Hong Kong; Canada Britain is way down the league in all
programme, launched by George and Taiwan were strong but slightly three subjects. OECD analysts and
Bush in 2002, has raised standards patchier, followed by Australia and British officials are highlighting the
will be a big issue in the next Japan. At the bottom, Mexico, still good news: immigrants do
presidential election. Next year the weakest performer in the comparatively well, and 3% of
Britain will introduce ambitious OECD, showed gains in maths; British students put in top-ranking
new qualifications, combining Chile did best in Latin America. performances in science, as
academic and vocational study. There is bad news for the United compared with only 1% across the
For the industrial countries of States: average performance was OECD. “A fresh start,” said OECD
the Organisation for Economic poor by world standards. Its schools officials, diplomatically—but the
Co-operation and Development serve strong students only results have embarrassed a
(OECD), average spending on moderately well, and do downright government that claims to have put
primary and secondary schooling poorly with the large numbers of education at the top of its agenda
rose by almost two-fifths in real weak students. A quarter of 15- for a decade.
terms between 1995 and 2004. year-olds do not even reach basic
levels of scientific competence The improvement prize went to
Oddly, this has had little (against an OECD average of a Poland, an also-ran in 2000. That
measurable effect. The latest report fifth). According to Andreas reflects not increased spending, but
from the OECD's Programme for Schleicher, the OECD's head of successful reforms in 1999, which
International Student Assessment education research, Americans are ended the practice of early
shows average attainment staying only now realising the scale of the selection on ability. By the second
largely flat. This tome, just task they face. Some individual study, in 2003, the gains were
published, compares the reading, states would welcome a separate already noticeable—and so marked
mathematical and scientific assessment. that OECD statisticians cautioned
progress of 400,000 15-year-olds in privately that two data points do not
the 30 OECD countries and 27 The results are unsettling for make a trend, and decided to wait
others, covering 87% of the world Britain, too. The country was and see what happened next time.
economy. Its predecessors in 2000 excluded from the OECD's 2003 Further improvements have
and 2003 focused on reading and study because its sample of dispelled all doubts, making Poles
the poster children for the rising educational tides seem to lift competitions, says the report. One
proposition that early “tracking”— all boats. In general—the United does not need to understand string
allocating pupils to different sorts of States and Britain may be theory to grasp this, but doing the
schools or programmes—hurts exceptions—countries do well first two is hard. All science
weak ones without benefiting the either by children of all abilities, or graduates, and physics graduates
rest. “We have learnt that you can by none. Those where many do in particular, have a head start in
really make a change by bringing well are also those where few fall other high-paid fields, such as
weaker performers into more behind. A new feature in this year's financial services. And school
demanding streams,” says Barbara study is an attempt to work out how curriculums are under constant
Ischinger, the OECD's director of differences between schools, as pressure from meddlesome
education. opposed to differences within them, governments.
determine performance (see chart).
Letting schools run themselves Variation between schools is big in The last recommendation–sparking
seems to boost a country's position Germany (to be expected, as most children's interest in the subject with
in this high-stakes schools select children on ground of appealing science-based activities–
ability). But results also vary in comes with a caveat: a keen
international tournament: giving some countries (like Japan) with interest in science does not always
school principals the power to nominally comprehensive systems. mean being good at it. Half of all
control budgets, set incentives and In top-performing Finland, by young Mexicans fail to reach basic
decide whom to hire and how much contrast, the differences between levels of scientific literacy, but they
to pay them. Publishing school schools are nearly trivial. value science more highly than their
results helps, too. More important counterparts almost everywhere
than either, though, are high-quality And what can be done to ensure else. And across the world, the less
teachers: a common factor among that budding scientists blossom? students know about science, the
all the best performers is that Give them teachers with excellent more optimistic they are about the
teachers are drawn from the top qualifications in science, spend chances of solving the planet's
ranks of graduates. plenty of time on the subject and environmental problems.
engage their enthusiasm with after-
Another common theme is that school clubs, events and
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
well as protest—there was much talk about how to “go
Back in September, protesters from many parts of the beyond text” when using mobile phones. And it became
United States poured into the small town of Jena, clear that exuberant practice was galloping ahead of
Louisiana, to express their anger over the overzealous theory. One recent craze has been the use of political
prosecution (as they saw it) of six young African- ringtones. Once again, Filipinos are in the vanguard.
Americans on charges of assault. Mobile-phone text Since 2005 that country's best-known tone, especially
messages played an important role in pulling in the crowd. among youngsters exasperated by corruption, has been
“Hello Garci”—a snatch of taped conversation in which
But for pioneers of mobile telephony and texts as tools of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seems to be chatting
protest and dissent, simply summoning people to with Virgilio Garcillano, her election organiser, ahead of
demonstrations—a technique first deployed in the the 2004 poll that confirmed her in office. In Hispanic
Philippines as long ago as 2001—is old hat. The search is countries, meanwhile, the latest fashion is a royal voice
on for ever more creative ways to use this ubiquitous device. saying “Why don't you shut up?”—the recent outburst of
Spain's King Juan Carlos to President Hugo Chávez of
At a recent conference in São Paulo on “mobile Venezuela at a summit in Santiago, Chile.
activism”—a term that embraces humanitarian work as
Mobiles are also being used in more sophisticated ways, helped Pakistani protesters to stay informed about
to capture and disseminate images that were never sympathetic rallies taking place in America and Britain—
supposed to see the light of day. Witness, a non- and to give the outside world a glimpse of ordinary
governmental organisation that aims to record and people's reactions to the state of emergency.
denounce human-rights abuses, is one pioneer. Instead
of merely posting verbal reports, it invites visitors to its During the recent protests in Myanmar, the authorities
website to the “Hub”—a collection of harrowing video temporarily suspended text messaging altogether. That
clips, often uploaded from mobiles, which depict cruelty did not stop activists from using expensive satellite
in action. On the “Egypt” country page, there are grainy phones, which are harder to shut down. The political,
images showing torture in a prison. and above all, economic cost of blocking text messages
was relatively low in Myanmar, because not many
For now at least, expense and technological problems people use mobiles. But in many other developing
make it hard to organise any international mobile-based countries, shutting mobile systems would be
protest. The lack of full interoperability between mobile economically disastrous and politically costly, because
systems means that borders are still difficult to cross. But so many small businesses depend on them.
efforts are under way to get round that problem. For
example, Frontline SMS, a laptop-based (and thus In some places, like Belarus, the authorities have refined the
portable) technology has been designed for use almost art of blocking mobile coverage in specific places—such as
anywhere. Early this year it was deployed in the protest venues. They have also turned text messages to
monitoring of elections in Nigeria. Voters texted their own uses: by using the state-owned network to spread
complaints to a computer where they could be warnings that a rally is likely to end in bloodshed.
processed and cross-checked by monitors from
international bodies such as the European Union. For hard-pressed activists in search of new techniques,
help may come from an unlikely quarter. Google, the
More recently FrontlineSMS was used in Pakistan to get internet giant, has offered $10m for the most innovative
round curbs on information flowing in and out of the country. new application for mobile phones. The offer extends to
Both there and in Myanmar (Burma) recent disturbances ideas that bring humanitarian benefits or contribute to
have produced some interesting insights into the cat-and- economic development. Mobile activists have never
mouse games of protesters and political masters. lacked imagination, and many of them are already hard at
work, thinking of clever new uses for those little devices—
In Pakistan the equipment used by local authorities was mostly rather crude, five-year-old models—that have
too cheap to block the flow of text messages. This become part of daily life in the poorest parts of the world.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
only narrowly: Cortes himself soon took an Indian lover,
In 1519 a group of Spanish soldiers who had been sent as did many of his men. Gradually Spaniards and
to explore Mexico heard an extraordinary rumour. A Indians (and later blacks) blended to create a mongrel
sailor, Gonzalo Guerrero, had drifted there on a wrecked nation. Mexico became a counterpoint to the caste
ship eight years earlier and was living among the society that developed in its northern neighbour. Then it
Indians. He had married an Indian woman, with whom he began to permeate and change that society.
had raised three children, and was tattooed and pierced.
Odder still, he intended to stay put. Hernan Cortes, the
By 2001 Latinos, most of them Mexicans or descended
leader of the expedition, was furious. “It will never do to
from Mexicans, had become the second-biggest ethnic
leave him here,” he scowled.
group in America. This worried African-Americans, who
What Cortes took to be a slight against Spanish were thus relegated to third place. It also alarmed some
civilisation, Gregory Rodriguez hails as a vision of whites, who felt that Latinos were failing to conform to
America's future. Guerrero was the first Mexican settler American mores. In an influential book “Who Are We?”
and his children were the first mixed-race Mexicans. But published in 2004, Samuel Huntington, a Harvard
University professor, argued that Mexicans threatened New arrivals spoke mostly Spanish, their children were
Anglo-Protestant traditions. “Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, bilingual and their grandchildren spoke almost no
and Vagabonds” is a much shrewder, less paranoid work. Spanish at all. Along the route to monolingualism there
Yet, in some ways, it reaches a similar conclusion. were some delightful byways. By the mid-20th century a
man driving to a meeting with the mayor would parkear
Victory in the Mexican-American war in the late 1840s his carro before climbing the steps of sitijol.
led to the first big influx of Mexicans to the United States.
Perhaps 100,000 were absorbed as their territory was If such adaptations are not always obvious it is because
annexed. That outraged American nativists. William Mexicans, unlike Africans, Italians or Germans, never
Wick, a congressman from Indiana, said he did “not want stopped coming to America in large numbers. Immigration
any mixed races in our Union, nor men of any colour took off in the 1920s when some 1,000 people a day were
except white, unless they be slaves”. In a clumsy way, arriving in Juarez with the intention of entering the United
Wick had identified the problem with Mexicans: how States. Farmers quickly came to depend on workers from
would they fit into a system that drew a sharp distinction
the south, and lobbied the government to let more in.
between blacks and whites?
This has remained a puzzle ever since. It complicated The flow briefly reversed in the 1930s, when economic
attempts to segregate the races in the early 20th depression and raids by immigration officials pushed
century. One Texas drugstore clerk explained that perhaps 400,000 people—many of them American
Mexicans, unlike blacks, were allowed to drink at the citizens—south of the border. But it soon resumed.
soda fountain. But if they wanted a table they would be Despite frequent attempts to staunch immigration from the
seated apart from whites. In the 1960s and 1970s south or divert it into legal channels, the supply of Mexican
Mexicans' uncertain status bedevilled attempts to create labour has continued to find ways to get in touch with
a civil-rights movement as potent as the black one was. American demand. The only thing that changes is the
The other problem with Mexicans is that they retained ties proportion of migrants who come to America legally.
to the mother country. Or, at least, some did. In 1897, a
group of Mexican-Americans in El Paso refused to observe At times this fascinating story is too neatly told. Even in the
Mexico's independence day, explaining that it meant old South, Anglophone America was not as strictly divided
nothing to them. The local Spanish newspaper condemned by race as Mr Rodriguez supposes. Nor have Mexicans
them, calling them “Agringados” (Americanised). Dolores proved more enlightened than others. In many cities, the
del Rio, a Hollywood star, said fiercely in 1928: “Never will sharpest ethnic divide is between blacks and Latinos. Yet
I become an American citizen. Never!” the conclusion of this excellent book is surely right. In the
next few decades one of the strongest forces shaping
Yet most Mexicans did become American—a transition American culture—perhaps the strongest force—will be
symbolised, for many, by the loss of the mother tongue. Mexican. With his pierced lip and odd-looking children, the
Even in the ghettos the march of English was relentless. stubborn Guerrero knew where the future lay.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
ethnic Chinese and Indians, together over one-third of
The government of Malaysia celebrated the 50th
the population, at the continuing, systematic
anniversary of the Malay peninsula's independence from discrimination they suffer in favour of the majority
Britain. There was much to celebrate. Living standards bumiputra, or sons of the soil, as Malays and other
and access to education, health services, sanitation and indigenous groups are called. There were also worries
electricity have soared during those five decades of about creeping “Islamisation” among the Malay Muslim
sovereignty. The country's remarkable modernisation majority of what has been a largely secular country, and
drive was symbolised, nine years ago, by the completion about the increasingly separate lives that Malay,
of the Petronas twin towers, in Kuala Lumpur, then the Chinese and Indian Malaysians are leading. More so
world's tallest buildings. than at independence, it was lamented, the different
races learn in separate schools, eat separately, work
Yet there was a hollow ring to the festivities. Malaysia's separately and socialise separately. Some were asking:
50th birthday came at a time of rising resentment by is there really such a thing as a Malaysian?
The pro-bumiputra discrimination was laid down in the The social contract may once have seemed necessary to
country's first constitution, in 1957, to ease Malays' fears keep the peace but now it and the official racism that it is
of being marginalised by the Chinese and Indian used to justify look indefensible: it is absurd and unjust to
migrants. These had come, supposedly temporarily, to tell the children of families that have lived in Malaysia for
work in the tin mines and plantations but were settling generations that, in effect, they are lucky not to be
permanently and increasingly dominating business and deported and will have to put up with second-class
the professions. The perks were extended greatly after treatment for the rest of their lives, in the name of “racial
race riots in 1969. Malays get privileged access to harmony”. When the mild-mannered Abdullah Badawi took
public-sector jobs, university places, stockmarket over as prime minister from the fire-breathing Mahathir
flotations and, above all, government contracts. The Mohamad in 2003, there were hopes of change for the
most notable result, as with South Africa's similar policy better. Mr Badawi preached a moderate, “civilisational”
of “black economic empowerment”, has been Islam and pledged to crack down on corruption.
“encronyment”—the enrichment of those well connected
Four years on, corruption, facilitated by the pro-Malay
to the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the
policies, is unchecked. The state continues to use
party that has led all governments since independence.
draconian internal-security laws, dating back to the
Malays as a whole, like other races, have got richer but
colonial era, to silence and threaten critics. UMNO
the gap between the Malay haves and have-nots has
continues to portray itself to Malays as the defender of
widened. The corruption and waste these policies
their privileges yet tries to convince everyone else that it
engender seem to have got worse in recent years.
is the guarantor of racial harmony. One commentator
this week gently described this as a “paradox”. Hypocrisy
As criticism has grown, UMNO's leaders have resorted would be a better word.
ever more frequently to growling that nobody should
question the “social contract”. This is a reference to the The damage caused by this state racism is ever more
metaphorical deal struck between the races at evident. Malaysia's once sparkling growth rate has
independence, in which the Malays got recognition that slipped. Racial quotas and protectionism are scaring away
the country was basically theirs, while the Chinese and some foreign investors. While Malaysians celebrate
Indians were granted citizenship. The veiled threat of having done rather better than former British colonies in
violence lurking behind calls to uphold the social contract Africa, they must also notice that South Korea, Taiwan
was made explicit during last year's UMNO conference, and their estranged ex-spouse Singapore have done
at which one delegate talked of being ready to “bathe in much better still. The economic consequences alone
blood” to defend Malay privileges and the education justify ending Malaysia's official racism. Even without
minister, no less, brandished a traditional Malay dagger. them, it would still be just plain wrong.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The most striking statistic in the survey has to do with

Good news doesn't sell. You are unlikely to see a
trade. Thumping majorities everywhere said that growing
newspaper headline that says no fires in New York City last trade ties between countries are "very good" or "somewhat
night. But it's worth pointing out that there are important good"—91 percent in China, 85 percent in Germany, 88
positive trends afoot in the world. Large majorities across percent in Bulgaria, 87 percent in South Africa, 93 percent
countries and cultures are in favor of democracy, free in Kenya and so on. Of the 47 countries surveyed, the one
markets, trade and cultural exchange. If you think back to a that came in dead last was … America, at 59 percent. The
generation ago, in the mid-1980s, this is a sea change. Last only country within 10 points of us was Egypt.
week's release of the Pew Global Attitudes Survey provides
the most vivid evidence of a new worldwide consensus. Or take a look at the attitudes toward foreign companies.
But—and here's the bad news—it highlights the fact that the When asked if they had a positive impact, a surprisingly
United States is becoming the odd country out. large number of people agreed. It's particularly interesting
to see this in countries like Brazil, Nigeria, India and There are areas where Americans—or at least the
Bangladesh, which have typically been suspicious of American right—cherishes the notion that we are
Western multinationals. (South Asia's unease has some exceptional. We sometimes think that we alone believe
basis; those countries were colonized by a multinational that "sometimes military force is necessary to maintain
corporation.) And yet, 73 percent in India, 75 percent in order in the world." Some 77 percent of Americans polled
Bangladesh, 70 percent in Brazil and 82 percent in Nigeria agreed. As did 90 percent of Indians, 74 percent of Turks
favor these companies. The number in America, however, and Indonesians, 80 percent of Kuwaitis, 75 percent of
is 45 percent, which places us in the bottom five. We Swedes and 73 percent of Italians. We have a unique
expect the world to welcome U.S. companies with open skepticism about government, right? Well, many others
have acquired it too: 65 percent of Americans say that the
arms and yet do not reciprocate the hospitality.
government has too much power, as do the same number
of French and many more Germans. Two out of three
The United States has always thought of itself as exceptional.
Americans believe in protecting the environment even if it
slows economic growth. The number is about the same for
But nowadays we are standing apart for the wrong
the French and the Japanese.
things. America has typically been seen as the place
where the boundaries of personal freedom were being The most startling aspect here is the trend. The United
stretched, where women's liberation was forged, where States has had the biggest drop in support for trade
wacky new lifestyles and crazes were most among all countries surveyed since 2002. On some of
enthusiastically adopted. For much of the world, America the other issues—like immigration—the data suggest
was the future. That is not the impression you would that American attitudes have shifted even more sharply.
come away with, looking at this survey. For example, All of this points to a stunning lack of political leadership.
America has an unusually regressive attitude on whether
homosexuality should be "accepted," a much tamer Foreign companies and foreigners—as well as
question than whether to approve civil unions or gay expanding trade, travel and markets—are all going to be
marriages: 49 percent say yes, and 41 percent, no. On a large part of the 21st century. Look around. If you
what has become a crucial test of a society's update the current ranking of the 10 richest people in the
inclusiveness and tolerance, the United States lags well world, you will find that eight of them are now non-
behind every Western European country, as well as Americans and every one is an entrepreneur. The
many Eastern European and most Latin American natives have gotten very good at capitalism.
countries. Catholic Mexico is far more accepting, with The task of our political leaders is to make Americans
60 percent saying yes, and only 31 percent, no. understand this new world and explain how the United States
has thrived and will continue to thrive in it. They should be
The United States is becoming utterly unexceptional on equipping Americans to compete in the world rather than
another issue—immigration. It's not really news that blaming others and turning inward. Instead, the Republican
majorities everywhere want to restrict and control presidential contenders fan fears about foreigners and
immigration. But it is strange that sentiment is as strong in immigrants. The Democrats demonize free trade. And the
the world's foremost nation of immigrants. More Americans American public gets more and more spooked and less and
are against immigration than Frenchmen or Germans. less prepared for the world we're entering.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
kind, in goods or labour. Could a piece of paper
It took Johan Palmstruch, a flawed genius as irritating as represent value? It would be flimsy testament indeed.
he was enchanting, five years to fulfil his dream of a But it would be convenient – if it would work.
freely circulating paper currency. His stubborn
determination was in time to transform the economies of Palmstruch thought it would. In 1656 he had founded the
Europe and later the world. Stockholm Banco, a private company that intended to
issue paper money, enjoying royal privileges in return for
In the 17th century, as before and for a long time after, a royal cut. After sustained lobbying and a public-
many deals and debts, if not settled in coin, were paid in relations effort that would be impressive today, an issue
of bank notes followed in 1661. Here was Europe’s first notes backed by silver. Unfortunately, seduced by the
paper currency (China’s first version had appeared in New World, he also over-reached himself: as he said
1024), one that would still be recognisable as such later,
amidst today’s state-issued confetti.
If I had the work to do over again, I would proceeds more
From the outset, half of the bank’s net profits were slowly but more surely, and I would not expose the
claimed by the crown. Sweden’s chancellor was chief country to the dangers which must necessarily
regulator, an instant example of all governments’ accompany the sudden disturbance of generally
instinctive liking for control of paper finances. Briefly, accepted financial practice.
amazingly, the new-fangled money worked. But, heady
with success, the venture over-reached itself, issued too In a different century Law would have invented what we
many notes and crashed disastrously in 1667. now call generally accepted accounting principles. In
Palmstruch was disgraced and – fickle government – 1720 his grand scheme crashed and he fled into exile.
sentenced to death, a fate later commuted to a prison
term. But the genie was out of the bottle: paper money Palmstruch and Law did the hard work. Their successors
had arrived. Nothing would ever be the same again. had to struggle only with the problem of credibility, a
legacy of the speculative reputation attached to paper
The Swedish experiment, to be frank, was a glorious bills. In 1719 an English commentator remarked that
failure. Born of necessity as much as of insight, it “men don’t yet esteem [bills] as money” – this despite the
answered an absurd practical problem. Before often generous rates of interest on offer. Paper money, it
Palmstruch’s paper, Sweden had one of the most seemed, had to be convertible into bullion on demand for
ridiculous currencies to burden the millennium. Huge it to be accepted. Yet, paradoxically but unsurprisingly,
ingots of copper, itself a depreciating asset, were the governments both local and national longed to issue it
weighty “store of value” and means of exchange. precisely when physical coinage was at its scarcest or
Merchants and citizens struggled to fulfil their obligations was collapsing in value. Caveat emptor (or venditor) had
with unwieldy piles of metal. The need for something found a new meaning – as the paper assignats issued by
better was clear. And paper had a merit, especially in revolutionary France would soon prove. Initially interest-
Sweden: it was not only lighter than copper, but easier to bearing bonds, they were swiftly redefined as money,
come by than silver or gold. and lost value over fist.
Easier to print too, and that was the problem. Would The switch to paper took decades, but it was
anyone trust it? His implementation may have been unstoppable. Early on, Adam Smith recommended the
flawed, but Palmstruch had done plenty of thinking, and “substitution of paper in the room of gold and silver
central to it was the need for credibility. He worked hard money”. In the late 19th century, economists were still
to ensure it. His notes were the genuine article. Signed arguing about the merits of bimetallism, a monetary
by no fewer than eight local dignitaries, they bore system in which paper notes were backed by both gold
watermarks, personal seals and a fancy border. No one and silver, rather than gold alone. During the 20th century
could question their authenticity. The bigger question that debate became academic, when paper money was
was whether they represented real money. Here he fell finally separated from any metallic equivalent.
down. Once the supply of paper became too great, doubt
set in and the venture was doomed. With paper, With the breakdown of the gold standard after the first
confidence is everything, as many a central bank has world war also came the awful revenge of paper,
since then discovered. Germany’s hyper-inflation. Yet paper remains ubiquitous.
One day, maybe, first plastic and now e-money will have
Palmstruch was ahead of his time. It took another driven it into history like Sweden’s copper ingot and
maverick to embark on the next serious venture into Britain’s gold sovereigns, cowrie shells or the cigarettes
paper: John Law, who nearly invented modern financial into which Greeks briefly and unofficially switched at a
markets before succumbing to the same state aversion hyperinflationary moment soon after their liberation from
to controversy. In early 18th-century France he won Hitler’s troops in 1944. But, for now, paper still rules.
patronage for a Banque Royale that would issue paper
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
make up these debits in some way, the volume of
The amount of notes and coins in circulation, coupled lending they are able to make (and thus the amount of
with the reserve ratio the banks set themselves, money in circulation), has to be reduced by a figures set
determine the extent of a country’s money supply. by whatever the reserve ratio they had agreed with the
Actually, this is not quite the case. In most countries, the central bank. If the ratio were 20 : 1, their lending would
central bank does not attempt to control the total value of have to be reduced by twenty times the amount of bonds
the notes and coins in circulation. In Britain, for example that the BoE had sold.
the Bank of England (BoE) will sell as many notes and
coins to the commercial banks as they wish. It simply If the reserve requirement is increased, or the amount in
debits the accounts these banks operate with it by the its account with the BoE falls, a bank could maintain its
appropriate amount. So the cash base of the British lending by raising more capital and depositing this with
monetary system is not just the notes and coins that the the central bank. The new capital could come from
selling more shares, or from making a trading profit and
banks have in their branches, but whatever money they
paying that to the BoE rather than distributing it to
have in their accounts with the BoE as well.
shareholders as a dividend. For many years the Irish
commercial banks attempted to justify their huge profits
Another minor difference is that it is not the commercial with the argument that they were necessary to enable
banks themselves that decide the reserve ratio they want the banks to lend enough money to finance a rapid
to follow, but the central bank to which they report. For expansion of business activity. Profits made by the UK’s
example, in Britain until 1981, the BoE specified the total twelve banks and former building societies quoted on the
amount of notes and coins a bank must have available at Stock Exchange are high too. In 1998/9 they totaled
its branches, plus the amount on deposit with it, in relation £22n, around £400 for every man, woman and child in
to the amount of money the bank had created by granting the country. If the BoE wants to increase the amount of
its customers overdrafts and other loans. This meant that money in circulation, it can do so by buying up bonds
if at any time the BoE felt that the amount of money in that it, or perhaps a local council, had issued previously.
circulation was too high and was causing inflation, it could
force banks to reduce their lending by requiring them to The third way in which the BoE can control the national
deposit more funds in their accounts. A reduction in the money supply is to alter the interest rate at which it lends
reserve ratio from 20 : 1 to 10 : 1 would have halved the funds to banks that fail to keep positive balances in their
total of the amount of money that banks could create. accounts with it. According to an official BoE statements,
this is the main way that the money supply is controlled
That system still applies but in a rigid form. Responding at present. The technique involves keeping the banking
to pressure from the commercial banks (who argued that system short of money and then lending the banks the
they would otherwise lose overseas business to foreign money they need at an interest rate that the BoE
banks), the BoE abolished its minimum reserve ratio in statement explains, “If, on a particular day, more funds
1981. it now agrees a reserve requirement individually move from the private sector [i.e. non-government
with each bank. This reflects both the level of accounts held in the commercial banks], to the
competition the bank is experiencing from its foreign Government’s accounts than vice versa, for example
rivals, and the lending and other risks that it is perceived because bank’s customers are paying their taxes, then
to running. This change has weakened the BoE’s ability the banking system will be short of the funds needed [by
to control the money supply by varying the reserve ratio. the commercial] banks to maintain positive balances on
their accounts at the Bank.” Alternatively, if the
The second way that the BoE can control the money government is spending more than it is collecting, the
supply is by ‘open market operations’. These involve the BoE can create a shortage by selling bonds itself. The
BoE in buying, or selling, interest bearing bonds. If it Bank then lends the banks the funds they need to keep
sells bonds, the purchasers (financial institutions of their accounts with it in credit at a rate of interest that
members of the public), pay for them by writing out sets the rates at which the banks lend to each other, and
cheques drawn on their commercial bank accounts in to their customers. And that rate of interest, of course,
favour of the BoE. Subsequently, the BoE debits the determines how much the banks’ customers borrow,
accounts that the commercial banks operate with it by and hence the national money supply.
the relevant amounts. Unless the commercial banks
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
electric light bulb, near the filament but not touching it.
It is the fate of the scientist to face the constant demand The two were separated by a small gap of vacuum.
that he show his learning to have some ‘practical use’.
Yet it may not be of any interest to him to have such a Edison then turned on the electric current to see if the
‘practical use’ exist; he may feel that the delight of presence of a metal wire would somehow preserve the life
learning, of understanding, of probing the universe, is its of the glowing filament. It didn’t, and he abandoned the
own reward. In that case, he might even allow himself approach. However, he could not help noticing that an
the indulgence of contempt for any one who asks more. electric current seemed to flow from the filament to the wire
across that vacuum gap. Nothing in Edison’s vast practical
There is a famous story of a student who (around 370 B.C.) knowledge of electricity explained that phenomenon, which
asked the Greek philosopher Plato: of what use were the was called the ‘Edison effect’. Edison could see no use for
elaborate and abstract theorems he was being taught? it. He therefore pursued the matter no further and let it go.
Plato at once ordered a slave to give the student a small
coin that he might not think he had gained knowledge for In the 1880’s and 1890’s, however, scientists who
nothing, then had him dismissed from the school. pursued ‘useless’ knowledge for its own sake discovered
that the Edison effect was the result of the ability of
This story of Plato, famous for two thousand years, has electrons, under certain conditions, to travel unimpeded
not made matters plainer to most people. Unless the through a vacuum. In 1904, the English electrical
application of a new discovery is clear and present, most engineer John Ambross Fleming made use of the Edison
are dubious of its value. A story about the English effect and of the new understanding that the electron
theory had brought to invent a ‘current rectifier’.
scientist Michael Faraday illustrates the point.
In his time, Faraday was an enormously popular lecturer, The Edison effect, which the practical Edison shrugged off
as well as a physicist and chemist of the first rank. In one as interesting but useless, turned out to have more
of his lectures in the 1840’s he illustrated the peculiar astonishing results than any of his practical devices.
behaviour of a magnet in connection with a spiral coil of Actually, the problem isn’t to show that pure science can be
wire which was connected to a galvanometer that would useful. It is a much more difficult problem to find some
record the presence of an electric current. At the branch of science that isn’t useful. Out of the abstract work
conclusion of the lecture, one member of the audience of the physicists in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s there unexpectedly
approached Faraday and said, ‘Mr. Faraday, the came the nuclear bomb, and a world that now lives in terror
behaviour of the magnet and the coil of wire was of a possible war that could destroy mankind in a day.
interesting, but of what possible use can it be?’ Faraday
answered politely, ‘Sir, of what use is a newborn baby?’ But it did not bring only terror. Out of that research also
came radio-isotopes, which have made it possible to probe
It was precisely this phenomenon whose use was the workings on living tissue with a delicacy otherwise quite
questioned so peremptorily by one of the audience that
impossible, and whose findings have revolutionised
Faraday employed to develop the electric generator, which,
medicine in a thousand ways. There are also nuclear power
for the first time, made it possible to produce electricity
cheaply and in quantity. Even the shrewdest of men cannot stations, which may offer mankind the brightest hope of
always judge what is useful and what is not. There never ample energy during all his future existence on earth.
was a man so ingeniously practical in judging the useful as The application cannot be predicted, but we can be sure
Thomas Alva Edison, surely the greatest inventor who ever that it will have both its beneficial and its uncomfortable
lived, and we can take him as our example. aspects. It remains for the wisdom of mankind to make
Before he died, he had obtained nearly 1,300 patents, the decisions by which advancing knowledge will be
300 of them over a four-year stretch, or one every used well, but all the wisdom of mankind will never
five days, on the average. Always he was guided by his improve the material lot of man unless advancing
notion of the useful and the practical. On October 21, knowledge presents it with the matters over which it can
1879, he produced the first practical electric light, make those decisions. And when, despite the most
perhaps the most astonishing of all his inventions. In careful decisions, there come dangerous side-effects of
succeeding years, Edison laboured to find ways of the new knowledge, only still further advances in
making the glowing filament last longer. One of his hit-or- knowledge will offer hope for correction. Today’s science
miss efforts was to seal a metal wire into the evacuated is tomorrow’s solution – and tomorrow’s problem, too.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
emotion or technical excellence but of emotion fused with
We do not realise adequately to what extent our minds thought and recollected in tranquillity. No one who is not a
are moulded by the books we read especially in youth. seer can produce great literature. The supreme creations of
We have several means by which we acquire knowledge our people’s imagination are among the masterpieces of
today – the radio, the cinema, the newspaper and we world literature. They are the best interpreters of our past
also have television, but reading of books is the most and in reading them we are in communion with great minds
ancient and the most effective of them all. Reading a of thousands of years ago. We must read them if we are to
book is different from mechanised instruction. We are become conscious of our tradition.
never alone when we have books for our companions.
We do not maintain a tradition by simply repeating the words
A great writer has said that religion is what a man does and acts of our fathers. By doing so we deprive them of their
with his solitariness. It is not merely religion but art and significance. No tradition can be kept alive without the critical
literature, scientific discovery and technological invention and creative changes and renewal which understanding can
that are the outcome of what a man does with his give. The individual’s contribution in turn depends on the
solitariness. In the modern world we tend to be pressure on him of the new problems of the age.
gregarious beings. When we have a little leisure we run
to parties, clubs or other social activities. We are afraid The three chief features of our age are the scientific and
to be alone with ourselves, afraid to stand and stare, the technological revolution, the liberation of dependent
much less to sit and think. We are happy with others, not countries in Asia and Africa and the growing unity of the
with ourselves. Pascal tells us that all the evils of the world. We should read books which give us a scientific
world arise from the fact that men are unable to sit still in temper and outlook. We have to read the histories of Asian
a room. Reading a book gives us the habit of solitary and African countries, know their hopes and aspirations.
reflection and true enjoyment. We have also to take into account the fact of the growing
unity of the world. The intellectual wealth of all mankind is
There is a general complaint that there is a lowering of at the service of each one of us, if we overcome the
standards on all fronts. The leaders who fail in their barriers of language. The whole past and the whole world
sense of duty mislead their followers. must be alive in one’s heart. Books are the means by
which we build bridges between cultures. The opposition of
The root of the malady is in the human individual. It cultures requires to be broken down. Sensitive men thrown
underlines our political, economic and social practices. We in among a people with little capacity for love, who fear one
must change the nature of the individual. Literature has this another and hate one another should help to remove
supreme function of raising the quality of human beings. suspicion and fear which come to us more easily than
understanding and love. Individual nations should be
When we read great classics, our minds become dyed to trained to think in terms of the welfare of humanity as a
their thoughts. Great books foster the psychological whole. Great books are of use to us at a time when our
health of the reader. They induce in us largeness of mind critical values are thrown into confusion. Many of us are not
and normative vision. They give us moral contentment. men but shadows of men. We suffer from contradictory
Indulgence is treason to civilised values. impulses. We have fear, suspicion, greed, jealousy as well
as kindliness, goodwill, the desire to serve and help one
Some books entertain, others instruct, still others elevate another. If we wish to create a normal harmonious human
our nature. The last are the books which we should read society, the former should be held in check and the latter
and digest. The goal of human life, we have held, is spiritual encouraged. A general spiritual awakening is
fulfilment. Joy is a sign of triumph. The books that give us indispensable. We must not debauch the minds of our
joy are different from those which give us pleasure or people with trivialities. There is a good deal to be said for
satisfaction. Joy is the sign of ripeness. When we derive joy our ancient practice of starting the day’s work with a few
from the reading of a book, we identify ourselves with what minutes of silent meditation and reading a sacred classic.
we read even as we become one with the music we hear. Everything will pass away – wealth, possessions, even
Joy is more lasting than pleasure and endures even through kingdoms. Even great nations are not immortal. But truth,
pain. The works which induce joy are impersonal and lead beauty and loving kindness will live for ever.
to an extinction of the ego. They are expressions not of raw
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
agenda by exploiting crises, seems a frail thread to tie

Naomi Klein is a brilliant journalist. Her trademark is
everything together. There are parts which Klein almost
scrupulous and rigorous research assembled in a way
convinced me - the use of terror in Latin America through
which is compelling and accessible. It's not surprising
that she has attracted such a big following as the sell out the 70s and 80s - but there were other parts which I felt
event last night at the South Bank in London showed. were straining at the simplicity of this central thesis such
as the rise of right wing politics under Thatcher and
There is a huge amount in her book which I found Reagan in the 80s. Was Thatcher's success in the
riveting. It's a huge tome full of extraordinary tales - you 80s only about using shock in the aftermath of the
couldn't make most of them up. But read how the CIA Falklands War?
funded experiments at McGill university into electric
shock treatment in the fifties or how Bolivia took up neo- Neo-liberalism made advances in the UK and the US
liberal ideas in the eighties. The scale and scope of this without crises to exploit. There were other factors which
book is remarkable as Klein moves her 60-odd year gave the neo-liberals legitimacy, which made their ideas
historical narrative across the globe from Suharto's rise compelling to a sufficient number of voters. And this is
to power in Indonesia to the arrival of the ANC in power the territory which Klein ignores and which I think is
in South Africa. The long list of acknowledgements crucially important.
generously recognises the dozens of researchers across
the world who have helped. As Klein would be the first to The central conundrum which seems to underlie much of
admit (and perhaps be proud to do so) this has been in Klein's book is how and why does a small elite with some
many ways a team effort. The book itself is proof of how outlandish ideas capture the political and economic
shock wears off, how individuals across the globe can agenda in a country to their own personal advancement;
assemble the facts to expose the truth. how do the masses allow them to achieve this power
with little or no resistance and sometimes with support at
So having made all of that absolutely clear, I have also the ballot box, when the outcome is so evidently to the
to admit that the book does itself use shock and awe. detriment of their own interests?
Such a massive project leaves you feeling somewhat
intellectually battered. But as Klein argues in her Klein's conclusion that shock wears off is hopeful for her
conclusion, shock does wear off. And when it did, I found readers and many supporters but I think it is ultimately
naive. The world which failed to stop Bush's war in Iraq
myself unconvinced by the thesis by which she has
is not about to recover from shock therapy; it is riddled
strung together her research. Some of the audience's
with such a narrow understanding of its own capabilities
questions last night indicated an uncertainty that the that it has lost all hope. Accurate diagnosis is vital if we
shock doctrine is quite such a novel or central instrument are to have any chance of eventually imagining a
for neo-liberals - haven't all kinds of politicians used compelling alternative.
crises to their own advantage through history. As Klein
admits it's not been the sole preserve of the right - Having said all that, this is a good and useful book. In
Communism used shock. the end, Klein is bringing to an audience some of the
histories it chooses to forget. That is massively valuable
The single grand theory which can explain disparate - even if the central thesis threading them together is
phenomena is an old holy grail. Dorothea Casuabon's fragile, the stories themselves are scandalous. They will
husband in Middlemarch died doing it. Klein, thankfully, inspire outrage. And that is precisely what we need.
has not, but the idea that the neo-liberals advanced their
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
I define civilization as social order promoting cultural as a source of moral instruction and social order.
creation. It begins with force generating order; it
progresses with knowledge and education generating Our universities are in turmoil. The angry student resents
reason; it matures in sensitivity generating beauty in courses that do not prepare him for successful
action, speech and form. It becomes a delicate structure of functioning in a changing society, or that ignore the role
traditions, customs, morals, manners and laws; of of ethnic minorities in our political and cultural history. He
commercial facilities and industrial skills; of sciences, began by admiring science for its methods and its
letters, creeds, philosophies, and arts. It is not transmitted miracles; he ends by distrusting science as mechanizing
with flesh and blood, with genes or chromosomes; it has to life and industry, and as subjecting itself to a military-
be acquired a new by each generation through capacity to industrial complex that dominates the citizen, the
teach and willingness to learn. teacher, the economy, and the government.
Civilization is a cooperative product, and many peoples The growth of wealth and cities and population, the lessening
have contributed to the heritage that constitutes it. So of moral restraints, the increased facilities offered to economic
the Hindus gave us our Arabic numerals, the dishonesty and sexual promiscuity, have coarsened our
Phoenicians gave us our alphabet, the Jews gave us the manners, our morals, our language, our literature, and our
Ten Commandments, the Greeks gave us philosophy, arts, and threaten the very soul of civilization.
the Romans gave us law, the early Christians gave us a
moral ideal, the English gave us respect for individual The denial of education and a decent family life to our
freedom, the French gave us the refining participation of black people in the South has created, by their migration
women in the privileges and amenities of life. We are the to the North, a race problem more intense and
inheritors of a costly, complex and fragile legacy. dangerous than at any time in our century.
It takes centuries to create a civilization, and only a Crime has increased along with cities, science, and
generation or a year to destroy it. It took France a industry. Industry gives new tools to the criminal; the
thousand years to grow from Clovis to Montaigne; it took automobile makes his escape easier; court decisions
England 800 years from Alfred to Shakespeare. But it make his conviction harder; and indiscriminate
took the Mongols only a decade to destroy the high imprisonment makes murderers out of petty thieves.
civilization of medieval Baghdad; it may take the
hydrogen bomb only a day to turn our major cities into Our economic system, so excellent in productivity and in
rubble and dust; it may take only a generation for spreading the comforts of life, has the defect of
Western civilization to disintegrate under the storm of repeatedly concentrating wealth to a point that
challenges that envelops it today. encourages discontent and class war.
You know those challenges. First of the challenges to
Our youth tend to lose faith in the integrity and efficiency
civilization is the deterioration of our environment
of our institutions, to drop out from the processes and
through the rapid use of minerals and fuels of the soil;
amenities of civilization, and to lend themselves to
through the transformation of our inner cities into
student violence and revolutionary dreams. They reject
soul-destroying, crime-breeding ghettos of the poor;
the past as irrelevant in a hectically changing world, and
through the pollution of our waters by industrial and
repudiate the wisdom of age as geared to a vanished
human wastes, of our air by our industries and our cars,
scene. Finally they take to narcotics to escape the
of our food and drink by insecticides, detergents, or
responsibilities of adult life; and we, who must entrust
chemical additives; and the disfigurement of our
the future to them, stand sipping our alcohol in a
surroundings by unregulated building or the discarded
paralysis of wonder and fear as to what our undisciplined
products of our labor or our recreation. We have been
and unmoored children will do with out heritage.
fouling our own nest.
We shall meet our challenges if we can bring to bear
The deterioration of our population through the reckless
upon them the united force of mature counsels and
multiplication of its quantity and the repeated dilution of
its quality. We breed faster than we plant, and we breed young ideas. The young must learn to listen as well as to
speak; and we elders must recognize that the wild
from the bottom of the intellectual scale while prudent
initiatives of the young have spurred remedial action in
parentage relatively sterilizes the top.
administrative chambers and legislative halls. Perhaps
The Industrial Revolution has ended the role of the our national vitality depends upon a continuing tension
family as the unit of economic production, and has between youth and age, whereby innovation meets
thereby removed the economic basis of parental tradition, and the ardor of experiment fuses with the
authority and family discipline. coolness of experience. Let our sons and daughters be
heard when they open their hearts. Though suffering
The Scientific Revolution has weakened supernatural repeated violence and chaos, civilization will survive the
belief, and has rapidly reduced the influence of religion unstable flux of our time.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
O ver the last couple of months a number of Indian government delegations have been engaging with the central Asian
states (CAS). The visit of the Indian vice-president to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, the meeting in Islmabad of officials
from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Turkmenistan regarding the pipeline that would bring Turkmen gas to south Asia,
as also the Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s visit to India, assume significance, beyond the need of oil and
gas, in the shaping of India’s foreign policy vis-à-vis the region. It is obvious that energy supplies are a crucial
component of the spate of activities between India and “greater” central Asia (CA) – which besides the five post-Soviet
states includes Afghanistan and the Caspian basin. Being a part of India’s “extended strategic neighbourhood” it is to be
expected that this region will gain attention in India’s foreign policy.
CA with its location in the speedily integrating Eurasian space has assumed added economic significance. The United
States (US), the European Union, Russia, China, Pakistan and India are all vying for the right to build huge pipelines to
get the oil and enormous natural gas reserves out of CA. But interests are divergent regarding developing and creating
access to the energy the associated economic benefits. Russia’s interest is in maintaining its transport monopoly and
privileged access to CA’s energy. Europe and the US want an energy transport route towards the west through
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. China is interested in developing the pipeline infrastructure towards the east, and India
and Pakistan are keen to tap CA’S hydrocarbon resources towards the south. “Pipeline politics” has led to rivalries
among the competing nations. The tense interplay of geopolitics, geo-economics and regional proximity to Afghanistan
has given rise to increasing military presence.
There are several military bases in this region. With reports of the US, which already has a military base in CA, vying for
new bases, further militarisation of this space is obvious. Russia, with its long presence in CA, is proposing a new base
in Tajikistan, while China is considering one in Uzbekistan and, if the buzz is any indication, wants one in Iran too. With
this kind of military presence it is apparent that, for all these countries, pipeline protection is a secondary goal. It is also
becoming clear that these bases are there for reasons other than supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. India too
has set up its first overseas military outpost at Ayni in Tajikistan which underscores the strategic dimension of its
interest in the region.
The central Asian borders have remained porous to illicit trade, including weapons and drugs smuggling from
Afghanistan. In the 1990s, CA became the primary conduit for heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to Russia and from
there to eastern and western Europe. Taking into consideration the operation of the drug mafia and the vast military
presence, CA is certainly a risky neighbourhood and the potential for trouble is nerve-racking. From the time the Soviet
Union disintegrated, the CAS faced enormous challenges. Stability that is required for rapid development is lacking. Can
the region’s economic integration and increasing engagement with the global economy bring stability and prosperity?
Pipelines alone cannot bridge the divide.
The absence of a direct surface link is the foremost obstacle in the development of economic and trade relations
between India and the CAS. It would benefit to promote road and rail connectivity, a project initiated by Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan and Russia, as this is the link to the international north-south transport corridor. In the long run this will
provide a route to east European markets through CA. India has the capability to unite the countries of the region
through a common vision of mutual benefit; it can promote effective leadership from within the region by offering the
needed expertise.
All said and done, foretelling the future course for this region is difficult. Given its important geostrategic location it could
either become the scene of severe rivalry or unique partnerships depending on the methods embraced by the major
powers in dealing with each other and with the countries in the region. One can never tell – the US and India, now that
they are forging a strategic partnership, might work together in CA, with security-related linkages based on mutual
interests and perceptions. The US would like to curtail the Russian influence in the region and India the Chinese hold.
There has been a sea change in the geopolitics of Empire since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and South Block has
been coming to terms with the accompanying uncertainties by seeking to forge a strategic alliance as a junior partner
with Washington. The US has been seeking military bases in CA, especially in the Caspian Sea basin, where most of
the oil and gas resources of the region are based. Washington wants to extract as much surplus as possible from these
resources, even as it puts in place strategies to contain its main rivals – Russia and China – there. In this context, it is
best that the power elite in South Block be more circumspect in forging New Delhi’s foreign policy vis-à-vis CA.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The Supreme Court’s recent directive to all states and union territories to file a status report on implementation of the
Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulations of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act and the Building
and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, both of 1996, is significant. Notices to the states had been issued in
2006 but apart from a few who filed sketchy affidavits, most of the states simply failed to respond. The construction
industry in India employs 17 million workers (according to a 1999-2000 survey by the National Sample Survey
Organisation) on a daily basis; a large majority of these workers are illiterate migrants vulnerable to exploitation.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by the National Compaign Committee for Central Legislation on
Construction Labour, which has for long compaigned for implementation of the two laws though it recognises that they
are far from perfect. The laws enable the states to levy a cess of 1 percent of the construction cost and use it for the
education, health and safety of the workers and their families and are applicable to establishments employing 10 or
more workers and to projects costing more than Rs 10 lakh. However, the benefits of the cess fund and the welfare
board, meant to ensure that the workers are not at the mercy of individual employers for social and medical security, are
available only to registered workers. In most of the states (Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh are among
the exceptions) the workers are hardly aware of these laws and the near total absence of registration means that the
benefits cannot reach them.
Construction workers form part of the 369 million workers in the unorganised sector, which contributes around
60 per cent to the “national economic output” of the country, according to the National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector (NCEUS). On the whole, the issues that affect the unorganised workers and need to be focused on
are the regulation of their working conditions, provisioning of resources in the form of levy or budgetary allocation to
implement measures to alleviate their conditions, measures to overcome liabilities of major illnesses or possibility of loss
of employment and an accountable administrative set-up that will implement these social security and welfare
measures. Like others in the unorganised sector, the construction workers are forced to rely on their children’s labour to
supplement the family income. Their constant ill-health and the seasonal nature of the job militate against any
propensity to save. Women workers are not only paid less than their male counterparts but also face sexual exploitation
at the workplace. Union activists find it difficult to organise a workforce that does not speak the local language, has to
regularly move for sheer survival, is under heavy debt to the contractor or ‘mukadam’ (work supervisor), and lives on
site where there are security guards to keep out “unwanted” people.
Following the NCEUS report, the government introduced the Unorganised Sector Workers’ Social Security Bill 2007 in
the Rajya Sabha in September last year which covers the construction workers too. However, the draft has earned the
ire of the left parties and their trade unions who felt that it failed to address the main issues facing the unorganised
workers, especially regulation of working conditions and resource allocation. The NCEUS had also recommended
two separate bills, one for the agricultural workers and the other for non-agricultural workers. In December, the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour (PSCL) reworked the draft bill and is pressurising the government to
incorporate the changes suggested by them, as well as those made by the PSCL, but the government has not relented
so far and the impasse continues.
Meanwhile, with employment in the organised sector steadily decreasing and the agricultural sector unable to absorb
labour any further, tribal and other marginalised rural labourers have no other option but to turn to the booming
construction sites in large cities and towns. With the centre’s draft legislation turning out to be just a shadow of the
promises made in the common minimum programme to unorganised workers and widespread apathy by state
governments toward implementing the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulations of Employment and
Conditions of Service) Act and the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, both of 1996, the
construction workers will continue to remain vulnerable to exploitation. As it is, various laws relating to minimum wages,
contract labour, interstate migrant workers and equal remuneration are observed more in the breach in the case of
construction workers. The state’s apathy towards construction workers is abominable.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
T he combined output of emerging economies has reached an important milestone: it now accounts for more than
half of the total world GDP (measured at purchasing-power parity). This means that the rich countries no longer
dominate the global economy. The developing countries also have a far greater influence on the performance of the rich
economies than is generally realised. Emerging economies are driving global growth and having a big impact on
developed countries’ inflation, interest rates, wages and profits. As these newcomers become more integrated into the
global economy and their incomes catch up with the rich countries, they will provide the biggest boost to the world
economy since the industrial revolution.
Indeed, it is likely to be the biggest stimulus in history, because the industrial revolution fully involved only one-third of
the world’s population. By contrast, this new revolution covers most of the globe, so the economic gains – as well as the
adjustments pains – will be far bigger. As developing countries and the former Soviet block have embraced
market-friendly economic reforms and opened their borders to trade and investment, more countries are industrialising
and participating in the global economy than ever before. This survey will map out the many ways in which these
economic newcomers are affecting the developed world. As it happens, their influence helps to explain a whole host of
puzzling economic developments, such as the record share of profits in national income, sluggish growth in real wages,
high oil prices alongside low inflation, low global interest rates and America’s vast current-account deficit.
Emerging countries are looming larger in the world economy by a wide range of measures. Their share of world exports
has jumped to 43%, from 20% in 1970. They consume over half of the world’s energy and have accounted for four-fifths
of the growth in oil demand in the past five years. They also hold 70% of the world’s foreign-exchange reserves.
Of course there is more than one respectable way of doing the sums. So although measured at purchasing-power parity
(which takes account of lower prices in poorer countries) the emerging economies now make up over half of world GDP,
at market exchange rates their share is still less than 30%. But even at market exchange rates, they accounted for well
over half of the increase in global output last year. And this is not just about China and India: those two together made
up less than one-quarter of the total increase in emerging economies GDP last year.
There is also more than one definition of emerging countries, depending on who does the defining. Perhaps some of
these countries should be called re-emerging economies, because they are regaining their former eminence. Until the
late 19th century, China and India were the world’s two biggest economies. Before the steam engine and the power
loom gave Britain its industrial lead, today’s emerging economies dominated world output. Estimates by Angus
Maddison, an economic historian, suggest that in the 18 centuries up to 1820, these economies produced, on average,
80% of world GDP. But they were left behind by Europe’s technological revolution and the first wave of globalisation.
By 1950 their share had fallen to 40%.
Now they are on the rebound. In the past five years, their annual growth has averaged almost 7%, its fastest pace in
recorded history and well above the 2.3% growth in rich economies. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that in
the next five years emerging economies will grow at an average of 6.8% a year, whereas the developed economies will
notch up only 2.7%. If both groups continued in this way, in 20 years’ time emerging economies would account for
two-thirds of global output (at purchasing-power parity). Extrapolation is always risky, but there seems every chance
that the relative weight of the new pretenders will rise.
Faster growth spreading more widely across the globe makes a huge difference to global growth rates. Since 2000,
world GDP per head has grown by an average of 3.2% a year, thanks to the acceleration in emerging economies.
That would beat the 2.9% annual growth during the golden age of 1950-73, when Europe and Japan were rebuilding
their economies after the war; and it would certainly exceed growth during the industrial revolution. That growth, too,
was driven by technological change and by an explosion in trade and capital flows, but by today’s standards it was a
glacial affair. Between 1870 and 1913 world GDP per head increased by an average of only 1.3% a year. This means
that the first decade of the 21st century could see the fastest growth in average world income in the whole of history.
Financial wobbles this summer acted as a reminder that emerging economies are more volatile than rich-country ones;
yet their long-run prospects look excellent, so long as they continue to move towards free and open markets,
sound fiscal and monetary policies and better education. Because they start with much less capital per worker than
developed economies, they have huge scope for boosting productivity by importing Western machinery and know-how.
Catching up is easier than being a leader. When America and Britain were industrialising in the 19th century, they took
50 years to double their real incomes per head; today China is achieving the same feat in nine years.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The Vaisesika system takes its name from visesa, or particularity. It insists that it is in the particulars of the world,
pre-eminently in the particular imperceptible souls and atoms that true individuality is to be found. Though the particular
selves have cosmic and social relations, through which alone they can realise themselves, yet they retain their selfhood
in spite of all these relations. The Vaisesika is essentially a philosophy of distinctions, since it does not tolerate any
attempt at dissipating the independence of selves and objects in a supposed more perfect individuality. Its standpoint is
more scientific than speculative, more analytic than synthetic, though it is not able to set aside questions about the
general character of the universe as a whole. Science sorts out, while philosophy sums up. The Vaisesika is not
interested in constructing an all-embracing synthesis within whose bounds there is room for all that is, bringing all the
variety of the worlds of sense and of thought under a single comprehensive formula. In the spirit of science,
it endeavours to formulate the most general characters of the things observed. It tickets different aspects of experience
and assigns each to an appropriate pigeon-hole. The resulting philosophy comes to be of piecemeal character, and not
an adequate and comprehensive one.
The impulse of the Vaisesika system is derived from its hostility to Buddhistic phenomenalism. While the Vaisesika
accepts the Buddhist view of the sources of knowledge, perception and inference, it argues that souls and substances
are solid facts, and cannot be dismissed as fancy pictures of a fairy tale, supposed to be enacted behind the scenes.
It does not concern itself with the problems of theology, and Samkara's criticism even suggests that the dominant
tendency of the system was in the direction of atheism. The Vaisesika in its early form, at any rate, was thought out in
an age of excessive mental suppleness, when thought was full of the germs of scepticism.
Though mainly a system of physics and metaphysics, logical discussions are skilfully dovetailed into it in the later works.
The Vaisesika and the Nyaya agree in their essential principles, such as the nature and qualities of the self and the
atomic theory of the universe, yet the classification and characterisation of the categories and the development of the
atomic theory give to the Vaisesika its distinctive interest and value.
The logic of the Vaisesika differs only slightly from the Nyaya logic. Knowledge, which is the problem of logic, assumes
various forms, since its objects are endless. Four kinds of valid knowledge are admitted, which are perception
(pratyaksa), inference (laingika), remembrance (smrti), and intuitive knowledge (arsajnanan). Perception enables us to
apprehend substances, qualities and actions. Gross substances, which are made up of parts, are within the reach of
perception, while atoms and diads are not. The Vaisesika admits yogic perception, by which the perceptual cognition of
the soul (atmapratyaksa) arises. The Vaisesika brings comparison (upamana), tradition (aitihya), and verbal knowledge
(sabda) under inference. The validity of scriptural statements is an inference from the authoritative character of the
speakers. Like the Nyaya, the Vaisesika repudiates the Mimamsa theory of the eternity of sound and the absolute
authoritativeness of the Vedas. While the Nyaya bases the validity of the Vedas on the ground of the direct
communication from seers who had realised the eternal truths and laws, the Vaisesika infers it from the unimpeachable
veracity of the inspired seers. The scriptures give us real knowledge and not mere speculation. It is knowledge of things
as they are, and in this sense has no beginning, though it is always directly known and realised by some beings in its
entirety and by others in part. Abler minds realised the truths and communicated them to us. The Vedas, as collections
of sentences, presuppose intelligent authors; and they must be possessors of complete and accurate knowledge of
heaven and unseen destiny (adrstam). Gradually this authorship was assigned to God. "The authoritativeness of the
Veda follows from its being the word of God." The meanings of words and sentences must be understood before they
give us knowledge. Since the understanding of meanings depends on the recognition of universal concomitance, verbal
knowledge is a case of inference. 'Cesta' or gesture, 'arthapatti' or implication, 'sambhava' or inclusion, and 'abhava' or
negation, are all brought under inference. 'Smrti,' or remembrance, is given an independent place. 'Arsajnana' is the
insight of seers. If remembrance is ignored, since it only reproduces what has already been experienced, and if intuitive
wisdom is brought under perception, we have, according to the Vaisesika, only two sources of knowledge, intuition and
inference.
Four varieties of invalid knowledge are mentioned, which are doubt (samsaya), misconception (viparyaya), indefinite
cognition (anadhyavasaya), and dream (svapna). Sivaditya reduces these four to two, doubt and error, and brings under
the former, conjecture (uha), indeterminate knowledge and indirect reasoning. Sridhara justifies the separate mention of
dreams on the ground that "it occurs only in a particular condition of the body."
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
If Greek civilization seems more akin and "modern" to us now than that of any century before Voltaire, it is because the
Hellene loved reason as much as form, and boldly sought to explain all nature in nature's terms.
The liberation of science from theology and the independent development of scientific research were parts of the heady
adventure of the Greek mind. Greek mathematicians laid the foundations of trigonometry and calculus; they began and
completed the study of conic sections, and they brought three-dimensional geometry to such relative perfection that it
remained as they left it until Descartes and Pascal.
Democritus illuminated the whole area of physics and chemistry with his atomic theory. In a mere aside and holiday
from abstract studies, Archimedes produced enough new mechanisms to place his name with the highest in the records
of invention. Aristarchus anticipated and perhaps inspired Copernicus; and Hipparchus, through Claudius Ptolemy,
constructed a system of astronomy which is one of the landmarks in cultural history.
Eratosthenes measured the earth and mapped it. Anaxagoras and Empedoeles drew the outlines of a theory of
evolution. Aristotle and Theophrastus classified the animal and plant kingdoms and almost created the sciences of
meteorology, zoology, embryology and botany. Hippocrates freed medicine from mysticism and philosophical theory,
and ennobled it with an ethical code; Herophilus and Erasistratus raised anatomy and physiology to a point
which -- except in Galen -- Europe would not reach again till the Renaissance.
In the work of these men we breathe the quiet air of reason, always uncertain and unsafe, but cleansed of passion and
myth. Perhaps, if we had its masterpieces entire, we should rate Greek science as the most single intellectual
achievement of mankind.
But the lover of philosophy will only reluctantly yield to science and art the supreme places in our Grecian heritage.
Greek science itself was a child of Greek philosophy -- of that reckless challenge to legend, that youthful love of inquiry,
which for centuries united science and philosophy in one adventurous quest. Never had men examined nature so
critically and yet so affectionately; the Greeks did no dishonor to the world in thinking that it was a cosmos of order and
therefore amenable to understanding. They invented logic for the same reason that they made perfect statuary;
harmony, unity, proportion, form, in their view, provided both the art of logic and the logic of art.
Curious of every fact and every theory, they not only established philosophy as a distinct enterprise of the European
mind, but they conceived nearly every system and every hypothesis and left little to be said on any major problem of life.
Realism and nominalism, idealism and materialism, monotheism, pantheism, and atheism, feminism and communism,
the Kantian critique and the Schopenhaurian despair, the primitivism of Rousseau and the immoralism of Nietzsche,
the synthesis of Spencer and the psychoanalysis of Freud -- all the dreams and wisdom of philosophy are here in the
age and land of its birth. And in Greece men not only talked of philosophy, they lived it; the sage, rather than the warrior
or the saint, was the pinnacle and ideal of Greek life.
Through all the centuries from Thales, that exhilarating philosophical bequest has come down to us, inspiring Roman
emperors, Christian Fathers, Scholastic theologians, Renaissance heretics, Cambridge Platonists, the rebels of the
Enlightenment and the devotees of philosophy today. At this moment, thousands of eager spirits are reading
Plato -- perhaps in every country on the earth.
Civilization does not die, it migrates; it changes its habitat and its dress, but it lives on. The decay of one civilization, as
of one individual, makes room for the growth of another; life sheds the old skin and surprises death with fresh youth.
Greek civilization is alive; it moves in every breath of mind that we breathe; so much of it remains that none of us in one
lifetime could absorb it all.
We know its defects -- its insane and pitiless wars, its stagnant slavery, its subjection of woman, its lack of moral
restraint, its corrupt individualism, its tragic failure to unite liberty with order and peace. But those who cherish freedom,
reason and beauty will not linger over these blemishes. They will hear behind the turmoil of political history the voices of
Solon and Socrates, of Plato and Euripides, of Phidias and Praxiteles, of Epicurus and Archimedes; they will be grateful
for the existence of such men and will seek their company across alien centuries.
They will think of Greece as the bright morning of that Western civilization which, with all its kindred faults, is our
nourishment and our life.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The term “food miles” – how far food has travelled before you buy it – has entered the enlightened lexicon.
Environmental groups, especially in Europe, are pushing for labels that show how far food has travelled to get to the
market, and books like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” contemplate the damage
wrought by trucking, shipping and flying food from distant parts of the globe.
There are many good reasons for eating local – freshness, purity, taste, community cohesion and preserving open
space – but none of these benefits compares to the much-touted claim that eating local reduces fossil fuel consumption.
In this respect eating local joins recycling, biking to work and driving a hybrid as a realistic way that we can,
as individuals, shrink our carbon footprint and be good stewards of the environment.
On its face, the connection between lowering food miles and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions is a no-brainer. In
Iowa, the typical carrot has travelled 1,600 miles from California, a potato 1,200 miles from Idaho and a chuck roast
600 miles from Colorado. Seventy-five percent of the apples sold in New York City come from the West Coast or
overseas, the writer Bill McKibben says, even though the state produces far more apples than city residents consume.
These examples just scratch the surface of the problem. In light of this market redundancy, the only reasonable
reaction, it seems, is to count food miles the way a dieter counts calories.
But is reducing food miles necessarily good for the environment? Researchers at Lincoln University in New Zealand,
no doubt responding to Europe’s push for “food miles labelling,” recently published a study challenging the premise that
more food miles automatically mean greater fossil fuel consumption. Other scientific studies have undertaken similar
investigations. According to this peer-reviewed research, compelling evidence suggests that there is more – or less – to
food miles than meets the eye.
It all depends on how you wield the carbon calculator. Instead of measuring carbon foot prints through food miles alone
the Lincoln University scientists expanded this equation to include other energy-consuming aspects of
production – what economists call “factor inputs applications, means of transportation (and the kind of fuel used),
the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed during photosynthesis, disposal of packaging, storage procedures and dozens
of other cultivation inputs.
Incorporating these measurements into their assessments, scientists reached surprising conclusions. Most notably, they
found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced
1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton, in part because poorer British pastures force farmers to use feed. In other
words, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to
buy it from a producer in their backyard, Similar figures were found for dairy products and fruit.
These life-cycle measurements are causing environmentalists worldwide to rethink the logic of food miles.
New Zealand’s most prominent environmental research organization, Landcare Research-Manaaki Whenua, explains
that localism “is not always that most environmentally sound solution if more emissions are generated at other stages of
the product life cycle than during transport.” The British government’s 2006 Food Industry Sustainability Strategy
similarly seeks to consider the environmental costs “across the life cycle of the produce,” not just in transportation.
“Eat local” advocates – a passionate cohort of which I am one – are bound to interpret these findings as a threat.
We shouldn’t. Not only do life cycle analyses offer genuine opportunities for environmentally efficient food production,
but they also address several problems inherent in the eat-local philosophy.
Consider the most conspicuous ones: it is impossible for most of the world to feed itself a diverse and healthy diet
through exclusively local food production – food will always have to travel; asking people to move to more fertile regions
is sensible but alienating and unrealistic; consumers living in developed nations will, for better or worse, always demand
choices beyond what the season has to offer.
Given these problems, wouldn’t it make more sense to stop obsessing over food miles and work to strengthen
comparative geographical advantages? And what if we did this while streamlining transportation services according to
fuel-efficient standards? Shouldn’t we create development incentives for regional modes of food production that can
provide sustainable produce for the less sustainable parts of the nation and the world as a whole? Might it be more
logical to conceptualize a hub-and-spoke system of food production and distribution, with the hubs in a food system’s
naturally fertile hot spots and the spokes, which travel through the arid zones, connecting them while using hybrid
engines and alternative sources of energy?
As concerned consumers and environmentalists, we must be prepared to seriously entertain these questions. We must
also be prepared to accept that buying local is not necessarily beneficial for the environment. As much as this claim
violates one of our most sacred assumptions, life cycle assessments offer far more valuable measurements to gauge
the environmental impact of eating. While there will always be good reasons to encourage the growth of sustainable
local food systems, we must also allow them to develop in tandem with what could be their equally sustainable global
counterparts. We must accept the fact, in short, that distance is not the enemy of awareness.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
A new generation of small green companies is emerging with radical but proven ideas to revolutionise engineering and
create anything from intelligent fridges to colossal wind turbines moored at sea.
The designers hope their projects will transform energy supplies and cut carbon emissions in the next 20 years.
They include huge wind turbines, more powerful than any seen before, anchored to the seabed 20 miles off the coast;
fridges that monitor the national grid to use less power; a desalination plant that is also a theatre; and a tidal lagoon that
protects the coast while generating electricity.
The new companies are rethinking major infrastructure projects using natural objects as their basis. The aero-generator
turbine, now being laboratory tested before sea trials next year, mimics sycamore seeds that spin like propellers in the
slightest breeze. Its twin arms could each be as tall as the Eiffel tower, and the structure could be moored like an oil
platform in 450 feet of water.
Each turbine, said Martin Pawlyn, an architect with Grimshaw - which developed the transparent "biomes" at the Eden
Project in Cornwall - could produce 20 megawatts of electricity, nearly five times as much as any existing wind turbine.
"A cluster of 100 of them spread over just a few square miles of ocean, each turning at just a few revolutions a minute,
could outperform almost all Britain's existing wind farms put together," he said.
"We are now learning from natural eco-systems, and are scaling up projects. We are going back to first principles,
taking our inspiration from nature."
The desalination plant, essential in countries that suffer water shortages, is also being rethought. Mostly banished to the
edges of cities, they are disliked for needing large amounts of energy and looking like ill-designed boxes. Architects working
with designer Charlie Paton have developed one that needs next to no energy and can double up as an open-air theatre. It
has been proposed by Grimshaw for the city of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, historically short of fresh water.
The structure, looking like a wall of glass and steel, uses simple evaporators and condensers to produce large
quantities of fresh water. "The inspiration came from the Namibian fog-basking beetle, which uses its shell as a
condensing surface for moisture, which allows it to survive in the desert," said Mr Pawlyn. "There are countless other
examples like this that we can turn to when tackling some of the environmental issues that we now face."
The idea has been used in three commercial greenhouses in the Middle East to grow food using salt water. Seawater
cools and humidifies the air in the greenhouse and sunlight distils fresh water.
A radical but simple design proposed for north Wales is a 15km-long tidal energy scheme that could generate up to
450 megawatts of power and protect the coastline from erosion and severe storms. It could be constructed from dredged
sand and seabed material, or waste slate from disused Welsh quarries. Long rows of hydroelectric generators would turn
and generate electricity as the tide rushes in and out. North Wales has some of the highest tidal ranges in the world.
"It would protect Rhyl and neighbouring towns with 30 linear miles of breakwater, reducing the risk of flooding disasters
like the one in 1990. But it would not be visually intrusive. It works well with wind power, and it would even be possible
to move it," said Mr Pawlyn.
The scheme could also offer a natural but nearly invisible shelter, allowing a marina to be built and a depressed area of
north Wales to be regenerated. "We are trying to raise the utilitarian [infrastructure project] to another level. It's the idea
of celebrating nature, and learning from it to rethink environmental problems," said Mr Pawlyn.
Other ideas being developed include sewage treatment processes that generate 20% more electricity than usual, and giant
solar heaters that would concentrate sunlight on to solar cells, producing 30 times as much electricity as today's cells.
Mark Shorrock, a director of venture capital firm Low Carbon Accelerator, which is aiming to raise £50m to back
dozens of small green technology companies, said the market for imaginative, new renewable energy technologies was
taking off, and was expected to more than double in the next few years. Solar energy is expected to be a £50bn market
by 2015.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Who were these people of the Indus Valley civilization and whence had they come? We do not know yet. It is quite
possible, and even probable, that their culture was an indigenous culture and its roots and offshoots may be found even
in southern India. Some scholars find an essential similarity between these people and the Dravidian races and culture
of south India. Even if there was some ancient migration to India, this could only have taken place some thousands of
years before the date assigned to Mohenjodaro. For all practical purposes we can treat them as the indigenous
inhabitants of India.
What happened to the Indus Valley civilization and how did it end? Some people (among them, Gordon Childe) say that
there was a sudden end to it due to an unexplained catastrophe. The river Indus is well-known for its mighty floods
which overwhelm and wash away cities and villages. Or a changing climate might lead to a progressive desiccation of
the land and the encroachment of the desert over cultivated areas. The ruins of Mohenjo-daro are themselves evidence
of layer upon layer of sand being deposited, raising the ground level of the city and compelling the inhabitants to build
higher on the old foundations, Some excavated houses have the appearance of two-or three-storied structures, and yet
they represent a periodic raising of the walls to keep pace with the rising level. The province of Sind we know was rich
and fertile in ancient times, but from mediaeval times onwards it has been largely desert.
It is probable, therefore, that these climatic changes had a marked effect on the people of those areas and their ways of
living. And in any event climatic changes must have only affected a relatively small part of the area of this widespread
urban civilization, which, as we have now reason to believe, spread right up to the Gangetic Valley, and possibly even
beyond, We have really not sufficient data to judge. Sand, which probably overwhelmed and covered some of these
ancient cities, also preserved them; while other cities and evidences of the old civilization gradually decayed and went
to pieces in the course of ages. Perhaps future archaeological discoveries might disclose more links with later ages.
While there is a definite sense of continuity between the Indus Valley civilization and later periods, there is also a kind of
break or a gap, not only in point of time but also in the kind of civilization that came next. This latter was probably more
agricultural to begin with, though towns existed and there was some kind of city life also. This emphasis on the
agricultural aspect may have been given to it by the newcomers, the Aryans who poured into India in successive waves
from the north-west.
The Aryan migrations are supposed to have taken place about a thousand years after the Indus Valley period; and yet it
is possible that there was no considerable gap and tribes and peoples came to India from the north-west from time to
time, as they did in later ages, and became absorbed in India. We might say that the first great cultural syntheses and
fusion took place between the incoming Aryans and the Dravidians, who were probably the representatives of the Indus
Valley civilization. Out of this syntheses and fusion grew the Indian races and the basic Indian culture, which had
distinctive elements of both. In the ages that followed there came many other race : Iranians, Greeks Parthians,
Bactrians, Scythians, Huns, Turks (before Islam), early Christians, Jews, Zorastrians; they came, made a difference,
and were absorbed, India was, according to Dodwell, ‘infinitely absorbent like the ocean.’ It is odd to think of India,
with her caste system and exclusiveness, having this astonishing inclusive capacity to absorb foreign races and
cultures. Perhaps it was due to this that she retained her vitality and rejuvenated herself from time to time.
The Moslems, when they came, were also powerfully affected by her. “The foreigners (Muslim Turks),’ says Vincent
Smith ‘like their forerunners the Sakas and the Yueh-chi, universally yielded to the wonderful assimilative power of
Hinduism, and rapidly became Hinduised.’
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
T he amazing expansion of Indian culture and art to other countries has led to some of the finest expressions of this art
being found outside India. Unfortunately many of our old monuments and sculptures, especially in northern India, have
been destroyed in the course of ages. ‘To know Indian art in India alone,’ says Sir John Marshall, ‘is to know but half its
story. To apprehend it to the full, we must follow it in the wake of Buddhism, to central Asia, China, and Japan; we must
watch it assuming new forms and breaking into new beauties as it spreads over Tibet, Burma and Siam; we must gaze
in awe at the unexampled grandeur of its creations in Cambodia and Java. In each of these countries, Indian art
encounters a different racial genius, a different local environment, and under their modifying influence it takes on a
different garb.’
Indians art is so intimately associated with Indian religion and philosophy that it is difficult to appreciate it fully unless
one has some knowledge of the ideals that governed the Indian mind. In art, as in music, there is a gulf which separates
eastern from western conceptions. Probably the great artists and builders of the middle ages in Europe would have felt
more in tune with Indian art and sculpture than modern European artists who derive part of their inspiration at least from
the Renaissance period and after. For in Indian art there is always a religious urge, a looking beyond, such as probably
inspired the builders of the great cathedrals of Europe. Beauty is conceived as subjective, not objective; it is a thing of
the spirit, though it may also take lovely shape in form or matter. The Greeks loved beauty for its own sake and found
not only joy but truth in it; the ancient Indians loved beauty also but always they sought to put some deeper significance
in their work, some vision of the inner truth as they saw it. In the supreme examples of their creative work they extort
admiration, even though one may not understand what they were aiming at or the ideas that governed them. In lesser
examples, this lack of understanding, of not being in tune with the artist’s mind, becomes a bar to appreciation. There is
a vague feeling of discomfort, even of irritation, at something one cannot grasp, and this leads to the conclusion that the
artist did not know his job and has failed. Sometimes there is even a feeling of repulsion.
I know nothing about art, eastern or western, and am not competent to say anything about it. I react to it as any
untutored layman might do. Some painting or sculpture or building fills me with delight, or moves me and makes me feel
a strange emotion; or it just pleases me a little; or it does not affect me at all and I pass it by almost unnoticed; or it
repels me. I cannot explain these reactions or speak learnedly about the merits or demerits of works of art. The Buddha
statue at Anuradhapura in Ceylon moved me greatly and a picture of it has been my companion for many years. On the
other hand some famous temples in South India, heavy with carving and detail, disturb me and fill me with unease.
Europeans, trained in the Greek tradition, at first examined Indians art from the Grecian point of view. They recognized
something they knew in the Graeco-Buddhist art of Gandhara and the Frontier and considered other forms in India as
degraded types of this. Gradually a new approach was made and it was pointed out that Indian art was something
original and vital and in no way derived from this Graeco-Buddhist art, which was a pale reflection of it. This new
approach came more from the Continent of Europe than from England. It is curious that Indian art, and this applies to
Sanskrit literature also, has been more appreciated on the Continent than in England. I have often wondered how far
this has been conditioned by the unfortunate political relationship existing between India and England. Probably there is
something in that, though there must be other and more basic causes of difference also. There are of course may
Englishmen, artists and scholars and others, who have come near to the spirit and outlook of India and helped to
discover our old treasures and interpret them to the world. There are many also to whom India is grateful for their warm
friendship and service. Yet the fact remains that there is a gulf, and an ever-widening gulf, between Indians and
Englishmen. On the Indian side this is easier to understand, at any rate for me, for a great deal has happened in recent
years that has cut deep into our souls. On the other side perhaps some similar reactions have taken place for different
reason; among them, anger at being put in the wrong before the world when, according to them, the fault was not theirs.
But the feeling is deeper than politics and it comes out unawares, and most of all it seems to affect English intellectuals.
The Indian, to them, appears to be a special manifestation of original sin and all his works bear this mark.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
R eligions have helped greatly in the development of humanity. They have laid down values and standards and have
pointed out principles for the guidance of human life. But with all the good they have done, they have also tried to
imprison truth in set forms and dogmas, and encouraged ceremonials and practices which soon lose all their original
meaning and become mere routine. While impressing upon man the awe and mystery of the unknown that surrounds
him on all sides, they have discouraged him from trying to understand not only the unknown but what might come in the
way of social effort. Instead of encouraging curiosity and thought, they have preached a philosophy of submission to
nature, to established churches, to the prevailing social order, and to everything that is. The belief in a supernatural
agency which ordains everything has led to a certain irresponsibility on the social plane, and emotion and sentimentality
have taken the place of reasoned thought and inquiry. Religion, though it has undoubtedly brought comfort to
innumerable human beings and stabilized society by its values, has checked the tendency to change and progress
inherent in human society.
Philosophy has avoided many of these pitfalls and encouraged thought and inquiry. But it has usually lived in its ivory
tower cut off from life and its day-to-day problems, concentrating on ultimate purposes and failing to link them with the
life of man. Logic and reason were its guides and they took it far in many directions, but that logic was too much the
product of the mind and unconcerned with fact.
Science ignored the ultimate purposes and looked at fact alone. It made the world jump forward with a leap, built up a
glittering civilization, opened up innumerable avenues for the growth of knowledge, and added to the power of man to
such an extent that for the first time it was possible to conceive that man could triumph over and shape his physical
environment. Man became almost a geological force, changing the face of the planet earth chemically, physically, and in
many other ways. Yet when this sorry scheme of things entirely seemed to be in his grasp, to mould it nearer to the
heart’s desire, there was some essential lack and some vital element was missing. There was no knowledge of ultimate
purposes and not even an understanding of the immediate purpose, for science had told us nothing about any purpose
in life. Nor did man, so powerful in his control of nature, have the power to control himself, and the monster he had
created ran amok. Perhaps new developments in biology, psychology, and similar sciences, and the interpretation of
biology and physics, may help man to understand and control himself more than he has done in the past. Or, before any
such advances influence human life sufficiently, man may destroy the civilization he has built and have to start anew.
There is no visible limit to the advance of science, if it is given the chance to advance. Yet it may be that the scientific
method of observation is not always applicable to all the varieties of human experience and cannot cross the uncharted
ocean that surrounds us. With the help of philosophy it may go a little further and venture even on these high seas. And
when both science and philosophy fail us, we shall have to rely on such other powers of apprehension as we may
possess. For there appears to be a definite stopping place beyond which reason, as the mind is at present constituted,
cannot go.
Realizing these limitations of reason and scientific method, we have still to hold on to them with all our strength,
for without that firm basis and background we can have no grip on any kind of truth or reality. It is better to understand a
part of truth and apply it to our lives, than to understand nothing at all and flounder helplessly in a vain attempt to pierce
the mystery of existence. The applications of science are inevitable and unavoidable for all countries and peoples
to-day. But something more than its application is necessary. It is the scientific approach, the adventureous and yet
critical temper of science, the search for truth and new knowledge, the refusal to accept anything without testing and
trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the face of new evidence, the reliance on observed fact and not on
pre-conceived theory, the hard discipline of the mind – all this is necessary, not merely for the application of science but
for life itself and the solution of its many problems. Too many scientists to-day, who swear by science, forget all about it
outside their particular spheres. The scientific approach and temper are, or should be, a way of life, a process of
thinking, a method of acting and associating with our fellowmen. That is a large order and undoubtedly very few of us,
if any at all, can function in this way with even partial success. But this criticism applies in equal or even greater
measure to all the injunctions which philosophy and religion have laid upon us. The scientific temper points out the way
along which man should travel. It is the temper of a free man. We live in a scientific age, so we are told, but there is little
evidence of this temper in the people anywhere or even in their leaders.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
CRITICAL REASONING
A SUCCESSFUL MANAGER'S RESPONSIBILITY 2. CONCLUSION:
The main idea that the author is trying to convince the
Management at a higher level is a challenging task. It
reader about by providing supporting reasons is called
involves dealing with complex information through various
the conclusion of the argument/author.
means, viz, reading, discussion, etc. Managers have to read,
understand and analyze information, and after analysis, draw
3. PREMISE/S:
proper conclusions or make plans, which then are
implemented. Sometimes these have to be done against The supporting reason/s that the author provides in the
tight deadlines. The success or failure of these means that argument to support his conclusion is/are called premise/s.
the company will make profits or run into losses, respectively.
Example:
Good managers are, thus, responsible for the things they
do, and this includes thinking critically, logically, clearly Cricketer X has performed disastrously in the last World
and carefully about things that matter. To manage well, Cup. Since then, in almost all the matches, his scores
they should base their reasoning on how things are, have been single digit runs. This shows that he has
rather than how they wish they were. Good managers consistently failed to perform. Therefore, he should be
are open to the possibility that they could be mistaken. removed from the team.
They do not allow blind emotion to cloud their thought.
Also, this doesn’t mean that they should constantly be The above passage is an argument as we can clearly
questioning everything. see that the author finally wants us to believe that the
cricketer X should be removed from the team and he
All these depend on their possessing, among other supports this by providing relevant reasons.
things, critical reasoning. Hence, the conclusion of the argument is: Cricketer X
should be removed.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY ALMOST ALL THE The premises are:
QUESTIONS (INCLUDING RC) IN VA SECTION OF THE (a) Cricketer X has performed disastrously in the World
CAT, TEST A MANAGEMENT ASPIRANT'S CRITICAL Cup.
REASONING SKILLS, IN ADDITION TO VOCABULARY, (b) His scores have been single digit runs.
GRAMMAR AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE, IN GENERAL. (c) He has failed to perform consistently.
THEREFORE, ONE SHOULD BE THOROUGH IN THIS
AREA. IMPORTANT NOTE: TO BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH ANY
CR QUESTION CORRECTLY, ONE SHOULD IDENTIFY
A few most commonly recurring question types that THE CONCLUSION AND THE PREMISES CORRECLTY,
test one's CR skills: WHICH IS NOT AS EASY AS IT MAY SEEM.
1. Most of the Reading Comprehension questions
need CR skills, especially, the one's that involve For example, a student may now assume that the first
inference, conclusion, author's opinion questions. sentence or the first few sentences of the paragraph are
2. Paragraph Formation Questions the premise/s, and/or the last sentence of the paragraph
3. Paragraph Completion Questions is the conclusion, as is the case in the example given
4. Identify the odd sentence among the four given above. Well, it need not be so. Remember, the
5. Inference questions paragraph is just the physical representation of the
6. Conclusion questions argument WHICH IS A THOUGHT PROCESS. The
7. Strengthen/Weaken the argument questions argument above can also be presented as follows:
8. Fill in the blanks questions I think Cricketer X should be removed from the team as
IMPORTANT NOTE: TO BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH he has consistently failed to perform. Take for instance
THESE SUCCESSFULLY, ONE SHOULD FIRST his World Cup performance which was disastrous or the
UNDERSTAND WHAT CR IS AND THEN PRACTISE matches later, in which he scored single digit RUNS.
THE MOST COMMON ARGUMENT-BASED CR Well, the conclusion of the argument is mentioned as the
TASKS GIVEN IN THE PRACTICE EXERCISES. first sentence of the paragraph. And, the premises follow.
Now, look at this:
SO, WHAT IS CRITICAL REASONING?
Critical Reasoning is the high level ability that helps one Well, Cricketer X has consistently failed to perform and so I
to differentiate between Valid and Invalid think he should be removed from the team. Take his World
arguments/reasoning. It is a skill that enables an Cup performance for instace-- it was disastrous. Or the
effective manager to make valid arguments, cases, matches he played after that--he scored single digit runs.
suggestions etc., and to check out whether others' The conclusion in the above argument follows the first
arguments, etc., are valid or not. premise. The other premises follow the conclusion.
Hence, one should be careful in identifying the
BASIC CONCEPTS OF CRITICAL conclusions and premises.
REASONING:
HOW TO IDENTIFY THE CONCLUSION:
1. ARGUMENT:
As we have seen above, it is not always so easy to
An argument is a passage through which the author tries to identify the conclusion of the argument. If you are lucky,
convince the reader about an idea/opinion/claim/suggestion you may have conclusion indicators—words that indicate
by providing supporting reasons. that what follows is a conclusion. Consider this:
Cricketer X has consistently failed to perform, therefore, Consider the following argument:
he should be removed form the team. Ram is a member of the ABC Club, hence he must be a
In the above argument the author said, Therefore, he student of Sainik School Satara.
should be removed from the team. Here, ‘therefore’
clearly indicates that “he should be removed” is the In the above argument, the conclusion is clearly—Ram
conclusion of the argument. Other conclusion indicators must be a student of Sainik School Satara. And the
are—hence, thus, clearly, in conclusion, finally, that is premise is—Ram is a member of ABC Club.
why, for this reason, it follows that, then, etc.
However, if we carefully observe, we notice that the
However, you may not always be so lucky. Then what
premise provided by the author by itself is not sufficient
will you do? Don’t worry, you simply ask the author
to arrive at the conclusion. Something is missing. There
‘What’ he is trying to tell you finally. The answer to that
is an idea that the author took support of but did not
question is the conclusion.
mention in the argument.
The types of questions are Look at the following…
Which one of the following is a conclusion that can be Ram is a member of the ABC Club.
drawn on the basis of the above paragraph? All the members of ABC Club are students of Sainik
Which one of the following is implied by the argument School Satara.
above? Hence, he must be a student of Sainik School Satara.
The author seems to suggest that ……
Now the argument is complete. We clearly see that the
If all the statements above are true, then which one of
idea that the author took support of but did not mention
the following must also be true?
is All the members of ABC Club are students of
The author of the above passage would most likely
Sainik School Satara.
agrees with which one of the following?
This idea that an author takes support of along with the
Example: stated premises but doesn’t mention is called an
Assumption. The author is said to have assumed it.
Rising GDP is by no means enough to create a truly This is very critical to the argument but is absent in the
prosperous nation. Increasing inequalities in income can argument. Therefore, the identification of an assumption
lead to social tensions erupting in crime and violence. is very difficult. To identify an assumption in the
Only when the vast majority of people share the benefits argument, simply look at the conclusion and the
of growth will peace and prosperity co-exist. Equitable premises and identify those elements in them that are
distribution is important too. uncommon. Usually the link between these uncommon
Which of the following is the conclusion of the above elements is the assumption. However, it requires good
argument? practice as assumptions can be simple or difficult.
(A) GDP growth is impossible without the efforts of the
IMPORTANT NOTE: To understand the argument
vast majority.
correctly, you may use the paraphrasing method. In
(B) Benefits of economic growth are unfairly divided
this method, you simply simplify the argument—use your
between the haves and the have-nots which leads to
own simple words to express the argument. Where the
social tension.
author uses difficult words, you use simple words.
(C) GDP growth and equitable distribution of benefits
Let's take an example:
are not the correct measures of prosperity for many
nations.
Example:
(D) GDP growth and equitable distribution of benefits
are required for a country to be truly prosperous. The theory of MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction 
ensures that two nuclear powered enemies would not go
HOW TO IDENTIFY THE PREMISES. to war. The fact that a nuclear war, if it occurs, would
destroy both countries, prevents leaders from declaring
Again, if you are lucky, you may have premise war and maintaining a hostile peace, as in the cold war.
indicators—words that indicate that what follows is a Which of the following is an assumption inherent in the
premise. Look at the following: above argument?
Because Cricketer X has consistently failed to perform, (A) More and more countries are developing nuclear
he should be removed form the team. weapons.
In the example above, the word ‘because’ clearly (B) Leaders of nuclear powers are rational and wish to
indicates that “Cricketer X has consistently failed to avoid destruction.
perform” is a premise. Hence, words like because, as, (C) The presence of a nuclear arsenal is actually a
since, due to, on the basis of, based on the fact that, etc. factor working for prevention of war.
are premise indicators. (D) The people of most countries are against the use of
Again, if you are not so lucky, ask the author(after first nuclear weapons.
identifying the conclusion) on what basis he is saying the
conclusion, or how he can say that, or why he says that. Now, this argument may look complicated at first. Well,
The answers to these questions are premises. the argument is essentially defining a theory—MAD. It is
primarily telling us that 'two nuclear powered countries
4. ASSUMPTION: would not fight a war'...why? “Because, if they fight, both
will be destroyed.”
We already know what a premise is—a reason the author So, a simplified argument would look like...
presents in the argument in support of his conclusion.
Well, what if the author takes the support of a reason but “Two nuclear countries would not fight a war because if
doesn’t mention it? Is that possible? Let’s see… they fight, they both will be destroyed.”
5. LINE OF REASONING: 9. INFERENCE:
The methodical process of reasoning employed by the The dictionary defines inference as the act or process of
author in the argument is called line of reasoning. Simply deriving logical conclusions from an argument. This
put, the journey of the author's argument from the means, based on the given information in the argument,
premises to the conclusion, the way he goes about it, is if we logically draw an idea(which is not mentioned in the
the line of reasoning. argument), that idea is called an inference. For example,
read the following:
6. VALID ARGUMENT: I don't think the recent circular to students will stop them
from coming late to school. A penalty of five rupees for a
An argument that is acceptable, rational, sensible or delay of one hour is not much.
logical is said to be a Valid argument.
Now, based on this argument, we 'understand' that 'the
Example: circular asked the students not to come late and if they
do so, they shall be asked to pay a penalty of five rupees
Cricketer X has performed disastrously in the last World per hour. This idea is not explicitly stated in the
Cup. Since then, in almost all the matches, his scores argument he derived it logically.
have been single digits. This shows that he has
consistently failed to perform. Therefore, he should be THE MOST COMMON ARGUMENT-BASED CR
removed from the team. TASKS...
1. IDENTIFY THE CONCLUSION
The above is a valid argument as it is acceptable to say 2. IDENTIFY THE ASSUMPTION
that. If the given reasons are indeed true then the player 3. IDENTIFY THE INFERENCE/CONCLUSION
must be removed from the team. 4. IDENTIFY THE FLAW
5. STRENGTHEN THE ARGUMENT
7. INVALID ARGUMENT: 6. WEAKEN THE ARGUMENT
7. PARALLEL REASONING
Now look at the following argument: 8. RESOLVE THE PARADOX
Cricketer X has neglected his family due to his devotion
to cricket. His children too miss him a lot when he goes METHODS OF DEALING WITH THE COMMON CR
on tours. This is not fair, so he should be removed from QUESTION TYPES:
the team NOTE: BASED ON THE ABOVE INPUTS, ONE SHOULD
BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH CONCLUSION, ASSUMPTION,
Well, do you accept such an argument? No! Because, INFERENCE AND FLAW BASED CR TASKS.
the reasons cited have no bearing on the cricketers on FOR THE OTHERS, THE FOLLOWING SHOULD HELP.
field activities or cricketing career. They are irrelevant.
This is an invalid argument. STRENGTHEN/WEAKEN THE CONCLUSION
/ ARGUMENT
8. FLAW:
HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE ARGUMENT:
We have just now seen that an argument can be invalid.
Now, what makes an argument invalid? A characteristic This is the opposite of weaken the argument question. In
that is illogical/nonsensical/stupid. For example, the this we have to identify that idea which removes a doubt,
irrelevance of the supporting reasons in the above if any, about the argument, and makes it more
argument makes the argument invalid. This illogicality, convincing. Again, the only doubt that one can have
nonsensicality or absurdity in an argument that makes it about the argument is the assumption of the author. He
invalid is called a Flaw or fallacy. A study of common assumes something to be true. Whether it is true or not,
we don't know. Hence, just as we show that it is false to
flaws helps us in developing our reasoning skills.
weaken his argument, we show it to be true to
strengthen the argument. For example, in the above
Example:
argument, if we prove that “All the members of ABC Club
are students of Sainik School Satara” or “The ABC Club
Surveys on the eating habits of South Indians have
is a part of Sainik School Satara”, etc. we will strengthen
thrown up quite a few surprises. While the number of
the argument.
dosas sold have increased by 11%, the number of
pizzas sold have increased by a whopping 165%.
The above clearly indicates a strong shift in eating HOW TO WEAKEN THE ARGUMENT:
preferences from dosas to pizzas. One of the most common type of Logical Reasoning
Which of the following illustrates the absurdity of the question by far is the weaken-the-argument question. To
argument above? weaken the argument, we have to identify that option
(A) A majority of the pizzas sold in South India are that makes the argument less convincing. Imagine the
vegetarian. argument to be a chair with only three legs. Now, the
(B) The growth in percentage of pizzas eaten was over missing leg is the weak point in the argument, which is
a very small base (of last year). what you point out to weaken the argument. Now, what
(C) Pizza growth of last year over year before last was do we call the missing leg in CR jargon? The Assumption,
just 3%. of course. Hence, to weaken the argument, we either
(D) Dosas are still eaten mainly for breakfast whereas show the assumption of the argument to be false or
pizzas are eaten throughout the day. identify that fact/idea which shows it to be false.
For example: If an author says... Example:
Ram is a member of the ABC Club, hence he must be a
student of Sainik School Satara. I know that it is wrong to cheat on taxes; but everybody
He's assuming that “all the members of ABC Club are does it, so why shouldn’t I?
students of Sainik School Satara.” Which of the following is similar in logical structure to the
But, what if it is not so? What if “only a few members of argument above?
ABC Club are students of Sainik School Satara”? What if (A) I know that it is wrong to drink and drive, but I am
it is the other way round, i.e. “Sainik School Satara is a not harming anyone; so it is acceptable.
part of ABC Club, in which case, there may be other (B) I know that it is wrong to evade customs, but its for
members of the Club who may not be a part of Sainik personal use and hence it is not illegal.
School Satara”? Well, these ideas weaken the (C) I know that its against the rules to steal; but I won’t
argument/conclusion that “Ram must be a student of get caught; hence I will continue stealing.
Sainik School Satara”. (D) I know that it is illegal to cheat in the exams but why
shouldn’t I when everybody else does that?
Example:
HOW TO RESOLVE OR EXPLAIN A
For 50 successive weeks, the rate of inflation has been PARADOX
under 5%. This is the longest period of low inflation since
the mid seventies. The Finance Minister was quick to A paradox question presents us with two apparently
claim that the fiscal and monetary policies of his contradictory ideas or events and asks us to explain or
government were solely responsible for bringing inflation resolve the contradiction.
under control. To successfully deal with a paradox, we should first
understand it correctly. There is usually a 'crux' about
Which of the following, if true, casts serious doubt on the which a paradox revolves, which one has to get hold of.
Finance Minister’s assertion? Now, once that is clear, one should proceed to think
(A) Consumers still feel that prices are rising, especially logically as to how it is possible that such a thing exists and
in the cities. explain its possibility. The correct answer is usually the one
(B) International oil prices, which are a major that makes sense of the paradox to exist.
component of the inflation index, have been very low
over the past 50 weeks. Example:
(C) Inflation is a phenomenon caused by a complex
interaction of numerous factors, some of them Owing to a near perfect monsoon, farmers across the
beyond the control of the finance minister. country have a bumper harvest of potatoes. However,
(D) The consumer price index fluctuates from week to we have seen a sharp rise in the number of potato
week. farmers committing suicide this year.
Which of the following, if true, would explain the rise in
PARALLEL REASONING QUESTION. suicides among potato farmers?
(A) The export market for potatoes came down because
In a parallel reasoning question, we are given a base of the excess production of potatoes in all the
argument, and are asked to identify, from among the countries of the world.
given choices, an argument that is parallel to the given (B) Oversupply of potatoes has led to a drastic fall in
argument. So, what is this parallel argument? potato prices.
Parallel argument: An argument that has the same (C) Potatoes are consumed heavily in the north as
logical features as the given argument is said to be compared to the south whereas the production was
parallel to that argument. This means, the arguments' more in the south.
lines of reasoning and the logical pattern should be the (D) Last year, the monsoon was bad and potato farmers
same. still committed suicide.
EXERCISE – 1
Directions for questions 1 to 5: Each question has a country to replace the word 'fail' with
set of sequentially ordered statements. Each statement 'unsatisfactory' or 'repeat' indicates its concern
can be classified as one of the following: over the increasing number of suicides among
students.
- Facts, which deal with pieces of information that one
(3) The national focus group on examination reforms
has heard, seen or read, and which are open to
at NCERT has stated that it is unjustified to judge
discovery or verification (the answer option indicates
a student pass or fail on the basis of a single-shot
such a statement with an ‘F’).
three-hour public examination.
- Inferences, which are conclusions drawn about the
(4) There should be a more comprehensive way of
unknown, on the basis of the known (the answer
assessing students by employing multiple
option indicates such a statement with an ‘I’).
techniques of assessment.
- Judgements, which are opinions that imply approval
(A) FIFJ (B) IIFJ (C) FIFI (D) JIFJ
or disapproval of persons, objects, situations and
occurrences in the past, the present or the future 5. (1) When the UN recently published ‘The
(the answer option indicates such a statement with a ‘J’). Development Decade: Proposals for Action',
Select the answer option that best describes the set of optimism about the development efforts of the
statements. last decade was still high.
(2) Rapid industrialization was the key to progress
1. (1) She was, undoubtedly, a highly religious woman in the poorer countries, for it would lead to
she visited temples with unfailing regularity and improvements in standards of living, so the
celebrated all the festivals with pomp and gaiety. argument ran.
(2) Her reverence towards others' religions was (3) Growth in GNP was a measure of success in
exemplary. industrializing the economy and with it would come
(3) Surprisingly, she had a Muslim sounding name improvements in social welfare, was the belief.
– Sabaz Kali. (4) However, for those in the South whose prime
(4) It was probably the Islamic influence of concern is to reduce poverty and provide basic
Muzaffarnagar, where she was born and social services similar to those available in the
brought up, that led her father to give her such a North, improvements cannot be left to chance.
strange-sounding non-Hindu name. (A) FJIJ (B) FJJI (C) IFJJ (D) JFFJ
(A) IJFJ (B) IJJI (C) JIFI (D) IJFI
Directions for questions 6 to 10: Each question has a
2. (1) When the subprime crisis claimed its first main statement followed by question statements. Read the
casualty in the U.K. – the Bank of England was main statement and identify each question statement as
quick to effect a rescue.
(2) The failure of Northern Rock, a mortgage lender (U) if the main statement can be derived from the
in the U.K., was a stark reminder of the lack of question-statement (UPSTREAM ARGUMENT).
appetite for risk in the financial markets but it (D) if the question-statement can be derived from the main
also showed up a flawed business model. statement (DOWNSTREAM ARGUMENT).
(3) With only 75 branches, Northern Rock was (L) if the question-statement supports the main
ambitious in its aspirations to be a big player in statement (LATERAL ARGUMENT).
the region. (I) if the question-statement is not relevant to the main
(4) According to the Financial times 43% of the statement (IRRELEVANT STATEMENT).
banks funding came from securitisation Select the answer option that best describes the set of
compared to the UK average of 7%. statements.
(5) Greater dependence on securitisation appears
6. Popcorn, a company based in London, is planning to
a good strategy when the going is good but it
hire only those candidates trained in marketing and
also means curtains when the going gets tough.
sales who can speak 2 or more languages fluently.
(A) FJJFI (B) FIIFJ (C) FIJFJ (D) FIJFI
The company believes these bilingual and
3. (1) Statistics related to attrition in Public Sector multilingual employees will help the company to
Enterprises unfold a disconcerting story. move easily into emerging markets where English
(2) Attrition rates seem to be the highest at the top may not be well understood by the people.
executive level and in the officer categories. 1 Language is the only major obstacle blocking
(3) Most employees leaving PSEs are from functions Popcorn's entry into emerging markets.
that are core or critical to the business in question. 2 Some other companies manufacturing similar
(4) This fiscal year has experienced an products have successfully implemented this
unprecedented increase in resignations across all strategy in recent years.
categories, particularly the junior management 3 Employees of the company who have been
staff, and this would impact the Navratnas and accustomed to living in the west would not be
Miniratnas to a great extent. willing to move to developing countries where
(A) IJFJ (B) JFFI (C) JFIJ (D) FJFI new market is emerging.
4 Popcorn would have to provide language
4. (1) Fail – the dreaded word for lakhs of students courses to its employees to prevent their
–may be deleted from the report cards if the language skills from becoming atrophied.
National Council for Education Research and 5 Popcorn would have to bear the cost of
Training (NCERT) has its way. transferring its employees to developing countries.
(2) The NCERT's suggestion to schools across the (A) DLIDU (B) DUDIL (C) UUDII (D) ULDID
7. There has been a ban against advertisements for country. By doing so, the nations hope to avoid the
alcohol in Maryland for thirty years, where drinking ethical criticism that has recently been levelled at
amongst teens is at least as prevalent as it is in some foreign aid donors notably Japan.
countries where there is no such ban. 1. Ethical considerations and not only those of self
1 Teens who drink, or are starting to drink alcohol, interest, should be taken into account when
do not do so because of advertising. foreign aid decisions are made.
2. The statutory health warning on cigarette 2. Much of Japan's foreign aid returned to Japan
packets has not reduced smoking among teens. in the form of purchase orders for Japanese
3. Most of those who were drinking, in their teens, products and equipment.
thirty years ago did not stop drinking when the 3. Developing nations were unwilling to offer
ban on advertising alcohol was introduced. foreign aid that is not 'tied' to the purchase of
4. The citizens in Maryland are deeply concerned their own manufacturers.
about the increase in alcohol consumption 4. Many developed nations gave foreign aid for the
among teens. purpose of benefiting their domestic economies.
5. Teens are often drawn to drinking by the glamour 5. Many of the problems faced by underdeveloped
and aura surrounding drinking in movies. countries could be eliminated if a small
(A) DLIDU (B) DLIUU (C) UILIU (D) UILUI percentage of the foreign aid they obtain were
'tied' to specific purchases and uses.
8. The 12th standard students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, (A) UDIDL (B) UULDL
Picket, have performed with incredible consistency (C) DILUI (D) DUIUI
over the past five years. During each of those years,
boys have obtained on average, 75 percent in Directions for questions 11 to 15: Each paragraph is
science and bagged 90 percent of the scholarships followed by a few question statements. Study each
offered by the school. The girls have obtained, on question statement in the light of what is said in the
average, 70 percent in science and received the paragraph, and mark your answer as
balance of scholarships offered by the school.
1. Science teachers at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Picket (L) if the statement can be logically concluded from the
are not only well qualified and trained but also paragraph.
dedicated. (C) if the statement contradicts the intent of the
2. Girls of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Picket, are not as paragraph.
proficient in science as are the boys. (F) if the statement is a far-fetched conclusion from the
3. Kendriya Vidyalaya Picket has adopted several paragraph.
other measures to encourage the study of (I) if the statement is irrelevant to the intent of the
science among its students. paragraph.
4. Although a coeducation institution, Kendriya
Vidyalayas have more boys than girls on their rolls. Select the answer option that best describes the set of
5. Kendriya Vidyalaya, Picket has been conducting sentences.
highly effective science tutorial classes for its
students. 11. Often what surprises is what remains unsaid. There
(A) UIDLI (B) DLIUD (C) ILUDU (D) UDUIU are remarkable lacunae in what the nation states
have chosen to tell their citizens, whether out of self
9. In the last one year, Sonata Automobiles has interest or myopia. It was only recently that the
experienced a rising number of failures in its safety British public became aware that, in the closing
features; leading to an alarming increase in years of WW II, three million people died of famine
accidents and deaths related to its cars. These in what is now known as Bangladesh in order to
mishaps have spurred several costly lawsuits keep the army in Burma on its feet – a conscious act
against the manufacturer which in turn have led to of British defence policy at the time. Little also is
increased pressure by the company's management said of the Turkish massacre of over a million
on the assembly line in order to produce safer cars. Armenians in 1915, of Ukrainian famine of 1932, or
1. Five years ago the same car manufacturer received of the Austrian role in the 'Final Solution'. The truth
numerous complaints about the safety of its cars. is that, today, many of us know little about such
2. A government body has just published a report events. They are hiccups of history, part of the
stating that the safety features installed in the process of cultural digestion. While the original
car are not the best in the market. motive may have been political or, within the narrow
3. Eager to capture the market, Sonata Automobiles criteria of the era, justifiable, time has since buried
had been marketing aggressively and had the reality in an accretion of contemporaneous and
increased production significantly, without a irrelevant data. Thanks to the intrusion of nation
proportionate increase in the work force. states, we have lost contact with our past.
4. The cost of improving the safety features of the 1. Most of documented history is distorted and
company's cars are quite high. does not represent facts.
5. Sonata Automobiles has now changed its 2. Political exigencies often tend to make a nation
production process in order to create safer cars. overlook and hide certain historical facts.
(A) IIUID (B) LLUID (C) UDUID (D) LDIUD 3. The political and economic interests of a nation
can be achieved only by making people aware
10. Many developed nations are beginning to decrease of their historical and cultural traditions.
the percentage of their foreign aid that is 'tied', that 4. The people of a nation are aware of their
is, given only on the condition that it be spent to historical background and often proud of it.
obtain goods and materials produced by the donor (A) IFLC (B) FLIC (C) FLII (D) FCFI
12. In defiance of popular convention and for the sake of followed by a continuous rise. Richard J
accuracy, it is better to call these the "Nordic" nations. Schonberger, a world renowned theoretician and
The Europeans, with haunting memories of Viking guru of production and manufacturing, noticed that
raids and rapes in their collective subconscious, tend there was really no correlation to be found between
to lump them all together. Even the Finns become this V pattern of industrial performance and the
Scandinavians. But strictly speaking in the financial performance of the companies. Instead, he
geographical sense Scandinavia is just Sweden and found a statistic (easily available from a company's
Norway. If we talk about the languages, we can add annual report) which told him the real story: the
Danes – although the language the Danes speak, inventory turnover.
while looking like Norwegian with spelling errors, is 1. Manufacturing performance of industries shows
incomprehensible to others because of the curious a cyclic pattern.
way in which the Danes articulate it. In some 2. Inventory management is an intermediate
respects, the Finns share some of the characteristics variable between the manufacturing and
with others. But geographically, they are the farthest financial performance.
removed from the Nordic epicenter and, being distant 3. Inventory turnover is negatively correlated to a
relatives of the Mongols, they can boast of ethnic company's sales.
culture and a language of their own. 4. The financial performance of a company is
1. People in Norway and Denmark speak the directly related to its output in manufacturing.
same language. (A) FLIC (B) ILFI (C) ILIC (D) FICI
2. Scandinavia is part of the Nordic nations.
3. Part of Scandinavian culture is influenced by the 15. In an information society, value is increased, not by
Mongols. labour, but by knowledge. Marx's labour theory of
4. The term Nordic can be applied to the people value born at the beginning of the industrial
and the culture of Norway, Sweden and Finland. economy, must be replaced with a new knowledge
(A) IFLI (B) FICI (C) ICFL (D) FLCL theory of value. In an information society, value is
increased by knowledge, a different kind of labour
13. Thus, if the purpose of clothing is a certain amount of than Marx had in mind. We have to just look at our
temperature comfort and an attractive appearance, the major exports to realise the value of knowledge. In
task is to attain this purpose with the smallest possible these days of high global competition, Indian
effort, that is, with smallest possible annual destruction companies have little trouble in selling their
of cloth and with the help of designs that involve the software, consultancy services and management
smallest possible inputs of toil. The less toil there is, the skills.... But there is also a flip side of this transition
more time and strength is left for artistic creativity. It from industrial to information society. In the
would be highly uneconomic, for instance, to go in for industrial society, man was pitted against nature. In
complicated tailoring, when a much more beautiful an information society, the game is people
effect can be achieved by the skilful draping of uncut interacting with other people. This increases
material. It would be the height of folly to make material personal transactions geometrically, in all forms of
so that it should wear out quickly. The ownership and interactive communications. These greatly increased
consumption of goods is a means to an end, and the personal communications also increase the chances
Buddhist economics is the systematic study of how to of people coming face to face with the differences
attain given ends with the minimum means. between groups and communities. When people
1. Economics should consider pattern and perceive dissimilarities and disparities, disputes are
quantum of consumption as the sole criteria of the likely consequence.
economic development. 1. The basis of competitive strength is shifting
2. According to Buddhist economics, the readymade from the tangibles to the intangibles.
garment industry should be shut down. 2. Confrontations between communities and
3. The economic efforts required for sustaining the nations are a logical consequence of the
quality of life are much smaller than those change in the economic order.
required to improve consumption pattern. 3. Human beings are naturally aggressive: that is
4. In the appearance-conscious world of today, why, if they can't fight nature, they fight each other.
garments are used to make a statement. 4. Increased interaction between people from
(A) CFLC (B) IFCI (C) CIFC (D) FLIC different parts of the world would help to
develop greater understanding and foster good
14. Looking at the manufacturing performance over the will among them.
last half of the 20th century, you see a wide V (A) FLCI (B) IFLC (C) FLIF (D) LFIC
pattern: a clear decline in the first 25 years or so,
EXERCISE – 2
Directions for questions 1 to 35: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
1. Dr. Michael Clarke, an obesity researcher has put research are less likely to be obese than those in
forward the hypothesis that obesity is linked to professions like marketing, sales and manufacturing.
profession. According to him, the brain consumes
more energy than any other organ in the body, and Which of the following is an assumption that
the more it is used, the more energy it consumes. Dr. Clarke has made?
He concludes that people who are in professions (A) Physical activity has no role to play in
like medicine, engineering, teaching and scientific determining a person’s weight.
(B) Professions like marketing place negligible 5. India's population is expected to increase by 100
demands on the intellect. and 150 million by 2010 and 2025 A.D. respectively.
(C) Doctors and scientists are in general more This will require 240 and 325 million tonnes of food
intelligent than marketers. grains respectively. Taking the current production of
(D) Professions like marketing are less intellectually food into consideration, it can be said that India has
demanding than are professions like medicine a compulsive need to raise its food production by
and scientific research. 5 million tonnes per year. Since the land-to-man
ratio is narrowing rapidly, there is almost no scope
2. Some popular energy drinks available in the market for horizontal expansion to meet the projected
can provide 100 percent of the recommended daily demand of the future.
requirement of vitamins. Nevertheless, a well-
balanced meal, including a variety of foods, is a Which of the following can be a solution to this problem?
better source of those vitamins than are such fortified (A) India should now start importing food grains
energy drinks alone. from other countries.
(B) The production of other crops should be cut
Which of the following, if true, would most strongly down and food production given utmost
support the position above? importance.
(A) Since buying one bottle of such drinks requires (C) Cross breeding to improve the quality of food
less effort than planning and selecting food items grain should be encouraged.
to make a balanced diet, people prefer the former. (D) The government should adopt new technologies
(B) People may not get their daily requirement of which increase the production of food grains.
vitamins from foods since they eat insufficient
fruits and vegetables. 6. It is a well-known fact, duly supported by statistics
(C) The combination of vitamins with other nutrients compiled by leading research agencies, that more
in food makes those vitamins more usable by and more people are building residential properties
the body than vitamins added to energy drinks. in the suburbs than in the heart of a metro. So, in
(D) Natural food products are easier to digest than order to boost its sagging sales, Bheem Cable
fortified energy drinks. Internet should try to focus more on the suburban
market than on the centrally located markets.
3. In Rajasthan the number of people diagnosed as
suffering from polio has dropped significantly this What does the above argument assume?
year, as compared to last year. Health officials (A) There is no movement of people from suburbs
attribute this decrease entirely to the immunisation to the central areas.
programme, which was launched in 2001. (B) Bheem Cable’s sales have declined recently.
(C) Sale and purchase of property is a crucial
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously parameter to be considered in marketing
weaken the health officials' explanation for the lower Internet connections.
incidence of the disease? (D) Purchasers of property in the suburbs do not
(A) Many new polio vaccine research centres have keep the property idle.
been built in Rajasthan in the last five years.
(B) A new diagnostic technique recognises 7. The Bill passed this year to control the smuggling of
Elephantiasis which was earlier lumped liquor into the country has obviously failed since the
together with polio. wholesale price of illicit alcohol would not otherwise
(C) Because of advances in medicine this year, far have dropped so drastically this year.
fewer people who contract the polio virus will
develop deformity. The argument in the passage would be most
(D) Due to the tireless efforts of the Rajasthan seriously weakened if it were true that
health officials, awareness regarding the (A) Domestic production of illicit alcohol increased
disease and the need for immunisation has substantially this year.
spread among the people. (B) Illicit liquor gives a greater kick than foreign liquor.
(C) The country's citizens spent considerably more
4. A famous American T-shirt giant recently won a money on illicit alcohol this year than they have
lawsuit against an Indian T-shirt firm for imitating its ever done before.
logo. As a result of the lawsuit, Indian T-shirt (D) Buyer's prefer imported illicit alcohol over that
companies will stop imitating logos of American made indigenously.
T-shirt companies. Therefore, average household
expenditures will rise, since branded American 8. ‘There is a price to pay for nuclear independence’,
T-shirts cost more than fake Indian ones. said the Finance Minister grappling with the problem
of fixing the price and how to make the nation pay it;
The conclusion above is based on which of the how to make the world, the NRIs and everyone else
following assumptions? come to the aid of the party. He knew that there
(A) Most people are unable to distinguish a branded would not be global sanction, only national hiccups.
American T-shirt from an imitation. But with an economy on the slippery slope of
(B) Other T-shirt companies from the US would recession, even hiccups could cause upheaval.
benefit from the decision. So, even as the people were in an upbeat mood, the
(C) The demand for American T-shirt is inelastic. economy was on a slide. The Pokhran fallout may
(D) Indian firms will continue imitating American have been politically beneficial but it was
T-shirts. economically disturbing.
Which of the following is true according to the 12. A garment manufacturer who sells his products for a
paragraph? fixed price decides that he must increase his
(A) The nuclear test in Pokhran has proved harmful to income. Since he does not believe that customers
the flow of foreign investment into India. will pay more for his products, he decides to cut
(B) The India Development Fund has failed to meet costs by using cheaper cloth and cheaper dyes.
the requirements of the Indian economy. He expects that by cutting costs he will increase his
(C) The Pokhran nuclear test proved to be profit margin per garment and thus increase his net
economically helpful, though politically disturbing. annual income.
(D) The economy in India was on the verge of a
recession, and the Pokhran experiment could Which of the following, if true, most weakens the
have been the last straw. argument above?
(A) The manufacturer has failed to consider other
9. Rohan and Lila earn the same wages per hour for options, such as renting cheaper manufacturing
working in the same company. However, Rohan’s space.
job is more strenuous than that of Lila. Rohan, (B) If the economy were to enter a period of
therefore, argues that because his job is more inflation, the manufacturer's projected increase
demanding he deserves a better pay than Lila. in income could be wiped out by increases in
the price of the raw material.
Which of the following statements best supports (C) Other garment manufacturers charge more for
Rohan’s line of reasoning? their products than this manufacturer.
(A) Rohan has more years of experience than Lila (D) Inferior quality will cause a reduction in sales.
has.
(B) The company has never unequivocally taken a 13. Because of the Bird-flu scare in Tamil-Nadu, and the
stand that women should be paid at the same culling that followed, the price of chicken and related
rate as men. poultry products were expected to become four
(C) Rohan is in any case due for a promotion. times the usual price. This was expected to drive up
(D) The salary structure of the company is designed the price of Eggs sold under the banner of the
to give greater compensation for a job that is National Egg Co-ordination Committee.
physically more demanding.
Which of the following, if true, would have most
10. Goa and Madhya Pradesh are vying with each other seriously weakened the argument above?
for the "Safest State" award. In Goa, around 1250 (A) The Bird-flu scare was just a rumour and had
serious crimes are reported per year. In Madhya not affected the poultry in Tamil Nadu.
Pradesh, around 2500 serious crimes are reported (B) Tamil Nadu was not the only state supplying eggs
per year. In order to win the award, officials in the to the National Egg Co-ordination Committee.
Goan Administrative Services are using these (C) Egg is not the staple food item of many people
statistics to claim that their state has a lower crime in India.
rate and hence is the safer of the two. (D) The Bird-flu was not as severe as scientists had
predicted.
Which of the following, if true, would expose the flaw
in the argument of the Goan officials? 14. In a family of five, the monthly electricity bill totals to
(A) Last year the number of serious crimes in over `2000. Shocked at this trend, the head of the
Madhya Pradesh was less than 2500. family insists that the use of television, music
(B) There is no standard definition of a serious crime. system and personal computer be restricted to an
(C) The population of Madhya Pradesh is more than average of 4 hours a day. Over the next 3 months
30 times that of Goa. the electricity bill drops to about `1200 per month,
(D) Madhya pradesh has a larger police force than showing that the family has been following the
Goa. restrictions imposed on them.
11. A recent study revealed that most successful Which of the following, if true, shows the most
business tycoons in Indonesia admitted to lying, serious flaw in the above conclusion?
cheating and bribing officials. The study also (A) The combined cost of using the computer,
showed that most businessmen who could not make television set and music system for a period of
it big were by and large honest and did not resort to 6 hours totals to `700 per month.
such practices. The study concludes that in (B) The new electricity tariff introduced by the
Indonesia, if a person wants to make it big in government has cut bills by almost 40%.
business, he should be dishonest. (C) Household appliances such as washing
machine, refrigerator, air conditioner, and
Which of the following is an assumption that has microwave draw far more power than the TV,
been made in arriving at the conclusion? PC, or music system put together.
(A) Success or failure in business in Indonesia is (D) During the three months that saw a reduction in
determined by ethics alone. the electricity bill, two members of the family
(B) An honest person can never be a successful were preparing for exams.
businessman in Indonesia.
(C) When competing against dishonest 15. An asbestos factory at Preetpur was shut down
businessmen, a person can survive only if he following public protests in the wake of a newspaper
himself is dishonest. report linking the rising incidence of cancer in the
(D) Telling the truth never pays in Indonesia, especially region to the presence of the factory. However, even
when it comes to making it big in business. after ten years of closure, new cases of cancer are
being detected at a higher rate than before. 19. The incidence of cancer-related deaths has gone up
The owner of the factory states this to suggest that drastically since 1980. Scientists say that the
his plant had nothing to do with incidences of cancer carcinogenic content of many foods is the main
in the region. cause for the same. Lack of adequate exercise is
cited as the other reason. Studies reveal that in the
Which of the following can the factory owner best period before 1980, the incidence of cancer was
use to buttress his claim? negligible. Therefore, in order to bring down the
(A) The livestock in the region have not been incidence of cancer, people must be encouraged to
afflicted with cancer during the period in adopt the food habits and lifestyles that were
question. prevalent before 1980.
(B) Evidence linking asbestos to cancer is
inconclusive. Which of the following is an assumption, which is not
(C) Asbestos breaks down into harmless elements true, will invalidate the recommendation?
within two months of being released into the (A) Food and lifestyle are not the only factors that
environment. contribute to causing cancer.
(D) It was around the time the factory was set up (B) There have not been developments or
that a modern diagnostic center was also set up refinements in cancer detection since 1980.
and people started patronising it. (C) There has been a steady increase in the incidence
of cancer even in the period prior to 1980.
(D) The vast majority of carcinogens are products of
16. The British approach to training was conditioned
industrial processes which have been adopted
until recently by their belief in the principles of
after 1980.
'training by doing' and 'in learning from mistakes.'
20. Experienced car drivers seem to have more trouble
Which of the following is not a situation where the
than novices in learning to drive the recently
above principle can be applied successfully?
developed ultra-light cars. As the experienced car
(A) Learning how to solve a particular problem.
drivers are accustomed to heavier cars, they seem
(B) Learning how to handle explosives by using
to be troubled whenever the wind speed is higher
actual explosives.
than normal.
(C) Learning how to swim by swimming in shallow
waters. The passage implies that heavier cars are
(D) Learning how to manage people by committing (A) not as difficult to handle as ultra-light cars in
errors. windy conditions.
(B) not as safe as the ultra-light cars in high speed
17. The world famous cricket bats manufactured in the winds.
Kashmir valley can, at present, be produced only (C) not as popular with drivers as the ultra-light cars.
from the trunk of the Kashmir willow. It takes the (D) harder to control than ultra-light cars when wind
trunks of 11 willow trees to make thirty cricket bats. speed is higher than normal.
It follows, therefore, that continued production of
such bats must inevitably lead to the extinction of 21. The Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, which was
the Kashmir willow. ruthlessly crushed by the Chinese Army, was a
watershed in Chinese history. The image of Wang Wei
Which of the following, if true, most seriously Lin, a protester, defying the battle tanks of the PLA
weakens the argument above? before he was arrested, captured the world’s
(A) Willow trees have many medicinal uses. imagination. Wang Wei Lin was never seen again and
(B) It has been found that the trunk of the it is conjectured that the Chinese government executed
Eucalyptus tree can also be used to make him. The international condemnation that followed this
cricket bats of good quality. arrest, surprised the Chinese government, and it
(C) These bats are very expensive and hence out of spared no efforts to appease its critics.
the reach of a majority of cricket lovers in India. Which of the following, if true, suggests that the
(D) The Kashmir willow can be propagated easily conjecture, is indeed true?
and grown quickly in plantations. (A) The Chinese government would not have taken
the trouble to appease critics if the charges
were not true.
18. In 2005, the Indian Railways reported an increase, (B) The Chinese government is known to be
over the previous year, in the total number of ruthless in punishing those who dare to oppose
passengers it carried, but a decrease in total its policies.
revenues – even though prices for its tickets on all (C) Faced with a similar outcry over the arrest of
routes remained unchanged during the two-year political dissident Wang Bingzhang, the Chinese
period. Government chose to disregard it and jailed him
for life.
Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the
(D) It would have been in the interest of the
apparent paradox described above?
Chinese government to produce Wang Wei Lin
(A) The Indian Railways was a victim of a mild
to silence the international outcry that followed
recession in 2005.
his arrest.
(B) Expenditure on employees' salary remained
constant during the two-year period. 22. Television has a profound effect on teen behaviour.
(C) Passengers travelled shorter distances in 2005. The students of public school X have, in a recent
(D) The Indian Railways did not buy any new study, said that they try to follow the style and
equipment or hire any new staff in 2005. conduct of celebrities seen on T.V.
The argument above depends upon which of the Which of the following can be inferred from the
following assumptions? above passage?
(A) The students of public school X are representative (A) A handshake is the western equivalent of the
of all teenagers. namaste or ‘pranam’ practised in India.
(B) Programmes on TV should be tailored to have a (B) If you greet a member of the opposite sex, you
positive influence on teens. should not shake hands.
(C) Surveys always present the objective and (C) Action provides different ways of greeting people
unadulterated truth. and it does not have to differ from person to
(D) Students of public school X come from well-to-do person, age to age and gender to gender.
households. (D) Your behaviour is as important as your looks in
making a good impression.
23. An animal rights group in South Africa is trying to
change the long-standing image of Tasmanian 26. Russia’s incipient private sector suffered from many
devils as frightening creatures. The group contends more disadvantages than did the private sector in
that Tasmanian devils are feared and persecuted China. New ventures are risky and it can therefore
be difficult for them to raise capital. Chinese firms
solely because they are shy animals that are active
had a tremendous advantage in this regard due to
only at night.
the presence of an overseas network of successful
Chinese entrepreneurs, particularly in Hong Kong
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken
and Taiwan. These individuals had the resources
the group's contention?
and the desire to establish a branch in their
(A) Tasmanian devils are steadily losing their
homeland. As soon as China removed restrictions
natural habitat and are thus turning to more
on foreign direct investment, their money came
developed areas for their prey. pouring in. Russia, on the other hand, had to go
(B) There have been instances of confrontation begging to the IMF, accepting all its conditionalities,
between humans and Tasmanian devils not only or to Western multinationals, offering its heirlooms
in South Africa but also in the U.S, and Europe. like oil, gas and other minerals in exchange.
(C) Owls are shy and active only at night; yet they
are not generally feared and persecuted. Which of the following could be the best solution for
(D) Very little is known about the behavior of this problem?
Tasmanian devil. (A) Russia could learn from China on how it
manages or controls its economy so well.
24. Musk is a type of perfume that is obtained from (B) The investments and aid from Western
antelopes. However, not all musk is produced from multinationals to Russia should be minimised.
illegal killing of antelopes as it can also be obtained (C) Russia should develop its technical know-how
from antelopes that have died a natural death. to make the most of its mineral wealth.
Hence, if customers buy musk obtained only from (D) Russian entrepreneurs who have established
those antelopes that died naturally, then there is no themselves abroad, should be wooed to invest
danger of poaching of antelopes and their becoming at home.
extinct.
27. If experience is the name that men give to their
mistakes then it comes from individual trial and error
The argument above depends on the assumption that
rather than veneration, adulation and deification.
(A) the antelopes will not be endangered by genetic
Unfortunately, it is the latter attitude which is
factors.
embedded within the workings of India’s
(B) buyers can distinguish between musk that is
paternalistic society.
produced legally and illegally.
(C) most of the musk sold today comes from illegal Which of the following evidences most strengthens
poaching. the above conclusion?
(D) the demand for musk obtained legally will (A) Hitherto unknown youngsters have made Indian
continue to increase in the future. IT a brand.
(B) Creation and perpetuation of political dynasties.
25. Your appearance and learning are passive factors.
(C) Infusion of young blood into the Indian political
You have to follow it up with some positive, quick
system.
and favourable action. Action can be created by the
(D) Respect should be earned not demanded as a
use of your voice and the use of your limbs. You
may follow up your smile with a warm greeting. You right of age.
can happily wish the other individual a good
28. The IITs, the most sought after engineering schools in
morning, good day or good evening. That greeting
India, get much of their funding from the Government
may be followed up with a friendly, firm and manly
of India. A select committee that was set up by the
handshake. In case you are greeting a member of
HRD ministry to make recommendations on how the
the opposite sex who may not respond to a quality of engineering education in India can be
handshake, you may fold your hands and greet her improved, suggested that the government reduce
or him with an exquisitely executed ‘namaste’. With funding to these institutions as their popularity is
elderly people, you can do ‘pranam’ or otherwise adversely affecting the ability of other engineering
you can bow your head and convey your greetings. schools to attract the best students.
Which of the following, if true, suggests that the from 1972 to 1991, comparing them to economic
recommendation is flawed? shifts. He found that for every 1% increase in
(A) The funds available determine the quality of unemployment rates, there was a 0.5% decline in
education offered. the death rate.
(B) Government funding is a key determiner of the
Which of the following, if true, points to the possible
reputation of educational institutions as it helps
reason for the seeming inconsistency in the
them to equip themselves as needed.
statement above?
(C) The IITs are established schools and enjoy an
(A) Car pools ensure that fewer people drive during
enviable international reputation that other
an economic slowdown and are hence less
schools will be hard pressed to match.
prone to fatal accidents.
(D) The popularity of a college is decided solely by
(B) People who are worried about job losses do
the achievements of its alumni and by the way
things that keep them from being laid off.
industry perceives the school and its pedagogy.
(C) During unemployment people resort to buying
and eating inexpensive foods that are
29. A Scientific journal has published an article which
conducive to good health
claims that vegetarians face much reduced risk of
(D) Stress about job loss can actually be a potential
suffering a heart attack. The report cites the fact that
killer.
only 11% of vegetarians suffer a heart attack in their
lifetime. 33. According to leading geneticist Steve Jones, the
human race will stop evolving and the environment
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously will no longer cause healthy mutations, especially in
weaken the argument? developed countries where all external challenges to
(A) A vegetarian diet does not provide the essential survival have been removed.
daily requirement of potassium and calcium.
(B) 10% of the population suffer heart attacks Which of the following, if true, could be a factor that
during their lifetime. Steve Jones has overlooked in arriving at his
(C) A vegetarian diet prevents the deposition of conclusion?
food related toxins in the human body. (A) The world has survived Francis Fukayama’s
(D) The report covered a study in which the ratio of declaration of the end of history in the 1990s.
vegetarians and non-vegetarians surveyed was (B) Man tries to beat the boredom of every day living
7 : 3. by taking to activities that test his endurance.
(C) Genetic changes are happening as the human
30. 90% of the patients suffering from schizophrenia have body tries to counter drug resistant viruses.
reported an alleviation of their condition when they (D) A tsunami or a Katrina has not taught man to
skip meals. Yet doctors treating such patients do not develop webbed feet.
encourage them to miss their meals, although the
conventional drugs often have serious side-effects. 34. A software has been developed by the University of
Illinois to tell one’s age accurately from a view of
Which of the following, if true, best explains this his/her face. This could be useful in stopping
apparent contradiction? underage drinkers from entering bars and in
(A) Schizophrenia returns in full force as soon as preventing minors from purchasing tobacco products.
the patient has a meal. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the
(B) For a small number of schizophrenics, missing a statement about the capability of the software cited
meal induces a temporary sense of well-being. above?
(C) Missing meals could impair the patient's (A) The software’s accuracy ranges from 80 per
immune system. cent to 85 percent when estimating ages to
(D) Doctors advise patients not to take medicines within a year.
on empty stomach. (B) A huge data base of facial expressions is
needed to determine a range of ages.
31. A study by researchers at the Copenhagen university (C) Teens in Asia are smaller built than those in
came to the conclusion that using frozen embryos is western countries and appear younger.
better than using fresh ones when it comes to (D) State of health and nourishment often affect
producing healthier babies in invitro-fertilization. appearance, at any age.
Which of the following if true, most seriously 35. A cinema production house P that consistently
undermines the claim of the study? makes box-office hits attributes its success to the
(A) Only the top quality embryos survive the heroine Miss X who is an excellent dancer.
freezing and thawing process.
(B) Positive selection of the embryos for freezing Which of the following can be reasonably inferred
ensured a qualitative result. from the above statement?
(C) Babies from fresh embryos were found to be (A) Productions of other banners are also
200 gms less heavy than those born from successful when they star Miss X.
frozen ones. (B) If a film fails, it is because Miss X is not in it.
(D) Risk of congenital malformation was found to be (C) Music and dance contribute a great deal to the
lower in babies from frozen embryos. success of films made by production house P.
(D) Miss X is indispensible to the success of all
32. Christopher Ruhm, professor of economics at the films of production house P
University of North Carolina, analysed death rates
EXERCISE – 1
(Recommended Time : 45 Minutes)
Directions for questions 1 to 25: Read each passage carefully and choose the best answer for each of the questions
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
If it was ever plausible to speak of an "American Century," in Henry Luce's proud phrase, it was during the quarter
century after the defeat of Germany and Japan. No news from Saturn disturbed those years, just success after success.
For those two-and-a-half decades, the Era of Smooth Sailing, as I think of it, the laurels belonged to America's
top business managers, the captains of our ships of productivity.
The last time we managers had looked so good was at the beginning of the so-called Managerial Revolution. That was
back around in 1917, when the children and grandchildren of the great industry-builders of the nineteenth century
handed over command of the businesses and capital they had inherited to a new breed of professional managers,
like Sloan. But then came the Great Depression and the somewhat unfair humiliation of the professional managers'
hero-president, Herbert Hoover. Management then lost a notch or two in the status stakes.
Our prestige began to revive during World War II, but our glory years were unquestionably bounded by those two
forgettable dates - 1948 to 1973. Never in history had a whole people flourished as we Americans did in those years - in
education, affluence, and quality of life. From boardroom to executive suite, from salesroom to factory floor, from suburban
split-level to exurban estate, it was morning in America, the dawn of a glorious day when everything seemed possible.
What had occurred in America was an astonishing democratisation, not just of opportunity, but of a sense of
opportunity. All Americans, with the shameful exception of some minority groups, now believed that they inherited a full
deck of life's chances merely by being born American. Everyone, not just owners and managers, now believed in a
great new secular faith of growth. And growth was not just economic, but personal, cultural, and spiritual as well. At the
same time, many Americans, business executives foremost among them, began to see the world in a new way - as an
extension of America's internal market. American corporations and financial services, and the American dollar,
dominated world trade as no country or currency had, since Britain and the pound in the nineteenth century.
J.J. Servan-Schreiber's famous book 'The American Challenge', published in 1967, went so far as to predict that
European nations would become industrial satellites of the United States.
All this was a stupendous achievement for our society. Growth seemed to fulfil the promise of America; it looked
effortless and endless. And much of the credit for shaping the workplace and creating the wealth that made it possible
went to US business managers. On the basis of growth rate established in the Smooth Sailing years, for examples,
the average American family could look backward to a doubling of family income in one generation; and it could look
forward to at least the same in each future generation.
Today, of course, we know that growth was finite. Today, as current rates of productivity increase, the average
American family can expect its descendants to double the current family income in about four centuries, or 16
generations. As a result, there's a new mood of loss and betrayal in our country these days, summed up by a bitter new
article of faith. For the first time in our history, a generation of Americans is going to have a lower standard of living than
its parents. For managers, this blow to the American Dream simply adds historical urgency to our age-old challenge – to
go on shaping the workplace and creating the wealth to improve the quality of human life and work. If we can claim
much of the responsibility for the economic triumphs of 1948 to 1973, period that began with its own difficulties, then we
can't very will duck the responsibility of taking on the grave problems we face at the beginning of the current era.
But what are those problems? Where do they come from? What on earth happened in 1973? Well, it was around 1973
that oil prices shot up. Watergate hit the headlines, and Vietnam was finally perceived to be a lost cause. The idealism
of the 1960s was going flat, and the conservatism of the 1950s was going sour. Meanwhile, all the indices of growth
were going down, while inflation was going up, up, up. For us managers, specifically, the new era amounted to a
change of climate. No more smooth sailing, only year after year of rough weather.
The root causes of this change remain controversial, but most fingers point to a fundamental power shift affecting
virtually every business anywhere. The professional managers, like Alfred Sloan, who took command of the corporate
economy around World War I, were losing control of their "machines". Power for some years now had been flowing
outward towards customers and investors, the "elements", the winds and the waves, in which business must take their
way. Three forces caused the power shift. First, the achievements of the Smooth Sailing years put money in people's
pockets and investment accounts – especially American pockets and accounts – as never before in history. This great
attraction encouraged companies and governments all over the world to organize themselves to produce goods and
services for sale In America, then in Europe, then wherever there was money to buy them. The second force was
postwar America's magnificently self-confident openness to free trade, and its insistence on imposing free-trade policies
on the world. Third was the so-called digital Revolution in communications technology, which enabled capital and
information (information about the ROI of capital, for one thing; information about the relative values of products and
services, for another) to fly around the globe at the speed of light. And so were born the "global economy" and "global
competition," the phrases we use to describe what is essentially a fully liberated and empowered market of moneyed
customers, with an entourage of rival business struggling for their favour, and colossal pools of capital betting on
hopeful winners of the struggle.
From the manager's point of view, whether customers or investors ended up with more power is a good question.
Growing wealth and declining restraints ("protection") on trade endow both of them with a fantastical new range of
choices (and opportunities to change their choices) among products and investments. Still, as far as managers are
concerned, the most powerful of the new bosses are undoubtedly the customers. For if managers can win them, they
won't have much trouble winning investors. This is not altogether good news. Winning customers has never been
harder. Today's customers, as Fortune put it, are "the sharpest, most-educated customers [that] marketers have ever
faced. "In today's marketplaces, it's no longer a question of caveat emptor, but of caveat factor. Customers today are
characterized by their relentless demands in quality, service, and price; by their willingness to act on a default of
contract; by their disloyalty. All this puts them as far away from the gentle, grateful, loyal customers of the 1950s and
1960s as a pirate crew is from a platoon of crew-cut Marines.
Look at the range of choices customers are being offered today. Sony turns out four new products a day and a new
Walkman model every three weeks. In 1991, 64 new varieties of spaghetti sauce appeared on the market. In 1992
alone Heinz introduced more than 500 new products world wide. Rubbermaid turns out an average of one new product
a day. The first laundry detergent, Tide, was introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1946. For 38 years, it ruled its market
alone. Then, feeling the heat of a fickle public, P & G felt the need to add Unscented Tide and Liquid Tide (1984), Tide
with bleach (1988), concentrated Ultra Tide (1990) and Tide with bleach alternative (1992). And so it goes virtually
everywhere, from big-ticket items like computers to everyday items like laundry soap.
In fact, the new power and freedom of the customer has destroyed all the fond managerial assumptions of the Smooth
Sailing years. No more unearned, inherited brand loyalties ("Our family always buys Fords"); no more cordial complicity
among rivals in the same markets; no more confident pass-along or rising wages and benefits in the form of higher
prices, no more easy reliance on high entry costs to keep out upstart competitors; and no more indulgent protection by
national governments.
1. Which of the following is not one of the events that 6. How according to the passage, does growing wealth
occurred in 1973? and declining restraints on trade help?
(A) Vietnam was considered a lost cause. (A) They offer the customers a wide range of choice
(B) The conservatism of the 1950s was undergoing in terms of products and investments.
distortion. (B) They prevent the customers becoming the
(C) The prices of oil decreased significantly. actual controller of the market.
(D) All the world was talking of 'Watergate'. (C) They help in controlling the rapid inflation of
economy.
2. The nature of 'growth' in America from 1948 to (D) They help managers to win customers and
1973 was investors.
(A) only economic, but not personal, cultural, spiritual.
(B) economic, personal, cultural and spiritual. 7. The most widely accepted reason for the changes in
(C) spiritual and personal, but not cultural and economy in 1973 is
economic. (A) professional managers like Alfred Sloan were
(D) economic, personal and cultural, but not spiritual. gradually acquiring vested control over their
profession.
3. A period when America saw optimum prosperity, (B) the idealism of the 1960s was going flat, leaving
according to Henry Luce, is people with little option, but to submit to the
(A) the first decade after World War II. degeneration of values.
(B) the decade before World War II. (C) there was a fundamental shift of power which
(C) the first five years of the Industrial revolution. affected the world of business everywhere.
(D) the two-and-a-half decade after the defeat of (D) there was a new mood of loss and betrayal of
Germany and Japan. faith in the scenario of economy in America.
4. How did the business managers help in the growth
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the
of America?
passage?
(A) They brought about Managerial Revolution to
(A) The period between 1948 and 1973 was
increase productivity.
perhaps the period when America flourished the
(B) They introduced the issue of productivity for the
most.
first time in the boardroom.
(B) The years from 1948 to 1973 saw a drastic
(C) They predicted that European nations would
decline in the educational progress of America.
become industrial satellites of the United States.
(C) World War II imposed many an ignominy on the
(D) They shaped the workplace and created the wealth
reputation and economic condition of the U.S.
that made all-round 'growth' possible in America.
(D) The people of America started losing their faith
5. The children and grandchildren of the great industry in the concepts of growth and development.
builders in 1917
(A) worked so hard that they finally became the 9. The phrase - 'it was morning in America -
captains of America's ship of productivity. (A) shows that everyone of the American workforce
(B) humiliated the professional manager's hero- attended their work without fail.
president, Herbert Hoover. (B) implies that the American economy flourished.
(C) handed over the command of business and (C) means one more glorious day with wonderful
capital to a new breed of professional managers. weather when people enjoyed working.
(D) tried to double the income of the people of (D) indicates the brightness of economy after the
America. bleakness during World War-II.
10. What, according to the passage, was the effect of the 13. Which of the following options summarizes para 4 of
mood of loss and betrayal in the American scene? the passage in the most appropriate manner?
(A) America bred the sharpest and most educated (A) America witnessed a period of phenomenal
customers, in the economic context, whom economic, spiritual, cultural and personal
markets had never faced. fulfilment and growth and the American dollar
(B) In the scene of business, there was a fundamental dominated world trade as no country or currency
shift of power from marketers to customers. had since Britain and the pound, prompting
(C) Customers came to be characterized by their Serran–Shreiber to predict, in his famous book
“The American Challenge’, that European nations
relentless demands in price, quality and service.
would become industrial satellites of the U.S.
(D) It became historically more urgent to shape the (B) The astonishing economic growth which
workplace and create wealth to improve the America witnessed strengthened the people’s
quality of human life and work. belief in a secular faith of growth and the
American dollar dominated world trade as no
11. The customer's new power and liberty country or currency had, since Britain and the
(A) encouraged brand loyalties. pound, prompting J.J.Sevan–Schreiber to
(B) made the competition among the rivals more predict in his famous book ‘The American
aggressive. Challenge’ to predict that European nations
(C) made government protection mandatory for all would become industrial satellites of the U.S.
the companies. (C) The phenomenal economic growth which
(D) refuted all the economic theories concerning America witnessed, opened a host of
market. opportunities to American corporations and
business executives with the American dollar
12. What was the prediction made by "The American dominating world trade, prompting J.J Serran–
Challenge"? Schreiber to predict in his famous book ‘The
American Challenge’, that European nations
(A) That European nations would become the
would become industrial satellites of the U.S.
industrial satellites of the U.S. (D) The astonishing democratisation of opportunity
(B) That the business executives of America would in America facilitated economic, spiritual,
begin to see the world as an extension of its cultural and personal growth and the American
internal market. dollar dominated world trade as no other
(C) That the Americans dollar would dominate the country or currency had done hitherto, thereby
world trade as no other currency would ever prompting Sevan–Schreiber to predict in his
have done. famous book “The American Challenge’ that
(D) That European nations would cause the European nations would become industrial
satellites of the U.S.
greatest harm to the economy of U.S.
PASSAGE – II
About once in every seven years, the ocean surface off the coast of Peru warms up. This cuts the normal enriching of
nutrient-rich cold water. Plankton production is drastically reduced. This phenomenon, known as El Nino (the child)
because it starts during the Christmas season, usually lasts for up to a year.
Occasionally it goes on for longer. Three times this century, it has persisted into a third year. The latest of these
prolonged episodes have been blamed for much more than its effect on the Peruvian fishery. It certainly seems to have
played a part in droughts in normally humid Indonesia as well as those that brought catastrophic fires to the outskirts of
Sydney. It has been blamed for storms and landslides in coastal regions of Peru and Ecuador and is associated with
drought in north-eastern Brazil. Its influence may stretch as far as western Europe where the recent winter brought
heavy rainfall and flooding.
El Nino is not the only ocean phenomenon to affect the weather. To understand how this might be done, it is useful to
think about how the weather is forecast and about what makes it predictable. Weather forecasting uses two types of
techniques, both of which rely on observations of what is going on at and shortly before the time of the forecast.
To supply this information, national authorities operate extensive land, sea and air based observation networks. These
are coordinated under the United Nations World Meteorological Organization. There is an effective and almost
instantaneous worldwide exchange of the information gathered.
The first, classical forecasting method compares the set of observations with experience and bases the forecast on what
has happened in the past from a similar starting point. The second, only possible since the advent of fast computers,
applies the laws of physics through a numerical model of the atmosphere to predict how the weather will develop from the
observed starting point. This method is the basis of modern weather forecasting. But neither method will produce useful
predictions for more than a few days ahead. This is because the behaviour of the atmosphere is governed in the medium
term by energy exchanges with the land and ocean. The latter is much more important as the sea surface stores energy
which it exchanges with the atmosphere in a surface layer 100m or so thick. The energy storage capacity of the layer is
many times greater than that of the whole atmosphere. This had prompted the suggestion that longer term forecasting
might be practicable if a coupled computer model of the atmosphere and ocean could be constructed.
A great deal of research has been put into this with some success but progress has been limited by two factors. The
first is that coupled ocean-atmosphere models require enormously greater computing capacity than is provided even by
the super computers used in weather forecasting. The second is that not enough is known about the state of the ocean
at any given time - there is no global observation network as there is for the atmosphere - or about the processes that
govern the interactions. When these limitations have been overcome, it seems likely that coupled models will permit
prediction of such climatological factors as frequency and intensity of rainfall for seasons and perhaps years ahead.
In the meantime, climatologists have begun to be able to predict the onset and consequences of phenomena such as
El Nino using techniques like those used in the classical weather forecasting method. These examine the condition of
the ocean at a given instant and, by comparison with past experience, attempt to predict in statistical way how the
ocean or the atmosphere - and hence the climate - are likely to behave for the next few months.
As with the weather forecasts, this depends critically on the existence of a bank of past experience, in this case, particularly of
sea-surface temperatures. A key contribution to this, recently completed by the U.K. Meteorological Office, has been the analysis
of many millions of sea-surface temperatures. This has led to the publication of the first globally complete monthly fields of
sea-surface temperature from 1871 to the present day. This type of information may be used to predict events such as El Nino.
Various scientific groups have tried to do so with varying degrees of success. In the meantime, Meteorological Office
scientists have also compared the temperature fields statistically with climatological factors. They have shown that,
particularly in the tropics, there are significant correlations between sea-surface temperature anomalies and climate
statistics. This does not necessarily mean that one causes the other, though some degree of direct linkage seems likely.
But it does open up the possibility of predicting short-term climate fluctuations.
The U.K. Meteorological Office has approached this by a rigorous comparison between rainfall statistics in the Nordeste area
of Brazil, whose crops can be seriously affected by drought, with contemporaneous sea-surface temperatures worldwide.
This has revealed significant links, verified over the period 1901-85, between rainfall and sea-surface temperatures in the
north and south tropical Atlantic and the western tropical Pacific, the area most strongly affected by El Nino.
14. Which of the following is not true about ‘El Nino’? 17. The passage talks about
(A) It is the most important ocean phenomenon to (A) the factors that can trigger phenomena like
affect a region’s weather pattern. El Nino.
(B) There seems to be a statistical link between (B) phenomena like El Nino that affect the planet’s
sea-surface temperatures and the occurrence of climate.
El Nino. (C) the global efforts being done in order to predict
(C) The consequences of El Nino can vary with the El Nino.
geographical position of the affected area. (D) the advances being made in the field of
(D) Generally the effects of El Nino persists for meteorological predictions through a greater
about a year. study of ocean-atmosphere interactions.
15. Which of the following data will be helpful in the 18. Long term, weather forecasting may become a
prediction of El Nino? reality one day when
(A) Daily temperatures recorded in coastal areas. (a) there exists a global databank on the state of
(B) Daily atmospheric pressure levels for one the ocean and its resultant interactions with the
previous year. atmosphere.
(C) A data bank of sea-surface temperatures. (b) computers which are more efficient than
(D) All of the above supercomputers come into existence.
(c) there is a thorough analysis of sea-surface
16. The frequency of occurrence of El Nino, temperatures and their effects on the oceans.
approximately, is (A) (b) happens.
(A) once every year. (B) (a) happens.
(B) about three times in a century. (C) (a) and (b) are taken care of.
(C) once in three years. (D) (a), (b) and (c) simultaneously fall into place.
(D) once every seven years.
PASSAGE – III
A s per a Nasscom survey, during the previous year, piracy increased by 2%, from 61%, and losses due to software
piracy were close to `1,100 crore. Every year, piracy accounts for billions of dollars worth of revenue losses for software
vendors like Microsoft and Adobe. No matter who the perpetrators of piracy are, it is causing the cash reserves of
software vendors to dwindle by the day.
Despite possessing the purchasing power, consumers in India lack the maturity to buy software from legal sources.
This is mainly because a majority of Indians have seen a sudden flood of software in the country but have no clue about
its origin. In developed nations, companies make the extra effort of creating awareness about the development stages
and resources of software products. In return, consumers are more than willing to pay for the value of the product.
Also, the channels for facilitating the purchase of software are not conducive to legal purchase. For example, if an end
user is able to buy software worth a mere couple of dollars like WinZip as easily as a piece of hardware, the end user is
more likely to develop such a habit of buying. What actually happens is that because it is available almost for free
(as part of the package when buying the hardware), the software is taken for granted. Soon, using pirated versions of
software becomes a habit.
"People in India don’t like to pay for the software because it is available with the hardware they purchase. All that we can do is
mail legal notices and educate both the end users and retailers against using them," says the channels manager, Adobe India.
For Nasscom, bringing down the level of piracy has been a daunting, almost unachievable task, in the last few years.
According to their estimates, more than seven in ten businesses, software applications are pirated, a common scene in
developing nations. "The concept of buying software has never existed for the Indian consumer. People still want
software for free or at almost minimal cost," says Nasscom president Kiran Karnik.
Another factor detrimental to the purchase of genuine software is the high initial cost of software and the fact that newer
versions keep appearing every now and then. But price should not be an issue if one looks at the purchase as a
long-term investment. Besides, upgradation requires a much smaller amount to be shelled out. Price becomes an issue
only when you consider the usage of the product. According to Adobe, people pay next to nothing for a pirated version
of Adobe software and make huge returns especially in the print and advertising media. For Adobe, a large pool of
revenues comes from people wanting to continually upgrade. "Piracy is our biggest competition in India. We support
people, and give them valid reasons for buying legalized or authorized copies of our products. As far as pricing is
concerned, we also give people choices on their purchases like individual boxes or elements or a collection, based on
their requirements," says Craig Tegel, MD, Pacific and South Asia, Adobe.
At Adobe, the rate of piracy is as high as 90%, which means for every 10 users of Adobe products, nine use pirated
versions. Lesser returns on investments might not affect companies like Microsoft and Adobe to a large extent, but
could prevent small time developers who mostly make utility software from coming out with innovative versions.
Also with most non-English speaking countries like India seeking localization of software, piracy acts as the biggest
obstacle in their attracting foreign investment from the likes of Microsoft and Adobe.
Levels of piracy will remain where they are or decline if at all, only slightly, for the next few years. But in the initial stages,
consumers in India should acquire the habit of purchasing software. Given that price is a major determinant, companies
should be able to provide the users with more choices, and buyers in turn should be willing to make the purchase.
19. Companies like Microsoft and Abode can play a role (A) Only (a) (B) Only (b)
in curbing piracy by (C) (b) and (c) (D) (a) and (b)
(A) reducing the price of their software packages.
(B) giving more choice so that buyers can purchase 23. The term “localization of software” in the context of
what they want, keeping their budget in view. the passage implies
(C) educating all the users through personal mailers. (A) decentralization.
(D) directly selling to their customers. (B) suited to local needs.
(C) indigenously developed packages.
20. The author feels that Indians are not being open to (D) vernacular packages.
the idea of purchasing software because of
(A) their limited monetary capacity. 24. A probable mistake from the seller’s side that can
(B) the sky rocketing prices. indirectly push customers towards purchasing illegal
(C) the availability of cheap, legal versions. products is
(D) the software coming free with the hardware. (A) keeping the customers in the dark regarding its
value.
21. Piracy, inadvertently, can affect small vendors by (B) pricing their products too high, making those go
(A) discouraging their innovations. out of bounds for the common man.
(B) killing them as they cannot withstand the (C) making customers look forward to freebies
revenue losses. being offered with every purchase of hardware.
(C) eating into their earnings. (D) not selling software along with hardware.
(D) preventing their non-English versions from coming
into market. 25. Piracy affects non-English speaking developing
countries, in the long run, by
22. Price of the software package should not be a major (A) showing a tendency of not buying even cheaper
hindrance if versions.
(a) it is regarded as a long term investment. (B) way of legal notices and mailers.
(b) after an initial high investment, further up-gradation (C) reducing the cash reserves of various bigwigs.
of the same is cheap. (D) scaring off foreign giants, who wish to invest in
(c) newer versions are cheaper than the original these countries.
product.
Passage 1 Passage 2 Passage 3

No. of words 1412 852 666
No. of Qs. 13 5 7
EXERCISE – 2
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
The camp, the size of about four football pitches, lies beneath an immense corrugated steel roof. A long queue forms
for the showers. Washbasins, blackened with streaks of human bristle, overflow with used water. The toilets are
collective, with no taps or paper. Children play with disposable razors as if with toy cars or planes. A smell of dead dog
pervades the camp. From the canteen, a queue stretches to the end of the camp. Refugees are allocated to makeshift
tents according to their country of origin. More than 1,300 refugees live here, cut off from the world. They have only
one ambition - to get aboard a lorry on the Calais-Dover ferry. For this, they need the services of the passeurs or
smugglers. Socially, Sangatte is organised like a pyramid. At its base are the refugees, suffering and submissive. At its
top are the passeurs who promise eldorado in Britain for a fee of between $500 and $800. The passeurs are mostly
Kurds and they are the kings of Sangatte.
In theory, the heated cubicles are reserved for women and children. But the refugees have nicknamed them 'travel
agencies' because in practice nearly all are occupied by the passeurs, who negotiate the terms for clandestine
crossings. They also stock blankets - there's a chronic shortage in the camp - and resell them or use them as a means
of exchange. For a blanket, a refugee may take the passeur's place in the canteen queue. This is the first stage in his
recruitment as a passeur's assistant. Those who hold the keys to the English Eden have set up a mafia-style hierarchy
in a legal vacuum. The passeurs reckon older intermediaries inspire confidence in the 'clients' who deposit their money
with them. If the crossing fails, they are scrupulously reimbursed. If they succeed, the intermediary keeps a commission
and gives the rest to the passeur. Another assistant then sends the money via Western Union to Kurdistan. A good part
of it goes to finance the activities of the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers' Party).
For those wanting to make the crossing things have got worse. Only about 50 manage to make it to England each day.
The others are brought back by the police into the overflowing camp where meals are rationed and blankets are given
out in dribs and drabs. The Red Cross, it is clear, is seeking to deter new arrivals by offering only minimal comfort.
But the effort is in vain. Even sleeping on the ground, in temperatures as cold as 3°C, does nothing t o discourage the
desperate and the destitute. Ahmed the Afghan is 30. His face is lined with wrinkles. He lost his father in the war with
the Red Army, his mother in the civil war and two brothers in the American bombardments of Kabul. 'There's nothing left
for me there.' In mid-November, he fled his country, enduring three freezing months in the mountains. In Iran, a Kurdish
smuggler led him to Turkey. From there, a boat set him down on the Greek coast. Then Italy, then France. 'This has
cost me nearly $8,000, the money I inherited from grandparents, which my mother kept even through the wars.' Like the
others, he's not going to give up when he is only 22 miles from England.
Some try to break into the Euro tunnel site and travel on the train. Others try to bypass the passeurs and get on to lorries. The
first group risks electrocution. The second can get into bloody confrontations with Kurdish heavies who rule over embarcation
areas. It's because of these 'independent' runs that Sangatte has seen knife fights between Afghan refugees and Kurds.
Tonight a little group, myself among them, has decided to make an attempt on the lorries. It's 5.30 p.m. and we're at
Sangatte-Calais bus station. The guide stands at the bus entrance to check his clients. The other passengers, including
local people, are aggressively thrown off. The bus driver has no control over his vehicle and the guide has forced him to
play a cassette of Middle Eastern music at high volume. Three quarters of an hour. Four kilometres on the highway. Calais.
Early evening mist. The lights of boats in port. Beyond lies Dover. England, that Eden where the police don't have the right
to check the identities of illegal entrants! Here police checks are feared, above all by Algerians who, if their situation is
'irregular', risk expulsion. The passeurs, on the other hand, are considered stateless and therefore cannot be expelled.
Suddenly we slip into the bushes to get round the port by way of passeurs 'paths which run along the beach. In a depot yard
stand the fateful lorries. There is general delight. Towards midnight, jumping over rocks, we approach. Then Chakhwan,
the smuggler who controls this zone, bursts in on us, followed by his henchmen. He kicks a Palestinian refugee in the head.
Other blows rain down. One of his heavies starts throttling one of the Algerians. When he defends himself, one of the
passeur's gang pulls out a knife. Chakhwan and his men consider their 'business' threatened. They hesitate at nothing.
We flee towards another parking area. Other passeurs are there, brandishing wine bottles, their faces bloodied.
They still pursue us. Four kilometres further on we find another service area. There are lorries, and not a living soul in
sight. But there's no time to celebrate. Two men, armed with heavy sticks, run towards us. They're Egyptians,
bodyguards and interpreters of the smuggler who controls this patch, Lukman, known as Luciano, was once a pimp in
Belgium. He has escaped a recent wave of arrests. All the refugees know him. He's not going to let us hang about on
his patch. Our threats to call the police have no effect. 'Go ahead,' he says. 'You're all going to be expelled from France.
So get lost.' It's time to give up. Tomorrow, maybe, we'll start again. A few sighs, or murmured prayers. In Indian file,
the little column returns to the miserable antechamber of Sangatte.
1. Which of the following is not true regarding Sangatte?
(A) A part of the financial requirements of the PKK is being sent from the money collected from the refugees trying
to escape
(B) Most of its residents hope to get into Britain.
(C) The living conditions are inhuman.
(D) Only Kurds are present there.
2. Bloody knife fights often occur when the desperate 6. The focus of the refugees is on the UK because
(A) try to escape on their own on lorries. (A) they see it an answer to their misery.
(B) enter the Eurotunnel. (B) it is a land of opportunities.
(C) fail to pay the middlemen. (C) they are welcome there.
(D) are cheated out of their money by the greedy (D) the police there are not legally empowered to
passeurs. check the identities of illegal entrants.
3. The author accuses The Red Cross of 7. It is understood from the passage that the author
(A) being prejudiced towards Kurds. (A) is sure of the passeurs helping him.
(B) being stingy in offering comforts to the refugees. (B) is desperate to make it on his own.
(C) trying to discourage new refugees. (C) never misses an opportunity to run away from
(D) not accepting all the people into the camp. the camp.
(D) hopes to escape to England one day.
4. In the statement, “here police checks are feared ….”
the word “here” means 8. The smugglers do not fear the local police as they
(A) Sangatte. (B) Calais. (A) are too powerful.
(C) Dover. (D) France. (B) have liaison with political parties.
(C) cannot be evicted by the police as per local laws.
5. The author and his group failed, in their attempt, (D) regularly contribute a part of their earnings to
the local police.
(A) while trying to get into a lorry.
(B) when they were about board a ferry.
(C) while escaping from the authorities of the
refugee campt.
(D) at the Eurotunnel site.
PASSAGE – II
Knowledge Management is the management of the accumulated expertise and abilities within the organisation by the
collaboration of right people and right information. Knowledge Management is the framework within which the
organisation views all its processes as knowledge processes. In this respect, all business processes involve creation,
dissemination, renewal and application of information towards the organisational sustenance and survival. Knowledge
Management is becoming increasingly important because of a paradigm shift in the world from one, which was
predictable to one of rapid discontinuous change.
The words Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management are sometimes used synonymously, however there is a
slight difference. Intellectual Capital is all about measuring and quantifying the intellectual assets of a firm whereas
Knowledge Management includes the development, creation and management of Knowledge assets. In other words it is
an active, dynamic procedure. It is at this juncture that there are two perspectives and schools of thought. One is the
IT perspective and the other is the people perspective. The first group believes in the management of information
entirely through technology whereas the second lot focuses on people. The second lot believes that Knowledge consists
of the skills, the learning and the implicit Knowledge that is vested in its people. They believe that the Knowledge bank
is the people and it is the people who learn. However, most Indian companies seemed to have embarked on the path
where Knowledge Management is technologically driven.
Information Technology (IT) can facilitate the gathering, channelling and dissemination of information but the final
burden of translating this information into actionable knowledge (depending on the situation and context) is on humans.
Having the best breed of technologies does not ensure the creativity and innovation required for the success of an
organisation. The key thus lies in the synergy of both these elements.
Technology is important but what is of greater importance is the capturing of tacit knowledge. This is essential as
two problems and two situations are never the same. This is where the human perspective comes into play.
Tacit knowledge is based on two words - application and experience, rather than on rational thought. There are many
components not understood by the users in clear scientific terms but could be explained using empirical relations.
The mind picks up and processes information as and when they originate and not always from organisational
repositories. Thus transfer and capture of tacit information through organisational repositories is not as simple and is still
in its nascent stage. Technology repositories are however a good way of exchange of explicit information. The advent of
the Intranet has facilitated the gathering and dissemination of information.
The need of the hour is however, to evolve measures to capture Tacit knowledge, which has to be more people focussed as
well as people driven. This can be done either as a tacit to tacit manner or a tacit to explicit manner. The former is referred to
as socialization. The organisation realizes that it is essential to have personal interaction or socialize to transfer knowledge.
This typically tends to be an informal process. Mentoring in an organisation is the classic case of tacit Knowledge transfer. It
is a formal process to the extent that a mentor is assigned to a person. How the transfer takes place is essentially personal.
Thus in addition to the explicit knowledge, tacit Knowledge is transferred through observation and inculcation from people
who have these abilities. On the other hand, tacit to explicit stresses on converting tacit Knowledge to explicit concepts within
the organisational framework for easy reuse resulting in high return on investment for such efforts. An example is the
conversion of the sound of a car to vibrations to identify defects, instead of relying only on the ear of the mechanic.
Therefore, designing a knowledge management system to transfer abstract talent and individualistic tacit knowledge to
an easily accessible reusable and applicable form calls for a convergent approach. The first step calls for the
development of an organisational culture that promotes an environment conducive to sharing of information. The
sharing of Knowledge should be encouraged by introducing reward systems. The employees should be made to realise
that Knowledge and its right utilisation is crucial for the organisation. The employees should be given the requisite
counselling and training to effectively handle information systems. Any sort of insecurity resulting from the sharing of
one’s skills should be gently dispelled. Finally a Knowledge management team is required to oversee what goes into the
information repository. The information should be drafted in the right context and contain practical difficulties faced
during execution. However, it should not be irrelevant or incompatible with organisational goals as it will lead to a feeling
of disgust and helplessness. The axiom, 'Garbage in garbage out' also holds good.
Rabindranath Tagore dreamt of a "haven of freedom where knowledge is free". Peter Drucker also spoke about the
application of Knowledge being a competitive factor. To realize these goals, organisations are beginning to realize that
creating and buying technology is not going to help unless people support it. The bottomline of its success thus depends on
an open organisational culture. As we continue to learn from within and outside the organisation, we shall need newer tools
and techniques to address the technical as well as behavioural aspects of sharing knowledge in a technology driven world.
9. In the author’s opinion, people make up a critical (D) an unnecessary fascination about technology
aspect for the success of any knowledge while devising knowledge management systems.
management system because
(A) only human mind is capable of giving a unique 12. Identify the statement which is not true as per the
solution to any organisational problem. passage:
(B) only managers can translate the pertinent (A) there is a difference between intellectual and
information into suitable action. knowledge assets.
(C) the support of the people is essential to it. (B) there may not be any formal system for
(D) man tends to use his personal experience as knowledge transfer during socialisation.
well as professional knowledge to discern the (C) knowledge sharing can be only or explicit in an
suitable solution for a given situation. organisation.
(D) open organisational culture is one of the key
10. According to the passage, the concept of knowledge factors that facilitate sharing of information.
management is critical in today's business scenario
because 13. The author considers knowledge management an
(A) when properly applied, it becomes a tool for active dynamic procedure probably because of
gaining competitive advantage. (A) the uncertainty of the future of any business.
(B) it is one of the ways to survive unpredictable (B) the fact that what is good today may not hold
changes being encountered in the field. good tomorrow.
(C) all things being equal, it is the human capital (C) the movement of people among various
that makes an organisation flourish better than departments within an organisation.
its competitors. (D) the evolving business scenario.
(D) all business processes are dynamic and have to
be dealt with accordingly. 14. Which of the following statements cannot be
attributed to the author?
11. Regarding the current status of knowledge (A) In the Indian context, most companies seem to
management, the author feels that there is adopt technological perspective to knowledge
(A) a dearth of systems that encapsulate tacit management.
knowledge. (B) Tacit knowledge also includes information
(B) no successful model that can be customised to picked up external to an organisation.
suit the unique requirements of a business. (C) The linking of computers within an organisation
(C) a need to evolve employee-centric systems that is one of the ways to disseminate information.
can effectively translate abstract knowledge into (D) Intellectual capital is a subsystem of knowledge
tangible organisational knowledge archives. management.
PASSAGE – III
Whatever changes cannot be true. The world as we see it today is not the same as was in the past, and would not be
the same in future as well. Hence the world cannot be real. At best, it can be labelled as 'illusive reality' or 'relative truth'.
There is one permanent, unchanging Reality or Existence behind this changing universe. It is the essence or
substratum of all beings, things, and phenomena. Vedanta says that the Rishis or Seers have had experienced/realized
this Existence as pure Consciousness - Chaitanya. The name Brahman, Self, Atman, God or Reality is given to this one
principle: Absolute Consciousness. What is the nature of this Consciousness? The Seers have described It as
Sat-Chit-Ananda: Truth-Existence-Bliss absolute. How does this Eternal, never changing (formless and without
attributes - Nirakara and Nirguna) Reality change into multifarious existence, this universe?
From here starts the philosophical divergence in various schools of thought that try to answer these questions from their
respective points of view. Hinduism (with its multiple sects), Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism and
other religions of the world take origin on the basis of answers to these questions, viz. concept of God, world and
individual being and their interrelationship. In Hinduism, many sects advanced their theories about the nature of Reality.
Thus, Advaita Vedanta of Shankaracharya, Vishithadvaita of Ramanujacharya, Dvaitavada of Madhvacharya, and
Shuddhadvaita of Vallabhacharya became the most accepted views by various sections of the society.
In fact, the search of physics also culminates in an attempt to find one energy source, one unit, which can explain all
other phenomena. The quantum physics led to confusion about the validity of theory of relativity used in explaining the
origin, nature, and working of various physical phenomena in the universe. Now they are trying to come up with 'string
theory'. The problem of physics is that, in their scientific inquiry, the scientists want to be hundred percent objective in
their approach, but, by compulsion, at the higher level they have to bring in the unwanted factor of 'subjective
consciousness' to explain certain phenomena; wave and particle relationship being one.
In an attempt to probe into the Reality, the human mind reaches higher levels of consciousness. The mind becomes
refined, pure, and subtle. During this process, the person acquires certain characteristics in his/her personality. He or
she becomes calmer, collected, their desires become less, and they become kind, compassionate, and generous. At the
final stage of realisation, the person crosses over - transcends - the limitations of mind and words, and comes face to
face with Reality. As his/her consciousness has transcended the language function of the mind, no words are available
to describe his/her experience at that level of Realization. When the person comes to human level of consciousness,
the Divine Realization withers away! Thus, while the person is at human consciousness, he or she cannot experience
the Reality and while he or she is experiencing the Highest, the function of the mind including those of language and
speech is suppressed. Therefore, the Reality cannot be described in words. Whatever description we get from the great
seers, saints, or Avatara Purusha is at the best close approximation of that Reality.
In the classical allegory of Vedanta philosophy, it is like seeing either rope or the snake. When we see the rope,
our vision and perception is clear, as if we are in the state of divine consciousness - samadhi. But, as soon as some
darkness - ignorance - comes, we confuse the rope with snake. Again, someone demonstrates to us by throwing light
on the object or by picking it up that what one has mistakenly believed to be the snake is in fact the rope. The important
point to note here is that at no point of time the rope ever had turned into a snake; the rope was always the rope. It was
our ignorance produced due to clouding of our mind by way of darkness, etc., that caused us to mistakenly see the
snake in the rope. Much the same way, our mind is clouded by ignorance in its present state and we see
superimposition of world - the snake - over Brahman - the rope. Only when a Teacher, a Guru throws light and shows
us the true nature of this world can we experience the Brahman therein.
The second point is also of immense importance; and what is that second point? When we see the snake we do not see
the rope. We cannot accept that object other than snake. We are afraid of it and run away from it. As in a dream, we see
a tiger and are terrified by the animal, same way, in our dream of illusory snake, we are afraid of it. A person dreaming
of a tiger chasing him gets up all sweating and with palpitating heart, but soon realizes then: 'Oh, what a fool I am;
I thought that the tiger was really chasing me!' He thus settles down when he awakens; he understands the truth when
his ignorance is destroyed by way of awakening. In case of the snake-rope allegory, similar explanation can be applied.
When we come out of ignorance, we see the rope as a rope, and all our fears about the snake disappear. While we
have given one example of fear to emphasize the point, it is equally and easily understandable that all our attachments
to this world are like that dream. Love, fear, jealousy, hatred, passion, anger, infatuation, and so on surface only
because of our mistaken belief about the Rope (Reality) as something else.
15. With reference to the classical allegory of Vedanta (B) because we are unclear about the things we
philosophy, see and perceive.
(A) we tend to be subjective depending on certain (C) if our thinking becomes rigid and does not
physical characteristics we obtain during the accept the truth as it is.
process of realization. (D) when the human mind reaches higher levels of
(B) darkness symbolises ignorance. consciousness.
(C) our perceptions about God make us view a rope
19. We need to comprehend the nature of Reality from
as a snake.
the descriptions given by great seers because
(D) in its higher levels of consciousness, human mind
(A) the process of transcending the limitations of
tends to get confused between truth and illusion. physical entities is possible only for them.
(B) when in their state of bliss only, their language
16. According to the passage,
function of mind seems to be active.
(A) the most accepted views like the Advaita
(C) common man's language function of mind
Vedanta of Shankaracharya etc., talk about the
becomes inactive at the final stage of realization.
nature of Brahman.
(D) they are psychologically empowered to decipher
(B) that which does not change is real.
the process of realization.
(C) each religion is the result of the expression of its
unique view regarding the concept of God, world 20. According to the passage,
and individual being and their interrelationship. (a) scientists tend to believe in the validity of
(D) only a guru can show us the true nature of the empirical evidence only.
world. (b) it is either white or black in the world of
scientists, with no shades of grey.
17. The author says that the world cannot be real because (c) scientists should consider the divine acts of
(A) change is inherent in its nature. supreme power.
(B) it tends to change and stabilise over a period of (d) scientists maybe putting forward theories like
time. the string theory to show that they can explain
(C) its characteristic feature is change. all the phenomena in the universe according to
(D) it is not permanent and is ever changing. their way of thinking.
(A) Only (c) and (d) are true.
18. Human emotions come into play (B) Only (b), (c) and (d) are true.
(A) only when our thoughts are clouded due to (C) Only (a) and (c) are true.
ignorance. (D) Only (a), (b) and (d) are true.
PASSAGE – IV
“T he right to be left alone.” For many this phrase, made famous by Louis Brandeis, an American Supreme Court
justice, captures the essence of a notoriously slippery, but crucial concept. Drawing the boundaries of privacy has
always been tricky. Most people have long accepted the need to provide some information about themselves in order to
vote, work, shop, pursue a business, socialise or even borrow a library book. But exercising control over who knows
what about you has also come to be seen as an essential feature of a civilised society.
Some right of privacy, however qualified, has been the major difference between democracies and dictatorships. An
explicit right to privacy is now enshrined in scores of national constitutions as well as in international human-rights
treaties. Without the “right to be left alone”, to shut out on occasion the prying eyes and importunities of both the
government and the society, other political and civil liberties seems fragile. Today, most people in rich societies assume
that provided they obey the law, they have a right to enjoy privacy whenever it suits them.
They are wrong. Despite a raft of laws, treaties and constitutional provisions, privacy has been eroded for decades.
This trend is now likely to accelerate sharply. The cause is the same as that which alarmed Brandeis when he first
popularised his phrase in an article in 1890: technological change. In his day, it was the spread of photography and
cheap printing that posed the most immediate threat to privacy. In our day, it is the computer. The quantity of
information that is now available to governments and companies about individuals would have horrified Brandeis.
But the power to gather and disseminate data electronically is growing so fast that it raises an even more unsettling
question: in 20 year’s time, will there be any privacy left to protect?
Most privacy debates concern media intrusion, which is also what bothered Brandeis. And yet the greatest threat to
privacy today comes not from the media, whose antics affect few people, but from the mundane business of recording
and collecting an ever-expanding number of everyday transactions. Most people know that information is collected
about them, but are not aware how much. Many are puzzled or annoyed by unsolicited junk mail coming into their letter
boxes. And yet junk mail is just the visible tip of the information iceberg.
Just consider the amount of information already being collected as a matter of routine – any spending that involves a
credit or bank debit card, most financial transactions, telephone calls, all dealings with national or local government.
Pioneered in Britain, closed-circuit TV cameras now scan increasingly large swathes of urban landscapes in other
countries too. The trade in consumer information has hugely expanded in the past ten years. Is there anyone left on the
planet who does not know that use of the Internet is being recorded by somebody, somewhere? Firms are as interested
in their employees as in their customers. A recent survey by the American Management Association of 900 large
companies found that nearly two-thirds admitted to some form of electronic surveillance of their own workers.
Information is power, so it is hardly surprising that governments are as keen as companies to use data-processing
technology. They do this for many entirely legitimate reasons – tracking benefit claimants, delivering better health care,
fighting crime and pursuing terrorists. But it inevitably means more government surveillance. A controversial law passed
in 1994 to aid law enforcement requires telecom firms operating in America to install equipment that allows the
government to intercept and monitor all telephone and data communications, although disputes between the firms and
the FBI have delayed its implementation. Intelligence agencies from America, Britain, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand jointly monitor all international satellite-telecommunications traffic via a system called “Echelon” that can pick
specific words or phrases from hundreds of thousands of messages.
It is always hard to predict the impact of new technology, but there are several developments already on the horizon which,
if the recent past is anything to go by, are bound to be used for monitoring of one sort or another. The paraphernalia of
snooping, whether legal or not, is becoming both frighteningly sophisticated and easily affordable. Overt monitoring is likely
to grow as well. Intelligent software systems are already able to scan and identify individuals from video images. Combined
with the plummeting price and size of cameras, such software should eventually make video surveillance possible almost
anywhere, at any time. Street criminals might then be observed and traced with ease.
The burgeoning field of “biometrics” will make possible cheap and fool-proof systems that can identify people from their voices,
eyeballs, thumbprints or any other measurable part of their anatomy. That could mean doing away with today’s cumbersome
array of security passes, tickets and even credit cards. Alternatively, pocket-sized “smart” cards might soon be able to store all
of a person’s medical or credit history, among other things, together with physical data needed to verify his or her identity.
But all of these benefits, like better medical care and crime prevention come with one obvious drawback – an ever-
widening trail of electronic data. Because the cost of storing and analysing the data is also plummeting, almost any
action will leave a near-permanent record. However ingeniously information-processing technology is used, what seems
certain is that threats to traditional notions of privacy will proliferate.
21. As understood from the passage, threat to one’s (D) only natural due to boundary-less global market.
privacy with the advent of computers and
information technology is 22. “Iceberg”, in the context of the passage, implies
(A) expected and has to be dealt with in a mature way. (A) a bundle of misuses.
(B) taking its toll on pubic confidence over (B) a body of secondary data.
governments’ rules and procedures. (C) an invisible surveillance.
(C) rapidly assuming monstrous proportions. (D) a routine recording of transactions.
23. The author says one of the following: 25. The greatest threat to privacy comes from
(A) In today’s world of information technology and (A) the intrusive paparazzi.
computerisation, the term privacy may soon (B) the inquisitiveness of public towards the private
become obsolete. life of public figures.
(B) Surveillance within predetermined limits is (C) the routinely recorded business data which is
acceptable to all people. being hijacked by various other entities.
(C) Inspite of government’s reassurance, there is (D) the extensive use of internet.
always a threat of misusing consumers’
confidential information. 26. Brandies, during his time, worried about
(D) It is necessary to sacrifice privacy in the larger (A) misuse of personal details collected.
interest of security. (B) the intrusive nature of media.
(C) the fall-out of technological advances.
24. The tone of the passage is: (D) the consequences of the absence of governmental
(A) informative. (B) analytical. support in the war against nosy media.
(C) critical. (D) appreciative.
Passage 1 Passage 2 Passage 3 Passage 4

No. of words 1011 887 935 898
No. of Qs. 8 6 6 6
EXERCISE – 3
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
T he debate centering on the agricultural sector in the World Trade Organization (WTO) has brought forth several
interesting dimensions which could have far reaching implications for the very structure of the Agreement on Agriculture
(AoA) which defines the policy contours for the sector at present. A fundamental issue that is being raised in this context
is the role of non-trade concerns (NTCs) in addressing some of the major areas of concern of the WTO member
countries. This new found interest in the NTCs holds particular importance in view of the fact that the AoA is scheduled
for an overall review next year.
Although the Agreement on Agriculture emphasises the importance of trade in improving the agricultural sector in the
WTO member countries, it nonetheless highlights the need to give due recognition to the various NTCs in this sector.
References to the NTCs have been made while setting the broad objectives of the Agreement in the preamble as also in
the provisions that seek to chart out the future of the reform process in the sector that the Agreement has initiated.
The preamble to the Agreement puts forth the non-trade concerns in a cogent manner. It states that “commitments
under the reform programme should be made in an equitable way among all Members, having regard to non-trade
concerns, including food security and the need to protect the environment, having regard to the agreement that special
and differential treatment for developing countries is an integral element of the negotiations, and taking into account the
possible negative effects of the implementation of the reform programme on least-developed and net food importing
developing countries”. Food security and protection of the environment have thus been identified as the major NTCs
that the AoA was mandated to address. The NTCs also find a mention in Article 20 of the AoA, which indicates that
these concerns should be taken on board while continuing with the reform process initiated through the AoA.
Among the more important dimensions of the NTCs that has found articulation in the AoA is food security, a key
concern for the developing countries. The provisions of the AoA, however, do not provide for the measures that can be
adopted to address these concerns in a holistic manner. The only support for measures aimed at ensuring food security
appears in the form of an exemption from the calculation of domestic subsidies, the expenditure which is made on
public stockholding of food grains. Expenditure made for accumulation and holding of stocks of products would however
be exempt from Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) only if these activities form an integral part of a food security
programme identified by national legislation. This may include government aid to private storage of products as a part of
such a programme. The stock have been subjected to several additional conditions.
According to the AoA, developing countries will be allowed to use public stockholding of grains for food security purposes
“providing that the difference between the acquisition price and the external reference price (i.e, the ruling international
price) is accounted for in the AMS”. A further condition, which governs the use of public stockholding for food security
purposes, is that the beneficiaries will have to be targeted. Countries have been given the liberty to give food aid to the
poor, but the poor will have to be identified on the basis of “clearly-defined criteria related to nutritional objectives”.
These narrowly defined measures that are provided by the AoA to ensure food security thus skirt the larger question as
to whether or not trade can support realisation of the objectives of food security, particularly in the developing countries.
This assumes importance particularly in view of the fact that even though it has not been emphasised in as firm a
manner, there has been a line of thinking which views trade as being the singular basis for ensuring food security in
these countries. In so doing, attention has been turned away from the domestic production systems and their capacities
to ensure the much needed food security.
Arguments in favour of viewing trade as a means for ensuring food security have assumed that the existence of global
surpluses of grains would enable countries to meet their food needs. Such arguments are however made unmindful of the
fallacies that lie behind. In the first place, it needs to be pointed out that the mere existence of surpluses does not imply that
the poorer countries would have resources to get access to the grains. Secondly, dependence on imports for a necessity
like food grains could bring strain on the external payments positions of these countries, which they can ill-afford.
One way of dealing with these problems could be through an increase in the food aid to the most disadvantaged
countries, but in the recent years, the flow of food aid has decreased beyond all expectations. And finally, it needs to be
pointed out that the ability of the global buffers to take care of the food insecurity has been presented in a somewhat
exaggerated manner. Estimates have shown that the level of food stocks have, in the past few years, been continuously
below the level which can be considered as the minimum for safeguarding world food security. The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has estimated that the ratio of end-of-season stocks of food grains to the
trend utilisation is 15.7 percent, and this is some-what less than the safe levels from the point of view of food security.
These fragile foundations of the global buffers only emphasize the point that beefing up of domestic production
capacities in the food grains sector is possibly the only realistic option before the developing countries as they make
efforts to ensure food security of their population. It implies that it is critically important to devise a policy frame-work for
the agricultural sector in developing countries that speaks of food first. This is the foremost challenge that the review of
the AoA would have to contend with.
1. The central issue that the author deals with in the (C) Increased food-aid to developing countries can
passage is help meet the objectives of food security.
(A) the ways in which countries can ensure food (D) All of the above
security for their population.
(B) the importance of non-trade concerns in world 5. What, in the author’s opinion, is the solution to the
trade of agricultural produce. food security problem in developing countries?
(C) the manner in which critical importance of the (A) Beefing up of domestic food production
issue of food security in developing countries capacities by developing countries.
has been dealt with in the AoA. (B) Beefing up of production capacities in
(D) the importance of trade in improving the developed countries to increase the levels of
production in the agricultural sector throughout global surpluses.
the world. (C) Improving foreign exchange reserves of
developing countries so that they can get
2. Which of the following are the non-trade concerns access to excess stocks of food grains available
mentioned in the preamble of AoA? with developed countries.
(a) Food security. (D) All of the above
(b) Need to protect the environment.
(c) Special and differential treatment for developing 6. Which of the following statements is the author most
countries. likely to agree with?
(A) Only (a) and (b) (A) Trade alone cannot meet the objectives of food
(B) Only (b) and (c) security in developing countries.
(C) Only (c) and (a) (B) Developing countries do not have the necessary
(D) All of the three resources to buy the excess food grains
available with developed countries.
3. Which of the following statements is not true about (C) The ability of global buffers in taking care of
AoA? food security problem has been exaggerated.
(A) The preamble of AoA puts forward the non- (D) All the above.
trade concerns in a cogent manner.
(B) AoA is scheduled for a review next year. 7. As per the author, which of the following is the most
(C) The provisions of AoA provide for the measures important aspect pertaining to food security in
to be adopted to address food security concerns developing countries that should be addressed in
in a comprehensive manner. the review of the AoA?
(D) All of the above three statements (A) Increasing the levels of food production in
4. According to the author, which of the following developing countries.
assumptions does the AoA make in tackling the food (B) Identifying the criteria related to specific
security problem? nutritional objectives in developing countries.
(A) The beneficiaries of the food security (C) Increasing the overall food output so that the
programmes should be specifically targeted. surplus reaches the countries in need.
(B) Global buffers of food grains are large enough (D) Devising a policy framework for the agricultural
to take care of the problem of food security in sector that focuses on the food security issue in
developing countries developing countries.
PASSAGE – II
Three of Plato's dialogues are concerned with politics: the 'Republic' first and foremost, but also the 'Statesman' and the
'Laws'. The 'Republic' goes far beyond politics, not simply into the connected fields of education and the social aspects of
literature and art, but also into metaphysics and the theory of knowledge. Its chief political ingredients are its delineation of
an ideal state and its account of the various forms in which actual states fail to attain this ideal. Plato's theory of knowledge
is brought in to support the view that only the few who have true knowledge should rule. The whole discussion begins with
a series of arguments about the nature of justice, directed against the moral scepticism of the Sophists.
Justice is treated in the first two books as a property of individuals and their actions rather than of political systems.
Naively superficial conceptions – that it is repaying what one owes or that it is helping friends and harming enemies –
are dispatched in a trivial and quibbling fashion. The more serious challenge of Thrasymachus, who maintains that
justice is the interest of the stronger, is also none too satisfyingly handled. He is disingenuously manoeuvred into
asserting that justice does not pay, which is an answer, not to the question what is justice, but to the question whether
justice is worth pursuing. In the 'Gorgias', a sceptical position opposite to that of Thrasymachus is criticized. In the
'Republic' that line of thought is presented in a milder and eminently sensible form by Glaucon, who holds that it is an
agreement by which all abstain from injury to others for the sake of self-protection (the central principle of the political
theory of Hobbes). Against this, Plato's mouthpiece, Socrates, makes the point that self-protection supplies no motive
for abstention from evil-doing that is going to escape detection.
After these ethical preliminaries, explicitly political issues are raised. Socrates says that justice is more clearly
perceptible in a large-scale instance, the state, than on the small-scale of the individual soul. He goes on to assert that a
state is just and well-ordered to the extent that its citizens are assigned to the positions for which their capacities best fit
them: those who are most rational and have real knowledge to the task of ruling it, those conspicuous for energy and
spiritedness to that of its defence and the maintenance of order, and the large remainder, who act on impulse and from
unreflective appetite, to the production of the goods that are needed by all. Plato infers that a parallel hierarchy of
reason, spirit, and desire is what constitutes justice or proper order in the individual soul.
Plato gives much attention to the manner of life and educational preparation of his ruling class of 'guardians'. They are
to be chosen partly by heredity and also by selection on the basis of merit. They are to have no personal property but to
live in communal barracks, so as to prevent corruption. They are to have no family life: spouses are to be communal
and the guardians are to be kept ignorant of the identity of their children, so as to inspire public spirit and prevent
favouritism. On its negative side, their education is to shield them from metaphysically and morally deficient forms of art,
music and literature. Positively aspiring guardians are to be led by way of mathematics to the highest, most abstractly
rarefied level of knowledge (the assumption being that it is a course few will prove qualified to follow). In its concern with
the eternal and unchanging, whose nature and relations are apprehended in a purely intellectual way, mathematics is
an essential preparation for philosophy, above all for knowledge of the good.
The conviction that the objects of knowledge, and, above all, the good, are abstract and timeless is the first politically
relevant thesis of Plato's theory of knowledge. The second is that we must love the highest when we see it, or, more
accurately, needs must pursue the good when we know what it is. Virtue is knowledge, as the usual formula puts it.
No doubt, in some sense we always do what, at the time and however irrationally or short-sightedly, we take to be
somehow the best thing to do. His second thesis is, at any rate, more plausible than his first, that knowledge of the good
generally and the knowledge needed by a good ruler is like pure mathematics.
In books 8 and 9 of the 'Republic', Plato considers the varieties of unideal states, presenting them as an unhistorical
sequence of progressive degenerations from his speculative ideal of government by the wisest men (or even the wisest
man). The ideal society gives way – something Plato finds it hard to explain – to 'timocracy', the rule of soldiers,
governed by knightly honour. That gives way, in its turn, to oligarchy, in which the rich replace the honourable. Oligarchy
succumbs to democracy and democracy, finally, is displaced by tyranny, the worst of all forms of government.
Concern with the actual forms of government reappears in the two later political dialogues, the 'Statesman' and 'Laws'.
Here, Plato sets out the classification of forms of government into rule by one, rule by the few, or rule by the many. He
identifies a good and a bad variety of each: monarchy and tyranny, aristocracy and oligarchy, constitutional democracy
and lawless democracy. The main topic of the 'Statesman' is whether the state should be run in accordance with a fixed
law (an idea altogether absent from the 'Republic') or by the insight of the truly wise. By this stage in his career,
disillusioned by his wholly fruitless utopia-building efforts on behalf of the tyrants of Syracuse, Plato concedes that the
discretionary ideal is unrealizable and, therefore, that law is essential to a well-ordered state.
In the 'Laws', this watering-down of the proposals of the 'Republic' is carried out in detail. Many of the themes of the
earlier dialogue recur, such as the equality of women and the need for controlled and organised education. In conformity
with the replacement of individual wisdom by impersonal law is the concession of marriage (under a measure of public
control) and of property to the rulers (also within limitations). The second-best state that Plato prescribes, in face of the
weakness of human nature, seeks harmony by allowing some constitutional role to all citizens and not just a small
intellectual elite. Social order is to be secured not by the subjection of the foolish to the wise but by a balance of forces.
For all its impracticality and indifference to the real needs of rulers, Plato's 'Republic' has been persistently revered:
it was admired, for example, by Rousseau and by liberals prepared to divert their attention from the more totalitarian
aspects of the project. It inspired the creation of the examination-selected civil service of the final, not inglorious, century
of the British Empire and it remains the most seductive presentation of intellectual elitism, attractive to academics,
for the elevated, if laborious and ascetic place it accords them in the social scheme of things.
8. Which of the following statements can be attributed (B) the search for an ideal society where justice is a
to the author regarding Plato's 'Republic'? way of life.
(A) Justice is the prerogative of the strong only. (C) the role of a monarch or a ruler in maintaining
(B) Only a giant state is capable of maintaining an orderly state.
order, not a small group of elite. (D) the most suitable form of governance.
(C) The abstemious lifestyle and the educational
preparation it suggests for the ruling elite is 14. Identify the statement which is true in view of what is
highly unrealistic. attributed to Socrates in the passage.
(D) Plato tries to identify the characteristics of an (A) The better the fit between an individual's
ideal state which in reality does not exist. position in a state's governance and his innate
capabilities, the more just the state.
9. With what argument does Socrates counter Plato's (B) The onus of maintaining an ordered state rests
opinion that it is within man's discretion to be just to on the personal morality of the people in power.
ensure his self-protection? (C) An unprecedented level of skill in law and
(A) A person will refrain from committing evil deeds only administration separates a just ruler from an
when there is a chance that they can get noticed. unjust one.
(B) Man will renounce crime if there is no necessity (D) Justice is perceptible on a large scale in the
of self-protection. state just as it is evident on a small scale in the
(C) Man can attend to simple problems only while individual.
doing justice.
(D) When there are governing laws, man will always 15. The statement that reflects what is being said in the
try be objective. work, the 'Gorgias' is:
(A) Justice does not pay and is hence not worth
10. Pick the odd man out. pursuing.
(A) Republic (B) Statesman (B) Justice is a conspiracy of the weak to keep
(C) Gorgias (D) Plato down the strong.
(C) Justice is defined as the interest of the stronger.
11. According to the passage, in his work, 'the Republic',
(D) Man is not just by nature but he abstains from
Plato fails to
crime only to protect himself.
(A) explain how and why an ideal society can fall
into chaos. 16. According to the 'Republic', the field of politics is
(B) justify how spiritually oriented training and interrelated to various fields like
morality based education can fail the guardian (A) education.
class in its way of functioning. (B) metaphysics and the theory of knowledge.
(C) highlight the role that can be played by laws and (C) social aspects of literature and art.
regulations under an anarchy. (D) all the above
(D) explain how democracy, where common man is
the focus, degenerates into tyranny where 17. One of the premises made behind the idea of
man's rights are not respected. choosing mathematics as a qualifying subject for the
class of guardians, according to Plato, is that
12. When Plato's works, the ‘Republic’ and the ‘Laws’, (A) it acts as a natural filter, eliminating the
are compared, we see that apparently unsuitable candidates.
(A) his disappointment with the tyrants of Syracuse (B) the theory of knowledge it provides can stand
has forced him to recant whatever he said in the empirical validation.
‘Republic’. (C) it is the only subject that has the principle of
(B) the focus shifts from justice that is subjective of unchanging truth at its core.
a small group to that of objective laws of a state. (D) it is next only to philosophy in its search for
(C) the individual principle-based justice gives way to objective truth.
a rule-based external agent (i.e.) government.
(D) man from his elevated superhuman status is 18. The main principle of Plato's ‘Laws' is
brought down to a mortal level where to err is (A) the equal distribution of power among various
human. classes of society.
(B) the constitutional role played by the elite group.
13. The common thread that runs through the three (C) the inescapability of law.
works of Plato is (D) the futility of law.
(A) the central role of ethics – at individual and
government levels.
PASSAGE – III
T he world as an art is the play of the Supreme Person revelling in image making. Try to find out the ingredients of the
image - they elude you, they never reveal to you the internal secret of appearance. In your effort to capture life,
as expressed in living tissue, you will find carbon, nitrogen and many other things utterly unlike life, but never life itself.
The appearance does not offer any commentary of itself through its material. You may call it Maya and pretend to
disbelieve it, but the great artist, the Mayavin, is not hurt. For art is Maya, it has no other explanation but that it seems
to be what it is. It never tries to conceal its evasiveness, it mocks even its own definition and plays the game of hide and
seek through its constant flight in changes.
And the life which is an incessant explosion of freedom finds its metre in a continual falling back in death, every day is a
death, every moment even. If not, there would be an amorphous desert of deathlessness eternally dumb and still. So life
is Maya, as moralists love to say, it is and is not. All that we find in it is the rhythm through which it shows itself.
Are rocks and minerals any better? Has not science shown us the fact that the ultimate difference between one element
and another is only that of rhythm? The fundamental distinction of gold from mercury lies in the difference of rhythm in
their respective atomic constitution, like the distinction of the king from his subject which is not in their different
constituents but in the different metres of their situation and circumstances. There you find behind the scene the Artist,
the Magician of rhythm, who imparts an appearance of substance to the unsubstantial.
What is this rhythm? It is the movement generated and regulated by harmonious restriction. This is the creative force in
the hand of the artist. So long as words remain in uncadenced prose form, they do not give any lasting feeling of reality.
The moment they are taken and put into rhythm they vibrate into a radiance. It is the same with the rose. In the pulp of
its petals you may find everything that went to make the rose, but the rose which is Maya, an image is lost ; its finality
which has the touch of the infinite is gone. The rose appears to me of movement within that stillness, which is the same
as the dynamic quality of a picture that has a perfect harmony. It produces a music in our consciousness by giving it a
swing of motion synchronous with its own. Had the picture consisted of a disharmonious aggregate of colours and lines,
it would be deadly still.
In perfect rhythm, the art-form becomes like the stars, which, in their seeming stillness, are never still, like a motionless
flame which is nothing but movement. A great picture is always speaking, but news from a newspaper, even of some
tragic happening is still-born. Some news may be a mere commonplace in the obscurity of a journal; but give it a proper
rhythm and it will never cease to shine. This is art. It has the magic wand which gives undying reality to all things it
touches, and relates them to the personal being in us. We stand before its productions and say: I know you as I know
myself, you are real.
19. According to the passage, (B) Same as that between gold and mercury.
(A) art is not real. (C) The different metres of their situation and
(B) rhythm is the creative force in the hand of the circumstances.
artist. (D) Rhythm.
(C) moralists believe that life is Maya.
(D) Maya and art are not linked to each other. 23. Which of the following is most suitable as a title for
this passage?
20. According to the passage, which of the following (A) Art form in rhythmic style - a study in contrasts.
statements is true? (B) Maya and the Mayavin - an analysis.
(A) The ultimate difference between one element (C) The Definition of Infinity.
and another is only that of the rhythm. (D) The Meaning of Rhythm.
(B) In perfect rhythm art form becomes like the stars-
which in their seeming stillness are never still. 24. What, according to the author, is life?
(C) The fundamental difference between gold and (A) An incessant explosion of freedom.
mercury is in the difference of rhythm in their (B) An amorphous desert of deathlessness.
atomic constituents. (C) Something that seems to be what it is.
(D) All of the above. (D) All of the above.
21. According to the passage, which of the following 25. In the example given in the passage what is lost
statements is true? when a rose is pulped?
(A) Art gives undying reality to all things it touches (A) The radiance
and relates them to the personal being in us. (B) The Maya
(B) Art is Maya and has no other explanation but (C) The image
that it seems to be what it is. (D) The fragrance
(C) Artist imparts an appearance of substance to
the unsubstantial by providing the rhythm. 26. In one's effort to capture life as expressed in living
(D) All of the above. tissue what does one literally find?
(A) Maya (B) Rhythm
22. According to the passage, the difference between a (C) Death (D) None of these
king and his subjects is:
(A) Their constituents.

No. of words 999 1179 580
No. of Qs. 7 11 8
EXERCISE – 4
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
Science consists of knowing, Art consists of doing. What I must do in order to know, is Art subservient to Science:
What I must know in order to do, is Science subservient to Art.
Art, then, is defined by two broad distinctions: first, its popular distinction from Nature; and next its practical and theoretic
distinction from Science. Both of these distinctions are observed in the terms of our definition given above. Within the
proper limits of this definition, the conception of Art, and the use of the word for it, have undergone sundry variations.
These variations correspond to certain vicissitudes or developments in the order of historical facts and in society. The
requirements of society, stimulating the ingenuity of its individual members, have led to the invention of arts and groups
of arts, constantly progressing, with the progress of civilization, in number, in complexity and in resource.
The religious imagination of early societies, who find themselves in possession of such an art or group of arts, forgets
the history of the invention, and assigns it to the inspiration or special grace of some god or hero. So the Greeks
assigned the arts of agriculture to Triptolemus, those of spinning and navigation to Athena, and of music to Apollo.
At one stage of civilization one art or group of arts is held in higher esteem, another at another. In societies, like most of
those of the ancient world, where slaves were employed in domestic service, and upon the handicrafts supplying the
immediate utilities of life - food, shelter and clothing - these constituted a group of servile arts. The arts of husbandry or
agriculture, on the other hand, have alternately been regarded as servile and as honourable according as their exercise
has been in the hands of a subject class, as under feudal institutions, or, as under the Roman republic, of free
cultivators. Under feudal institutions, or in a society in a state of permanent war, the allied arts of war and of government
have been held the only honourable class.
In commercial states, like the republics of Italy, the arts of gain, or of production (other than agricultural) and distribution,
have made good their title to equal estimation and greater power beside the art of captains. But among peaceful arts,
industries or trades, some have always been held to be of higher and others of lower rank; the higher rank being assigned
to those that required larger operations, higher training, or more thoughtful conduct, and yielded ample returns - the lower
rank to those which called for simple manual exercise, especially if such exercise was of a disagreeable or degrading kind.
In the cities of Italy, where both commerce and manufactures were for the first time organized on a considerable scale,
the name arte, Art, was retained to designate the gilds or corporations by which the several industries were exercised;
and, according to the nature of the industry, the art was classed as higher or lower (maggiore and Minore).
The arts of which we have hitherto spoken have arisen from positive requirements, and supply what are strictly utilities,
in societies; not excluding the art of war, at least so far as concerns one-half of war, the defensive half. But war
continued to be an honourable pursuit, because it was a pursuit associated with birth, power and wealth, as well as well
as with he virtue of courage, in cases where it had no longer the plea of utility, but was purely aggressive or predatory;
and the arts of the chase have stood in this respect in an analogous position of those of war.
There are other arts which have not had their origin in positive practical needs, but have been practiced from the first for
pleasure or amusement. The most primitive human beings of whom we have any knowledge, the cave-dwellers of the
Paleolithic period, had not only the useful art of chipping stones into spear-heads, knife heads and arrow-heads,
and making shafts or handles of these implements out of bone; they had also the ornamental art of scratching upon the
bone handle the outlines of the animals they saw mammoth, rhinoceros or reindeer - or of carving such a handle into a
rude resemblance of one of these animals. Here we have a skill exercised, in the first case, for pure fancy or pleasure, and
in the second, for adding an element of fancy or pleasure to an element of utility. Here, therefore, is the germ of all those
arts which produce imitations of natural objects for purpose of entertainment or delight, as painting, sculpture, and their
subordinates; and of all those which fashion useful objects in one way rather than another because the one way gives
pleasure and the other does not, as architecture and the subordinate decorative arts of furniture, pottery and the rest.
Arts that work in a kindred way with different materials are those of dancing and music. Dancing works with the physical
movements of human beings. Music works with sound. Between that imitative and plastic group, and the group of these
which only produce motion or sound and pass away, there is the intermediate group of eloquence and the drama,
which deal with the expression of human feeling in spoken words and acted gestures. There is also the comprehensive art
of poetry, which works with the material of written words, and can ideally represent the whole material of human life and
experience. Of all these arts the end is not use but pleasure, or pleasure before use, or at least pleasure and use conjointly.
In modern language, there has grown a usage which has put them into a class by themselves under the name of the
Fine Arts, as distinguished from the Useful or Mechanical Arts. Nay more, to them alone is often appropriated the use of
the generic word Art, as if they and they alone were the arts. And further yet, custom has reduced the number which the
class-word is meant to include.
When Art and the works of Art are now currently spoken of in this sense, not even music or poetry is frequently denoted,
but only architecture, sculpture and painting by themselves, or with their subordinate and decorative branches.
In correspondence with this usage, another usage has removed from the class of arts, and put into a contrasted class of
manufactures, a large number of industries and their products, to which the generic term Art, according to our definition,
properly applies. The definition covers the mechanical arts, which can be efficiently exercised by mere trained habit,
rote or calculation, just as well as the fine arts, which have to be exercised by a higher order of powers.
But the word Art, becoming appropriated to the fine arts, has been treated as if it necessarily carried along with it, and
as if works to be called works of art must necessarily possess, the attributes of free individual skill and invention,
expressing themselves in ever new combinations of pleasurable contrivance, and seeking perfection not as a means
towards some ulterior practical end but as an ideal end in itself.
1. According to the passage, some 'peaceful arts' have (C) it helped the people in safeguarding their
been given higher ranking than others due to all the territories.
following except (D) it gave a chance to the warriors to display their
(A) They required larger operators. valour and patriotism.
(B) They were conducted in a smoother manner
4. Which of the following, according to the author,
than the lower ranked arts. has led to the growth of arts and group of arts?
(C) They yielded better returns. (A) They have progressed along with the progress
(D) They required higher training. of civilization.
2. The Greeks assigned the arts of spinning and (B) The need to stimulate the ingenuity of the people.
navigation to (C) The natural creativity of primitive people.
(A) Apollo. (B) Olympics. (D) The requirements of the society.
(C) Athena. (D) Zeus.
5. The author quotes arts like music, poetry, dancing to
3. According to the author, the art of war has continued describe that their end is
to be an honourable pursuit because (A) the use to which they are put.
(A) it was associated with birth, power, courage and (B) pleasure before use.
wealth. (C) pleasure and use.
(B) it was aggressive and predatory. (D) Both (B) and (C).
PASSAGE – II
While his professional work is primarily in elementary particle physics, Steven Weinberg became widely known to the
general public with the publication of a book on cosmology, The First Three Minutes (1977), which presented a lucid
and fascinating story of the early development of the universe with style and elegance. His new book, Facing Up:
Science and Its Cultural Adversaries, which consists of a collection of twenty-three equally well-written essays,
documents the personal commitment of the author to promoting and defending his scientific views. Weinberg captures
the interest of his readers by combining balanced judgments and modest claims about current scientific theory with a
passionate defense of reductionism.
While Weinberg defends reductionism, he is careful to distinguish it both from what he calls “positivism,” which he
understands to be a narrow empiricism, and from “petty reductionism,” which seeks to reduce everything to elementary
particles. The reductionism Weinberg advocates is the program of reductive explanation of physical phenomena by
recourse to even more fundamental and simple laws that are supposed to account for the unity of the universe.
He shows that this was already Newton’s vision and continued to be the driving force behind the great theories of the
last century, those of General Relativity and the standard quantum field theory. Going further, he predicts that such
reductionism will one day produce a “final” theory that can account for the unity of the universe.
Up to this point, Weinberg’s defense of reductionism makes considerable sense. Yet the question remains as to
whether explanation by laws provides the only or the ultimate explanation for the unity of the universe. The concept of
law involves abstraction from particularities, but those particularities have to be taken into consideration when those
laws are applied to the course of natural events. With regard to the history of the universe, Weinberg himself speaks of
“historical contingencies” in the history of the solar system and in the development of life. He also acknowledges the
idea of an “emergence” of forms of higher organization from increasingly complicated systems. But doesn’t that suggest
that the unity of the universe is finally a unity of history, which is different from the generality of laws? And history is
always a sequence of contingent events, regardless of the laws that may prevail within the flow of those events.
Perhaps, then, the modesty of the scientist might properly be applied to his larger project of subsuming the universe as
a whole under a universal concept of law. Such a modest approach might have to give up the quest for the ultimate and
most comprehensive description of the nature of the universe. But it would make room for some additional,
philosophical reflection on the reality of nature.
One of the most important contributions of Weinberg’s book is his ongoing argument against the “social constructionists”
who question the truth claims of science. This is an issue of very general importance, far beyond the philosophy of
science. With every assertive sentence, we raise truth claims that cannot be reduced to social conventions. Science is
only a particularly obvious case. Weinberg acknowledges the influence of social and cultural conditions in the history of
science. But these influences do not weaken the truth claims of scientific theories. The same is true of any other truth
claims we raise in everyday life or in other fields of culture. The “realism” of science, which Weinberg advocates, might
serve as an example and antidote against the excesses of postmodernism.
The “cultural adversaries” of science to whom Weinberg refers in his title are those social constructionists who tend to
relativize the truth claims of scientific theories. But even worse than these academic theorists would be an alliance between
the “antiscientific intelligentsia inside the universities” and “the enormous force of religious belief.” Here, apparently, he has
in mind the religious fundamentalism of the creationists. But could such an alliance pose a real threat to the cultural
acceptance of science? Is not science pampered by the political establishment in Western societies like no other
intellectual discipline? Among the general public, scientists are highly regarded, and most religious people share in that
positive appreciation of science, since they do not believe that science and religion are opposed to one another.
While in the course of modern history there have been occasions when science has opposed religious teaching as well
as other traditional ways of looking at the world, the most creative scientists have far more often been motivated by
religious inspiration. Moreover, Christian theologians and churchmen have frequently and gratefully received the new
perspectives offered by scientific discoveries. This is true even in the case of Darwinism, which was one of a number of
evolutionary theories proposed in the nineteenth century, many of which arose from religious reflection. At the present
moment, when the number of institutions that seek to foster dialogue between religion and science continues to grow,
most religious people view science as a positive pursuit that at the deepest level harmonizes with their faith.
In fact, such a positive attitude is arguably easier to maintain at the present moment than it was in earlier centuries,
since Big Bang cosmology removes the apparent contradiction between the biblical doctrine of creation and the belief in
a temporal and spatial infinity of the world that had been taken for granted during two centuries of scientific exploration.
Of course, the assumption of an origin of the universe at some finite point in the past does not “prove” the biblical
doctrine of creation, but it is “consonant” with it, to invoke the useful term of Ernan McMullin.
The same applies to the idea of God as creator. Weinberg takes a skeptical position on this matter, and some of his
arguments are not without plausibility. He dealt with this issue more extensively in his earlier book Dreams of a Final
Theory (1993), in which he devoted an entire chapter to “the question of God.” Even a Christian theologian can share
Weinberg’s reservations concerning the stronger versions of the anthropic principle and the related idea of a “designer
God.” The idea of a designer sounds rather anthropomorphic, and it is often presented in forms that are hardly consonant
with God’s infinity and eternity. In the Bible, the contingency of finite reality of each event and even of the world as a whole,
including the element of order within it, is far more important in expressing its dependence upon God the creator.
Weinberg has little to say on this issue, which is decisive for those who maintain the rationality of belief in a creator God. The
element of design enters the picture only as an implication that follows from the act of creation and God’s ongoing relation to
the universe as a whole—a whole within which every part has its proper place. Of course, such a view culminates in the
problems of theodicy, and here the Christian has to join Weinberg in affirming that all of our knowledge is approximation,
even our theology. Not until the eschatological consummation of history will we know even as we are known by God.
6. How does Weinberg bolster the truth claims being (A) philosophical cogitation on the reality of nature.
advocated by the emerging scientific theories? (B) abandonment of the holy grail of reductionism,
(A) By making balanced judgements about current which could one day produce a final theory that
scientific theory. would account for the unity of the universe.
(B) By countering the arguments of the group that (C) a moral victory for the social constructionists
raises questions on the truth claims of science. and disgrace for the scientific community.
(C) By proposing a few radical theories that would (D) Both (A) and (B).
silence critics of the truth claims of science.
(D) By doing all of the above. 10. Which of the following could be responsible for most
religious people viewing science positively?
7. Which of the following is true of Weinberg’s concept
(a) The partial resolution of the dichotomous and
of reductionism?
convergent views held by scientists and
(A) It is akin to narrow empiricism.
religious groups.
(B) It reduces everything to elementary particles.
(b) The proposing of the Big Bang theory.
(C) It uses fundamentally complex laws to illustrates
(c) The influence of the advances of modern
the unity of our universe.
science which has led to a significant
(D) It uses laws that explain the unity of the
improvement in the quality of life.
universe.
(d) Scientists are respected by the general public.
8. Which of the following is true regarding Weinberg? (A) Only a (B) Only b
(a) Weinberg is sceptical of the existence of God (C) c and d (D) a and b
and deals with this issue in his book “Dreams of
a Final Theory” 11. Which of the following is definitely true in the context
(b) Weinberg has little to say regarding the issue which of the passage?
is critical to those who believe in a “creator” God. (A) None of the truly creative scientists have been
(c) Weinberg believes that the alliance of the anti- motivated by religious beliefs.
science group from the universities and groups (B) Darwinism, though apparently conflicting with
with strong religious moorings would be potentially religious beliefs, has been accepted by many
less destructive than the ‘Social constructionists’. Christian theologians.
(A) Only (a) (B) Only (b) (C) Most religious people are opposed to science
(C) Only (a) and (b) (D) Only (b) and (c) as they feel that it has negatively affected the
spiritual evolution of humans.
9. The slackening of the belief by scientists of the (D) Unlike the evolutionary theories proposed in the
existence of a law which governs the universe would nineteenth century, Darwinism did not arise
lead to from religion reflection.
PASSAGE –III
E mile Durkheim, the first person to be formally recognised as a sociologist and the most scientific of the pioneers,
conducted a study that stands as a research model for sociologists today. His investigation of suicide was, in fact,
the first sociological study to use statistics. In Suicide (1964, originally published in 1987) Durkheim documented his
contention that some aspects of human behaviour - even something as allegedly individualistic as suicide - can be
explained without reference to individuals.
Like all of Durkheim's work, suicide must be viewed within the context of his concern for social integration. Durkheim
wanted to see if suicide rates within a social entity (for example, a group, organisation, or society) are related to the
degree to which individuals are socially involved (integrated and regulated). Durkheim described three types of suicide:
egoistic, anomic and altruistic. Egoistic suicide is promoted when individuals do not have sufficient social ties. Since
single (never married) adults, for example, are not heavily involved with family life, they are more likely to commit
suicide than are married adults. Altruistic suicide, on the other hand, is more likely to occur when social integration is too
strong. The ritual suicide of Hindu widows on their husbands' funeral pyres is one example. Military personnel, trained to
lay down their lives for their country, provide another illustration.
Durkheim's third type of suicide - anomic suicide - increases when the social regulation of individuals is disrupted.
For example, suicide rates increase during economic depressions. People who suddenly find themselves without a job
or without hope of finding one are more prone to kill themselves. Suicide may also increase during periods of prosperity.
People may loosen their social ties by taking new jobs, moving to new communities, or finding new mates.
Using data from the government population reports of several countries (much of it from the French Government
Statistical Office). Durkheim found strong support for his line of reasoning. Suicide rates were higher among single than
married people, among military personnel than civilians, among divorced than married people, and among people
involved in nationwide economic crises.
It is important to realise that Durkheim's primary interest was not in the empirical (observable) indicators he used such as
suicide rates among military personnel, married people, and so forth. Rather, Durkheim used the following indicators to
support several of his contentions: (1) Social behaviour can be explained by social rather than psychological factors;
(2) suicide is affected by the degree of integration and regulation within social entitles; and (3) Since society can be studied
scientifically, sociology is worthy of recognition in the academic world. Durkheim was successful on all three counts.
12. In his study of suicide Durkheim's main purpose was (B) an example of brutality against women.
(A) to document that suicide can be explained (C) an example of anomic suicide.
without reference to the individual. (D) an example of egoistic suicide.
(B) to provide an explanation of the variation in the
rate of suicide across societies. 17. Increase in the suicide rate during economic
(C) to categorise various types of suicide. depression is an example of
(D) to document that social behaviour can be explained (A) altruistic suicide.
by social rather than psychological factors. (B) anomic suicide
(C) egoistic suicide.
13. According to Durkheim, suicide rates within a social (D) Both (A) and (C).
entity can be explained in terms of
(A) Absence of social ties. 18. According to Durkheim altruistic suicide is more
(B) Disruption of social regulation. likely among
(C) Nature of social integration. (A) military personnel than among civilians.
(D) All of the above. (B) single people than among married people.
(C) people involved in nationwide economic crises.
14. Since single adults are not heavily involved with (D) people caught up in the throes of change.
family life they are more likely to commit suicide
which Durkheim categorised as 19. To support his contentions, Durkheim relied on the
(A) anomic suicide. following indicators
(B) altruistic suicide. (A) Social behaviour is explicable predominantly
(C) egoistic suicide. through social factors.
(D) (B) and (C). (B) Suicide is contingent upon the degree of
regulation and interaction.
15. Higher suicide rate during rapid progress in a (C) Recognising sociology is to acknowledge that
society is a manifestation of society is susceptible to scientific investigation.
(A) altruistic suicide. (D) All of the above.
(B) anomic suicide.
(C) egoistic suicide. 20. Basing himself on his own indicators, Durkheim was
(D) all of the above. (A) right on some counts not others.
16. Ritual suicide of Hindu widows on their husbands' (B) vindicated on all counts.
funeral pyres was (C) wrong but did not realise that he was wrong.
(A) a manifestation of strong social integration. (D) substantially correct but formally wrong.
PASSAGE – IV
Mother Nature is taking over. An extraordinary feminisation process has begun to affect Britain’s wildlife – and scientists
warn it could ultimately dismantle the evolutionary process that has existed for 3.5 billion years. A trend first noted in whelks
is starting to spread rapidly among other wildlife species in the food chain. The first national survey of 42 rivers by the
UK Environment Agency has just been completed and it found that a third of male fish are growing female reproductive
tissues and organs. Effects were most pronounced in younger fish, raising grave implications for future stocks.
Scientists now fear that seals, dolphins, otters, birds such as asperegrine falcons and even honeybees are heading
towards a unisex existence that would lead to extinction. Blame has fallen on the increasing prevalence of a group of
chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. These are found in plastics, food packaging, shampoos and pesticides and
accumulate in the environment. They can mimic the female hormone oestrogen when ingested. A reduction in the size
of male genitals and parts of the testes turning into ovary tissue are among the symptoms. As the effect of the
chemicals starts to creep up the food chain, concern will mount over the potential effect on human health amid
increasing evidence of falling sperm count and infertility among men.
Charles Tyler, Professor of environmental and molecular fish biology at the University of Exeter in south-west England,
who is leading an international team studying the impact of so-called gender-bending chemicals, warns that a point
where a species can no longer reproduce is a very real concern. Others studying the phenomenon say the feminisation
process is a warning from nature that a nightmare is about to unfold. Pressure will soon resume on politicians, to curb
the use of ‘gender-bending’ chemicals.
Environmentalists will point to research revealing that honeybees, so vital for the pollination of plants, were found to
display a lower sex drive with fewer eggs laid by the queen after exposure to endocrine disruptors. They also point to
recent studies involving bottlenose dolphins in the North Sea. Again, the presence of chemicals has been linked to an
increase in birth defects, most notable among male specimens, along with more infant deaths, which has resulted in an
ageing of the population. So far, the UK government has agreed to fund studies into suspicions that the otter’s
comeback after decades of decline will be hampered by the feminising effects of the chemicals.
A separate study has just been funded into the dipper, a bird, which feeds on invertebrates taken from the rivers. Tyler
is among those who have complained that the huge gap in scientific knowledge over gender-bending pollutants has so
far prevented any action in the outlawing of chemicals. Toxicology expert Andreas Kortenkamp of the University of
London’s school of pharmacy, believes that the government has ‘grossly underestimated’ the chemicals’ effects.
He believes that current safeguards to protect wildlife are grossly inadequate. In particular, he warns that nothing is
being done to calculate how cocktails of chemicals react in the environment. More than 100,000 synthetic chemicals
remain authorised for use, with the European Union holding a list of 550 potential endocrine disruptors.
It is not yet known precisely which ones have altered the male reproductive organs of bream, carp, roach and gudgeon or
caused hormone disruption among grey seal pups in the North Sea. Bees were found to be affected by chemicals used
commonly on crops in the UK countryside. The findings coincide with renewed concern over fertility levels among men.
Sperm counts have fallen by a third between 1989 and 2002, according to some studies, while one in six British couples
now experiences difficulty in conceiving. Contaminated drinking water caused by the by-products of the contraceptive pill
flowing back into the system is one of the explanations put forward. Justin Woolford, a spokesman for the WWF (formerly
the World Wide Fund for Nature), said: “What we do to wildlife we ultimately do to ourselves.” Yet almost two years have
passed since the WHO urged governments to investigate the effects of gender-bending chemicals.
21. The evidence of gender-bending is seen in (D) the scientists have not spoken against it
(a) birth defects among male dolphins in the North unanimously.
Sea.
23. We can infer from the passage that the opening
(b) fewer eggs laid by honeybees after exposure to
sentence refers to
endocrine disruptors.
(A) the process of feminisation that has been
(c) young male fish developing female reproductive
tissue. witnessed in whelks.
(d) the feminisation displayed by wildlife in Britain. (B) the warning from nature that a nightmare is
(A) Only (a) and (b) (B) Only (b) and (d) about to be unleashed.
(C) Only (a) and (c) (D) All of the above (C) the effects of gender-bending chemicals.
(D) nature asserting herself against infringement on
22. According to Charles Tyler, the gender-bending her territory.
chemicals have not been outlawed so far because 24. According to the passage, plastics are the culprits in
(A) scientific knowledge about gender-bending ‘feminisation’, in so far as
pollutants is not comprehensive enough. (A) they are non-biodegradable.
(B) the government has grossly underestimated the (B) their production and use is not restricted.
effects of these chemicals. (C) they contain a mixture of chemicals.
(C) we are helpless in the face of a cocktail of (D) they have chemicals that mimic the female
chemicals. hormone, oestrogen.
25. Which of the following options summarizes para 2 of (C) Concern over infertility among men stems from
the passage in the most appropriate manner? the prevalence of chemicals called ‘endocrine
(A) The increasing prevalence of chemicals called disruptors’ in the environment, which led to the
‘endocrine disruptors’ found in synthetic goods feminisation of several organisms and their
which led to the feminisation of various subsequent extinction.
organisms is bound to impact human health and (D) Marine animals, birds and insects are on the
lead to infertility among men. verge of extinction due to the presence of toxic
(B) The accumulation of chemicals called ‘endocrine substances called ‘endocrine disruptors' raising
disruptors’ found in synthetic goods in the concern over the impact on human health and
environment is leading to feminisation of various infertility among men.
organisms raising concerns over the impact on
human health and infertility among men.

No. of words 1187 1180 439 679
No. of Qs. 5 6 9 5
EXERCISE – 5
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
It would evoke nothing short of amusement and may be even derision to be told that some so-called scientists not even
remotely acquainted with a particular area of study or a body of systematised knowledge should not only be making
claims of research in it, but worse, go on to announce in the pages of a "prestigious" journal that their findings discredit it.
But this is precisely what is happening in sections of the 'scientific community' in the west in its tirade against Jyotisha or
astrology and which is being lapped up eagerly by segments of the media in our country. This phenomenon, apart from its
entertainment value, is a sad reflection on the quality or lack of it in "research studies" claimed in the west with the
avowed objective of denigrating astrology. A case in point is the recent sensational claims by Prof. Ivan W. Kelly
(Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Canada) and another, Prof. Geoffrey Dean
(a scientist from Perth, Australia) in an article "Is astrology relevant to consciousness and Psi?" from the Journal of
Consciousness Studies (10, No. 6-7, 2003). This article is supposed to have thrown sections of the media into frenzied
excitement that finally astrology had been debunked.
In order to both appreciate and evaluate the worth of such claims, certain questions need to be critically examined and
honestly answered. The foremost would be what constitutes the content of Jyotisha, the subject claimed of the research
study. The eligibility of those conducting research must be verified if their findings are to be taken seriously. Lastly,
the findings themselves must be carefully reviewed and artefacts, if any, used to nudge conclusions, identified.
The whole idea of the science of Jyotisha started with the Hindus of ancient India as did many other branches of
knowledge wrongly believed to have originated in the west. The ancient Indians not only tried to understand the inner
universe of the human mind and soul (Pindanda) but grappled equally hard to comprehend the external universe
(Brahmanda) starting with the earth, the centre of their observations. Instead of resting content with it, the ancient Indians
moved on to explore the solar system and the stellar systems beyond, dotting the skies. They discovered that the inner
and outer universes were not distinct islands divorced from each other. They had a link which was as indisputable as it
was hard to prove. And so developed Jyotisha or Vedic astrology which links man with the cosmos.
The Hindus were the first to use mathematics and logic for discovering the truths of Nature. They then developed their
arguments on truths already verified and proceeded on sound methods of reasoning to arrive at conclusions. Hinduism
was the earliest form of incisive and sublime thinking to develop in the world and it never had to contend with other
religious and dogmatic schools of thought to capture the heart of the true thinker in man, the scientist in him. It had no
holy book like the Bible or the Koran or priesthood or persecution opposing new ideas, thoughts and truths that stood the
test of time. And it was in such a congenial atmosphere of unfettered intellectual adventurism and liberty that the sciences
 mundane and spiritual  including Vedic astrology developed.
Jyotisha or Vedic astrology is not confined to the solar system alone although it begins with it. The Hindu fixed Zodiac is
the Sidereal Zodiac and star-based. The planets are spread along the Zodiac of 27 constellations and are influenced by
the constellations they occupy. That means these stars or star-systems which actually are sun-systems (far beyond the
solar system) have a role in the scheme of astrology. The 9 Grahas or planets and the 27 constellations together with the
12 signs form the tools of the astrologer.
Dr. Raman who may rightly be described as the Father of Modern Astrology, identifies the three schools of astrology as of
Parasara, Jaimini and Nadi. Therefore any astrological postulate to merit validity, for application or experiment, must be
drawn from any of these schools. Otherwise, it cannot be treated as valid in astrology. Though each of these schools of
thought has its own method of prediction, there is considerable overlapping as well as interdependence of dicta in drawing
conclusions but that is not relevant to our present discussion.
The Brihat Parasara Hora is the most authoritative text of astrologers and deals with both Parasari and Jaimini astrology.
The backbone of Parasari astrology is the Rasi chart read against the backdrop of the Dasa system. There are as many
32 Dasa systems to be applied under different conditions. But it is the Vimshottari time-scale of 120 years that has been
generally accepted in astrology circles as the most reliable in deciphering events and occurrences. Under it, the optimum
span of human life is 120 years. The Vimshottari Dasa system is based on the Nakshtra occupied by the Moon at birth.
Results are deduced on the basis of planetary ruler ships.
The unique feature of Parasari astrology, with which no 'scientist' appears to be familiar with, is what are called Yogas or
combinations and permutations of different planets. Sometimes, the Yogas spill into the Navamsa chart also. All Yogas
can broadly be divided into Yogas and Arishtas. Yogas are fortunate combinations  for success, prosperity, health,
fame and so on. Arishtas cover misfortune  deaths, deformity, tragedies, ill-health. Yogas in turn, in the sense of
beneficial Yogas, can be Raja Yogas (political power, pomp, pelf), Dhana Yogas (combinations for wealth) or Gnana
Yogas (Yogas for knowledge and spirituality). There are other kinds of Yogas also attributed specific results. Yogas
drastically alter the results in a horoscope and are extremely important in interpretation.
In Jaimini, the aspects are reckoned differently. There are different Dasa systems but they are sign-oriented. Depending
upon the rising sign at birth, the order and extent of Dasas such as Chara, Trikona and other Dasas are determined.
Karakas take precedence over lordships. Karakas are natural significators. For example, depending upon the longitude of
planets signwise, we have the Atmakaraka, the chief or prime planet and all important in Jaimini astrology. In Parasara,
the Karakas are fixed and the same for all charts. In Jaimini, the Karaka is determined on the basis of the longitude of a
planet with reference to the beginning of the sign. The Karakas differ for different charts in Jaimini.
According to the Nadi system, each sign of the Zodiac is divided into 150 parts so that each part equates to 12' of arc or
48 seconds of time. Each of these parts, in turn, is further split into 2 parts  the Poorvabhaga (first part) and the
Uttarbhaga (second part). Depending upon how correctly the exact part under which a birth takes place can be identified,
a general outline of the pattern of life awaiting the native can be obtained. Of course, for this certain other planetary clues
must be matched. Therefore, according to the Nadi system of prediction, which has for hundreds of years in our country
boasted of breathtakingly accurate predictions, each arc of 24 seconds of time gives rise to a distinct destiny pattern.
That makes for 3600 basic patterns a day, each unique in its own way and reflecting in all human births around the globe.
The method of delineation of results according to the Nadi system is, however, not easy and one is led through a maze of
astrological clues before one can pitch on the right destiny pattern which is given a specific name and works for a birth
under a specific 24 second time period.
How many who claim to test astrology are even aware of what constitutes astrology?
1. Pick the choice which has the statements pertaining Kelly and Prof. Geoffrey Dean.
to the Hindu fixed Zodiac. (B) explain the fact that astrology is a field where
(a) It is based on constellations or fixed stars. research studies are still not a part of routine
(b) The planets are said to be influenced by the procedure.
constellations they occupy. (C) counter the claims made by certain scientists
(c) There are 9 planets, 27 constellations and and thereby silence the critics of Astrology.
12 signs in this Zodiac. (D) show that the astrological scientists of the west
(d) Star systems that are beyond our solar system are not equipped with the knowledge pertinent
are also said to exert influence. to India.
(A) Only (a)
(B) Only (a) and (d) 4. What does the passage say about Hinduism, as a
(C) Only (b) and (c) religion?
(D) All of the above four statements. (a) It is the earliest form of religion to have
developed in the world.
2. According to the Nadi system, (b) Mathematics and logic were used to decode the
truths of Nature.
(a) a general prediction about the course of life of a
(c) It does not have any holy book.
native can be made depending on the specific
(A) Only (a) (B) (a) and (b)
24 second time period.
(C) (a) and (c) (D) Only (c)
(b) the Zodiac is on the whole divided into 150 parts.
(c) the second half of the 12' arc is called Uttarbhaga. 5. Identify the statements that can be attributed to the
(d) though difficult, it may be possible to make author and pick your choice accordingly.
accurate predictions. (a) Dr. Raman is considered to be the Father of
(A) Only (a) and (b) are true. Modern Astrology.
(B) Only (c) and (d) are true. (b) Prof. Ivan W. Kelly is from America.
(C) Only (a), (c) and (d) are true. (c) The Brihat Parasara Hora is the most
(D) All the four statements are true. authoritative text of astrologers.
(d) Prof. Geoffrey Dean is from Perth.
3. The author, through the passage, tries to (A) (a) and (d) (B) (a), (c) and (d)
(A) correct what has been said by Prof. Ivan W. (C) (a), (b) and (c) (D) Only (a)
6. As understood from the passage, Astrology or Jyotisha unique way in each school is
(A) can be used to indicate in a way what will take (A) the Rasi chart. (B) the Dasa system.
place in future. (C) the Karakas. (D) the Navamsa chart.
(B) can hit 100% accuracy only under the Nadi system.
(C) is never amenable to an in-depth study given its 9. The ancient Indians
complex nature. (A) tried to comprehend Pindanda and Brahmanda.
(D) can be used by a person to his advantage if he (B) developed Jyotisha that links man with the cosmos.
follows any one of the three schools. (C) studied not only the solar system but other
stellar systems too.
7. Regarding the Parasari school of astrology, (D) found links between the inner world of man and
(A) its unique feature is the combinations and the world of outer universe.
permutations of different planets.
(B) misfortunes come under Arishtas. 10. The three schools of astrology are
(C) Yogas have a significant influence on the (A) dependent on the Dasa system.
horoscope. (B) interdependent.
(D) all the above statements are true. (C) not the only ones through which a horoscope
can be studied.
8. A common entity for Parasari and Jaimini schools of (D) liable to give contradictory predictions about the
Astrology that is clearly seen to be applied in a same horoscope.
PASSAGE – II
In literary terms, "reading" can mean two distinct things: the first meaning on texts, the second on receivers of texts.
First, "a reading" is an interpretation, one critic's version of what a piece of writing has to say. "A feminist reading",
in this usage, would be an interpretation of a text assuming gender's centrality to what the text means. In "a feminist
reading" of a text, gender can come into play as something represented in the text (as in "images-of-woman" criticism);
as something shaping the experience and therefore, the writing of the author (as in gynocriticism); or as a significant
influence in the life-and, therefore, the interior experience - of the particular reader who is trying to understand what the
text says.
"Reading," in its second literary sense, refers directly to that interior experience of readers, understood as an activity or
a process. Rarely do theorists or critics make empirical studies of what actual readers do when they peruse books,
although a few do apply psychoanalytic or ethnographic principles to their observations of real readers reading. More
often, reader-response theorists hypothesize a universalized abstraction called "the reader," and they describe what
"he" feels, thinks, or does when confronted with a given text. For such critics, "reading" is something conceptual, based
- one assumes - on their own personal experiences with texts. In the theoretical work of such reader-response
specialists as Peter Brooks, Norman Holland, David Bleich and Wolfgang Iser, gender seldom surfaces as a potential
influence upon "the reader's" experience. "Feminist reading," then, would be the reception and processing of texts by a
reader who is conceived of not only as possibly female, but also as conscious of the tradition of women's oppression in
patriarchal culture. The feminist reader - whether in fact male or female - is committed to breaking the pattern of that
oppression by calling attention to the ways some texts can perpetuate it.
Judith Fetterley's 'The Resisting Reader' (1978) is one of the first attempts to conceptualize feminist reading, a process
that Fetterley says occurs when a female reader confronts an androcentric (male-centered) or even a misogynist
(anti-woman) text. Explaining that "great" American literature treats male experience as universal, Fetterley argues in
her "Introduction: On the Politics of Literature" that reading the American canon requires one to "identify as male" to
sympathize with masculine heroes whose troubles are overtly or covertly associated with the women in their stories.
This has led, Fetterley says, to the "immasculation" of the woman reader, who must identify "against herself" as she
reads, thus becoming a "divided self". The "resisting reader" would work to exorcise the male-imposed part of that self,
to be conscious of the way American classes exclude and alienate her.
In a project that resists theorizing about readers in general to concentrate instead on a flesh-and-blood community of
readers in the American Midwest, Janice Radway's chapter "The Readers and their Romances" from Reading the
Romance (1984) takes us into an empirical study of how some real women say they actually read. Working from
interviews, conversations and questionnaires inquiring into the reading practice of a group of suburban white women in
the pseudonymous "Smithcon," Radway takes an anthropological approach to try to explain how and why the women
love to read commercially produced romances. She provides statistics to support her descriptions of the kinds of setting,
action, characters and closure that appeal most strongly to her sample group. Following the principles of anthropologist,
Clifford Geertz and psychoanalyst, Nancy Chodorow, Radway also speculates about the basic needs these women
seem to satisfy with their romance reading. Although she is careful in the beginning of her chapter to limit her
generalizations to the race and class, the regional and educational background of "the Smithton women," her project
raises broader questions about the 'therapeutic value" of romance reading for women living in "a culture that creates
needs in (them) that it cannot fulfil." In Radway's work, "reading" is more than a process: it is a way of life, a means of
coping with the troublesome gender politics of ordinary middle-class experience.
Patrocinio P. Schweickart, in her 1986 essay, "Reading Ourselves: Toward a Feminist Theory of Reading," revisits
reader-response theory for a specifically polemical purpose: "to change the world." Arguing that reader-centred
criticism must attend to "difference" if it is to be taken seriously, Schweickart begins by supplying three parables of
reading, leading to a fourth. Schweickart retells Wayne Booth's story of his life as a reader, in which he compares
himself to Malcolm X and suppresses crucial differences arising from racial experience; she juxtaposes Booth's story
with Malcolm X's own version of how he became a reader, a story that – Schweickart asserts – speaks only for and to
men, suppressing the differences gender can make. Schweickart answers the two men's stories with two versions of
feminist reading. The first – a woman's angry encounter with texts written by misogynist men – is from Virginia Woolf's A
Room of One's Own the second – a woman's confrontation of Emily Dickinson's poems, texts by another woman whose
interior experience is nevertheless pointedly not identical to the female reader's own–is from Adrienne Rich's "Vesuvius
at Home."
Schweickart's essay points out that how feminists read depends on the gender perspective of the author that they read.
Schweickart tackles questions that had been raised by Jonathan Culler in "Reading as a Woman" (1982), about whether
being a woman is a biological or a cultural matter, and whether reading from a feminine point of view is possible for a
man. To address those questions, Schweickart appeals to female psychology: she cites the suggestion of feminist
psychoanalysts that women's identities (their "ego boundaries") are less strictly delineated than those of men. In the
end, Schweickart sees reading theory as a potentially powerful tool for "building and maintaining connections among
women."
Wai-Chee Dimock looks to reader-centred theory as a means of building and maintaining connections between two
kinds of literary criticism that often came into conflict during the 1980s: feminism and new historicism. In "Feminism,
New Historicism, and the Reader," Dimock analyzes the "ideal reader" of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow
Wallpaper" to show that the text was aimed at an audience that, in Gilman's day, did not yet exist: a reader "created in
the image of professionalism at its most idealized, endowed with the sacred attributes of specialized knowledge and
interpretive competence," a reader who is – in spite of being "professionalized" through the text's address – female.
Dimock points to "this gap” as the space in which Gilman's story does its "cultural work," as new historicists would call it.
She sketches out the strife between new historicist and feminist criticism and cautions against over simplifying the
difference between the two approaches. Dimock's essay tries to destabilize that difference, as well as the difference
between male and female readers, resisting essentialism in her concept of the relation between gender and reading.
Dimock uses the figure of the reader to illuminate the inevitable interconnection between gender and history: her
example of "The Yellow Wallpaper" shows that neither feminist nor historicist claims about the text's significance make
sense in isolation from each other.
11. The author criticizes the generalised concept of a 15. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
'reader' as being (A) Emily Dickinson's poems may not reveal a keen
(A) an oversimplification of reality. sense of the patriarchal subjugation of women.
(B) subjective. (B) 'Feminist reading' precludes the application of
(C) unrealistic, as the experiences of readers vary psychoanalytic and ethnographic theories to
and no generalisation is possible. understand the process of reading.
(D) derogatory. (C) Every 'feminist reader' can be a 'resisting reader'.
(D) Dimock analyses the 'ideal reader' in order to
12. Which of the following is based on factual data?
(A) Reading Ourselves: Toward a Feminist Theory delineate the apparent differences between
of Reading. male and female readers.
(B) Feminism, New Historicism and the Reader.
(C) The Readers and their Romances. 16. Based on the first meaning of reading, the term
(D) The Resisting Reader. 'feminist reading' implies that
(A) the reader is essentially a feminist.
13. The author defines 'feminist reading' as (B) the reader is a female.
(A) analysing a text in a manner that exposes (C) the writer is definitely a feminist.
'immasculation'. (D) the central idea of a piece of literary work is
(B) attempting to reconcile feminism with new gender based.
historicism.
(C) trying to highlight patterns in literature than 17. Match the following authors with the characteristics
reinforce androcentric attitudes and perceptions. of their works.
(D) viewing literature through the prism of female
subjection. Authors
(a) David Bleich
14. According to Janice Radway's work, women read (b) Janice Radway
commercially produced romances because they (c) Patrocinio Schweickart
(A) question a milieu that spawns those needs in them. (d) Virginia Woolf.
(B) to escape from the pains of everyday injustices.
(C) play an important role in strengthening their self Characteristics of Works
image. (e) Examines whether a woman is a biological or
(D) enable them to come to grips with gender cultural entity.
politics in their day-to-day experience. (f) Relies on empirical studies.
(g) Does not view gender as a key factor in shaping (D) the way feminist reads a text depends on the
a reader's experience. perspective – male's or female's - from which it
(h) Confronts male chauvinists. is written.
21. The phrase, 'this gap' as used in the passage refers to
(A) (B)
(A) the non-identity between the ideal reader invoked
a g a f by the story and the actual woman reading it.
(B) the absence of any link between feminism and
b e b e
new historicism.
c f c g (C) the difference between the male and female
d h d h perceptions of the text.
(D) the incongruity between the concept of reading
(C) (D) from the reader's perspective and the
consequent reading experience.
a g a h
b f b f 22. While commenting on the reader-centred theory of
c e c e reading, which of the following is not relevant to
Dimock's views?
d h d g (A) She is against the belief that each entity has a
set of characteristics which make it what it is.
18. The theoretical work of reader-response specialists (B) She says that the way a woman reads a piece
like Peter Brooks etc, says that of literature is influenced by past social and
(A) the gender of the universalized concept of the cultural phenomena.
reader rarely influences the personal experiences of (C) As expressed through the works of Fetterley's,
a reader. Radway's and Schweickart's essays, she also
(B) it is not possible for a reader to transcend the points out the fact that the reader becomes the
pattern of male oppression of females. bearer of the meaning.
(C) the gender of the universal reader is presumed (D) She generalises the gender of a feminist reader
to be male by most of the writers of fiction. to be always female.
(D) female readers find it difficult to understand the
male point of view. 23. Regarding the questions raised by Jonathan Culler,
Schweickart's essay says that
19. A feminist reader, according to the passage, (A) men do not appreciate a feminist's point of view.
(A) is definitely female. (B) men may not be able to read from a feminine
(B) need not necessarily be female. point of view.
(C) is a female who fights for equality of rights for (C) a woman can easily identify herself with a
the fairer sex. masculine perspective of reading.
(D) is one who reads only books that focus on (D) man's rigid roles that are influenced by his
women’s issues. society and culture make him prejudiced against
feminist views.
20. The fact pointed out by Schweickart regarding
feminist reading is that 24. Which of the following is said to be one of the
(A) the prevailing culture of the society is bound to first attempts to form a theory regarding feminist
shape the way a female reader responds to a reading?
work of literature. (A) Reading as a woman.
(B) the racial differences that arise when the reader (B) Reading the Romance.
and the writer belong to different races define a (C) The Yellow Wall Paper.
reader's response. (D) The Resisting Reader.
(C) a feminist writing written by a male writer sounds
different from that written by a female one.
Passage 1 Passage 2
No. of words 1283 1187
No. of Qs. 10 14
EXERCISE – 6
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
Labour may be defined as human energy spent either on the mental or physical work or on both in combination to
acquire income and wages as the payments made for the service of labour. The term 'wage' may refer to piece wage,
time wage, money wage, real wage, etc. Normally, in economic discussions, the term is used to mean the money wage,
i.e., the rate per hour or per day or per week or per month-and in few cases per year too-for the mental and physical
service of a person. It represents to the firm the labour cost of production. We commonly use the term 'wage level'
which is compounded of the wage rate of many types of labour in innumerable occupations and trades. Some wage
rates may be low as a few rupees a day while others may be as much as Rs.200 per day. Wage level which is an
average of all types of heterogeneous wage rates is a vague but useful concept like the parallel concept of price level.
It is necessary that the special characteristics of labour as a factor of production are noted at the outset so that the different
theories of wages can be better understood and appreciated. Firstly, as a factor of production, labour consists of the work
of human beings and the payment made for the service constitutes the income of persons providing the services.
Secondly, only the service of labour is bought and sold and not the worker himself who is the source of labour service.
Thirdly, since the factor service consists of work on the part of human beings, considerations of personal likes and dislikes
for work are major determinants of the supply of labour. Fourthly, due to the personal nature of labour service,
the economic consideration of wages alone is not significant. Other considerations like the number of hours worked,
relative security of work, working conditions, pensions vacations, etc. are also important. Lastly, the basic source of labour
supply is population which is not strictly related to economic factors. Population and labour supply are dependent primarily
upon several factors other than wages and no functional relationship between the wage rate and population can be formed.
Although different theories have been advanced to explain how labour's share in the national product is determined but
none of the theories is adequate or free from criticisms. A consideration of the earlier theories will assist us to
comprehend more readily the explanation of wages which is most widely held by modern economists. The most
important of these theories are the Subsistence Theory, popularly known as the Iron Law of Wages, Standard of Living
Theory; Wages-Fund theory; Residual Claimant theory and Marginal Productivity.
Subsistence theory was developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when population was rapidly
expanding in Western Europe but food supplies were relatively short. The theory found considerable support after the
publication of Malthus "Essay on Population". The theory was based primarily on two assumptions. The first assumption
was the law of diminishing returns according to which there were definite limits to a continued high rate of expansion of
food production. The second assumption was that population in the absence of checks increased at a faster rate than
the rate of which food supply increased. These two assumptions as to world conditions were in obvious conflict and the
result was the determination of wages in the long-run at a bare subsistence level, i.e., the amount which was just
sufficient to maintain the worker and his family.
The subsistence theory held that labour was a commodity bought and sold between employers and workers at a price
which in the long run would be equal to the cost of production in the same way as the value of other commodities
tended to be determined by their cost of production. The cost of production of labour was taken to be the subsistence
level, the minimum necessary for existence. Wages must approximate to this level, if these were at any one time, above
this natural rate, labourers would tend to increase in numbers. Consequently, population and labour supply would
expand. With the increase in the supply of labour, wage rates would fall toward the long-run or natural rate. On the other
hand, market rate of wages below subsistence level would be accompanied by starvation and disease resulting
eventually in the shortage of supply of labour and in the consequent rise in the wages offered to the workers. Ricardo,
in fact, believed that the price of labour-wages-estimated in food and necessaries would be absolutely constant and
rigidly fixed for all time. The German writers called the subsistence theory as the 'iron' or 'brazen' law of wages.
The subsistence wage theory is primarily an attempt to explain long-run wage levels and not the market wages existing
at any point of time. Although unsound as a doctrine, it is fairly correct empirical description of actual facts in the labour
world in most parts of the globe. The theory enables us to appreciate that there is a minimum level below which normal
general wages cannot fall if the supply of labour is to be maintained. The recognition of this fact has enabled modern
economists to propound a theory of wages which is more in accordance with actual industrial conditions.
In the first place, the theory fails to take note of the demand for labour. It is a cost of production theory and endeavour to
explain wages from the side of supply alone, whereas in the determination of price of every good and service including
labour, both demand and supply should be considered together. By ignoring the demand for labour, the theory has
given no recognition to the role of productivity of labour in wage determination.
The theory is pessimistic because it contemplates no bright future for labour and excludes all possibilities of
improvement in the conditions of labour either through increased efficiency or due to general economic progress.
The theory ignores completely the efficiency of workers. It is true that in certain cases efficiency would tend to disappear if
wages continued to remain at the subsistence level for long. But in most cases, workers may be specially gifted or better
qualified or more enduring. With the increase in efficiency, labour productivity also increases and with it wages also increase.
Another defect of the theory is that it does not explain the difference in wages as between different regions, trades and
persons. Even in the same locality and factory, differences in wages are found. If all labourers must get the bare
necessaries of life, all must get the same amount of wages. This, however, does not happen in real life. The theory,
therefore, ignores the fact that labour is heterogeneous and the supply of labour depends upon standards of living quite
apart from biological forces.
Lastly, the theory is based on the Malthusian theory of population according to which a rise in wages above the
subsistence level is immediately followed by a growth of population which forces down wages to the level of
subsistence. But experience has shown that a rise in wages leading to the higher standard of living restricts the supply
of labour. In that case, wages will not fall to the level of subsistence.
1. What does the Malthusian theory of population lay (D) The cost of production of labour is the subsistence
down? level – the minimum requirements for existence.
(A) A rise in wages leading to a high standards of
living restricts the supply of labour. 6. Which of the following is not one of the special
(B) Wages which are equal to the standard of living characteristics of labour as a factor of production?
promote the efficiency of workers. (A) Only the economic consideration of labour
(C) A rise in wages above the subsistence level is service is not significant since labour service is
followed by a growth of population which drags personal in nature.
wages down to the level of subsistence. (B) It is the service of a person which is bought and
(D) Labour wages would be rigidly fixed. sold as labour, not the person himself.
(C) 'Wage' refers to piece, time wage, money wage,
2. How does the passage describe 'labour'? real wage, and so on and so forth.
(A) As rate per hour or per day or week of mental or (D) Consideration of a person's tastes and choices
physical service of a person. are major determinants of the supply of labour.
(B) As the rate per year of the physical or mental
service of a person. 7. Ricardo's belief about wages was
(C) As something that determines the consideration (A) that it was always determined by the demand
of personal likes and dislikes. and the supply of labour.
(D) As human energy spent either on mental or (B) that it would be constant and rigid forever if
physical work or both to earn wages. estimated in terms of food and other requirements.
(C) that it is not related strictly to economic factors.
3. The first shortcoming of the subsistence theory is (D) that it is cannot have a functional relation with
(A) it does not take into consideration the demand the growth of population.
for labour.
(B) it excludes all possibilities of improvement in the 8. According to the passage,
conditions of labour. (A) rates of wages usually decrease with the
(C) it ignores the personal nature of labour service.
increase in the number of labourers.
(D) it fails to explain long-run-wage levels.
(B) of all the theories put forward to explain the
4. One of the assumptions of the subsistence theory is labour's share in the national product only the
(A) labour consists of the work of human beings and subsistence theory is not free of criticism.
the payment made for the services constitutes (C) the subsistence theory lays utmost emphasis on
the incomes of persons providing the services.
the efficiency of the workers.
(B) wages depend upon the proportion of
(D) the subsistence theory ignores the efficiency of
population to capital.
(C) wages depend upon the quality of the labour the workers which is directly proportional to the
force in a country. wages.
(D) population, if left unchecked, increases faster
than the rate of the supply of food. 9. What, has enabled modern economists to propound
a theory of wages which takes actual industrial
5. A fact that the subsistence theory ignores, according condition into a closer account?
to the passage is (A) The assumption of the subsistence theory about
(A) Wages are not only determined by the standard the law of diminishing returns.
of living; they are also determined by the (B) The fact that wages are different in different
economic progress. geographical locations.
(B) Labour is heterogeneous and its supply (C) The fact that the market rate of wages below
depends upon the standard of living, apart from subsistence level would breed starvation and
biological forces. disease.
(C) The impact of the standard of living on the demand (D) The fact that wages cannot be dragged down
and the supply of labour is indirect and remote. below a certain minimum level.
PASSAGE – II
In 1976, Erich Fromm published ‘To Have or To Be?’. A practising psychoanalyst, his works enriched the existing
tradition of radical-humanistic analysis in Western thought. His concern, as his other works, especially ‘The Sane
Society’, is with the total collapse of "the great promise of unlimited progress - the promise of domination of nature, of
material abundance, of the greatest happiness of greatest number, and of unimpeded personal freedom". Instead,
"we are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent". These find
expressions in personal relationships of course, but equally in modern economics, politics and government.
Unhappiness, and a sense of desolation, must arise in a society, Fromm shows, that has made the ‘having’ mode the
foundation of individual and social life, neglecting, or excluding altogether, the ‘being’ mode of living. The modern
industrialised West is rooted in the theoretical premise that "the aim of life is happiness, that is, maximum pleasure,
defined as the satisfaction of any desire or subjective need a person may feel". He points to the fact that "the present
era, by and large since the First World War, has returned to the practice and theory of radical hedonism". But the
premise was always false. A great many people now know that unrestricted satisfaction of all desires, even if it were
possible, is not conducive to well-being, nor is it the way to happiness or even to maximum pleasure. The system of the
western industrial economy can only exist, however on the premise that "the very essence of being is having; that if one
has nothing, one is nothing".
And to have is to consume. Fromm argues that consuming as one form of having is perhaps the most important one for
today's affluent industrial society. At the root of it, though, is the desire to incorporate. "The attitude inherent in
consumerism is that of swallowing the whole world". He says that "modern consumers may identify themselves by the
formula: I am = what I have and what I consume". This way of perceiving oneself must, in its very logic, create not only
a perpetual anxiety of losing what one has but also lead to collective aggression and war. His argument is that "as long
as everybody wants to have more, there must be formations of classes, there must be class war, and in global terms,
there must be international war". Egotism, selfishness and greed are the guiding principles of economic behaviour
today. And he concludes by saying that greed and peace preclude each other. For the character traits produced by the
systems of industrial economy, in other words, by our way of living, "are pathogenic and eventually produce a sick
person and, thus, a sick society".
In the being mode of living, I perceive myself not in terms of what I have but what I am. I move from the passivity of having
to the creativeness of being. This change is then reflected in every aspect of living: learning, remembering, conversing,
reading, exercising authority, loving. For example, Fromm shows, when love is experienced in the mode of having, it leads
to "confining, imprisoning or controlling the object one loves". "It is strangling, deadening, suffocating, killing, not life-giving".
In his view, what people call love is mostly a misuse of the word which hides the reality of their not living.
In the mode of being, the act of loving leads to caring for, knowing, responding, affirming, enjoying. It means bringing to life,
increasing his, or her, aliveness. Loving is a process in which one relates to another, not as a thing, to be owned and had,
but as another being, in relationship with whom "there is self-renewing and self-increasing". It is through sharing, giving,
sacrificing that there is self-increasing. That is ruled out in the having mode of living; for, if I give, or sacrifice, what I have,
then I am diminished, depleted in the same measure in which I give. But the very reverse is the truth of life.
Fromm argues that while it is true that both the desire to have and the desire to be are a part of human nature, they are
fundamentally different, and also mutually antagonistic. What is even more important, indeed crucial, is the fact that
depending upon the kind of social and economic structure a society has, it will encourage the one rather than the other.
And that will decide whether the individuals living under that system are inwardly healthy or mentally sick. A society,
as in the industrialised West, "whose principles are acquisition, profit and property, produces a social character oriented
towards having, and once the dominant pattern is established nobody wants to be an outsider, or indeed an outcast;
in order to avoid this risk, everybody adapts to the majority".
From this analysis of having and being as the two fundamentally opposite human impulses, Fromm derives his vision of
the future, and suggests a concrete agenda of economic and political change. "The realisation of the new society and
new man is possible," he says, "only if the old motivation of profit and power is replaced by new ones: being, sharing,
understanding; if the marketing character is replaced by the productive, loving character; if cybernetic religion is
replaced by a new radical-humanistic spirit". To propose this or that reform that does not change the system is useless
in the long run.
10. According to the passage, Fromm says that 13. Which of the following cannot be attributed to
(A) people are inherently inclined to one of the two Fromm?
modes of living. (a) The desire ‘to have’ and ‘to be’ are not at odds
(B) the basic human nature does not preclude with each other.
either of the modes of living. (b) True love is not possible in the ‘having’ mode.
(C) it is man’s choice to pursue the fulfillment of the (c) The ‘having’ mode has led to people becoming
mode in which he strongly believes. lonely and unhappy.
(D) it is difficult for man, thereby his society, to (d) The greatest happiness of the greatest number
move away from materialistic aspirations. is possible only in the ‘being’ mode.
(A) Only (a) (B) Only (b)
11. The author of the passage (C) Only (a) and (b) (D) Only (c) and (d)
(A) agrees with all that Eric Fromm has to say
about ‘having’ and ‘being’. 14. Which of the following is not true, according to the
(B) does not agree with the statement that ‘being’ is passage?
a higher mode than ‘having’. (A) People try to identify with the majority because
(C) sees ‘having’ and ‘being’ as opposite human they want to belong to that group.
impulses. (B) Satisfaction of all our wants leads to happiness.
(D) feels materialism is a higher virtue than spiritualism. (C) The mode of society determines whether its
people are mentally healthy or sick.
12. "But the very reverse is the truth of life." What is this
(D) Our obsession with possessing leads to a sense
"truth of life" as per the passage?
of insecurity and even war.
(A) Loving is the essence of human life.
(B) Having and Being are not mutually exclusive.
(C) Love as used by most people is a misuse hiding
the reality of their not living.
(D) Giving or sacrificing does not deplete what one has.
PASSAGE – III
W hat is the relationship between information and creativity? This is an important and fundamental question because the majority
of people believe that sufficient information subjected to competent analysis and followed by logical decision making is enough
and there is therefore no need at all for creativity. Even those who will not openly admit this behave as if this is what they believe.
If you want to catch a plane from New York to London, you had better check the timetables or ask your travel agent to
do this for you. If you want to treat an infection with an antibiotic, it helps to know what is causing the infection and also
to check the antibiotic sensitivities. It also is useful to check whether the patient is allergic to any particular antibiotic.
Thinking and guessing is not a substitute for information. When you need information, you need information.
It is quite true that if we had perfect information in a particular situation then thinking would be unnecessary. But our
chances of getting information are low. We assume, however, that as we get more and more information and approach
the perfect state of complete knowledge, the need for thinking is lessened. On the contrary, the need for thinking
becomes greater and greater because we have to make sense of the information. If we do need thinking, then surely it
is of the "analytical" type as we seek to make sense of the information. Where does creativity come in?
Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyse data, this will
give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.
Analysing the data will enable the analyst to select from his or her repertoire of old ideas to find which one may fit.
But analysing data will not produce new ideas. If you want a really new idea you have to be able to start it off in your
head with creativity, and then check it out against the data.
A scientist seeks to understand a phenomenon: for example, why do locust populations suddenly explode? There is a
problem with the computer system and the analyst seeks to find out what has gone wrong. Sales of hamburgers are
falling off − what is the explanation? There is a serious labour dispute over the sacking of a supervisor; what is really
going on? There are so many occasions when we need to understand what is going on in order to take appropriate
action. We seek information and we seek clues. Then we put forward a hypothesis.
In some of my writings, I point out the very harmful effect of classic Greek thinking on Western thinking culture because
it led to an obsession with argument and critical thinking and a general negative orientation. At the same time, it is only
fair to point out that the "hypothesis" is also a Greek invention and a valuable contribution to human thinking. This is not
as obvious as it might seem. Chinese technology was very far advanced about two thousand years ago but then it came
to an abrupt end because the Chinese never developed the concept of the hypothesis. When everything had been
labelled and described by the "scholars", there was no method of provocation or speculation. Possibly the Chinese did
not develop the "hypothesis" because they never developed the concept of God as a super-designer of the world.
A hypothesis is only a presumptuous guess as to what the underlying design might be.
A hypothesis is a guess or speculation. This has several merits. The hypothesis gives us a framework through which to
look at the information so that we can begin to notice things we have not noticed. The hypothesis also gives us
something to work towards − in proving it or disproving it.
Creativity is very much involved in constructing a hypothesis. If there is no creativity, then we can only use standard
concepts. Science had been held back considerably by the notion that scientists simply have to be good analysts,
this notion ignores the need to be creative about hypotheses.
Unfortunately, there is a serious dilemma associated with hypotheses. Without a hypothesis we flounder around.
But when we have got a hypothesis then this can close down our minds to other possibilities. We now only look at the
data through the hypothesis. If a detective on a difficult case forms an early hypothesis then that detective may ignore
important clues as he or she only looks for what is relevant to the hypothesis.
15. The statement, "When you need information, you 18. One of the following is not true about the concept of
need information" implies hypothesis?
(A) information is always needed for creativity. (A) It does not use information.
(B) you need information that is reliable. (B) It is a guess.
(C) you need information initially to form a hypothesis. (C) It has to be proved or disproved.
(D) there is no substitute for information when you (D) It involves creativity.
need it.
19. Which of the following is not true as per the passage?
16. Identify the true statement as per the passage. (A) Information is necessary in some cases.
(A) "Perfect information" leads to the "perfect state (B) Creativity is necessary to have a new look at
of knowledge". problems.
(B) Creativity and analytical thinking are antithetical. (C) A hypothesis can both help and hinder progress.
(C) Availability of more and more information leads (D) Creativity is always required to solve problems.
to the perfect state of complete knowledge.
20. In which of the following cases is the need for
(D) There is no difference between perfect information
creative thinking the greatest?
and perfect state of complete knowledge.
(A) The Census of India gives information covering
diverse aspects of people’s lives.
17. Which of the following cases calls for creative thinking? (B) All relevant information has been received by
(A) Finding out the schedule of flights coming to the Census authorities.
Hyderabad. (C) Certain pockets of areas are inaccessible to the
(B) Checking out antibiotic sensitivities of a patient. field personnel.
(C) Checking out the locust population of Africa. (D) The Census authorities create new methods of
(D) Finding out the cause of an infection. gathering demographic information.
21. Which of the following is not true about hypotheses? (A) Incorrect information would lead to dangerous
(A) They give a foundation to work on. consequences.
(B) They make one open and receptive to ideas. (B) Sometimes a conjecture could turn out to be
(C) They call for creativity. reliable information.
(D) A premature hypothesis can be a setback. (C) Guessing is no alternative to authentic
information.
22. Which of the following options summarizes para 2 of (D) In order to gather authentic information one
the passage in the most appropriate manner? must tap the right source.
PASSAGE – IV
M aking my way down a trail through rosemary scrub in Florida's central sandhills, I surprised a six-lined racerunner
(Cnemidophorus sexlineatus, so named for the lines that run the length of its body) basking in a wheel rut. I gave chase and
the lizard streaked off − easily keeping ahead of my stumbling run. For thirty yards, the lizard churned through loose sand,
before managing a darting escape under a shady bush. The sprint was impressive, particularly for a lizard less than a foot
long, but what was even more amazing was that the lizard had to make its dash without taking a breath. The racerunner's
mechanical systems for breathing and running are linked in such a way that the lizard can do one or the other, but not both.
Lungs in any animal are, of course, the site of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange. But lungs themselves cannot draw
air into an animal's body; they are really nothing more than stretchy bags that bring air into close proximity with blood.
Lungs fill with air when the cavity housing them enlarges, enlarging the lungs as well; the resultant low gas pressure
causes outside air to rush in. Mammals have two systems for ventilating the lungs. The rib muscles power one system:
they expand the chest by lifting and rotating the long flat bones to which they attach. The diaphragm, a dome-shaped
muscle between the lungs and the liver, powers the second system. It works by pulling the lung cavity rearwards,
toward the tail. The diaphragm is a mammalian innovation. Crocodiles and alligators have independently evolved a
muscle that pulls the liver backwards, also effectively inflating the lungs. But lizards and snakes lack any analogue to
the diaphragm, and so they rely on their rib muscles alone to inflate their lungs.
David Carrier, a biomechanist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, observed that a lizard's rib muscles also play a vital role in
locomotion: they stabilize the trunk, giving the forelimbs a steady platform from which to operate. But any locomotion also renders
the rib muscles nearly useless for breathing; running makes them completely so. Studying the common green iguana (Iguana
iguana), Carrier confirmed that the rib muscles are active during locomotion, and that the lizard holds its breath while sprinting.
Now, any athlete can tell you that holding your breath while running will seriously cut down on your endurance. So
Carrier posited that lizards (not unlike me) are restricted to short bursts of anaerobic exercise (less than thirty seconds),
followed by prolonged panting to pay back the oxygen debt. (An oxygen debt accrues when muscles work without
oxygen; the result is that lactic acid accumulates, and it must be oxidized after the work is done.)
Carrier's hypothesis was controversial, particularly among respiratory physiologists. Other investigators had discovered
that monitor lizards − a distant relative of Carrier's iguana − have high metabolic rates. That is, unlike most so-called
cold-blooded animals, monitors burn a lot of energy rapidly. A good example is the savannah monitor
(Varanus exanthematicus), an African monitor lizard weighing about ten pounds, which spends most of its day patrolling
its territory for tasty insects. Its oxygen consumption is as high as that of such mammals as the armadillo, and so the
monitor can't afford to hold its breath while moving. On the contrary, the animal should ventilate as often and as
vigorously as a metabolically equivalent mammal. But if the lizard can't rely on its rib muscles to breathe while it walks,
how does the monitor spend all day walking?
The resolution to this apparent paradox required the joint efforts of physiologists and biomechanists. Tomasz Owerkowicz of
Harvard University and Beth Brainerd of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, trained savannah monitors to trot on a
treadmill in front of an X-ray machine coupled to a video camera. The X-ray movies demonstrated that, as Carrier had
predicted, when the animal ran relatively fast, respiration relying on the subatmospheric pressures generated by expansion of
the rib cage was supplanted by a different method of breathing. Long, thin bones below the tongue and in the neck seemed to
be causing the lizard's throat and the floor of its mouth to expand and contract: the animal was "gulping" air on the run.
This kind of lung ventilation, well known in frogs and salamanders, is called gular pumping. In fact, the use of head
muscles rather than trunk muscles to power respiration predates the evolution of lungs. Fish, for example, pump water
across their gills with their head muscles. But until the work of Owerkowicz and Brainerd, gular pumping had not been
considered an important factor for lung ventilation in reptiles.
To show that gular pumping is the key to the monitor's endurance, Brainerd and Owerkowicz took a group of treadmill-
trained lizards on a road trip to the University of California, Irvine. There, together with the physiologists James W. Hicks
and Colleen Farmer, they custom-fitted the animals with small face masks, which enabled the biologists to measure the
lizards' oxygen consumption while the animals ran a treadmill. First each lizard ran normally; then a plastic tube was
inserted into the mouth to keep the animal's mouth open and prevent gular pumping. And sure enough, when the gular
pumping was eliminated, the monitor lizards acted more like Carrier's green iguanas.
Gular pumping has turned out to be far more widespread in lizards than physiologists had previously thought.
The monitors, though, with their high metabolic rate, rely on it more than their relatives do. For most other lizards,
the drill remains: dash and pant, dash and pant . . . just like me.
23. The apparent paradox mentioned in the passage showed that
refers to (A) gular pumping is present in frogs and
(A) how a lizard is able to run while apparently not salamanders too.
breathing. (B) the process of gulping of air is seen only in the
(B) the way lizards’ rib muscles come into play savanna monitors.
while it is running, to assist in its breathing. (C) head muscles are used in breathing.
(C) how a cold blooded animal burns a lot of energy (D) the lizard too, like the monitor, uses a different
when compared to others. mechanism of breathing while running.
(D) how oxygen debt in one animal leads to panting
while it does not in its relative. 26. Which of the following statement(s) is/are true, as
per the passage?
24. David Carrier's study about the green iguana (A) In mammals, the diaphragm aids in breathing in
conformed that: addition to the rib muscles.
(a) it does not breathe while running. (B) Oxygen debt will result in the accumulation of
(b) its rib muscles play a vital role in locomotion. lactic acid in muscles.
(c) it burns energy very fast. (C) In the hierarchy of the evolutionary process, the
(d) it energetically spends most of its time looking use of lungs for breathing comes at a later stage.
for food. (D) All the above.
(A) Only (a) is true.
(B) Only (a) and (b) are true. 27. Regarding gular pumping,
(C) Only (a), (b) and (c) are true. (A) only the monitors use it.
(D) Only (b), (c) and (d) are true. (B) the monitors are more dependant on it.
(C) any animal with higher metabolic rate needs it.
25. The joint effort of physiologists and biomechanists (D) all reptiles use it.

No. of words 1208 896 768 941
No. of Qs. 9 5 8 5
EXERCISE – 7
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
There is one great difference between the Dharmic method and Islam, which must be stated clearly. In Islam, the
meditations on human life have God as their absolute centre. It is to his revelation, contained in the Koran, that the light
of life belongs. It is in that light that the human condition is to be seen; for the light of God is the most radiant of all lights.
The light of reason is not discounted in the Koran, nor is it discounted in the history of Islam. Rather, it was in that light
that the Islamic world made important contributions to the march of science, more especially in astronomy and
medicine. But the light of human reason was seen in Islam as limited when it came to the question of foundations of
human relations. There, in the very nature of man's existence, the ultimate appeal could only be to the grace and mercy
of God. And all human questions were to be decided on that basis. That has been the view not only of Islamic faith but
also of Judaism and Christianity.
But in Dharma, God is not brought into the picture in any central way. Dharma explains the human condition in human
terms. Therefore, the responsibility of what we are and become, individually and collectively is ours : it is futile for us to
try to shift it to God. That does not, however, turn Dharma into a naturalistic principle. While man may be explained and
understood in human terms, the Mahabharata demonstrates at every step that man is fully man only in the measure that
he transcends the human condition. Its plain meaning is that in the flow of history, it is given to man to stand apart from
it. Transcendence is thus at the very centre of Dharma as the universal foundation of human order. History and
transcendence do not negate each other. Rather, one requires the other : for, without history, transcendence is empty,
meaningless; without transcendence, history is unbearable, a tyranny.
What the Dharmic method suggests is that the question whether man can be understood in human terms mainly, or it
necessarily requires God and His revelation to reveal to man the meaning of human life, need neither divide mankind on
this issue nor paralyse a person with moral doubt. For, whatever may be the answers to this question, it is not
necessary for human living to resolve it decisively. The foundations of human relationships, personal and social, will still
be trust, caring and justice. The fact that the largest part of the Koran is concerned with these proves that in Islam, faith
in the unity of god requires their practice and not merely a declaration of that faith.
The immense difficulty in answering questions regarding the destiny of man, and man's relationship with God must
never turn into an alibi for not acknowledging the primacy of one man's relation with another.
Moreover, it is undeniable that there has been, and even today there is, as much antagonism among the believers as
between the theists and the atheists. The violence that has been done by the believers to each other in the name of
God is a sad part of human history. Violence is not physical violence only; but also the violence of rejection of the other.
By showing that what is fundamental to human life are not our ideas and conceptions of God, or of Truth, or of the good,
but what our attitudes to others, even to those who do not believe with us, ought to be if we genuinely believed in god
and Truth. Dharma reconciles different people who perceive life differently.
The Koran does likewise. In my reading of it, at any rate. In its sura 10, ayats 99-100, the Koran says : But if thy Lord
has pleased, verify all who are in the world would have believed together. Will thou then compel men to become
believers? No soul can believe but by the permission of God'. Again, in sura 42, ayat 8, If God had so willed, He could
have made them a single people; but He admits whom He will to His Mercy'.
The same reminder is given earlier, in sura 16, ayat 93. That is done in the context of the Koran speaking of the
diversity of creation : 'And the things on this earth while He has multiplied in varying colours (and qualities) : Verify in
this is a sign for men to celebrate the praises of God (in gratitude)'. It is evident that the varying colours refer not simply
to physical colours but, more importantly, to the diversity of intellectual and spiritual colours. The Koran does not
demand the uniformity of their colours. And, finally, it says : 'Let there be no compulsion in religion' (sura 2, ayat 256.)
What it means, clearly and beyond doubt, is that any resort to violence to settle differences of faith and opinion is
profoundly un-Islamic - because it is profoundly un-Koranic.
On this very question there is a parable in the Mahabharata. Several sages together go to Brahma, the Primeval Being,
and recount the varying conceptions of the Good. They complain : 'this is the Good, this is the Good - hearing this from
all sides, people feel confused and harassed, and so continue to believe in what their ancestors believed. Now you tell
us what, indeed, is the Good'. Without going into the relative merits of the different perceptive merits of the different
perceptions of the Good, Brahma simply says to them : 'Ahimsa, or non-violence, is the highest Dharma'. That, and the
varying ideas of the good, is what is fundamental to the human community.
The violence that we do to each other has many levels and many forms - from dismal and petty to grand and
cataclysmic. We seek to justify them on one ground or another. There is, in the Brihadaranyak Upanishad, this parable
of the three da's, which throws a clear light on the origins of violence in us.
This short parable ends by the Upanishad saying that the ultimate instruction to man - da, da, da - could be heard in the
thunder of the sky. To the Gods, given to pleasure : self-control, dama; to man, given to acquisition : sharing, dana; and
to demon, given to cruelty and violence : compassion, daya. There are no Gods, nor are there demons : man carries
within himself both. In his pursuit of pleasure, he is godlike; and in his quest for power over others, he is demon-like.
So the truth is that pleasure, acquisition and power, if they are not bound by the discipline of self-control, sharing and
compassion, must produce the violence of greed and arrogance. This is the essence of Dharma.
1. As per the passage, the holy text of Muslims, the Koran (B) Transcendence means transcendence of one of
(A) exhorts people of all hues to embrace the the three dimensions of time, i.e. past.
religion propounded by the prophet. (C) That history makes life more interesting.
(B) exhorts the followers of the Islam to stop (D) Unless you study the flow of life, you cannot
proliferation of different faiths. understand the meaning of life.
(C) accepts that variety is the existential reality and
there need not be any compulsion in matter of faith. 5. The author of the passage opines that
(D) exhorts unequivocally to slay the infidels. (A) unless the meaning of the human life is known,
life is aimless.
(B) unless some basic facts of life are known there
2. What, in the opinion of the Primeval Being, is the
is no point in living.
highest conception of good?
(C) God's revelation to select individuals forms the
(A) Non-violence (B) Charity
basis of religion.
(C) Compassion (D) Self control
(D) a man can lead a right life without getting
embroiled in the metaphysics of religion and
3. What, according to the passage, is the major meaning of life.
difference between the Dharmic approach and the
approach of Islam? 6. Which of the following statements is true as per the
(A) Human life and God are inextricably linked in passage?
case of the former whereas that is not so in (A) We seek to justify the violence we perpetrate in
case of the latter. the society through many arguments.
(B) In the former human conditions are described in (B) Man carries within himself both good and bad.
humanistic terms where as in the latter all (C) A man can be demonic or divine depending on
aspects of human life are inseparable from God. his acts.
(C) The former is more secular than the latter. (D) All of the above.
(D) While the former emphasises charity, the latter
emphasises frugality as a virtue. 7. What, according to the author, is fundamental to
human life?
4. What does the author mean when he says "without (A) Our conception of God
history transcendence is empty or meaningless?" (B) Our conception of what is good and what is bad
(A) When no past exists what is the meaning in (C) Our attitudes towards others
going beyond the past. (D) Our ability to relate religion to daily life.
8. What, according to the passage, is the essence of 9. What is meant by transcendence of human condition?
Dharma? (A) Knowing that you are the spirit and not merely
(A) To indulge in philanthropy. the body
(B) To be compassionate towards others. (B) Knowing that you are not a human
(C) To lead a righteous life. (C) Going beyond the society
(D) The pursuit of pleasure and power must be (D) Taking the responsibility of your present
tempered by self control. condition on yourself
PASSAGE – II
Since the 1980s, there has been continuous public debate in our country about the desirability of taking a second look
at the Constitution of India, in the light of the rich experience of democratic practice gained since 1947. This debate has
acquired a new urgency in recent years, partly because of the instability in apex politics and partly, also, because legal
experts, individual politicians and organised political groups within the country feel the need for some changes in our
system of governance to render it more efficient and open to popular participation.
When we consider the Constitution, as it was framed in 1950, it is important to remember that there was a pre-history to
constitution framing in British India. Our imperial rulers had attempted to create constitutional systems with limited
democratic sanctions in 1909, in 1919 and in 1935. These constitutions drew upon certain principles which we can
recapitulate with profit today. According to democratic theory, constitutions can either be constructed on the basis of Whig
principles, or they can rest upon liberal principles. Whig constitutions attempt to mobilise like-minded social communities
and interest groups; while liberal institutions reach out to the individual citizen, and are based upon territorial constituencies.
The British created Whig instead of liberal constitutions in India; because through drawing upon vested interests within
society; they could strengthen their rule by conjuring into existence counter-poised social groups.
In contrast to the constitutional structure crafted by the British, the nationalist leadership had attempted to create a truly liberal
prescriptive framework for a liberated India in 1928. This Constitution rested upon the adoption of adult franchise. Such a
recommendation was a revolutionary measure, in view of the fact that democratic theory does not necessarily advocate the
extension of voting rights to those who are illiterate; nor does it support the provision of voting rights for those who are devoid
of property. Needless to say, in the period in question, the majority of Indians did not satisfy either of these conditions.
When we interrogate the nationalist debate on the business of an appropriate Constitution for India in the last phase of
the freedom struggle, we discover that there was a considerable difference of opinion on the desirable relationship
between a pan-Indian centre of governance, on one hand, and the regional centres of governance, on the other.
Some of the participants in this debate, who were influenced by Gandhian ideology, talked of the need for establishing a
truly federal and decentralised polity, largely based upon revitalised village communities. As against this view, those
inclined to lean upon liberal practice, advocated a more centralised system of governance.
One of the harsh realities of political life in South Asia, at the time when the Constituent Assembly of India was engaged
in its task, was the fact that the British empire broke up into two sovereign units. The decision of the Muslim majority
provinces of British India, to constitute themselves into Pakistan, aroused the apprehension in the minds of the
nationalist leadership in India that they might have to face further attempts at secession from a future Indian Union.
As a result of this apprehension, the Gandhian notion of a truly decentralised and federal India, did not receive the
serious attention in the debate on the Constitution which it otherwise deserved.
If an unwarranted centralisation of power was the crucial weakness of the Constitution of 1950, then its great strength
lay in conferring voting rights on every adult member of Indian society. Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to assert
that the exercise of the right to vote by the citizens of India has, more than anything else, sustained the Republic over
the past five decades.
As we dwell upon the provisions of the Indian Constitution from the vantage point of the new century, we cannot but be
struck by the wisdom and the courage with which the founding fathers of the nation laid down the rules by which
democratic practice in the country was to be shaped. Let us consider the question of the Presidential form of
governance, which enjoys support in some circles today. The framers of the Constitution were acutely conscious of the
fact that they were devising rules and procedures designed to shape liberal practice in a very diverse and highly plural
society. Indeed, so diverse are the social constituents of our nation, that it is difficult to imagine that a President,
even one elected directly on the basis of adult franchise, could represent the rich diversity and infinite variety of Indian
society. As against this, the so-called Westminster model, with provision for a broad based cabinet headed by a Prime
Minister, all drawn from an elected legislature, provides a much more appropriate and resilient mechanism for the
governance of a highly plural society.
It is widely believed, among psephologists, that the first-past-the poll system puts a heavy premium upon political
stability in a society. This is brought about by giving a majority in the legislature to a political party, even when the
number of votes it receives may be less than half the total number of votes cast. Theoretically speaking, a system of
proportional representation provides the legislatures with a distribution of seats among different parties that is fairer
than the distribution resulting from the first-past-the poll system. For this very reason, however, the latter system
bestows a great measure of stability on the system of governance. The founding fathers of the Constitution were fully
conscious of the crucial need for stability in Indian society which is characterised by great social diversity and a skewed
distribution of wealth among its diverse constituents. Hence, they calculatedly adopted an electoral system which put a
heavy premium on stability in governance.
However, we should in the first instance remember that no constitution - howsoever wisely crafted, - can by itself
resolve all the social and political problems which confront a society. Beyond this lies an arena of constitutional
engineering, where a well-thought-out amendment, substantial or modest, may provide a more congenial climate for a
resolution of the problems which democracy faces in India today. Nevertheless, it can be confidently stated that any
major change in the Constitution of India, more particularly, a change leading to a strong Presidential Executive, directly
elected by the citizens, may increase the intensity of social conflict and hence promote instability within the country.
10. What is meant by "first-past-the-poll" system? 14. The decision in favour of centralisation of power was
(A) The political party or candidate that crosses the influenced largely by
50% mark first during the counting of the votes (A) Gandhiji’s not being in favour of decentralisation
wins the election. of power.
(B) The formation of a government by a coalition of (B) our model constitution, the British Constitution,
minority parties. which was centralised and successful.
(C) A system wherein a party can come to power (C) the failure of decentralisation in the newly
even if it secures less than 50% of the votes independent countries of South Asia.
polled. (D) the formation of Pakistan which led to an
(D) A system wherein recounting is not allowed. apprehension of similar secession in future.
11. The British introduced the Whig constitution in India 15. We can say that the author
out of a desire (A) is a strong supporter of presidential form
(A) to strengthen their rule by rousing social groups government.
that would neutralise one another. (B) is indifferent to the form of government –
(B) to satisfy the two seemingly incompatible presidential or parliamentary.
groups − the Hindus and the Muslims. (C) does not feel that the presidential form would do
(C) to incorporate the principles of their constitution justice to the plurality of our country.
in the Indian constitution. (D) is keen to promote democracy in the country,
(D) to give India the better option. whatever be the form it takes.
12. A major shortcoming of the Constitution of 1950, 16. Why has the debate for making significant changes
according to the author, was: in the Indian Constitution acquired urgency?
(A) Unqualified adult franchise. (A) Lack of stability in politics at the highest level.
(B) Granting excessive power to the centre. (B) The general feeling that constitutional reform
holds the key to better governance.
(C) Adopting representative democracy.
(C) To gain the benefit of our experience with
(D) Parliamentary form of government. democracy since independence.
(D) Both (A) and (B).
13. The author subscribes to the view that
(A) a Constitution which is drafted carefully can, by 17. The Constitution crafted by the nationalists
itself, resolve all the social and political recommended
problems facing a country. (A) voting rights only to those who are literate.
(B) amending the constitution is uncalled for since (B) franchise only to those having property.
the required changes can be brought about by (C) self rule at the village level.
Acts of the parliament. (D) adult franchise as the majority were poor and
(C) amending the Constitution is only the last resort illiterate.
for solving problems in a democracy.
(D) amending the Constitution is a good way of
solving problems in a democracy and should be
done in a judicious manner.
PASSAGE – III
Carnatic Sangeet, a South Indian system of music, is found in the south Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka. These states are known for their strong presentation of Dravidian culture. In the West, Carnatic
Sangeet is not as well known as Hindustani Sangeet (north Indian music). Whenever Westerners think of Indian music,
they immediately think of Ravi Shankar and the sitar. Although South Indian music is extremely sophisticated, there has not
emerged an artist with the widespread recognition that North Indian artistes, like Ravi Shankar, have been able to generate.
The reasons for the differentiation between North and South Indian music is not clear. The generally held belief is that
North Indian music evolved along different lines due to an increased exposure to the Islamic world. This results from
nearly 800 years of Islamic rule over northern India. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that this answer is a gross
over-simplification. For instance, Kerala has an extremely large Muslim population, but virtually no identification with
North Indian music. By the same token, the Islamic influence over Orissa was negligible, yet the artistic forms are
clearly identifiable as Hindustani. Although there is a poor correlation between the geographical distribution of
Hindus/Muslims and the two musical systems; there is an almost exact correlation between the
Indo-European/Dravidian cultures and the two musical systems. Therefore, we come to the politically uncomfortable,
yet inescapable conclusion that the differences between North and South Indian music does not represent a
differentiation caused by Islamic influence, but instead represents a continuation of fundamental cultural differences.
We can begin our discussion of the history of Carnatic Sangeet with Purandardas. He is considered to be the father of Carnatic
Sangeet. He is given credit for the codification of the method of education, and is also credited with several thousand songs.
Venkat Mukhi Swami (17th century) is the grand theorist of Carnatic music. He was the one who developed the melakarta
system. This is the system for classifying south Indian ragas. Carnatic music really acquired its present form in the 18th century.
It was during this period that the "trinity" of Carnatic music, Thyagaraja, Shamashastri, and Muthuswami Dikshitar composed
their famous compositions. In addition to our "trinity", numerous other musicians and composers enriched this tradition.
Carnatic music has a very highly developed theoretical system. It is based on the complex system of ragam (rag) and
thalam (tal). These describe the intricacies of the melodic and rhythmic forms respectively. The melodic foundation is
the ragam (rag). Ragam (rag) is basically the scale. The seven notes of the scale are Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha and Ni.
However, unlike a simple scale, there are certain melodic restrictions and obligations. Each ragam (rag) has a particular
way that moves from note to note. The ragams are categorised into various modes. These are referred to as mela, and
there are 72 in number. The melas are conceptually similar to those in North Indian music. There is however, a major
difference. South Indian scales allow chromatic forms that are not allowed in Hindustani sangeet. For instance, it is
perfectly acceptable for the first three notes (i.e., Sa Re Ga) to all be roughly one semitone apart. It is these permissible
forms which allows so many melas. The tal (thalam) is the rhythmic foundation to the system. The south Indian tals are
defined by a system of clapping and waving, while this is much less important in the north. North Indian musicians
define their tals by their theka.
Nomenclature is one of the biggest differences between North and South Indian music. It is normal for a particular rag
or tal to be called one thing in the North and something totally different in the South. It is also common for the same
name to be applied to very different rags and tals. It is these differences in nomenclature that have made any theoretical
reconciliation difficult. Vocal music forms the basis of South Indian music. Although there is a rich instrumental tradition
that uses vina, venu and violin, they revolve around instrumental renditions of vocal forms. There are a number of
sections to the Carnatic performance. Varnam is a form used to begin many South Indian performances. The word
varnam literally means a description and this section is used to unfold the various important features of the ragam.
The kritis are fixed compositions in the rag. They have well identified compositions and do not allow much scope for
variation. However such compositions are often preceded by alapana. The alapana offers a way to unfold the ragam to
the audience, and at the same time, allows the artiste considerable scope for improvisation. These and the kalpana
swara also provide opportunities to improvise. Another common structure is the ragam, thanam, and pallavi.
South Indian performances are based upon three major sections. These are the pallavi, anupallavi and charanam.
These roughly correspond to the sthai, antara and the abhog in Hindustani sangeet.
18. Where can a singer indulge in artistic liberty while 22. The melakarta system of the South Indian music
performing Carnatic music? (A) codifies the melas.
(A) During alapana (B) describes the intricacies of the Carnatic music.
(B) While singing varnam (C) classifies the ragas falling under it.
(C) During pallavi (D) is a major part of its theoretical content.
(D) While rendering kritis
23. The existence of many melas suggests
19. One of the reasons cited in the passage responsible (A) many authors. (B) multiple ragas.
for the low profile image of South Indian music is (C) flexibility. (D) chromatic tones.
(A) the richness of its theoretical content.
(B) the intricacy of the system of rag and tal. 24. In case of tal,
(C) the absence of a globally recognised Carnatic (A) it describes the intricacies of the rhythmic form
icon. of Carnatic music.
(D) the rigidity of a rag. (B) it is very important in the South Indian music
system.
20. The factor responsible for two distinct forms of (C) theka is its Hindustani counterpart.
music to flourish in the same country is: (D) all hold true.
(A) the prevalence of Indo-European and Dravidian
cultures. 25. “Theoretical reconciliation” means
(B) the basic cultural differences that allowed one (A) distinct nomenclature.
type of music to develop under a particular (B) harmonization of the literature of both systems
culture. of music
(C) the excessive influence of the Muslim rulers. (C) identical names in both systems of music.
(D) the personal choice of the people residing under (D) agree in theory but not in practice.
a particular culture.
26. A Varnam
(A) has scope for improvisation.
21. The culture most prevalent in South India, as
(B) follows a Kriti during a recital.
inferred from the passage is
(C) is comparable to antara.
(A) Dravidian. (B) Mughal.
(D) depicts various important features of the ragam.
(C) European. (D) Islamic.

No. of words 1132 1056 823
No. of Qs. 9 8 9
EXERCISE – 8
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
It is time to take note of the costs and benefits of nuclear tests. It is now established that India can produce nuclear
warheads and the means of delivering them up to a certain distance. With Chinese nuclear warheads deployed in Lhasa
and pointed at Indian targets, India has no option but to meet the nuclear blackmail of China with countervailing Indian
nuclear deterrent. Indian agencies should push on with plans to develop missiles which can deliver up to 15,000 km,
that should be adequate deterrent to all and shall discourage adventurism from any quarter.
It has been China’s obsession to prevent India from graduating. China assiduously built Pakistan against India, violating
commitments under agreements and against the spirit of non-proliferation measures like NPT, CTBT, FMCT and MTCR.
Conveniently, USA looked the other way and went out of the way to invent alibis and enact legislation to help in the
further building up of Pakistan. China and USA did not endear themselves to thinking Indians.
May 1998 shall be remembered in history as the month which saw fundamental changes in power equations in several
areas. The change is not limited nuclear weapons; till now exercised by the five powers. It has upset the balance of
power so carefully built by the sole remaining superpower and has made nonsense of USA’s will and determination,
ability and pretension to establish and keep in place a world order which would ensure, among other things, continued
maintenance of that monopoly.
It has shattered the lingering vestiges of dominance in the nuclear field which has been guarded so far by a carefully
devised and controlled cartel. With two more Asiatic latecomers and a third knocking at the door (and not even caring to
seek admittance), that myth has been demolished. Nothing that the five powers may agree upon, even with the support
of several economic powers (Japan, Germany, Canada and Italy) shall revive or re-establish the myth of nuclear
superiority or even the nuclear monopoly of the five. The five have no choice but to make peace with the new actuality.
That realization has been most grudging and painful for the five, specially for USA.
India should not be begging for recognition as a nuclear weapon state. The Prime Minister’s declaration meets the
requirement adequately. We should leave the world alone and allow them reasonable time to reconcile themselves to
the fact.
Nor need we beg for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. If that status is due, the rest of the world shall see
that. Let us concentrate on building up our economic strength. The world will then want to do business with us.
And nothing much will be lost if they don’t do business with us. We are not dependent on others for anything basic.
Nor are we likely to be brought to our knees if they do not buy our products.
India is a continental country, a vast market, a people with enormous purchasing power. Most of what we produce can
be used within the country. Profits may be less considerable but all proceeds shall remain within the country. Everything
shall, and must be produced with indigenous technology and raw materials. We should exclude items of foreign
manufacture which we can produce within the country. Coke and Pepsi, Wimpy, Macdonald, KCF, imported soaps and
tooth pastes should be among the first to go. Non-essential imports should be stopped altogether. We should take care,
though, that we do not violate agreements.
We need not bother much whether Pakistan used wholly indigenous technology in building its nuclear devices and
missiles. There is neither need nor sign of a nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan. It may be expected, though,
that eventually both shall build adequate stocks of nuclear weapons which are clearly the currency of power.
1. What should India concentrate on, according to the 3. Which of the following is a description of India, as
passage? given in the passage?
(A) Building up its economic strength (A) India can violate agreements with other
(B) Strengthening its foreign connections countries without any repercussions.
(C) Building up friendly relations with China (B) India is not a continental country.
(D) Strengthening its nuclear power (C) The market in India has excluded items of
foreign manufacture.
2. What according to the passage, is an established (D) The country is a vast market and a people with
fact about India?
enormous purchasing power.
(A) India is not economically sound to produce
nuclear warheads. 4. What according to the passage, meet India’s need
(B) India has been obstructed by China in its
to be recognised as a nuclear weapon state?
‘nuclear’ endeavours.
(C) India is now capable of producing nuclear (A) The enormous purchasing power
warheads. (B) The number of missiles manufactured
(D) India is not capable of delivering its nuclear (C) The Prime Minister’s declaration
warheads. (D) A seat in the UN security council
5. Which of the following is true, according to the passage?
(A) India should maintain a balance between its imports and exports.
(B) Indians should stop using foreign products which can be manufactured here.
(C) All foreign goods should be rejected irrespective of how much they are required.
(D) Some of the foreign goods like Pepsi and imported tooth pastes should be retained.
PASSAGE – II
B ritish agrarian policy was conditioned not only by the need to economically consolidate the position of India’s class of
feudal landowners, the strong hold of the colonialists, but also by the changes that were taking place within the system
of colonial exploitation in India. The exploitation of India as a source of raw materials and a commodity market as early
as the 1850s and the 1860s constituted the main form of colonial plunder. Intensification of the exploitation of the
country as an agrarian and raw material appendage of capitalist Britain called for the creation of conditions more
favourable to the growth of agricultural output and in particular to the raising of its marketability. This in its turn
presupposed the consolidation of private rights of land ownership.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the conversion of India into just such an appendage of Britain was in the
main completed. As a result of the gradual decline of Britain’s role as the “workshop of the world” and also the
intensification of German and French expansion in Africa, South-East Asia and Oceania, which confined Britain’s
position as leading colonial power, India’s importance for the development of the British economy was enhanced.
This process was accelerated by the cotton boom of the 1860s, when British capitalists drastically increased their raw
material exports from India, in particular cotton exports. The Civil War in the United States (1862-1865) reduced the
export of American cotton to the European market, and this immediately increased the demand for Indian cotton. Its
share in Britain’s cotton imports tripled in the period 1860-1868. India was becoming Britain’s main cotton supplier. The
growth of cotton production in India was triggered by export demand. In the 1860s, Central and Western India were
transformed into regions specializing in the production of cotton for export.
The end of the Civil War in the United States meant the end of the cotton boom and a fall in prices for Indian cotton, yet the growth
in cotton production in the country continued. In the last three decades of the century, new bases for cotton production grew up in
the Punjab and Sind, particularly in the irrigated lands. Growth in trade between India and Britain reflected the continuing division
of labour between the British processing industry and Indian agriculture, between the British towns and the Indian villages.
Beginning with the 1860s, the British bourgeoisie began bringing more agricultural produce from India. The bulk of all
India’s exports (eighty percent of the cotton for example) went to Britain. India was becoming Britain’s main food supplier.
The total value of the commodities brought annually from India tripled between 1860 and the end of the century. The
exploitation of India as a commodity market had also increased. During the period in question, India’s imports from Britain
increased five fold. The bulk of these imports were fabrics, metal utensils and also other types of consumer goods.
The colonial character of India’s foreign trade turnover can be seen from the following figures: in 1879 manufactured
articles constituted only eight percent of all Indian exports, but 65 percent of her imports. Meanwhile within the system
of colonial exploitation of India, the crippling taxes that bled dry the working people of the country, in particular the
peasants, continued to play a significant part. In the middle of the sixties, new taxes for the rural population were
introduced, the rates of land taxation began to be increased. Meanwhile it was acknowledged by the colonial officials
themselves that land taxes were collected regularly from the land holders in bad years just as in good ones.
The revenues of the British colonial state, the main sources of which were direct and indirect taxation, increased from
361 million rupees in 1859 to 851 million rupees in 1890. The growth of the tax burden reflects how the country was
being turned into an agrarian and raw material appendage. Taxes forced the Indian peasants to sell at the markets a
considerable part of their produce. This gave rise to conditions making it much easier for the British to pump agricultural
raw materials out of the country.
This meant that with the advent of the new epoch, the old methods of colonial exploitation began to be adapted for new
goals, the extortion of raw materials for Britain’s own needs at home. The intensified exploitation of India as a source of
raw materials and a market for industrial goods served to promote the development of commodity-money relations in
both the Indian towns and villages. The growth of simple commodity production at a time when the capitalist mode of
production was still in the process of formation provided for the further penetration of trading and usury capital into the
sphere of agricultural production and the crafts industry.
Representatives of the merchants’ and moneylenders’ castes, who in feudal times had monopolised the trading and
credit operations, strove to settle in the regions now geared to a single-crop culture, particularly in the Punjab, and
Western and Central India. The capital put into circulation by Indian traders and moneylenders developed the lower and
middle links in India’s system of commodity distribution - from the powerful British or Indian wholesaler, conducting
export-import deals, to the consumer and producer - the Indian peasant and artisan. The accumulation of money capital
by Indian traders and money lenders had two important socio-economic consequences: the introduction of traders’ and
moneylenders’ castes into the landowning sector of the population on the one hand, and the emergence of the pre-
conditions for the formation of a national industry on the other.
6. Which, among the following is not a direct reason for 10. The author uses the term, ‘the colonial character’ in
the increased dependence of Britain’s economy on order to emphasise that there was,
Indian exports? (A) a negligible level of industrialization in India.
(A) The Civil War in the United States of America (B) an unnecessary emphasis being put on the rural
(B) The rise of Germany and France as colonial economy.
powers to reckon with (C) an agricultural production that was being
(C) Decline of Britain’s role as the workshop of the pushed with the sole intention of export.
world (D) a lack of self sufficiency in case of the industrial
(D) Cotton boom of the 1860s sector.
7. The statement, ‘the continuing division of labour 11. The sects of money lenders and merchants in the
between the British processing industry and the Indian economy
Indian agriculture’ in the passage reflects (A) served as middlemen between the wholesalers
(A) the efforts of the British to create a wedge and consumers/producers.
between workers of industry and the agricultural (B) played a part in the subsequent industrialisation
labourers in India. process by way of capital providers.
(B) the equitable sharing of the profits arising out of (C) accumulated money which became capital.
increased exports between the British industry (D) did all the above.
and the Indian agriculture.
(C) the large gap observed in the life styles of the 12. Why would it have ‘become easier for the British to
British industrial workers and the Indian peasants. pump agricultural raw materials out of the country’ at
(D) the fact that when the Indian agricultural the point of time specified in the passage?
labourers were engaged in agricultural (A) By then, India’s economy was modified to serve
production, the British industrial workers were only as a supplier of raw material.
engaged in processing the raw materials into (B) Distress sale by farmers while meeting the
manufactured items. governmental obligations made the produce
freely available in the market.
8. The author most probably is (C) The levels of tax were too high for a common
(A) a chronicler, recording the events of historic man to pay from his meagre savings; hence he
importance. preferred to sell the produce in the local market.
(B) a communist at heart, sympathetic to the cause (D) The class of feudal lords colluded with the
of the working class. British in order to maintain their stranglehold
(C) an archivist, presenting a part of a country’s past. over the poor peasants.
(D) a critic, involved in analysing the policies
adopted by various colonial countries. 13. Which of the following statements is not true,
according to the passage?
9. The export scenario immediately after the end of the (A) India’s consumption of British goods increased
Civil War of 1862 during the late eighteenth century.
(A) did not change, since only the export (B) Land owners had to pay taxes even when there
destinations had changed. was a decline in agricultural production.
(B) reflects the tailoring of tested methods of (C) The British were able to modify their agrarian
exploitation to suit the goals of a new era. policy as warranted by the socio-economic
(C) reiterates the fact that India was indeed changes in India.
exploited as a source of raw material. (D) The revenues of the British India decreased
(D) shows how the Indian agrarian sector was during the period of 1859 and 1890.
manipulated to suit Britain’s selfish needs.
PASSAGE – III
Researchers at the University of California-San Diego have embarked upon a search for the unique genetic and molecular
programmes operating inside prostate cancer cells. They hope to figure out which programmes make some cancers
aggressive and which ones tell others to remain dormant. "The biggest problem with prostate cancer screening is that we
are overtreating," says doctor Carol Salem, a UCSD investigator and Assistant Professor of Surgery. "We really want to be
sure we're treating the right patients because treating prostate cancer poses a threat to a man's quality of life."
The UCSD endeavour is part of a booming nationwide effort to gather the molecular profiles of all cancers. Already,
investigators have deciphered profiles of melanomas, leukemias, and breast cancers, among many others, and found
intriguing results. Cancers that look the same under the microscope may actually be completely different diseases because
they have distinct genetic characteristics, and therefore they require different treatments. Indeed, a new molecular
perspective is expected to soon enable doctors to look beyond traditional cancer classification techniques – the size, shape,
and location of tumors – and make critical decisions for patients based on a sound understanding of their tumor's biology.
Eventually, the entire diagnostic vocabulary will require overhaul. "Right now, we say silly things like breast cancer or
lung cancer," says Larry Norton, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Chief of Medical Oncology
at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. In the future, he says, clinicians will identify cancer not by the
site where it arises, but rather by the kinds of molecular defects it has. In other words, a typical patient would be
diagnosed with a certain kind of cancer that just happens to be in the breast or lung. Then, the treatment would match
the patient's tumor type, not simply its location.
It's not that scientists had an epiphany about cancer. It's just that they now have the tools to effectively investigate its
genetic complexity. Until recently, cancer researchers laboriously studied one gene at time. But advances in molecular
biology and computer science are combining to accelerate cancer exploration. In particular, a new tool called the gene
chip, invented by Stanford biochemist Patrick Brown, is now allowing researchers to sort through thousands of genes at
a time, doing the work of years in just a few days.
The gene chip, known more technically as a DNA microarray, is a thumbnail-size glass wafer embedded with thousands
of genes. Despite its name, the chip has no relation to a microprocessor and involves just a few simple steps to produce
and use. In fact, many labs are building their own machines to make the chips. Each gene chip analysis gives a readout
of the distinct patterns of genes switched on or off in a cell, effectively letting the researcher peer inside and get a
comprehensive snapshot of the cellular dynamics at work. "[It's] the molecular microscope of modern cancer research,"
says Todd Golub, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Director of Cancer Genomics at the
Whitehead/MIT Centre for Genome Research.
The new science is still being feverishly worked out in the lab, but already there are signs of its clinical potential. Indeed,
normally cautious scientists are using superlatives they generally avoid, to describe how molecular profiling will change
the ways doctors detect, diagnose, and treat diseases.
Oncology's first rule has always been to spot cancer early, when it is most vulnerable. That's why a lot of effort has gone
into refining early-detection instruments such as mammography, X-rays, and CT scans. These technologies, however,
are far from perfect. They can miss critical tumors and raise alarms over benign ones. A growing number of researchers
now believe that the future of early detection lies in discovering cancer's molecular signposts deep within the body, even
before the disease becomes visible or symptomatic.
As cancer silently moves about the body, it leaves an incriminating trail of genes and proteins – a residue fundamentally
different from that shed by normal tissue. Several teams of scientists are working on blood, saliva, and urine tests to
catch those hallmark gene and protein patterns. One group recently reported promising results for a potential ovarian
cancer detection test, which they hope to replicate for prostate, breast, lung, and pancreatic cancers.
More than 80 percent of ovarian cancer cases are advanced by the time of detection, and only about a third of those
patients survive five years or more. Elise Kohn of the National Cancer Institute, has been working with other
government scientists on a test that would spot in one drop of blood the distinctive pattern of proteins associated with
ovarian cancer. The test gives results in 30 minutes, though it is still very much at the experimental stage.
To devise the simple test, Kohn's team took blood samples from cancer patients and healthy patients and ran them
through a device that sorts proteins by size and electrical charge. The device spewed out a chart for each sample's
protein pattern – "almost like a bar code you would get in a grocery store," says coinvestigator Emanuel Petricoin of the
Food and Drug Administration. Those bar codes were then fed into an artificial intelligence system, which "learned" to
sift out those with cancer from those without, by using a distinctive pattern of only a handful of proteins. To check the
"trained" computer's reliability, the scientists blindly fed it a set of unknown samples. It identified all 50 cancer patients
correctly – including 18 that were at early stages and thus highly curable – and it picked out 63 of 66 of the
noncancerous samples. Three healthy women would have gotten a false positive.
Barnett Kramer, Associate Director of the Office of Disease Prevention at the National Institute of Health, calls the study
"potent proof" that molecular techniques in principle can be used for early detection, but he cautions against premature
conclusions. The test still needs validation by other researchers using many more patients; and it needs to be piloted in
the real world to see if the benefits of screening healthy people outweigh the harms. If it can pass these tests, a cancer
that whispers may finally be heard.
14. Scientists are concentrating increasingly on (C) A renewed emphasis on identifying cancer by
molecular studies of cancerous cells as a way to the site where it occurs.
effectively fight the disease because (D) Identify cancer only after the symptoms become
(A) early detection techniques and devices are not manifest.
fool proof.
16. “The molecular microscope” is
(B) results are reliable with present methods.
(A) is an optical instrument for making genes visible.
(C) they are attempting to detect the disease even (B) cellular dynamics.
before its explicit manifestation. (C) distinct pattern of genes.
(D) it is easier to detect the vulnerable cells based (D) the gene chip.
on analysis of blood, urine and saliva of
potential patients. 17. The statement, “a cancer that whispers may finally
be heard” implies :
15. The ‘new molecular perspective’ as described in the (A) Easy identification of molecular clues given off
passage is not expected to result in all of the by cancer.
following except (B) Early detection of cancer before becoming
(A) An overhauling of diagnostic vocabulary related visible or symptomatic.
to oncology. (C) Giving patient a better chance of survival.
(B) A reemphasis on traditional cancer classification (D) Treating the disease depending upon its unique
techniques. characteristics.
18. The test carried out by Kohn’s team (A) overtreating may actually deteriorate a patient’s
(A) was first used to detect ovarian cancer. quality of life.
(B) picks up the proteins unique to a cancer. (B) proper diagnostic techniques are not available.
(C) uses a computer to identify a potential victim by (C) it is next to impossible to decide the correct
the blood sample’s specific protein pattern. dosage of treatment.
(D) has a high rate of accuracy. (D) there is a chance that patients with some of the
non-aggressive types of cancers are also being
19. Researchers at the University of California- San treated.
Diego are trying to 24. One of the following can be inferred about cancer
(A) pinpoint the causes that predisposes one to an from the passage:
attack of cancer. (A) A person affected with cancer is doomed to a
(B) study the genetic makeup of all types of cancer. premature death.
(C) decipher the molecular programmes of patients. (B) Cancer is not life threatening any more.
(D) figure out the programmes which make some (C) Some forms of cancers are benign.
cancers aggressive and others dormant. (D) Treatments based on the type of tumor are
most effective.
20. Advanced research on cancer is being propelled by
(A) effective tools that study its gene completely. 25. Which of the following options summarizes para 7 of
(B) rapid advances made in molecular biology and the passage in the most appropriate manner?
computer science. (A) Since the cure for cancer lies in early detection,
(C) the DNA micro array. a lot of researchers believe that discovering the
(D) effective sorting computer packages. molecular signposts of cancer within the body,
before the disease becomes visible, is crucial
21. A chart for each sample’s protein content is for early detection.
compared to a barcode because (B) Instruments used for cancer detection being far
(A) both are unique for each entity. from reliable, researchers now believe that
(B) the charts are compatible with computers, like discovering the molecular signposts of cancer
barcodes. before the disease becomes symptomatic is
(C) they can be replicated. crucial for early detection.
(D) both are based on reading a magnetic field. (C) Researchers now believe that the future of early
detection of cancer lies in discovering the
22. The present way of treating cancer is based on molecular signposts of the disease before it
(A) the type of tumor. becomes symptomatic, rendering cancer
(B) the stage of the disease. detection instruments obsolete.
(D) Since cancer detection instruments have been
(C) the patient’s biology.
completely ineffective in the early detection of
(D) the location of the tumor.
the disease, researchers now believe that the
future of early detection lies in discovering the
23. In the content of the passage when Dr. Carol Salem molecular signposts before the disease
says that the doctors, at present, are overtreating becomes symptomatic.
prostrate cancers, he actually means that

No. of words 635 928 1025
No. of Qs. 5 8 12
EXERCISE – 9
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
Can the macabre experiments carried out by the Nazi doctors ever be justified even if it led to discoveries that
ultimately alleviated human suffering? Not really. For some, the same holds good even if cure for Alzheimer's,
Parkinson disease or diabetes were possible but only by destroying the embryos (by fishing out stem cells).
Their argument is 'destroying embryos is tantamount to killing human beings.' And that, according to Michael J. Sandel,
one of the members of the (U.S.) President's Council on Bioethics, which advises the administration on several issues
including stem cell research, is a flawed argument.
For the opponents of stem cells research, ensoulment begins at conception. The difficulty in pinpointing the moment when
the human person emerges during the passage from conception to birth means embryos should be treated with the same
respect as an individual. But Dr. Sandel writing in the 'New England Journal of Medicine' says the argument is flawed.
'The fact that every person began life as an embryo does not prove that embryos are persons,' argues Dr. Sandel.
According to him, every oak tree was once an acorn. But that does not imply that all acorns are oak trees. Stretching the
analogy further, he says, if all acorns are indeed oak trees, then an acorn eaten by a squirrel will mean loss, or to be more
specific, death of an oak tree. But that is not so. So in spite of their developmental continuity, acorns and oak trees are different
kinds of things. The fate of embryos and human beings is no different. Human life, like the acorn, develops by degrees.
To further debunk their arguments, Dr. Sandel challenges the critics' insistence of according embryos the same moral
status generally reserved for human beings. "Perhaps the best way to see its implausibility is to play out its full
implications," he says. If indeed harvesting stem cells from embryos is akin to harvesting organs from a baby, then the
morally correct alternative will be to ban stem cell research and not just limit federal funding to a few cell lines.
God forbid, imagine a situation when doctors killed babies with an explicit intention of harvesting organs for
transplantation. Will the government take the moral high ground and declare that such a practice of killing children be
ineligible for federal funding and force the doctors to seek private funds?
If that is ghastly to our senses, what explanation does it have to justify its restricted funding pattern for stem cell
research, he wonders. "If we were persuaded that embryonic stem-cell research were tantamount to infanticide, we
would not only ban it but treat it as a grisly form of murder and subject scientists who performed it to criminal
punishment," he writes.
Going by opponents' view, if one were to regard an embryo as a person, then embryonic stem cell research should not be
the only one to stand close scrutiny. Fertility clinics around the world routinely create excess embryos with an express
mandate to spare the woman the ordeal of repeated procedures and to increase her chances of pregnancy. Excess
embryos are then summarily destroyed or frozen indefinitely in the process. Now come the double standard of accepting or
allowing the destruction of embryos created to treat infertility but protesting when used for stem cell research.
The issue gets further complicated. Natural pregnancy that outnumbers in-vitro fertilisation by thousands is no saint
either. It is a well-known fact that natural procreation entails the loss of several embryos for every successful birth.
"Perhaps we should worry less about the loss of embryos that occurs in in-vitro fertilisation and stem-cell research," he
opines. But the critics may take refuge in the argument that high infant mortality does not justify or sanction infanticide.
Of course not. But then the manner in which we respond to natural loss of embryos suggests that we do not consider
the loss akin to either moral or religious equivalent of the death of infants. "Moreover, if the embryo loss that
accompanies natural procreation were the moral equivalent of infant death, then pregnancy would have to be regarded
as a public health crisis of epidemic proportions," he writes. "Alleviating natural embryo loss would be a more urgent
moral cause than abortion, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research combined."
Even as the embryonic stem cell debate heats up in the Congress, the most vocal opponents of embryo research are
yet to mount a national campaign calling for a ban on in-vitro fertilisation or to prohibit the fertility clinics from creating
and discarding excess embryos. Then what else can be the justification to limit federal funding? There is a fear that
stem cell research will lead down the slippery slope of abuse and exploitation and this fear is not unfounded.
The answer lies in legislation and not in outright banning of technology. It serves none.
1. According to Dr. Sandel, 4. Which of the following statements are true according
(A) one of the urgent priorities is to reduce the to the passage?
number of embryos that are lost through natural (a) On an aggregate, more embryos are lost by way of
conception. in-vitro fertilisation than through natural pregnancies.
(B) embryos acquire personality traits at later (b) Embryo destruction for medical purposes is not
stages of their development. a novel concept.
(C) the government should stop all federal funding (c) Government funding is presently limited to a few
for stem cell research. stem cell lines.
(D) it is incorrect to say that an embryo is a (d) Apprehensions regarding the misuse of stem
nebulous miniature of a fully grown adult. cell research are largely baseless.
(A) Only (b) and (c) (B) Only (b) and (d)
2. The statement 'high infant mortality does not justify (C) Only (a), (c) and (d) (D) Only (b), (c) and (d)
infanticide' means that
(A) the proponents of stem cell research should not 5. The analogy between the embryo and the acorn
cite abortions as a justification for their crimes. assumes which of the following argument?
(B) the natural loss of an embryo does not have (A) Each acorn is unique just as each embryo is.
moral and ethical implications. (B) Every acorn need not necessarily grow into an
oak tree.
(C) the natural destruction of embryos is not a
(C) Acorns and embryos are miniatures of their fully
license for destroying them for research
grown forms.
purposes.
(D) Acorns and embryos are both devoid of
(D) the natural loss of embryos is akin to infanticide.
personality traits.
3. The main aim of the author is to 6. The limited federal funding for research into a few
(A) champion the cause of the pro stem cell stem cell lines implies which of the following?
research lobby. (A) Research in some lines holds greater promise
(B) expose the double standard adopted by the than in others.
opponents of stem cell research regarding (B) The morality of embryo destruction is linked to
embryo destruction. its end use.
(C) build a case for legislation that will regulate (C) Certain stem cell lines are more prone to
stem cell research. misuse than others.
(D) convince people that there is no moral or ethical (D) Destruction of embryo is justified in some cases
issue in stem cell research. while not in others.
7. The phrase 'the double standard' as used in the (A) corroboration. (B) contradiction.
passage means (C) correlation. (D) incongruity.
(A) legally allowing certain types of research even if
they involved embryo destruction. 9. In order that we obtain the benefits of stem cell
(B) giving the government's stamp of approval for research, there is an urgent need for
the destruction of embryos for scientific (A) close monitoring of the research activities.
purposes by way of funding the stem cell (B) banning destruction of embryos in fertility
research. clinics.
(C) treating the process of destruction of embryos in (C) identifying the point when the ensoulment of an
case of infertility problems to be moral while the embryo happens.
same in stem cell research being considered (D) ordinances that prevent the misuse of this
unethical. research.
(D) limiting the government's funding to stem cell
research in certain cells instead of enforcing a 10. Dr. Sandel would probably define an embryo as
blanket ban on all types of research involving (A) a human being with distinct identity.
embryos. (B) a rudimentary form of man.
(C) an entity with a soul.
8. The author's stand regarding the views expressed (D) only a fertilized egg.
by Dr. Sandel is one of
PASSAGE – II
By the 18 th
century, slavery and the trading of slaves had been conducted for so long and with such regularity that it
became an institution that was taken for granted. Yet, at the same time, this institution deemed so profitable – and
according to Simon Schama still a growth industry – was also becoming increasingly frowned upon in many circles. Why
was this? Had people suddenly awoken to realise their actions were immoral, or was there more to it? Did political
agenda play a role? Or was it simply the fact that with developments like the Industrial Revolution, slavery was no
longer economically viable? It is interesting that a trade which provided a cornerstone to the British Empire since 1562
and was reaching its peak by 1792 should be outlawed 15 years later in 1807 with the The Abolition of Slave Trade Act.
The 18th century saw a great change in moral and religious beliefs through the work of the Enlightenment. From 1748,
the argument arose that slavery was evil and it was part of a primitive society. Groups like the Quakers began to see the
error of their ways, so in 1758, they began a system of self-purification, concluding that the persecutions they had
suffered were punishments for allowing slavery. As a result, they started to campaign against slavery. The Protestants
wanted to change the evils in society, and they too looked to slavery. On the whole, these were at first only a small
minority of dissenting voices. By 1783, anti-slavery had become a national political issue, especially in Britain.
Suddenly, many arguments that had existed for hundreds of years found vast support. This can largely be attributed to
the American and French Revolutions when the ideas of equality and liberty began to get much more credence. Support
for the ideals of the French Revolution were high in Britain, with these being spread through correspondence societies,
meetings, and the printing of pamphlets. The concept of everyone being free and equal was no longer a pipe dream, but
an achievable objective. The American colonists felt that they were enslaved by the British, while many Britons felt they
were slaves too. They began to feel that by following the idea of equality for all and freeing the slaves, they could go
some distance in freeing themselves. In such a climate, slavery could not be seen as anything but wrong. In 1792,
a petition of 20,000 signatures was sent from Manchester. Such support helped the abolitionist William Wilberforce get
a bill banning the trading of slaves through the House of Commons in 1796. However, war with France and a fear of
radical uprising in Britain stopped the bill becoming law for another 11 years.
Even so, this was a remarkable stepdown for the British Government to make so quickly; one might have expected
them to put up more of a fight over a trade that was at the time so profitable. As a result of British maritime supremacy
in the 18th century, British ships were carrying around 50,000 slaves per year. Undoubtedly, public opinion played a
large part, but it is also likely that it was realised that slave trading was not as economically viable as it once was.
Slavery was seen as expensive, as slaves still had to be paid for and provided with necessities like food and clothing
when they were not working. It was also inefficient, as there were no incentives to work hard, and there was only ever a
limited work force. Working in harsh conditions resulted in limited production and limited returns. With the progress of
the Industrial Revolution and increased demand for products such as cotton, slavery was never going to keep up.
Slavery was becoming a liability, and it is easy to see why many governments began to decide it wasn’t worth the
hassle. Besides, with popular opinion as it was, supporting the abolitionist bandwagon would certainly offer much
valuable kudos for a struggling British Government and be far more valuable than the slave trade itself was. Banning the
trading of slaves by Britain could also be seen as an offensive maneuver. By being at war with Napoleon, the British
could hamstring the European colonies greatly by stopping the movement of slaves on the British ships they so relied
upon. It could also be seen as revenge for Napoleon’s continental system, the trade ban designed by France to cripple
Britain’s economy. Other countries soon followed Britain’s lead in banning the slave trade, such as the Dutch in 1814
and the French in 1815. Without slave based production, many of these countries would have to follow the new example
set by Britain, and Britain had a head start that could help them dominate trade and industry for years.
There are so many factors that help explain the death of the slave trade, but the reason they find success at the end of
the 18th century is that suddenly they all find relevance. Industrial expansion meant that the economic arguments
against slavery could finally be proven. Enlightenment became popular, and suddenly there were sound political
arguments as to why slavery should be stopped. The industrialists could hide their greed for increased profits behind
moral righteousness, while the government could look good and get the support of the abolitionist groups. Had all these
advantages not suddenly appeared at the same time, the anti slavery debate would probably just have continued as a
dissenting minority. The reason slave trading stopped has nothing to do with a moral crusade or righteousness, but
simply because people felt that the range of profits to be gained from not having it far outweighed those ever gained
with it. As a result, in 1807, The Abolition of Slave Trade Act was passed. The problem was however, that this did not
stop slavery itself, slaves were still being smuggled illegally and now the price of slaves had soared, so traders were
making more money than before and slaves were being shipped across the Atlantic in even worse conditions than ever.
In 1833 though through the continued work of people like William Wilberforce, the Abolition of Slavery Act was
introduced with some opposition, the moral argument outlawing slavery was not won. The act freed all slaves in the
British Empire, but there was little help for them and they were still largely exploited but it brought to an end one of the
not so-glorious British institutions.
11. In Britain, during the 18th century, the anti slavery much to the displeasure of the Quakers.
sentiments (D) condemning slavery only to exploit the benefits of
(A) took birth as a result of sudden spurt in the level the industrial revolution for their personal gain.
of moral rectitude of the general public.
(B) gained critical mass and became an issue of 15. Which of the following is applicable to the British
national importance. society of that time?
(C) found support from the sympathisers of French (a) The Quakers, before mending their ways, were
and American Revolutions. tacit supporters of the practice of slavery.
(D) gave expressions to the feelings nurtured by the (b) The British ships transported slaves to the
vast majority. European colonies.
(c) The Protestants zeroed in on slavery as they had
12. What can be definitely concluded regarding The recognised it as one of the many social evils.
Abolition of Slave Trade Act of 1807? (d) Slave trading was an accepted way of doing
(A) It appears to be successful in word but a failure business, with no social stigma attached to it.
in spirit. (A) Only (a), (c) and (d) (B) (a), (b), (c) and (d)
(B) It was successful in eliminating the slave trade (C) Only (b), (c) and (d) (D) Only (a) and (b)
altogether.
(C) The Act would have been a total failure but for 16. Which of the following is definitely true regarding the
the public support. industrial revolution, as understood from the passage?
(D) It was against the sentiment prevailing in the (A) It ushered in the era of mechanisation and
rest of Europe. higher productivity.
(B) It is the single most entity that added to the impetus
13. The ‘head start’ which Britain seemed to enjoy was of the already prevalent anti- slavery movement.
in the aspect of (C) It was able to satisfy the greed of the clique of
(A) increased manufacturing capacities. those industrialists who were the government’s
(B) gaining public respect. confidants.
(C) international trading. (D) It provided the empirical evidence that getting
(D) industrial revolution. work done through humans could be less
profitable than expected.
14. “The industrialists could hide their greed for
increased profit behind moral righteousness.” The 17. The most suitable title to the passage could be:
statement implies that they were (A) British Slave Trading – Its Sudden Death.
(A) hiding under the garb of moral uprightness to (B) British Slave Trading – The End of an Institution.
escape the public as well as government wrath. (C) How the British Society killed its Slave Trading
(B) the industrialists were in the right as they (D) The Anti-Slavery Movement – Its Impact on the
supported the governments decision. 18th Century British Society.
(C) unwillingly supporting the anti slavery movement
PASSAGE – III
"We must get used to the idea that in future there will be one country in Europe that will be stronger than all the rest,"
said Margaret Thatcher glumly in 1990. In the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin wall, Germany did indeed seem poised
to emerge as the new Europe's unrivalled powerhouse. The renovation of eastern Germany would, it was assumed,
give a huge stimulus to the country's economy. In addition, the newly-capitalist countries of central Europe would
provide German industry with a new hinterland. And with the adoption of a single European currency, agreed upon in
1992, Germany would be able to lock in its competitive advantages. No longer would Europe's weaker economies be
able to devalue their way out of competing head-on with Germany's industrial juggernaut.
More than a decade later, all this looks pretty foolish. Germany is now the sick man of the European Union. Since 1996
it has averaged growth of just 1.1% a year compared with 2.2% in the euro zone as a whole. For almost three years the
economy has barely grown at all. A country which boasted unemployment of just 150,000 in 1970 may have 5 million
out of work by the end of the year. And Germany, which insisted that all countries adopting the euro should never run a
budget deficit of more than 3% of GDP on pain of large fines, broke the 3% limit itself last year. Goldman Sachs, an
investment bank, reckons that the deficit this year could top 4% and is likely once again to breach the 3% limit in the
next. That, if the law were strictly applied, could cost the country a fine of billions of euros, payable to the EU.
Germans are struggling to understand what is going on. Despite the renewed urgency with which the Chancellor is promoting
economic reform, some of his compatriots continue to deny there is a problem. Life still looks pretty good on a sunny day in a
city like Frankfurt or Munich. The autobahns are filled with BMWs; the shops and airports are busy. The figures show that
Germany is still the third largest economy in the world; the country is still richer per head than the EU average. But the gap is
narrowing fast, and there is a growing sense of unease. Students with good degrees from top universities cannot find jobs; big
companies are folding; the banks are under strain; and the pensions system is approaching crisis.
The trouble is that even those who agree that there is a problem cannot agree on its main source. Broadly speaking, there
are three potential scapegoats: eastern Germany, the German welfare state and the EU. Most Germans acknowledge that
reunification was handled in a way that inflicted maximum economic damage. By translating the wages and welfare system
of West Germany wholesale to the east, the politicians managed to saddle the west with huge bills while making the east
hopelessly uncompetitive. But while many say that the main reason for Germany's malaise is the burden of the east, others
say that the true source of the "German problem" is the complexity and generosity of the welfare state, which meant that
average growth rates were already falling noticeably in the 1980s. Lavish benefits are funded by high payroll taxes, which
discourage job creation and so increase the number of people who rely on benefits.
Almost all politicians now acknowledge the need for structural reforms but few are prepared to discuss a third possible
explanation for Germany's economic weakness: the euro. By contrast, commentators outside Germany often identify at least
three ways in which the German economy has been hit by monetary union. First, Germany appears to have joined the euro at
an uncompetitive rate, making German products relatively expensive. Second, the single interest rate for euroland is too high for
Germany, which, according to the IMF, is now threatened by deflation. Finally, the effort to abide by those fiendish budgetary
rules is forcing the government to cut government spending, just as the economy slides into recession. To add insult to injury,
Germany is the largest financier of the EU, the very institution that is now threatening to fine the country for its profligacy.
In many a country this catalogue of woes would provide ample fuel for a populist backlash. But not in Germany. Partly
that is because the economics are complicated: cause and effect are often hard to disentangle. But it is also because
Germany's traditional belief in the virtues of European integration is so deeply entrenched that it is almost politically
incorrect to question the merits of the single currency.
Even when criticisms of the euro are aired publicly, they tend to be couched in very careful language. In a lucid
exposition of Germany's economic woes, Hans-Werner Sinn of the Ifo institute in Munich points out that the creation of
the single currency has wiped out a competitive advantage (relatively lower interest rates) that German companies used
to enjoy over their European neighbours. But he then adds: "The beneficial effects of a unified European capital market
cannot be questioned by a good European, even if Germany is unable to profit from it."
The Chancellor has often said that his goal is for Germany to become just a normal country. But the German willingness
to accept unquestioningly the burdens of being a "good European" remains distinctly abnormal − a state of affairs that
its European partners have good reason to give thanks for.
18. All the following are consequences of the adoption (b) There are 5 million jobless in the country.
of Euro by Germany except: (c) The budget deficit is between 3% and 4%.
(A) German products became relatively expensive. (d) Germany is the largest financier of the EU.
(B) The interest rate is too high for a country facing (A) (a) and (b) (B) (c) and (d)
deflation. (C) (a), (b) and (c) (D) (b), (c) and (d)
(C) The government is forced to cut spending even
though the country is facing recession. 22. One of the reasons often cited for Germany's
(D) The per capita income is higher than the EU present condition is
average. (A) the lack of structural reform.
(B) the failure on the part of the government to
19. The Germans willingly accept the burden of being understand the dynamics of the German economy.
“good Europeans” because (C) the unification.
(A) of their traditional belief in the virtues of (D) it being a welfare state.
European integration.
(B) it will benefit them in the long run. 23. The German reunification
(C) they were the ones to initiate the concept of EU. (A) caused economic damage as the benefits of the
(D) it will bail them out of their present predicament. West were extended to the East.
20. Margret Thatcher's comments after the fall of the (B) has been established as the root cause of the
Berlin Wall reflect present malaise.
(A) her determination to be the leader of Europe. (C) gave a fillip to the economy because of the
(B) the belief that unified Germany would become renovation of the East.
the most powerful nation in Europe. (D) gave new hinterland to German industries
(C) the feeling that the Euro would provide a level thereby locking in its competitive advantage.
playing field to the countries of Europe. 24. Other European countries should be grateful that
(D) the idea of rat race among the countries of Europe. (A) Germany continues to pay its dues to EU.
21. Which of the following is proof of Germany's (B) they are not in the position of Germany.
economic woes? (C) Germany hasn't withdrawn from the EU.
(a) The average growth has been 1.1% a year for (D) Germany does not shrink from its responsibility
the past several years. to Europe despite its woes.

No. of words 810 1068 913
No. of Qs. 10 7 7
EXERCISE – 10
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
When people discover that there is such a thing as spirituality, they understandably feel as excited as did Columbus
upon setting eyes on the shores of America. Spirituality affords them a broader vista than they ever considered
possible. They suddenly realize that conventional society is designed—partly consciously but for the most part quite
unconsciously—to prevent us from seeing our full potential as human beings. Conventional life primarily revolves
around the pursuit of rather limited goals: physical comfort, material possessions, sex, emotional gratification, mental
stimulation, and power.
According to Hinduism, there are four legitimate pursuits to which we can dedicate our time and energy: Artha – material
welfare, Kâma – physical, emotional, and intellectual satisfaction, Dharma – morality (notably justice), Moksha –
spiritual fulfillment.
Much, if not most, of conventional life falls into the categories of artha and kâma. Our civilization has invented countless
ways to keep our attention focused on comfort and pleasure. Billions of dollars are spent every year in advertising to
make sure that we keep up our consumption of material goods, whether we need them or not and that we strive for a
“comfortable” life.
Dharma is pursued in a much more limited way. Our moral standards appear to be at an all-time low, which is in
keeping with the Indian notion of the kali-yuga or dark age, which is expected to prevail upon Earth for many millennia
more. By comparison, the contemporary New Age belief in the imminent upliftment of humankind, by magical fiat and
without any effort at all, appears like a mere whimsical hope. We must acknowledge that American society in particular
suffers from widespread injustice in the legal system and that litigation has become a way of life.
If moral integrity is not high on our list of priorities, spiritual aspiration is almost entirely absent from our lives.
Few people really understand what spirituality is, and fewer still actively pursue a spiritual path.
The situation is somewhat different in India. With the exception of the Western-educated elite, the traditional value of
liberation (moksha) is still allowed a certain space in people’s belief system. They are at least aware of this great ideal in
India’s past and among today’s renouncers of worldly life, even though they themselves may not feel ready to pursue it.
When a Western seeker encounters spirituality, he or she must come to terms with the four core pursuits of material
welfare, physical-emotional-intellectual satisfaction, and moral integrity. Central to spiritual practice are self-inspection and
self-understanding. We must be willing to examine our habit patterns: how we act and react in all kinds of situations. Then
we must be willing and be able to understand what we see about ourselves. The next step is to eliminate those habit
patterns that are not conducive for further spiritual growth and replace them with positive habit patterns.
Newcomers to spiritual life often do not realize that spiritual practice requires consistent self-application, that is, a
measure of effort. They tend to assume that their peep beyond the walls of conventional life is sufficient in itself. But to
see a boat is not the same as rowing it to the other shore. Intellectualising spiritual life is less than helpful.
But even when neophytes actually take up a course of spiritual practices (sâdhana), they sooner or later encounter the
acid test of an ordinary daily routine. Then the challenge is to renew one’s spiritual practice every day. Otherwise
boredom sets in, which undermines the will to transform oneself.
Neophytes feed on their own initial zest, always looking for the next “spiritual” hit—a nice meditation, a spectacular vision, a
sign from God, or a compliment from the teacher or another person. Little do they suspect that this “honeymoon period” is
about to be tested. Typically, the teacher ignores them or instead of sweet compliments, utters sharp criticisms. Their fellow
students or relatives tell them that they are full of it, while others might reject their proselytising.
Few pass beyond this stage to go on to regular (unspectacular) daily practice. Many get quickly discouraged when the
emotional highs become scarce and they are beginning to confront the stark reality of their own confusion, negativity,
or presently limited capacity for spiritual life.
The next hurdle is the recognition that we have many deeply ingrained habit patterns that take time—a lot of time—to
change. At first the typical neophyte is sure that he or she has a tremendous capacity and will grow more quickly than
others. Then the sobering realization dawns that the degree of self-transformation is equal to the effort made.
If the neophyte has persisted thus far, he or she will almost inevitably encounter doubt: doubt about his or her own
capacity; doubt about the teacher; doubt about the efficacy of the teaching. It is not far from the truth to say that the
practitioner who does not befriend doubt is bound to be self-deluded. If there is no doubt or self-delusion, the person is
quite simply enlightened.
Another obstacle, not often identified, is the fact that the practitioner’s karmic tendencies (read unconscious or
semiconscious habit patterns) are magnified because awareness is enhanced through regular practice. This can be
likened to a bright searchlight shining deep into the well of the mind. In the depth of the unconscious are all kinds of
unpleasant realities that get flushed out by steady application to self-inspection and self-understanding. At times, the
unconscious materials that drift into the conscious mind seem overwhelming, and then it becomes clear to the
practitioner that spiritual life is a form of brinkmanship. The Indian tradition speaks of the razor-edged path.
Gradually the spiritual practitioner learns to overcome his or her innate materialism. There is a progressive loosening of the
ego knot by which the ordinary individual anxiously seeks to hold everything together. Life is seen from a new perspective:
as a strange play in which we are involved and in which we can either misunderstand and suffer or understand and
transcend even while being fully engaged in it. Liberation, or enlightenment, is not a thing to be attained or acquired. It is
living in the moment from the most profound understanding and without egoistic attachment to anything.
1. One of the following reflects what innate materialism (C) the testing time.
implies in the context of the passage: (D) the final phase.
(A) hoarding assets.
(B) constantly thinking in terms of visible reality only. 4. Pick the odd man out, according to the passage:
(C) egoism. (A) One needs to stay detached even while
(D) amassing spiritual experiences. involved with life.
(B) A seeker of spirituality will face many doubts,
2. To tread the path of spirituality, a seeker, at first, about himself, his teacher and the teaching.
needs to (C) Through consistent efforts, a seeker can
(A) introspect. transform his deeply ingrained habit patterns.
(B) give up all his attachments. (D) A soul can be said to be liberated if its owner
(C) lead an abstemious life. attains proper perspective of spirituality.
(D) evolve out of his relationships. 5. Moral integrity paves way to
(A) Artha and Kama.
3. “The honeymoon period” mentioned in the passage
(B) transcendentalism.
implies
(C) Moksha.
(A) the feel good stage.
(D) Dharma.
(B) the enthusiastic phase.
PASSAGE – II
Until the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization, the development of literature and culture in India was always
credited to the Aryans. In 1920, archaeologists announced the discovery of extensive urban ruins in the Indus Valley
which pre-dated the earliest archaeological sources. These ancient dwellers in India were Dravidians, and in fact,
their culture had developed a highly sophisticated way of life. Archaeological evidence also shows that the Indus Valley
culture moved from west to east, with sites towards Central and Southern India flourishing after Harappa and
Mohenjo-daro had declined. This civilization is one of the three great early civilizations that arose in the late fourth and
third millennia BC around the three large alluvial systems of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile and Indus rivers. This civilization
was thought to have been confined to the valley of the river Indus, hence the name given to it was Indus Valley
Civilization. This civilization was a highly developed urban one and two of its towns, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa,
represent the high watermark of the settlements. Subsequent archaeological excavations established that the contours
of this civilization were not restricted to the Indus Valley but spread to a wide area in northwestern and western India.
Thus this civilization is now better known as the Harappan Civilization. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are now in Pakistan
and the principal sites in India include Ropar in Punjab, Lothal in Gujarat and Kalibangan in Rajasthan. The extensive
excavations carried out at the two principal city sites, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, indicate that this Dravidian culture
was well established by about 2500 B.C. What we know of this ancient civilization is derived almost exclusively from
archaeological data since every attempt to decipher the script used by these people has failed so far. Recent analyses
of the order of the signs on the inscriptions have led several scholars to the view that the language is not of the
Indo-European family, nor is it close to the Sumerian, Hurrian, or Elamite, nor can it be related to the structure of the
Munda languages of modern India. If it is related to any modern language family, it appears to be Dravidian akin to
Old Tamil, presently spoken throughout the southern part of the Indian Peninsula.
The Indus cities seem to have had very few public buildings. The only one of any note is the Great Bath at Mohenjo-
daro which appears to have been used in the performance of certain rituals. Nothing that can be clearly identified as a
temple or a shrine has yet been discovered. A structure once considered a granary is now thought to have been a
palace with ventilated air ducts. The people depended upon agriculture and trade for their livelihood. Wheat, barley and
the date palm were cultivated; animals were domesticated; and cotton textiles, ivory and copper were exported to
Mesopotamia, and possibly China and Burma in exchange for silver and other commodities. Production of several
metals such as copper, bronze, lead and tin was also undertaken and some remnants of furnaces provide evidence of
this fact. The discovery of kilns to make bricks support the fact that burnt bricks were used extensively in domestic and
public buildings. Evidence for the religious beliefs and practices of these people is slight, since the Indus script cannot
be read and apart from the bath, there appears to be no religious structure. A certain amount of information has been
derived from scenes depicted on seal-amulets and from the terracota figurines found at different sites throughout the
area. However, such evidence is open to wide interpretation. The predominance of female figurines and seals depicting
a horned goddess in association with the sacred pipal tree are generally regarded as evidence of the worship of a
mother goddess who presided over fertility and birth and who may have acted as guardian and protector of the dead.
The great bath at Mohenjo-daro could not have been constructed for the purpose of hygiene since all the private
dwellings were equipped with excellent bathrooms. Since so many elements of the Indus culture appear to have found
their way into Hinduism, it is possible that ancient purification rites were taken over and reinterpreted by members of the
Brahmin caste. If this is so, the later practice of constructing artificial lotus ponds may be very ancient indeed. These
lotus ponds were used during historic times for various purification ceremonies and one theory suggests that the bath
was probably used by the mother goddess cult.
The appearance of coarser type of pottery points to invaders in the Indus cities. Around 1750 B.C., the uniform culture of this
great area broke up. The cause or causes of the end of the Indus Civilization are not easy to determine. At Mohenjo-daro,
groups of sprawling skeletons of this period suggest some sort of massacre or invasion. The end of the Indus Valley
Civilization may have been fairly abrupt and violent, but long before the end came, there seems to have been a gradual
process of internal decay and stagnation. It is probable that the fall of this great civilization was partly due to the widespread
migratory movements of charioteering peoples which altered the face of the whole civilized world in the 2nd millennium B.C.
6. The actual purpose of the great bath of Mohenjo- 12. A feature which can be considered unique to the
daro can be deduced Harappan Civilization is
(A) after careful consideration of various elements (A) the existence of only one palace.
of Hinduism. (B) the absence of any religious structure.
(B) only by studying the private residences (C) the worship of mother goddess.
constructed then. (D) the terracota figurines.
(C) from the study of artificial lotus ponds.
(D) through the reinterpretations of several rites by 13. The end of the Indus Valley Civilization
the Brahmins. (A) was due to outside invasions.
(B) was preluded by mass massacres.
7. The available evidence for the religious practices (C) could have been due to widespread migration of
and rituals has come from people.
(A) the inscriptions found at that site. (D) was due to a natural calamity.
(B) the presence of a common bathing structure.
(C) the excavations carried out at Harappa. 14. Which of the following can be said to be true
(D) the seal-amulets and the terracota figurines regarding public buildings of the Indus Valley
discovered at the site. Civilization?
(a) They were constructed using burnt bricks.
8. Aryans were, according to the passage, wrongly (b) Very few of them were constructed.
credited with (c) The most prominent public place mentioned in
(A) patronising literature and culture. the passage was most probably used for rituals.
(B) the urbanisation of their civilization. (A) Only (a) (B) (a) and (c)
(C) devising excellent street layout. (C) Only (b) (D) (a), (b) and (c)
(D) developing a sophisticated way of life.
15. One of the following could have supported the
9. Indus Valley Civilization is now being referred to as Harappan Civilization:
Harappan Civilization because (A) agrarian economy.
(A) traces of Indus Valley Civilization were found in (B) barter system.
Harappa of Pakistan. (C) trading of metals.
(B) it covers extensive areas of northwestern India. (D) export of precious metals.
(C) it moved from west to east.
(D) it had spread widely in northwestern and 16. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
western parts of India. (A) The script used by the Indus valley civilization
was borrowed from Tamil.
10. The odd man is (B) The Indus valley civilization was confined
(A) Nile. (B) Indus. largely to the valley of the Indus river.
(C) Tigris. (D) Harappa. (C) Indus valley culture died out with the fall of the
cities of Mohenjo-doro and Harappa.
11. The limited knowledge about Indus Valley (D) None of the above.
Civilization has come from archaeological data
because the script could not be 17. The phrase ‘high watermark’ as used in the passage
(A) studied. is closest in meaning to
(B) found. (A) Paragon. (B) Zenith.
(C) converted into an intelligible script. (C) Perigee. (D) Nadir.
(D) used.
PASSAGE – III
In April every year there is gloom in the air. The period is notorious for leaving behind a trail of woes in the form of
broken spirits, even as announcements about promotions are made in many organisations. The joy of those promoted is
more than matched by the grief of those who are not, and everyone secretly wishes that the month would pass quickly.
Yet, little of the anguish and pain experienced by those not promoted is really known at the top. If ever told about it, their
brusque reply would just be : "They don't deserve to be promoted. Why waste time on the matter?" The human
dimension is simply ignored. Indeed no attention is paid to those who have lost out in the race, either before or after the
announcement. They are left to rue their fate alone, with no empathy from those they look up to for help to preserve
their sense of self worth.
Promotion is an emotional and explosive issue, with far-reaching implications. Vital as intrinsic growth may be, it is far less valued
than upward movement in the hierarchy. Promotion is taken to mean that one has journeyed steadily, has arrived somewhere,
and has achieved something. Lack of promotion for any length of time amounts to absence of movement, and absence of
recognition. It is as if one has ceased to matter. The world does not comprehend stagnation. It is unnatural. It is failure. It is death.
Little wonder, then, that growth totally dominates an employee's thinking and aspirations. Even at interviews, the
one issue invariably brought up for detailed discussion is whether the job offers promotional prospects. In fact, most
job-changes are themselves prompted by the desire of higher level positions. Despite better emoluments and other
advantages, if it is later found that the new job is not an improvement on the one held earlier, the aspirant's enthusiasm
is bound to suffer irreparably. Simply stated only a growing person is seen as a successful person.
It is generally argued that the "unpromotable" should face up to reality and learn to live with the fact that they can aspire
for no further growth. In fact, the reasoning goes on, they need to be told about it clearly and in no uncertain terms.
This view is nourished by the blue-eyed boys who have a clear path ahead of them. Only if we place ourselves in the
shoes of the 'unpromotable' can we comprehend how calamitous everything appears when one has ceased to grow,
and knows it to be a permanent condition.
After a plain communication of lack of potential for growth, can we ever expect an individual to perform enthusiastically?
Indeed, even normal performance will cease. All through history, it is hope of a better future which has sustained people
through hardships and trials, frustration and despair. A career without a future, whatever the justifications, is no career.
Indeed, people who do not see a future for themselves tend to switch off and stop performing altogether. No other
motivation, including fear, can make up for what is missing when the employee realizes that to him the path to the future
is closed for ever. Is there any way out?
Different ways have been tried to deal with the situation, with varying degrees of success. Some try to sustain an illusion of growth
and promotion, even to those who are not promotable. After all, even nominal promotions are preferable to a non-promotion
situation. Towards this end, many organisations have created tall structures with several intermediate levels and strange titles to
perpetuate the myth of continuous growth. Unfortunately, this only leads to greater alienation, especially at lower levels.
Some others designate every professional of some consequence as a Vice-President or an Assistant Vice-President at
a fairly early stage of the person's career. He begins to live in a world of apparent grandeur while performing mundane
tasks much like any lowly-placed executive elsewhere. But now and then, the reality pierces through the protective
layers of empty titles and fat salaries to stare at him directly.
With increasing emphasis on flatter organisations, the promotional avenues are getting considerably narrowed. Several
intermediate jobs are also fast disappearing as a direct result of increasing automation and rationalisation. The competition is
also on the increase. More and more people are joining the race for higher-level jobs and assignments. In an attempt to deal
with the large numbers, some organisations have introduced policies whereby senior executive positions are kept open only to
personnel with professional/management qualifications. Unjust as it may be, this is one way of limiting the number of aspirants.
Other measures include deglamourising higher-level assignments so that they are seen as positions of grave
responsibility, calling for special skills. The reward aspect of elevation is deliberately underplayed. Encouragement to
make one's job bigger and better is another strategy. This can in the long run pave the way for elevation.
In trying to find quick-fix solutions, some organisations tend to interfere with even the time tested structures and create
additional levels and new positions to accommodate the aspirants. One obvious outcome is that organisations are
becoming increasingly top-heavy. What suffers as a result is the feeling of cohesion, clear lines of responsibility and
accountability and, most of all plain occupancy of a productive nature.
The obvious conclusion is that these measures, useful as they may be, are fraught with dangers and must be exercised
with care and caution.
The most crucial aspect of promotions, no doubt is to ensure that the decisions are made dispassionately. Accuracy and
objectivity are essential requirements in these days of strife and suspicion. A mistake can cost the company a great
deal, an incompetent incumbent in a pivotal position, and a host of demoralised employees.
It is not enough to be fair, one must also be seen to be fair. Promotions should be carried out after careful consideration of all
the factors involved and evaluation of all the contenders for the position. It is desirable that the criteria are stated in advance
and justifications offered wherever necessary. In fact an effective procedure can help a great deal in maintaining credibility.
18. According to the author, April every year is notorious (C) one has journeyed steadily, has arrived
for leaving behind a trail of woes. Why? somewhere and has achieved something.
(A) Change of job responsibilities are announced. (D) the process of making "real" growth in an
organisation has begun.
(B) Increase in salary is expected.
(C) Additional responsibilities are to be handled 20. According to the author most job-changes are
without any change in salary. motivated by
(a) Desire for better emoluments.
(D) Announcement about promotions are made.
(b) Desire for higher level positions.
19. According to the author, the word "Promotion" is (c) Desire for handling more complex and
taken to mean complicated tasks successfully.
(A) presence of movement and recognition by peers. (A) Only (b) (B) Only (c)
(B) movement to a higher grade. (C) (a) and (b) (D) (b) and (c)
21. According to the passage, which of the following (c) Ensuring that only individuals having proper
statements is not true? contact with the top level management can
(A) Even normal performance will cease once the aspire to move up.
"unpromotable" has been told that he lacks (A) Only (a) (B) Only (b)
potential growth. (C) (a) and (b) (D) (a) and (c)
(B) No other motivation, including fear can make up
for what is missing, when the employee realises 25. What is an outcome of creating new positions to
that the path to the future is closed to him. accommodate the aspirants?
(C) A career without a future, whatever the (a) Individuals at higher level are bound together by
justifications, is no career. a bond of unity.
(D) The "unpromotable" do not have to face as grim (b) A feeling of cohesion is inculcated.
a situation as it is made out to be. (c) Mix-up of clear lines of responsibility and
accountability.
22. The most crucial aspect of promotions is that (A) Only (b) (B) Only (c)
(a) Decisions are to be made objectively. (C) (b) and (c) (D) (a) and (c)
(b) Decisions are to be made dispassionately.
(c) Decisions are to be made accurately. 26. The author is most likely a/an
(A) Only (b) (B) (b) and (c) (A) CEO of an MNC.
(C) (a) and (b) (D) (a), (b) and (c) (B) senior management person deprived of his
promotion.
(C) HR consultant.
23. According to the author, what is the best method of
(D) Professor in a Management Institute
carrying out promotions?
(A) Criteria should be stated clearly in advance, but
27. Which of the following options summarizes para 4 of
it is not essential to offer any clarifications.
the passage in the most appropriate manner?
(B) Criteria should be stated in advance and
(A) Employees and job seekers value growth rather
justifications should be offered wherever necessary.
than emoluments because success is measured
(C) The main criteria for promotions is an
in terms of growth.
individual's qualifications.
(B) The reason for attrition in most organisations is
(D) Basing it on objective criteria free from bias.
lack of growth prospects because it is growth
rather than emoluments which motivates
24. With increasing emphasis on flatter organisations
employees.
and with more people joining the race for higher
(C) Employees are least concerned about the
level jobs, what are the ways adopted by some
emoluments of a job as much as they are
organisations for limiting the number of aspirants?
concerned about the growth prospects.
(a) Deglamourising higher level assignments as well
(D) A person can be called successful in life only if
as the award aspect of elevation, so that they are
he scales great heights in his career and not by
seen as positions of grave responsibility.
the emoluments which his job offers.
(b) Senior level positions are kept open only to
personnel with professional/management
qualifications.

No. of words 1030 867 1023
No. of Qs. 5 12 10
EXERCISE – 11
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
In the standard model of particle physics, particles are considered to be points moving through space, tracing out a line
called the World Line. To take into account the different interactions observed in nature, one has to provide particles
with more degrees of freedom than only their position and velocity; such as mass, electric charge, colour (which is the
"charge" associated with the strong interaction) or spin.
The standard model was designed within a framework known as Quantum Field Theory (QFT), which gives us the tools
to build theories consistent both with quantum mechanics and the Special Theory of Relativity. With these tools,
theories were built which describe with great success three of the four known interactions in nature: electromagnetism,
and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Furthermore, a very successful unification between electromagnetism and the
weak force was achieved (Electroweak Theory), and promising ideas put forward to try to include the strong force.
But unfortunately, the fourth interaction, gravity, as described by Einstein's General Relativity (GR), does not seem to fit
into this scheme. Whenever one tries to apply the rules of QFT to GR, one gets results which make no sense.
The usual domains of general relativity and quantum mechanics are quite different. General relativity describes the
force of gravity and hence is usually applied to the largest and most massive structures including stars, galaxies, black
holes and even, in cosmology, the universe itself. Quantum mechanics is most relevant in describing the smallest
structures in the universe such as electrons and quarks. In most ordinary physical situations therefore, either general
relativity or quantum mechanics is required for a theoretical understanding, but not both. There are, however, extreme
physical circumstances, which require both of these fundamental theories for a proper theoretical treatment. Prime
examples of such situations are space-time singularities such as the central point of a black hole or the state of the
universe just before the big bang. These exotic physical structures involve enormous mass scales (thus requiring
general relativity) and extremely small distance scales (thus requiring quantum mechanics). Unfortunately, general
relativity and quantum mechanics are mutually incompatible; any calculation, which simultaneously uses both of these
tools, yields nonsensical answers. The origin of this problem can be traced to equations which become badly behaved
when particles interact with each other across minute distance scales on the order of 10-33cm − the Planck length.
Another problem with this model is that one has to assume the existence of distinct forces and their carriers. Einstein
hoped that there would be a "unified" theory in which all known forces would emerge out of a single one in some way.
Electricity and magnetism used to be thought of as two forces, but now we know that they are different aspects of the
same (electromagnetic) force. Could the same type of unification hold for the four forces that are today viewed as
distinct?
String Theory is currently the most promising example of a candidate for a unified theory. We do not yet know whether it
correctly describes nature, but it seems to be a theory which broadly describes a world similar to ours, and is endowed
with beauty and consistency to an astonishing degree.
The physical idea is utterly simple. Instead of many types of elementary point-like particles, physcists postulate that in
nature there is a single variety of string-like objects. The string is not "made up of anything"; rather, it is basic and other
things are made up of it. As with musical strings, this basic string can vibrate, and each vibrational mode can be viewed
as a point-like elementary particle, just as the modes of a musical string are perceived as distinct notes!
String Theory solves the deep problem of the incompatibility of the two fundamental theories (GR and QFT) by
modifying the properties of general relativity when it is applied to scales on the order of the Planck length. Modern
accelerators can only probe down to distance scales around 10-16cm and hence these loops of string appear to be point
objects. However, the string theoretical hypothesis that they are actually tiny loops, drastically changes the way in which
these objects interact on the shortest of distance scales. This modification is what allows gravity and quantum
mechanics to form a harmonious union.
There is a price to be paid for this solution, however. It turns out that the equations of String Theory are self-consistent
only if the universe contains, in addition to time, nine spatial dimensions. As this is in gross conflict with the perception
of three spatial dimensions, it might seem that String Theory must be discarded. This is not true.
There is however more than one string theory. These theories are classified according to whether or not the strings are
required to be closed loops, and whether or not the particle spectrum includes fermions (particles that make up matter).
In order to include fermions in string theory, there must be a special kind of symmetry called supersymmetry, which
means that for every boson (particle that transmits a force), there is a corresponding fermion. So supersymmetry relates
the particles that transmit forces to the particles that make up matter.
String theories that incorporate only bosons are no longer popular as they require 26 space-time dimensions and a
particle with imaginary mass − the tachyon. There are quite a few superstring theories that make sense mathematically
which only require ten dimensions. A few of the differences between them include theories with closed loops only and
others with closed loops, which can break into open strings. Theories with massless fermions only spinning one way
(chiral) and string theories, which are heterotic, meaning right moving and left moving strings, differ. Different
combinations of the above properties leave us with 5 mathematically plausible theories.
There was a difficulty in studying these theories: physicists and mathematicians did not have tools to explore the
theories over all possible values of the parameters in the theories. Each theory was like a large planet of which we only
knew a small island somewhere on the planet. But over the last four years, techniques were developed to explore the
theories more thoroughly, in other words, to travel around the seas in each of those planets and find new islands.
And only then was it realised that those five string theories are actually islands on the same planet, not different ones!
Thus there is an underlying theory of which all string theories are only different aspects. This was called M-theory.
One of the islands that was found on the M-theory planet corresponds to a theory that lives not in 10 but in
11 dimensions. This seems to be telling us that M-theory should be viewed as an 11 − dimensional theory that looks
10 − dimensional at some points in its space of parameters. Such a theory could have as a fundamental object a
membrane, as opposed to a string. Like a drinking straw seen at a distance, the membranes would look like strings
when we curl the 11th dimension into a small circle.
1. Which of the following best describes the way in solves the problem comprehensively.
which the passage is organised? (B) The author introduces a topic, describes one
(A) The author introduces a topic, describes a major major problem relating to it, discusses a solution
problem relating to it, presents a solution to the which he considers inadequate and emphasises
problem and elaborates on how the solution the need for further research to be carried out.
(C) The author introduces a topic, details a couple (B) proving that GR theory cannot be applied to the
of major problems related to it, describes a scales of the order of the Planck length.
proposed solution and discusses some of the (C) altering the properties of general relativity so as
perceived shortcomings of the solution. to make it applicable to scales of the order of
(D) The author introduces a topic, elaborates on the the Planck length.
problems related to it, proposes a solution and (D) disproving certain fundamental assumptions in
presents evidence to establish its efficacy. gravitation theory.
2. Which of the following theories have to be applied to 5. Which of the following statements is false according
study the behaviour of atomic particles? to the passage?
(A) General Theory of Relativity (A) The String Theory accurately describes a world
(B) Quantum Field Theory that is similar to ours.
(C) Theory of Gravitation (B) Modern accelerators cannot probe distances of
(D) Both (B) and (C) the order of the Planck length.
(C) The equations of the String Theory which
3. Which of the following can be inferred from the incorporate only bosons require a universe with
passage? 26 space-time dimensions in order to be
(A) Supersymmetry is essential if tachyons are to mutually consistent.
be included in the String Theory. (D) Heterotic is a term which is used to differentiate
(B) The string theory is of little use since our strings according to their mass.
universe contains only three dimensions.
(C) The incompatibility between the General Theory 6. Which of the following require(s) both QFT and GR
of Relativity and the Quantum Field Theory for proper theoretical treatment?
cannot be overcome. (A) Galaxies
(D) Einstein hoped that someday a ‘force’ would be (B) Black holes
discovered which is found to give rise to (C) The universe just before the big bang
electromagnetism, gravity and strong and weak (D) Both (B) and (C)
nuclear forces. 7. Which of the following is true about 'strings'?
(A) It is the basic entity out of which other particles
4. According to the passage, the String Theory resolves are made.
the incompatibility between GR and QF theories by (B) They are made of non-matter.
(A) providing a deeper understanding of the (C) They can produce different musical notes.
theories. (D) They are made of tiny particles.
PASSAGE – II
Of late, there has been much discussion on corruption in the public sector of many developing countries. It was the
inevitable corruption of public servants that, in part, made it important to privatise in developing countries. Advocates of
privatisation also lauded the private sector's ability to compete. But I'm not sure these private sector advocates quite
had in mind the abilities that American corporate capitalism has demonstrated so amply recently − corruption on an
almost unfathomable scale. They put to shame those petty government bureaucrats who stole a few thousand dollars or
even a few million. The numbers bandied about in the Enron, WorldCom and other scandals are in the billions, greater
than the GNP of many countries.
With perfect information − an assumption made by traditional economics − these problems would never have occurred.
With perfect information, shareholders would have realised instantaneously that the books were being cooked, and
roundly punished the corporate officers. Instead, because of tax advantages and inappropriate accounting practices −
which received support from the US treasury under both Republican and Democratic administrations − firms were
encouraged to reward their executives handsomely with stock options. By this means, corporate officers could ensure
that they were extremely well paid, without at the same time taking out anything from the corporation's bottom line.
It was almost too good to be true; while executives were receiving millions, no one seemed to be bearing the cost.
It was a mirage; shareholder value was being diluted. But it was worse than just being dishonest; stock options provided
managers with strong incentives to get the value of their stocks up quickly − what mattered was not long-term strength
but short-term appearances. Corporate officers responded to the incentives and opportunities. Over the last 15 years,
executive rewards in America have soared, and so has the fraction of it which is related to stock prices − to the point
where the fraction related to real long-term performance is quite small. Effectively managers have been discouraged
from looking at these fundamentals.
Incentives matter but inappropriate incentives do not lead to wealth creation − they lead to the massive misallocation of
resources, the consequences of which America is now suffering. Overinflated prices have led firms to overinvest. More
generally, when information is imperfect − as it always is − Adam Smith's invisible hand, by which the price system is
supposed to guide the economy to efficient outcomes, may disappear. With the kind of incentives that were in place in
corporate America, there was a drive for the creation of the appearance of wealth, not for the creation of actual wealth.
By the same token, auditing firms that make more money from consulting than by providing auditing services have a
conflict of interest; they have (at least in the short run) an incentive to go easy on their clients or even, as consultants, to
help their clients think of ways to improve the appearance of profits − "within" the rules. Analysts at investment banks
who earn large fees from stock offerings may, as we have seen, have an incentive to tout the stocks, even when they
have their doubts. And if they have a commercial bank division, they may have an incentive to maintain credit lines
beyond the level which is prudent, simply because were they to cut them, they risk losing high potential future revenues
from mergers and acquisitions and stock and bond issues.
But the problem of incentives can be traced back further; the US treasury had an incentive to urge the continuation of
bad accounting practices as it did in the mid-1990s when it responded to the interests of Wall Street. The financial
community benefited as much as did the corporate executives from the artificial boom and bubble to which it
contributed. The accounting firms had an incentive to try to squelch the Securities and Exchange Commission's attempt
to limit the conflict of interests between their role as auditors and consultants. The banks had an incentive to push the
US treasury for the repeal of an act which required the separation of investment and commercial banks.
These examples illustrate the intertwining of public and private incentives; there are private incentives to distort public
policy in ways which in turn distort private incentives, and sometimes to prevent public policy from correcting market
failures. These problems arise at both the national and international levels. And the public, as they have recognised this
vicious nexus, has occasionally taken action to break or at least weaken it.
It is, for instance, precisely because we worry about distorted incentives of public officials that many democracies have
instituted rules against revolving doors. There is a suspicion of government officials who too quickly move to jobs
related to their public role. We worry about conflicts of interest in the private sector − accounting firms that make more
money from lucrative consulting practices may be soft in enforcement of accounting standards − and in the public.
There is a cost to the restrictions intended to limit (though they seldom eliminate) such conflicts of interest. In the case
of the public sector, such restrictions sometimes deter qualified individuals from accepting public employment. Such
restrictions are imposed because of imperfect information; we cannot really be sure what is motivating individuals. And
there is a high cost to the loss of public confidence − a price which in the case of the private sector is reflected in the
billions of dollars lost from share value.
There seems to be no such rule on revolving doors in place at the International Monetary Fund, (IMF); its first deputy
managing director moved from his senior public sector job to the vice-chairmanship of one of America's largest financial
institutions. The IMF is widely viewed as reflecting the ideology and interests of the financial community and responding
more to its concerns than those of the developing countries it is supposed to be helping. In Indonesia, there were
billions of dollars to bail out foreign creditors, but paying out far smaller sums to provide food and fuel subsidies for
those thrown out of their job or who saw their wages plummeting was viewed as a waste of money. Western banks
benefit from such bail-outs.
The IMF is a public international institution, but critics claim that it is not democratically accountable − and that as the
central bank governors to whom it reports increasingly become more independent, it is becoming even less so. The lack
of sensitivity to the problem of revolving doors − and the lack of rules which reflect that sensitivity − only reinforces such
sentiments.
Conflicts of interest will never be fully eliminated, either in the public or private sector. But by sensitising ourselves to
their presence, by increasing required disclosures − as the old saying goes, sunshine is the strongest antiseptic − by
becoming aware of the incentives that are in place that can exacerbate these conflicts of interest, and by imposing
regulations that limit their scope, we can do much to mitigate their consequences, both in the public and the private
sector.
8. The author appears to (B) Obtaining perfect information is a definite

(A) be a strong advocate of privatisation. possibility.
(B) be a strong opponent of privatisation.
(C) Managers of the firms which defrauded the
(C) say that public sector corruption is not of great
magnitude. public were involved in stock manipulations.
(D) say that defects are inherent in any system and (D) Managers of the fraudulent firms were kept in
we must overcome them. the dark regarding stock manipulations by the
owners of the company.
9. Which of the following is the reason cited in the
passage for shareholders not realising the enormity
of a scam? 11. Which of the following views is the author likely to
(A) Lack of perfect information endorse?
(B) Lethargy of shareholders (A) Incentives are the only way to create wealth.
(C) Implicit bureaucratic approval of inappropriate (B) Managers should give higher priority to
accounting practices immediately realisable gains.
(D) Both (B) and (C) (C) Corporate America seems to give incentives for
the creation of actual wealth.
10. Which one of the following is true as per the (D) Corporate managers deserve to be blamed for
contents of the passage? following short-sighted policies in the pursuit of
(A) The private sector functions much more
apparent wealth.
efficiently than the public sector.
12. The statement, 'Sunshine is the strongest antiseptic' 14. Which of the following can be inferred about the IMF?
is used in the passage to illustrate that (A) It may not be democratically accountable.
(A) sunshine is good for health. (B) It reflects the ideology and the interests of the
(B) openness in operations is the best antidote to financial community.
conflict of interests. (C) It loaned out millions of dollars in Indonesia to
(C) it is conflict of interests that fuels economic bail out foreign creditors.
progress. (D) All of the above.
(D) sensitivity to the conflict of interests is sufficient
to eliminate it. 15. The meaning of the word 'exacerbate' as used in the
passage is
13. The reason(s) cited in the passage, for the US (A) weaken.
treasury approving bad accounting practices is/are (B) limit.
(A) inadequate knowledge the treasury had (C) palliate.
regarding correct accounting practices. (D) aggravate.
(B) its vested interests in Wall Street.
(C) lethargy to regularly audit and regulate the
activities of corporate firms.
(D) All of the above.
PASSAGE – III
A commonplace view of geography is that it is ‘pre-eminently an empirical discipline, concerned with understanding the
world and transmitting that understanding to a wide audience’. How this distinguishes it from other fields is unclear,
since most fields have empirical subject-matter. Perhaps what is meant is that geography addresses the concrete
questions of where and under what conditions a wide range of phenomena connected to the Earth and its occupance
occur. To do so, however, has required recourse to theoretical concepts including some that are explicitly geographical,
i.e. relate directly to the geographical context and scope of the phenomenon in question. From this point of view,
geography is as intrinsically theoretical as most other fields of knowledge.
Geography is also often seen as a uniquely ‘practical’ field. As one late nineteenth-century exponent expressed it,
geography is ‘the Science of Distances − the science of the merchant, the statesman, and the strategist’. The basis for
this view lay in the uses – commercial, political, and geopolitical – to which the accumulation of geographical knowledge
could be put. This conception is still very much alive in contemporary debates in the United States over the contribution
of geography to ‘national competitiveness’ : understanding the features of competing national economies such as
Japan, learning about potential markets for American goods, etc. But in fact, many of the fields of knowledge defined by
the emerging intellectual division of labour of the late nineteenth century could claim similar practical origins. Such
fields, for example, as sociology, political science and economics had at their origins the practical interests of states in,
respectively, social control, state management, and the national accumulation of wealth.
One peculiar feature of geography relative to many other fields has been its claim to provide knowledge integrative of
the so-called physical and human domains even as the intellectual division of labour and the way universities are
organized into discrete faculties of arts, science, and social science were institutionalised. The claim to useful
knowledge, therefore, involved the concomitant claim that human activities could be understood only in relation to the
physical environment. This claim involved, for a time, a strong version of the relationship between the physical
environment and the human occupance of the earth. Untainted by consideration of socio-economic causation,
geography would attain its deserved status as a university ‘subject’ only by structuring ‘human geography in terms of
physical geography’. But only as long as the human could be seen as a direct product of the physical did the claim
about geography as an integrative field amount to more than mere rhetoric.
Indeed, the division of physical and human geography as distinctive fields dates from the time in the 1920s when a
strong environmental determinism was largely abandoned by professional geographers. If later the methodological
appeal of the natural sciences (in the form of positivism, at least) replaced the causal primacy of the natural world as the
rhetorical glue for geography as a whole, as far as research was concerned the field itself had in fact come
substantively unstuck into separate physical and human parts with little concrete or theoretical communality. It is only in
recent years that much attempt has been made at relaunching the relationship on substantive rather than rhetorical
(or philosophical) grounds, largely as a result of the widespread sense of environmental crisis. Human geography now
exists in practice as a separate field with its own readings of ‘nature’ and the physical environment. In physical
geography, philosophical and conceptual debates take place without much reference to those in human geography.
Less controversially than the intellectual division of geography, perhaps, geographical concepts have been seen as
largely the province of the professional geographer. For the period 1920-1960, it certainly makes sense to talk, for
example, of the ‘devaluation’ of geographical space and place by other fields, especially in the social sciences.
Nevertheless, many other fields do rely on certain key geographical assumptions that, though taken-for-granted,
indicate the extent to which the use of geographical concepts has not been the intellectual monopoly of geographers.
For example, dominant intellectual strands in such fields as political sociology and international relations have adopted
a territorial conception of space in which a modern ‘national’ culture is seen as increasingly displacing ‘traditional’ or
‘local’ ones. This is an implicit rather than an explicit concept, a ‘hidden geography’. But just because it is not often
written about very explicitly, this does not mean that it does not exist in the practice of a field. The social sciences are
filled with geographical assumptions about how social processes are bounded and take place.
Finally, geography in general and human geography in particular are often alleged to be ‘isolationist’, without significant
links to the larger intellectual world. Their concepts are thus very much their own and without ‘external’ connections.
This is obviously less the case now than it may have been in the past. There was a political ‘quietism’ to post-war
Anglo-American geography marked by a ‘fear’ of the social sciences and a reluctance to engage with ‘dangerous’
issues that were engendered, perhaps, by the ideological bipolarity of the Cold War and the urge to give the field its
legitimacy in terms of a modern intellectual birth that took place in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century but
whose progeny was still of uncertain character. Above all, to many major figures, politics was a doubtful business to be
avoided by not talking about. Certainly, many of the leading geographers in the United States had been, or were,
government employees and this set limits to their potential involvement in politics. This intellectual conservatism,
identified in Smith’s essay on the logic and influence of Richard Hartshorne’s, 'The Nature of Geography', did lead to an
internalist intellectual approach apparent in so many histories of geographic thought in which ‘geography’ appeared as if
hermetically sealed from other fields.
This image of isolationism, certainly not accurate at the turn of the century, is even less true today. Geographers
themselves have become voracious consumers of ideas from outside. In recent times, geographical terms have also
begun to appear in the writings of such ‘new’ fields as cultural studies, indicating an affinity for geographical analysis
that some have excitedly labelled a ‘geographical turn’ in the social sciences.
16. The ‘intellectual division’ of geography into physical 20. In view of the ‘isolationist’ image of geography,
and human geography came forth when which of the following reflects its current standing?
(A) the natural sciences replaced the man- (A) Geography has profound influence over all
environment relationship as the binding factor other branches of studies.
between the various fields of geography. (B) Geography is secluded from the influence of
(B) environmental crises divided the field into its two other subjects.
components. (C) There is a mutual give and take attitude
(C) the commonality between the two appeared to between geography and social sciences.
be more rhetorical than real. (D) There is an intellectual revival of geographical
(D) professional geographers stopped subscribing concepts being applied in other fields with new
to the belief that human actions are determined shades of meaning.
by the environment. 21. What was ‘taken for granted’ in the author’s opinion?
(A) The degree of the use of certain important
17. The term ‘hidden geography’ refers to geographical concepts in other fields.
(A) social processes that are bound to take place (B) The idea that geographical concepts are not the
because they are based on geographical special preserve of geographers.
evidences. (C) The no-objection stand adopted by the
(B) tacit representation of geographical ideas geographers regarding the use of those
irrespective of the fields in which they occur. concepts relevant to other fields.
(C) the use of geographical concepts in other social (D) The intellectual conservatism of the
sciences while not accepting geographical geographers of the period 1920-60.
assumptions. 22. Identify the statements that would express the
(D) the surreptitious entry of geographical terms in author’s views regarding geography as a subject:
all branches of studies. (A) It is considered an empirical subject because it
addresses tangible issues related to the earth
18. The author uses the example of the contemporary and its occupation by man.
debates in the U.S.A. to (B) It depends on certain theories to explain
(A) focus on the utility value of geography. particular geographical phenomena.
(B) prove that geography is a uniquely practical (C) The integrative knowledge it provides depends
field. on the assumption that man and his
(C) discuss the various practical uses unique to environment are mutually inclusive.
geography. (D) All the above.
(D) while drive home the point that the USP of
utilitarian value is not limited to geography alone. 23. The passage
(A) critically examines some of the frequently
19. Human geography (as distinguished from physical expressed views about geography as a field of
geography) is the branch of geography study.
(A) that studies how the mental processes of man (B) provides a backdrop to understand the
differ with geographical regions of the world. conceptual ideas that make up geography.
(B) that analyses the influence of socio-economic (C) endorses the unique characteristic features of
aspects on human responses to nature. geography as a subject of interest expressed by
(C) concerned with how human activity affects or is geographers worldwide.
influenced by the physical environment. (D) clears the misconceptions that could have got
(D) that looks at the interaction between man and entrenched in the minds of people due to global
environment at a conceptual level. social, political and economical trends.
24. The claim that the knowledge provided by (C) if one did not consider the socio-economic
geography was integrative might seem to be a mere consequences brought about by geographical
rhetoric concepts.
(A) since it had assumed that man formed an (D) because the very information it provided was
integral part of nature. used to hive geography into two distinct
(B) as specialization in terms of intellectual division components.
of labour and education was witnessed.

No. of words 1175 1176 1038
No. of Qs. 7 8 9
EXERCISE – 12
that follow it.
PASSAGE – I
A s an intellectual and ethical tradition, Confucianism is more than 25 centuries old. Its basic values were embraced not
only in China proper, but in Japan, Korea and Vietnam as well, and helped to shape East Asia’s self-consciousness as
a distinct cultural region. As might be expected, there is no essential Confucianism which endured throughout this long
history. Rather, the Confucian tradition, like other intellectual and religious traditions of comparable age and
significance, evolved and changed, even as some real continuities were maintained. This diverse cultural heritage has
provided rich resources for twentieth-century East Asians to reflect on contemporary social life, although Confucianism
has also had to face numerous challenges concerning its compatibility with new social knowledge and values.
The Western name ‘Confucianism’ might suggest that Confucius, a Chinese philosopher and teacher who lived in the
sixth century BC, was the founder of this intellectual and ethical tradition. In fact, he saw himself only as a transmitter of
a heritage which had taken shape centuries before his time, and generally ‘Confucianism’ has been known in East Asia
as the ‘Scholarly Tradition’. Confucius lived in a period of great political and cultural disorder. His concern to restore
order and harmony to society and to cultivate individual morality within a social order defined by tradition became values
which motivated and guided the subsequent development of Confucian social thought. As a way of life, Confucianism
became noted for its concern for personal well-being, social harmony and solidarity, political stability and universal
peace, all of which are to be pursued within structures of meaning inherited from the past.
Confucian social thought has generally been corporativist, assuming that the ideal society is a hierarchically
differentiated order and that ritually structured human relationships are essential to this ideal. This emphasis on human
relationships was expressed in a linked interest in distinguishing between individuals and differentiating the kinds of
relations possible among them. Traditionally, Confucians acknowledged the possibility of many kinds of relations
between individuals but gave special emphasis to ‘five cardinal relations’ as fundamental to a proper social order: those
between parent and child, those between ruler and subject, between husband and wife, between parent and child, those
between ruler and subject, between friends. The Confucian concern with those relations within the family, especially
those between parents and children, have led some observers to describe Confucian social theory as restrictively group
oriented, but the Confucian concern with the possibility and significance of voluntarily constructed relationships, such as
those between friends, should not be underestimated. Each of these cardinal relationships fixes roles as well as
responsibilities. Proper behaviour within these traditionally defined relationships is not only crucial to the establishment
of an ordered society, but is essential to the necessary development of an individual, for in the Confucian view of things
persons only become human through a lifelong process of cultural and ethical learning.
The Confucian tradition was institutionalised in patterns of family life, in a sophisticated educational system, and in
government. The Confucian educational system, in principal, was open to anyone, and is one of the few examples of an
aspiration to universal education in the premodern world. In the past, Confucian social thought gave a special place to the
role of the ruler in establishing the ideal society and encouraging moral perfection in individuals. Some of Confucius’s own
teachings, collected in the ‘Analects’, advocated government by exemplary behaviour, rather than by coercion and
punishment. He advised rulers to lead the people according to proper personal conduct. The elite community of Confucian
scholars often aspired to play a role in government as advisors to rulers. Confucius and his successors urged rulers to give
positions of authority to ‘people of virtue and ability’, that is, those who were successful in Confucian education, and the
Confucian tradition generally preferred meritocracy to any system of government which privileged birthright.
In the twentieth century, many of the core values of Confucian social thought have been subjected to extensive criticism
and outright rejection. This is particularly the case with the political dimensions of Confucian thought, since few rulers
attained the moral status necessary to rule according to the instructions of Confucian political theory. At the turn of the
century, Confucianism was identified quite realistically with authoritarianism and political corruption, since its ideals
could easily be manipulated to enhance the power of particular individuals or groups. This internal critique of
Confucianism in practice, which had many precedents in Chinese history, was accompanied by the challenge of
alternative social ideals learned from contact with the West in the nineteenth century. Increasingly, Confucian values
and institutions were perceived as incompatible with democratic or socialist ideals, or just with modernity in general.
Much of Confucian social thought in the twentieth century has thus been necessarily defensive, attempting to show that
Confucian tradition either has values analogous to the new challengers or can promote the attainment of the new ideals.
More recently, there has been a revival of Confucian values throughout East Asia as part of ongoing reconsiderations of
cultural identity in the modern world. This revival has emphasised the traditional Confucian insistence that social life
should be shaped by the moral and symbolic resources of the past. While it has been critical of the Confucian tradition
which it has inherited, this revival has also begun to rethink whether modernity must necessarily be defined with an
emphasis on the autonomy of the individual. The example of industrial East Asia suggests that the Confucian values of
respect for authority, social solidarity based on familism, and a preference for consensus rather than independent
thought can make positive contributions to a modern society.
1. Identify the statement relevant to the concepts (C) the influence of past values on shaping the
related to modernity. present ones.
(A) It believes that education is one of the important (D) the society’s responsibility towards cultivated
factors that moulds man’s moral development. relationships.
(B) It gives more importance to personal freedom
wherein man has the independence to exercise 5. The author’s stand regarding the changes that took
his choice. place in the tenets of the Confucian theory over a
(C) It stresses on equal rights to all people period of time, is that it is
irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. (A) to be expected, as the principles appear to be
(D) It explicitly supports democracy where peoples’ incongruent with those supported by modern
moral values, instead of their scholarly knowledge, society.
have a major role in choosing their leaders. (B) natural, as in case of evolution of any theory.
(C) to be anticipated, since the theory supported the
2. From the passage, we can understand that Confucius concentration of power in the hands of a few.
(A) was a Chinese philosopher. (D) unthinkable because the principles deal with
(B) is considered to be the founder of the Confucian values and ethics that are fundamental to life.
philosophy.
(C) supported the classification of society saying 6. The ambit of the Confucian theory includes
that the process decided the roles to be played (A) personal behaviour. (B) social harmony.
by man with respect to his society. (C) universal peace. (D) all the above.
(D) was the first in the line of philosophers who
established the Confucian tradition. 7. The difference between the traditional Confucian
and the modern social theories is
3. In the case of East Asia, the values propounded by
(A) the former’s focus on consensus.
Confucianism
(B) the latter’s attention on universal accessibility to
(A) made the countries defensive attempting to
education.
show that their tradition can promote the
(C) the former’s insistence on self-governance.
attainment of true ideals.
(D) the latter’s emphasis on the nurturing of human
(B) made its inhabitants ponder over the necessity
relationships.
of ethics and culture.
(C) taught them the ways of maintaining solidarity 8. The reason(s) behind the criticism of the political
within family hierarchy. aspects of the Confucian thought is/are
(D) helped it to gain a unique cultural identity. (A) the occasional political revolts witnessed in the
4. The feature thought to be inherently prevailing in a Chinese history.
society based on the Confucian principles is (B) the effect of Western social concepts.
(A) the behaviour of people as defined by the type (C) the corruption witnessed when power was
of relationships they are involved in. vested in the hands of the few elite scholars.
(B) the existence of stratification of social classes. (D) Both (B) and (C).
PASSAGE – II
There are many ways in which different societies differ in relation to power. They differ, to begin with, in the degree of
power possessed by individuals or organizations; it is obvious, for example, that, owing to increase of organization, the
State has more power now than in former times. They differ, again, as regards the kind of organization that is most
influential: a military despotism, a theocracy, a plutocracy, are very dissimilar types. They differ, thirdly, through diversity
in the ways of acquiring power: hereditary kingship produces one kind of eminent man, the qualities required of a great
ecclesiastic produce another kind, democracy produces a third kind, and war a fourth.
Where no social institution, such as aristocracy or hereditary monarchy exists to limit the number of men to whom power
is possible, those who most desire power are, broadly speaking, those most likely to acquire it. It follows that, in a social
system in which power is open to all, the posts which confer power will, as a rule, be occupied by men who differ from
the average in being exceptionally power-loving. Love of power, though one of the strongest of human motives, is very
unevenly distributed, and is limited by various other motives, such as love of ease, love of pleasure, and sometimes love of
approval. It is disguised, among the more timid, as an impulse of submission to leadership, which increase the scope of the
power-impulses of bold men. Those whose love of power is not strong are unlikely to have much influence on the course of
events. The men who cause social changes are, as a rule, men who strongly desire to do so. Love of power, therefore, is a
characteristic of the men who are causally important. We should, of course, be mistaken if we regarded it as the sole
human motive, but this mistake would not lead us so much astray as might be expected in the search for causal laws in
social science, since love of power is the chief motive producing the changes which social science has to study.
The laws of social dynamics are – so I shall contend – only capable of being stated in terms of power in its various
forms. In order to discover these laws, it is necessary first to classify the forms of power, and then to review various
important historical examples of the ways in which organizations and individuals have acquired control over men’s lives.
In the course of this lecture, I shall be concerned to prove that the fundamental concept in social science is Power, in
the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics. Like energy, power has many forms, such as
wealth, armaments, civil authority, influence on opinion. No one of these can be regarded as subordinate to any other,
and there is no one form from which the others are derivatives. The attempt to treat one form of power, say wealth, in
isolation, can only be partially successful, unless other forms are taken into account. The laws of social dynamics are
laws which can only be stated in terms of power, not in terms of this or that form of power. In our day, it is common to
treat economic power as the source from which all other kinds are derived; this, I shall contend, is just as great an error
as that of the purely military historians whom it has caused to seem out of date. To revert to the analogy of physics:
power, like energy, must be regarded as continually passing from any one of its forms into any other, and it should be
the business of social science to seek the laws of such transformations. The attempt to isolate any one form of power,
more especially, in our day, the economic form, has been, and still is, a source of errors of great practical importance.
9. According to the author, the objective of social (A) The amount of power possessed by individuals
sciences should be or organisations
(A) to find the principle behind the metamorphosis (B) The manner in which power is acquired
of power. (C) The kind of administration a society has
(B) to discover the laws of social dynamics. (D) The way in which power is used
(C) to review historical examples of how power is
acquired. 13. Power mongers tend to be most active in
(D) to classify different forms of power. (A) an aristocracy of eminent men.
(B) a hereditary monarchy with no social institution.
10. Which of the following is not a similarity between (C) societies where many people can wield power.
power and energy? (D) institutions that encourage the love for power.
(A) Power, like energy, changes its visible shape or
configuration. 14. People who influence the course of a society
(B) They have varied forms, none of which is the prominently are those who
source of others. (A) go to any extent to acquire power.
(C) We cannot isolate one type of either power or (B) exhibit a characteristic love for power.
energy. (C) can define clearly the causal laws of social science.
(D) Both are basic, abstract ideas in their respective (D) regard power as the sole human motive.
fields.
15. Through this passage the author is trying to convey
11. A cause for mistakes having practical significance is that
(A) the assumption made by the sociologists. (A) power in all its forms is the most important
(B) the failure to recognise how one form of power factor behind the laws of social dynamics.
transforms into another. (B) the laws of social dynamics are based on
(C) treating economic power as the source of all economic power.
other kinds of power. (C) classification of forms of power is necessary to
(D) the inability to seek transformation laws. review all the historical events objectively.
(D) adequate analysis of social changes will show
12. The passage does not mention this as a way in the causal agent behind them.
which societies vary with respect to power.
PASSAGE – III
Hinduism is the name given to a family of religions and cultures that began and still flourishes in India. Like other Eastern
religions, it doesn't fit comfortably into the same box as Western religions like Christianity. Hindus do not separate religion
from other aspects of life. For Hindus in India, it is an inextricable part of their existence, a complete approach to life that
involves social class, earning a living, family, politics, diet, etc., in addition to the things Westerners view as religious.
Hinduism includes a very wide range of beliefs and practices, so there aren't many things that are common to all Hindu
groups. However, they all have a "family resemblance" to each other. It has no founder, no creed, and no single source
of authority. The things most often common to Hindus are a belief in a single Divinity or supreme God that is present in
everything, belief in other gods who are aspects of that supreme God, belief that the soul repeatedly goes through a
cycle of being born into a body, dying, and rebirth, belief in Karma, a force that determines the quality of each life,
depending on how well one behaved in a past life. Most Hindus worship at home and have a shrine there. Hindu
temples are the focus of religious life, but there is no strong tradition of corporate congregational worship.
Living or acting in the right way is known as dharma, so the Indian name for their religion is sanatana dharma, (meaning
"everlasting dharma"). Hindus believe the universe doesn't have a beginning and an end. It's a cyclical pattern, so once
it ends, it begins again. For many Hindus, religion is a matter of practice rather than of beliefs. It's more what you do
than what you believe. Behind Hindu practice is the belief that every soul is trapped in a cycle of birth, death and then
rebirth. Every Hindu wants to escape from this cycle. Hindus aim to live in a way that will cause each of their lives to be
better than the life before. Their ultimate aim is escape from the cycle altogether. Each time a Hindu soul is born into a
better life, it has the opportunity to improve itself further, and get closer to ultimate liberation. One attains Moksha when
one has "overcome ignorance", and no longer desires anything at all. This is not a state of knowledge, but a state of
being. Paradoxically, it is really a state of not-being, since when the individual soul reaches this state, it becomes aware
that it is nothing more than a part of the ultimate reality, part of "God", part of ‘Brahman’, and loses its individual identity.
Hinduism is very different from religions like Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. It is more of an approach to the universe,
and a way of living in the universe than an intellectual system of philosophy. There are many misconceptions about
Hinduism which are the result of Westerners trying to force it to fit their ideas of what a religion should be like, and trying
to push a lot of different but related faiths into a single box. It includes a far wider range of beliefs and practices than any
of the faiths above. It does not offer the same insistence on being the only "truth" as the faiths above. There is no
eternally dominant or "correct" form of Hinduism. It has no individual who is, or has become, central to the faith and its
practice - as Jesus, Muhammad, and Moses are for the other faiths. The Hindu concept of the "good life" is not based
on instructions from God. It doesn't have a single scripture that is regarded as uniquely authoritative. It gives more
prominence to the oral tradition than Western scholars traditionally accept.
It doesn't have a personal god at its heart (although individual Hindus may). It is not, at heart, a set of beliefs. It is
inextricably entwined in everyday life. It continues to develop through the teachings of modern people of wisdom It's
very difficult to separate the religious elements of Hinduism from the political, racial, social, and other elements which
also make up the Hindu culture. But that's not surprising; as Hindus believe that God is in everything, it would not make
sense to separate religious things from everything else.
16. Hinduism has a number of subsects that are distinct (C) the liberation of soul from lower forms of life.
from each other (D) to be born into a higher order of living things.
(A) eventhough their resemblance is generic.
(B) as thousands of years have passed since they 20. One of the following can be inferred from the passage.
were derived from a common source. (A) There is a common thread running through all
(C) because it embraces a wide variety of beliefs the religions.
and practices. (B) The tenets of the Eastern religions gel well with
(D) because it has absorbed a wide variety of those of the Western religions.
influences. (C) Hinduism offers its followers freedom to choose
their personal Gods.
17. The belief of Hinduism that ‘God is in everything’ (D) Idol worship is never discouraged by Hinduism.
results in
21. One of the following is not a way in which Hinduism
(A) the Hindu groups being disparate.
differs from Christianity, Islam or Judaism.
(B) its continuous development.
(A) Hinduism does not believe that it is the only way
(C) the tolerance it shows to people who are different.
to attain God.
(D) the religion being an inseparable part of every
(B) Hinduism believes that the fundamental
aspect of life.
objective of religion is the liberation of the soul.
(C) Hinduism does not flow from a single individual.
18. Karma, as understood from the passage,
(D) A single scripture is not central to Hinduism.
(A) is the realisation of ‘As you sow, so you reap’.
(B) is the way your destiny is shaped. 22. Misconceptions about Hinduism arise as
(C) is the concept of reincarnation. (A) there are too many scriptures to be studied to
(D) determines the sect into which you are going to gain a proper perspective.
be born again. (B) it incorporates a multiplicity of ideologies and
traditions.
19. The ultimate aim of a true Hindu is (C) there is no eternally dominant or correct form of
(A) to gain an ability to observe the dictums of the Hinduism.
religious scriptures. (D) its tenets are being interpreted according to
(B) to be liberated from the cycle of births and Western beliefs.
deaths.
PASSAGE – IV
The heightened competition within today’s business climate has forced organisations to re-examine the assumptions of
traditional theories of organisational structure and operation. Established formulas for decision making have become less
applicable because these formulas were based on principles promoting and reflecting the stability of a prior era. Traditional
procedures for routinizing problem-solving processes through the use of hierarchical and bureaucratic systems are being
challenged and shown to be inefficient. As a result, the limitations of policies based on traditional conceptions of
organisations are being exposed. Often these shortcomings stem from the failure of older theories to incorporate the
flexibility and adaptability required by organisations in the current era in which shifting international markets and new
products, technologies and ideas are constantly transforming industries. Given the challenges faced by today’s
organisations, the relevance of creativity to problem-solving, decision making, and research and development is clear.
To remain competitive, businesses can no longer follow time-tested formulas of precedent; they must be able to produce
and be receptive to innovation, which is synonymous here with creativity in an organisational context.
How can research on the nature of organisations help us to understand organisational influences upon creativity? Consider
first traditional models of organisational structure and behaviour. These models responded to the uncertainty in
organisational environments and interpersonal relationships by emphasizing rational thinking and decision making. In these
models, the goal of organisations is one of reducing uncertainty and supplanting it with routine. Consequently procedures
and regulations designed to maximize predictability and order have been seen as positive influences on organisations. Roles
within organisations are strictly defined according to specific functions and jurisdictions in order to avoid overlap, maximize
productivity and efficiency, and make it easier to evaluate performance. Hierarchies are established to ensure the
accountability of each worker to a supervisor who has a better sense of the bigger picture of the workings of the organisation
and who understands how to utilize workers’ abilities to the fullest to further organisational goals. In general, traditional
organisational views see the effective use of control as the way to get the most out of an organisation. However, traditional
concepts of organisations that so heavily emphasize control have had the effect of minimizing employee creativity.
What was the origin of these traditional views of organisations and their optimal functioning? An important early
influence on thinking about the optimal structure of organisations was the work of Adam Smith who in 1776,
revolutionised productivity by proposing the concept of division of labour. Division of labour is so familiar to us today that
it can be easy to forget that it was once a revolutionary idea. Division of labour increased work output by assigning
specific work roles to each employee, instead of having each worker complete an entire complex task, which had been
the norm before Smith. By concentrating all the efforts of a single worker on one aspect of the task, the time that would
have been lost in swimming from task to task was saved. Workers benefited by developing specialised experience and
knowledge, which enabled them to gain dexterity in their assigned task and consequently become more productive.
Many years later, Smith’s early thinking on restructuring the organisation was complemented by Weber, whose classic
conceptualisation of bureaucracy laid the foundation for traditional organisational theories. Weber characterised the
functioning of an organisational machine as guided by principles of “fixed and jurisdictional areas, generally ordered by
rules, laws or administrative regulations”. Work roles were strictly defined and a system of levels of graded authority
operated to ensure “supervision of the lower offices by the higher ones”. The regulation and control of all relationships
was impersonal and was reduced to a set of prior, established rules. In Weber’s conceptualisation, an official of the
bureaucracy should be “devoted to impersonal and functional purposes” in return for the security of lifelong tenure, a
fixed salary, and an expected old-age pension. The career of a bureaucrat generally followed the hierarchical order of
upward movement from lower to higher positions, and this movement was usually based on seniority. Thus, Weber
elaborated upon the work of Smith by defining the optimal organisation as a highly controlled, rigid, hierarchical
environment in which each worker knew his or her place and performed clearly defined and explicitly assigned duties.
Once again, it is clear that this traditional view of organisations, which still describes the structure and functioning of
many organisations today, depicts an environment inhospitable for the expression of creativity.
23. Inadvertently, Smith and Weber contributed to (C) against that propounded by Smith.
(A) many of the structural obstacles that can (D) an extension of what is said in Smith’s theory.
smother creativity in an organisation.
(B) the increased productivity of employees through 26. The organisational environment proposed by Smith
their contributions to the task of specialisation. and Weber nurtures
(C) the calcification of the structure of organisations. (A) creativity.
(D) the incompatibility that exists between the stress (B) lateral thinking.
on organisational roles and employee creativity. (C) established patterns of thinking.
(D) rigid territorial structure of labour.
24. Which of the following is true in an organisational
context? 27. Which of the options summarizes the 1st para of the
(A) The efficacy of policies based on traditional passage in the most appropriate manner?
conceptions of organizations are being validated. (A) In order to sustain themselves in today’s
(B) The degree of control and the level of creativity competitive business scenario, organisations
are directly proportional. must be receptive to innovation and nurture
(C) The more rigid the hierarchical structure of a creativity rather than follow the precedent set by
firm, the more clearly defined are the roles of its traditional organisations.
employees. (B) Integrating innovative ideas with traditional
(D) Innovation and creativity are synonymous. procedures is essential for organisations to
sustain themselves in today’s fiercely
25. In light of Smith’s concept of division of labour, competitive business climate.
Weber’s bureaucratic structure of an organisation (C) Since old theories and formulas are time tested,
can be said to be they are relevant even to today’s business
(A) fundamental and elementary in nature. situations as much as they were relevant to the
(B) path breaking because of its additional traditional ones.
advantages when compared to Smith’s (D) Old and timested formulas are not relevant to
organizational structure. today’s business situations.

No. of words 934 648 722 740
No. of Qs. 8 7 7 5
Key
CRITICAL REASONING
Exercise – 1
1. D 4. B 7. A 10. D 13. A
2. C 5. D 8. D 11. B 14. C
3. B 6. C 9. B 12. D 15. D
Exercise – 2
1. D 6. D 11. A 16. B 21. D 26. D 31. B
2. C 7. A 12. D 17. D 22. A 27. B 32. C
3. B 8. D 13. B 18. C 23. C 28. D 33. C
4. C 9. D 14. B 19. B 24. B 29. B 34. D
5. D 10. C 15. D 20. A 25. D 30. A 35. C
READING COMPREHENSION
Exercise – 1
1. C 6. A 11. B 16. D 21. A
2. B 7. C 12. A 17. D 22. D
3. D 8. A 13. A 18. C 23. C
4. D 9. B 14. A 19. B 24. C
5. C 10. D 15. C 20. D 25. D
Exercise – 2
1. D 5. A 9. D 13. B 17. D 21. C 25. C
2. A 6. D 10. B 14. D 18. A 22. D 26. A
3. C 7. D 11. C 15. B 19. C 23. A
4. B 8. C 12. C 16. D 20. D 24. B
Exercise – 3
1. C 5. A 9. A 13. D 17. A 21. D 25. C
2. A 6. D 10. D 14. A 18. C 22. C 26. D
3. C 7. D 11. A 15. C 19. B 23. D
4. A 8. C 12. B 16. D 20. D 24. A
Exercise – 4
1. B 6. B 11. B 16. A 21. D

2. C 7. D 12. A 17. B 22. A
3. A 8. B 13. D 18. A 23. B
4. D 9. D 14. C 19. D 24. B
5. D 10. D 15. B 20. B 25. B
Exercise – 5
1. D 5. B 9. D 13. D 17. C 21. A

2. C 6. A 10. B 14. D 18. A 22. D
3. C 7. D 11. B 15. A 19. B 23. B
4. B 8. C 12. C 16. D 20. D 24. D
Exercise – 6
1. C 5. B 9. D 13. A 17. D 21. B 25. D
2. D 6. C 10. B 14. B 18. A 22. C 26. D
3. A 7. B 11. C 15. D 19. D 23. A 27. B
4. D 8. D 12. D 16. C 20. C 24. B
Exercise – 7
1. C 5. D 9. A 13. D 17. D 21. A 25. B
2. A 6. D 10. C 14. C 18. A 22. C 26. D
3. B 7. C 11. B 15. C 19. C 23. D
4. D 8. D 12. B 16. D 20. B 24. D
Exercise – 8
1. A 6. A 11. D 16. D 21. A
2. C 7. D 12. B 17. B 22. D
3. D 8. C 13. D 18. D 23. D
4. C 9. C 14. C 19. D 24. C
5. B 10. A 15. A 20. B 25. B
Exercise – 9
1. D 4. A 7. C 10. D 13. D 16. D 19. A 22. D
2. C 5. D 8. A 11. B 14. D 17. B 20. B 23. A
3. B 6. B 9. D 12. A 15. B 18. D 21. C 24. D
Exercise – 10
1. C 5. C 9. D 13. C 17. B 21. D 25. B
2. A 6. C 10. D 14. D 18. D 22. D 26. C
3. B 7. D 11. C 15. A 19. C 23. B 27. A
4. D 8. A 12. B 16. D 20. A 24. C
Exercise – 11
1. C 5. D 9. A 13. B 17. B 21. B
2. B 6. D 10. C 14. D 18. D 22. D
3. D 7. A 11. D 15. D 19. C 23. A
4. C 8. D 12. B 16. D 20. D 24. B
Exercise – 12
1. B 5. B 9. A 13. C 17. D 21. B 25. D
2. A 6. D 10. C 14. B 18. A 22. D 26. C
3. D 7. A 11. C 15. A 19. B 23. A 27. A
4. C 8. D 12. D 16. C 20. C 24. D

SM1001902

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SM1001902

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SM1001902

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

READING COMPREHENSION

NOTE ON IDENTIFYING THE TONES OF PASSAGES

(2) The tone of the passage is ………..

What does ‘tone’ mean?

Method of identifying the tone of a passage

The following questions will be helpful

(1) Is it a negative word or a positive word?

(2) Is it a mild word or a strong word?

(1) Adjectives used to describe very negative tones

(2) Adjectives used to describe moderately negative tones

(3) Adjectives used to describe positive tones

Summary of the passage:

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

The most striking statistic in the survey has to do with

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

agenda by exploiting crises, seems a frail thread to tie

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage:

Express the main idea of the passage in one sentence:________________________________________________

Summary of the passage: