Practice Questions
1. Although secularism and secularization are closely related, they nevertheless differ because they do not necessarily offer the same answer to the question of the role of religion in society. Secularism argues generally for a sphere of knowledge, values and action that is independent of religious authority, but it does not necessarily exclude religion from having any authority over political and social affairs.__________
A. Because the concept of the secular is normally conceived as standing in opposition to religion many people may not realize that it originally developed within a religious context.
B. Secularism is one of the most important movements of the Modern West.
C. Secularization however, is a process which does not involve such an exclusion.
D. Despite its importance, there isn’t always a great deal of agreement on just what secularism really is.
2. Almost a billion households in Asia, Africa and the Americas depend on rice systems for their main source of employment and livelihood. About four- fifths of the world’s rice is produced by small-scale farmers and is consumed locally. Rice systems support a wide variety of plants and animals, which also help supplement rural diets and incomes.
A. The dedication of an international year to rice, a single crop, is unique in the history of the United Nations._________
B. Rice is also both a symbol of cultural identity and global unity.
C. Rice is the most rapidly growing food source in Africa.
D. Rice is therefore on the frontline in the flight against world hunger and poverty.
3. Countries which argue and support rapid liberalization of the agricultural sector contend that global food suffiency would in a way ensure food security since countries could then produce what they are most competent and efficient in, while importing the rest of their food requirements. _________
A. Such an argument presupposes that all countries would at all times have sufficient foreign exchange • to procure their food requirements internationally.
B. This problem is further compounded in case there are unforeseen variations in the international prices.
C. This assumption is obviously not true since not1 all developing countries would be in a position to import food grains.
D. This limits any attempts to introduce mechanized farming and also constrains the adoption of new technologies.
4. Casting our ego as the enemy in a holy war and winning that battle is an exceedingly difficult proposition, primarily because the ego proves to be a most subtle adversary. In fact, the ego will even join the battle against itself. As an enemy, it infiltrates our lives, wearing our own uniform, its soldiers indistinguishable from ours. For most of us, it comes to nothing but an increased layer of suffering as we merely fight ourselves in name of spirituality and sink more deeply than ever into the morass of self-centeredness. _________
A. How does one fight a battle against such a devious and resourceful enemy?
B. Only the rarest of souls find a way through this conundrum.
C. An alternative, but also traditional view casts ego in an entirely different perspective, not as an enemy, but as an illusion.
D. Our belief in our ego, or separate self, is to a large extent learned from society.
5. For many centuries Africa and its people seemed mysterious and even perverse to the rest of the world. Generations of traders anchored their ships off the continent’s glittering surf line, they knew and valued Africa’s gold and ivory, but the continent itself is a puzzle. Where had Africans come from? Many answers were proposed, but most of them served only to deepen the darkness. At last the Europeans resorted to an easy conclusion. _________
A. The simple-minded answers to the riddle of Africa has lasted right up to Modern times.
B. Africa has been rediscovered by the scholars.
C. Africa has not been, after all, a land of unrelieved savagery and chaos.
D. Africans, they decided, were just savages, inferior beings, and had always been so.
6. Eight thousand years ago, while vestiges of the Ice- Age chilled Europe, the Sahara we know today as an empty, arid desert was a fertile region whose flowing rivers and grassy valleys teemed with fish and wild animals. During the next 6,000 years in this inviting land, waves of migrants developed a series of increasingly advanced societies, which they recorded in a collection of remarkably beautiful scenes, carved and painted on native rock . _________
A. Because of airborne moisture from southern Europe the Sahara started drying up.
B. There is a complete record of early African civilizations and of Stone Age life that can be found anywhere.
C. Animals and humans began to disperse, but the paintings, protected by dry air remained.
D. In 1956, a French explorer ethnologist, Henri Lhote, began an intensive study of the neglected frescoes at Tassili n’Ajjer.
7. The simplest African Social systems are those which have retained some of the customs of life as it was before the Iron Age began. Tucked away in distant corners, a few peoples still live in these ways. One of them is the Pygmies of the Congo rain forests, a retiring folk who have had a varied reputation in the eyes of other men. To the ancient Egyptians, the Pygmies were beings of wonder and respect. _________
A. Later travellers who glimpsed them were more inclined to regard them as some kind of large Monkey.
B. It is in the minute particulars of these smaller Social units that African’s intrinsic cultural values are revealed.
C. Not until the present day did the truth about the Pygmies becomes apparent.
D. The big and complex African societies only make sense when they are seen against a background of small systems.
8. The resident wildlife of a continent is more than a set of branches grown locally from the tree of evolution; it is also an expression of the land itself, written over the ages in adaptive protoplasm. Each living thing-platypus or peony, kangaroo or katydid— has been shaped partly by the genetic opportunities which the land afforded its forbears. _________
A. So odd and so oddly assorted are many of the Australian creatures that some of the questions they inevitably pose are still unanswered.
B. From the time Australia was first discovered, explorers were struck by the peculiarities of many of the native beasts.
C. Isolated Australia has offered some unusual possibilities for development, and these are reflected in the unusual character of the wildlife we find there today.
D. The scientists of the time, less credulous, tended to the opposite extreme and regarded some of the skins and skeletons sent home for their study as possible fakes.
9. The aboriginal is a food gatherer and hunter. He has never planted a crop, trained an animal, bred a bird. He has settled-like the animals-in groups no larger than the land can support. But because no area can supply all needs of even a single family, the aborigines have developed social ties with other groups in a complex system of mutual interdependence. _________
A. A man’s first kinship is to his family, consisting of his wife, or wives, and children.
B. His clan and others may form a horde, a food- gathering unit which control all the water and wildlife in the combined territory but has no ritual identity.
C. Tribes contain 250 to 700 individuals, who usually have a common ancestor or mythology and no central leader.
D. Coastal tribes have a better diet and travel less than those from the interior.
10. One species of assassin spiders tosses its web-net over its victim, gladiator fashion. Another hangs its net from threads, and by manipulating them like a puppet, manages to flick both net and itself in the way of passing insects. _________
A. This happens so quickly that scientists have not yet worked out how the spider manages to do it.
B. Of the 1,500 known varieties of spiders in Australia, only three are deadly.
C. The assassin spider belongs to a group more famous for their hunting techniques than their bite.
D. Its needle like fangs, longer and more effective than those of many snakes, transmit a venom that has claimed 10 human lives since 1927.
11. The shores of North America encompasses ice floes, rocky headlands, forested coats, sandy beaches a richness of habitats unsurpassed by any other continent. In their primeval state these habitats teemed with a tremendous variety and abundance of life. This they had until very recently until the Europeans began exploiting it. _________
A. They spent the winter but made no’ permanent settlement.
B. Norse sagas reveal that Columbus’s four voyages to the Americas were not the first made by Europeans.
C. Now it is virtually gone and will never exist again.
D. Their lasting effect on the fauna of the continent may have been the accidental introduction of a small marine snail.
12. Wherever we look, we do not find this self, this separate person that takes our name, this self- important actor on the stage of our life. The more carefully and persistently we look, the more this once-compelling ego, this self disappears. _________
A. Our devotion to it shrivels and we are left to truly be ourselves.
B. Or perhaps we see that it never existed to begin with.
C. This separate self never was.
D. Our ego, however, endures with remarkable resilience and persistence.
13. Recognising the percentage of small farmers in the agricultural sector of the most developing countries, it is clear that a major part of the financial burden of increased inputs would have to be met through governmental subsidies. It would need to be recognised that the small farmer would not be able meet his principal responsibility without adequate support from government. _________
A. It is, therefore, clear that there are significant external and internal ramifications of attaining the objectives of food security.
B. Finally, it needs to be said that agricultural self- reliance forms a vital underpinning for the growth of the GDP.
C. It is therefore important that a differentiation is made between such domestic support measures and international trade.
D. Public sector intervention would therefore, be necessary in order to achieve these national goals.
14. Because the concept of the secular is normally conceived as standing in opposition to religion many people may not realize that it originally developed within a religious context. _________
A. Actually, the concept that there is a difference between the spiritual and political realm can be found right in the Christian New testament.
B. This may also come as quite a surprise to religious fundamentalists who decay the growth of secularism in the modern world.
C. This distinction was later fed as theologians differentiated between faith and knowledge, between revealed theology and natural theology.
D. This theological defence of autonomous civil powers would ultimately be the view that prevailed.
15. Only two years ago, Fiorina was the gold standard for a new wave of female CEOs rocketing through the glass ceiling to the top spots in corporate America. But in a free-falling economy, many have watched more than their reputations plummet; some have also found themselves unceremoniously toppled from those hard-won heights. _________
A. Now, as Fiorina laid out her plans for 15,000 layoffs, warning of yet another revenue shortfall to come, th& analysts warmed to her iron-lady role.
B. In both the markets and the media, the bloom appears to have faded from the CEO sisterhood.
C. The biggest problem in this economy is people are not willing to take a risk.
D. Some experts see the number of women falling from grace as a sign of equal treatment.
16. The prong-hom’s remarkable vision and speed are its main defences against its ancient enemies, the coyote and grey wolf, and its modern one; man – but not its only defence. It also possesses an efficient signaling system by whict it can communicate alarm to other prong-horns, even to ones considerable distances away. Near-by prong-horns are warned and also flash their white patches and begin to run. _________
A. These ancient endowments for protection did not however, prove effective against the modern high powered rifle.
B. The only other large mammal of the continent whose numbers approached those of the prong¬horn was the bison.
C. The signal is thus passed from animal to animal and soon all the scattered prong-horns are fleeing.
D. While feeding, the herd appears loosely spread out over the grass land, but actually the animals are closely linked by a sentinel system at all times.
17. After years of preparation a wrestler joins the fourth and highest rank. Only then he may enter the tournaments that are held among the best fighters from many neighbouring villages. The contenders, covered with ceremonial ashes, enter the ring and circle each other in stylized steps. _________ .
A. When he finally pins both his opponent’s shoulders to the ground, the victor is hoisted aloft by his cheering friends and carried through the village in triumph.
B. Before these matches messengers run through the hills blowing horns to summon an audience.
C. Friends give the opponents last minute blessings and help them to fasten on their heavily cowtail belts.
D. Suddenly one of the wrestlers attacks and tries to throw the other man down.
18. It was an experience from which the majority of its peoples are only now beginning to recover. Through it all, while the fabric of his society fell apart, the individual African survived, drawing strength for this task from the long experience at disciplining himself to the demands of his environment but even more drawing strength from moral and spiritual beliefs of great antiquity and power. _________
A. In fact, over much of Africa the 19!h century was a time of unprecedented turmoil and violence.
B. Today this spiritual heritage may be seen at work in a new context, as Africans seek to transform a continent.
C. When they failed, it was usually because the problems were too great, for their venerable and traditional ways of doing things.
D. Instead of being allowed to work out its own relations with the modern world, Africa was shattered by the impact of foreign partition.
19. A phage is a small virus that infects only bacteria. The vast majority of phages have a tail to let them inject their genetic material into the host. They do not kill the cell, but monitor the status of their host. _________
A. Some phages are virulent, meaning that upon infecting a cell they begin reproducing and lyse the cell.
B. Some phages called temperate phages can instead enter a relatively harmless state.
C. When the host cell shows signs of stress they become active again and result in the lysis of the host cell.
D. Phages infect only specific bacteria.
20. The subject was of greater interest to sailors than the patterns of the great ocean, the winds – and here the shore-based experts were of no help at all. Mariners had to find out for themselves that the seas are divided into certain zones in which the trade winds blow steadily in certain directions, and other – the doldrums – in which the air is quiet for months at a time. They also had to learn that the zones change with the seasons. _________
A. In time, collections of navigators’ records were assembled into pilotage books, invaluable to the captain approaching a harbour he had never before visited.
B. Slowly a map of the invisible winds was superimposed on the map of the coasts and islands.
C. None the less the stories, in whole or in part, always leaked out.
D. By and large, however, the compass was quite accurate as a navigational aid for voyagers who ventured beyond sight of the land.
21. There is no certainty that there was religion: yet it is easy to imagine hunting men enjoy a primitive worship of sun and moon, and a general flight of the whole tribe into the bushes at a clap of thunder. There must have been political co-operation: careful planning to secure the right food at the right time. Similarly, hunters themselves had to regulate their killing to prevent over-hunting. _________
A. Thus, political life also had an ancestry older than what many of us think.
B. There is nothing of which to be sure.
C. Among hunting people who survived into historic times in America, even each species of game was believed to be ruled by a spiritual leader.
D. Communal living in tribes, in competition with each other, might be made to seem like a small capitalist enterprise.
22. In most of Iraq, slaves began as prisoners of war, or war slave girls procured by raids into the hills from among nomads, but they were subsequently often bred in captivity. People also became slaves because of debt or hunger, or were sold as children by poor parents. Sometimes, people might have sold themselves. _________
A. Slavery, it seems obvious, did much to mingle races.
B. The punishment for some crimes was enslavement.
C. Eventually, many households in Iraq had three slaves each.
D. Female slaves in particular were sought for work in Iraq spinning workshops.
23. The history of both plague and malaria recalls that, before the nineteenth century, little serious contribution was made to the relief of the disease by either medicine or doctors. _________
A. Of course, there have been doctors and surgeons for many generations.
B. The benefits of surgery were equally modest till nineteenth century.
C. Certainly population did not increase because of what was done in that respect before the nineteenth century.
D. Some may claim that those generations of experience were essential to the medical achievements of the industrial age.
24. Most nest building is done the natural way, while sitting. At first the bird may squat in a clump of grass, punching or moulding it with its breast, or it may try to fit its body into a likely crotch in a shrub or tree. A few twigs or straws may be pushed into place. If they do not stick the bird may try another site. _________
A. No two species build identical nests.
B. Just which bird make the smallest nest and which makes the largest is a matter of dispute.
C. An expert observer does not always have .to see the eggs to know the makes of the nest.
D. Eventually, by tucking, poking, pushing and moulding, the nest takes shape.
25. The histories of India that most of us have had to read, chiefly written by Englishmen, are usually long apologies for and panegyrics of British rule, and a barely veiled contemptuous account of what happened here in the nr-‘lenniums preceding it. Nevertheless, it is true that Indians are peculiarly liable to accept tradition and report as history, uncritically and without sufficient examination. _________
A. It is not only Indians who are affected by nationalist urges and supposed national interest in the writing or consideration of history.
B. But we need not go to the past to find instances of the manipulation of history to suit particular ends and support one’s own fancies and prejudices.
C. But all this is vague and uncertain.
D. They will have to rid themselves of this loose thinking and easy way of arriving at conclusions.
26. For supporters of the impact theory, the K-T. (K – cretrceous period, T – tertiary period) boundary layers contained two crucial clues. In 1979 scientists discovered that there were high concentrations of a rare element called iridium, which they thought could only have come from an asteroid. Right underneath the iridium was a layer of ‘Spherules’, tiny balls of rock which seemed to have been condensed from rock which had been vaporized by a massive impact. _________
A. On the basis of the spherules and a range of other evidence, Dr Alan Hildebrand of the University of Calgary deduced that the impact must have happened in the Yucatan peninsula.
B. The impact theory seemed to provide the complete answer.
C. This, they concluded, must have finished off the dinosaurs by a variety of mechanisms.
D. The impact theory was beautifully simple and appealing.
27. Higher education has become accessible to students in developed countries around the world. A university degree has gained status as a means of entry into more highly regarded careers. Families at all socioeconomic levels now strongly encourage their youth to attend 4-year colleges and universities, as well as to pursue graduate degree. In many cases, the parents sacrifice so their children can attain levels of education beyond what had been achieved in the family before. _________
A. Parents are pushing many students into higher education programs like I IT, which is affecting their innovation skills.
B. Thus, many young people are pushed into educational programs that are not suited to their talents or interests, because the students or their families seek the status and/or income that is believed to come with certain types of jobs.
C. The risk is that, while large numbers of students concentrate on university degrees and positions they expect to enjoy when they graduate, jobs that require less education are vacant.
D. Certainly, well-educated people are needed- and will be in the years ahead.
28. The first step in developing any asset is to recognize and comprehend what constitutes its true value and potential. To keep its sustainability, therefore, the corporate world needs to recognize what makes us humans tick. _________
A. Any company wanting to engage the hearts and souls of its people must grasp the true nature and workings of both heart and soul and then align itself its strategies accordingly.
B. Any investment aimed at enabling people to work better, rather than supporting them in becoming better will not touch the hearts and souls.
C. A resource is managed in order to be used.
D. An asset is managed in order to increase its intrinsic and potential value.
29. Personal characteristics such as demographic variables and the urge to seek variety may also have an effect on the sales of a product. A customer’s satisfaction with a service or product may actually lead him or her to seek out other providers of the service or product. And service recovery can neglect or reduce the impact of dissatisfaction on loyalty. _________
A. Much marketing literature suggests that satisfied customers are loyal customers and so high levels of satisfaction lead to repeat business and increased sales.
B. On the other hand, there may be situations in which loyalty is a direct consequence of satisfaction.
C. The level of risk may be a factor, and the link between satisfaction and intention to repurchase may be less strong where customers are less involved.
D. But a customer’s changing needs may influence his or her intention to repurchase from a given provider.
30. The general processes of transculturation are extremely complex – steered by powerful forces at the macro socio level, yet ultimately resolved at the interpersonal level. If a means to co-exist cannot be immediately found, then conflicts can be hostile; leading to a process by which contact between individuals leads to some resolution. Often, history shows us, the processes of co-existence begin with hostilities, and soon some resolution is achieved. _________
A. Hence, degrees of hostile conflict vary from outright genocidal conquest, to lukewarm infighting between differing political views.
B. It is the perception of individuals within cultures that their cultures do not in fact change fundamentally over time.
C. As parents die, their children have the opportunity to reflect upon the nature and validity.
D. The driving force for conflict is simple proximity.
2. D
3. A
4. B
5. D
6. C
7. A
8. C
9. B
10. A
11. C
12. B
13. D
14. C
15. B
16. C
17. A
18. B
19. C
20. B
21. A
22. B
23. B
24. D
25. D
26. A
27. B
28. A
29. A
30. A
2. Option (A) is irrelevant as it mentions United Nations (new point). Option (C) talks only about Africa, hence, cannot conclude Option (B) is also irrelevant.
3. Option (A) is the apt conclusion as it is talking about; what is inferred from the argument. Option (B) talks about a problem, but the passage doesn’t discuss any problem. Option (C) talks about assumption, which is not what is mentioned in the passage. Option (D) is irrelevant as an argument cannot limit anything.
4. Option (A) can be eliminated since it asks how can one fight the battle, but the last sentence, in the passage talks about effect of it. Option (C), needs further explanation. Option (D) is irrelevant. Hence, Option (B) is correct; conundrum is a difficult problem.
5. From the last sentence of the passage, it is very clear that only option (D) is apt. ‘they’ in D refers to the Europeans. Option (C) cannot continue the passage. Options (A) and are irrelevant.
6. Options (A) and (D) are irrelevant. Option (C) logically concludes the idea. B does not conclude the passage, it starts a new idea. It says, the collection was recorded to be found anywhere.
7. In the passage, the author talks about how the reputation of the Pygmies varied in the eyes of other men. Hence, the apt conclusion is A. It talks about what other men thought about them. Options (C) and (D) are irrelevant as, they talk truth about Pygmies; big and complex societies. Option (B) is not apt as it talks about cultural values of it.
8. Options (A) and (B) can be eliminated as they talk about how odd the creatures are. However, the passage does not mention that the creatures were unusual or peculiar. Option (D) is irrelevant. Hence, option (C) which implies that the creatures were unusual because of their genes is apt.
9. Options (A) and (C) do not conclude the passage. They continue it further. Option (D) is irrelevant, option (B), tells us how they are interdependent as mentioned in the passage.
10. The passage elaborates on the hunting technique of a species of spiders. Option (C) can be eliminated as the passage is an example of C. Hence, it cannot be a conclusion. Options (B) and (D) are irrelevant. B introduces an idea and D talks about humans.
11. Option (B) is a new idea. Options (A) and (D) continue the idea. Therefore, the apt conclusion is option (C).
12. Option (A) introduces a new idea. Option (C) is incomplete and D is irrelevant. Options (B) supports and concludes the point that our ego disappears or is no longer active.
13. From the passage, we infer that the government’s support is very important to achieve the goal. Hence, the apt conclusion is D. The rest of them are irrelevant.
14. Options (D) and (A) are irrelevant as they talk about civil powers and political realm. Option (C) talks about distinction which is not apt. Option (B) says people may not realize, hence, it comes as a surprise.
15. Options (A) and (C) are irrelevant as they talk about people in general or one single woman. Option (D) contradicts the passage.
16. The given passage talks about communication amongst the prong-horns. Only option (C) completes the idea and thus is an apt conclusion. A continues the idea, B is irrelevant and D still describes their communication but does not conclude it.
17. The passage is talking about a combat, hence, the apt conclusion is A. The rest of them continue the passage.
18. A cannot be the conclusion as the passage talks about recovering. C and D are irrelevant as it talks about failure and foreign partition. B supports the idea of spiritual heritage and concludes it saying they seek to transform.
19. A, B and D continue the idea, hence, only C is apt.
20. The passage is talking about ocean winds, zones and change of seasons that the sailors were not aware of preciously. Hence, they formed a map from the pattern they observed. A, C and D are irrelevant.
21. C-and D continue the idea. B is irrelevant. The passage talks about political cooperation. Hence A is apt.
22. The passage talks about different circumstances that turned people into slaves. Hence, the conclusion is C. A talks about slaves mingling with others. B does not conclude and D is irrelevant.
23. A and D are irrelevant. D talks about experience. C is deviating from the given idea. Statement B, which compares the benefits of surgery with the contribution made by medicine towards the relief of diseases like plague and malaria, is the best conclusion.
24. The passage talks about the efforts put in by a bird to build a nest. Hence D is apt. A comes at a later stage when the nests are being compared. B and C irrelevant.
25. A is inapt. B talks about manipulation, which is not the topic of the paragraph. C is vague and does not conclude. D talks about getting rid of arriving at conclusions based on hypothesis.
26. The passage talks about an asteroid attack, which is taken to be the reason why dinosaurs disappeared, in C. However, this is not mentioned in the passage A concludes the idea, B talks about answer, but the passage doesn’t give any answers. D is inapt.
27. A and C continue the idea as they talk about certain consequences which need further explanation. D is irrelevant. B is apt. It talks of the consequence and also the result.
28. Statement B just supports the idea, it does not conclude it. C is vague. D is a repetition of what is stated in the para. A is the best conclusion.
29. The passage talks about customer satisfaction and loyalty. Hence the apt conclusion is A. The passage and B talk about different aspects of a situation. A focuses on business and loyalty. C and D are inapt.
30. Choices (C) and (D) are inapt. B talks about cultural change, which is inapt.