UPSC IAS exam preparation - Basic of Comprehension - Lecture 5

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Basics of Comprehension

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Directions: Given below are several passages followed by questions based on them. Read the passages and answer the questions accordingly. Mark your answers in the scoresheet given at the end with an HB pencil.

PASSAGE I

Someone once said that a school, a hospital and a prison were usually designed along the same lines. They had a common purpose. They locked people up and worked on them. In the case of schools I am left wondering how some of the ‘inmates’ got in there at all.

I did as instructed. I made my calls. Along with the faithful I spent hours waiting in corridors hoping to catch a glimpse of the principals. I saw intelligent, well-educated, professional people reduce to nervous wrecks, wiping sweaty palms, while standing in line. Collective penance, but what were our sins? Rumours were rife. We exchanged notes. Do’s and don’t were discussed. I would be told of ‘enlightened’ principals, informal and happy’ schools and I would follow the trail. But, tired and defeated at the end of the day, I would return home; they were all just the same. Shame on you, India.

Yes, there are too many people in this country. Yes, ‘good’ schools are few and far between. Yes, principals are under great pressure. But, does this justify rude, high-handed behaviour? I was given appointments, kept waiting until I had forgotten my original reason for being there and nobody, nobody apologised. A nursery school informed me proudly that they taught their children manners. Perhaps, they could hold some evening classes for their staff. In some schools the procedure starts with armed security guards who stop you at the gate. On one occasion it was actually a guard who asked me which class I wanted to apply for. At a rather up-market nursery school in Vasant Vihar the principal kept her mystique by remaining invisible. I had to pass notes to her through barred gates.

Once past the guards, you’re in the office where you are often dealing with people who have difficulty in understanding anything beyond ‘date of birth’, ‘percentage achieved’ and ‘father’s profession’. If your ‘case’ is different, you are met with blank, uncomprehending stares. Perhaps schools should consider investing a part of their fees, donations, bribes, whatever they are called, in hiring educated office staff. You keep your temper and explain yet again, slowly, in the simplest possible language. Finally you’re desperate. Yes, you’ll take what you get. Standing room only, RAC quota, anything will do. You want to get your foot in the door before it slams shut.

Then schools are defensive when you ask if you may look around (the comparison with a prison is not a bad one, after all). If my credentials are going to be checked by just about everybody from the security guard to the board of governors, then surely I have the right to check things out too. One school wanted a letter from me requesting permission to be taken around the premises. However, I would not be shown the classrooms. Why? I wasn’t part of any UN weapons inspection team. I was simply a parent who wanted to see what sort of environment her daughter would be in. Is it asking too much of a school to have an open day once in a while to help parents choose?

But, of course, we have no choice in the matter. We subject ourselves to the absurdity of interviews because we have to. We whip our children into performing because they have to. At a school in Vasant Kunj I was met with a stony silence when I walked in for the interview. Nobody greeted me, nobody introduced themselves. Along with a lot of irrelevant nonsense, I was asked about my financial status, whether my child was biological or adopted as if that mattered.

While abroad, I had been told again and again that the Indian system was ever so good:” We start at three and a half. Our children know so much.” Perhaps, but Europe, where children start school much later, is in no way handicapped or stupid or ignorant. India does not have a monopoly on writers, artists, scientists and Nobel prize winners. Other countries have also obliged.

How much longer are we going to continue being frogs in the well? In Europe the process of modernisation began with the Reformation. One of its essential elements was the freedom of examination and critical thinking. Indians keep repainting their past. Octavio Paz calls this is a “psychological vaccine” that affords protection from criticism. And so we resist change. Talk of reform, of alternative methods and the Vedas and Puranas will be quoted to counter your argument. Oh, for God’s sake, India wake up ! Just as there is no such thing as a single faith or a single language, there is also no single method.

At the University of Heidelberg in Germany the main building bears the legend, “To the Living Spirit”. We have such a long, long way to go.

• The word 'rife' in the passage specifically means 

1. nasty
2. widespread
3. rambunctious
4. tattered

• The second para elucidates that 

1. the author visited many schools only to meet with frustration.
2. there were good Principals to mitigate the agony.
3. the school administration doesn't want new students.
4. None of these

• The author wants to say that 

1. the entire school staff is inured and does not listen.
2. there was a lot of lofty behaviour on part of the Principals.
3. most often, she did not meet with good, pleasant behaviour.
4. None of these

• What is the central idea that the author wants to convey in the passage?

1. The schools in India are not worthy of being called schools and teaching students, and even though most of the parents realise this, not much can be done about it.
2. The staff, from the guards to principals, in most of the schools behave rudely with parents.
3. Most of the schools are not easy with the idea of letting parents have a view of their premises.
4. Inspite of the faults in their systems, Indians are not favourably inclined to change.

• The tone of the passage can be described best as 

1. showing desperation
2. expressing dismay
3. criticizing
4. shocking

Passage II

There was once a child and he strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number of things. He had a sister, who was a child, too, and his constant companion. These two used to wonder all day long. They wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water; they wondered at the goodness and the power of God who made the lovely world.

They used to say to one another sometimes, supposing all the children upon earth were to die, would the flowers, and the water, and the sky be sorry? They believed they would be sorry. For, said they, the buds are the children of the flowers, and the little playful streams that gambol down the hillsides are the children of the water; and the smallest bright specks playing at hide-and-seek in the sky all night, must surely be the children of the stars; and they would all be grieved to see their playmates, the children of men, no more.

There was one clear shining star that used to come out in the sky before the rest, near the church spire, above the graves. It was larger and more beautiful, they thought, than all others, and every night they watched for it, standing hand in hand at the window. Whoever saw it first, cried out, "I see the star!" And often they cried out both together, knowing so well when it would rise, and where. So they grew to be such friends with it, that before lying down in their beds, they always looked out once again, to bid it good night; and when they were turning around to sleep, they used to say, "God bless the star!"

But while she was very young, oh, very, very young, the sister drooped, and came to be so weak that she could no longer stand in the window at night; and then the child looked sadly out by himself, and when he saw the star, turned round and said to the patient, pale face on the bed, "I see the star!" and then a smile would come upon the face, and a little weak voice used to say, "God bless my brother and the star!"

And so the time came, all too soon! When the child looked out alone, and when there was no face on the bed; and when there was a little grave among the graves, not there before; and when the star made long rays down toward him, as he saw it through his tears.

Now, these rays were so bright, and they seemed to make such a shining way from earth to heaven, that when the child went to his solitary bed, he dreamed about the star; and dreamed that, lying where he was, he saw a train of people taken up that sparkling road by angels. And the star, opening, showed him a great world of light, where many more such angels waited to receive them.

All these angels who were waiting turned their beaming eyes upon the people who were carried up into the star; and some came out from the long rows in which they stood, and fell upon the people's necks, and kissed them tenderly, and went away with them down avenues of light, and were so happy in their company, that lying in his bed he wept for joy.

But there were many angels who did not go with them, and among them one he knew. The patient face that once had lain upon the bed was glorified and radiant, but his heart found out his sister among all the host.

His sister's angel lingered near the entrance of the star, and said to the leader among those who had brought the people thither-

"Is my brother come?"

And he said, "No."

She was turning hopefully away, when the child stretched out his arms, and cried, "O sister, I am here! Take me!" And then she turned her beaming eyes upon him and it was night; and the star was shining into the room, making long rays down toward him as he saw it through his tears.

From that hour forth the child looked out upon the star as on the home he was to go to, when his time should come; and he thought that he did not belong to the earth alone, but to the star, too, because of his sister's angel gone before.

• The children felt that nature would be effected if they were to die because

1. nature needs humans to maintain the ecological balance.
2. they viewed everything in nature to be their friends and felt the same should be true for nature.
3. they were children who viewed everything as their companions.
4. they knew that everything in nature has a life and they could connect with this life. 

• What is the significance of the ritual of the siblings (of noting one particular star every night)? 

1. It shows that they used to be together all the time and hence were very close.
2. It shows that the star was brighter and more special than all the others.
3. It shows that the siblings had things which only they shared and used to be together all throughout thus making them very close.
4. The siblings did not have any other companions except themselves and hence they were very close to each other as they were practically together all the time.

• Later in the passage, the boy is said to be standing alone by the window. This signifies 

1. that he and his sister were not on talking terms anymore.
2. his sister had gone away somewhere to study.
3. his sister had passed away.
4. they were grown up now and was now married.

• The boy dreams of his sister being an angel and residing in the one star that they shared. The significance of this is 

1. the boy felt that the only place that could have the same importance in his sisters life as his own could be that star.
2. the boy felt that his sister was so good that she could only be an angel and the only star befitting her presence could be the one they shared.
3. the boy felt that his sister was so good that she could only be an angel and the only star befitting the presence of such good people could be the one they shared.
4. the boy felt his sister to be good enough to be angel, longing for him as he longs for her and could only be in a special place that they shared amongst them.

• The last paragraph talks of the child wanting to go to that star to be with his sister and feeling as if he was not meant to be here on earth. This implies

1. that the boy wanted to die.
2. that the boy wanted to be a space traveler and go to the star to meet his sister.
3. that the boy did not feel a sense of belongingness towards his life here on earth.
4. that the boy did not realize the significance of death and longed to be with his sister wherever she was.

Passage III

Every two months India produces a Singapore. Six, in the course of a year. So the Prime Minister of the tiny island nation told the cream of Indian industry in New Delhi last Tuesday. There was much laughter and applause. Goh Chok Tong was perhaps surprised, since he did not mean it as a compliment. The Singapores this country produces are not little Asian Tigers – those economies ready to take on the world in tight little springs. He was referring only to the chaotic increase in the population of this country, already 300 times that of Singapore.

Goh’s opening remarks to the Confederation of Indian Industry, polite though they were, tore meat strips off any complacency the representatives of industry and government might have cherished on the progress of the country and its current liberalisation. The more sensitive among the listeners certainly squirmed.

He started with what he called the contrasts between the two nations. Not just the obvious ones of size and population, but extending to the critical indices that summed up the essential differences in their psyche. India, an inward looking people and nation, who chose to see their own vast market as enough of a challenge, protected from the buffets of the world market by plumping for the swadeshi principle. “Our three million people produce for the world market; your 870 million produce mainly for themselves.”

So the tiny island without any natural resources accounts for 1.7 per cent of world exports, while India flounders halfway to the one percent digit. If Goh intended to be kind by slicing a whole 20 million off the population statistics, he did not succeed. There were more painful examples. SIA flies to more destinations than Air-India and the country attracts six times the tourists that India hosts. This despite “India having many more tourist attractions, great historical monuments, and an ancient civilisation.”

A state of affairs little likely to change as the Prime Minister made clear. He had come with a proposal for SIA to bring in vast numbers of tourists from different destinations. This, as he has repeated at other forums during his week-long visit, was the quickest way of pushing up foreign exchange earnings. It would hurt A-I perhaps, but then the country’s revenues were more important than propping up the national carrier. So, although, “Prime minister Rao was keen, the minister involved, the minister for civil aviation was not so receptive.” Goh appeared to have been briefed carefully about the undercurrents here. He said the demand for protection was understandable, SIA had itself sought it. But in the long run, protection did not help. Today, the airline was the symbol of Singapore’s ability to take on the world. But it was not a message that went down too well with sections of industry. There was muttered dissent from a section of the audience, obviously the Belvedere Club, about the situation being different here.

It was the glaring contrast, of course, that set the audience thinking. How had this country failed so dismally with all its advantages? Goh found the huge Indian market, its skilled labour, the vast reservoir of scientific manpower, and the large industrial base full of potentials, while Singapore with hardly any assets had become a roaring success in such a short while. As the head of CII, Jamshyd N Godrej, himself said wonderingly, "Twenty years ago Singapore had a different image." So how was the miracle worked?

The ensuing question and answer session reflected the businessmen’s desperate yearning to have the real Singapore in India: its disciplined labour, its orderly traffic, its ability to tap new markets and its spectacular success. One example that Goh elaborated on, the model traffic system, was sufficient to show why the Singapore dream cannot be replicated here. But a little of the Singapore context first. Pluralism is a word outlawed in thought and deed. Political and social control is tighter than the Gordian Knot. For a nation that can force its citizens to maintain their hair at the correct political length, keeping a rein on Star TV and reducing the inflow of foreign journalists to a strictly numbered 3,500 is a simple matter. Since two years chewing gum import has been banned because it’s a sticky mess to clean up. As for its traffic system, it is the kind that city planners elsewhere from San Francisco to Tokyo dare not even draw up a blueprint for. For starters, the number of cars allowed in the 640-sq km island is carefully regulated. Those hankering to own one have to bid for, what Goh called, a slip of paper. The current auction price of the permit is US $ 40,000. If a citizen still wants to buy a car, it is only the beginning of further restrictions: different road tolls for using busy thoroughfares, business districts etc. And as Goh said, even pedestrians would be taxed for pavements if they became overcrowded. The Haryana Government official who sought this information looked crestfallen. India does not take kindly to strict regulation; every rule must have a sufficiency of loopholes. Nor does it subscribe to orderliness in daily life. The roads, particularly in its capital, are symbolic of this state of mind. As one leading light of industry said ruefully, “It’s a pity we can’t bring Singapore into India.”

• The Indian industry’s notion about India’s progress can be termed as

1. scientific
2. analytical
3. complacent
4. correct

• Chewing gum imports have been banned in Singapore specifically, because 

1. it leads to unnecessary foreign exchange outflow.
2. it creates a filthy chewing habit.
3. it is very difficult to clean up.
4. the society may start following wrong western concepts.

• Singapore is liberal in allowing entry to foreign journalists.

1. True
2. False
3. Irrelevant
4. Indeterminate

• What is the central theme of the passage? 

1. Describing the contrasts between India and Singapore and understanding the reasons.
2. Describing the harsh discipline Singapore as a city state seeks to maintain.
3. Shaking the Indian businessmen out of their sense of complacency.
4. Seeking to explore the reasons of India's underdevelopment, in spite of it being so well endowed with natural resources.

• India’s population exceeds that of Singapore’s by 

1. 870 million
2. 857 million
3. 867 million
4. 3 million

Passage IV

Physical Attractiveness also affects people’s social participation in everyday life, although the impact is somewhat different for men than for women. Harry Reis and Ladd Wheeler conducted a series of studies in which college students were asked to keep a daily record of any interaction that lasted 10 minutes or longer. Among the men, as physical attractiveness increased, so did their amount of social interactions with women, while their amount of interactions with other men decreased. For women, attractiveness had no relation to the amount of social contacts. The quality of social experiences was affected by attractiveness for both men and women. The attractive students, in general, reported more intimate and disclosing interactions.

Physically attractive persons are seen to have many interpersonal advantages over their unattractive counterparts. The research literature provides many illustrations. The physically attractive have advantage with respect to the perceived quality of their task performance, their job marketability, their expected political success, and their perceived persuasiveness. Even mock juries, deciding on the punishment to be administered for a crime, give less severe punishment to the physically attractive defendant.

The powerful effects of attractiveness may be due to a culturally shared implicit theory of personality. The category “Physically attractive” is linked to many other positive traits in a way that “physically unattractive” is not. The perceiver who categorizes someone as attractive will, thus, assume that he or she possesses a number of other desirable characteristics. The impact of this effect may be heightened because, unlike attitude, information about a potential partner’s physical attractiveness is immediately available and does not require continued interaction for its assessment. Indeed, Marks and Miller have shown that subjects will attribute their own attitudes to attractive peers to a much greater extent than they will to less attractive peers. In the absence of any actual knowledge about the peers attitude, the physically attractive were benefited by the subjects assumption of high attitude similarity. In addition, an attractive partner may reward us indirectly by increasing our own stature in the eyes of others. Sigall and Landy found that the same male was evaluated more positively when he was accompanied by an attractive female than he was accompanied by an unattractive female. Perhaps the category “People with attractive partners” is also linked to other positive traits.

Although the important effects of physical attractiveness cannot be denied, most of us will be comforted by the fact that the impact of this single attribute usually diminishes as a relationship develops over time. Continued interaction allows other sources of reward to come to the front and lessens the dependence upon this superficial determiner of attraction.

• Select a suitable title for the passage 

1. Why Men Need to be More Attractive than Women?
2. Men are from Venus and Women are from Mars.
3. Physical Attractiveness : An Analysis.
4. Beautiful body, Beautiful Mind.

• Which of these can be ascertained as true from the passage? 

1. Unattractive women had the same quality of social interactions as attractive ones.
2. Attractive men are highly popular among females but extremely unpopular among males.
3. Quality of life led by a person is essentially determined by his/her physical attractiveness.
4. Men who are physically attractive have higher number of social interactions with women.

• Physical attractiveness appears to be a virtue because 

1. the society’s perception is biased in favour of physically attractive people.
2. it is believed that outer beauty accompanies inner beauty and the two are not mutually exclusive.
3. it accentuates the good and diminishes the bad in a person.
4. it is the only trait that plays a crucial role in determining the depth of a relationship.

• Which of the following play an important role in influencing a person’s attitude?

1. peers who are attractive.
2. peers with unattractive partners.
3. peers with attractive partners.
4. peers who are unattractive.

Passage V

Spent some of the most exciting days of my life working on the eastern shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana, searching for the fossilized remains of our early ancestors. We did not always find what we wanted, but every day there was much more to discover than the traces of our own predecessors. The fossils, some quite complete, others mere fragments, spoke of another world in which the ancestors of many of today’s African mammals roamed the rich grasslands and forest fringes between 1.5 million and 2 million years ago. The environment was not too different from the wetter grasslands of Africa today, but it was full of amazing animals that are now long extinct.

One in particular I would have loved to see alive, was a short-necked giraffe relative that had huge “antlers” some with a span across the horns of close to 8 ft. (almost 3 m). There were buffalo-size antelopes with massive curving horns, carnivores that must have looked like saber-toothed lions, two distinct species of hippo and at least two types of elephant, one of which had tusks that protruded downward from the lower jaw. We may never know the full extent of this incredible mammalian diversity, but there were probably more than twice as many species a million years ago as there are today.

That was true not just for Africa. The fossil record tells the same story everywhere. Most of life’s experiments have ended in extinction. It is estimated that more than 95% of the species that have existed over the past 600 million years are gone.

So, should we be concerned about the current spasm of extinction, which has been accelerated by the inexorable expansion of agriculture and causes of extinction? Is it necessary to try to slow down a process that has been going on forever?

I believe it is. We know that the well-being of the human race is tied to the well-being of many other species, and we can’t be sure which species are most important to our own survival.

But dealing with the extinction crisis is no simple matter, since much of the world’s biodiversity resides in its poorest nations, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Can such countries justify setting aside national parks and nature reserves where human encroachment and even access is forbidden? Is it legitimate to spend large sums of money to save some species – be it an elephant or an orchid – in a nation in which a sizable percentage of the people are living below the poverty line? 

Such questions make me uneasy about promoting wildlife conservation in impoverished nations. Nonetheless, I believe that we can-and should do a great deal. It’s a matter of changing priorities. Plenty of money is available for scientific field studies and conferences on endangered species. But what about boots and vehicles for park personnel who protect wildlife from poachers? What about development aid to give local people economic alternatives to cutting forests and plowing over the land? That kind of funding is difficult to come by.

People in poor countries should not be asked to choose between their own short-term survival and longer-term environmental needs. If their governments are willing to protect the environment, the money needed should come from international sources. To me, the choice is clear. Either the more affluent world helps now or the world as a whole will lose out.

Of course, we must be careful not to allow the establishment of slush funds or rely on short-term, haphazard handouts that would probably go waste. We need a permanent global endowment devoted to wildlife protection, funded primarily by the governments of the industrial nations and international aid agencies. The principal could remain invested in the donor nations as the interest flowed steadily into conservation efforts.

How to use those funds would be a matter of endless debate. Should local communities be entitled to set the agenda, or should outside experts take control? Should limited hunting be allowed in parks, or should they be put off limits? Mistakes will be made, the landscape will keep changing, and species will still be lost, but the difficulty of the task should not lead us to abandon hope. Many of the planet’s natural habitats are gone forever, but many others can be saved and in time restored.

A major challenge for the 21st century is to preserve as much of our natural estate as possible. Let us resist with all our efforts any moves to reduce the amount of wild land available for wild species. And let us call upon the world’s richest nations to provide the money to make that possible. That would not be a contribution to charity; it would be an investment in the future of humanity – and all life on Earth. 

• The author is essentially making a case for 

1. extinction
2. conservation
3. poor economies
4. international funding

• Which of these is not mentioned in the passage? 

1. Elephant
2. Hippo
3. Dinosaur
4. Antelope

• Wildlife conservation in impoverished nations suffers from a 

1. lack of support from local populace.
2. lack of adequate funding to support efforts.
3. lack of national parks and nature reserves.
4. lack of adequate understanding on conservation measures in these nations.

• Which is the most likely profession of the author? 

1. Amateur astronomer
2. Philanthropist
3. Anthropologist
4. Archaeologist 

• Which suggestion is made by the author in order to boost conservation efforts in impoverished nations? 

1. International funding for the short term.
2. Setting up of a permanent global endowment devoted to wildlife protection.
3. Provision of soft loans for impoverished nations.
4. None of these

• Which is false according to the passage? 

1. Extinction has been a part and parcel of earth’s existence.
2. Most of the world’s biodiversity resides in its poorest nations.
3. We need to only conserve those species that are crucial to our own survival.
4. None of these

PASSAGE VI

Almost without exception all human languages have built into them a polarity, a veer to the right. “Right” is associated with legality, correct behaviour, high moral principles, firmness, and masculinity; “left”, with weakness cowardice, diffuseness of purpose, evil, and femininity. In English, for example, we have “rectitude,” “rectify,” “righteous”, “right-hand man” “dexterity,” “adroit” (from the French “a droit”), “rights,” as in “the right of man,” and the phrase “in his right mind.” Even “ambidextrous” means, ultimately, two right hands.

On the other side (literally), we have “sinister” (almost exactly the Latin word for “left”), “gauche” (precisely the French word for “left”), “gawky”, “gawk”, and “left-handed compliment.” The Russian “nalevo” for “left” also means “surreptitious.” The Italian “mancino” for “left” signifies “deceitful.” There is no “Bill of Lefts.”

In one etymology, “left” comes from “lyft,” the Anglo-Saxon for weak or worthless. “Right” in the legal sense (as an action in accord with the rules of society) and “right” in the logical sense (as the opposite of erroneous) are also commonplace in many languages. The political use of right and left seems to date from the moment when a significant lay political force arose as counterpoise to the nobility. The nobles were placed on the king’s right and the radical upstarts-the capitalists-on his left. The nobles were to the royal right, of course, because the king himself was a noble; and his right side was the favoured position. And in theology as in politics: “At the right hand of God.”

Many examples of a connection between “right” and “straight” can be found. In Mexican Spanish you indicate straight (ahead) by saying “right right”; in Black American English, “right on” is an expression of approval, often for a sentiment eloquently or deftly phrased. “Straight” meaning conventional, correct or proper is a commonplace in colloquial English today. In Russian, right is “pravo,” a cognate of “pravda,” which means “true.” And in many languages “true” has the additional meaning of “straight” or “accurate,” as in “his aim was true.”

The Stanford-Binet IQ test makes some effort to examine both left and right hemisphere function. For right-hemisphere function there are tests in which the subject is asked to predict the opened configuration of a piece of paper after it is folded several times and a small piece cut out with a pair of scissors; or to estimate the total number of blocks in a stack when some blocks are hidden from view. Although the devisors of the Stanford-Binet test consider such questions of geometric conception to be very useful in determining the “intelligence” of children, they are said to be increasingly less useful in IQ tests of teenagers and adult. There is certainly little room on such examinations for testing intuitive leaps. Unsurprisingly, IQ tests also seem to be powerfully biased toward the left hemisphere.

The vehemence of the prejudices in favour of the left hemisphere and the right hand reminds me of a war in which the side that barely won renames the contending parties and issues, so that future generations will have no difficulty in deciding where prudent loyalty should lie. When Lenin’s party was a fairly small splinter group in Russian socialism he named it the Bolshevik party, which in Russian means the majority party. The opposition obligingly, and with awesome stupidity, accepted the designation of Mensheviks, the minority party. In a decade and a half they were. Similarly, in the worldwide association of the words “right” and “left” there is evidence of a rancorous conflict early in the history of mankind. What could arouse such powerful emotion?

In combat with weapons which cut or stab-and in such sports as boxing, baseball and tennis – a participant trained in the use of the right hand will find himself at a disadvantage when confronted unexpectedly with a left hander. Also, a malevolent left handed swordsman might be able to come quite close to his adversary with his unencumbered right hand appearing as a gesture of disarmament and peace. But these circumstances do not seem to be able to explain the breadth and depth of antipathy to the left hand, nor the extension of right chauvinism to women – traditional noncombatants.

One, perhaps remote, possibility is connected with the unavailability of toilet paper in pre-industrial societies. For most of human history, and in many parts of the world today, the empty hand is used for personal hygiene after defecation, a fact of life in pretechnological cultures. It does not follow that those who follow this custom enjoy it. Not only is it aesthetically unappealing, it involves a serious risk of transferring disease to others as well as to oneself. The simplest precaution is to greet and to eat with the other hand. Without apparent exception in pretechnological human societies, it is the left hand that is used for such toilet functions and the right for greeting and eating. Occasional lapses from this convention are quite properly viewed with horror. Severe penalties have been visited on small children for breaches of the prevailing handedness conventions; and many older people in the West can still remember a time when there were firm strictures against even reaching for objects with the left hand. I believe this account can explain the virulence against associations with “left” and the defensive self congratulatory bombast attached to associations with “right” which are commonplace in our right handed society. The explanation does not, however, explain why the right and the left hands were originally chosen for these particular functions. It might be argued that statistically there is one chance in two that toilet functions would be relegated to the left hand. But we would then expect one society in two to be righteous about leftness. In fact, there seem to be no such societies. In a society where most people are right handed, precision tasks such as eating and fighting would be relegated to the favoured hand, leaving by default toilet functions to the side sinister. However, this also does not account for why the society is right handed. In its most fundamental sense, the explanation must lie elsewhere.

There is no direct connection between the hand you prefer to use for most tasks and the cerebral hemisphere that controls speech, and the majority of left handers may still have speech centers in the left hemisphere, although this point is in dispute. Nevertheless, the existence of handedness itself is thought to be connected with brain lateralization. Some evidence suggests the left handers are more likely to have problems with such left hemisphere functions as reading, writing, speaking and arithmetic; and to be more adept at such right hemisphere functions as imagination, pattern recognition and general creativity. Some data suggest that human beings are genetically biased towards right handedness. For example, the number of ridges on fingerprints of fetuses during the third and fourth months of gestation is larger in the right hand than the left hand, and this preponderance persists throughout fetal life and after birth.

Information on the handedness of the Australopithecines has been obtained from an analysis of fossil baboon skulls fractured with bone or wooden clubs by these early relatives of man. The discoverer of the Australopithecine fossils, Raymond Dart, concluded that about 20 percent of them were left handed, which is roughly the fraction in modern man. In contrast, while other animals often show strong paw preferences, the favored paw is almost as likely to be left as right.

The left/right distinctions run deep into the past of our species. I wonder if some slight whiff of the battle between the rational and the intuitive, between the two hemispheres of the brain, has not surfaced in the polarity between words for right and left: it is the verbal hemisphere that controls the right side. There may not in fact be more dexterity in the right side; but it certainly has a better press. The left hemisphere seems to feel quite defensive-in a strange way insecure-about the right hemisphere; and, if this is so, verbal criticism of intuitive thinking becomes suspect on the ground of motive. Unfortunately, there is every reason to think that the right hemisphere has comparable misgivings expressed non verbally, of course-about the left.

• The word 'veer' in the passage specifically refers to 

1. steadfastness
2. shift
3. disinclination
4. disinvestment

• The phrase 'left handed compliment' in the passage characterises 

1. femininity
2. threat
3. nonchalance
4. None of these

• The word 'right' does not characterise 

1. truth
2. masculinity
3. legality
4. poise

• According to the author, IQ tests seem to be powerfully biased towards the left hemisphere. 

1. True
2. False
3. Irrelevant
4. Partly false

• The central theme of the passage is 

1. an attempt at analysing why "right" and "left" are associated with meanings they are associated with.
2. that the languages in all cultures and societies are predisposed towards "right".
3. the "left" is considered sinister because most of the pre-industrial societies did not have access to toilet paper.
4. human beings are actually genetically predisposed towards right-handedness.

Basics of ComprehensioN 

HOME ASSIGNMENT

This part has to be taken by the students as a home assignment after the specific language session has been conducted in the class.

Passage I

Biological evolution has been accompanied by increasing complexity. The most complex organisms on Earth today contain substantially more stored information, both genetic and extra genetic, than the most complex organisms of, say, two hundred million years ago-which is only 5 percent of the history of life on the planet, five days ago on the Cosmic Calendar. The simplest organisms on Earth today have just as much evolutionary history behind them as the most complex, and it may well be that the internal biochemistry of contemporary bacteria is more efficient than the internal biochemistry of the bacteria of three billion years ago. But the amount of genetic information in bacteria today is probably not vastly greater than that in their ancient bacterial ancestors. It is important to distinguish between the amount of information and the quality of that information.

The various biological forms are called taxa (singular, taxon). The largest taxonomic divisions distinguish between plants and animals, or between those organisms with poorly developed nuclei in their cells (such as bacteria and blue-green algae) and those with very clearly demarcated and elaborately architectured nuclei (such as protozoa or people). All organisms on the planet Earth, however, whether they have well defined nuclei or not, have chromosomes, which contain the genetic material passed on from generation to generation. In all organisms the hereditary molecules are nucleic acids. With a few unimportant exceptions, the hereditary nucleic acid is always the molecule called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Much finer divisions among various sorts of plants and animals, down to species, subspecies and races, can also be described as separate taxa.

A species is a group that can produce fertile offspring by crosses within but not outside itself. The mating of different breeds of dogs yields puppies which when grown, will be reproductively competent dogs. But crosses between species-even species as similar as donkeys and horses-produce infertile offspring (in this case, mules). Donkeys and horses are therefore categorized as separate species. Viable but infertile matings of more widely separated species-for-example, lions and tigers-sometimes occur, and if, rarely, the offspring are fertile, this indicates only that the definition of species is a little fuzzy. All human beings are members of the same species, Homo sapiens, which means, in optimistic Latin, “Man, the wise.” Our probable ancestors, Homo erectus and Homo habilis – now extinct-are classified as of the same genus (Homo) but a different species, although no one (at least lately) has attempted the appropriate experiments to see if crosses of them with us would produce fertile offspring.

In earlier times it was widely held that offspring could be produced by crosses between extremely different organisms. The Minotaur whom Theseus slew was said to be the result of a mating between a bull and a woman. And the Roman historian Pliny suggested that the ostrich, then newly discovered, was the result of a cross between a giraffe and a gnat. (It would, I suppose, have to be a female giraffe and a male gnat.) In practice there must be many such crosses which have not been attempted because of a certain understandable lack of motivation.

Some notion of the complexity of an organism can be obtained merely by considering its behaviour-that is, the number of different functions it is called upon to perform in its lifetime. But complexity can also be judged by the minimum information content in the organism’s genetic material. A typical human chromosome has one very long DNA molecule wound into coils, so that the space it occupies is very much smaller than it would be if it were unravelled. This DNA molecule is composed of smaller building blocks, a little like the rungs and sides of a rope-ladder. These blocks are called nucleotides and come in four varieties. The language of life, our hereditary information, is determined by the sequence of the four different sorts of nucleotides. We might say that the language of heredity is written in an alphabet of only four letters.

But the book of life is very rich; a typical chromosomal DNA molecule in a human being is composed of about five billion pairs of nucleotides. The genetic instructions of all the other taxa on Earth are written in the same language, with the same code book, Indeed, this shared genetic language is one line of evidence that all the organisms on Earth are descended from a single ancestor, a single instance of the origin of life some four billion years ago.

The information content of any message is usually described in units called bits, which is short for “binary digits.” The simplest arithmetical scheme uses not ten digits (as we do because of the evolutionary accident that we have ten fingers) but only two, 0 and 1. Thus any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit – 0 or 1, yes or no. If the genetic code were written in a language of two letters rather than four letters, the number of bits in a DNA molecule would equal twice the number of nucleotide pairs. But since there are four different kinds of nucleotides, the number of bits of information in DNA is four times the number of nucleotide pairs. Thus if a single chromosome has five billion (5 x 109) nucleotides, it contains twenty billion (2 x 1010) bits of information. [A symbol such as 109 merely indicates a one followed by a certain number of zeroes-in this case, nine of them.]

How much information is twenty billion bits? What would be its equivalent, if it were written down in an ordinary printed book in a modern human language? Alphabetical human language characteristically have twenty to forty letters plus one or two dozen numerals and punctuation marks; thus sixty-four alternative characters should suffice for most such languages. Since 26 equals 64 (2×2×2×2×2×2), it should take no more than six bits to specify a given character. We can think of this being done by a sort of game of “Twenty Questions”, in which each answer corresponds to the investment of a single bit to a yes/no question. Suppose the character in question is the letter J. We might specify it by the following procedure:

FIRST QUESTION: Is it a letter (0) or some other character (1)?

ANSWER : A letter (0).

SECOND QUESTION: Is it in the first half (0) or the second half of the alphabet (1)?

ANSWER : In the first half (0)

THIRD QUESTION: Of the thirteen letters in the first half of the alphabet, is it in the first seven (0) or the second six (1)?

ANSWER : In the second six (1).

FOURTH QUESTION :In the second six (H, I, J, K, L, M), is it in the first half (0) or the second half (1)?

ANSWER: In the first half (0).

FIFTH QUESTION: Of these letters H, I, J, is it H (0) or is it one of I and J (1)?

ANSWER: It is one of I and J (1).

SIXTH QUESTION : Is it I (0) or J (1)?

ANSWER: It is J (1).

• The author certainly feels that 

1. biological evolution forestalls complexity.
2. biological evolution enthuses intricateness.
3. information overload can be precluded by biological evolution.
4. in general, biological evolution has led to increased complexity.

• From the passage, we can deduce, approximately, the length of one day on the Cosmic Calendar. 

1. True
2. False
3. Partly false
4. Not relevant

• Human beings have more clearly demarcated and elaborately architectured nuclei than protozoa. The above statement is deducible from the passage.

1. Yes
2. No
3. Partly false
4. Not inferrable

• A species is a group that can produce offspring by hybridisation within itself. The author will 

1. agree
2. disagree
3. have reservations
4. criticise this statement

• Complexity in an organism can be judged by the minimum information content in the organism's genetic material. The author doesn't agree with the above statement. 

1. True
2. False
3. Not deducible
4. Not discussed in the passage

Passage ii

Looking back over the past 150 years of biological research (especially genetics), it is clear that success has frequently been contingent on the choice of the experimental system. Mendel’s breeding experiments with pea (Pisum) plants, which defined the early science of genetics, are rarely acknowledged as setting that precedent. His choice of peas, although not original – Darwin and others before him had bred garden peas – was key to his success. With peas, Mendel could control pollination and develop highly inbred varieties that bred true and had clearly defined, easily observable traits (phenotypes). The importance of the right choice of organism is highlighted by Mendel’s inability to obtain comparable results with hawkweed plants (Hieracium). This failure was not because the fundamental laws of inheritance he had deduced with pea plants lacked generality. Rather, it was because the results were confounded by a hawkweed peculiarity that was discovered only decades later: Seeds often develop from diploid cells without fertilization.

The rediscovery of Mendel’s work at the turn of the century owed much to plant breeders. An American apostle of Mendelism, R. A. Emerson at the University of Nebraska, adopted Indian corn (maize) as his experimental organism. Each of the kernels on a corn cob is the result of a separate fertilization, making it possible to observe many offspring, thereby enhancing the statistical significance of the data. Using maize, Emerson and E. M. East established the novel idea that “quantitative traits” result from the independent inheritance of several different genes and their alleles, and the consequent effect each has on the others. Thus Emerson, along with the scientific dynasty he founded at Cornell beginning in 1914 – including M. Demerec, G. F. Sprague, B. McClintock, G. W. Beadle, and M. M. Rhoades – contributed to the extension and generalization of Mendelian ideas and to the development of the American corn industry.

By 1914, Drosophila melanogaster, commonly called the fruit fly, had displaced corn as the more advantageous organism for genetic investigation. Its relatively short reproductive cycle (about 10 days), abundant progeny (100 to 400 per mating), and the fortuitous property that meiosis in males is not accompanied by the usual exchange of chromosome segments, made the results of matings readily interpretable. At Columbia University, T. H. Morgan and his colleagues A. H. Sturtevant, C. B. Bridges, H. J. Muller, and their students had seized on these advantages to initiate one of the most intense periods of discovery in genetics. It had taken them only five years to establish that (i) genes occur in linear arrays along each chromosome, (ii) pairs of homologous chromosomes exchange parts (cross over) in meiosis during maturation of eggs, and (iii) many genes can be assigned to individual chromosomes and their positions can be mapped relative to one another.

Until 1935, exploration of the role of genes in development was impeded by the lack of a suitable experimental organism, one whose genetics and embryology were well enough understood. Then G. W. Beadle and B. Ephrussi at the Institute de Biologie in Paris devised a way to use Drosophila to examine the developmental fate of genetically defined embryonic tissues. This led to their discovery that the fly’s eye pigments are formed by pathways whose individual steps are controlled by genes. However, Drosophila proved inadequate to pursue that lead. Instead, the common bread mold Neurospora crassa would provide the bridge. Adopted as an experimental tool by B. O. Dodge at the New York Botanical Garden, its genetics had been worked out by C. Lindegren, a student of Morgan. Beadle and E. Tatum recognized that Neurospora could be used to determine whether induced mutations create specific nutritional deficiencies. It was an inspired choice. Working in basement laboratories at Stanford, they obtained literally hundreds of mutants, each readily associated with a specific nutritional requirement. They surmised, and later established, that each gene was responsible for one enzyme required for the synthesis of a particular cellular constituent. These early 1940s discoveries became the basis for the one gene-one enzyme hypothesis or, as we know it today, the one gene-one polypeptide paradigm.

Yet the gene-enzyme relationship had already been inferred 30 years earlier by the British physician Archibald Garrod, who had, in 1902, noted that alcaptonuria, a human defect producing black urine, had an unusual pattern of inheritance. William Bateson, who played a critical role in promoting Mendel’s work soon after its rediscovery around 1900 and introduced the term “genetics,” recognized that alcaptonuria was inherited like a recessive Mendelian trait. In the succeeding 10 years, Garrod extended the Mendelian paradigm to the characterization of other human metabolic maladies. Eventually he suggested that each was the consequence of the loss of a different metabolic step, presumably because of a particular enzyme deficiency. But human disease was largely the province of physicians and physiologists, who did not appreciate the significance of Garrod’s insight, and geneticists were generally unfamiliar with the medical literature. Consequently, Garrod’s ideas languished for decades until Neurospora provided Beadle and Tatum with the appropriate model to transform Garrod’s inferences into verifiable evidence.

By the late 1940s, Tatum had adopted an even more attractive system for examining the relation between genes and cellular functions. The common intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli has simple nutritional requirements and divides every 20 to 60 minutes, yielding billions of cells per milliliter of growth medium. Moreover, a large number of readily measurable physiological characteristics are genetically controlled, allowing for the isolation and characterization of mutants that are defective in specific cellular functions. When J. Lederberg and Tatum discovered that E. Coli strains can participate in sexual exchanges, they opened the way to a more formal genetic analysis and the construction of a map of the bacterium’s single circular chromosome. The extensive genetic characterization of E. Coli made it ideal for elucidating the genetic code and the principles governing gene expression and regulation. 

• The central theme of the passage is 

1. scientific ideas need to be experimented on different organisms in order to establish their universality.
2. success in science is often dependent on the choice of the experimental system.
3. science necessitates that established facts and ideas be reproduced throughout the microcosm without any ambiguity.
4. there has been a rapid evolution of the methodology of Scientific discovery since its primitive days during Mendel’s times.

• Which of these resulted in failure of Mendel’s observations on Hieracium?

1. Unlike peas, hawkweed plants did not follow the rules of inheritance suggested by Mendel.
2. Mendel’s observation of garden peas and subsequent development of the rules of inheritance was flawed.
3. Mendel failed to realize that Hieracium seeds often developed asexually.
4. None of these

• What makes Drosophila Melanogaster an advantageous organism for genetical investigation? 

1. Developmental fate of genetically defined embryonic tissues.
2. The hereditary characteristics of plants.
3. No exchange of chromosome segments during meiosis in males.
4. None of these

• Which of these organisms contributed to the foundation of the one gene one enzyme theory? 

1. Drospohila
2. Hieracium
3. Neurospora
4. Alcaptonuria

• Arrange the chronology (starting from early to later) in which popular experimental systems were used for studying scientific ideas. 

1. Drosophila-Melanogaster-Neurospora-E.Coli
2. Peas-Drosophila-Neurospora-E.Coli
3. E.Coli-Drosophila-Neurospora-Peas
4. None of these

Passage III

Used textbooks are a model of an efficient market – every year millions of students buy and then resell expensive volumes they need only for a single semester. The set of books with resale value is determined by the published curriculum of core classes; the price is set by what competition there is between campus bookstores; and the supply is replenished twice a year.

Textbook publishers don’t mind this very much because it means they can actually charge more for new copies, since the buyers know they have a predictable resale value. Indeed, the economic model at work here is more a rent than a purchase. Typically, stores buy books for 50 percent of the cover price and then resell them for 75 percent. Depending on the whether the student is buying new or used, that “rental fee” is between half and a quarter of the list price of the book. This arrangement works so well that the used-textbook market in the United States is now a $1.7 billion enterprise, accounting for 16 percent of all college store sales.

Publishers ensure that the used books don’t circulate forever, which would depress new book sales, by releasing new editions with different page numbers (so the old ones can’t be used). This purges the market of old inventory from time to time.

In the case of the non-academic used-book market, however, there were few of these efficiencies. The typical used-book store’s access to secondhand books is limited to whoever happens to be local and selling volumes from his or her own collection. As a result, the selection at these stores tends to be pretty random, reflecting the taste of the proprietor and the luck of the catch rather than any comprehensive slice of the book market. For patrons of used-book stores, this randomness is part of the appeal, providing a serendipitous sense of exploration and discovery. But if you’re looking for a particular book, that process of cruising around the store and browsing the shelves can be unrewarding.

In economic terms, what makes the textbook market work is ample liquidity. There are so many sellers and so many buyers of a relatively small set of traded commodities that the odds of finding what you want at the right place are excellent. By contrast, what ailed the non-academic used-book market was poor liquidity – not enough sellers and buyers of an unbounded set of commodities. The result of too many products and not enough players was that the odds of finding what you want were poor. Thus, more buyers simply never consider a used-book store when they’re shopping for something specific.

Weatherford had realised that although the economics of each individual bookstore didn’t make a whole lot of sense, together (with all the bookstores combined or linked up) the overall used-book market made a huge amount of sense. The collective inventory of some 12,000 used-book stores could rival the best library in the world. The individual store owners uploaded their inventory, and Alibris collected them all together and ensured that the used books were displayed right alongside the new ones at the online booksellers that used Alibris data.

It made that database available to the big online booksellers such as Amazon and bn.com, which integrated the used-book listings alongside new books, effectively making ‘out of print’ obsolete and offering a low-price alternative to new books. By bringing millions of customers to the used-book market, this gave used-book stores even more incentive to computerise their inventories, which, in turn, gave Alibris (and by extension its online retailing partners) even more inventory to sell. It was a classic virtuous circle, and the effect supercharged used-book sales. After years of stagnation, the $2.2 billion market is now growing at double digits, with all that growth coming from a $600 million online market that’s growing by more than 30 percent a year, according to the Book Industry Study Group.

• By suggesting that the old books market is purged from time to time, the author is trying to say that purging 

1. keeps the new books market healthy.
2. helps publishers charge more for new copies.
3. ensures that new editions can be released with different page numbers.
4. helps publishers to recover losses.
5. All of the above

• The fact that patrons of non-academic used-book market enjoy the sense of discovery in the store 

1. helps the store owners in improving the liquidity status.
2. reflects the taste of the proprietor and the luck of the catch.
3. doesn’t do much for the seeker of a particular piece.
4. makes the randomness a part of the appeal.
5. shows that used non-academic books also have a huge market.

• What makes a typical used-book store an inefficient market is 

1. the inability of the publisher to charge more for new copies.
2. high odds of finding what you want at the right place.
3. dependence of the collection on the seller.
4. Unavailability of titles when required.
5. All of the above

• Vis-à-vis academic used-book market, non-academic used-book market fails on account of 

1. few buyers, many sellers, many commodities.
2. few buyers, few sellers, few commodities.
3. many buyers, many sellers, few commodities.
4. few buyers, few sellers, many commodities.
5. many buyers, few sellers, many commodities.

• Weatherford validated the sense made by the overall used-book market by

1. convincing big online booksellers such as Amazon.com and bn.com to invest in the used-books segment.
2. making a comparative study of the new-book market with the used-book market.
3. having used-book stores integrate their collections with the new-book stores, thereby creating a huge market.
4. bringing about a situation of more buyers for few commodities.
5. making available the option of buying both new books and used titles at the same place.

Passage Iv

What’s true for libraries is doubly true for retail stores. In libraries, at least there is a standard categorisation scheme – the card catalog is there to be searched, and librarians tend to know their stuff. However, good luck finding what you want quickly in an unfamiliar supermarket. The consequences of ad-hoc taxonomies and capricious shelving are frustrated customers, unsold products, and a flight to the best-known brands and products, simply because those are the ones that are easy to find. Likewise, for most other kinds of stores, from hardware to clothes.

As an example, I recently went looking in my local Blockbuster for Akira, a Japanese anime classic. What section to look in? Science fiction? Animation? Foreign? Action? As it turned out, it didn’t matter – they didn’t have the film. Physical stores’ advantages of immediate gratification are of little meaning if you can’t find what you want.

On Amazon, however, it was simply a matter of typing “akira” into the search bar (and just note how there’s no need to capitalise or even necessary to spell it quite right). The film immediately came up, as did two other versions (as well as both new and used copies of all three). If I had wanted to browse by category, any of those above would have worked; the film was listed in all of them. A tempting package deal with Ghost in the Shell was offered, another virtue of dynamic marketing and positioning. Likewise, Amazon also recommended two other films it thought I might like: Princess Mononoke and Ghost in the Shell 2. And, of course, both of these were also in stock and cheaper than Blockbuster. The experiences I had with these two stores couldn’t have been more different.

In a sense, an online retailer is to a bricks-and-mortar store what Google is to a library. Because of the constraints of physical shelves, the real-world outlets are forced to create taxonomies and assign everything to them. I tremble to think where the Dewey Decimal System will place the book you’re reading right now. Technology? Economics? Business? Culture? None of them are quite right by themselves. Sadly, there is no category for “All of the above”.

Google, by contrast, will put in no category at all. The book’s natural place(s) in the world will emerge spontaneously after the fact, measured in terms of incoming links. My publisher might call this a “business” book, but if the world decides it’s really more “popular economics” and links to it in that context, then that is what it is and what it will be, along with virtually any other description that someone may find relevant. In a Google world, meaning and ontology are entirely in the eyes of the beholder. One thing can be many different things to many people. As such, Google’s algorithms simply measure the wisdom of the crowd by calculating the most appropriate results for the keywords a searcher types in.

Meanwhile, Amazon will start by giving this book five or six category destinations. Customers will then have their say by “tagging” it, which means typing in any words they choose to make their own categories (“Internet”, “blogger”, “to read later”, “Pareto”, “good geek gift”, etc.). Others will be able to see what tags have been assigned, which is another useful piece of context that will help this book find its place in the world. This process of tagging creates what are known as “folks-onomies” – after-the-fact categorisations based entirely on whatever people choose to say is meaningful about something. Interestingly, Amazon gives these tags so much weight that they appear before its own list of preset categories.

Still, that is only the start of the multidimensional process of teasing out what something is in the infinite bookstore. Amazon’s software will digest every word of this book’s text and determine a list of “statistically improbable phrases”, which are word combinations that do not appear in many, if any, other books. In a sense, these will comprise a unique fingerprint of my book, but they are also an indication of any unique ideas or subject areas, which is useful in itself. The software will also list unique capitalised words, which will help define the factual foundation of my book. Then, Amazon will deploy all its usual collaborative filtering recommendation tools to find books that other customers looked at or brought along with mine, which will help define the book through its peer set.

• The passage suggests that vis-à-vis retail stores, libraries 

1. create fewer frustrated customers and unsold products.
2. do not indulge in ad-hoc taxonomies and capricious shelving.
3. are easier to search through.
4. employ a very effective categorization technique.
5. All of the above

• The experience is extremely different when one searches an online database like Amazon.com rather than a physical store because 

1. the taxonomy allows for multiple searches in an online system.
2. the film is listed in all categories.
3. dynamic marketing and positioning are offered.
4. most of the searches are customizable.
5. All of the above

• Amazon process of categorising a book 

1. sidesteps the perils of taxonomy, unlike a physical retail store.
2. errs by providing tagging a greater emphasis than its own categorisation.
3. overcomes the issue of frustrated customers and unsold products.
4. creates a unique recognition for each product.
5. is far superior than any other online categorizing technique.

• The word ‘capricious’ in the passage refers to 

1. changeable
2. impulsive
3. fanciful
4. witty
5. desirable

• Which of the following is false, as per the passage? 

1. Taxonomy standards of Google are dictated by the searching populace.
2. Online stores create ad-hoc taxonomies and assign everything to them.
3. Amazon uses multiple parameters to categorise products.
4. One thing can mean many different things to different people.
5. According to Google, one thing can have different meanings for different people.

Detailed Solutions

1. Ans.(2). Option (2) is the correct answer, since it is the direct meaning of the given word. 
2. Ans.(1). The obvious answer is option (1). It is clearly stated in the 2nd paragraph. 
3. Ans.(3). The first few lines of the 3rd paragraph state that in the school, the author did not meet with good behaviour. So the correct answer is (3). Other options are irrelevant. 
4. Ans.(1). The central idea of the passage is the difficulties and anguish a parent has to face while getting her/his children admitted to schools. The same meaning is implied in option (1). None of the other options are complete enough to bring out the central theme. 
5. Ans.(2). Expressing dismay (option 2) should be the obvious option as the author wants to convey her shock and disillusionment about the Indian schools. 
6. Ans.(2). Options (1) and (4) are not given anywhere in the passage and are incorrect. Option (3) is correct but is incomplete. Option (2) is the complete and correct answer. 
7. Ans.(3). Option (1) is not complete as it does not cover the deeper implications of their spending time together. Option (2) is not relevant from the contents of the passage. Option (4) is correct but in the context of the passage, the part regarding company besides themselves does not carry merit. Hence only option (3) is the correct answer. 
8. Ans.(3). From a reading of paragraphs (4) and (5) it is evident that sister had been sick and had now died. None of the other options are mentioned anywhere in the passage. Hence only option (3) is correct. 
9. Ans.(4). Option (1) is incomplete and hence incorrect. It does not speak of the aspect of his sister being an angel. Option (2) covers both aspects but is silent on the significance of the star with his sister and himself. Option (3) is incorrect for the same reason as it creates a relationship between the star, his sister and all good people instead of himself. This is incorrect from the context of the passage. Only option (4) is complete and correct in all regards. 
10. Ans.(4). Options (1) and (2) are not given or implied anywhere in the passage. Option (3) merely paraphrasing the question and hence is incorrect. Option (4) is correct in the context of the passage and hence is the correct answer.
11. Ans.(3). Complacency has been chiefly instrumental for the lethargic and tardy progress shown by the Indians. The passage is explicit with this viewpoint and expresses it in the second paragraph. 
12. Ans.(3). The correct option is (3). What ought to be a personal habit assumes a high nuisance value as far as public cleanliness and hygiene is concerned. The Singapore administration is very strict, rigid, uncompromising as cleaning up the sticky mess thus created poses problems, and hence the ban on chewing gum is imposed. 
13. Ans.(2). The answer is false. The last paragraph contains an information that the inflow of foreign journalists is restricted only to 3500. Hence the entry is not free but restricted. The correct option is (2). 
14. Ans.(1). The passage is about life in Singapore and India. It is an account of the progress made by the tiny island with scant natural resources. It compares the national spirit, discipline, the regulatory measures and the cooperation of the public in upholding nationalism and working for the interests of the country, It is about the comparison of governmental controls resulting in overall well-being and prosperity of the people in terms of public health and hygiene. The pollution is under control with restricted number of cars a citizen can have, a stark contrast with what is being observed in India. Tight controls on media, be it print or visual, chalking out an effective traffic system, appropriate road tolls for using the busy thorough fares of the cities, all characterize the Singaporean administration. Thus option (1) is the correct one. 
15. Ans.(3). The correct answer is option (3). The third paragraph comes out with this information. Singapore has 3 million living contrasted with 870 million people inhabiting in India. Hence, India exceeds Singapore in population by 870 million – 3 million = 867 million.
16. Ans.(3). The apt answer is (3), because the passage attempts to analyse ‘physical attractiveness’ and the role it plays in social interactions. Options (1), (2) and (4) do not fit into the theme of the passage and hence they are inappropriate. 
17. Ans.(4). Only option (4) can be ascertained from the passage, as it is stated in the third statement of the first paragraph. Options (1), (2) and (3) are redundant, as they do not represent the author's ideas. 
18. Ans.(1). Option (1) alone is the apt answer as it can be inferred from the first part of the third paragraph. Options (2), (3) and (4) are illogical statements. 
19. Ans.(1). Attractive peers play an important role in influencing a person’s attitude. This is stated in the sixth line of the third paragraph. So, all other options are incorrect. Hence (1) is the correct answer. 
20. Ans.(2). The author is earnestly urging for preserving the wild life. We should make some efforts for 'conservation'. Extinction is out of choice. options (3) and (4) are irrelevant.
21. Ans.(3). Options (1), (2) and (4) are clearly given in 2nd paragraph. Option (3) is mentioned no where.
22. Ans.(2). Options (1), (3) and (4) have not been mentioned in the passage  Option (2) is contextually the correct answer. 7th para proves it.
23. Ans.(3). It is evident from 1st 3 lines of 1st paragraph. Options (1) and (4) are completely irrelevant. Option (2) philanthropist will talk about empathizing with human; not with animals so seriously. 
24. Ans.(2). Option (1) is negated by the author. Option (2) has majorly been stated in 9th paragraph 3rd line.
25. Ans.(3). Option (2) is given is 6th para, 1st line. Option (1) is given in 3rd para . Option (3) is negated by the author, as only some species shouldn't be given importance but all-- given in the 5th paragraph.
26. Ans.(2). The word 'veer' refers to 'shift' as mentioned in option (2). 
27. Ans.(4). The phrase 'left handed compliment' means an 'insincere praise'. None of the options elucidate this meaning. Therefore, option (4) to be the correct answer. 
28. Ans.(4). In the first paragraph of passage options (1), (2) and (3) are mentioned. The word 'right' does not characterise 'poise'. So, this is the odd one out. 
29. Ans.(1). The last statement of the 5th paragraph mentions the question statement 'verbatim'. So, option (1) is the answer. 
30. Ans.(1). After reading the passage carefully, it becomes clear that option (1), comprehensively captures the central theme of the passage. None of the other options represent the gist of the passage completely and accurately. 

  

Solutions

Home Assignment 

1. Ans.(4). Option (4) is the appropriate answer, since it is mentioned in the opening line of the passage. 
2. Ans.(1). The second statement of the first paragraph clearly states the approximate length of 5 days. So, the approximate length of one day can be deduced. Therefore, the answer is option (1). 
3. Ans.(2). The above statement is negated by the statement in the beginning of the second paragraph. Therefore, the answer is option (2). 
4. Ans.(1). The author mentions it in the first line of the third paragraph. Hence option (1) is correct. 
5. Ans.(2). The answer is option (2). The author agrees with the above statement and it finds a mention in the 2nd line of the fifth paragraph. 
6. Ans.(2). Option (2) best represents the central theme of the passage. This can be deduced from the passage in its entirety. Since, none of the other options are as comprehensive as option (2), they can be discarded as incorrect. 
7. Ans.(3). The correct answer is option (3). It can be inferred from the last part of the first paragraph. All other options can, therefore, be discarded. 
8. Ans.(3). Since option (3) is stated in the third line of the third paragraph, it is the correct answer. None of the other answers can be concluded from the passage. 
9. Ans.(3). Option (3) is the apt answer. Since it can be deduced from the last statement of the fourth paragraph. So all other options can be discarded. 
10. Ans.(2). It is evident from the passage that option (2) is the correct chronological arrangement of the popular experimental systems used for studying scientific ideas.
11. Ans.(1). Option (2) happens because of there being a healthy resale market for reused books; it is not a result of purging. Option (3) facilitates purging, not the other way around. Only option (1) gives the reason.
12. Ans.(3). Paragraph four says that for patrons of used-book stores, this randomness is part of the appeal, providing a serendipitous sense of exploration and discovery, but the search for a specific book may not yield results. Option (3) speaks of this. Hence only option (3) forms a sound basis.
13. Ans.(3). Contextually, option (3) is the appropriate answer.
14. Ans.(4). Option (4) is the appropriate answer.
15. Ans.(3). Though options (1) and (3) seem logical happenings, none of the options, apart from option (3) give a clear connection in the passage. Hence option (3) is the answer.
16. Ans.(3). The passage doesn’t offer any sound bases for options (1) and (2). In fact, the passage says what is true of libraries, is doubly true of retail stores. So, the inefficiencies in the retail system could be true of libraries as well, to a lesser extent. However, when it says ‘…the card catalog is there to be searched’, it indicates an ease in search.
17. Ans.(1). Options (2) and (3) are misleading, as the movie doesn’t show up in ALL categories, and ‘dynamic marketing’ and ‘positioning’ are terms used with reference to a company’s marketing strategy for its product, not something offered to the consumer. Only option (1) forms a sound basis.
18. Ans.(4). Only option (4) is a unique feature that is described in the last paragraph. The others cannot be stated conclusively as the author’s suggestions.
19. Ans.(2). ‘Impulsive’ (without thought or planning) is the apt meaning in this context.
20. Ans.(2). As mentioned in paragraph one, physical stores create ad-hoc taxonomies. Hence option (2) is the answer. 

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