Reading Comprehension Test 21

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]In social life, there is an almost worldwide trend towards the weakening of community and family ties. The community life weakens under the onslaught of individualistic, self-centered living so that the focus of human relationships becomes narrower, confined largely to the nuclear family. But even within this small unit, there is an increasing crisis in the relationship of the husband and wife, in the relationship of parents and children, and so on. In the school also there is a disorientation of student-teacher relationship. Teenagers and youths are increasingly seen to be beyond control and a world unto themselves. Children are almost universally exposed to excessive sex and violence at an early age.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and fill in the blank with a suitable option:[/passage-header]In the highest sense religion is an intensely individual issue, but there is a national question also. We must hold together and we cannot hold together only on the strength of police regulations. An internal regulator of conduct is absolutely necessary. Will men be good and wise without the aid of religion? As modern life has multiplied desires without the corrective sense of spiritual values, knowledge of modern science does not reduce either greed or lust. Indeed it has nothing to do with these criminal disturbances of the mind. On the contrary, it finds fresh tools for greater indulgence in all forms of greed, lust and anger. It is true that a sense of shame by itself often prevents overt misconduct. But it does not go to the root of the mischief; it does not stop undesirable mental activities. The only thing that can prevent or refrain from these evils is the religious sense.

[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question given after it:[/passage-header]

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and fill in the blank with a suitable option:[/passage-header]In the highest sense religion is an intensely individual issue, but there is a national question also. We must hold together and we cannot hold together only on the strength of police regulations. An internal regulator of conduct is absolutely necessary. Will men be good and wise without the aid of religion? As modern life has multiplied desires without the corrective sense of spiritual values, knowledge of modern science does not reduce either greed or lust. Indeed it has nothing to do with these criminal disturbances of the mind. On the contrary, it finds fresh tools for greater indulgence in all forms of greed, lust and anger. It is true that a sense of shame by itself often prevents overt misconduct. But it does not go to the root of the mischief; it does not stop undesirable mental activities. The only thing that can prevent or refrain from these evils is the religious sense.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]The very survival of mankind depends upon the survival of wildlife forests. Thus the following two measures need to be taken to stop their exploitation by the poachers and traders. First, we should provide more teeth to the legislation to deal with the offenders. Destruction of wildlife should be made a criminal offence. Secondly, we should involve the local people in the protection of wildlife in protected areas instead of displacing them or putting curbs on their means of livelihood such as collection of minor forest produce. No one knows the local flora and fauna better than these people and no one is more capable of catching the poachers as was admirably demonstrated by the Bishnois sometime back in Rajasthan.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]ELIZA (overwhelmed): Ah-ah-ow-oo!

HIGGINS: There! That's all you'll get out of Eliza. Ah-ah-ow-oo! No use explaining. As a military man, you ought to know that. Give her orders: that's what she wants. Eliza: you are to live here for the next six months, learning how to speak beautifully like a lady in a florist's shop. If you're good and do whatever you're told, you shall sleep in a proper bedroom, and have lots to eat, and money to buy chocolates and take rides in taxis. If you're naughty and idle, you will sleep in the back kitchen among the black beetles, and be walloped by Mr. Pearce with a broomstick. At the end of six months, you shall go to Buckingham Palace in a carriage, beautifully dressed. If the king finds out you are not a lady, you will be taken to the Tower of London, where your head will be cut off as a warning to other presumptuous flower girls. If you are not found out, you shall have a present of seven and sixpence to start life as a lady in a shop. If you refuse this offer you will be a most ungrateful and wicked girl, and the angels will weep for you.
[passage-footer](1916)
This excerpt is from Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw.[/passage-footer]

Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
Lo and Europa, the inner two of Jupiter's four largest moons, are about the size of Earth's moon and are composed mostly or entirely of rock and metal. Ganymede and Callisto are larger and roughly half ice. Thus, these four moons are somewhat analogous to the planets of the solar system, in which the rock- and metal-rich inner planets are distinct from the much larger gas- and ice-rich outer planets. Jupiter's moons are, however, more "systematic":
Many of their properties vary continuously with their distance from Jupiter. For example, Lo is ice-free, Europa has a surface shell of ice, and while Ganymede and Callisto are both ice-rich, outermost Callisto has more.
This compositional gradient has geological parallels. Lo is extremely geologically active, Europa seems to be active on a more modest scale, and Ganymede has undergone bouts of activity in its geological past. Only Callisto reveals no geological activity. In a similar fashion, Callisto's surface is very heavily cratered from the impact of comets and asteroids; Ganymede, like Earth's moon, is heavily cratered in parts; Europa is very lightly cratered; and no craters have been detected on Lo, even though Jupiter's gravity attracts comets and asteroids passing near it, substantially increasing the bombardment rate of the inner moons compared to that of the outer ones. But because of Lo's high degree of geological activity, its surface undergoes more-or-less continuous volcanic resurfacing.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]But making any big change in social affairs will not be possible unless the right sort of ideas are widespread in the population. People must be prepared for change; they must be willing to think about social affairs in a scientific way without violent feelings and prejudices so that they can decide impartially what sort of change would be good. They must learn that science is not merely something that deals with Physics and Chemistry or with the way plants and animals live; science can also deal with human life, and the scientific spirit is just as important in human affairs as in the laboratory or the workshop.