Reading Comprehension Test 27

This country now needs a new equilibrium, a new spirit of national reconciliation that can be brought about only by moving forward to the new frontiers of true equality, fuller opportunity and greater compassion for the weaker sections of its people. Our goal is total freedom for the people that can fully reflect their urges and aspirations for a better life. We cannot remain content by merely reliving our past even under the condition of complete freedom, without a matching concept of the present and the future. We can survive only by seizing every constructive opportunity that can offer a creative alternative to the legacies of the past. It is only through such a lofty endeavour that the country can discover itself with a new sense of adventure and faith in ourselves.

Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

"What is sixteen and three multiplied?" asked the teacher. The boy blinked. The teacher persisted, and the boy promptly answered: "twenty-four", with, as it seemed to the teacher, a wicked smile on his lips. The boy evidently was trying to fool him and was going contrary on purpose. He had corrected this error repeatedly, and now the boy persisted in saying "twenty-four". How could this fellow be made to obtain fifty in the class test and go up by double-promotion to the first form, as his parents fondly hoped? At the mention of "twenty-four", the teacher felt all his blood rushing to his head. He controlled himself and asked again: "How much?" as the last chance. When the boy said the same thing obstinately, he felt as if his finger was releasing the trigger: he reached across the table and delivered a wholesome slap on the youngster's cheek.

Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

With the inevitable growth of specialization, I see the universities facing two great dangers. First, it is very easy to get so involved in the technical details of education that the object of education is lost. And secondly, in an effort to condition a university to the needs of its students and to the needs of the State it may lose its power to make or mould those students into responsible men, capable of thinking for themselves and capable of expressing the results of their thoughts to others.

Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of do's and dont's. The same old favourites recur year in and year out with monotonous regularity. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced to frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our old bad ways.

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Every survey ever held has shown that the image of an attractive woman is the most effective advertising gimmick. She may sit astride the mudguard of a new car, or step into it ablaze with jewels, she may lie at the man's feet stroking his new socks, she may hoId the petrol pump in a challenging pass, or dance through woodland glades in slow motion in all the glory of a new shampoo. Whatever she does, her image sells. The gynolatry of our civilization is written large upon her face, upon hoardings, cinema screens, television, newspapers, magazines, tins, packets, cartons, bottles, all consecrated to the reigning deity, the female fetish. Her dominion must not be thought to entail the role of women, for she is not a woman. Her glossy lips and matt complexion, her unfocused eyes and flawless fingers, her extraordinary hair all floating and shining, curling and gleaming, reveal the inhuman triumph of cosmetics, lighting, focusing and printing. She sleeps unruffled, her lips red and juicy and closed, her eyes as crisp and black as if newly painted, and her false lashes immaculately curled. Even when she washes her face with a new and creamier toilet soap, her expression is as tranquil and vacant and her paint as flawless as ever. If ever she should appear tousled and troubled, her features are miraculously smoothed to their proper veneer by a new washing powder on a bouillon cube. For she is a doll: weeping, pouting or sinking, running or reclaiming, she is a doll.

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Read the passage given below and accordingly, fill in the blank:

The Indian culture of our times is in the making. Many of us are striving to produce a blend of all cultures that seem today to be in clash with one another. No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive. There is no such thing as pure Aryan culture in existence in India today. Whether the Aryans were indigenous to India or were unwelcome intruders, does not interest me much. What does interest me is the fact that my remote ancestors blended with one another with the utmost freedom and we of the present generation are a result of that blend. I do not want my house to be walled in, on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I would have any young men and women with literary tastes to learn as much of English and other world-languages as they like, and then expect them to give the benefits of their learning to India and the world alike like a Bose, a Ray or Tagore. But I would not have a single Indian forget, neglect or be ashamed of his mother tongue, or feel that he or she cannot think or express the best thoughts in his or her own vernacular. Mine is not a religion of the prison house.

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[passage-header]Read the following passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:
[/passage-header] In a way, one of the greatest gifts any teacher can give a student, I think, is to inculcate a curiosity to learn.
I've been incredibly lucky to have at least one such teacher at every stage in my life. The first was Mrs. Rowlands who taught me in primary school. She taught me to read without ever pushing me. She made me want to read more by giving me some of the most interesting children's books available. And although I still love to go back to those books from time to time, it was only because of her that I was able to read Shakespeare by the time I was ten, and Chaucer a year later.
In later years, it was Mr. A. N. Patil, my Marathi, and Hindi teacher who made a huge impression on me. Every lesson he took was spiced with half a dozen or more of anecdotes from a wide variety of subjects: among them history, politics, religion, and sociology. I was and still am in awe of his knowledge, I doubt I'll ever be able to match it.
There have also been other teachers who helped me to try to become independent to think and act for myself using my own judgment, which to my mind has been just as, if not more important, than actually learning anything. After all, it's much too easy to become a completely useless repository of facts and little else.
Two teachers whom I remember in particular are Mrs. Cynthia Nesamani and Sister Monica, both taught me in school. The former, by and large, gave me a free rein to do what I wanted to do. I, being one of those people who dislikes instructions, she helped me to produce a much better result than I'd have otherwise done.

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[passage-header]Read the passage and complete the activity given below:[/passage-header] Corona bypass surgery is undoubtedly a very significant achievement of modern medical science. But one ponders over certain pertinent questions such as the cost involved and the ultimate benefit.
The human heart is nothing but a four-chambered muscular pump which supplies blood to all parts of the body. Being on active pump, the heart itself requires a lot of energy and receives its own blood supply via certain vessels called coronary arteries. By a process called "atherosclerosis", fat particles are deposited on the inner wall of the lumen of the coronary arteries which eventually reduce the size of the lumen and produce obstruction to the free flow of blood. The portion of the heart which suffers from lack of blood supply becomes weaker as a pump and gives rise to a typical chest pain called "angina". When such blockage is total, the corresponding heart muscle dies and then one suffers a "heart attack". In all these circumstances, heart surgeons perform a special type of operation known as "coronary bypass surgery".

In this surgery, a blood vessel is taken (usually from the leg of the patient) and then grafted on the heart in such a way that when blood flows through, it bypasses the narrow segment of the diseased coronary artery. The concept is to divert the flow from the narrow artery, inside which there is already a 'traffic congestion' and in this respect, it is synonymous to road bypass.

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