Reading Comprehension Test 42

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]What car makers often mean when they say a car is well-designed, is that it appeals to men, particularly to their less noble instinct. 'Beautiful body'. 'She must move like a dream'. But auto-macho is going out of style. In America, 47% of new private cars are bought by women, up from 36% in 1989. Add the influence women have on a family's car-buying, and it is probable that women are more influential overall in choosing cars than men. So, car makers are learning to create designs that appeal to them. Women tend to buy cheaper cars, largely because working women tend to have lower income. In America, they buy 55% of the small cars, 44% of medium-sized ones, but only 28% of large and luxurious models. They put more store on reliability than men do, probably a hidden reason for the rise in Japanese imports. American car makers are now tailoring certain versions of their cars with women in mind. And they are learning that design can sway even normally pragmatic women as a comparison between Ford's Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar demonstrates. The Thunderbird is a high-performance car - i.e., it goes fast and is styled to look aggressive. Less than 40% of Thunderbirds are bought by women. But the same car with a more sedate body, a different name (The Cougar) and different advertising is as popular with women as it is with men.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]One simple, physical concept lies behind the formation of the stars: gravitational instability. The concept is not new. Newton first perceived it in the late 17th Century. Imagine a uniform, static cloud of gas in space. Imagine then that the gas is somehow disturbed so that one small spherical region becomes a little denser than the gas around it so that the small region's gravitational field becomes slightly stronger. It now attracts more matter to it and its gravity increases further, causing it to begin to contract. As it contracts its density increases which increases its gravity even more so that it picks up, even more, matter and contracts even further. The process continues until the small region of gas finally forms a gravitationally bound object.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]As heart disease continues to be the number one killer in the United States, researchers have become increasingly interested in identifying the potential risk factors that trigger heart attacks. High-fat diets and "life in the fast lane" have long been known to contribute to the high incidence of heart failure. But according to new studies, the list of risk factors may be significantly longer and quite surprising. Heart failure, for example, appears to have seasonal and temporal patterns. A higher percentage of heart attacks occur in cold weather and more people experience heart failure on Monday than on any other day of the week. In addition, people are more susceptible to heart attacks in the first few hours after waking. Cardiologists first observed this morning phenomenon in the mid-1980s and have since discovered a number of possible causes. An early morning rise in blood pressure, heart rate and concentration of heart stimulating hormones, plus a reduction of blood flow to the heart, may all contribute to the higher incidence of heart attacks between the hours of 8.00 A.M. and 10.00 A.M. In other studies, both birthday and bachelorhood have been implicated as risk factors. Statistics reveal that heart attack rates increase significantly for both females and males in the few days immediately preceding and following their birthdays. And unmarried men are more at risk for heart attacks than their married counterparts. Though stress is thought to be linked in some way to all of the aforementioned risk factors, intense research continues in the hope of further comprehending why and how heart failure is triggered.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]As heart disease continues to be the number one killer in the United States, researchers have become increasingly interested in identifying the potential risk factors that trigger heart attacks. High-fat diets and "life in the fast lane" have long been known to contribute to the high incidence of heart failure. But according to new studies, the list of risk factors may be significantly longer and quite surprising. Heart failure, for example, appears to have seasonal and temporal patterns. A higher percentage of heart attacks occur in cold weather and more people experience heart failure on Monday than on any other day of the week. In addition, people are more susceptible to heart attacks in the first few hours after waking. Cardiologists first observed this morning phenomenon in the mid-1980s and have since discovered a number of possible causes. An early morning rise in blood pressure, heart rate and concentration of heart stimulating hormones, plus a reduction of blood flow to the heart, may all contribute to the higher incidence of heart attacks between the hours of 8.00 A.M. and 10.00 A.M. In other studies, both birthday and bachelorhood have been implicated as risk factors. Statistics reveal that heart attack rates increase significantly for both females and males in the few days immediately preceding and following their birthdays. And unmarried men are more at risk for heart attacks than their married counterparts. Though stress is thought to be linked in some way to all of the aforementioned risk factors, intense research continues in the hope of further comprehending why and how heart failure is triggered.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]Of the many aspects of public administration, the ethical aspect is perhaps the most important but the least codified. While administrative rules and procedures have been codified in various public documents and manuals, there is no manual for the ethics of public servants. While organisational behaviour analyses the factors which influence the behaviour of individuals in an organisation, ethics refers to those norms and standards which the behaviour of the people in an organisation must conform to. While behaviour analysis deals with factual aspects, ethics relates to the normative aspects of administration. The normative aspects are of the greatest significance. Just as for an individual, if the character is lost, everything is lost, so also for an administration, if the ethics are lost, everything is lost. Neither efficiency nor loyalty can substitute for high ethical standards. In India, though there is no ethical code for public administrators, there are what are called, the Government Servants' Conduct Rules. These rules lay down what constitutes misconduct for the public servants. It is apparently implied that such misconduct, which is not permitted, is also unethical conduct.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]One simple, physical concept lies behind the formation of the stars: gravitational instability. The concept is not new. Newton first perceived it in the late 17th Century. Imagine a uniform, static cloud of gas in space. Imagine then that the gas is somehow disturbed so that one small spherical region becomes a little denser than the gas around it so that the small region's gravitational field becomes slightly stronger. It now attracts more matter to it and its gravity increases further, causing it to begin to contract. As it contracts its density increases which increases its gravity even more so that it picks up, even more, matter and contracts even further. The process continues until the small region of gas finally forms a gravitationally bound object.

[passage-header]Read the given passage and answer the question that follow:[/passage-header]It is difficult to reconcile the ideas of different schools of thought on the question of education. Some people maintain that pupils of schools should concentrate on a narrow range of subjects that will benefit them directly in their subsequent careers. Others contend that they should study a wide range of subjects so that they not only have the specialized knowledge necessary for their chosen careers but also sound general knowledge about the world they will have to work and live in. Supporters of the first theory state that the greatest contributions to civilization are made by those who are experts in their trade or profession. Those on the other side say that unless they have a broad general education, the experts will be too narrow in their outlook to have sympathy with their fellows or a proper sense of responsibility towards humanity as a whole. 

[passage-header]Read the given passage and answer the question that follow:[/passage-header]It is difficult to reconcile the ideas of different schools of thought on the question of education. Some people maintain that pupils of schools should concentrate on a narrow range of subjects that will benefit them directly in their subsequent careers. Others contend that they should study a wide range of subjects so that they not only have the specialized knowledge necessary for their chosen careers but also sound general knowledge about the world they will have to work and live in. Supporters of the first theory state that the greatest contributions to civilization are made by those who are experts in their trade or profession. Those on the other side say that unless they have a broad general education, the experts will be too narrow in their outlook to have sympathy with their fellows or a proper sense of responsibility towards humanity as a whole. 

[passage-header]Read the given passage and answer the question that follow:[/passage-header]It is difficult to reconcile the ideas of different schools of thought on the question of education. Some people maintain that pupils of schools should concentrate on a narrow range of subjects that will benefit them directly in their subsequent careers. Others contend that they should study a wide range of subjects so that they not only have the specialized knowledge necessary for their chosen careers but also sound general knowledge about the world they will have to work and live in. Supporters of the first theory state that the greatest contributions to civilization are made by those who are experts in their trade or profession. Those on the other side say that unless they have a broad general education, the experts will be too narrow in their outlook to have sympathy with their fellows or a proper sense of responsibility towards humanity as a whole. 

[passage-header]Read the given passage and answer the question that follow:[/passage-header]It is difficult to reconcile the ideas of different schools of thought on the question of education. Some people maintain that pupils of schools should concentrate on a narrow range of subjects that will benefit them directly in their subsequent careers. Others contend that they should study a wide range of subjects so that they not only have the specialized knowledge necessary for their chosen careers but also sound general knowledge about the world they will have to work and live in. Supporters of the first theory state that the greatest contributions to civilization are made by those who are experts in their trade or profession. Those on the other side say that unless they have a broad general education, the experts will be too narrow in their outlook to have sympathy with their fellows or a proper sense of responsibility towards humanity as a whole.