Reading Comprehension Test 48

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[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]

Chanakya is famous in the history of India as a sage-like person who by his political shrewdness and expedience helped in the establishment of the mighty Mauryan Empire. Chanakya was wise, clever, foresighted, determined and deeply read in economics, diplomacy, and politics. There is a legend that Chanakya was once invited to the court of the Nanda rulers of Magadha where he was insulted. Chanakya took a vow to cause the downfall of the Nanda Dynasty. With the help of a brave and capable general Chandra Gupta, he succeeded in fulfilling his vow and founded a new Mauryan Dynasty in Magadha. He expelled the Greek invader from India with his help again. Chanakya served as friend, philosopher, and guide to Chandragupta Maurya. Chanakya is also believed to be the author of Arthashastra, the classical Indian treatise on statecraft. It lays down rules of government and also gives a detailed account of the contemporary state administration. Chanakya was born in a poor Brahmin family of Taxila. His real name was Vishnugupta. Chanakya is also known as Kautilya because of his 'Kut-Niti' or diplomacy. He was educated at Taxila, a great educational center in those times. In his personal life, Chanakya was like an ascetic and the legend goes that he lived in a mud hut near the royal palace. A very famous Sanskrit play, Mudrakhassa, has for its theme one of the diplomatic feats of Chanakya. Most of the foreign diplomatic enclaves in New Delhi are situated in an area named after him known as Chanakyapuri.

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[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and accordingly, fill in the blank:
[/passage-header]Speech is a great blessing but it can also be a great curse, for while it helps us to make our intentions and desires known to our fellows. It can also, if we use it carelessly, make our attitude completely misunderstood. A slip of the tongue, the use of an unusual word, or of an ambiguous word, and so on, may create an enemy where we had hoped to win a friend. Again, different classes of people use different vocabularies, and the ordinary speech of an educated man may strike an uneducated listener as pompous. Unwittingly, we may use a word which bears a different meaning to our listener from what it does to men of our own class. Thus speech is not a gift to use lightly without thought, but one which demands careful handling. Only a fool will express himself alike to all kinds and conditions of men.

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Science and technology have relieved mankind of degrading drudgery. They have added to man's comfort, health, and enjoyment of existence. The average lifespan of a man on earth has been greatly increased. Science has added to the dignity and stature of the individual. When a man is relieved from the battle for physical safety, he becomes a little creator. Every challenge of science has added to man's moral stature. As we find that the world is much more wonderful than we ever dreamed it to be, we are led into new fields of awareness, new ranges of attainment, a new realization of destiny. New knowledge is both a challenge and an opportunity. 'For it is not yet known what man may be. He must, therefore, without haste and without rest, strive to reach the quality of human greatness, that is greatness in humanity.'

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[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.

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and accordingly, fill in the blank:
[/passage-header]Martin Luther King's active career extended from 1957 to 1968. During this brief career, he held numerous protest demonstrations in the South as well as in the North of the USA. He challenged the moral complacency of America and fought for the rights of the 'Negro'. He, like Gandhiji, hated the eye-for-an-eye method and fought with the weapons of nonviolence - a weapon, said King, that 'cuts without wounding and enables the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals', and he raised a vast army. It was an army that would move but not maul. It was an army to storm bastions of hatred, to lay siege to the fortress of segregation, to surround symbols of discrimination. It was an army whose allegiance was to God and whose strategy and intelligence were the eloquently simple dictates of conscience. His creed of nonviolence was criticized and challenged by the 'Black Power' militants who would not renounce the use of violence to achieve their goals. Nevertheless, his faith in non-violence never wavered.

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]She regarded herself as the luckiest person on earth. Each of her sons insisted that she should stay with him. Many times, there were hot exchanges among the brothers on the issue. Her husband had left her an abundance of wealth and large property. She was so much overwhelmed with their devotion and affection that she distributed all her wealth and property among them ignoring the advice of her well-wishers. Now her sons began to avoid her as if she were suffering from some infectious disease. Each turned her out of his house with one excuse or the other. One said that her presence disturbed the peace of his family. Another said that the education of his children suffered on her account. The third accused her of stealing money. She died heart-broken in a home for the destitute.

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[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:
[/passage-header]Courage is not only the basis of all virtue; it is its expression. Faith, hope, charity and all the rest don't become virtues until it takes courage to exercise them. There are roughly two types of courage. The first, an emotional state which urges a man to risk injury or death, is physical courage. The second, a more reasoning attitude which enables him to take coolly his career, happiness, his whole future, or his judgement of what he thinks either right or worthwhile, is moral courage.
I have known many men, who had marked physical courage, but lacked moral courage. Some of them were in high places, but they failed to be great in themselves because they lacked moral courage. On the other hand, I have seen men who undoubtedly possessed moral courage but were very cautious about taking physical risks. But I have never met a man with moral courage who couldn't, when it was really necessary, face a situation boldly.

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[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the given question:[/passage-header]When talking to a reporter early in the season, a coach tends to talk down the abilities of his new man. He does not want his team to become known as a favourite because if the team loses, he will be criticized for not making the most of his material. Even when he knows he has a great team, a coach avoids favourable publicity. He realizes that overconfidence, injuries, an error on the field or the better luck of his opponent may wreck any season.

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