Vocabulary Test 40

[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question given after it. [/passage-header]Conducting interviews of parents is vital to the whole process of school admissions. Most progressive schools believe in the involvement of parents in a child's admission test. Interviews, therefore, become the first building block of a long-term relationship between the schools and the parents.

The main objective of an interview is to find out the value system of the parents and to see whether they are in sync with the school's philosophy and vision. It is extremely important to develop at the beginning itself, a good relationship between parents and teachers. A parent is the child's first teacher and critical to his/her success. It's always good for schools to know in advance what parents expect from the school. This knowledge can be attained by interviewing parents. Parents are also interviewed to assess their ward's behavior.

A school is a heterogeneous entity. There are some bright pupils and some not so bright ones; some are good in sports, while others have no artistic bent of mind. These hidden talents come to the fore only when the school authorities interact with parents.

Critics may argue interviews put too much pressure on parents. Indeed, parents get tense but then such interactions happen in a pleasant atmosphere. Many schools are now emphasizing on extra-curricular activities, which means students have to spend more time in school and interact more with their peers. Therefore, it becomes imperative to have the right mix of pupils from different backgrounds. Interviews help schools choose the right combination of students. 

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows.[/passage-header]Today every major anthology of nineteenth-century poetry includes examples of the work which Christina Rossetti produced during her long literary career. Born in 1830, she began composing verse at the age of eleven and continued to write for the remaining fifty-three years of her life. Her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, himself a poet and painter, soon recognized her genius and urged her to publish her poems. By the time of her death in 1894, Christina had written more than eleven hundred poems and had published over nine hundred of them. Although this work has earned her recognition as the greatest woman poet of the Victorian Age, there is still no authoritative edition of her poetry.