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  • Question 1
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    Directions For Questions

    Read the given passage carefully and attempt the question that follows.

    It is an old saying that knowledge is power. Education is an instrument which imparts knowledge and therefore, indirectly controls power. Therefore, ever since the dawn of our civilization, persons in power have always tried to supervise or control education. It has been hand mined of the ruling class. During the Christian era, the ecclesiastics controlled the institution of education and diffused among the people the gospel of the Bible and religious teachings. These gospels and teachings were no other than a philosophy for the maintenance of the existing society. It taught the poor man to be meek and to earn his bread with the sweat of his brow, while the priests and the landlords lived in luxury and fought duels for the slightest offense. During the Renaissance, education passed more from the clutches of the priest into the hands of the prince. In other words, it became more secular. Under the control of the monarch, education began to devise and preach the infallibility of its masters, the monarch or king. It also invented and supported fantastic theories like "The Divine right Theory" and that the king can do no wrong, etc. With the advent of the industrial revolution, education took a different turn and had to please the new master. It now no longer remained the privilege of the baron class but was thrown open to the newly rich merchant class of the society. The philosophy which was in vogue during this period was that of "Laissez Faire" restricting the function of the state to a mere keeping of laws and order while on the other hand, in practice the law of the jungle prevailed in the form of free competition and the survival of the fittest.

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    What did the ruling class in the Christian Era think of the poor man?

  • Question 2
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    [passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows.[/passage-header]                                                         Amelia Earhart
    It was 1932. A plane touched down the tarmac flying all the way across the Atlantic. As people waited for the pilot to get off the plane, they were in for a surprise. It was a woman and she was alone! Amelia Mary Earhart was the first woman pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was born on 24th July 1897 in Kansas, USA and showed a spirit of adventure early on. She was a tomboy who loved climbing trees and going on exploring trips in the neighbourhood.
    During WWI, Amelia went to Canada and worked there as a nurse's side in a military hospital. In 1920, she went to see a stunt-flying exhibition. A thrilled Amelia said, "I believe that little red aeroplane said something to me as it swished by." In December 1920, she sat on a plane for the first time and took to flying like a duck to water! Within six months of flying lessons, she bought her own biplane. It wasn't long before she became the first woman to fly to 14,000 feet.
    In 1928, Amelia took up an offer to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She took off in a Fokker F7 named Friendship. With her were a pilot Stultz and copilot and mechanic Gordon. Amelia arrived in Wales after 21 hours. This news made headline worldwide. She had become the first woman pilot to fly successfully across the Atlantic. On her return, she was welcomed back with a reception at the White House by President Coolidge. When she flew solo in 1932, she got a gold medal from the National Geographic Society and the Distinguished Flying Cross from her country's President.
    Until then, people thought that only men could do jobs that needed people to be intelligent and organised, stay calm and strong under pressure, and work efficiently. Amelia proved that women can do so too. After almost a year's planning, in 1937, she took off on a flying journey across the world. Sadly, her aeroplane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. The world lost a champion woman who went chasing her dreams. Yet to this day, it remembers her courage and amazing achievements. And you can see Amelia smiling through every woman pilot flying high on any ordinary day.

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    Choose the best title for the passage from the options given below.

  • Question 3
    1 / -0

    Directions For Questions

    Read the following passage carefully and then answer the question that follows.     

         Rural manual workers comprise the single largest occupational category in India. In 1991, according to the National Commission on Rural Labour, 60 per cent of the workers in rural India were manual workers and they numbered more than 160 million. The changes in the working and living conditions of rural labourers are thus central to changes in the welfare of the rural population and of the country as a whole. The structure and working of rural labour markets in India are complex; as is well known, there is great diversity across regions and across segments of the labour market. This article brings together an interesting body of research that seeks to understand and explain the types of changes that have accrued in the structure of rural labour markets over the last few decades.
         The 1980s were characterised by an explosion of the rural labour force, slow employment growth in agriculture and a rise in the share of non-agricultural employment. The decade was also characterized by growing casualisation of the workforce (for a relative rise in casual employment as opposed to regular employment). At the same time, it was a period when agricultural wages increased in real terms and when income poverty declined. There was what may be called "the tension between the estimated decline in poverty on the one hand, and the slow growth of agricultural
    employment and increased casualisation of the labour force on the other. Some of the trends in the development of rural labour over for this period are a source of concern. These include, as Radhakrishnan and Sharma note, the continuous widening of the gap between labour productivity in agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, the burgeoning mass of rural casual workers who have no social security safety net, and the increasing number of women employed at very low wages in agriculture. Another matter for concern, one that emerges from the desegregation of data on rural unemployment by age groups, is that the incidence of unemployment is higher for persons in the age group of 15-29 than for other age groups, in other words, unemployment is typically high among new entrants to the workforce.
         In her review of trends in wages employment and poverty, Dheila Bhalla shows that the real wages of agricultural labourers stagnated from the time of independence to the mid-1970s and then began to rise in all parts of the country. This was also the period in which the incidence of rural poverty began to decline. The rise in wages was not limited to the more prosperous agricultural zones, and Bhalla argues that the movement in real wages was co-related with the increase in the share of non-agricultural employment in total employment. As wages in non-agricultural work are typically higher than wages in agriculture, the expansion of non-farm work could also explain some of the declines in rural poverty. In the 1990s, the improvement in real wages and the decline of poverty were reversed while agricultural employment expanded. Economic development all over the world has been associated with a rise in the share of employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy and a fail in the share of the agricultural sector. In India, changes in the composition of the rural workforce in the 1980s points to a "structural retrogression".

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    Given an appropriate title to the passage

  • Question 4
    1 / -0

    Directions For Questions

    Read the following passage carefully and then answer the question that follows.     

         Rural manual workers comprise the single largest occupational category in India. In 1991, according to the National Commission on Rural Labour, 60 per cent of the workers in rural India were manual workers and they numbered more than 160 million. The changes in the working and living conditions of rural labourers are thus central to changes in the welfare of the rural population and of the country as a whole. The structure and working of rural labour markets in India are complex; as is well known, there is great diversity across regions and across segments of the labour market. This article brings together an interesting body of research that seeks to understand and explain the types of changes that have accrued in the structure of rural labour markets over the last few decades.
         The 1980s were characterised by an explosion of the rural labour force, slow employment growth in agriculture and a rise in the share of non-agricultural employment. The decade was also characterized by growing casualisation of the workforce (for a relative rise in casual employment as opposed to regular employment). At the same time, it was a period when agricultural wages increased in real terms and when income poverty declined. There was what may be called "the tension between the estimated decline in poverty on the one hand, and the slow growth of agricultural
    employment and increased casualisation of the labour force on the other. Some of the trends in the development of rural labour over for this period are a source of concern. These include, as Radhakrishnan and Sharma note, the continuous widening of the gap between labour productivity in agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, the burgeoning mass of rural casual workers who have no social security safety net, and the increasing number of women employed at very low wages in agriculture. Another matter for concern, one that emerges from the desegregation of data on rural unemployment by age groups, is that the incidence of unemployment is higher for persons in the age group of 15-29 than for other age groups, in other words, unemployment is typically high among new entrants to the workforce.
         In her review of trends in wages employment and poverty, Dheila Bhalla shows that the real wages of agricultural labourers stagnated from the time of independence to the mid-1970s and then began to rise in all parts of the country. This was also the period in which the incidence of rural poverty began to decline. The rise in wages was not limited to the more prosperous agricultural zones, and Bhalla argues that the movement in real wages was co-related with the increase in the share of non-agricultural employment in total employment. As wages in non-agricultural work are typically higher than wages in agriculture, the expansion of non-farm work could also explain some of the declines in rural poverty. In the 1990s, the improvement in real wages and the decline of poverty were reversed while agricultural employment expanded. Economic development all over the world has been associated with a rise in the share of employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy and a fail in the share of the agricultural sector. In India, changes in the composition of the rural workforce in the 1980s points to a "structural retrogression".

    ...view full instructions

    How does Bhalla explain the fact that the real wages of agricultural labourers began to rise in all parts of the country after mid-70s?

  • Question 5
    1 / -0

    Directions For Questions

    Read the following passage carefully and then answer the question that follows.     

         Rural manual workers comprise the single largest occupational category in India. In 1991, according to the National Commission on Rural Labour, 60 per cent of the workers in rural India were manual workers and they numbered more than 160 million. The changes in the working and living conditions of rural labourers are thus central to changes in the welfare of the rural population and of the country as a whole. The structure and working of rural labour markets in India are complex; as is well known, there is great diversity across regions and across segments of the labour market. This article brings together an interesting body of research that seeks to understand and explain the types of changes that have accrued in the structure of rural labour markets over the last few decades.
         The 1980s were characterised by an explosion of the rural labour force, slow employment growth in agriculture and a rise in the share of non-agricultural employment. The decade was also characterized by growing casualisation of the workforce (for a relative rise in casual employment as opposed to regular employment). At the same time, it was a period when agricultural wages increased in real terms and when income poverty declined. There was what may be called "the tension between the estimated decline in poverty on the one hand, and the slow growth of agricultural
    employment and increased casualisation of the labour force on the other. Some of the trends in the development of rural labour over for this period are a source of concern. These include, as Radhakrishnan and Sharma note, the continuous widening of the gap between labour productivity in agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, the burgeoning mass of rural casual workers who have no social security safety net, and the increasing number of women employed at very low wages in agriculture. Another matter for concern, one that emerges from the desegregation of data on rural unemployment by age groups, is that the incidence of unemployment is higher for persons in the age group of 15-29 than for other age groups, in other words, unemployment is typically high among new entrants to the workforce.
         In her review of trends in wages employment and poverty, Dheila Bhalla shows that the real wages of agricultural labourers stagnated from the time of independence to the mid-1970s and then began to rise in all parts of the country. This was also the period in which the incidence of rural poverty began to decline. The rise in wages was not limited to the more prosperous agricultural zones, and Bhalla argues that the movement in real wages was co-related with the increase in the share of non-agricultural employment in total employment. As wages in non-agricultural work are typically higher than wages in agriculture, the expansion of non-farm work could also explain some of the declines in rural poverty. In the 1990s, the improvement in real wages and the decline of poverty were reversed while agricultural employment expanded. Economic development all over the world has been associated with a rise in the share of employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy and a fail in the share of the agricultural sector. In India, changes in the composition of the rural workforce in the 1980s points to a "structural retrogression".

    ...view full instructions

    What sort of tension exists between the decline of poverty and the slow growth of agricultural employment and the increased casualisation of the labour force?

  • Question 6
    1 / -0

    The question in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages For some question ,more than one of the choices could conceivably answer ; that is , the response that most accurately and completely that are by common sense standards implausible superfluous or incompatible with the passage.

    Science columnist : it is clear why human have so many diseases in common with cats. Many human diseases are genetically based , and mammals expect nonhuman primates Each of the genes identified so far in cats has an exact counterpart in humans.
    Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the science columnist 's explanation for the claim that humans have so many disease in common with cats?

  • Question 7
    1 / -0

    Directions For Questions

    Read the following passage carefully and then answer the question that follows.     

         Rural manual workers comprise the single largest occupational category in India. In 1991, according to the National Commission on Rural Labour, 60 per cent of the workers in rural India were manual workers and they numbered more than 160 million. The changes in the working and living conditions of rural labourers are thus central to changes in the welfare of the rural population and of the country as a whole. The structure and working of rural labour markets in India are complex; as is well known, there is great diversity across regions and across segments of the labour market. This article brings together an interesting body of research that seeks to understand and explain the types of changes that have accrued in the structure of rural labour markets over the last few decades.
         The 1980s were characterised by an explosion of the rural labour force, slow employment growth in agriculture and a rise in the share of non-agricultural employment. The decade was also characterized by growing casualisation of the workforce (for a relative rise in casual employment as opposed to regular employment). At the same time, it was a period when agricultural wages increased in real terms and when income poverty declined. There was what may be called "the tension between the estimated decline in poverty on the one hand, and the slow growth of agricultural
    employment and increased casualisation of the labour force on the other. Some of the trends in the development of rural labour over for this period are a source of concern. These include, as Radhakrishnan and Sharma note, the continuous widening of the gap between labour productivity in agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, the burgeoning mass of rural casual workers who have no social security safety net, and the increasing number of women employed at very low wages in agriculture. Another matter for concern, one that emerges from the desegregation of data on rural unemployment by age groups, is that the incidence of unemployment is higher for persons in the age group of 15-29 than for other age groups, in other words, unemployment is typically high among new entrants to the workforce.
         In her review of trends in wages employment and poverty, Dheila Bhalla shows that the real wages of agricultural labourers stagnated from the time of independence to the mid-1970s and then began to rise in all parts of the country. This was also the period in which the incidence of rural poverty began to decline. The rise in wages was not limited to the more prosperous agricultural zones, and Bhalla argues that the movement in real wages was co-related with the increase in the share of non-agricultural employment in total employment. As wages in non-agricultural work are typically higher than wages in agriculture, the expansion of non-farm work could also explain some of the declines in rural poverty. In the 1990s, the improvement in real wages and the decline of poverty were reversed while agricultural employment expanded. Economic development all over the world has been associated with a rise in the share of employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy and a fail in the share of the agricultural sector. In India, changes in the composition of the rural workforce in the 1980s points to a "structural retrogression".

    ...view full instructions

    What is the most important problem in understanding the condition of rural labour markets in India?

  • Question 8
    1 / -0

    Directions For Questions

    [passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
    [/passage-header]
    Henna comes from the leaves of the plant Lawsonia inermias. The plant grows in hot and dry climes, and is native to North Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Middle East. The leaves of the plant are dried and crushed to powder. Various additives such as coffee decoction, tea, lime juice, mehendi and eucalyptus oil are mixed with the henna powder to increase the potency of the dye; this also helps to bind the powder to a paste like consistency. The mixture is applied through cones in intricate patterns depending on the region of use.

    Album of Patterns
    Four major styles can be found in the vast dictionary of mehendi designs. Earlier the application was restricted to hands and feet, but the adoption of mehendi by different cultures throughout the world has seen experimentation on different body parts including the neck, navel and back.
    North African patterns rely on geometrical images to trace the shape of hands and feet, Arabic designs borrow heavily from local textiles, paintings and architecture. These are more spaced out, to allow the design to stand out boldly from the skin parts left untouched by henna. The Indian style comprises of delicate loops and curves, paisleys, teardrops and flowers that give a dainty filigree glow-like effect. Though intricate patterning is the name of the game today, this trend took off in India only during the $$20$$th century. The patterns preferred by the South Asian countries are a mix of Indo-Pakistani and Arabic design schemes. Chinese and Celtic symbols now find a place in the vast repertorie of mehendi designs as well.

    ...view full instructions

    Fill in the blank with a suitable option:
    North African patterns rely on geometrical images ___________ they can trace the shape of hands and feet.

  • Question 9
    1 / -0

    Directions For Questions

    [passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
    [/passage-header]
    Henna comes from the leaves of the plant Lawsonia inermias. The plant grows in hot and dry climes, and is native to North Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Middle East. The leaves of the plant are dried and crushed to powder. Various additives such as coffee decoction, tea, lime juice, mehendi and eucalyptus oil are mixed with the henna powder to increase the potency of the dye; this also helps to bind the powder to a paste like consistency. The mixture is applied through cones in intricate patterns depending on the region of use.

    Album of Patterns
    Four major styles can be found in the vast dictionary of mehendi designs. Earlier the application was restricted to hands and feet, but the adoption of mehendi by different cultures throughout the world has seen experimentation on different body parts including the neck, navel and back.
    North African patterns rely on geometrical images to trace the shape of hands and feet, Arabic designs borrow heavily from local textiles, paintings and architecture. These are more spaced out, to allow the design to stand out boldly from the skin parts left untouched by henna. The Indian style comprises of delicate loops and curves, paisleys, teardrops and flowers that give a dainty filigree glow-like effect. Though intricate patterning is the name of the game today, this trend took off in India only during the $$20$$th century. The patterns preferred by the South Asian countries are a mix of Indo-Pakistani and Arabic design schemes. Chinese and Celtic symbols now find a place in the vast repertorie of mehendi designs as well.

    ...view full instructions

    The patterns preferred by the South Asian countries are a mix of Indo-Pakistani ____________ Arabic design schemes.

  • Question 10
    1 / -0

    Directions For Questions

    [passage-header]
    Read the following passage carefully and answer the question that follows:
    [/passage-header]Tyagaraja was born at Tiruvarur in Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu on May 4, 1767. He was the third child of his parents, Ramabrahmam and Sitamma. They spoke Telugu at home. Tyagaraja had an elder brother named Panchapakesan or Jalpesan. 
    There was music in Tyagaraja's blood. His mother was a good singer. He had his first lessons in music from her. His father was a good scholar in Telugu and Sanskrit. He learnt both the languages from him. When he was seven years old, the family moved to a village called Thiruvaiyaru. 
    Tyagaraja was interested in music from his childhood. Even as a young boy he used to compose songs and write them on the walls of his house. Noticing his son's interest in music, his father took him to Sonti Venkataramayya, a musician at the court of King Sarabhoji of Tanjavur. Tyagaraja became his disciple and learnt music from him. 
    When he grew up, he spent most of his time composing songs and singing them in front of the idol of Lord Rama in his house. He was married at the age of eighteen. Once a week, he went along the streets singing songs in praise of God and maintained his family with what people gave him. He never cared for wealth. But his elder brother, Jalpesan, wanted him to earn money through his music.
    One day, the Raja of Tanjavur invited Tyagaraja to sing in his court. He offered him a gift of fifty acres of land and a lot of gold coins. But Tyagaraja refused to sing in the king's court. Jalpesan was wild with anger. He insisted Tyagaraja to sing in the king's court. They can be rich and live a happy life. When Tyagaraja disagreed, he threw the idol of Lord Rama into the river Kaveri. 
    Not finding his deity at home, Tyagaraja composed many songs in praise of Lord Rama and sang them with great feeling. After two months he had a dream: He saw the place where his idol of Lord Rama was lying. The next morning he went to the place, found the idol and brought it back home. In a joyful mood, he sang many songs in praise of his deity.

    ...view full instructions

    Fill in the blank with the help of information from the passage:
    Tyagaraja refused the gift of land and gold coins offered to him by the king because _______________________.

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