Reading Compreh...

This passage is adapted from J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick,
"Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic
Acid." 1953 by Nature Publishing Group. Watson and Crick
deduced the structure of DNA using evidence from Rosalind
Franklin and R. G. Goslings X-ray crystallography diagrams
of DNA and from Erwin Chargaffs data on the base
composition of DNA.

          The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid
          (DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a
          very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a
Line      regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups.
  5       To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which
          can be of four different types. Two of the possible
          bases--adenine and guanine--are purines, and the
          other two--thymine and cytosine--are pyrimidines.
          So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the
  10      chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of
          phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide.
          The first feature of our structure which is of
          biological interest is that it consists not of one chain,
          but of two. These two chains are both coiled around
  15      a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that
          since there was only one chain in the chemical
          formula there would only be one in the structural
          unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray
          evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.
  20      The other biologically important feature is the
          manner in which the two chains are held together.
          This is done by hydrogen bonds between the bases.
          The bases are joined together in pairs, a single base
          from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single
  25      base from the other. The important point is that only
          certain pairs of bases will fit into the structure.
          One member of a pair must be a purine and the other
          a pyrimidine in order to bridge between the two
          chains. If a pair consisted of two purines, for
  30      example, there would not be room for it.
          We believe that the bases will be present almost
          entirely in their most probable forms. If this is true,
          the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more
          restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
  35      adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.
          Adenine, for example, can occur on either chain; but
          when it does, its partner on the other chain must
          always be thymine.
          The phosphate-sugar backbone of our model is
  40      completely regular, but any sequence of the pairs of
          bases can fit into the structure. It follows that in a
          long molecule many different permutations are
          possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise
          sequence of bases is the code which carries the
  45      genetical information. If the actual order of the bases
          on one of the pair of chains were given, one could
          write down the exact order of the bases on the other
          one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain
          is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is
  50      this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic
          acid molecule might duplicate itself.
The table shows, for various organisms, the percentage of
each of the four types of nitrogenous bases in that
organisms DNA. 

[passage-header]"The Author to Her Book"[/passage-header]Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, 11304less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,

Where errors were not lessened (all may judged).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;

Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
58290I stretched the joints to make thee even feet,

53207Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to 95382trim thee was my mind,
But nought same homespun cloth i' th' 27694house I find.
In this array 'mongst vulgars may'st thou roam.
In critic hands beware thou dost not come,

And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.
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The following passage is adapted from a novel set in the early twentieth century. Mr. Beebe, a clergyman, is speaking with Cecil Vyse about a mutual acquaintance, Lucy Honey church. Miss Honey church has recently returned from a journey with her older cousin and chaperone, Miss Bartlett.
Lucy Honey church has no faults, said Cecil, with grave sincerity. I quite agree. At present she has none. 
At present?
Im not cynical. Im only thinking of my pet theory about Miss Honeychurch. Does it seem reasonable that she should play piano so wonderfully, and live so quietly? I suspect that someday she shall be wonderful in both. The water-tight compartments in her will break down and music and life will mingle. Then we shall have her heroically good, heroically badtoo heroic, perhaps, to be good or bad. Cecil found his companion interesting. And at present you think her not wonderful as far as life goes? Well, I must say Ive only seen her at Tunbridge Wells, where she was not wonderful, and at Florence. She wasnt wonderful in Florence either, but I kept on expecting that she would be.  
In what way?
Conversation had become agreeable to them, and they were pacing up and down the terrace. I could as easily tell you what tune shell play next. There was simply the sense that she found wings and meant to use them. I can show you a beautiful picture in my diary. Miss Honey church as a kite, Miss Bartlett holding the string. Picture number two: the string breaks. The sketch was in his diary, but it had been made afterwards, when he viewed things artistically. At the time he had given surreptitious tugs to the string himself. 
But the string never broke? No. I mightnt have seen Miss Honeychurch rise, but I should certainly have heard Miss Bartlett fall. It has broken now, said the young man in low, vibrating tones. Immediately he realized that of all the conceited, ludicrous, contemptible ways of announcing an engagement this was the worst. He cursed his love of metaphor; had he suggested that he was a star and that Lucy was soaring up to reach him?
Broken? What do you mean? 
I meant, Cecil said stiffly, that she is going to marry me. 
The clergyman was conscious of some bitter disappointment which he could not keep out of his voice. 
I am sorry; I must apologize. I had no idea you were intimate with her, or I should never have talked in this flippant, superficial way. You ought to have stopped me. And down in the garden he saw Lucy herself; yes, he was disappointed. 
Cecil, who naturally preferred congratulations to apologies, drew down the corner of his mouth. Was this the reaction his action would get from the whole world? Of course, he despised the world as a whole; every thoughtful man should; it is almost a test of refinement. 
 Im sorry I have given you a shock, he said dryly. I fear that Lucys choice does not meet with your approval.

[passage-header]Read the following passages and answer the question that follows:
(Passage 1 is adapted from Nicholas Carr, "Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains."
Passage 2 is from Steven Pinker, "Mind over Mass Media.")
[/passage-header]Passage 1
The mental consequences of our online
info-crunching are not universally bad.
Certain cognitive skills are strengthened by our use
of computers and the Net. These tend to involve
more primitive mental functions, such as hand-eye
coordination, reflex response, and the processing of
visual cues. One much-cited study of video gaming
revealed that after just 10 days of playing action
games on computers, a group of young people had
significantly boosted the speed with which they could
shift their visual focus between various images and
tasks.
It's likely that Web browsing also strengthens
brain functions related to fast-paced problem
solving, particularly when it requires spotting
patterns in a welter of data. A British study of the
way women search for medical information online
indicated that an experienced Internet user can, at
least in some cases, assess the trustworthiness and
probable value of a Web page in a matter of seconds.
The more we practice surfing and scanning, the more
adept our brain becomes at those tasks.
But it would be a serious mistake to look narrowly
at such benefits and conclude that the Web is making
us smarter. In a Science article published in early
2009, prominent developmental psychologist Patricia
Greenfield reviewed more than 40 studies of the
effects of various types of media on intelligence and
learning ability. She concluded that "every medium
develops some cognitive skills at the expense of
others." Our growing use of the Net and other
screen-based technologies, she wrote, has led to the
"widespread and sophisticated development of
visual-spatial skills." But those gains go hand in hand
with a weakening of our capacity for the kind of
"deep processing" that underpins "mindful
knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis, critical
thinking, imagination, and reflection."
We know that the human brain is highly
plastic; neurons and synapses change as
circumstances change. When we adapt to a new
cultural phenomenon, including the use of a new
medium, we end up with a different brain, says
Michael Merzenich, a pioneer of the field of
neuroplasticity. That means our online habits
continue to reverberate in the workings of our brain
cells even when were not at a computer. We're
exercising the neural circuits devoted to skimming
and multitasking while ignoring those used for
reading and thinking deeply.
Passage 2
Critics of new media sometimes use science itself
to press their case, citing research that shows how
"experience can change the brain." But cognitive
neuroscientists roll their eyes at such talk. Yes, every
time we learn a fact or skill the wiring of the brain
changes; it's not as if the information is stored in the
pancreas. But the existence of neural plasticity does
not mean the brain is a blob of clay pounded into
shape by experience.
Experience does not revamp the basic
information-processing capacities of the brain.
Speed-reading programs have long claimed to do just
that, but the verdict was rendered by Woody Allen
after he read Leo Tolstoys famously long novel
War and Peace in one sitting: "It was about Russia."
Genuine multitasking, too, has been exposed as a
myth, not just by laboratory studies but by the
familiar sight of an SUV undulating between lanes as
the driver cuts deals on his cell phone.
Moreover, the effects of experience are highly
specific to the experiences themselves. If you train
people to do one thing (recognize shapes, solve math
puzzles, find hidden words), they get better at doing
that thing, but almost nothing else. Music doesn't
make you better at math, conjugating Latin doesn't
make you more logical, brain-training games don't
make you smarter. Accomplished people don't bulk
up their brains with intellectual calisthenics; they
immerse themselves in their fields. Novelists read
lots of novels, scientists read lots of science.
The effects of consuming electronic media are
likely to be far more limited than the panic implies.
Media critics write as if the brain takes on the
qualities of whatever it consumes, the informational
equivalent of "you are what you eat." As with ancient
peoples who believed that eating fierce animals made
them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in
rock videos turns your mental life into quick cuts or
that reading bullet points and online postings turns
your thoughts into bullet points and online postings.

Paragraph one
     That Priestley's contributions to the knowledge of chemical
fact were of the greatest importance is unquestionable; but
it must be admitted that he had no comprehension of the
deeper significance of his work; and, so far from
contributing anything to the theory of the facts which he
discovered, or assisting in their rational explanation,
his influence to the end of his life was warmly exerted in 
favor of error. From first to last, he was a stiff adherent
of the phlogiston doctrine which was prevalent when his
studies commenced; and, by a curious irony of fate, the man
who by the discovery of what he called "dephlogisticated air"
furnished the essential datum for the true theory of
combustion, of respiration, and of the composition of water,
to the end of his days fought against the inevitable
corollaries from his own labors.

Paragraph two
     It is a trying ordeal for any man to be compared with Black
and Cavendish, and Priestly cannot be said to stand on
their level. Nevertheless his achievements are truly
wonderful if we consider the disadvantages under which he
labored. Without the careful scientific training of Black, 
without the leisure and appliances secured by the wealth of
Cavendish, he scaled the walls of science; and trusting to
mother wit to supply the places of training, and to ingenuity
to create apparatus out of washing tubs, he discovered more
new gases (including oxygen, which he termed
"dephlogisticated air") than all his predecessors put
together had done.

Both passages adapted from: Science and Education, T.H Huxley (1893)

[passage-header]Read the following extract and complete the activities given below :[/passage-header]Gerrard : Well, tell him to phone up directly. I must know. Yes, I expect I'll still be here but for about ten minutes. Right-ho. Good bye.
[He puts down the phone and goes to the divan on the left, where there
is a travelling bag and starts packing. Whilst he is thus engaged, another
man, similar in build to Gerrard enters from the right silently - revolver in
hand. He is flashily dressed in an overcoat and soft hat. He bumps accidentally against the table and at the sound Gerrard turns quickly]
Gerrard : (Pleasantly). Why, this is a surprise,
                Mr. - er -
Intruder : I'm glad you're pleased for long. Put those paws up !
Gerrard : This is all very melodramatic; not very original, perhaps, but -
Intruder : Trying to be calm and -er-
Gerrard : "Nonchalant" is your word, I think.
Intruder : Thanks a lot. You'll soon stop being smart. I'll make you crawl.
                I want to know a few things, see.
Gerrard : Anything you like. I know, all the answers. But before we
                begin I should like to change my position : you may be
                comfortable, but I am not.
Intruder : Sit down, there, and no funny business. (Motions to chair and seats himself on the divan by the bag.)
                 Now then, we'll have a nice little talk about yourself!

[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question.[/passage-header]Patholes Keep Luxury Cars Indoors
        (Newspaper Reporter)
Three years after the city roomed to global fame when it picked up 150  luxury cars in a record bulk deal, the cars have largely gone missing from roads, parked as they are in the safety of their owners' garages. Fearing damage and dents to their dream drives, the owners said they cannot risk them on the city potholed roads. Many owners said they regretted their decision to buy these premium buys as the pitiable condition of roads has ensured they cannot take their cars out for their commute to work or simply a spin around town. A few owners have switched to their other not-so-so premium cars in their fleet for their daily commute, while a couple of them have already sold their high-end luxury cruisers. Some owners are negotiating an extended warranty period with the auto giant. As per the star agreement, the cars get a free service once a year or 15,000 kms, for three years. They also get the standard warranty of a company that covers most of the car's maintenance, but pats like tyres are not covered, like is the case with most auto brands. A car owner said that he carefully picks the road he would drive his car on, even if it means taking a longer route to reach the destination.

[passage-header]Read the following passage carefully and answer the question:[/passage-header] Education is the sacred instrument for building the nation. Teacher's job is the most crucial job of moulding the character of individuals and thereby of shaping the society itself. Education is a medium, through which he will direct human energies and human capacities to the advancement of human zeal. Upon the nature and character of education imparted by him depends the future of the nation. It need not be emphasized that there is a casual relationship between education on the one hand and economic growth and social progress on the other. As teachers have to administer this education, one can imagine the colossal responsibility they have of performing this stupendous task. While they perform this task, they should keep in mind that education is not learning what to do but becoming the kind of person who knows what to do. Child is not just a learner of history or science. His interests, his aptitudes, his habits and every thing else which goes towards the development of his personality, comes within the teacher's preview. Teachers have to produce mentally healthy individuals who have well integrated personalities. Teachers represent the ideals and aspirations of the nations and owe to it the moral and mental accountability of equipping the youth for active participation in the high enterprise of creating a social order which shall dispense "equal justice to all". As ideal teachers, they have to strive, along with their wards, to build up the nation in conformity with the lofty ideals laid down in our "Constitution". This great aim can be realized by effective, brilliant teachers, teacher's who are equipped with the training that has a direct bearing on the quality of life in the community and that will serve as the chief means for the transformation of society. Such teachers can make their contribution to the building up of a new India-an India that holds fast to the traditional culture of the past and is both forward looking and future oriented. It is these teachers alone who can provide through rich dynamic education, all that the country needs for its prosperity.

[passage-header]Read the following passage carefully and answer the question:[/passage-header] Education is the sacred instrument for building the nation. Teacher's job is the most crucial job of moulding the character of individuals and thereby of shaping the society itself. Education is a medium, through which he will direct human energies and human capacities to the advancement of human zeal. Upon the nature and character of education imparted by him depends the future of the nation. It need not be emphasized that there is a casual relationship between education on the one hand and economic growth and social progress on the other. As teachers have to administer this education, one can imagine the colossal responsibility they have of performing this stupendous task. While they perform this task, they should keep in mind that education is not learning what to do but becoming the kind of person who knows what to do. Child is not just a learner of history or science. His interests, his aptitudes, his habits and every thing else which goes towards the development of his personality, comes within the teacher's preview. Teachers have to produce mentally healthy individuals who have well integrated personalities. Teachers represent the ideals and aspirations of the nations and owe to it the moral and mental accountability of equipping the youth for active participation in the high enterprise of creating a social order which shall dispense "equal justice to all". As ideal teachers, they have to strive, along with their wards, to build up the nation in conformity with the lofty ideals laid down in our "Constitution". This great aim can be realized by effective, brilliant teachers, teacher's who are equipped with the training that has a direct bearing on the quality of life in the community and that will serve as the chief means for the transformation of society. Such teachers can make their contribution to the building up of a new India-an India that holds fast to the traditional culture of the past and is both forward looking and future oriented. It is these teachers alone who can provide through rich dynamic education, all that the country needs for its prosperity.

Julius Caesar, the great Roman emperor, was well known for making crucial decisions quickly.