English Language and Comprehension 54 The question below consists of a set of labelled sentences. These sentences, when properly sequenced form a coherent paragraph. Select the most logical order of sentences from among the options. P: One’s language fluency is determined by the quality of reading. Q: In all cultures and civilizations, much stress is laid on reading but, in the modern times, this activity is being ignored. R: Reading is an essential basic skills building activity. S: Besides, vocabulary enrichment, ideas collection, familiarization with different types of writing formats, speaking fluency, etc, all depend upon reading.
A RSPQ B QRPS C PQRS D RPSQ
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Passage For questions 57–61 In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives. The rising sun has great inner ______. Not just to ______ the new morning right after the dark night, but also the new rhythms and vibrations within existence. The entire universe – including the trees, birds and flowers – wake up to the rising sun. When we listen to the birds chirping and see the flower petals open, remember that the sunrise is not just a great happening on the outside. If we are alert and aware, then the sunrise is also happening deep within us. Something within ourselves is also ______ with the first rays of the sun. We just need to be sensitive and available; we just need to be ______. Like the outside world, we need to open the inner door to let the new dawn enter within. Just open the window of our inner world and allow the beautiful experience of sunrise to ______ within ourselves – this experience is beyond anything earthly.
Passage For questions 62–66 In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives. To know ______ reality, the powers of the mind need to be turned back upon itself. With concentration, the mind can ______ its innermost secrets, just as the darkest places reveal their secrets to the penetrating rays of light. We can then ______ soul truths, whether life exists for five minutes or for ______, and whether there is a God. To go beyond the mind and our present reality, we need to use the mind itself as a tool.
Passage For questions 67–71 In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives. Of the three activities of thought, word and deed, perhaps thought is the most ______ and powerful force, for it is the ______ of the other two. Success is achieved twice, once in the mind and the second time in the real world. No matter in whose mind thought occurs; its laser-like energy seeks a target. That’s why we give so much importance to ______, seeking divine blessings before ______ on any project as we know that positive thinking is a strong force that can be ______ for the welfare and success of all.
Passage For questions 114–118 A passage is given with five questions following it. Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives. Just as space permeates everything in the universe, love permeates every part, every aspect of creation. If there is one answer to the question, “How and why does this world exist?” the answer, in one word, is ‘Love’. Rather, the answer is ‘Pure Love’, since the word ‘love’ has lost its meaning. Your very existence is an expression of pure unconditional love of the Source (you may call it Consciousness, Creator, God, Divine Self). This is the truth of your being. True love transcends both love and hatred. It is unconditional, unquestioning, boundless, unchanging love. It is overflowing love of the Source for the Source through all of creation. True love is way beyond the personalized love that two or more individuals assert on one another. Personalized love, though apparently selfless, is rooted in desires and conditional satisfaction. We have been brought up in a society that judges love based on conditions. We have been made to believe that we can receive love only when we fit into people’s expectations. If we are not good enough, we will be deprived of love. These beliefs have influenced the collective psyche of families, groups, communities, and societies since generations to such an extent that love has been reduced to fear of denial. We need to shift from the paradigm of false conditional love to the essence of pure unconditional love . The experience of true love comes with surrender of the false ‘I’, in letting go of the feeling of separateness. Without this sacrifice, it is not possible to attain divine love. When this separate ‘I’ is discarded, you embrace everything in oneness and catch a glimpse of pure love. True love can be experienced only through giving, not by demanding. People who exist in your life are not here to love you. They are here to remind you that you are the Source of Love. By knowing that you are the Source of love, you can love yourself, instead of waiting to receive love from the world. Ask yourself, “Why do I need an agent to love myself?” Waiting for the world to love you, is like hiring an agent to love yourself! It is time for you to honor yourself as the Source of love. You have undertaken this human journey to realize and express the boundless love that you truly are.
Passage For questions 119–123 Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives. By practicing mindfulness and other principles, we become more aware of and present to our fears and others’ fears, bearing witness as a way of healing and empowering. We see the spiritual path as intertwined with the path of social action, with contemplation and action parts of the same whole, each nourishing and guiding the other. Acknowledging that our well-being depends on others makes caring for others’ well-being a moral responsibility. Through a “mindful citizen” exercise, we create a story articulating who we are as individuals who are also part of communities. This exercise helps us move beyond cynicism, complacency, and despair, instead infusing us with a sense of purpose. We embrace our gifts, resolving to do our part to promote a sense of common humanity as a means toward social justice. With this exercise, I believe we can help students bridge their divides and replace anger and distrust with compassionate connections – just as I witnessed between Shirley and Tiffany. Shirley returned to class after a brief hiatus, keeping a cool distance from Tiffany. But over the weeks spent together they gradually came to know each other. They practiced seeing and listening, sharing stories so different that they felt bewildered as to how they could overcome the gap. But they found that acknowledging their differences led them to discover a place of deep connection in commonalities, such as being raised by grandmothers, and even wounds, including childhood trauma, that they never imagined existed. In assessments of these classes, students say that these small groups become “healing communities,” where we overcome victimization and claim agency. Healing occurs as we transcend an “us vs. them” mentality, crossing borders and forging connections. These communities show a way of reducing intergroup prejudice and fostering inclusion based in psychology research and pedagogical practice.
Passage For questions 124–128 A passage is given with five questions following it. Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives. He wasn't the first, nor would he be the last, but the wiry, bespectacled man from Gujarat is certainly the most famous of the world's peaceful political dissidents. Mohandas Gandhi – also affectionately known as Mahatma – led India's independence movement in the 1930s and 40s by speaking softly without carrying much of a big stick, facing down the British colonialists with stirring speeches and non-violent protest. More than anything else, historians say, Gandhi proved that one man has the power to take on an empire, using both ethics and intelligence. Urges Britain to quit India It is hard to imagine the thin, robed Gandhi working in the rough and tumble world of law, but Gandhi did get his start in politics as a lawyer in South Africa, where he supported the local Indian community's struggle for civil rights. Returning to India in 1915, he carried over his desire to improve the situation of the lower classes. Gandhi quickly became a leader within the Indian National Congress, a growing political party supporting independence, and traveled widely with the party to learn about the local struggles of various Indian communities. It was during those travels that his legend grew among the Indian people, historians say. Gandhi was known as much for his wit and intelligence as for his piety. When he was arrested several more times over the years for his actions during the movement, Gandhi calmly fasted in prison, believing that his death would embarrass the British enough to spur independence, which had become the focus of his politics by 1920. Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, kicked off in the early 1920s, called for Indians to boycott British goods and traditions and become self-reliant. His most famous protest came in 1930, when Gandhi led thousands of Indians on a 250-mile march to a coastal town to produce salt, on which the British had a monopoly.
Passage For questions 129–133 Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives. India’s title triumph in the Under-19 cricket World Cup at the Bay Oval in New Zealand seemed inevitable. Prithvi Shaw’s boys, astutely coached by Rahul Dravid, maintained an unbeaten record through their three-week sojourn. The rousing campaign commenced with a 100-run win against Australia on January 14; in subsequent games, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Pakistan were all emphatically defeated. There were no big-game nerves and even in the muchhyped semifinal against Pakistan, India pocketed a facile 203-run victory. In the summit clash against Australia, Shaw’s boys followed their template of dominance. Australia was bowled out for 216 and India cruised home in 38.5 overs with eight wickets to spare, and enjoyed the added lustre of opener Manjot Kalra’s unbeaten 101. Through the tournament India found diverse heroes. Fittingly, its batting troika of Shaw, Kalra and Shubman Gill, along with seamer Kamlesh Nagarkoti and spinner Anukul Roy, found a berth in the International Cricket Council’s Under-19 World Cup team, essentially a tribute to the best players on view in the championship. Cricketing excellence allied with the resultant celebrity status, especially during the teenage years, can be a double-edged sword and it helped that in the dressing room there was the calming presence of Dravid. As the ecstatic players leapt and photo-bombed after clinching the trophy, Dravid cut through the hype and said that this win should not be the team’s defining memory as each individual cricketer has much more to achieve in his career. Dravid has a point. India has won the Under-19 World Cup on four occasions, including the previous golden runs in 2000, 2008 and 2012. From among these champion sides, only a few graduated to the big stage. Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli came through the under-19 ranks and managed to carve a niche for themselves, but Unmukt Chand, who led the team to the Cup in 2012, and then featured in a soft drink advertisement besides writing a book, has been unable to make it to the Indian senior team.
Passage For questions 134–138 In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives. For me the ______________ and the chill of those nights dissolved into those little flames of fire that for hours made us live in a wonderland, in a ___________ fair of fireflies, and made us _________ there’s nothing that can blow those divine lights ________. In my mind I can still hear the jingling sounds of ________ tiny bells that grandma used to ring during the puja.
Passage For questions 139–143 In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives. Very simply, a checklist is a list of items required, things to be done or points to be considered, used as a reminder. This is clear. Is the _______________ implication equally clear? Perhaps not. A checklist is purely objective, no _______________ is involved. That means, if the checklist is framed as a set ______ questions, the answer to every question can only be a binary “Yes” _______ “No” and nothing in between; no shades of grey. Such objectivity is the very antithesis of the education system today, both in the way teaching happens and in the ____________ of the student.
Passage For questions 144–148 Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives. I don’t know whether the Madras Photographic Society has anything to do with the recently-publicised Chennai Photo Biennales, the first last year and the next scheduled for 2018, but participant or not, it certainly deserves a bow for being the country’s first photographic society. Its founder was an Army doctor, Alexander Hunter. The Society was founded in 1857, shortly after Lord Canning arrived as Governor-General. Canning and Lady Canning, both photography enthusiasts, were responsible for creating the famed Government series, The People of India. Hunter had still earlier, in 1850, privately started the Madras School of Arts. The School, taken over by Government in 1852, moved from Popham’s Broadway to Poonamallee High Road. There, he and an eight-member committee revised the syllabus, offering two streams, Industrial and Artistic. Hunter was put in charge of the institution, renamed the Government School of Industrial Arts, in 1855. It was the first formal school of Art in the country. In it, Hunter introduced Photography. Hunter retired in 1868, to be succeeded by Robert Chisholm. No mean photographer, Hunter encouraged the School, it is now the Government College of Arts and Crafts to build up a photographic collection. Unfortunately, little is left of his work, especially the monuments of South India captured by Government photographer Linnaeus Tripe and his assistant C Iyahsawmi. Hunter himself did a series of pictures of the ‘Seven Pagodas’ (Mahabalipuram) and worked with his wards on photographs of the five hill tribes of the Nilgiris. It was at a prize-giving of the School that Hunter urged the Governor to provide it more suitable premises. They came up on the PH Road site in Chisholm’s time and to his design — and remain there.
Passage For questions 149–153 Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives. It is a labour of love and the result of painstaking research. Chikankari - A Lucknawi Tradition by Paola Manfredi, an Italian, is a book that shows her close and long association with the craft. Lucknow’s chikankari is known across the world yet very little research or documentation has been done. Articles or features have appeared off and on but this book is amongst the first of its kind, which aims to document the vast treasure called Chikan. What makes the book extremely interesting is that unlike other books that tend to rely on second hand material, with exhaustive references and quotes, Paola Manfredi has filled her tome with passionate grass-roots level research. The narrative more in the nature of a personal journey, with all the quirks and street-smart practicality, makes the book refreshing. As Paola says in the book, it is not a scholarly or academic research but more of a documentation of the world of chikankari. Paola questions the use of chikan as a word for embroidery, highlighting that it has a broader connotation encompassing haute couture, the fine art of making a garment, embroidering it and finishing it with finesse. She is no stranger to chikankari having worked with SEWA and several craftsmen. Her love for white on white embroidery also found a calling in chikan.