ENGLISH PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT TEST NOV/DEC 2016

READING SKILLS PRACTICE MATERIALS

Question Paper - 11
Q.I. Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
Conflict had existed between Spain and England since the 1570s. England wanted a share of
the wealth that Spain had been taking from the lands it had claimed in the Americas.
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, encouraged her staunch admiral of the navy, Sir Francis
Drake, to raid Spanish ships and towns. Though these raids were on a small scale, Drake
achieved dramatic success, adding gold and silver to England's treasury and diminishing
Spain's supremacy.
Religious differences also caused conflict between the two countries. Whereas Spain was
Roman Catholic, most of England had become Protestant. King Philip II of Spain wanted to
claim the throne and make England a Catholic country again. To satisfy his ambition and also
to retaliate against England's theft of his gold and silver, King Philip began to build his fleet
of warships, the Spanish Armada, in January 1586.
Philip intended his fleet to be indestructible. In addition to build new warships, he marshaled
130 sailing vessels of all types and recruited more than 19,000 robust soldiers and 8,000
sailors. Although some of his ships lacked guns and others lacked ammunition, Philip was
convinced that his Armada could withstand any battle with England.
The martial Armada set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on May 9, 1588, but bad weather forced it
back to port. The voyage resumed on July 22 after the weather became more stable.
The Spanish fleet met the smaller, faster, and more maneuverable English ships in battle off
the coast of Plymouth, England, first on July 31 and again on August 2. The two battles left
Spain vulnerable, having lost several ships and with its ammunition depleted. On August 7,
while the Armada lay at anchor on the French side of the Strait of Dover, England sent eight
burning ships into the midst of the Spanish fleet to set it on fire. Blocked on one side, the
Spanish ships could only drift away, their crews in panic and disorder. Before the Armada
could regroup, the English attacked again on August 8.

Although the Spaniards made a valiant effort to fight back, the fleet suffered extensive
damage. During the eight hours of battle, the Armada drifted perilously close to the rocky
coastline. At the moment when it seemed that the Spanish ships would be driven onto the
English shore, the wind shifted, and the Armada drifted out into the North Sea. The Spaniards
recognized the superiority of the English fleet and returned home, defeated.
Questions:
1. Who added wealth to the treasury?
2. What did the King Philip recruit?
3. What was sent on May 9, 1588?
4. Who was defeated in the battle?
5. Which fleet was small in number?

Q.II. Fill in the blanks with appropriate words:

( practices,

administered, steps,

significance, that,

incentives, effects,

clues,

doled out, reasons, conquer, purposes, obtain, well, contract)

The food we eat seems to have profound ___(1)___ on our health. Although science has
made enormous ___(2)___ in making food more fit to eat, it has, at the same time, made
many food unfit to eat. Some research has shown that perhaps 80% of all human illnesses are
related to diet and 40% of cancer is related to the diet as ___(3)___, especially cancer of the
colon. Different cultures are more prone to ___(4)___ certain illnesses because of the food
that is characteristic in these cultures. ___(5)___ food related to illness is not a new
discovery. In 1945, government researchers realized that nitrates and nitrites, commonly used
to preserve color in meats, and other food additives, caused cancer. Yet, these carcinogenic
additives remain in our food, and it becomes more difficult all the times to know which
things on the packaging labels of processed food are helpful or harmful. The additives, which
we eat, are not all so direct. Farmers often give penicillin to beef or poultry, and because of
this, penicillin has been found in the milk of treated cows. Sometimes similar drugs are

___(6)___ to animals not for medicinal ___(7)___ but for financial ___(8)___. The farmers
are simply trying to fatten the animals in order to ___(9)___ a higher price on the market.
Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tried repeatedly to control these
procedures, the ___(10)___ continue.
Q. III. Read the given passage and match the words given in column A with those in
column B
Launch of Mangalyan

As originally conceived, ISRO was to launch MOM on its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV) but as the GSLV failed twice in 2010 and ISRO was continuing to sort out
issues with its cryogenic engine, it was not advisable to wait for the new batch of rockets as
that would have delayed the MOM project for at least three years. ISRO opted to switch to
the less-powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Since the PSLV was not powerful
enough to place MOM on a direct-to-Mars trajectory, the spacecraft was launched into a
highly elliptical Earth orbit and used its own thrusters over multiple perigee burns (to take
advantage of the (Oberth effect) to place itself on a trans-Mars trajectory.
On 19 October 2013, ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan announced that the launch had to be
postponed by a week as a result of a delay of a crucial telemetry ship reaching Fiji. The
launch was rescheduled for 5 November 2013. ISRO's PSLV-XL placed the satellite into
Earth orbit at 09:50 UTC on 5 November 2013, with a perigee of 264.1 km (164.1 mi), an
apogee of 23,903.6 km (14,853.0 mi), and inclination of 19.20 degrees, with both the
antenna and all three sections of the solar panel arrays deployed. During the first three orbit
raising operations, ISRO progressively tested the spacecraft systems.
The orbiter's dry mass is 500 kg (1,100 lb), and it carried 852 kg (1,878 lb) of fuel and
oxidiser at launch. Its main engine, which is a derivative of the system used on India's
communications satellites, uses the bipropellant combination monomethylhydrazine and
dinitrogen tetroxide to achieve the thrust necessary for escape velocity from Earth. It was
also used to slow down the probe for Mars orbit insertion and, subsequently, for orbit
corrections.

Conceived

route or path

advisable

undesired

trajectory

nearest point of orbited object

elliptical

farthest point

perigee

spherical

telemetry

copied

apogee

considered

inclination

manual communication

derivative

forceful pushing motion

thrust

deviation from line

kinetic force
automated communication
egg shaped
original
being desirable

Q. IV. Read the following passage and match Column A with Column B.

1. When Curtis transferred to our high school from some fancy private school, I was assigned
the job of showing him around our building. First, I showed him our trophy case. Our school
has done put together some quality teams and programs over the years, so our trophy case
was pretty full. Curtis was not impressed. He claimed that the trophy case at his old school
was at least twice as big as ours and much more crowded. Next I showed him our swimming
pool. Not every high school has a swimming pool, so we were proud of ours, but Curtis
couldn't care less. "The swimming pool at my old school is bigger and more modern. This
one looks kind of dirty," he said with disdain. I continued to guide Curtis around the school,
showing him our cafeteria, gymnasium, and even our garden, but Curtis seemed disappointed
with everything that he saw. He'd quickly compare it to his old school, which in his words
was superior to ours in every way. The last thing I showed Curtis was the front door. I told
him that he would like this one best because he could walk through it and go back to his old
school.
2. Alan had very few responsibilities, but one of them was to clean his room. It did not take
long, but Alan still didn't like doing it. One day Alan thought of a way to save some time.
Rather than putting everything neatly back in its place, he decided to just throw all the stuff
on the floor into his closet. His mom would think that he had cleaned his room, and it would
only take a fraction of the time. Alan was pleased with himself for thinking of this brilliant

idea. He figured that this would save a lot of time and energy. The next time his room got
messy, he piled everything up in the closet and the pile grew. It grew and grew. Then Alan's
friend Steve called. "Alan, everyone is playing baseball at the park. Do you want to play
too?" Alan loved baseball. "That sounds great, Steve. I'll be right there." Alan went to grab
his baseball mitt when he realized that it wasn't in its usual place. Alan thought to himself, I
guess it's in the closet. When he opened up the closet door, he was faced with a huge,
unnavigable mess, some of which poured out as he opened the door. Alan began digging
through the pile in a frantic attempt to find his mitt. He dug and dug, and as he dug his room
got messier and messier. Soon his room was the messiest that it had ever been, and he still
hadn't found his mitt. Alan sighed in despair. By the time he found his mitt, the boys had long
concluded their game and Alan had hours of cleaning ahead of him before he'd be allowed to
leave.

3. Dan and Doug led the journalism club. While Dan was generally regarded as a better writer
than Doug, Doug was invaluable to the publication for his investigative skills. Together, they
had uncovered a scandal in the cafeteria that had been dubbed "Horsemeat-Gate." Due to Dan
and Doug's compelling story, interest in the high school paper grew. Dan was even
interviewed by the local paper. During the interview Dan spoke at length about all he had
done to write the story. He failed to mention Doug's involvement. Doug felt slighted and
confronted Dan, but Dan asserted that he was the main writer of the story and therefore
deserved the credit. Shortly after the blowout, Doug left the journalism club. The people of
the town were interested in the high school paper, but without Doug's knack for finding good
stories, the quality of the paper diminished and so did interest in the paper. Now that his
popularity surge had ended, Dan had more time to think. He reasoned that they'd still be on
top of the world if Doug hadn't been so stubborn and selfish.
4. Lucas swung his fist as hard as he could and hit William between the shoulder blades.
William cringed and moaned. He was a grade younger than Lucas and forty pounds lighter.
"That's what you get for sitting on my swing, crybaby," Lucas said with anger in his eyes and
hatred in his heart. "If you tell on me, I'll hit you twice as hard!" Lucas shouted at William as
he ran off crying. Lucas enjoyed bullying William. It was easy to do and it made Lucas feel
strong and good about himself. As he was regaling in his easy victory over the fragile
William, Lucas felt a sharp sting in between his shoulder blades as he was knocked from the
swing. "Ugh!" He shouted as he sprawled across the soft rubber playground tiles. Lucas
looked up to see Craig. Craig was a grade older than Lucas and at least forty pounds heavier.

"That's what you get for bullying little kids, coward," Craig said with anger in his eyes and
justice in his heart. "If I see you put your hands on another little kid out here, or anywhere
else, I'm going to hit you twice as hard!" Craig shouted at Lucas as he ran off crying.

Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 4

Do not wait until a problem gets out of control to address it

Give credit where credit is due
A thing worth doing is worth doing correctly
a contented mind is perpetual feast
You live where you reside, not where you want to reside
Treat others as you wish to be treated
The solutions to your problems are often right under your nose
A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step

Q. V. Rearrange sentences ABCD in the logical order and pick the right answer from
the given options, sentences S1 and S6 are in the correct position.

S1:
A:
B:
C:
D:
S6:

Venice is a strange and beautiful city in the north of Italy.

There are about four hundred old stone bridges joining the island of Venice.
In this city there are no motor cars, no horses, no buses.
These small islands are near one another.
It is not an island but a hundred and seventeen islands.
This is because Venice has no streets.

1. DCBA

2.CDBA

3. BACD

4. DCAB