Rankers’ Study Material

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English Language

Reading Comprehension

Passage(Q.1): It is evident from the allusions throughout the plays that Shakespeare was a reader rather than
a scholar. In other words, he used books for what interested him; he did not study them for complete mastery;
and many and varied as are the traces of his literary interests, they have the air of being detached fragments
that have stuck in plastic and retentive mind, not pieces of systematic erudition. It is true that many books have
been written to show that Shakespeare had the knowledge of a professional in law, medicine, navigation,
theology conveyancing, hunting and hawking, horsemanship, politics, and other fields; but such works are
usually the products of enthusiasts in single subjects, who are apt to forget how much a man of acute mind and
keen observation can pick up of a technical matter that interests him for the time, and how intelligently he Can
use it. The cross examination of an expert witness by an able lawyer is an everyday illustration; and in the
literature of our own day this kind of versatility is strikingly exemplified in the work of such a writer as Mr. Kipling.

1. Which of the following options is the author most likely to agree with?
(a) The only difference between a scholar and a reader is that a scholar learns in a systematic manner
while a reader not.
(b) The main difference between a scholar and a reader is that a reader enjoys what he reads while a
scholar studies his subjects thoroughly
(c) Shakespeare’s works display his, knowledge of various subjects which he picked up as a keen
student of these disciplines.
(d) Shakespeare was to the Elizabethan age what Kipling is to the modern age - both are versatile and
keenly observant authors.

Passage(Q.2 and Q.3): Dr. Deslauriers's lab rats were a group of 850 undergraduate engineering students
taking a compulsory physics course. The students were split into groups at the start of their courses and for the
first 11 weeks all went to traditionally run lectures given by well-regarded and experienced teachers. In the 12th
week, one of the groups was switched to a style of teaching known as deliberate practice, which inverts the
traditional university model. Class time is spent on problem-solving, discussion and group work, while the
absorption of facts and formulae is left for homework. Students were given reading assignments before classes.
Once in the classroom they spent their time in small groups, discussing specific problems, with the teacher
roaming between groups to offer advice and respond to questions.
At the end of the test week, Dr Deslauriers surveyed the students and gave them a voluntary test (sold as useful
exam practice, and marked on a 12-point scale) to see how much they had learned in that week and what they
thought of the new teaching method. The results were striking. The traditionally taught group's average score
was 41%, compared with 74% for the experimental group—even though the experimental group did not manage
to cover all the material it was supposed to, whereas the traditional group did.

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2. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the argument that the experimental group learned more
than the traditional group?
(a) In another test taken a week later the traditional group outscored the experimental group.
(b) The traditional group was more successful; in teaching the subject to new students than the
experimental group.
(c) The test taken during the experiment had more questions on theories and facts and less on problem
solving.
(d) In another test taken a week before the 12th week (Experiment week) the students in the
experimental group outscored the traditional group.

3. Which one of these is not likely to be a feature of a class conducted in the experimental study method?
(a) Experienced and well-regarded teachers.
(b) Experiments and their analysis
(c) Flashcards to memorize formulae
(d) Unstructured group discussions

Passage(Q.4 – Q.8): It is true that the smokers cause some nuisance to the non-smokers, but this nuisance is
physical while the nuisance that the non-smokers cause to the smokers is spiritual. There are, of course, a lot of
non-smokers who don't try to interfere with the smokers. It is sometimes assumed that the non-smokers are
morally superior, not realizing that they have missed one of the greatest pleasures of mankind. I am willing to
allow that smoking is a moral weakness, but on the other hand we must beware of a man without weakness. He
is not to be trusted. He is apt to be always sober and he cannot make a single mistake. His habits are too regular,
his existence too mechanical and his head always maintains its supremacy over his heart. Much as I like
reasonable persons, I hate completely rational beings. For that reason, I am always scared and ill at ease when
I enter a house in which there are no ashtrays.
The room is apt to be too clean and orderly, and the people are apt to be correct and unemotional. Now the
moral and spiritual benefits of smoking have never been appreciated by these correct, righteous, unemotional
and un-poetic souls. In my opinion the smokers' morality is, on the whole, higher than that of the non-smokers.
The man with a pipe in his mouth is the man after my heart. He is more genial, more openhearted, and he is
often brilliant in conversation. As Thackeray observes, "The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher
and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation that is contemplative, thoughtful,
benevolent and unaffected."

4. What kind of hardship does a non-smoker cause to a smoker?

(a) Non-smokers torment smokers spiritually.
(b) Non-smoker feel the smokers are people with no morals.
(c) There is no ashtray in a non-smoker's house and thus a smoker can't smoke at a non-smoker's place.
(d) Non-smokers keep pestering smokers to quit smoking.

5. Why according to the author is it wrong to think that a non-smoker is morally superior to a smoker?
(a) Because non-smokers are missing one of the greatest pleasures of mankind.
(b) Because smoking doesn't concern any morality.
(c) Because a smoker is more open hearted and genuine as a person.
(d) None of these

6. Why is a man without any moral weakness untrustworthy?

(a) Because his existence is too mechanical and thinks more with his brain rather than with his heart.
(b) Treachery is expected from an immoral person; it's a moral person we have to watch out for.
(c) He never makes a mistake himself and disdains people who make mistakes.
(d) He is too prejudiced.

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7. Why is the author scared to enter a place where there are no ashtrays?
(a) He wouldn't find a place to drop cigarette ash in.
(b) He wouldn't find company to smoke with
(c) He is scared of non-smokers.
(d) He is scared of the absolute rationality of non-smokers.

8. "The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates
a style of conversation that is contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent and unaffected." This means:
(a) Smoking is good for wise people and bad for foolish people.
(b) All smokers are brilliant at conversations. They are thoughtful, contemplative, benevolent and
unaffected.
(c) It is good that some fools smoke, because then they can't speak and we are spared their prattle.
(d) None of these.

Passage(Q.9 – Q.13): Patriotism is a very complex feeling, built up out of primitive instincts and highly intellectual
convictions. There is love of home and family and friends, making us peculiarly anxious to preserve our own
country from invasion. There is the mild instinctive liking for compatriots as against foreigners. There is pride,
which is bound up with the success of the community to which we feel that we belong. There is a belief, suggested
by pride but reinforced by history, that one's own nation represents a great tradition and stands for ideals that
are important to the human race. But besides all these, there is another element, at once nobler and more open
to attack, an element of worship, of willing sacrifice, of joyful merging of the individual life in the life of the nation.
This religious element in patriotism is essential to the strength of the State, since it enlists the best that is in most
men on the side of national sacrifice.

9. A suitable title for the passage could be

(a) Elements of Patriotism
(b) Historical Development of a Nation
(c) The Role of Religion and History in Patriotism
(d) Religion and Patriotism

10. Describing the element of worship 'Open to attack', the author implies that it
(a) is unnecessary
(b) leads to national sacrifice
(c) has no historical basis
(d) cannot be justified on rational grounds

11. The tone of the passage can best be described as

(a) critical (b) descriptive (c) persuasive (d) analytical

12. Which of the following can clearly be grouped under 'intellectual convictions' the author mentions in the
opening sentence?
(a) Love of family (b) Love of compatriots
(c) The element of worship (d) None of these

13. Which one of the following statements is false?

(a) We tend to like our own countrymen better than we like foreigners
(b) Nations always stand for ideals that are important to the human race
(c) It is the religious element in patriotism that motivates us for sacrificing ourselves for our nation
(d) Our pride of the community is bound with the community's success

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Passage: (Q.14-Q.19) As a medium of literary expression, the common language is inadequate. Like the man
of letters, the scientist finds it necessary to "give a purer sense to the words of the tribe". But the purity of
scientific language is not the same as the purity of literary language.

The aim of the scientist is to say only one thing at a time, and to say it unambiguously and with the greatest
possible clarity. To achieve this, he simplifies and jargonizes. In other words, he uses the vocabulary and syntax
of common speech in such a way that each phrase is susceptible to only one interpretation; and when the
vocabulary and syntax of common speech are too imprecise for his purpose he invites a new technical language,
or jargon specially designed to express the limited meaning with which he is professionally concerned. At its
most perfectly pure form, scientific language ceases the matter of words and terms into mathematics.

The literary artist purifies the language of the tribe in a radically different way. The scientist's aim, as we have
seen, is to say one thing, and only one thing at a time. This, most emphatically, is not the aim of the literary artist.
Human life is lived simultaneously on many levels and has many meanings. Literature is a device for reporting
the multifarious facts and expressing their various significances. When the literary artist undertakes to give a
pure sense to the words of his tribe, he does so with the express purpose of creating a language capable of
conveying, not the single meaning of some particular science, but the multiple significance of human experience,
it’s most private as well as on its more public levels.

14. The passage highlights the difference between

(a) the language of science and of literature
(b) the language of the tribe and that of a civilized man
(c) jargon and the language of the common man
(d) the central purpose of science and literature

15. 'Jargon' in the context of the passage means

(a) difficult language
(b) technical language
(c) language with limited meaning
(d) mathematical language

16. The purpose of literature according to the passage is to

(a) express views privately as well as publicly
(b) report multifarious facts of life
(c) view life from various planes
(d) None of the above

17. The language of science is

(a) precise (b) verbose (c) ambiguous (d) None of these

18. According to the passage

(a) language of science is pure
(b) language of literature is pure
(c) the language of science and that of literature, each in its own way, makes for pure expression
(d) None of the above

19. The word 'unambiguously’(highlighted) can best be replaced by

(a) vaguely (b) dubiously (c) explicitly (d) amiably

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Passage(Q.20-Q.22): The first important point about how children learn prejudice is what they do. They aren't
born that way, though some people think prejudice is innate and like to quote the old saying, "You can't change
human nature'' But you can change it. We now know that very small children are free of prejudice. Studies of
school children have shown that prejudice is slight or absent among children in the first and second grades. After
this, it may fall off again in adolescence. Other studies have shown that, on an average, young adults are much
freer of prejudice than older ones.

In the early stages of picking up prejudice, children mix it with ignorance which, as I've said, should be
distinguished from prejudice. A child, as he begins to study the world around him, tries to organize his
experiences. Doing this, he begins to classify things and people and begins to form connections—or what
psychologists call associations. He needs to do this because he saves time and effort by putting things and
people into categories. But unless he classifies correctly, his categories will mislead rather than guide him. For
example, if a child learns that "all fires are hot and dangerous," fires have been put firmly into the category of
things to be watched carefully—and thus he can save himself from harm. But if he learns a category like 'Negroes'
are lazy or 'foreigners are fools,' he's learned generalizations that mislead because they're unreliable. The thing
is that, when we use categories, we need to remember the exceptions and differences, the individual variations
that qualify the usefulness of all generalizations. Some fires, for example, are hotter and more dangerous than
others. If people had avoided all fires as dangerous, we would never have had central heating.

More importantly, we can ill afford to treat people of any given group as generally alike, even when it's possible
to make some accurate generalizations about them. So when a child first begins to group things together, it's
advisable that he learns differences as well as similarities. For example, basic among the distinctions he draws
in the division into 'good' and 'bad', which he makes largely on the grounds of what his parents do and say about
things and the people. Thus, he may learn that dirt is 'bad' because his mother washes him every time he gets
dirty. By extension, seeing a Negro child, he might point to him and say, 'Bad child', for the Negro child's face is
brown, hence unwashed and dirty, and so, 'bad'. We call this prelogical thing, and all of us go through this phase
before we learn to think more effectively.

But some people remain at this stage and never learn that things which seem alike, such as dirt and brown
pigment are really quite different. Whether a child graduates from his stage to correct thinking or to prejudicial
thinking, depends to a great extent on his experiences with his parents and teachers.

20. Which one of the following statements is true?

(a) Children up to the age of six or seven years are less likely to be prejudiced
(b) One is born with prejudices
(c) As one grows, prejudices fall off
(d) One's prejudices remain forever

21. While making categories, the important things to remember are

(a) only differences (b) only exceptions (c) Both (a) and (b) (d) only similarities

22. Which one of the following statements is not true?

(a) It is possible to shed prejudices at any stage
(b) Parents can help children to correct thinking
(c) Prejudice and ignorance are not the same
(d) Things that seem alike are necessarily similar

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