Directions (1-5): In this section, you have one short passage. After this passage, you will find several questions based on the passage. First, read Passage, and answer the questions based on it.
Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the tracks over where the white folks lived. But cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition, and the first wooly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun. One day, the gang to which I belonged found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear, opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralized our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the center of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbor saw me and rushed me to a doctor.
Q1. The locality, where the author lived, was
(a) behind a brick quarry
(b) near a coal mine
(c) far away from where the whites lived
(d) close to where the whites lived
Q2. The author used the cinders for
(a) harassing the white boys
(b) cooking his food
(c) building houses
(d) laying them on the railroads
Q3. The weapons used by the whites in the gang fight were
(a) as effective as the author’s
(b) less effective than the author’s
(c) more dangerous than the author’s
(d) as harmless as the author’s
Q4. The author was hit by a broken bottle
(a) as soon as the fight began
(b) during a lull in the fight
(c) after the fight was over
(d) when the author’s gang was withdrawing
Q5. At the sight of the author’s bloody wound, his friends
(a) were terrified
(b) were filled with shame
(c) grew very angry
(d) felt depressed and defeated
Directions (6-10): In this section, you have one short passage. After this passage, you will find several questions based on the passage. First, read Passage, and answer the questions based on it.
In the highest sense, religion is an intensely individual issue. But there is a national question also. We must hold together, and we cannot hold together only on the strength of police regulations. An internal regulator of conduct is absolutely necessary. Will men be good and wise without the aid of religion? As modern life has multiplied desires without the corrective of a sense of spiritual values, knowledge of modern science does not reduce either greed or lust. Indeed it has nothing to do with these criminal disturbances of the mind. On the contrary, it finds fresh tools for greater indulgence in all forms of greed, lust, and anger. It is true that a sense of shame by itself often prevents overt misconduct. But it does not go to the root of the mischief; it does not stop undesirable mental activities. The only thing that can prevent or restrain these evils is the religious sense.
Q6. According to the author, religion is essentially a
(a) personal matter
(b) the matter having national relevance
(c) the body of rules and regulations
(d) the sacrifice of worldly desires
Q7. The statement “we must hold together” means that we should
(a) be politically united
(b) work together
(c) be spiritually united
(d) keep up our nation’s prestige
Q8. The author thinks that in the modern times
(a) the police have grown very powerful
(b) people’s needs have increased
(c) politicians have become corrupt
(d) we are practicing several faiths
Q9. The worst thing about modern science is that it has
(a) produced dangerous weapons
(b) spread new superstitions
(c) contributed to the decline of our values
(d) discredited all religions
Q10. The author holds that the perfect remedy for man’s evil propensities is a
(a) the sense of shame
(b) religious sense
(c) the combination of a sense of shame and religion
(d) the sense of good conduct
Directions (11-15): In this section, you have one short passage. After this passage, you will find several questions based on the passage. First, read Passage, and answer the questions based on it.
I was lying on a ridge scanning, with field glasses, a rock cliff opposite me for tahr, the most sure-footed of all Himalayan goats. On a ledge halfway up the cliff, a tahr and her kid were lying asleep. Then, the tahr got to her feet, stretched herself, and the kid immediately began to feed. After a minute the mother freed herself, took a few steps along the ledge, poised for a moment, then jumped down on to another but a narrower ledge some twelve to fifteen feet below her. As soon as it was left alone the kid started running backward and forwards, stopping every now and then to peer down at its mother, but unable to summon the courage to jump down to her, for below the narrow ledge was a sheer drop of a thousand feet. I was too far away to hear whether the mother was encouraging her young, but from the way her head was turned, I believe she was doing so. The kid was getting more and more agitated and, possibly fearing that it would do something foolish, the mother went to what looked like a mere crack in the vertical rock face and, climbing it, rejoined her young. Immediately on doing so she lay down, presumably to prevent the kid from feeding.
After a while, she got to her feet again, allowed the kid to drink for a minute, poised carefully on the brink, and jumped down while the kid again ran backward and forwards above her. Seven times in the course of the next half-hour this procedure was repeated until finally the kid, abandoning itself to its face, jumped, and landing safely beside its mother was rewarded by being allowed to drink its fill. The lesson for her young, that it was safe to follow where she led, was over for that day.
Q11. Which of the following excerpts from the passage best bears out the description of the tahr as a sure-footed mountain goat?
(a) “Seven times in the course of the next half-hour this procedure was repeated.”
(b) “The lesson for her young __________ was over for that day.”
(c) “__________ the mother went to what looked like a mere crack in the vertical rock face __________ rejoined her young.”
(d) “I was too far away to hear whether the mother was encouraging her young __________ I believe she was doing so.”
Q12. The mother goat feared that the kid “would do something foolish” like
(a) drink more than its share of milk
(b) throw itself off the cliff
(c) follow her down the vertical rock face
(d) continue to pace up and down indefinitely
Q13. Which of the following phrases can replace “abandoning itself to its fate”, used in the second paragraph?
(a) Making the most of the situation
(b) Taking the bull by the horns
(c) Facing the music
(d) Accepting consequences
Q14. One way in which the kid was encouraged to follow its mother was by
(a) not being allowed to have its fill of milk until it had jumped
(b) running backward and forwards on the ledge before it jumped
(c) getting very agitated before it jumped
(d) being rejoined by its mother several times
Q15. The mother goat taught her kid the lesson through
(a) agility and sure-footedness
(b) severity and punishment
(c) patience and perseverance
(d) praise and reward
Solutions
1.B
2.A
3.C
4.D
5.D
6.A
7.D
8.B
9.C
10.B
11.A
12.B
13.D
14.D
15.A
