Ex. No: 15a GRE Reg.

No:
Date : Name:

READING COMPREHENSION (TYPE 1)

Passage 1
Martin Luther King's active career extended from 1957 to 1968. During this brief career he led
numerous protest demonstrations in the South as well as in the North of the USA. He
challenged the moral complacency of America and fought for the rights of the Negroes. He
hated the eye-for-an-eye method like Gandhi ji and fought with the weapon of non-violence -
"a weapon", said King, "that cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a
sword that heals." And he raised a vast army. It was an army that would move but not maul. It
was an army to storm bastions of hatred, to lay siege to the fortress of segregation, to surround
symbols of discrimination. It was an army whose allegiance was to God and whose strategy and
intelligence were the eloquently simple dictates of conscience. His creed of nonviolence was
criticized and challenged by 'Black Power' militants who would not renounce the use of violence
to achieve their goals. Nevertheless, his faith in non-violence never wavered.

Choose single correct answer for the following questions:

1. The agenda of Martin Luther King's army was to

A. Maul while moving.

B. To remove hatred, segregation and discrimination from the society through non-violent
moves.
C. Use swords to achieve their goals.
D. Use violent methods to fight their causes.
E. Make an army that fought using swords.

2. Martin Luther King fought for the rights of Negroes and

A. Used violent methods to achieve his ends.

 B. Stood against the political policies of American government.
C. Provided them with basic amenities.
D. Challenged the moral complacency of America.
E. Appreciated America's moral complacency.

3. His non-violent methods of fighting for the rights of Negroes were

A. Appreciated and keenly followed by the militants of America.

B. Disliked by the 'White Power' militants of America.
C. Criticized and challenged by 'Black Power' militants, who followed violent means.
D. Followed by 'Black Power' militants, who appreciated them.
E. Hated and condemned by the 'Black Power' militants, yet followed by them.

Passage 2

The jobs do not get changed around from time to time. Started off on one of the nicer ones, I
sat at a conveyor belt slipping a piece of cardboard under each cake as it came down the line.
The thirst was difficult to keep up. An uneconomic movement, a fumble and four cakes have
gone without cards. I got up to chase the four cakes, eight more appeared and for five minutes
or so I had to work at twice the speed to work my way back to where I was sitting before. But it
takes half a day or so to learn how it's done and soon it becomes quite automatic. The frenzy
had quite worn off by the end of the first day and then there was only the monotony and the
aching arms. Later I moved to another job on the line, as the girl who usually did it had left. I
wasn't surprised. It was the nastiest job in that department. As the cake came out of a machine
that had sliced it in three layers, two streams of artificial cream were poured over the layers. I
had to stack the layers up again, a messy and very tiring job. The cakes are heavy and the cream
is slippery. Anyone who has worked at all in a factory knows how deathly conveyor belt work is.
At first it is difficult to keep up and when you're tired it is quite merciless. After a while, when
you have become fairly used to it, the fact that you can't work faster is also infuriating.
Choose single correct answer for the following questions:

1. The first day's frenzy was ascended by

A. Drowsiness, body ache and fatigue.

B. The feeling of being overjoyed and excited.
C. The feeling of satisfaction.
D. A sense of monotony and ache in the arms.
E. Happiness at being employed.

2. The layers of the cakes that came out of the machine

A. Had to be poured over with cream and stacked on top of each other.
B. Were required to be watched over.
C. Needed to be packed in paper covers.
D. Had to be collected and kept aside.
E. Needed to be stacked straightaway.

3. Difficult to keep up in the beginning, the conveyer belt work

A. Starts seeming enjoyable later on.

B. Seems merciless and tires one badly after a while.
C. Gradually makes one get used to it and enjoy it.
D. Gives delighting experience afterwards.
E. Is a drudgery filled experience later on.

Passage 3

The arrival of the train did not disturb Sir Mohan Lal's sangfroid. He continued to sip his Scotch
and ordered the bearer to tell him when he had moved the luggage to a first class
compartment. Excitement, bustle and hurry were exhibitions of bad breeding, and Sir Mohan
was eminently well-bred. He wanted everything 'tickety-boo' and orderly. In his five years
abroad, Sir Mohan had acquired the manners and attitudes of the upper class. He rarely spoke
Hindustani. When he did, it was like an Englishman's, only the very necessary words and
properly anglicized. But he fancied his English, finished and refined at no less a place than the
University of Oxford, he was fond of conversation and like a cultured Englishman he could talk
on almost any subject-books, politics or people. How frequently had he heard English people
say that he spoke like an Englishman?

Choose single correct answer for the following questions:

1. Sir Mohan Lal was not badly bred because

A. He wore good clothes.

B. His financial status was high.
C. He was too modest.
D. He had attained education at Oxford University.
E. He didn't exhibit excitement, bustle and hurry.

2. The Hindustani that he spoke was like that of an Englishman's in the sense that

A. He was English by birth.

B. He used only the very necessary words, those too in an anglicized accent.
C. His mother tongue was English.
D. He had learned the language from an Englishman.
E. He was very fluent in English and didn't know Hindustani well.

READING COMPREHENSION (TYPE 2)

Write the correct answer for the following questions

Question 1: Which sentence explains the manner in which the message hid?

There are many ways of sending secret messages. An interesting method was used by a Chinese
General called Pingyo, 2000 years ago. Pingyo's army was far from their homeland. Between
the soldiers and home there were many enemies. But Pingyo sent letters to his king and the
enemy could not read them. He sent them like this: A strong messenger was chosen from
among the soldiers. His hair was cut off and a letter was written on his baldhead. Then he was
dressed as a poor farmer and sent home. His journey lasted many weeks. During this time his
hair grew and covered the message. The enemy stopped him many times. He was searched but
the letter was not found. When he reached the king's palace his hair was cut off again and the
letter was read to the King.

Question 2: Which sentence conveys the comic theme?

It is said that once three old men set out on a journey together. One of them was bald, the
second was a philosopher and the third was a barber. At nightfall they decided that each one of
them should sit for watch turn by turn. The barber was to keep watch first of all, the
philosopher after that and the bald man last of all. So, the philosopher and the bald man went
to sleep and the barber was on watch. For some time he kept awake but in the end, he felt tired
of it and he thought of some diversion as otherwise it was difficult for him to pass time. Then
he took out the razor from his box and shaved the head of the philosopher. At the fixed time he
woke up the philosopher and himself went to sleep. When the philosopher got up and felt his
head all over, he was startled and said in surprise, "It was my turn but this wretched fellow has
awakened bald man."

Question 3: The adventurous streak in the protagonist's character finds an explanation in:

At low tide he walked over the sands to the headland and round the corner to the little bay
facing the open sea.It was inaccessible by boat because seams of rock jutted out and currents
swirled round them treacherously.But you could walk there if you chose one of the lowest ebb
tides that receded a very long way. You could not linger on the expedition, for once the tide
was on the turn, it came in rapidly. For this reason very few people cared to explore the little
bay and the cave at the back of it. But the unknown always drew this man like a magnet. He
found the bay fresh and unuttered, as it was completely covered by the sea at high tide. The
cave looked mysteriously dark, cool and inviting, and he penetrated to the farthest corner
where he discovered a wide crack, rather like a chimney. He peered up and thought he could
see a patch of daylight.

Question 4: Which sentence describes the consequences of the problem?

Whenever their hold on power has been challenged, politicians have moved to protect
themselves by centralizing power in their own hands while simultaneously seeking refuge in the
politics of populism. This has led to the "deinstitutionalization of Indian politics": The death of
regional satraps and party workers. In other words, in order to establish direct contact with the
masses for mobilizing electoral support, politicians have consciously bypassed fickle regional
satraps and party workers and have thereby undermined the possibility of establishing a system
of impersonal authority based on the "procedural rationality of democracy". Paradoxically,
while personal rule at one level may have enabled politicians to reach out and appeal directly to
the masses, at another level it has actually weakened their hold on power, because it has made
them even more vulnerable to anti- incumbency waves. Indeed, by dismantling factions and
replacing link-men at the party and institutional level, politicians have attenuated not only their
own political parties but also the administrative machinery - the very vehicles which could
effectively have implemented their 'populist' schemes stand functioned as arenas for
accommodating new demands.

Question 5: Where is the hierarchy in Indian secretariats explained?

The structure of bureaucratic delivery systems in India is a paradox exemplified. Dual delivery
systems are present with reasons best explained by our colonial past. Primarily they are
expressed in the form of departments and boards. In the delivery systems, where orientation is
towards departments, there exists a parallel hierarchy which is reflected by the presence of the
secretariat and the directorate. The secretariat consists of generalists (read administrators) and
the directorate specialists. In India normally the head of directorate (director) reports to the
head of secretariat (secretary), and the secretary reports to the political executive. Sometimes
both directors and secretaries report to the political executive.
In the board type delivery systems, directors and secretaries are absent. There is a chairman
and there are members, who are all knowledgeable in their respective domains. In India the
Ministry of Railways operates in this manner. One has never heard of a railway secretary. The
boards report to the political executive directly. In simple terms the departments have top
heavy generalists (administrators). In boards domain specialization is the buzz word.

Question 6: Which sentence explains the lineage of the problem?

Major obstacles to good governance are disruptive political practices and lack of social
discipline, which are the legacies of freedom struggle. P. N. Dhar cites the reply of Jawaharlal
Nehru in his book Indira Gandhi when Nehru was asked about the impact of the strategies
adopted during the freedom struggle on the governance of India: for "a country which for a
whole generation practiced a certain technique of opposition to the government it is not easy
to shift over to make people think differently. It maybe their own government, but people still
have the habit of opposing the government. Secondly they are apt to adopt the technique, not
rightly I think, but some variation of it, just to press on some complaint or something, which is
sometime apt to be nuisance." The strategies euphemistically called the "civil disobedience
movement" termed by Ambedkar "the grammar of anarchy" were influenced by successive
generations of politicos and vested groups and have become, instead of nuisance, the wreckers
of governance.

READING COMPREHENSION (TYPE 3)

Passage 1

In Asia and much of the third World, trees are still destroyed in the old-fashioned way: they are
cut down for fuel and cropland. In Europe, there is a new and potentially more deadly culprit.
The German call it 'Waldsterben', the dying forest syndrome. But the disease is far more than a
German phenomenon. Since it was first observed by German scientists in the autumn of 1980,
the mysterious malady has raced across Europe, blighting woods in countries as far apart as
Sweden and Italy. Explanations for the epidemic range from a cyclic change in the environment
to a baffling form of tree cancer. But the most convincing evidence points to air pollution.
Indeed, saving the rapidly deteriorating forests of Europe will probably require a two-pronged
strategy: an offensive campaign that includes the breeding of pollution-immune trees and a
defensive scheme that calls for reductions in toxic emissions. But both will require more money
than is currently being spent on such measures, as well as total commitment to protecting the
environment.
Choose 2, 3 or 4 correct answers for the following questions:

1. Why do you think the narrator calls the reasons for cutting the trees in the third world
countries, 'old fashioned'?

A. As the countries he is referring to are known as the third world, or under-developed

countries.
B. Since science has made available modern and much developed methods to satisfy these
requirements.
C. As the reasons for which the trees are cut are no longer valid in today's scenario.
D. It is a biased comment on the part of the narrator as it seems he belongs to a highly
developed nation or society.
E. As there are modern solutions for the requirement of fuel and cropland available to us
now.

2. What are the two points of target that the strategy to fight the problem of dying forests
includes in itself?

A. Finding methods to sustain life for trees and all types of vegetation.
B. An aggressive movement directed towards breeding of trees that are resistant to
pollution.
C. Conservative efforts for demanding reduction in emission of toxic substances which lead
to air pollution.
D. The attempts to save the trees from being cut and popularizing other alternatives for
their use.
 E. Making available more and more scientific methods that can help reduce the air
pollution.

3. The explanations sought for this occurrence of drying forests include factors like --------.

A. Air Pollution
B. Polluting of water resources
C. A form of cancer of trees that is incomprehensible
D. Periodical environmental changes
E. The trees getting dried out

Passage 2

Once upon a time there was a vast Kingdom in the north-west of India called Rawalgarh. The
King of Rawalgarh was a very contented person and so were the people of his kingdom. Since
the King had no children, the Queen was all the time worried about his successor. The King was
a God-fearing person. He used to stage open durbars in which every one of his citizens had the
accessibility to him. He loved his subjects and wanted them to prosper but he knew they could
not prosper unless they were educated. He decided to commission a project to eradicate
illiteracy of the people. He was quite serious and religiously wanted to implement his project.
Before he could give final shape to his project, he fell sick. For several months he was confined
to his bed. People held prayers and longed for the speedy recovery of their King. One day burly
youth from a nearby kingdom came to the town and heard of the King's illness. The people
were all agog as the youth drew a wand from his huge pocket and rubbed it against the bare
chest of the king. It was to everybody's surprise that the king immediately got cured and
resumed his work with same vigor and strength. The king was so delighted that the next day he
called that boy and honored him with a great gift.

Choose the 2, 3 or 4 correct answers for the following questions:

1. What were the various impediments in the path that led to the prosperity of the king's
subjects?
 A. The delaying of the project to eradicate illiteracy from his kingdom.
B. The corruption in his kingdom.
C. The King's prolonged illness.
D. Their being uneducated.
E. The lack of co-operation from his subjects.

2. 'The youth drew a wand from his huge pocket and rubbed it against the bare chest of the
king’. Which among the following are the correct words to explain this type of a treatment
method?

A. Transcendental
B. Abstruse
C. Quixotic
D. Cryptic
E. Spectral

3. What does the King's resuming of work with the same vigor and strength imply?

A. The wiping off of all the vices from his kingdom.

B. His working for the betterment of his subjects again.
C. The young man being a doctor.
D. The prosperity and happiness of his people.
E. Resuming of work on project for eradication of illiteracy.