Section – I

Direction for questions 1 to 6: For the word given at the top of each table, match the dictionary definitions
on the left with their corresponding usages on the right. Out of the four choices given in the columns below
the table, select the one that has all the definitions and their usages correctly matched.

1. Drain
Dictionary definition Usage
A. To dry or empty something E. The tragedy left her emotionally drained.
B. To make a liquid flow away F. I feel drained of all my energy at the end of the
day.
C. To become weaker G. Drain the water from the noodles before you fry
them.
D. Exhausted H. Let the water drain from the machine after you
finish the washing.
a. A–G, B–E, C–H, D–F b. A–F, B–G, C–E, D–H
c. A–E, B–F, C–G, D–H d. A–G, B–H, C–E, D–F

2. Flash
Dictionary definition Usage
A. To give a signal E. His car flashed by before I could stop him.
B. In no time F. The referee flashed a yellow card at the player.
C. To move quickly G. The mishap took place in a flash of a second.
D. To remember H. My mind flashes back to the days we spent
together in college.
a. A–F, B–G, C–E, D–H b. A–H, B–E, C–G, D–F
c. A–E, B–H, C–F, D–G d. A–F, B–E, C–G, D–H

3. Escapade
Dictionary definition Usage
A. Mischievous adventure E. The hijacked victims were rescued after a
series of breathtaking escapades between the
commandoes and the terrorists.
B. A series of events F. Our escapade to the countryside made the
break worthwhile.
C. A brave act G. The childhood escapades into the nearby garden
always remain special.
D. A day out or a holiday H. Her escapade into the jungle all alone brought
her closer to nature.
a. A–E, B–F, C–G, D–H b. A–G, B–E, C–H, D–F
c. A–G, B–F, C–H, D–E d. A–H, B–G, C–E, D–F

4. Stifle
Dictionary definition Usage
A. Lack of air to breath E. All her attempts to escape from the prison were
stifled.
B. To end by force F. Pakistan’s assistance to terrorism has stifled
all hopes of peace.
C. To control something undesirable G. The protests of the labourers were stifled right
at the beginning.

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 D. To prevent the development of H. The markets have a stifling rush during festivals.
a. A–E, B–F, C–G, D–H b. A–F, B–G, C–E, D–H
c. A–H, B–G, C–E, D–F d. A–H, B–E, C–G, D–F

5. Fiddle
Dictionary definition Usage
A. Play restlessly E. He entertains people by playing a fiddle to earn
his living.
B. In good health F. Amjad Ali Khan prefers to play the second fiddle
when his sons perform on stage.
C. Stringed instrument G. Don’t fiddle with your pen while I am explaining.
D. A subordinate role H. Even at 60, the Colonel felt as fit as a fiddle.
a. A–G, B–E, C–H, D–F b. A–G, B–H, C–E, D–F
c. A–F, B–E, C–H, D–G d. A–H, B–F, C–G, D–E

6. Design
Dictionary definition Usage
A. Preliminary plan or sketch E. This course is specially designed for
beginners in English.
B. Intention or plan F. The construction can begin only after the
designs are approved.
C. Shapes forming a decoration G. The prince had evil designs on the beggar maid.
D. A secret plan to achieve/obtain something H. The designs she made on the wall showed her
talent.
a. A–F, B–H, C–E, D–G b. A–G, B–E, C–H, D–F
c. A–E, B–F, C–G, D–H d. A–F, B–E, C–H, D–G

Direction for questions 7 to 11: Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate choice.

7. The ___ nature of philosophy calls for a/an ___ explanation of its theories.
a. comprehensive ... detailed b. esoteric ... comprehensive
c. malicious ... kind d. plebian ... aristocratic

8. The ___ days of childhood are much preferable to the ___ ones in adulthood.
a. short ... long b. tumultuous ... serene
c. halcyon ... banal d. tendentious .... fatuous

9. Her ___ attitude borders on ___ at times.

a. insouciant ... impertinence b. impeccable ... flaws
c. felicitous ... grovel d. egregious ... lurid

10. Though the organisation of the party was ___, it ended in a ___ .
a. ingenious ... fiasco b. incredible ... run away success
c. ingenuous ... flaw d. indigenous ... maelstrom

11. He had to be administered a ___ in order to calm his ___ mind.

a. tranquilliser ... agitated b. soporific ... sleepy
c. analgesic ... aching d. dose ... sensitive

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Direction for questions 12 to 16: In each question, sentences of a paragraph are jumbled up. Choose the
option that rearranges the sentences to form a coherent passage.

12. A. Though computers soon became a norm, people were sceptical about them.
B. In the late sixties, the computer was just a fast typewriter and a high power calculator.
C. But the convenience and the speed of computers have won over the traditional perceptions.
D. Even in its primitive role, it was a mechanism of storing accurate corporate information.
E. The biggest doubt was the fear of losing employment if computers took their place.
a. BDAEC b. DBAEC c. ABCDE d. ECABD

13. A. Business today cries out for more field marshals willing to accept responsibilities for planning a
total marketing programme.
B. The key characteristic of a marketing general is flexibility.
C. He must be flexible enough to adjust the strategy to the situation and not vice versa.
D. ‘Let’s go with what we know will work’ is a weakness in a general.
E. Risk-taking should be an integral part of his fibre, leading to innovation.
a. ABCDE b. BACED c. ACEBD d. ABCED

14. A. Some people were initially afraid that telephone would reduce face to face contact between two
people.
B. The Internet has redefined boundaries and strengthened cultural ties.
C. Similarly, a lot of people feared that the Internet would depersonalise experience.
D. On the flip side, it has become difficult to censor the matter on the Net.
E. But in reality, both the modes have increased contact between people.
a. ACBED b. CEABD c. ACEBD d. ABCDE

15. A. There are various facets of this ability.

B. Intelligence is the ability to successfully adapt our actions to the environment.
C. Surprisingly, two-thirds of the cognitive ability is formed by the time we are six-year-old.
D. The environmental factors exert the strongest influence.
E. This rapid growth is not only because of natural factors.
a. BACED b. ABCDE c. BCADE d. BEDCA

16. A. It is important that citizens must obey the law.

B. It is even more important for citizens to obey the high standards of decency which aren’t enforced
by law.
C. This feeling of obedience to the unenforceable is the true hallmark of a mature democracy.
D. Beyond legally enforceable laws, there is a vast range of significant behaviour the law cannot
enforce.
E. It will be a long time before such standards of mature public conduct prevail in India.
a. ABCDE b. DABEC c. ABDCE d. BADCE

Direction for questions 17 to 21: Four alternative summaries are given below each text. Choose the
option that best captures the essence of the text.

17. Today, literature attempts to make its audience focus their fantasies on specific people. The ‘Author
of the Month’ is a particular person about whom the reader is meant to have particular perceptions.
In my view, this has a more baneful effect on people  it makes them demented, in fact, in a way
that earlier writings didn’t. This literature promises them that there exists, somewhere on this earth,
a life of endlessly desirable and available people. The promise that this life is just around the corner,
is maddening and disorienting. And in its futility, it makes for rage and self-hatred. The traditional

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 argument against censorship  that ‘no one can be seduced by a book’  was probably valid when
writing was impersonal and anonymous. Today, however, there is addiction and seduction in prose.

a. Literature is more realistic now, using photographs of people with names and identities, therefore,
it is more harmful to its readers and viewers, who can easily grow dissatisfied and frustrated with
fantasies.
b. Today’s literature promises people that there exists, somewhere on this earth, a life which is
endlessly desirable.
c. Censorship should be an integral part of modern literature.
d. Literature has become materialistic and damning and infuses a sense of disorientation.

18. Fortunate to have been born on the human rights day, it becomes vivid, not by memory but by
instincts and embryonic experience, that the darkest formative cell, nurtured with warmth and care
has the most safe, comfortable, care-free and above all fearless living  a custodial dignity that
precedes every human born  a dignity infused in the human system that must revolt against its
non-recognition in any form by reflex action. This ethereal gift is zealously guarded by all within and
most want only disregarded by most without.

a. The embryonic experience forms the basis of human dignity.

b. Custodial dignity is the birthright of every individual, infused in human beings right from conception,
instinctively at revolt with any deviation.
c. Human rights are not to be compromised at any cost.
d. The gift of dignity is of immense inner value, being exposed constantly to the indignities of the
human system.

19. Self-esteem is a core identity issue, essential to personal validation and our ability to experience
joy. Once achieved, it comes from the inside out. But it is assaulted or stunted from the outside in.
A person with low self-esteem does not feel good about himself because he has absorbed negative
messages from the culture and/or relationships. Self-esteem is an upward or downward spiral.
What you do affects the way you feel. How you feel affects the things you do. The things you do
affect what you and others think of you, which in turn, affects how you feel about yourself. You’re
either building yourself up or tearing yourself down. There is no status quo when it comes to your
self-image.

a. The core issue at any given time is the need to validate one’s personal growth at any cost.
b. Self-esteem needs to be nurtured and tended with care; once established, it helps you to build
yourself up in an upward spiral.
c. Low self-esteem can be detrimental to the extent that growth can get stunted and tear you down.
d. Life is a continuous process of image and esteem-building, positive energies fuel an upward trend
and vice versa with no room for status quo.

20. I have gained and achieved a reasonable degree of control over my own life. In times past I have
allowed others to anger me by them doing or not doing according to my will, wish, want and desire.
Friends, relatives and even strangers, whose cooperation I felt I needed to carry on with my life was
denied to me on many occasions. I had fancied myself as a natural leader of men whose purpose in
life was to lead and to guide other people on to great or greater things. What a fool I was.

a. Uncontrolled emotions lead to a denial of a natural life.

b. Self-generated myths result in the pursuit of inconsequential goals and endeavours.
c. Self-realization, even at a latent stage, is beneficial in overcoming obstacles.

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 d. Leadership qualities and self-realization are qualities inherent in motivated persons, self-control
being an integral part of the plan.

21. Wakefield is the name of a small northern England village, the possible performance site of a quite
astonishing cycle of plays. These plays were written for performance at the 14th century feast of
Corpus Christi. They include incidents from the passion of Christ, but are primarily intended to tell a
story with a far more cosmically audacious sweep: all of God’s dealings with humankind, from the
creation to doomsday. The Wakefield cycle is one of four extant English Corpus Christi cycles. Two
others have been identified with the villages of Chester and York; the fourth is not generally associated
with any town, and is known as the ‘N-town cycle’.

a. Wakefield is the permanent venue for plays based on the passion of Christ and his dealings with
mankind.
b. The four cycles of the plays deal primarily with incidents from the life of Christ written for performance
at the feast of Corpus Christi.
c. The Wakefield plays deal with humankind.
d. The fourth cycle is not generally associated with any town.

Direction for questions 22 to 26: In these questions, each sentence is written in four different ways.
Select the option which is grammatically appropriate.

22. a. Not only I told her about the process but also demonstrated it for her.
b. I told her not only about the process but also demonstrated it for her.
c. Not only I told her about the process also demonstrated it to her.
d. I not only told her about the process but also demonstrated it to her.

23. a. The PM said that the country was moving into a new stage which would be one of great
advancement.
b. The PM said that the country will be moving into a new stage which would be one of great
advancement.
c. The PM said that the country will be made to move into a new stage which would be one of the
great advancements.
d. The PM said the country moves into a new stage which would be one of the great advancement.

24. a. Excellent Software Solutions is growing fast, adding another 150 employees to its payroll over
the last year.
b. Excellent Software Solutions are growing fast, adding another 150 employed to their pay roll over
the last year.
c. Excellent Software Solutions is growing fast, and adds another employees 150 to their payroll
over the last year.
d. Excellent Software Solutions is growing fast and adding another 150 employees to their payroll
over that last year.
25. a. My mother went downtown and bought me two pair of shoes.
b. My mother went to downtown and brought for me a pairs of shoes.
c. My mother went downtown and bought me two pairs of shoes.
d. My mother went downtown and bought my two pair shoes.
26. a. This dress which is favourite, has a stain on it.
b. This dress, which is my favourite, has a stain on it.
c. This dress, which is one of my favourite, has a stain on it.
d. This dress, which is one of my favourites have stain on

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Direction for questions 27 to 46: Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow.

PASSAGE – 1

Montana Scalp’s provocative statement about her intentions in writing Mrs. Dalloway has regularly been
ignored by the critics, since it highlights an aspect of her literary interests very different from the traditional
picture of the ‘poetic’ novelist concerned with examining states of reverie and vision and with following the
intricate pathways of individual consciousness. She says, “I want to criticize the social system, and to
show it at work, at its most intense.” But Montana Scalp was a realistic as well as a poetic novelist, a
satirist and social critic as well as a visionary: literary critics’ cavalier dismissal of Scalp’s social vision will
not withstand scrutiny. In her novels, Scalp is deeply engaged by the questions of how individuals are
shaped (or deformed) by their social environments, how historical forces impinge on people’s lives, how
class, wealth, and gender help to determine people’s fates. Most of her novels are rooted in a realistically
rendered social setting and in a precise historical time.

Scalp’s focus on society has not been generally recognized because of her intense antipathy to propaganda
in art. The pictures of reformers in her novels are usually satiric or sharply critical. Even when Scalp is
fundamentally sympathetic to their causes, she portrays people anxious to reform their society and
possessed of a message or program as arrogant or dishonest, unaware of how their political ideas serve
their own psychological needs. Her diary notes: “… the only honest people are the artists …” whereas “…
these social reformers and philanthropists ... harbour ... discreditable desires under the disguise of loving
their kind ...” Scalp detested what she called ‘preaching’ in fiction, too, and criticized novelist D. H.
Lawrence (among others) for working by this method. Scalp’s own social criticism is expressed in the
language of observation rather than in direct commentary, since for her, fiction is a contemplative, not an
active art. She describes phenomena and provides materials for a judgment about society and social
issues; it is the reader’s work to put the observations together and understand the coherent point of view
behind them. As a moralist, Scalp works by indirection, subtly undermining officially accepted mores,
mocking, suggesting, calling into question, rather than asserting, advocating, bearing witness: hers is the
satirist’s art. Scalp’s literary models were acute social observers like Checkhov and Checky. As she put it
in The Common Reader: “It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon
another because of anything Checky said or wrote; and yet, as we read him, we are absorbing morality at
every pore.” Like Checky, Scalp chose to understand as well as to judge, to know her society root and
branch — a decision crucial in order to produce art rather than polemic.

27. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the passage?
a. Poetry and Satire as Influences on the Novels of Montana Scalp
b. Montana Scalp: Critic and Commentator on the Twentieth-Century Novel
c. Trends in Contemporary Reform Movements as a Key to Understanding Montana Scalp’s Novels
d. Montana Scalp’s Novels: Critical Reflections on the Individual and on Society

28. In the first paragraph of the passage, the author’s attitude toward the literary critics mentioned can
best be described as
a. disparaging.
b. ironic.
c. factious.
d. skeptical but resigned.

29. It can be inferred from the passage that Scalp chose Checky as a literary model because she
believed that
a. Checky was the first English author to focus on society as a whole as well as on individual
characters.

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 b. Checky was an honest and forthright author, whereas novelists like D. H. Lawrence did not
sincerely wish to change society.
c. Checky was more concerned with understanding his society than with calling its accepted mores
into question.
d. Checky’s writings were greatly, if subtly, effective in influencing the moral attitudes of his readers.

30. It can be inferred from the passage that the most probable reason Scalp realistically describes the
social setting in the majority of her novels was that she
a. was aware that contemporary literary critics considered the novel to be the most realistic of
literary genres.
b. was interested in the effect of a person’s social milieu on his or her character and actions.
c. needed to be as attentive to detail as possible in her novels in order to support the arguments she
advanced in them.
d. wanted to show that a painstaking fidelity in the representation of reality did not in any way
hamper the artist.

31. The passage supplies information for answering which of the following questions?
a. Have literary critics ignored the social criticism inherent in the work of Chekhov and Checky?
b. Does the author believe that Scalp is solely an introspective and visionary novelist?
c. What are the social causes with which Scalp shows herself to be sympathetic in her writings?
d. Was D. H. Lawrence as concerned as Scalp was with creating realistic settings for his novels?

PASSAGE – 2

To teach is to create a space in which obedience to truth is practised. Space may sound like a vague
metaphor until we realise that it describes experiences of everyday life. We know what it means to be in a
green and open field, we know what it means to be on a crowded, rush-hour bus. These experiences of
physical space have parallels in our relations with other. On our jobs we know what it is to be pressed and
crowded, our working space diminished by the urgency of deadlines and competitiveness of colleagues.
But then there are times when deadlines disappear and colleagues cooperate, when everyone has space
for family and friends. We know how it feels to have unreasonable demands placed upon us, to be boxed
in by the expectations of those nearest to us. But then there are times when we feel accepted for who we
are (or forgiven for who we are not).

Similar experiences of crowding and space are found in education. To sit in a class where the teacher
stuffs our minds with information, organizes it with finality, insists on having the answers while being utterly
uninterested in our views, and forces us into a grim competition for grades — to sit in such a class is to
experience a lack of space for learning. But to study with a teacher who not only speaks but also listens,
who not only gives answers but asks questions and welcomes our insights, who provides information and
theories that do not close doors but open new ones, who encourages students to help each other learn —
to study with such a teacher is to know the power of a learning space.

A learning space has three essential dimensions: openness, boundaries and an air of hospitality. To create
an open learning space is to remove the impediments to learning that we find around and within us: we
often create them ourselves to evade the challenge of truth and transformation. One source of such
impediments is our fear of appearing ignorant to others or to ourselves. The openness of a space is created
by the firmness of its boundaries. A learning space cannot extend indefinitely, if it did, it would not be a
structure for learning but an invitation for confusion and chaos. When space boundaries are violated, the
quality of space suffers. The teacher who wants to create an open learning space must define and defend
its boundaries with care. Because the pursuit of truth can often be painful and discomforting, the learning
space must be hospitable. Hospitality means receiving each other, our struggles, our new-born ideas with

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openness and care. It means creating an ethos in which the community of truth can form and the pain of
its transformation be borne. A learning space needs to be hospitable not to make learning painless, but to
make painful things possible, things without which no learning can occur — things like exposing ignorance,
testing tentative hypotheses, challenging false or partial information, and mutual criticism of thought.

The task of creating learning space with qualities of openness, boundaries and hospitality can be approached
at several levels. The most basic level is the physical arrangement of the classroom. Consider the traditional
classroom setting with row upon row of chairs facing the lectern where learning space is confined to the
narrow alley of attention between each student and teacher. In this space, there is no community of truth,
hospitality or room for students to relate to the thoughts of each other. Contrast it with the chairs placed in
a circular arrangement creating an open space within which learners can interconnect. At another level,
the teacher can create conceptual space — space with words in two ways. One is through assigned
reading, the other is not through reading a hundred pages but contemplative reading which opens, not fills,
our learning space. A teacher can also create a learning space by means of lectures. By providing critical
information and a framework of interpretation, a lecturer can lay down the boundaries within which learning
occurs.

We also create learning space through the kind of speech we utter and the silence from which true speech
emanates. Speech is a precious gift and a vital tool, but too often our speaking is an evasion of truth, a way
of buttressing our self-serving reconstructions of reality. Silence must therefore be an integral part of
learning space. In silence, more than in arguments, our mind-made world falls away and we are open to the
truth that seeks us. Words often divide us, but silence can unite. Finally, teachers must also create
emotional space in the classroom, space that allows feelings to arise and be dealt with because submerged
feelings can undermine learning. In an emotionally honest learning space, one created by a teacher who
does not fear dealing with feelings, the community of truth can flourish between us and we can flourish
in it.

32. Which of the following statements best describes the author’s conception of learning space?
a. Where the teacher is friendly
b. Where there is no grim competition for grades
c. Where students are encouraged to learn about space
d. Where the teacher provides information and theorises, opens new doors and encourages students
to help each other learn

33. The statement ‘the openness of a space is created by the firmness of its boundaries’ appears
contradictory. Which of the following statements provides best justification for the proposition?
a. We cannot have a space without boundaries.
b. Bounded space is highly structured.
c. When space boundaries are violated, the quality of space suffers.
d. A teacher can effectively defend a learning space without boundaries.

34. According to the author, an effective teacher does not allow

a. feelings to arise within the learning space.
b. silence to become an integral part of the learning space.
c. learning space to be filled by the speed reading of several hundred pages of assigned reading.
d. learning space boundaries.

35. An emotionally honest learning space can only be created by

a. a teacher committed to joining the community of truth.
b. a teacher who is not afraid of confronting feelings.
c. a teacher who takes care not to undermine the learning process.
d. a teacher who worships critical silence.

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36. Another way of describing the author’s notion of learning space can be:
a. it is vital that learning be accompanied by unlearning.
b. learning encompasses such elements as courage, dignity and endeavour.
c. an effective teacher recognizes the value of empathy.
d. encourage good learners, discourage indifferent ones.

PASSAGE – 3

Innovations, development of new products, to extend the lines and expand the markets of existing products
by adding new features, styles, packaging, pricing — all these inexorably belong to the arsenal of devices
by which a modern company competes. Innovation is an abundant commodity in our society. But it is
probably less abundant than many of us assume. We often mistake innovation for what is really imitation,
the large and highly visible outpouring of an imitative product that was genuinely new several years previously
when a single innovator first launched it.

Simple arithmetic tells us that there is more imitation than innovation. At the beginning, for every genuinely
new product there are hordes of imitators. No single company can be, or can prudently afford to be, as
constant an innovator as it is compelled to be an imitator. And while there are greater recognized risks to
innovation, there is not today an equivalent recognition of the risks of imitation. When a company comes to
the market with its imitation at about the same time as the rest of the imitators, the risk is great indeed.

Since we live in an age of such unquestioning and often very justified faith in the virtues of innovation, there
can develop in the more committed companies a one-sided system of rewards. Plaudits and promotions
go to the clearly innovative individuals — and rightly so. But it is well to be aware of the possible negative
consequences.

The most unhappy, negative effect may be the creation of an environment in which people who frequently
suggest imitative practices got viewed as being somehow inferior or less worthy. Taking their cues from the
system of rewards, people may then systematically refrain from championing the initiative strategies upon
whose early implementation the continued bread-and-butter success of their companies depends.

Hence, an affirmative policy of supporting a strategy of imitation in some organised fashion would have the
virtue not only of getting necessary imitative activities into motion early, but of communicating to the entire
organisation that while innovators are valued, so are the creative imitators. It would legitimise systematic
imitative thinking.

It makes sense therefore, to have just as clear and carefully developed a method of planning innovative
imitation as of planning innovation itself. While the newness of this suggestion may make it sound strange
and perhaps even vaguely academic, it is useful to compare it with what we already do in related areas.
Take for example, the field of insurance. The rationale and usefulness of such a policy is no more novel
than is the rationale of liability insurance.

Nevertheless, perhaps it is an overstatement to say that innovation is the false messiah and a mistake to
say that imitation is the new messiah. But to behave lop-sidedly, as if innovation were a messiah (especially
at the awful expense of a realistic appreciation of the fructifying power of more systematic imitation), would
be an even greater mistake.

37. The author depreciates the stress that has been put on
a. innovators at the expense of imitators.
b. imitation at the expense of imitators.
c. both innovators and imitators.
d. avoidance of risk on the part of the imitators.

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38. The article indicates that
a. there is no such person as a creative imitator.
b. imitation is a new messiah.
c. promotions are given only to the innovators — not the imitators.
d. a modern company should operate like an arsenal.

39. The suggested product policy involves

a. encouraging both innovation and innovative imitation.
b. a hedging policy in connection with union demands.
c. practices among large liability insurance companies.
d. innovation to the exclusion of imitation.

40. The author would probably agree with which of the following situations?
a. Innovation is more effective than imitation as a means of increasing business.
b. Imitation is more effective than innovation as a means of increasing business.
c. Two firms can be equally successful even if one stresses on innovation and the other on imitation.
d. The advantages of innovation are recognized by a few organizations today.

41. The most appropriate title for the passage would be:
a. Innovate — Don’t Imitate
b. Imitate — Don’t Innovate
c. Imitators, Innovate!
d. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Innovation and Imitation

PASSAGE – 4

Science does not grow by simple accumulation. The carefully observed, criticised, and theoretically
schematised knowledge that is transmitted to the archive is not thereafter hoarded in secret vaults; it
becomes the free property of all men including the scientists themselves, and is instrumental in the
generation of further knowledge.

Nor is a scientific observer an inflexible machine, fully formed by his education. Being himself involved in
the generation of new knowledge, he is continually revising his own creative and critical standards in the
light of scientific progress. As the means become evident, as the possibilities present themselves, as new
doors are opened by his own work or the work of other scientists, he constructs more sensitive apparatus,
seeks to confirm recent predictions, applies new theoretical formalisms, reinterprets previous discoveries,
or conceives new programs of research. In other words, scientific activity is self-catalysing and self-correcting;
it is governed by the outlook and directed towards the problems of its own day, as perceived by its human
practitioners.

To illustrate this dynamic process, it would be necessary to penetrate into the obscure history of some
particular branch of science, to show what information was potentially available to each research worker at
the time, to note deficiencies of communication, and external stimuli that gave inspiration, to wonder at
imaginative leaps and inexplicable blockages. The sources of invention turn out to be extraordinarily subtle
and episodic, revealing little more than the diversity of human behaviour in unfamiliar circumstances.

Our immediate concern, however, is not so much with the psychology of discovery as with the sociology of
belief. How does the scientific community react to the appearance in the midst of genuine new knowledge
— in its ideal form, a well-ordered and convincing network of facts and interpretations, such as the theory
of special relativity or Pasteur’s clinching demonstration of the bacterial causation of disease?

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After the initial period of scepticism and resistance, a major, new scientific principle carries all before it.
Having been the subject of intense research, having stood the test or many efforts at refutation, it acquires
a highly reputable, almost unchallengeable status. It is the pride and joy of its creators, who are rewarded
with recognition, who teach it with relish and who cannot resist imposing it inexorably on acquiescent
juniors. To embed oneself mentally in the new theory, to demonstrate one’s mastery of it, to make it the
basis of one’s research, is progressive and up-to-date. A whole new area of knowledge is quickly explored
and mapped out as a consequence of the ‘breakthrough’.

Here again, we need not go into the question whether the long-term progress of science is ideally served by
such waves of enthusiasm. What we should note is that the new principle — a metaphorical map of some
corner of the world of nature — is rapidly internalised by every scientist to whom it seems relevant. It is not
just something that he reads about in the scientific journals or a technical device that he can pick up, use
and put down again as the occasion demands. As he solves problems with it, teaches it to his students
and argues about it amongst his colleagues; he assimilates it as a concept, until it becomes a part of him.
From the 1930’s onwards, quantum mechanics for all its philosophical paradoxes, was not just a ‘theory’
that could be used, if necessary, to explain atomic phenomena. Instead, to the atomic physicist, quantum
mechanics had become reality; it was no longer possible to think physically in any other categorical
language.

Thus, from a scientific revolution, evolves a new paradigm. Or, in the language of the visual metaphor, the
map has become a picture.

42. Which of the following does not contribute to the process of a scientific breakthrough becoming a
new area of knowledge?
a. It goes through intense scrutiny and exhaustive attempts at refutation.
b. Having been an object of intense research, it attains a highly reputable and almost unchallenged
status.
c. National pride sweeps away any resistance that the scientific community may have on the
theory.
d. As a researcher propagates the theory and attains mastery of it, it becomes a basis for further
research.

43. Which of the following statements would validate the writer’s model of how a new discovery becomes
a paradigm?
a. The rigorous testing to which a new discovery is subjected brings out other related fields of
explanation, which base themselves on the original discovery.
b. Scientists and academicians do not consider scientific journals as authentic sources of information.
c. Frameworks of ideas around which the new discovery is constructed have been rigorously examined
and verified.
d. The application of the new theory in scientific practice results in a state when it becomes a
construct without which a problem cannot be explained.

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

a. verbose and contrived b. analytical and succinct
c. effusive and awed d. apathetic and indifferent

45. Which of the following cannot be inferred from the passage?

a. An analysis of the dynamics of scientific discovery does not point to any direct cause-effect
principles to explain the process.
b. The scientific method requires the investigator to keep questioning his own findings, and more
importantly, keep in touch with the developments in the discipline to test the validity of his
research.

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 c. A new discovery that is not whole-heartedly accepted by the scientific community is invariably
doomed to failure.
d. While a new idea is not welcomed unanimously with open arms, once rigorously tested, it proceeds
to gain acceptance and respectability.

46. The tone of the passage suggests that the author is

a. a woman journalist. b. a social scientist.
c. a literary critic. d. a science fiction writer.

Direction for questions for 47 to 50: Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.

The Tyger
by William Blake

1 Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

5 In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,

10 Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

15 What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water’d heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

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20 Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

47. What do the following lines in the poem signify?

“And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?“
a. These lines speak about the very power and strength of the tiger, and of its maker.
b. These lines tell us about the capabilities of the tiger and its hunting abilities.
c. This tell us about the ways and methods the tiger uses to catch its prey.
d. None of these

48. Which of the following statements are true in the context of the poem?
A. The poet asks the question, “Did the same God who made the Lamb also made the Tyger?”
B. The poet wonders at the strength of the Tyger.
C. The poet speaks of the great achievements of man and how he has become more powerful than
the Tyger.
a. A b. B and C c. A and B d. A, B and C

49. Which of the following is/are false as per the context of the poem?
A. According to the poet the Tyger is the greatest creation of God.
B. The poet compares the Tyger to the Lamb on many occasions.
C. The poet has tried to be very sorry about the fact that God did not create the Tyger.
a. A and B b. B only c. C only d. A, B and C

50. What does the poet imply when he says, ‘Burnt the fire of thine eyes’?
a. Blake uses the metaphor of fire to describe the way the Tyger sees and is seen.
b. Blake uses this line to set up an atmosphere of suspense and fear.
c. Blake uses this to say that the Tyger should be burnt in a furnace.
d. None of these

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