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ENGLISH COMPREHENSION

GENERAL STRATEGIES FOR READING COMPREHENSION AND

GENERAL COMPREHENSION PASSAGES

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Test of Reading Comprehension (RC) is the test of students’ ability to understand language. It tests students’ vocabulary, language usage and
interpretation. It also tests candidates’ ability to infer main ideas and significant details. RC skills can be developed and enhanced through right practice and
techniques. Here are some of the guidelines which will help in developing RC Skills.
1 Try to read the whole text of the passage once, if possible. Many people think you should just skim the passage or read the first lines of every paragraph,
and not to read the passage. We believe this is an error: if you misunderstand the main idea of the passage, you will certainly get at least some of the
questions wrong. Give the passage one good read, taking no more than 3 minutes to read all of the text. Do not read the passage more than once – that
wastes too much time. If you have not understood it completely, try to answer the question anyway. Note: this point of reading the whole passage is
important for test-takers whose first language is not English, provided that they can read the passage in 3 minutes or less.
2 Make brief notes on the text on your scrap paper. As we will see below in greater detail, you should write down a couple of words on A) the Main Idea
or Primary Purpose, B) Organization/Structure of the passage, and C) the Tone or Attitude of the author (if applicable). You just need a few words for
each of these areas, and altogether it should not take longer than 30 seconds to write down.
3 Remember that the tone or attitude of the passage is usually respectful and moderate, never going to extremes of praise nor criticism. Examiners obtain
Reading Comprehension passages from real articles about real academics and professionals. So the tone of the articles, even when there is criticism in
the passage toward an academic or her work, is always balanced and moderate. In the same vein, articles that deal with minorities or ethnic groups are
almost always positive and sympathetic.
4 Look out for structural words that tell you the important ideas or transitions in a passage.
Words used to Nevertheless
show continuity in Nonetheless
an idea:- However
Similarly But
Moreover Although
Additionally Though
In the same way Even though
Likewise Notwithstanding
Conclusion Words Yet
Thus Despite
Therefore In spite of
Hence On the one hand…on the
So other hand
In summary While
In conclusion Unlike
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Contradiction or
Contrast Words
5 Go back to the text of the passage for the answers. Many test-takers fail to return to the text of the passage to look for the correct answers. They rely
solely on their memories and understanding of the passage after having read or skimmed it. Wrong. Go back to the text to look for information to answer
the questions. Nine times out of ten, the answer lies within the passage.

Of the 6 most important types of questions for Reading Comprehension, we will first look at Main Idea/Primary Purpose Questions, and the strategies we
can use to answer them.
Main Idea/Primary Purpose Questions

Many people believe there is no difference between the main or central idea of the passage and the primary purpose of the author of the passage. This is
simply not true. Let's take a look at the subtle but important difference between them:

Main Idea The question might look something like this: "Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?"
"Which of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?"
"Which of the following is the principal topic of the passage?"
"The main topic of the passage is...."
Primary Purpose
The question might look like this:
"The primary purpose of this passage is to..."
"The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to..."
"The primary focus of this passage is on which of the following?"
"The main concern of the passage is to..."
"In the passage, the author is primarily interested in...."

"The passage is chiefly concerned with..."

Strategy:

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Main Idea: Look in the first and last paragraphs for the main idea. Any conclusion words like therefore, thus, so, hence, etc. that you see are most likely
introducing the main idea. The correct answer will say the same thing as it says in the text, but using different words. The Main Idea is not always stated
explicitly in the passage – in fact, more likely than not, it is not stated explicitly. Therefore, in order to answer this type of question when it is more implicit:

1. Re-read the first line of every passage, and the last line of the first and last paragraphs. This should give you the general structure or outline of the
argument, with which you can answer the Main Idea question.
2. After determining the general structure or content of the argument, eliminate answer choices that are too broad or too specific, i.e. answer choices that
go beyond the content of the passage, or that deal with content only discussed in one paragraph of the passage.
3. Make brief notes – a couple of words- regarding the Main Idea on the text on your scrap paper while you read.
Primary Purpose: What is the author trying to do? What is his intention? If he is evaluating a theory, then the answer could be something like "discuss
an interpretation". Note that the correct answer would deal with "an interpretation", because the author is only dealing with one theory. If the Primary
Purpose is to criticize 2 new books, then his intention or his primary purpose might be to "critique new studies". Again, as in Main Idea questions, re-read
the first line of every passage, and the last line of the first and last paragraphs. This should give you the general structure or outline of the argument, with
which you can answer the Primary Purpose question.
Note: A good main idea or primary purpose does not go beyond the scope of the passage, nor does it limit itself to discussing only one part of the passage.
What is the primary purpose of this passage?
discuss the importance of the television program Star Trek for the international space
A)
program
B) discuss important theoretical work concerned with faster-than-light space travel.
C) explore a dispute among theoretical physicists regarding the uses of space flight
D) describe the possible uses of space-warping material
E) explain how a space-warping bubble would work in the real world
EXPLANATION
This is a Primary Purpose question, so we have to determine what the author is trying to do or say in this passage. So, let's read the first and last lines
of the passage in order to get an idea of the primary purpose. The first line says "Great news for Star Trek fans: warp drives that can propel starships around
the Galaxy faster than the speed of light may be possible after all--with a little help from Dr Who." The last line is a quote by a physicist that says "Of
course, there are still some basic questions--like how does one go about constructing this Tardis space-time--but it puts the concept of space warps back on
the agenda." From both these sentences, we get the idea of space travel, faster than light travel and space warps – maybe this is a discussion of faster than
light space travel. Does that match what you have already read? Yes, basically this is a discussion of the theoretical state of play in the area of faster-than-

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light space travel. Do any of the 5 answer choices match that? Yes – B, even if the wording is somewhat different from how we are wording it, the idea is
almost exactly the same. B is the answer.
Another way of getting to the answer is through elimination of obviously incorrect answer choices. We can eliminate A because the author mentions
the popular science fiction program Star Trek merely to introduce the idea of faster-than-light travel, and nothing more. C is a stronger possibility because
the second paragraph of the passage does discuss some disagreement among physicists about the possibility of creating a warp-drive, but in the same
paragraph the theoretical dilemma seems resolved. Moreover, since the author only discusses this in one paragraph, it cannot be the primary purpose of the
entire passage. We can eliminate D because the author does not go into detail discussing the uses of space-warping material. And we can discard E because
the author does not really go into how the space-warping bubble would work in the real world.
TITLE QUESTIONS
Title questions are very similar to Main Idea questions, though are less common. Though some of the example passages we use in this tutorial and in
the Practice Section are from the New Scientist, and therefore have titles, the passages in the real CSAT will not have titles. The question might look like
this:
"Which of the following titles best summarizes the passage as a whole?"
Strategy:

Treat this as a Main Idea question. A good title sums up the central idea of a passage. Therefore, in order to answer this type of question:
1. Look in the first and last paragraphs for the main idea. Any conclusion words like therefore, thus, so, hence, etc. that you see are most likely introducing
the Main Idea/Title. The correct answer will say the same thing as it says in the text, but using different words.
2. Re-read the first line of every passage, and the last line of the first and last paragraphs. This should give you the general structure or outline of the
argument, with which you can answer the Title question.
3. Make brief notes – a couple of words- regarding the Title on the text on your scrap paper while you read.
4. After determining the general structure or content of the argument, eliminate answer choices that are too broad or too specific, i.e. answer choices that go
beyond the content of the passage, or that deal with content only discussed in one paragraph of the passage.
What would be an appropriate title for this passage?
A) Constructing The Tardis
B) How To Make Space-Warping Material
C) Bubbles In Space-Time
D) Faster-Than-Light Travel: A Possibility?
E) Debate On The Uses of Space Travel
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EXPLANATION
This passage actually already has a title, "Warp Factor One". But we have to look for another title possibility, one that would be most like the Main
Idea of the passage. We look at the first and last paragraphs, and since the Main Idea is that researchers now feel that faster-than-light travel maybe more
than mere fantasy, we can find the correct answer choice. Does any answer choice correspond to this idea? Yes- answer D, which is the correct answer.
We can also find the correct answer through elimination. There is nowhere in the passage where it discusses building Dr. Who's Tardis, so we can
eliminate A. Nor does it tell us how to make space-warping material. Eliminate B. While bubbles in space-time are discussed at some length in one of the
paragraphs, we cannot say this is the main concern of the passage, and thus should eliminate C. And nowhere are the uses of space travel discussed, so
discard E.
Specific Detail or Target questions are probably the most common types of questions, and the easiest to answer. The question might look like this:
"According to the passage,..."
"The passage states that ...."
Strategy

The Specific Detail or Target that we are looking for could be a Line Number, or a Name or Date. Go to the Line Number or Name or Date, and then
read several lines above and below it. Find the answer choice that basically says the same thing as in the passage, though usually with different words or
word order.

According to the passage, Pfenning and Ford

A) demonstrated conclusively the impossibility of faster-than-light travel
B) explored the possibility of bubbles that warp space
C) supported the work of Alcubierre
work at of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Catholic University of
D)
Leuven
E) suggested that a warp drive was not physically possible

EXPLANATION
This is a Specific Detail/Target question, and therefore we look for the Name, Line Number, or Date that will help us. In this case, the detail consists
of the names Pfenning and Ford. We scan the text, starting from the top of the passage, looking for the names Pfenning and Ford. We find them in only

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place, at the beginning of the second paragraph. We read a couple of lines above the names, and keep reading until a few lines after the names. It says "But
in 1997 Michael Pfenning and Larry Ford at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, apparently killed this ingenious idea by showing that it needed far
more than the entire energy content of the Universe to work (This Week, 26 July 1997, p 6)". The line after that says the research of another physicist then
resurrected the possibility of FTL travel, negating the implications of the research of Pfenning and Ford. Now we can answer the question. Do any of the
answer choices match the information given around the target area? Yes- E.
Let's also eliminate. If we re-read what the passage says about Pfenning and Ford, we can eliminate B, C, and D. None of them are supported by the
information in the passage, so let's eliminate all of them without wasting too much time and with a minimum of fuss. A is tougher to eliminate. From the
sentence that mention Pfenning and Ford, it seems their work does rule out the possibility of a space-warp drive. But if we read the next line, it says another
researcher said it was indeed possible. So the Pfenning and Ford could not have "conclusively" demonstrated the impossibity of the FTL drive. This is
probably the most difficult type of Reading Comprehension problem. The question might look like this:
"It can be inferred that the author makes which of the following assumptions?"
"Which is an assumption underlying the last sentence of the passage?"
"Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the hypothesis mentioned in lines 17-19?" "With which of the following statements regarding
chaos theory would the author be most likely to agree?"

Strategy:

1. First, treat this type of problem as a Specific Target question. Look for a target in the question, find it in the text, and then look above and below it. Often
you do not have to infer very much, the answer remains within the text.
2. If the answer must be inferred and is not stated explicitly within the text, then choose the answer choice that can be inferred or assumed from the
information given. Again, you should not have to infer very much – only one or two logical steps removed from the information in the passage.
3. Make sure that the answer choice you decide on does not violate or contradict the Main Idea of the passage - if it does, the answer choice is probably
wrong.
It can be inferred that a house with the propeties of the bubble mentioned in the passage
A) would be larger on the inside than on the outside
B) could move faster than the speed of light
C) might be very energy efficient
D) could move through time
E) would eventually fold in on itself and be destroyed

EXPLANATION
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First, let's try to deal with this question as a Specific Target problem. Is there a target in the question? Yes – the bubble. The bubble is first mentioned
at the end of the second paragraph, and then discussed at length throughout the third paragraph. Remember, we have to look above and below that target area
(as well as read the target area again), so quickly go through the second, third, and first part of the fourth paragraph.

When you are finished, look at the answer choices. Can any of them be inferred from the information given in the target area? Well, we could
eliminate C, D, and E for simply not being supported by the information given in the passage. B – may be, but a house moving through time seems pretty
silly. But in the fourth paragraph the author talks about the Tardis, "which looked like a police box but had a spacious interior". Big on the inside, small on
the outside. Is that like our house? Yes- answer A. As well, we can choose A because it does not go against or contradict the Main Idea in this case, which if
it had, would have made it necessary to eliminate. So choose A.

The question might look like this:

"The author's attitude towards Morgan's theory could best be described as one of ..."
Strategy:

Look for descriptive words, adjectives or adverbs that could tell you the author's attitude. For example, the words unfortunately or flaw suggest a
negative connotation, while strength or valuable emphasize the positive. Make brief notes – a couple of words- regarding the Tone of the text on your scrap
paper while you read. Additionally, keep in mind that the author's attitude toward a theory, book, or ethnic group will almost always be respectful, even
when somewhat critical.

The author's attitude towards Miguel Alcibierre's theory could best be described as one of
A) admiration
B) mild skepticism
C) unbridled scorn
D) dismay
E) complete objectivity

EXPLANATION

Since this is a Tone/Attitude question, we must look in the passage for descriptive words that tell us what the author thinks of Alcibierre and his
theory. In the second paragraph the author call's Alcibierre's theory "this ingenious idea". This is positive, and the only positive answer choice is A. A is the
correct answer. As well, if we could not find the tone so easily, we could also eliminate C and D at the very least, for being too extreme.
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The question might look like this:

"Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?"
"Which of the following best describes the organization of the first paragraph of the passage?"
"One function of the third paragraph is to...."
Strategy:
Re-read the first line of every passage, and the last line of the first and last paragraphs. This should give you the general structure or outline of the argument,
with which you can answer the question. Remember to make brief notes about the structure of the text on your scrap paper. If you are looking for the
organization of one paragraph, read the first and second sentence of the paragraph. That will give you a rough idea of what is the structure or organization of
the paragraph.
Which of the following best describes the organization of the second paragraph of the passage?
A) Two investigations that support Alcubierre's theory are introduced
B) Possible objections to the uses of the warp drive are present, and then refuted
An objection to the practicality of the theory is raised, and then another work is cited to
C)
shore up the applicability of the original theory
A work of theoretical physics that supports Alcubierre's theory is raised, and then another
D)
that refutes it is presented
E) Alcubierre's theory is analyzed by a panel of several eminent physicists
EXPLANATION
Read the first sentence of the paragraph: "But in 1997 Michael Pfenning and Larry Ford at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, apparently
killed this ingenious idea by showing that it needed far more than the entire energy content of the Universe to work. Then read the second sentence: "Now
Chris Van Den Broeck of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, has resurrected Alcubierre's proposal". So if
we out those two sentences together, and in different words, first the usefulness of Alcubierre's theory is questioned by two researchers, then the theory is
validated by yet another researcher. Which of the answer choices is closest to this? C. None of the other answer choices follow the organizational pattern of
the paragraph – they reverse it, or are completely dissimilar. C is the only possible answer.
1. Read the whole text of the passage once.
2. Make brief notes about the text on your scrap paper.
3. Remember that the tone or attitude of the passage is usually respectful and moderate, never going to extremes of praise nor criticism.
4. Look out for structural words that tell you the important ideas or transitions in a passage.
5. Go back to the text of the passage for the answers to specific questions.
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PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION
The most common error that students make is in parallelism.
What does Parallelism mean?
Parallelism means that all items or ideas in a sentence should be in the same format.
Eg: “Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered).”- Julius Caesar In mythology, Scorpio (or Scorpius) was the scorpion that attacked and killed the hunter
Orion.
Rule 1. Any lists of ideas, places, activities, or descriptions that have the same level of importance – whether they are words, phrases, or clauses - must be
written in the same grammatical form.
Places- the shop, the street and the house.
Ideas- learn how to sing, how to dance and how to cook.
Activities- He ate, sang and slept.
Rule 2. There are different types of parallel structures:-
Nouns: Ram has pens, pencils and rubbers.
Verbs: Sanjeev sleeps during the day and works during the night.
Adjectives: TG has a great genius; inventive, sagacious and original.
Adverbs: This is out and away the best work on astrology.
Modified Nouns: The difference between the products of a well-disciplined and an uncultivated understanding is often and admirably exhibited by our great
dramatist.
Infinitives: Lemony went to work, to a restaurant, and to the movies. Participial Phrases: The enemy, beaten at every point, fled from the field.
Adverbial Phrases: I have often noticed that you howl in anger after you cower in fear.
Rule 3. Multiple Pronouns:- Pronouns such as that, which, those, who etc represent the parallel structure. If the pronoun is used in the sentence, the
parallelism requires that the consistency be maintained with other pronouns as well.
Example:-
Correct: I prefer to dance with those who know salsa than those who don’t.
Incorrect: I prefer to dance with those who know salsa than those that don’t.
Correct: If one commits a mistake, one should take the responsibility for it.
Incorrect: If one commits a mistake, they should take the responsibility for it.
Rule 4. Idiomatic Usage:-
Some idiomatic structures require parallelism. Following is the list:-
 Neither A nor B  Either A or B
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 Both A and B  A instead of B

 The same to A as to B  As A to B
 Mistake A for B  To think of A as B
 Range from A to B  More A than B
 Not A but rather B  The same to A as to B
 A regarded as B  Believe A to be B
 Prefer A to B  To think of A as B
 The more A the greater B
Correct: Neither Ram nor Shyam went to the party. Incorrect: Neither Ram or Shyam went to the party
Correct: I would like to have either milk or tea.
Incorrect: I would like to have either milk and tea.
Correct: I prefer eating feast to cornetto.
Incorrect: I prefer eating feast than cornetto.
Rule 5 Linking Verbs:- A linking verb is a state of being or condition for the subject and not action. It links the subject to an equivalent verb in the sentence.
When you come across a sentence with linking verb, make sure that the two sides of the sentence are parallel.

The linking verbs are of the form of the verb to be-: is, am, was, were, are, been.
Example :-
Correct: Google’s vision is to create the biggest search engine in the world.
The two sides of the linking verb ‘is’ are Google’s vision and to create. Google’s vision is to create, both sides of the verb ’is’ are parallel.

Incorrect: Google’s vision is creating the biggest search engine in the world. Here, the two sides of the verb ’is’ are Google’s vision and creating. The
vision cannot create anything so, the sentence is not parallel. Other linking verbs are:- feel, appear, grow, get, become, sit, look, remain, smell, taste, turn,
prove, become, sound, seem.
Correct: Rama doesn’t like anything that tastes spicy. The two sides of the linking verb ‘taste’ are anything that and spicy. Anything that tastes spicy, both
sides of the word’ tastes’ are parallel.
Incorrect: Rama, tasting spicy, doesn’t like anything. Rama cannot taste spicy, so the two sides of the verb are not parallel.

Rule 6. Actual Parallelism Vs Superficial Parallelism. The sentences should be logically parallel than you assuming that they should be structurally parallel.
The verb phrases, adverbial phrases, adjective phrases, noun phrases etc. should be parallel.
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EXAMPLE:-

Incorrect: Three reasons why steel companies keep losing money are that their plants are inefficient, high labour costs and that their foreign costs are
increasing.
Correct: Three reasons why steel companies keep losing money are inefficient plants, high labour costs and increasing foreign competition.
In the above incorrect sentence, the three phrases are not parallel.
Incorrect: An Arian seeks acceptance, even while he is heedlessly and is deliberate in courting rejection.
Correct: An Arian seeks acceptance, even while he heedlessly and deliberately courts rejection.
In the above incorrect sentence, seeks is not parallel with the second half of the sentence. Also, adverb ‘heedlessly’ should have a parallel ‘adverb’ in latter
part of the sentence.
Reading Comprehension (RC) Strategy 2- Attacking the Passage
 START SLOWLY: Most students start with an RC passage with a timer in their heads. Therefore, they try to hit the ground running. They want to finish
the first paragraph as soon as they can, then move on to the second paragraph and finish it quickly and so on. In the process, they lose track of the main
idea of the passage, tone of the author, the structure of the passage etc. By the time they reach halfway through the passage, they lose track of the
argument and get confused. These students do not understand that the most important part of a passage is the first paragraph. The first paragraph
introduces the topic and the main idea of the passage, and very often states the author’s position on it. Start with the first paragraph SLOWLY! Do not
move on to the second paragraph until you have understood the first one completely.
 FORM AN OPINION AND TAKE A STAND: Do you realize how passively you absorb every line of a passage that was written by some highly
opinionated jerk? Do you ever question whether the author of the passage is talking sense or feeding you crap? You become a punching bag whom
someone is hitting with his ideas. For a change, why not start questioning the content of the passage? Why not start forming opinions about every
paragraph in the passage and start taking sides? Trying to judge every paragraph will have the following effect:
 In order to form an opinion, you will be forced to read the contents of passage very minutely. You will become aware of the logical points the
author is trying to put across to convince you.
 You will be forced to paraphrase every paragraph and summarize what the author is trying to say.
 You will become a highly active reader, become interested in the passage and be able to maintain your focus throughout the passage.

CONNECT THE DOTS: While moving from one paragraph to another, be VERY aware of the logical flow of the passage. Be conscious about how the
passage is structured. At any point in the passage, you should be able to say, ‘the author started from X, then moved to Y, then discussed Z to prove his
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point, then discussed some points against Z…’ and connect every part of the passage with the previous parts. Practice this technique again and again until it
becomes a habit with you.
GO BACK TO THE PASSAGE TO ANSWER EVERY QUESTION: Many errors in RC passages happen because a student facing crunch of time marks
answers relying on his memory of the passage. He marks the options which he thinks are ‘similar’ to something he read in the passage. Don’t do it. The
person who made the test is counting on you to do that and he has deliberately put similar sounding options in the questions. Go back to the passage and
check out every option. Yes. EVERY option. Let’s say that you are somewhat shaky about option b and even after checking the passage feel that it is
probably right. But if you keep checking out the options you might find that option d is better than option b. So check every thing out. Be a suspicious
bastard.
In the end, realize that practicing these techniques will save you more time during your CSAT exam than will any other technique. Ignore those
‘skim and scan’ cries coming from your English instructor. He never cleared the CSAT exam. “RC is similar to cheating. All the information is given in the
passage. You just have to copy it from there.”
In each question, the word at the top of the table is used in four different ways, numbered 1 to 4. Choose the option in which the usage of the word is
INCORRECT or INAPPROPRIATE.

Please Note: When you look at questions like these, observe carefully all the choices. This will give you a very good understanding of the different contexts
and meanings of these words.
Choose the sentences where the highlighted word is correctly.

1. FALLOUT
1. Nagasaki suffered from the fallout of nuclear radiation.
2. People believed that the political fallout of the scandal would be insignificant.
3. Who can predict the environmental fallout of the WTO agreements?
4. The headmaster could not understand the fallout of several of his good students at the Public examination.

2. PASSING
1. She did not have passing marks in mathematics.
2. The mad woman was cursing everybody passing her on the road.
3. At the birthday party all the children enjoyed a game of passing the parcel.
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4. A passing taxi was stopped to rush the accident victim to the hospital.

3. BOLT
1. The shopkeeper showed us a bolt of fine silk.
2. As he could not move, he made a bolt for the gate.
3. Could you please bolt the door?
4. The thief was arrested before he could bolt from the scene of the crime.

Let us have a look at the incorrectly used words above.

Q1. (4). The headmaster could not understand the fallout of several of his good students at the Public examination.
Explanation: The word refers to consequence of an action and hence, the usage of the word is correct in 1, 2 and 3.

Q2. (1). She did not have passing marks in mathematics.

Explanation: "Passing marks" is commonly believed to be a correct usage of the word, but it not true. The correct usage would be "pass marks".

Q3. (2). As he could not move, he made a bolt for the gate.
Explanation: If the word is to be used in the second sentence, it should read "..., he bolted for the gate". The given usage is incorrect.

SAMPLE EXERCISES FOR BUILDING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS

CONTEXTUAL USAGE

DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: For each of the words below, a contextual usage is provided. Pick the word from the alternatives given that is most
APPROPRIATE in the given context.

1. Consternation: One of his players smiled at his

consternation over the poor turnovers.
1] indignation 2] dismay 3] excitement 4] incredulity

2. Moribund: By the fourth century AD, the

Roman civilization was already moribund.

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1] extinct 2] forgotten 3] flourishing 4] stagnant

3. Egregious: A generation ago, parents would not

tolerate such egregious behavior, but Nowadays
they just smile and say that it’s just a phase all
adolescents go through.
1] indolent 2] impertinent 3] unwonted 4] Outrageous
4. Stertorous: When the doctor visited again in
three hours, he found the patient’s Breathing
was stertorous and the pulse almost
imperceptible.
1] convulsive 2] subdued 3] incessant 4] strange

5. Gnome: I like the style of his book – every

chapter starts with a gnome.
1] dwarf 2] question 3] aphorism 4] logo

DIRECTIONS for questions 6 to 10: For each of the words below, a contextual usage is provided. Pick the word from the alternatives given that is most
INAPPROPRIATE in the given context.

6. Culpability: The culpability of one, who

unknowingly sins, has different connotations in
these eastern religions.
1] accountability 2] laudatory 3] praiseworthiness 4] usefulness

7. Perspicuous: A perspicuous argument is far

more effective than mere rhetoric when it comes
to achieving a solution.
1] synthetic 2] lucid
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3] ineffective 4] obscure

8. Atrophy: The brain, like an unused limb, will

atrophy if not exercised enough.
1] thrive 2] deteriorate
3] succeed 4] regenerate

9. Vapidity: The vapidity of the hostess’s

conversation ensured that the evening was
a failure.
1] Provocative ness 2] liveliness 3] agitation 4] interesting

10. Peremptory: Beauty that has lost all modesty

becomes peremptory and vain.
1] submissive 2] illusive 3] democratic 4] permanent

Answers
1. [2] 2. [1] 3. [4] 4. [2] 5. [3]
6. [2] 7. [3] 8. [4] 9. [1] 10. [2]
EXERCISE

DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: Four alternative summaries are given below each text. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the text.

1. All mythologies share a universal, inbuilt logic. Any corpus of mythological tales contains a recurrent harping on elementary themes-incest, fratricide,
patricide, cannibalism. Myth was ‘a kind of collective dream’, ‘an instrument of darkness’ capable of being decoded. In all, in what became four volumes,
Levi-Strauss, examined 813 different stories with an extraordinary ingenuity that many, especially his Anglo-Saxon critics such as Edmund leach, have
refused to accept. He observes for instance that across the world, where figures from myth are born of the earth rather than from woman, they are given
either very unusual names or some deformity such as clubfoot to signify the fact. At other times myths concern themselves with ‘overrated kin
relationships (insect) or underrated relationships (fratricide / patricide).

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1. Levi-Strauss was a reputed compiler of myths who had many critics, ready to veto his Findings.
2. There is a strong underlying logic in myths, though they may appear illogical. Levi- Strauss managed to identify the logical themes in 813
stories.
3. The inbuilt logic of myths leads them to use different types of symbols to differentiate between origins of various mythical figures.
4. Edmund Leach debunked Lev-Strauss theories about logic in myths and use of Symbols.
2. The application of evolutionary thinking to consciousness is only one of the areas where the neo-Darwinists have directed their most recent attention. In
practice, we are now in an era of ‘Universal Darwinism”, Where the algorithmic approach has been applied almost everywhere evolutionary cosmology,
evolutionary economics (and therefore politics), the evolution of technology. But perhaps the most radical idea of the neo or ultra Darwinians relates to
technology itself and raises the intriguing question as to whether we are at the present living through an era in the evolution of knowledge forms. We are
living at a time- the positive hour – when science is taking over from the arts, humanities and religion as the main form of knowledge.
1. The neo-Darwinists believed in science facilitating the evolution of knowledge forms.
2. Science has become all pervasive and is substituting old methods to become the main Form of knowledge.
3. The application of evolutionary thinking to consciousness was ignored by the Neo-Darwinists for a long time. They accepted the practice of
universal Darwinism only recently.
4. Only algorithms work in the era of universal Darwinism. This is the main contention of Neo-Darwinists.
3. Science apart, them major division in Western thought today, which affects philosophy, literature, religion, architecture, even history is between the
post-modernists who are happy with the fragmented, disparate ‘carnival’ of culture, and those traditionalists who genuinely feel this sells us short.
Postmodernism and relativism are still in the ascendant but for how much longer? While the cultures of Africa, Bail and other third world countries
have been recovered to an extent and given a much needed boost, none so far has found the wide-spread resonance that the classical civilizations of the
Middle East once enjoyed. No one doubts that jewels of art, learning and science have occurred in all places and at all times, and the identification and
extension of this wide range has been a major achievement of twentieth century scholarships.
1) Science is the cause of a major schism in
Western thought as it is supplementing
Literature, Religion, architecture and
even history. Post modernists and
traditionalists
Are divided on the impact of science on
culture.
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2) The revival of the cultures of various

third world countries has given a new
lease of life
To the traditionalists who were losing
out to the post-modernists.

3) The culture today is fragmented unlike

the culture of yesteryear and old
civilizations.
The older cultures were far-reaching and
richer.
4) Post-modernism and relativism are the
cultures most likely to survive in the
coming Years.
4. Evolution is the story of us all. Physics, chemistry and biology are international in a way that literature, art or religion can never be. Although science
may have begun in the West, there are now distinguished Indian, Arab, Japanese and Chinese scientists in great numbers. This is not to provide a
framework for avoiding difficult judgments: science and liberal democracy are, or were, Western ideas. Nor is it a way of evading debate over the
Western literary canon. But studying twentieth century thought, as a narrative, provides a new kind of humanity and a canon for life as it is now lived.
In offering something common to us all, a sketch of a historical / intellectual canon, it also begins to address our remaining problems. It is something
we can all share.
1. Literature, art and religion are non-evolutionary and cannot hope to become International. They are destined to remain localized.
2. Evolution is common to everybody and is driving the proliferation of Indian, Arab, Japanese and Chinese scientists.
3. Twentieth century thought resolves the debate regarding the universality of different Streams of knowledge and provides a new tenet for living; a
common platform for all to Learn from and share.
4. Western ideas in general are far superior to ideas to from other countries because Science and liberal democracies are fundamentally Western
ideas.

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5. Our thinking about growth and decay is dominated by the image of a single lifespan, animal or vegetable: seeding, full flower and death. “The flower
that once has bloomed forever dies.” But for an ever-renewing society the appropriate image is a total garden, a balanced aquarium or other ecological
system. Some things are being born, other things are flourishing, still others are dying- but the system lives on. Only an exceptional organization
manages to sustain growth when its core business matures. Businesses, like the metaphorical garden, are born, flourish and wither. But the fact that a
company’s business blossoms and then fades does not mean that the company must die. Successful companies can and must outlive their individual
businesses.

1. Companies need to be nurtured like gardens. Else, they, like flowers, wither and die.
2. An individual life is constantly in a state of flux but the life system lives on. Similarly a Successful company must outlive individual businesses
by constantly reinventing itself.
3. Successful companies are those that have businesses that go on forever, unlike the Flowers, which bloom once and then die forever?
4. We need to change our thinking regarding growth and decay; only then will we be able To create sustainable systems. A company should recruit
managers who can help the Company to sustain growth when its main business flourishes.

ANSWERS WITH EXPLANATION:

1. [1], [3] and [4] are not correct because the passage mentions the details presented in these options; they are not reflective of the whole essence of the
passage. [2] Seems closest to the essence of the passage which is talking about how Levi-Strauss found a correlation between the symbols and the
origin of the mystical figures. Hence [2]
2. The passage talks about the belief of neo-Darwinists in science but the passage is not limited to just that, hence [1] is wrong. [3] is also wrong
because the passage talks about the recent focus of the neo-Darwinists on this aspect but this is not all in the passage. [2] Sums up the essence of the
passage best as it highlights the increasing significance of science with respect to knowledge. [4] is faulty interpretation. Hence, [2]
3. While the passage mentions [1], it is not reflective of the whole essence of the passage. Nothing of the sort as mentioned in [2] is implied in the
passage. [3] Seems closest to the essence of the passage which is talking about the difference in the present day and yester year cultures. [4] is not
stated explicitly. Hence, [3]
4. [1] is not mentioned. The passage uses the example of literature etc to draw a parallel with seiences. [2] is an exaggeration and the passage does not
state anything like this. [3] seems closest to the essence of the passage as it talks about why twentieth century tenets are important to us. [4] is also
nowhere stated. Hence [3]

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5. [1] is not stated. The passage uses the example of a garden to illustrate the boom and bust cycle and the need for corporate to build lasting systems
that permit regeneration and evolution of new businesses. [3] is an exaggeration ad the passage does not state anything like this. [4] is factually
incorrect. Hence [2]

DIRECTIONS: Read the passages below and answer the questions that follow.
PASSAGE – 1
The first agent Leamas lost was a girl. She was only a small link in the network; she was used for courier jobs. They shot her dead in the street as she
left a West Berlin cinema. The police never found the murderer and Leamas was at first inclined to write the incident off as unconnected with her work. A
month later, a railway porter in Dresden, a discarded agent from Peter Guillam’s network, was found dead and mutilated beside a railway track. Leamas
knew it wasn’t coincidence any longer. Soon after that, two members of another network under Leamas’ control were arrested and summarily sentenced to
death. So it went on: remorseless and unnerving.

[From John Le Carre: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold; Pan Books, 1964]
The main idea of the passage is that:
a) the police could not stop the murders of Leamas’ men.
b) Leamas could not understand why so many people were killed.
c) Leamas knew someone was killing his agents.
d) the murderers of Leamas’ agents were savage and cruel.
CONTEXTUAL USAGE
1. Mutilated
Adjective
Dismembered, severed
2. Remorseless
Adjective
Dismembered, inhumane
3. Unnerving
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Adjective
Alarming, horrifying, shocking
PASSAGE – 2
The Hotel Taft was on a hill in one of the better sections of town. A wide street curved up past large expensive homes until it neared the top pf the
hill, then there was an archway over the street with a sign on the archway reading Taft Hotel, and as it passed under the archway, the street turned into the
entranceway of the hotel. Benjamin drove slowly under the archway, then up the long driveway until he came to the building itself. He had to slow his car
and wait in a line with other cars, most of them driven by chauffeurs, stopped at the entrance of the building for a doorman to open the door for their
passengers. When Benjamin was beside the entrance an attendant appeared at his car and pulled open the door.
[From C. Webb: The Graduate; Penguin, 1968]
The main idea of the passage is that:
a) Benjamin was going to stay in the Taft Hotel.
b) The hotel Benjamin went to was a luxurious one.
c) There was an attendant waiting for Benjamin in the hotel.
d) Bejamin was impressed by the quality of the hotel.

EXERCISES ON READING COMPREHENSION- SKIMMING

Given below are three different paragraphs all of which revolve around a main idea. Pick out the ideas that do not contribute to the main idea or which
you feel are either a repetition of an idea or redundant in the given context.

PASSAGE – 1

Through out his career, Satyajit Ray maintained that the best technique of filmmaking was the one that was not noticeable. For him, technique was
merely a means to an end. He disliked the idea of a film that drew attention to its style rather than the contents. He never used cinematic embellishments for
their won sake. In 1992, he received the honorary Oscar for lifetime achievements.

PASSAGE – 2
As late as the 1950s more than half of all reporters lacked a college degree. One of the most serious of the infinite misapprehensions suffered by the
reporters is that they are somehow akin to lawyers, doctors and engineers. Since that time there has been increasing emphasis on professionalism in
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journalism; witness the growth of journalism schools, the proliferation of turgid articles on the subject, and the preoccupation with ‘objectivity’ and other
‘ethical issues’. The reporters now are paid salaries that are at par with any highly paid official in an MNC. There has also been an interesting parallel
growth in monopolization of the press.
PASSAGE – 3
Casting a dyspeptic eye on Indian independence in 1947, Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s autobiography spanned the height of the British Raj in India to its
eventual dissolution. To his last day, he remained the quintessential Victorian English country gentleman, if not by ownership, then by knowledge, habit,
refinement and say, taste. He simple meant that the monarch passed away, the monarchy remained: that is to say only the person disappears, but not the
institution. He lived by his genteel squirearchical standards till he breathed his last. He was a productive and prolific writer till they very end: publishing his
last work at the age of 99, his masterpiece, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian.

ANSWERS
Passage 1: The passage talks of Ray’s style and technique and not about his achievements. The last line does not fit into the context, hence redundant.

Passage 2: It talks about the growing professionalism in the field of journalism. The line “The reporters are now paid the salaries that they are at par with the
highly paid official in an MNC” is redundant as it affects the coherence of the passage.

Passage 3: The line “He simply meant that the monarch passed away, the monarchy remained: that is to say only the person disappears, but not the
institution” is irrelevant because does not go with the other details given in the passage.

EXERCISES – SUMMARIZING

For each of the following paragraphs four possible titles are given. Choose the title that is most appropriate for the paragraph.

PASSAGE – 1

An interesting nuance N.S. Madhavan makes in appraising O.V. Vijayan is the suggestion that Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak appeared at the
same time as Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. One made it globally, the other didn’t why? Maybe because Marquez wrote in a European language
that could be easily translated into other European languages. Two, Vijayan translating himself – that too after a long gap – wasn’t a great idea.

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1] Lost in translation
2] Translation – a difficult process
3] Translation vs. authenticity
4] Marquez’s novel vs. Vijayan’s novel
PASSAGE – 2
Like all polar bears, those on Hudson Bay need solid ice as a platform for hunting seals and seal pups, their main prey. Yet the bay is frozen only in
winter and spring, so from July to November bears must survive on their fat reserves. For millennia they’ve coped, but climate change may be tipping the
balance. “Though there’s considerable variation, spring breakup is two weeks earlier now than it was 20 years ago” says biologist lan Stirling of the
Canadian wildlife service. His data show that the birthrate and adult bear weight are both down about 10% from 1980. “If the trend continues and the ice
disappears from Hudson Bay, “says University of Alberta biologist Andrew Derocher “it’s pretty clear that these bears will disappear too.”

1] Polar Bears of the Hudson Bay

2] Polar Bears and their Dependency on Ice
3] Waiting on White
4] Slack season for the Polar Bears of the
Hudson Bay

PASSAGE – 3
Almost all the artists who paint for National Geographic work on canvases larger than these pages, but they’ve seldom created paintings as large as
Chinese-born artist Hongnian Zhang’s extraordinary work for the story on the Shang and other Bronze age cultures. Each of his three paintings measures
eight feet wide and four feet high, making them perhaps the biggest created for the magazine since the 1920’s each took a month to paint; Hongnian was still
putting the finishing touches on them in the society’s photographic studio. The question is why work big? Hongnian says it gives his work more power.
Chris Sloan, the magazine’s art director, says it’s difficult for artists to capture details on a small canvas, and that reducing a large painting for publication
eliminates brushstrokes and can make the scenes look more realistic.
1] Art in its varied form
2] Classic paintings of Hongnian Zhang
3] Big is beautiful in painting
4] Mix and match of colours
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PASSAGE – 4
A marble monster – part tiger, part human – bares its teeth, but Shang bronzes are the real jaw-droppers. A Yu basin may have been used to boil
water, with steam escaping from a floral stem enriched b four dragon heads. A majestic Shang lei, which once held wine, captures what archeologist
K.C.Chang has called Shang’s “extraordinary preoccupation” with bronzes. By about 1200 B.C. Chinese artisans knew how to cast large pieces, a
technology not achieved in the Mediterranean for another thousand years.

1] China and its culture

2] Archeological discoveries
3] Bewitched by bronze
4] Antique collections of China

ANSWERS
Passage 1: The correct option is [1]. The paragraph talks about how the process of translation can make or break an author’s work. It analyses why
Marquez’s writing was a success and Vijayan’s a failure. Options [2] and [3] cannot be ascertained from te paragraph. [4] shows the novels in contention
which is not the theme of the passage. Hence [1]

Passage 2: The correct option is [2]. It is so because the passage says that it gets difficult for the bears to survive the months of July to November as there is
no ice in these months. The bears wait for the winters to come. Option [3] is a close one but not the correct option, as it does not have any concrete meaning.
The passage highlights on how the survival of the polar bears are affected by the formation. Hence, [2]

Passage 3: The correct option is [3]. The passage talks about the large paintings and why they are preferred. Option [1] does not fit in. Option [4]
emphasizes on colours; though painting means use of colours, in this passage the emphasis is on the size of the painting. Option [2] restricts the passage and
there is no mention in the passage whether Hongnian’s painting became classics or not. Hence [3]

Passage 4: The correct option is [3] as it best reflects the Chinese artist’s extraordinary preoccupation with bronze. Options [1], [2] and [4] are too vague
and are beyond the purview of the passage. Hence [3]

EXERCISE – Identifying writing style

Identify the style of writing in the following passages.

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PASSAGE – 1
Beyond chubar-mulla’s Aul there were visible high burial mounds, as such occur frequently in Siberia, which contained so-called ‘chudskii’ graves,
but the cholokazaki led me not there but aside from the Aul to a riverside mountain ridge, which rose about 100 meters above it and consisted of rocky cliffs
of schists, tilted on edge, which extended from west toast and which had a natural dip at an angle of 80 degrees. It was on these rocks and against these cliffs
that man-made structures were leaning, formed of slabs of the same rock, but put horizontally and separated from each other by embankments of clay.
Sometimes all this took the shape of small tumuli. With the help of my workers and Cholokazaki, I dug through one such tumulus across its entire height and
breadth by means of transverse ditch. The tumulus I dug across turned out not to be a grave. In it there were neither bones nor objects such as are found in
graves, and I came to the conclusion that these man-made constructions were the dwellings and cells of Buddhist hermits or monks of the Dzhungarian
Empire of the seventeenth century. I failed to discover medallions with the image of Buddha on this occasion, because we came upon a tumulus, the
rapacious excavation of which had been hastily carried out by the engineers, but we found hundreds of specimens of other articles, about which we had been
told. Those were small objects, eight to ten centimetres tall, carefully modeled out of clay. In their appearance they bore a resemblance to the monomakh
cap, (i.e., a crown) with relief decorations on their upper conical part, and with Tibetan inscriptions all round. Obviously they were some kind of Buddhist
cult objects, produced by handicraft methods by monks living in the cells at Karatal. Since the cells were built of heavy stone slabs, supported by wooden
pillars of a very flimsy wood (poplar), this wood had rotted, and all the cells had collapsed, and at the time of visit they had already become more or less like
shapeless heaps of stones, amongst which it was possible now and then to make out something like shapeless heaps of stones, amongst which it was possible
now and then to make out something like corridors. By sunset I had to finish my work, and present gifts to all my fellow-workers. I spent the night in a
cholokazak Khutor, enjoying the most cordial hospitality from the ex-convicts, who long since had changed into the most peaceful and industrious settlers of
newly acquired Russian land.
PASSAGE – 2
The recent discovery of molecular switches that help determine whether stem cells will become muscle cells or other cell types might pave the way
for effective treatments of muscular Dystrophy (MD). Stem cells-primitive, self-replacing cells that generate bodily tissues-represent one of the most
promising tools for replacing muscle fibres (muscle cells) lost or damaged in MD. Although perhaps best known as the driving force behind embryonic
development, stem cells are also found in adult tissues, where they can promote regeneration.
In the embryo and – to the recent surprise of scientists – in a variety of adult tissues, many stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they are able to give
rise to several different cell types, including those that make up bone, blood, fat, nerve and muscle. If scientists can figure out how stem cells “choose”
among these “career” options, they might be able to direct them to become specific cell types and repair specific tissues.

A team led by MDA-funded scientist Michael Rudnicki at Canada’s Ottawa Hospital Research Institute has identified a chemical switch that
influences the choice made by stem cells found in skeletal muscle. That switch is required for the cells to become satellite cells, which, in adult skeletal
muscle, increase muscle mass during normal growth, after exercise and in response to muscle trauma (injury).
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PASSAGE – 3
Whether because of the emphasis of traditional religious salvation of the personal soul or for some other reason, there is a tendency to restrict the
ultimate scope of morals to the reflex effect of conduct on one’s self. Even utilitarianism, with all its seeming independence of traditional theology and its
emphasis upon the general good as the criterion for judging conduct, insisted its hedonistic psychology of “private pleasure” as the motive for action. The
idea that the stable and expanding institution of all things that make life worthwhile throughout all human relationships is the real object of all intelligent
conduct is depressed from view by the current conception of morals as a special kind of action chiefly concerned with either the virtues or the enjoyments of
individuals in their personal capacities. In changed form, we still retain the notion of a division of activity into two kinds having very different worth. The
result s the depreciated meaning that has come to be attached to the very meaning of the “practical” and the useful. Instead of being extended to cover all
forms of action by means of which all the values of life are extended and rendered more secure, including the diffusion of the fine arts and the cultivation of
taste, the processes of education and all activities which are concerned with rendering human relationships more significant and worthy, the meaning of
“practical” is limited to matters of ease, comfort, riches, bodily security and police order, possibly health, etc., things which in their isolation from other
goods can only lay claim to restricted and narrow value. In consequence, these subjects are handed over to technical sciences and arts. They are no concern
of “higher” interests which feel that no matter what happens to inferior goods in the vicissitudes of natural existence, the highest values are immutable
characters of the ultimately real.

Our depreciatory attitude towards “practice” would be modified if we habitually thought of it in its most liberal sense, and if we surrendered our
customary dualism between two separate kinds of value, one intrinsically higher and one inherently lower. We should regard practice as the only means
(other than accident) by which whatever is judged to be honourable, admirable, approvable can be kept in concrete experiential existence. In this connection
the entire import of “morals” would be transformed. How much of the tendency to ignore permanent objective consequences in differences made in natural
and social relations; and how much of the emphasis upon personal And internal motives and dispositions irrespective of what they objectively produce and
sustain, are products of the habitual depreciation of the worth of action in comparison with forms of mental processes, of thought and sentiment, which make
no objective difference in things themselves.
Answers
Passage 1: The style employed is descriptive. The speaker describes his visit with all the details in such a way that we as readers can form mental pictures.
Passage 2: The given passage talks of a research and describes the same by taking up one aspect at at ime. Hence, the style is analytical.
Passage 3: The passage deals with an abstract concept- our emotional and volitional life-. The passage is difficult because of the subject matter. The style of
writing is abstract.
EXERCISE – Identifying writer’s tone
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Read the following passages and identify the tone of the author in each passage.

PASSAGE – 1
The innocent find themselves and their families bearing the brunt of the instability, their future seems bleak and without any sign of hope in these
underdeveloped regions. For the people of Erema (Rivers State), relief came in the form of a free health care programme. The indigenous population showed
their need and desperation for the project by their numbers, all begging to be given a chance to partake of the free treatment. Our very big challenge was to
select the ones who needed it most. Family Care’s team of fifty medical doctors and logistical personnel worked tirelessly throughout the weeklong project
to attend to the health care needs of the local population. All generations of the Erema families were attended to, from the very elderly to the infants, all
requiring some form of medical attention which would normally be unavailable.

PASSAGE – 2
What have we achieved so far? We have achieved nothing, but that has to be a condition of de-criminalization. We need to have a progressive fine
schedule, which has to be a condition, whether it is $200, $400, $600 or whatever. The inconsistency in the courts today is a serious problem. We need to
have a consequence of the payment of fines. Fine revenues should be directed to the communities where they were collected. We made that recommendation
in the drug strategy itself. We also need a national advertising programme on the problems with drugs, which was not in the budget. We asked for it to be in
the budget. What is the point of going through all this stuff if we are not telling the young people that there is something wrong with it?

The whole process of implementing these kinds of strategies in this nation, which are very important, is being ignored on the other side. Unless there
is something to back it up with money and action, it is lip service.
We asked for a national advertising programme but it was not done. We need drug driving laws and roadside assessments to be in place before we
decriminalize. That has not been done. These things are all left alongside because some minister blurts out what the government will do and the amount that
it will do it with, with absolutely no forethought to all the other issues.
I will talk very briefly, because I will have time to talk about it a little later, about the national sex offender registry, which I, quite frankly, wrote
about two and a half years ago and modeled it after Christopher’s Law in Ontario. It takes money and some commitment to do that. I note that the
government has tabled a bill for a national sex offender registry, which was like puling teeth.
CONTEXTUAL USAGE
1. Embankment
Noun
A wall of stone or earth that serves as an
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obstruction or support.
2. Tumulus
Noun
An ancient grave or moung.
3. Rapacious
Adjective
Plundering; in a greedy or ravenous way.
4. Industrious
Adjective
Diligent; hard-working
5. Pave the way
Idiomatic expression
To make progress or development easier.
6. Pluripotent
Adjective
Capable of affecting more than one organ
or tissue.
7. Salvation
Noun
A deliverance from destruction;
Redemption
8. Utilitarianism
Noun
The theory that the value of a thing or
action depends on its utility.
ANSWERS
Passage 1: The author’s involvement in the issue and his strong feeling about the same help us to conclude that the tone of writing is subjective.

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Passage 2: The author is explicitly critical in the give passage. Sow we conclude that his tone is critical.

Reading Comprehension Practice Questions

Time: 20 Minutes
Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow.

PASSAGE – 1
Human cloning would certainly lead to social harm. If an individual led a distraught or irresponsible life, would the clone be inclined to follow in his
footsteps? Because of negative publicity, this clone’s life may already be in the road to destruction his victims after he murdered them?
Cloning would also lessen the worth of an individual and diminish the respect for life. If humans feel they can be replaced, like that of an object, then
disposing of a human life would come at no great cost to their conscience. Resulting in perhaps a killing spree that would have not type of harsh punishment.
As it stands, it is difficult to lose one loved one, but the thought of losing several would be a disaster.
What is the style of writing employed by the writer of the passage?
1] Narrative 2] Abstract
3] Argumentative 4] Statistical
PASSAGE – 2
The ability to accept ourselves for what we are-without exaggeration-is the key, since the chief value of human life is fidelity to our selves, sincerity
in the most profound sense. In our relationships with other human beings, what we truly are is all that counts, yet it is precisely here that we most often
betray ourselves by trying to be whatever the other person expects us to be. This is invidious, in Sartre’s view, since it exhibits a total lack of faith in
ourselves: to the extent that I have faith n anyone else, I reveal my lack of the courage to be myself. There are, in the end, only two choices-sincerity or self-
deception, to be or not to be.
The given passage is an example of ________ style of writing.

1] descriptive 2] analytical
3] data-driven 4] abstract
PASSAGE – 3

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Young anger destroys merit, destroys your happiness, not only in day-to-day life but also in long term happiness. As Bodhicaryavatara mentions,
one moment of anger delays realizations for one thousand eons. Anger is a great obstacle. especially for realization. Therefore, because this person is angry
towards me, I am able to develop patience and overcome my own anger and complete the entire path to enlightenment. One can complete the two types of
merit, cease all the obscurations, achieve enlightenment, and free all sentient beings and lead them to enlightenment.
What is the tone of the author in the passage?
1] Cynical 2] didactic
3] Argumentative 4] Dispassionate
PASSAGE – 4
Gwyneth Paltrow brings her strongest performance to the screen to date. She inhabits her character so fully; I was pulled in and so completely
entranced the entire time. In fact, certain words or phrases are reused and have an uncanny allusion to when they were previously said. I credit Gwyneth with
making it work so well. I’ve never seen such a well-done organic link between phrases separated in time in a movie before.
The author’s tone in the passage is:
1] laudatory 2] satirical
3] nostalgic 4] sentimental

Given below are two short passages. Read them and point out the redundant sentence in each passage.

PASSAGE – 5
Rural and urban water problems would have assumed crisis proportions long ago but for the advent of the new “transformational technology’ of tube
wells around the 1960s. Faced with malfunctioning public water systems, farmers and urban dwellers switched massively to tube wells to meet their
mounting water needs.

IWE estimates that today 70 per cent of irrigation needs and 80 per cent of domestic water supplies in India are met through pumping up
groundwater through tube wells. But this massively deployed private response to public failure can only be temporary. This may at best be an ad-hoc
solution to a very real problem. Water tables are plummeting and aquifers are running dry.

PASSAGE – 6

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In recent years, the ability of firms to innovate is creating significant differences between the best and the rest. A study of over 200 companies
entitled Winning New Products conducted by the Kellogg Graduate School of Management shows that successful innovation firms were more likely to
generate growth rates of 20 per cent or more compared with less successful ones. Innovation distinguishes between a follower and a leader.” For FMCG
companies, innovation is no longer a luxury; it holds the key to survival.
Read the passages and answer the questions that follow.

PASSAGE – 7
Rural and urban water problems would have assumed crisis proportions long ago but for the advent of the new “transformational technology’ of tube
wells around the 1960s. Faced with malfunctioning public water systems, farmers and urban dwellers switched massively to tube wells to meet their
mounting water needs.

IWE estimates that today 70 per cent of irrigation needs and 80 per cent of domestic water supplies in India are met through pumping up
groundwater through tube wells. But this massively deployed private response to public failure can only be temporary. This may at best be an ad-hoc
solution to a very real problem. Water tables are plummeting and aquifers are running dry.
Estimates show that 15 per cent of aquifers are already critical and the number is projected to rise to 60 per cent in a couple of decades. The
consequences of such water stress are simply unimaginable; especially since the phenomenon of aquifer depletion is concentrated in the most populated and
economically productive areas of the country.

A suitable title of the passage could be:

1] Aquifer depletion in India
2] Transformational Technology
3] Water needs n India and the Role of
Tube Wells
4] Tube Wells –the only source of water in
rural India

PASSAGE – 8
In recent years, the ability of firms to innovate is creating significant differences between the best and the rest. A study of over 200 companies
entitled “Winning New Products” conducted by the Kellogg Graduate School of Management shows that successful innovation firms were more likely to
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generate growth rates of 20 per cent or more compared with less successful ones. As Steve Jobs once pointed out “innovation distinguishes between a
follower and a leader.” For FMCG companies, innovation is no longer a luxury; it holds the key to survival.

An appropriate title for the passage would be:

1] Innovate or Perish
2] Survival Strategies of FMCG companies
3] Winning New products
4] Innovation as a Managerial Tool

ANSWERS:
Passage 1: The writer does not simply state facts or records in this passage. OS the style is neither narrative nor statistical. The topic of discussion is
not any abstract principle but a hard fact. In fact in the first sentence itself the writer has taken a stand and he gives arguments to validate his point.
Therefore, the style of writing is argumentative. Hence, [3]
Passage 2: The passage is replete with profound phrases. The topic of discussion is not commonplace. The style of writing seems intricate because of
the subject matter. Hence, [4]

Passage 3: The writer does not show any cynicism in the passage, neither is he argumentative. The author is not dispassionate; he rather expresses
his views clearly and tries to influence people to do away with anger. Hence, [2]

Passage 4: The author appreciates Gwyneth Paltrow’s performance whole heartedly. So, [2] is ruled out. He does not pine for any happening in the
past, hence [3] is a misfit. Only [1] is the correct answer. Hence [1]

Passage 5: The given passage talks of the effectiveness of the tube wells in meeting water problems in rural and urban India. It also shows concern
for the rapid depletion of ground water as result of excessive pumping up of groundwater. The third sentence of the second paragraph “this may at best… a
very real problem” is redundant because it expresses similar idea as stated by the second sentence of the same paragraph.

Passage 6: The passage is about the importance of innovation in companies, mainly FMCG companies today. But the sentence ‘Innovation clearly
indicates… who is a laggard’ is redundant because it states the same idea that is put forth by the following sentence, hence can be safely done away with.

Passage 7: [2] is too technical and does not give us any idea about the content of the passage. [1] is part of the discussion. [4] does not take into
account the scenario in urban India. Only [3] encapsulates the main idea of the passage. Hence, [3]
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Passage 8: The passage does not highlight the different strategies adopted by the FMCG companies to survive. So [2] is wrong. [3] is irrelevant and
[4] is not beyond the purview of the passage. The passage definitely highlights the importance of innovation for survival of the companies. Hence, [1]
FINDING STATEMENT BEST SUPPORTED BY PARAGRAPH
1. People need to determine whether or not their opinions are correct and to obtain an accurate appraisal of their abilities. The individual’s opinions and
beliefs, as well as his evaluation of his abilities are important determinants of his behaviour. Correct opinions and accurate appraisals of ability from
others are likely to lead to satisfying or rewarding behaviour; incorrect beliefs and / or inaccurate appraisals of ability lead to unpleasant
consequences.
This paragraph best supports the statement that:
a. People need to depend on others to satisfy their needs.
b. Every individual has some ability and some emotions.
c. Most individuals are not correct in their opinion and beliefs.
d. There exists a drive among individuals to evaluate their opinions and abilities.
e. Appraisal of abilities is a continuous activity.
2. The moral education centres upon this conception of the school as a mode of social life, that the best and the deepest moral of social life, that the best
and the deepest moral training is precisely that which one gets through having to enter into proper relations with others in a unity of work and
thought. The present educational systems, so far as they destroy or neglect this unity, render it difficult or impossible to get any genuine, regular
moral training.
This paragraph best supports the statement that:

a. Society survives on moral values.

b. Morality stands on proper relations with others.
c. School must teach the basic principles of social life.
d. Morality differs from place to place and is situation bound.
e. It is the responsibility of any education system to impart moral education.

3. The school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process the school is simply that form of community life in which all those
agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers
for social ends.
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This paragraph best supports the statement that:

a. Education is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.
b. Education in the real sense is not provided in our schools today.
c. Education teaches how to share the inherited treasure.
d. The school, as an institution, should simplify the existing social life.
e. children are endowed with immense powers.

4. Accidents on the road can be prevented provided the quality of the roads is improved and the drivers are instructed in safety rules which they follow
for their own protection. It is also necessary that the illumination on the roads is adequate so as to prevent accidents during night.
This paragraph best supports the statement that:
a. Road accidents are solely due to improper illumination.
b. Road accidents result in large number of deaths.
c. Road accidents are man made and are always avoidable.
d. Safety rules are not taught properly to all drivers.
e. Safety must be uppermost in the minds of road drivers.
5. In the final analysis, the wealth of the country is based upon its power to develop and to effectively utilize the innate capacities of its people. It takes
skilled human agents to discover and exploit natural resources, to mobilize capital, to develop technology, to produce goods and to carry out trade.
Indeed if a country is unable to develop to human resources, it cannot build anything else, whether it be a modern political system, a sense of national
unity, or a prosperous economy.
This paragraph best supports the statement that:
a. wealth of a country resides in several types of resources.
b. Natural resources play a vital role in human development.
c. human resources constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of nations.
d. Capital and natural resources are active factors of production.
e. The economic development of nations is ultimately the result of proper and effective planning and coordination.
6. People need to determine whether or not their opinions are correct and to obtain an accurate appraisal of their abilities. The individual’s opinions and
beliefs, as well as his evaluations of his abilities are important determinants of his behaviour. Correct opinions and accurate appraisals of ability from
others are likely to lead to satisfying or rewarding behaviour; incorrect beliefs and/or inaccurate appraisals of ability lead to unpleasant
consequences.
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This paragraph best supports the statement that:

a. Individuals seek feed back from others to evaluate correctness of their opinions and beliefs.
b. All human behaviour has certain antecedents.
c. All human behaviour is purposive and goal oriented.
d. All individuals want rewards and avoid punishments.
e. Individual’s personality determines his social behaviour.

7. Among the elite of metropolitan India things are gradually changing. Women are recognised by employers, particularly in the corporate sector, as
temperamentally suited for the information age. Visit any advertising agencies or ad-film makers, office and the male-female ratio leans heavily
towards the female population.
This paragraph best supports the statement that:
a. Corporate employers are changing their attitudes in favour of the women employees.
b. Only women can successfully run the ad-film and advertising business.
c. Employers are not convinced about the abilities of male employees.
d. Men are not at all suitable for the information age.
e. Women, in the corporate sector are getting more salaries than their make counterparts.
8. The moral education centres upon this conception of the school as a mode of social life, that the best and the deepest moral training is precisely that
which one gets through having to enter into proper relations with others in a unity of work and thought. The present educational systems, so far as the
destroy or neglect this unity, render it difficult or impossible to get any genuine, regular moral training.
This paragraph best supports the statement that:
a. Present day schools are incapable or providing the moral education.
b. Schools should teach how one should live in the present world.
c. Moral training inducts unity of work and thought.
d. Moral education centres have no place in modern education system.
e. Moral education is essentially related to the religious education.
9. The school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process the school is simply that form of community life in which all those
agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, an to use his own powers for
social ends.
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This paragraph best supports the statement that:

a. Schools have been built mainly by social institutions.
b. Social agencies vigorously take part in educational development in a country
c. Education helps child in realizing his potential to serve the society.
d. Resources of a society are inherited by the educational institutions.
e. Education being a social process has no advantages to offer to an individual.
10. Accidents on the road can be prevented provided the quality of the roads improved and the drivers are instructed in safety rules which they follow for
their own protection. It is also necessary that the illumination on the roads is adequate so as to prevent accidents during night.
This paragraph best supports the statement that:
a. Most of the accidents take place during night.
b. Most of the lives can be saved if medical help made available to the victim on time.
c. Callousness of traffic authorities is contributing in a big way to the increased road accidents.
d. Road accidents are now considered as being social malaise.
e. Educating drivers about the traffic laws may prevent accidents.
11. Computers have opened up a whole new world for the handicapped. The disabled now have an opportunity to prove themselves as the able, in fields
that seemed, up to now, beyond them. Computer technology is being increasingly used all over the world to enable the disabled to be a part of
mainstream world, instead of just a section or a special group.
a. Computer technology helps handicapped people to overcome their handicap.
b. Computer education is worthless for the handicapped.
c. Computer education offers new opportunity to the disabled and enhances their chances of being employed.
d. Imparted with proper computer education disabled may be developed into better computer professionals.
e. Computer technology can only be used by disabled.
12. For generations, product manufacturers have designed new products manually, setting pen to paper, building physical prototypes to refine the
designs. Then taking the final design into the manufacturing process. These products would be brought to market and thrown upon the whims of their
target customers. Rarely was there ever the chance to fully develop a product, try it out with a select group from the target customer base, and use the
feed back to redesign the product to be more appealing, more cost-effective, or more durable.
a. Production processes must be automatised to make them more cost effective.
b. Packing of a product is fast becoming more important than the product itself.
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c. Merely manufacturing a product does not make it acceptable to the customers, it should confirm to their quality and aesthetic standards.
d. Their is nothing like final design of a product, it is one area where improvement may always be affected.
e. Cost effectiveness of an organisation depends on the degree of automisation reached by it.

13. Everyone is aware of the fact that there is an unstoppable revolution underway made possible by the ever-increasing developments in information
technology. The way we human access and assimilate information, and the emergence of new methods of packaging information, has kindled a
revolution more powerful an complex than the liberation of the printed word that started in middle Europe around 15th century. This new revolution
is about real-time access and sharing of digital information consisting of visual images, sound and virtual worlds, made possible by core information
technologies like digital networks, information databanks and computer graphics.

a. Information technology is vital for the economic development of any country.

b. Emergence of new methods of packaging have made software more appealing to the customers.
c. Information technologist are laying more emphasis on graphic and visual information processing as these can easily be understood over by non-
programmers.
d. Development of information technology require skilled man power.
e. Ever changing Information Technology has changed the way we human used to live, it has made many things possible which we would never have
dreamt of.
14. Five years after the earth summit in Rio-de-Janerio, there is still little consensus on how global warming is to be tackled, and even less commitment
to doing so. On the eve of the Tokyo Conference the third of the series of gathering of the parties to the agreements at Rio, many of the key
principles agree of the series of gathering of the parties to the agreements at Rio, many of the key principles agreed to at the earth summit are being
undermined, particularly by the United States. And India’s responses to the crisis have been at best vacillating, at worst a failure to protect its core
interests.
a. Earth summit which was held in Rio-de-Jenerio five years ago, is known as Earth Summit + 5.
b. Most of the countries which were the party at Earth Summit in Rio-de-Jenerio have done little to realise the agenda of the summit.
c. A few countries voiced their concern over the failure of member countries to persuade the United States to shed its indifferent attitude towards
the resolution adopted at the Earth Summit.
d. India’s attitude towards the problem of global warming was not at all appreciated by the member countries.
e. Delegations from a very few countries have attended the third Earth Summit at Tokyo.

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15. As winter sets in, many of our cities will experience what is called inversion – the phenomenon whereby exhaust fumes and hot layers of polluted air
are trapped in an envelope of cold air and cannot escape into the upper atmosphere, some time for days, in spite of being lighter than cold air.
Inversions, which lead to high concentrations of pollutants and hence to a sharp rise in illnesses, are a good reminder of the havoc that air pollution is
wreaking upon urban India. The New Delhi based centre for science and environment has just published its estimates of number of premature deaths
and illnesses caused n 33 Indian cities by suspended particulate matter, a common air pollutant strongly associated with vehicular emissions and
smoke; and laden with toxic chemicals.
a. Air pollution increases as winter sets in.
b. Inversion is the main cause of pollution in Indian cities.
c. Increase in vehicular traffic may be assigned as the main cause behind increasing pollution in Indian cities.
d. Problem of pollution has largely been concentrated in Urban India.
e. Urban air pollution is only one small part of the damage being inflicted upon the
environment in India.
16. While the early plans envisaged massive public investments in the steel industry to establish a base for a self-reliant heavy industry to establish a
base for a self-reliant heavy industry in India, the squeeze on public investments since 1991 has affected SAIL directly or indirectly. The plan
investment in public sector steel companies increased marginally from Rs.3,110 crores in 1992-93 to Rs.3,250 crores in 1996-97 but this implied a
decline in real terms, Moreover, the overall squeeze on public investment has affected other large scale steel consuming public sector units in the
construction, power, light and heavy engineering and coal sectors. The decline in investment in these industries has imposed a demand constraint on
SAIL and other steel companies.
a. SAIL, India’s largest steel producing company is facing the problem of slack demand and drop in turnover.
b. All public sector undertakings including SAIL are passing through the state of recession.
c. The liberalization policies of the 1990s have taken a dramatic toll on SAIL’s turnover and profits.
d. SAIL is opting for cost reduction strategies and is implementing a massive modernisation programme to remain competitive.
e. SAIL has a market capitalisation of Rs.800 crores, that makes it one of the biggest companies in India.
17. With the end of the cold-war, the impartiality of the Security Council has been questioned and it has gained a general belief at least among the
developing countries that the Security Council has become a police force of the US government and UN becoming an agency of the US foreign
policy. The role of Security Council had been highly condemned for the alleged attack of US and other forces on Iraq in 1990-91, and peace keeping
operations in Somalia in 1993-94 and in Bosnia a year later.
a. During the cold-war Security Council was widely considered as an impartial organisation.
b. US troops behaved irresponsibly during their peace-keeping operations in Somalia.
c. Realisation is growing among the developing countries that their interests may not be safeguarded by a US dominated Security Council.
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d. Developing countries are demanding expansion of the Security Council.

e. Many developing countries are demanding that India be made a permanent member of security council.
18. In the realm of religion, we need to go beyond cosmetic dialogue. We need to go beyond cosmetic dialogue. We need to encourage and promote the
freedom to doubt, to debate and to dissent. The pursuit of truth should be directed beyond the spoken or written truth or scriptural truths.
Experimental truth should be equated with what s considered to be the divine truth. Our task is to create that climate whereby each individual soul
can experience the divine. Liberation theology must mean, and include, liberation theology.
a. Religious preaching are nothing but cosmetic dialogues.
b. Religious professionals should own the responsibility to stop rising fundamentalism and Obscurantism.
c. A truth seeker should never suffer from social and cultural pressure.
d. Experiencing the truth is much more difficult and require a lot more effort than simply reading scriptures regarding ultimate truth.
e. Religion should not force blind faith, it should rather promote liberal thought.
19. We did not have to wait long as the crucial moment came on the night of 15th August. Through out that day we had our ears glued to radio sets to
hear officially about the border of Pakistan. However this announcement never came. But this delay again raised our hopes that Lahore might remain
in India. But at about 10’ O’ clock at the night the firs shout of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ tore the prevailing stillness and we realised that our fate had been
sealed. Next morning no Hindu or Sikh stirred out of his house as they were packing to get out of Lahore or reach some refugee camp.
a. Persons described in the above passage were living in Lahore before partition.
b. The announcement regarding Lahore being part f Pakistan came only at 10’O clock at night.
c. Communal Party Muslim League was solely responsible for the partition of India.
d. Combined population of Hindus and Sikhs was more than the population of Muslims in Lahore.
e. Announcement regarding formation of Pakistan could not be broadcasted due to technical failure.
20. The unauthorised importers profile is an interesting find, most of the being one man or two member outfits. Most of them are fly-by-night operators.
Imported software is routed into India from Singapore and for eastern markets and some times from the US. They are bought form authorised
resellers of software vendors like. Microsoft, Novell, Micro focus and the like and brought into the country through legal channels.
a. Unauthorised import of software has recently emerged as a high profile business option.
b. Most of the software vendors encourage unauthorised import of their software.
c. Singapore is the biggest software market of Asia.
d. Unauthorised importers are making fast bucks by bringing in newly developed softwares from Singapore and far eastern countries.
e. Major software vendors are suffering huge losses due to the unauthorised import of softwares.
ANSWERS
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1. d 2. b 3. c 4. c 5. c
6. a 7.a 8. c 9. c 10. e
11. c 12. c 13. c 14. b 15.c
16. c 17. c 18. e 19. a 20. a
A guide to help in identifying common grammatical mistakes
STUDY MATERIAL FOR CORRECTING SENTENCES, CLOZE TEST AND SENTENCE IMPROVEMENT
Rules concerning Sentence construction
Rule 1-Rule of proximity. Words and phrases which modify the meaning of any word or phrase should be placed near to it. For example:
1. Incorrect: Wanted a nurse for an infant of
twenty years.
Correct: wanted a nurse of 20 years for an infant.
2. Incorrect: Wanted a harmonium for a man with
carved legs.
Correct: wanted a harmonium with carved legs for
a gentleman
3. Incorrect: Latin is not only difficult to learn but also to master.
Correct: Latin is difficult not only to learn but also
to master.
4. Incorrect: The guide dropped the candle in
water which spluttered and went out.
Correct: The guide dropped the candle in water
and it spluttered and went out.

Comments-1st sentence: an infant can not be of 20 years so the phrase refers to ‘nurse’. In the second sentence man’s legs cannot be carved so the
phrase refers to the harmonium. In the third sentence the phrase ‘not only’ refers to learning so difficult should be put before not only. In the 4th sentence
which does not refer to ‘water’ so it should be changed into and it.

Rule 2-Sentences should be logical. The meaning or implication of any word or phrase used in a sentence should not make the sentences self contradictory.
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FOR EXAMPLE:
1 Incorrect: A widower is the husband of a widow.
Correc:t A widower is the person whose wife is
dead
2. Incorrect: Towns and districts in the Arctic
circle are uninhabited.
Correct:Regions In the Arctic circle are uninhabited.
3. Incorrect: In a boxing bout it is advantageous to
be father away from the rival than
he is from you.
Correct: In a boxing bout it is advantageous to be
father away from the rival
4. Incorrect: Stretch this barbed wire between
each pole
Correct: Stretch this barbed wire between two
poles.
5. Incorrect: I will be coming just now.
Correct: I will come shortly.

Rule 3. Ambiguous Sentences are unacceptable.

The meaning of a sentence should be clear otherwise it is not accepted in Standard English. There can be three sources of ambiguity (1) equivocation-
When a word in a sentence has double meaning, (2) wrong punctuation, (3) telegraphic language.
Examples of equivocation
1. Incorrect: (A notice) Fine for parking.
Correct: (A notice) Fine will be imposed for
parking.
2. Incorrect: (A notice in a library) Only low talk
permitted.
Correct: (A notice in a library) Talks only in low
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tone permitted.
3. In correct: (A blessing) May the troubles of this
newly married couple be little ones.
Correct: May the troubles, of this newly married
couple be trifling.
4. Incorrect: He bought a going concern.
Correct: He bought a flourishing concern.
Example of wrong punctuation
5. Incorrect: Ask how old Mrs Jones is.
Correct: Ask how,old Mrs Jones is.
Example of Telegraphic language
6. Incorrect: We were strangers they took us in.
Correct: We were strangers so they took us in.
Comments. In the Ist sentence ‘Fine’
may mean ‘good’ or ‘punishment’ in
terms if money. In the 2nd sentence low
has double meaning (a) soft (b) vulgar.
In the IIIrd sentence little ones may
mean (a) children or (b) trifling.
In the IVth sentence ‘going’ may mean
(a) flourishing or (b) sinking.
In the Vth sentence if we put a xomma
after ask it means that we are asking
about the age of Mrs.Jones and if
comma is put after how it means we are
asking about Mrs.Jones welfare.
In the sixth sentence we can connect the
two parts of the sentence with so, still
and etc.
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Rule 4. Use of metaphors.Metaphor is an an implied comparison. So whe new say that “Lala Lajpat Rai was the lion of Punjab” we mean that he was as
brave as a lion can be. So ‘lion’ is used metaphorically. There can be three types of mistakes in the use of metaphors (i) metaphor itself may be wrong (ii)
metaphor may not be kept up in the latter part of the sentence (iii) there may be a conflict in the use of metaphors.

Examples of wrong metaphors

1. Incorrect: The sun’s tip dips; the stars rush out.
Correct: The sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out.
The sun is circular in shape so we cannot
use the metaphor ‘tip because a circle
has no tip it has rim.
2. Incorrect: The air pinches shrewdly; it is very
cold.
Correct: The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
As cold can bite so no other word should
be used.
3. In correct: Death lays its full blooded hand on
kings.
Correct: Death lays its icy hand on kings
Death results in cold body so ‘icy hand’
is the correct metaphor.
4. Incorrect: There is a whirl wind in the affairs of
men.
Correct: There is a tide in the affairs of men.
As there is rise and fell in life so the
word tide is more appropriate.

Examples of not keeping up metaphors

1. Incorrect: It came like a thunder bolt from the
gun.
Correct: It came like a thunder bolt from the sky.
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Thunder bolt comes only from the sky

and not from the gun.
2. Incorrect: The straits of Singapore are the key
through which flows the trade.
Correct: The straits of Singapore are the key which
opens the trade. Through the key nothing
can flow it can only open.
3. In correct: Half a loaf is worth two in the bush.
Correct: Half a loaf is worth two in the oven.
A loaf cannot be found in a bush; it is
only in the oven.

Examples of conflicting metaphors

1. Incorrect: The coal industry is on its last legs till
it puts its house in order it cannot
survive.
Correct: The coal industry is on its last legs till it
recovers it cannot survive. ‘Putting house
in order’ does not agree with’ on its last
legs. Such a thing should ‘recover’.
2. Incorrect: His life up to this time had been a
calm voyage but now he is
confronted by an avalanche of
troubles.
Correct: His life up to this time had been a calm
voyage but now he is confronted by
A storm of troubles. ‘Avalanche’ does
not agree with voyage because voyage
may be interrupted by a storm and not by
avalanche.

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3. In correct: The great detective like a sleuth

hound on trail left no stone unturned.
Correct: The great detective like a sleuth hound on
trail spared no effort.
‘Sleuth hound on trail’ does not agree with ‘left no stone unturned’.

Rule 5. Similar ideas to be phrased in smilar structural form. if the first element s predicative adjective the succeeding element is predicative adjective the
succeeding elements should also be predicative adjective. For example:
1. Incorrect: The man was tired, irritable and
needed sleep.
Correct: The man was tired irritable and sleepy.
2. Incorrect: The friends planned hunting, fishing
and eat.
Correct: The friends planned hunting, fishing and
eating.
3. In correct: My brother likes to swim, playing
tennis and riding.
Correct: My brother likes to swim, playing tennis
and ride.
4. Incorrect: He abused, insulted and I was
irritated.
Correct: He abused, insulted and irritated me.

Rule 6. There should not be any upside down subordination. Upside down subordination places the main thought in the weaker position and the secondary
thought in the stronger position in a sentence. For example:
1. Incorrect: The plan began to lose altitude as the
motor began to miss.
Correct: As the motor began to miss the plane
began to lose altitude.
2. Incorrect: The car sped past the Parliament House when I suddenly realised that I was
taken to the Boat club.
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Correct: As the car sped past the Parliament House

I suddenly realised that I was
taken to the Boat club.
Rule 7. Unrelated thought. If two or more thoughts are Coordinate Conjunctions they should be related .

For example:
1. Incorrect: It snowed heavily and I do not like
rain.
Correct: I am happy it snowed heavily but I do
not like rain.
2. Incorrect: We were their friends; they cheated us.
Correct: Though we were their friends yet they
cheated us.
3. Incorrect: I worked hard and could not get
success.
Correct: I worked hard but could not get success.

Rule 8. Loose Construction. The least important thought should be subordinated to other thoughts. For example:
1. Incorrect: The peon was ringing the bell and the
children were saying prayers and so I
decided to enter the gate but I was
not certain that I could do so without
disturbing the assembly so I stood
outside for another hour
Correct: As the peon was ringing the bell and the
children were saying prayers I
decided to enter the gate. However not
being certain that I could do so
without disturbing the assembly.
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Rule 9. Fragmented Sentences. Sometimes for the sake of effect sentence fragments are written but these generally make the sentences incorrect. For
example:
1. Incorrect: The children were quite big. Big enough to tackle the bully.
Correct: The children were quite big. They were big enough to tackle the bully.
2.Incorrect: He was late for college every morning. At least every morning when I went
with him
Correct: He was late for college every morning. At least he was late every morning
when I went with him

Rule 10. Incomplete Construction Sometimes some words in a sentence are omitted because their meanings are supposed to be implied in the earlier part.
It results in a grammatical mistake.
For example:
1. Incorrect: The walls have been painted and the doors sanded.
Correct: The walls have been painted and the doors have been sanded.
2.Incorrect: The present secretary has been defeated and new officers elected.
Correct: The present secretary has been defeated and new officers have been
elected.
USE OF MODIFIERS
Modifiers are words or groups of words which describe or limit the meaning of a sentence- For example in the sentence only I spoke to him.
the word ‘only’ is the modifier because it limits the action to ‘I’. Similarly in the sentence-
He told me with a smile what to do.
‘With a smile’ is the modifier because it describes ‘telling’.
Following are the types of the mistakes committed in the use of modifiers.

Rule 11. Abrupt Modfiers. When a modifier is put immediately after the subject at the beginning of a sentence it is a abrupt. For example:
1. Incorrect: We decided because our family and friends advised us not to go to a big
hotel, to go to a motel.
Correct: As our family and friends, advised us not to go to a big hotel we decided to
go to a motel.
2. Incorrect: I was sure, after hearing my ide of the story the judge would change his
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mind.
Correct: After hearing my side of the story, I was sure that the judge would change
his mind.
In the above quoted sentences the modifiers are abrupt and separate the subject from the other part to which it should be linked up.

Rule 12. Misplaced Modfiers. Sometimes the words or phrases are not placed near the words or pharases the modfiy. For example:
1. Incorrect: The man says that he means to leave the country in the second paragraph.
Correct: The man says in the second paragraph that he means to leave the country.
2. Incorrect: The child will certainly prosper that studies conscientiously.
Correct: The child that studies conscientiously will certainly prosper.
In the first example the phrase ‘n the second paragraph’ is wrongly placed. In the second sentence the phrase ‘that studies conscientiously’ is placed at the
wrong place.

Rule 13. Dangling Modifiers. A modifier that is not clearly or logically related to a specific word in a sentence is said to dangle. Sentences wth dangling
modifiers are not acceptable in standard English. For example:
1. Incorrect: The after-noon passed very pleasantly
eating ice cream and watching
television (dangling participle).
Correct: They passed the afternoon pleasantly
eating ice cream and watching
television.
2. Incorrect: On entering the hall the number of
the visitors surprised me.(dangling
gerund).
Correct: On entering the one is surprised by the
number of the visitors.
3. Incorrect: To mow efficiently the mower should
oil the machine. (dangling infinitive).
Correct: To mow efficiently the machine should be
oiled by the mower.

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In the first sentence the participle ‘passed’ is not linked up with any subject. In the Second sentence the gerund ‘entering’ is unrelated to any subject.
In the third sentence the infinitive to mow is disconnected with the subject because there is no subject.
Rule 14. Squinting Modifiers. A modifier which may refer to the preceding as well as to a following word is said to be squinting. Such modifiers make the
sentence ambiguous and so unacceptable in standard English For example:
1.Incorrect: I agreed on the following day to assist
him.
Correct:On the following day I agreed to assist him.
2. Incorrect: They told us before we left that the
books would be delivered.
Correct: Before we left they told us that the books
would be delivered.
In the first sentence ‘On the following day’ may refer to ‘agree’ or to ‘assist’. So in the first case it may mean that the consent was given the next day and n
the second case it means that the assistance was to be given the next day. Similarly n the Second sentence ‘before we left’ may refer to telling or to
delivering.
Rule 15. Illogically separated Modifiers. In spoken English we fail to put side by side all the modifiers which logically belong to the same idea. For
example:
1.Incorrect: The morale of the school will be
greatly boosted by the recognition,
you suggest as well as its
understanding of its real objective.
Correct: The morale of the school as well as its
understanding of its real objectives
will be greatly helped by the recognition
you suggest.

In the above quoted sentence the phrase ‘‘morale of the school” is separated illogically from the phrase ‘as well as its understanding’ and so the
sentence has become incorrect.

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Rule 16. Modifiers separating subject and verb Sometimes too many modifiers are put between the subject and the verb. This is generally done when (a) the
statement demands careful modifications, (b) the subject is abstract or controversial (c) the verb is a bit weak. For example:

1.Incorrect: All responsibility except when

otherwise directed by the principal or
when the superintendent has revised
the syllabus in accordance with
varying classes or in the event that the
principal is observing a specific grade
and has officially made his presence
known and is construed to be on duty
shall devolve upon the assistant
principal.
Correct: The assistant principal is fully responsible
for the operation of his grade
unless (a) principal directs otherwise (b)
the superintendent revises the
syllabus or (c) the principal himself is
present and is in charge.

The above quoted sentence is incorrect because the subject ‘All responsibility’ is separated from the verb ‘shall devolve’ by so many modifiers.

Rule 17. Arranging Modifiers (A) If many modifiers are used in a sentence they should be arranged according to the length of the modifiers.

For example:
1. Sentence: It was a battered, worn and broken car.
Revised: It was a worn, broken and battered car.
Comments.’worn’is the shortest modifier and then is ‘broken’and the longest is ‘battered’.
(B) Modfiers should always be arranged in a logical sequence. For example:
Wrong: The grass became whithered, dry and flaky.
Right : The grass became dry, withered and flaky.
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Comments. The first stage is ‘getting dry’ then it becomes ‘whitered’ and then ‘flaky’. This is the sequence.

Rule 18. Mixed Construction. For example:

1. Incorrect: Consider how for a moment in the
problem in hand the contributing
forces are involved.
Correct: Consider for a moment how the
contributing forces are involved in the
problems in hand.
2. Incorrect: With the noise of the party still
ringing in my ear the next three traffic
lights were green.
Correct: I noticed as the noise of the party still
rang in my ear, that next three traffic
lights were green.
Rule 19. Subordinate Clauses should be handled carefully. In a complex sentence if subordinate claluse s not handled properly the sentence may become
illogical.

For example:
1. Incorrect: He is here and I will not speak to him.
Correct: Though he is here yet I will not speak to him.
2. Incorrect: It was raining and we were playing.
Correct:Though it was raning yet we were playing.
Rule 20.Faulty subordination. The main thought in a sentence must be modified properly by the subordinate thought.For example:
1. Incorrect: I applied the brakes when I suddenly
remembered that the brakes were not
working.
Correct: As I applied the brakes I suddenly
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remembered that the brakes were not

working.
Rule 21.Overlapping subordination. Sometimes one or two subordinate ideas overlap each other and the construction becomes wrong.
For example:
1. Incorrect: I climbed the mountain as the gale
gathered force when my friends were
checking oxygen cyclinders.
Correct: As the gale gathered force and my friends
checked oxygen cylinders I
climbed the mountain.
Work sentence: I do not want to hear a siren because they frighten me.
Improved: I do not want to hear a siren because it frightens me.

Rule 22. Overstatements. Sometimes over statements make the sentences illogical. It should be avoided. For example
Work sentence: Like all Indians he worships
leaders.
Improved: Like most of the Indians he worships
leaders.
Work sentence: His eyes were open like a
saucepan because of wonder.
Improved: His eyes were wide open because of wonder.

Rule 23. Agreement between subject and the verb.

The verb must agree with the subject as far as its number and person is concerned For example:
1. Incorrect: Every one knows that neither he nor
his friends is allowed to leave the hall.
Correct: Every one knows that neither he nor his
friends are allowed to leave the hall.
2. Incorrect: Not only I but also he am to leave the
house.
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Correct: Not only I but also he is to leave the

house.
3. Incorrect: I as well as he is to finish the work.
Correct: I as well as he am to finish the work.
Rule 24. Remote Antecedents.. A large number of the wordsmay be put as antecedent i.e., between a noun and pronoun, verb and adverb.For example:
Vague: The definitions given by the scholars have been remembered by the students. Only they know their significance.
Better: The definitions given by the scholars have been remembered by the students. Only the students know their significance. In the sentence ‘they’
may refer to students or to scholars.

Rule 25. Vague Antecedents.. In some sentences the antecedent is either suppressed or unclear. The reader has to supply one to make the meaning clear.

Weak Sentence: In Delhi they do not park their vehicles at proper places.

Improved version: In Delhi drives do not park their vehicles at proper places.

Rule 26. Pronoun with no clear Antecedents.. If a pronoun is used which has no clear antecedent the sentence becomes vague and weak.
Weak Sentence: Let us consider the situation
where you are supposed to be loyal.
Improved version: Let us consider the situation
where one is supposed to be loyal.
Improved: Let us consider the situation where one
is supposed to be loyal.
Rule 27. Agreement between Subject and Verb.
When two nouns or pronouns are joined by Neither… nor, Either…or, Not only…but also, verb should be according to the noun or pronoun which is nearest
to the verb. In the case of ‘as well as’ verb is according to the first noun or pronoun.
1. Incorrect: On this issue the government is
divided in opinion.
Correct: On this issue the government are
divided in opinions.

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When a collective noun like class, army, police ,jury etc. is used collectively use singular verb
otherwise plural.
2. Incorrect: He is one of them who has resigned.
Correct: He is one of them who has resigned. Who
refers’ to them’ so verb should be plural.
3. Incorrect: None of the four were present.
Correct : None of the four was present
4. Incorrect: Many a student have met this fate.
Correct : Many a student has met this fate.
Every one, any one, neither, either, none, many a take singular verbs.

5. Incorrect: The statesman and poet are dead.

Correct : The statesman and poet is dead.
There is one article so the noun is singular.
6. Incorrect: The principal along with the students
have gone out.
Correct : The principal along with the students has
gone out.
The real subject is ‘principal’ i.e. is singular.
7. Incorrect: A lot of people says that a lot of sugar
are wasted.
Correct : A lot of people say that a lot of sugar is
wasted.
When a ‘lot of’ is used for countable things verb is plural; When it is used for quantity verb is singular.
Rule 28. Some miscellaneous blunders
(a) Seldom or never is correct. But Seldom or ever
is incorrect.
(b) When not than follows scarcely.
(c) Than not but follows no sooner.

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(d) Nobody is followed by but and no other is

followed by than..
(e) After ‘doubt not’ ‘but’ is not used.
(f) It is a wrong to put try for try to

For example: They will try and come next week.

[Say: The will try to come next week].
(g) “I could not help but think@ is a faulty mixture
of “I could not but think so.”
(h) “To move just as fast and not any faster” is
elliptical and should be rewritten “To move as
fast as and not any faster than.”
(i) “The Czar has not and probably will not take so
strong a line@ is incorrect. Has takes past
participle whereas will takes first from of the
verb. So the correct sentence should be @The Czar has not taken……
(j) In a conditional sentence if ‘if had’ is used in the earlier part would have should be used in the latter part or vice versa.

Rule 29. Tag questions. Should, (i) generally use the pronoun given in the statement, (ii) generally use the verb given in the statement, (iii) should be
negative if the statement is affirmative and affirmative if the statement is negative. But, ‘Isn’t it” can be used in some cases.
Incorrect: He has met him. Has he?
Correct: He has met him. Hasn’t he?
Incorrect: He got first division. Isn’t it?
Correct : He got first division. Didn’t he?

Rule 30. Malapropism. Mrs Malpaprop of Sheridian’s drama ‘Rivals’ is blamed for “select words ingeniously misapplied”So sometime, a word resembling
a correct word in pronunciation is wrongly used. This is called Malapropism.
For example:
1. Incorrect: He is a man of undeniable voracity.
Correct: He is a man of undeniable veracity.
2. Incorrect: He lacked courage for verbal
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goodbye.
Correct: He lacked courage for oral goodbye.
3. Incorrect: By rare providence he escaped this
eminent danger.
Correct: By rare providence he escaped this
imminent danger.
4. Incorrect: He was swallowed by the awful
abbess.
Correct: He was swallowed by the awful abyss.

Rule 31. Redundancies. Words and exressions which do not contribute to the total meaning of the sentence are called redundant words. Such words make
the sentence absurd and incorrect. In the following sentence-
I saw the whole scene with my own eyes.
The italicised words are redundant.

The following phrases are redundant.

Any and all. The term “any and all” is redundant because ‘any’ or ‘all’ convey the full meaning.
Incorrect: Any and all of the persons were present.
Correct: All persons was present.
Consenus of Opinion. This expression is generally used but the wrd ‘consenus’ itself means collective opinion.
Incorrect: His explanation represented a consensus
of opinion.
Correct: His explanation represented a consensus.

Different kinds. The word “kind” implies different’.

Sentence: We have four different kinds of dishes
with us.
Revised: We have four kinds of dishes with us.
Equally as. The word equally contains the sense of
as so the latter becomes redundant.
Incorrect: He is equally as bad
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Correct: He is equally bad.

Needless to say. This is also considered to be a redundant phrase. Example:
Sentence: Needless to say that he was ill.
Better: Every one knows that he was ill.
Period of time; Lapse of time. As ‘period’ and ‘lapse’ give the idea of time so the use of the word ‘time’ with them is redundant.
Incorrect: We stayed for a short period of time in the hotel.
Correct: We stayed for a short period in the hotel.
Refer back to. The word refer implies ‘back’ so it should not be used with refer. Example : .
Incorrect: please refer back to page 20.
Correct: please refer to page 20.
Repeat again. ’Repeat’ means to ‘do again’ so the word again is redundant with ‘repeat’. Example
Incorrect: Do not repeat this mistake again
Correct: Do not repeat this mistake

Return back. The word ‘return’ means ‘turn back’. ‘back’ should not be used with ‘return’. Example
Incorrect : He returned back from his trip.
Correct: He returned back from his trip.

Widow Woman. ‘widow’ means ‘woman’ so the ‘widow’ alone will suffice. Example
Incorrect : The widow woman entered the court room
Correct: The widow entered the court room

ERRORS IN MAKING COMPARISONS. There are three degrees of comparison, namely (a)Positive
(b)comparative (c) superlative. When we talk about one person or one thing or one institution we only use positive degree.
For example:
1 He is a rich man.. 2. He is a poor fellow
When we compare two persons, things or institutions we use comparative degree. For example:

1 .You are stronger than your brother.

2 .Mrs. Gandhi was more shrewd than Mr. Moraji
Desai .
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When we compare one with more than one we use superlative degree. For example:
1. He is the most intelligent boy in the class.
2. John is the fastest runner.
Following are the mistakes committed in making comparisons:

Rule 32. Use comparative degree for two. If superlative degree is used for comparing two it is a grammatical mistake for Example
1. Incorrect: He is poorest of the two
Correct: He is poorer of the two
2 .Incorrect: He is most prosperous of the twins.
Correct: He is more prosperous of the twins

Rule 32. Use comparative degree for two. If superlative degree is used for comparing two it is a grammatical mistake for Example
1. Incorrect: He is poorest of the two
Correct: He is poorer of the two
2 .Incorrect: He is most prosperous of the twins.
Correct: He is more prosperous of the twins

Rule 33. Select correct items for comparison.

1. Incorrect: The speed of this engine is greater
than the old one.
Correct: The speed of this engine is greater than
that of the old one.
2. Incorrect: My pen is better than Ram
Correct: My pen is better than that of Ram
Comments. In the case of the first example
the ‘speed of the engine’ must be
compared wih speed and not with engine.
In the second example pen must be
compared with pen and not with Ram.
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Rule 34. Absolute Adjectives. There are certain adjective like ‘square’ ,’parallel’, essential etc. which cannot be changed into comparative or superlative
degrees. For Example:
1. Incorrect: These two lines are more parallel
than the others.
Correct: These two lines are more parallel and
the other are not..
2.Incorrect: The box is more square than the other
Correct: The box is square and the other is not

Rule 35. Double Comparatives In modern English double comparatives are not used though in Shakespeare’s day it was permitted. For Example:
1. Incorrect: Cricket is more preferable to football
in India.
Correct: Cricket is preferable to football in India.
2 .Incorrect: This brand is the superior most.
Correct: This brand is superior rto the most.
Comments . ’More’ cannot be used with preferable because the latter implies ‘more’ Similarly most cannot be used with superior because the latter is the
word of comparison and cannot take a word implying superlative degree.

Rules Concerning the use of Parts of Speech Tenses

Rule1.
When the verb in the principal clause is in the past tense, the verbs of the subordinate clauses should be in the past tense. for example:
I forgot that he was coming today.
I felt that he was a fool.
Exceptions The above mentioned rule is not applicable to the following cases:
(a) A past tense in the prinicipal clause may or may not be followed b the past tense in the subordinate clause if the latter expresses universal truth. for
example:He knew that the earth is round.
(b) Any tense may be used in the subordinate clause if it gives a comparison by using the word than
.for example: He respected you more than he respects his brother
(c) Any tense can be used when the dependent

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clause is a quotation
for example: He said, ’’I am quite happy ‘’.
Rule2.
If the principal clause is in the present or future tense subordinate clause may be in any tense.
For example:
I tell you that he was cheated.
I will tell you that he is no longer in service.
Exception When the subordinate clause denotes some purpose, present tense in the principal clause will be followed by present or future tense only.
For example:
I will go to his house so that, I may collect my boots.

Rule3. Events occurring at the same time must be given in the same tense. For example:
When he fainted his brother was with him.

Rule4. When two events are described and one of them precedes the other, the first should be described in the past perfect tense for example:
When he came the train had left.

Rule5. When coordinate clauses describe the events happening, at the same time, and are joined by ‘and’,’but’,’nor’ the verbs should be in the same tense.

Rule6. When a sentence has a word or phrase like ‘yesterday’, ’last night’ ‘last year’, ‘ago’-words that refer to the past tense, verbs should be in the past
tense. For example:
I have met him yesterday (incorrect)
I met him yesterday (correct)

Rule7. past tense should not be used for present perfect tense. The past tense should be used for past action but for the result of past action present perfect
should be used. for example:
I knew him for two years (incorrect)
I have know him for two years (correct)

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Rule8. present indefinite tense should not be used in place of present perfect. The latter is used when the action which began in the past still continues. For
example:
I am in Delhi for seven years.(incorrect)
I have been in Delhi for seven years.(correct)

Rule9. present continuous tense is used when the action is going on at the time of speaking. For example:
Listen, he speaks, (incorrect)
Listen, he is speaking (correct)
Rule10. past or present continuous cannot be used for a habitual action . For example
-I am going for a walk daily (incorrect)
I go for a walk dail (correct)

Rule11. past tense should not be used in place of past perfect tense is used when a sentence refers to two past action and one of them occurs earlier than the
other. For example-
I had passed M.A. in 1956 (incorrect)
When my fat her came t o India I had passed M.A. (correct)

Rule12. past perfect tense cannot be used when there is only one action in the past tense. For example:
I had met him yesterday. (incorrect)
I met him yesterday (correct)
Rule13. past perfect tense is neither followed nor preceded by present tense. For exemple:
My servant says he had gone to bazaar. (incorrect)
My servant said he had gone to bazaar. (correct)

Rule14. ’’will’’ or ‘’shall’’ cannot be used twice in the same sentence even if both the action refer to the future tense. For example:
I shall come if he will call me.
I shall come if he call me

Rule15. If certain words, which refer to habitual action-words like usually, whenever-are used verb is present indefinite. for example:
I generally go to play football.
Whenever I go there I meet him.
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I often laugh at him.

Special uses of certain tenses

Rule 1.with the phrases ‘as if’ and ‘as though’ past tense and plural form of the verb should be used. For example:
He behaves as if he is a king (wrong)
He behaves as if he were a king (correct)

Rule-2 With the word ‘wish’ four verbs are used namely ‘were’, ‘’had’, ‘would’ , ‘could’ . ‘were’ is used when the seems to be unrealisable. For example:
I wish I were a king.
I wish I were a bird.
‘Had’ is used when our wish is a lament over the past happenings. For example:
I wish I had been young.
I wish I had accepted that job.
‘would’ is used when we refer to the future.
I wish I would get a ticket.
‘Could’ is rarely used. It is used when we wish that something that has happened already should have happened otherwise.
He did not go because he was busy yesterday. I wish he could go with you.
Rule-3 Compare the fallowing two sentences-
He is always working.
He always does his work
First sentences means that the speaker does not like that he should spend so much time in working.
Second sentence means that the speaker likes the habit of finishing work.
Rule 4 ‘Did ‘ is used with (a) interrogative sentences (b) negative sentences (c) sentences in which emphasis is laid but not in affirmative sentences
Did he go there? (Correct)
I did not meet him. (correct)
I did talk to him (correct: :’did’ used for emphasis)
I did walk on foot. (should be ‘walked’ in place of ‘did walk’)

Rule-5 The fallowing verbs are not normally used in the continuous form-
Want, desire, refuse, forgive, wish, care, live, hate, like, hear, smell, recognize, realise, understand, know, mean, own, belong, seem, signify, etc.
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Rule-6 Present indefinite is used for a planned future action. For example:
We leave Delhi at 7p.m. and reach Nepal at 8 p.m.
Rule-7 In perfect continuous tense ‘for’ is used for a period of time (6months,5 days, 3years,40minutes etc.) and ‘since’ with a point of time. For example:
He has been working since two hours .(incorrect)
He has been working for two hours.
He has been working since morning.
Rule-8 In the case of one type of conditional sentences ‘had’ and ‘would have’ are used.
If I had met him I would have invited him.
Rule-9 There is a fundamental difference between the phrases ’am to ‘ and ‘have to’
For example:
I am to go there.
I have to go there.

Rule-10 ‘going to’ refers to the future tense. It refers to (a) the subject’s intention to do something.
b. to express speaker’s feeling of certainty.
c. for time expression. For example
I am going to spent holidays in Kashmir.
There are clouds, it is going to rain

Conditional Tenses
Rule-11 (a) The present conditional tense if formed with would or should +infinitive for 1st person and would +
Infinitive for other persons. For example:
I would do this job for you.
(b) As a past equivalent of future tense For
example:
I know he would criticise you.
(c) The perfect conditional tense is formed thus-
I should have opposed him.
He would have lost his money
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Use of adjectives
Rule-1 Adjective in English language are generally placed before the nouns. For example:
A big house, black coat, interesting story, etc.

When there are two or more adjectives before a noun, they are not separated by ‘and’ except when the last two are adjectives referring to colour. For
examples:
A small white box a weak old man, white and blue coat
Rule-2.Adjective of quality are placed after the verb. For example;
The house seemed large. He looked happy
He seemed to be good.
Rule-3 .Adjectives with one syllable generally form their comparatives and superalatives by adding ‘er’ or ‘est’ to the positive form. But adjectives of three
or more syllables form their comparatives and superlatives by putting ‘more’ and ‘most’ before the positive. For example:
The comparative and superlative degrees of ‘short’ will be ‘shorter’, ’similarly, the positive and superlative.

Rule-4 The words ‘elder’ and ‘eldest’ are used for comparing the members of the family or of the same class. These words mean seniority and not age.
‘older’ and ‘oldest ’are used with regard to age.
Rule-5 The superlative adjective is always preceded by the definite article ‘the’
Rule-6 If we want to say something in the superlative by using the comparative degree, we will have to use the words ‘’than any other’’ if the thing belongs
to the same group otherwise ‘’ than any’’

Rule-7 for positive degree and affirmative sentences ‘as ………as’ are used. For example:
His brother is as intelligent as he is.
In the case of negative sentences ‘not so………..as ’ is used. For example:
Your tea is not so cold as mine is,

Rule-8 If there is a gradual increase, it is expressed by the comparative but if there is parallel increase, it is expressed by the comparative degree + the
comparative degree for example:
(1) The finer the weather the better the wind will be (parallel increase)
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(2) The officer was becoming tougher and tougher (graduate increase)
Rule-9 when ‘then’ or ‘as’ is followed by third person pronoun, the verb is to be repeated. For example:
Ram is not as clever as his brother is
He is not so tall as his neighbour is.

Rule-10 when ‘than’ or ‘as’ is followed by first and second person, verb can be omitted. For example:
He is more intelligent than you

Rule-11 Whenever an adjective refers to a class of people its first form is preceded by ‘the’ for example:
The English means English people English means English language.
Similarly the virtuous, the poor, the old stand for the different classes of the people.

Rule-12 There are certain adjectives in the comparative degree which do not take ‘than’ and always take ‘to’.
All the words in comparative degree ending with ‘ior’ (senior ,junior, inferior, etc) and ‘prefer’ and ‘preferable’
Take to instead of ‘than’ for example:
He is senior to me (not than)
He is inferior to him as for his work is concerned.
The book is preferable to that. (not than)
Preferable generally takes a noun, a noun clause, a noun phrase before and after it. For example:
It is preferable to go on foot to travel by bus. (incorrect)
Going on foot is preferable to travelling by bus. (correct)

Rule-13 Double comparatives and superlatives cannot be used. For example:

Most preferable, more preferable, more brighter, are incorrect. It is only in Shakespear’s English that double comparatives and superlatives are found.
Rule-14 Sometimes while comparing two nouns we unconsciously compare a thing with a person and the sentence becomes grammatically incorrect. For
example
This house is better than Mohan. (incorrect)
This house is better than that of Mohan. (correct)

Rule-15 It is not good English if we make use of more than three adjectives before a noun. For example:
It is incorrect to say ‘four feet high wall’ and it is better to say ‘wall which is four feet high’.
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Use of articles
There are three articles in English language - a, an and the . The first two are called indefinite articles and the third is called definite article.

1 .The indefinite are used before a singular noun which is countable as with a noun complement. For example:
(a) A man eater has been killed.
(b) A mango tree is not very tall

2 .Indefinite article is used with certain other expressions which refer to numbers. For example:
a dozen, a million, a lot of, a great deal of.

3. .Indefinite article are also used if we want to say something about speed or price For example:
six rupees a kilo or 40 miles an hour or two times a day.

4. .Indefinite article is used with the words few and little if they refer to a small number or a small amount, because few or little alone means nothing and a
little means a small amount For example: We have little time to spare. (means no time) We have a little time ti spare. (means some time) Few persons were
present at the meeting. (no persons) Few persons were present at the meeting. (some persons)

5. Indefinite article is also used in exclamatory sentence before singular and countable nouns. For example:
What a fine idea! What an ordeal !

6. Indefinite articles are not used with materials like stone, cloth, wine iron, wood, etc.They take an article when they refer to one particular thing. For
example:
You are supposed to write on paper.
(no article is used) I want a newspaper. (a article is used) This number is made of glass. (no article) Please give me a glass of water
(article used)
7. Generally indefinite articles are not used with abstract nouns like honesty, fear, death, etc. For example:
He was completely paralysed with fear.
8. Indefinite articles ar not used before the names of meals but if an adjective is used before the meal then an
Article is used, or an article is used if the meals are special for celebrating something. For example:

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We generally take breakfast at 8 in the morning. It was a very good breakfast. (article is used because
adjective igood has been used)
He invited me to dinner.
All officers were invited to a dinner which was given in honour of t he American President.
Definite article is used with the things which are only one. For example:
The earth, the sky, the south pole etc.

9. Definite article is used when a thing, space or a person refers to something definite. For example:
This is the house which was demolished during emergency. The peon who came to house yesterday, has gone out of station.

11. Define article is used before superlative as also before only when it is used as adjective. For example:
This is t he biggest blunder which he committed
This is the first example which I gave.
This is the only purpose of my talking with you.

10. Definite article is used to represent a class of things. For example:

This is the biggest blunder which he committed.
This is the first example which I gave.
This is the only purpose of my talking with you
11. Definite article is used to represent a class of things. For example:
The crow is a clever bird. (means all the crows)
The young will have to should the responsibilities.

12. Definite article is used before the names of seas, moiuntains, group of islands and rivers. For example:
The Indian ocean, the Himalayas, the Andaman Nicobar:

13. Definite article us used before musical instruments also. For example:
He learnt to play upon the harmonium.
14. Generally the definite article is not used before the countries, towns, and proper nouns, but sometimes

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When these refer to some general names article is used. For example:
Kashmir is the Switzerland of India.
Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India.
The U.S.A. but not the America.
The U.S.S.R. but not the Russia.
15. Definite article is not used before the parts of the body and of clothing’s. For example:
All should raise their left hands.
You must take off your coat.
16. Whenever an indefinite plural noun is used in general no definite is used. For example:
Women of this country are brave.
(This means all the women).
17. Article the is not used with school or home in certain cases. In the case of home the is used when a Descriptive word is used before it but otherwise not.
For example:
We went to the grocer’s home.

18. Similarly if the is used before school, it means particular school otherwise it stands for schooling. For example:
He goes to school (means he has started studying).
He goes to the school (means he goes to a particular scool).
Similarly they are at the sea. (Means they are at the seaside) and hey are at sea (means in a ship).
Use of noun
Rule 1. Some plural nouns are always considered singular. For example:
News, gallows, Politics, innings and so generally take a singular verb. For example:
Since long no news has been heard.
The Indian team defeated the Australian by an innings.
The murderer was hanged on the gallows.
Rule 2. Some nouns are always used as singular e.g. Furniture, information, scenery, offspring. For example:
Furniture of his room was broken by the demonstrators.
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These three cubs are the offspring of the tigress.

The scenery of Gulmarg is very charming.
Rule 3. Some words are singular in form but they are always used as plurals e.g., People, sheep, gentry, cattle,
Etc. For example:
The people are generally considered to be ignorant fellows.
The cattle were grazing when I went to the hills.
The gentry of that place was invited to the meeting.
Rule 4. Some nouns are always used in the same form whether singular or plural e.g. Sheep, deer, swan, pair, dozen, hundred, score, etc. For example:
Yesterday I bought a pair of shoes,
He brought five dozen oranges from Nagpur.
He will have given you five hundred rupees for this work.
His age is roughly three score.
Rule 5. Generally the compound words formed with one or two nouns are treated as singular. For example:
A ten rupee note.
A three mile race.
A five year old child.
His age is roughly three score.

Rule 6. There are some nouns which are sometimes used as singular and sometimes as plural. For example:
The wages of sin is death.
The wages of the workers have been raised recently.
(1) He must have disposed of the furniture of his room.
(2) He gave him five dozen pencils.
(3) A hundred rupee note has not been demonetized.
(4) Give me some blotting paper.
(5) Five thousand people were present at the meeting.
Possessive case of the Nouns
Rule 1. When the possessor is a person or anyone the position is indicated by putting’ s and not ‘of’.
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For example:
It is correct to say ‘Ram’s house’ instead of saying house of Ram.
The wages of the workers have been raised recently

Rule 2. When the possessive noun is followed by a phrase r clause generally ‘of’ is made use.
For example:
When the students were going out of class they obeyed the directions of the teacher.
Rule 3. When the possessor is a thing ‘of’ is generally used. For example:
The wall of this room, the legs of the chair.

Rule 4. Whenever there is a connection with time normally possessive case is not used and the two nouns are directly joined. For example: Some holidays,
birth-day party. This very rule is followed with the kinds of stories-fairy tale, detective stories, and crime-stories.
Rule 5. The possessive form is used with expressions of time. For example:
‘Today’s newspaper, a days ‘week’s holiday.

“DO”, “MAY” AND “CAN”

Rule 1. ‘Do’ is used to form negative and interrogative of the present simple and past simple sentences.For example:
‘He works’ can be written in the negative form as “He does not work” and in the interrogative.2Does he work?”

Rule 2. When we want to emphasise any particular point either stated in the previous statement or otherwise then ‘do’ and ‘did’ are used. For example:
‘I met him’ and ‘did not meet him’ differ with regard to emphasis.
Similarly when we say ‘you met him so did I’ It means that the second part of the sentence emphasises The first portion.
Rule 3. Sometimes ‘do or does’ is used to avoid repetition of a verb. For example:
“Brown reads a lot”. “Yes, he does”. By writing in this manner we avoid the verb read second time. This
Can be used in tag question also and we are able to avoid the use of a verb.

Rule 4. Do is also used in the beginning of imperative sentences to make a request or invitation. For example:
“Do meet me in the library” means that the person is requested to meet.

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Use of “May”
Rule 1. “May” is generally used for giving permission. For example:
When we say, “May I come” it means we are asking for permission. When we say “I may meet him tomorrow”. It means meeting is not definite. In
this case it is used to give expression to uncertainty.

Rule 2. “When ‘may’ is used with present infinitive, it expresses possibility. For example:
‘’ He may meet you today’’ means he may meet ‘’’He though that he might be pressing’’ means perhaps he may be.
Rule 3 ’May’ or ‘Might’ is generally not used in interrogative sentences even if we want to give expression to probability. For example:
It is wrong to say that ‘’may I do this work?’’ It is an interrogative sentence rather it should be- ‘’should I do this? ‘’

Rule 4 ’May’ or ‘might’ when used with perfect infinitive means speculations about the actions in the past. For example:
‘He may have gone’ means it is possible that he has left this place.
Rule5 ’May’ or might’, is also used when we want to say something that we have not tried.
For example:
If we had prepared properly, we might have secured good marks.
Rule6. ’May’ or ‘might’, are used in conditional sentences to express possibility and not certainty. When we say if you work, you will succeed. It means
‘possibly’.

Rule7. In many sentences you might express a sort of command and show that the speaker is quite sure if being obeyed. For example.
You might do this work for me. It means do this work for me. ‘Will you’?
May along with infinitive can be used for giving expression to hope and faith. For example:
“May you be successful” means “I hope you will be successful.”
Use of Can
Rule1. ’Can’ is used for permission just like ‘may’ but is also used with all persons to express the idea of having permission. For example:
“You cannot touch this pen.” It means you are not allowed to touch.

Rule2. ’Can’ is used for permission just like ‘may’ but is also used with all persons to express the idea of having permission. For example:
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“You cannot leave these questions because these are important.

It means it is impossible for you to leave these questions.

Rule3. ’Can’ can be used in the present but for future sentences ‘will be’ is used:

Rule4. The word ‘could’ can be used in the present tense to express condition. For example:
‘Could he buy another book? Means if it is possible. In this sentence ‘could’ can be replaced by ‘would he able to’.

Rule5. ’Could’ is also used for the ability referring to the past. For example:
“I could have asked him not to go there” means he had the capacity but he did not ask. Similarly, “I left my pen on the table, who could have taken
it” means “I do not want to know who has taken it”.

The use of the words referring to obligation i.e. the use of ‘Must’ and ‘Have to’

Rule1. ’Must express an obligation imposed by the speaker and in the case of ‘have to’ it is imposed by some external authorities or circumstances. For
example:
“You must serve your officers” means you are ordered to serve your officers.
“You will have to serve your officer” means that the order of the officer compels me to serve.

Rule2. In the interrogative sentences it is better to use ‘have to’. But ‘must’ can also be used. But it refers to an order.
Rule3. In the case of negative obligations generally ‘must not’ is used. For example:

Rule4. When ‘need’ is used with a negative it means absence of obligation. For example:
You need not question my authority. You need not do this work just now.

Rule5. ’Must not’ implies that whatever is done is wrong and ‘need not’ means that the work is not necessary. For example:
You must not be over-sleepy.
It means it is wrong on your part to be over sleepy,
“You need not be over-sleepy” means it is not necessary for you to be over-sleepy.
Rule6. Whenever we want to express the absence of obligation in the person, we say ‘do not have to’ when an external authority is involved otherwise we
use ‘need not’.
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GRAMMATICALLY MOST CORRECT SENTENCE

Directions: In each of the f following questions five s sentences are given which are on the same theme. Decide which sentence is more preferable with
respect to grammar, meaning and usage, suitable for formal letter or report or any formal writing in English and mark the number of that sentences as your
answer on the answer-sheet.

a. By the time peace will have come to Jammu and Kashmir, many lives will be lost.
b. By the time peace will have return to Jammu and Kashmir, many lives will have been lost.
c. By the time peace return to Jammu and Kashmir, many lives will have been lost.
d. By the time peace shall have return to Jammu and Kashmir many lives shall be lost.
e. By the time peace return to Jammu and Kashmir many live would have been lost.

a. Unafraid of neither lightening nor thunder during a storm, she went out to enjoy the first rain of the season.
b. Afraid of both lightening and thunder during a storm, she went out to enjoy the first rain of the season.
c. Unafraid of neither lightening or thunder during a storm she went out to enjoy the first rain of the season.
d. Unafraid of either lightening or thunder during a storm she went out to enjoy the first rain of the season.
e. Afraid of either lightening or thunder during a storm she went out to enjoy the first rain of the season.
a. If the would have played the match they would have won it.
b. If they would have played the match they had won it.
c. If they had played the match they had won it.
d. If they play the match they will win it.
e. If they played the match they would have won it.

a. This hospital is equipped with a laser that can perform bloodless surgery on eyes.
b. This hospital was equipped with a laser that can perform bloodless surgery on eyes.
c. This hospital has been equipped with a laser that could have performed bloodless surgery eyes.
d. This hospital is to be quipped with a laser that can perform bloodless surgery on eyes.
e. This hospital is to be quipped with a laser that could perform bloodless surgery on eyes.
a. Indian politicians devote more time to making plans than they have to implement them.
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b. Indian politicians devote more time to making plans than they do to implement them.
c. Indian politicians devote more time to making plans than they did to implement them.
d. Indian politicians devote more time to making plans than to implement them.
e. Indian politicians devote more time to making plans than do to implement them.
a. The leader of opposition rarely speak on the issue of national importance, and because of it he is never acknowledged as a great leader.
b. Because the leader of opposition rarely spoke on the issue of national importance, he was never acknowledged as a great leader.
c. In that he rarely spoke on the issues of national importance the leader of the opposition was never acknowledged as a great leader.
d. Rarely speaking on the issues of national importance was the reason that the leader of opposition was never acknowledged as a great leader.
e. Speeches on the issues of national importance were rare, and because of this the leader of opposition was never acknowledged as a great leader.
a. Militancy is breathing it’s last in Punjab because the people of Punjab because the people of Punjab are fully cooperating with the security
forces.
b. Militancy is breathing it’s last in Punjab cooperation result of the people’s of Punjab were fully cooperation with the security forces.
c. Militancy is breathing it’s last in Punjab in so far as the people of Punjab were full cooperating with the security forces.
d. Militancy is breathing it’s last in Punjab because the people of Punjab would have would have vowed to fully cooperate with the security
forces.
e. Militancy is breathing it’s last in Punjab due to the population’s with the security forces.

a. When police found the main gate of the house locked they break it open.
b. Because police found the main gate of the house as locked they had to break it open
c. As police find the main gate of the house locked they had to break it open
d. As the main gate of the house was locked, the police had to break it open.
e. On finding the main gate of the house locked police break it open.

a. The room was ransacked but the police could not establish as to what was stolen.
b. The room had been ransacked but the police could not establish what was stolen.
c. The room had been ransacked but the police were yet to ascertain whether anything was stolen.
d. The room has been ransacked but the police has yet to establish what was stolen.
e. The room had been ransacked but the police had not established what was stolen.
a. Several areas in west and east Delhi had experienced more than one major power break downs during the last summer.
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b. Several areas in west and east Delhi has been experiencing more than one major power break downs in the last summer.
c. Several areas in west and east Delhi has been experiencing more than one major power break downs in the last summer.
d. Several areas in west and east Delhi had been experiencing more than one major powers break downs in the last summer.
e. Several areas in west and east Delhi had experienced more of one major power break downs in the last summer.

a. As you breathe, each time you inhale harmful pollutants.

b. Each time you breathe, you inhale harmful pollutants.
c. Every time you breathe, you inhale harmful pollutants.
d. You inhale harmful pollutants, each time you breathe.
e. You inhale harmful pollutants as you breathe every time.

a. As a literacy is the antonym of illiteracy, it is often construed as the synonym of school education.
b. Literacy being the antonym of illiteracy, it is often construed to be the synonym of school education.
c. Being the synonym of illiteracy, the school education literacy often construed as the antonym of illiteracy.
d. Being the antonym of literacy often construed to be the synonym of school education.
e. School education is synonymous with literacy and is an antonym of illiteracy.

a. The breath taking pace of technological advancement makes science fiction look like a statement of fact.
b. Science fiction look like a statement of fact due to the breath taking pace of technological advancements.
c. Science fiction look like a statement of fact because of the breath taking pace of technological advancements.
d. Because of the breath taking advancement in technology science fiction look like a statement of fact.
e. Because of the breath taking pace of the technological advancement science fiction look like a statement of fact.

a. Ram along with his brothers, is going to saw the movie.

b. Ram with his brothers, is going for a movie.
c. Ram along with his brothers, is going for a movie.
d. Along with his brothers, Ram is going to see a movie.
e. Ram along his brothers, is going to watch a movie.

a. Most members of the state government employees union rejected chief minister’s demand that the members return to work.
b. Most members of the state government employees union rejected chief minister’s demand for them to return to work.
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c. Most members of the state government employees union rejected chief minister’s demand that the would return to work.
d. Most members of the state government employees union rejected chief minister’s demand they return to work.
e. Most members of the state government employees union rejected chief minister’s demand they ought to return to work.

a. I felt hungry as soon as I came to hear the bell of dinner.

b. I felt hungry as soon as I heard the bell of dinner.
c. I felt hungry as soon as I heard the dinner bell.
d. As soon as I heard the bell of dinner I felt hungry.
e. As soon as I heard the dinner bell I felt hungry.

a. Taking pity on the mouse the magician turned it into a cat.

b. Taking pity on the mouse, magician turned it over to cat.
c. Taking pity on the mouse, magician converted him to a cat.
d. The magician took pity on the mouse and turned it to a cat.
e. The magician took pity on the mouse and turned it in a cat.

a. Men do not respond to social stresses as much as women do.

b. Men do not respond to social stresses as poorly as women do.
c. Men do not respond to social stresses as poorly as women.
d. Men do not respond to social stresses as much as women have.
e. Men do not respond to social stresses as well as women.
a. If I was Prime-minister, I would call an immediate halt to the selling of single digit lottery.
b. If I was to be the Prime-minister I will call immediate halt to the selling of single digit lottery.
c. If I ought to be the Prime-minister I would have called an immediate halt to the selling of single digit lottery.
d. If I were Prime-minister, I would call an immediate halt to the selling of single digit lottery.
e. If I were Prime-minister, I would have called an immediate halt to the selling of single digit lottery.

a. Central themes in describing human depression are helplessness and passivity.

b. Central themes that describing human depression is helplessness passivity.
c. Helplessness and passivity are the Central themes in describing human depression.
d. Helplessness and passivity is to be the Central themes to describe human depression.
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e. Helplessness and passivity are the Central themes to describe the human depression.

a. I am sure of finishing the work on time.

b. I am sure of finishing the work by the time.
c. I am sure that the work will be finished in time
d. I am sure that of finishing the work over time
e. I am sure that of finishing the work in time

a. At the sounding of the trumpet the battle commenced

b. The battle commenced as the trumpet sounded
c. As soon as the trumpet sounded, the battle commenced
d. When the trumpet sounded, the battle commenced
e. The battle commenced on sounding the trumpet.

a. He said he won’t play for them again as they are not giving him enough money
b. He won’t play for them again he says as they are not giving him enough money
c. He says he won’t play for them again, because they are not giving him enough money
d. As enough money is not being given to him he says he is not playing for them
e. As he is not paid enough money again he shall not play for them.

a. Rushing into the burning house, he showed his bravery.

b. It was very brave of him having rushed into the burning house
c. As rushing into a burning house, he showed his bravery.
d. He rushed into a burning house, which was very brave of him.
e. Being rushed into a burning house was very brave of him

a. Though my friend has great influence with my employer, he refused to put up a good word for me
b. Being a good friend having influence over my employer, he refused to put up a good word for me
c. My friend has great influence over my employer, he refused to put in a good word for me
d. Though my friend has great influence over my employer, he refused to put in a good word for me
e. As my friend has great influence over my employer, though he refused to put in a good word for me
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a. Mr. John has just phoned to say that he is not coming back till Wednesday night
b. Mr. John has just phoned that he is not coming back till Wednesday night
c. Mr. John has just phoned to say that is not coming back till Wednesday night
d. Mr. John has just phoned to say that he will not be coming back till Wednesday night
e. Till Wednesday Mr. John is not coming as he has just phoned to say

a. I am sure the accused is not guilty of the offence he is charge with.

b. I am sure the accused is not guilty of the offence he is charged for.
c. I am sure the accused is not guilty for the offence he is charged with.
d. I am sure the accused is not guilty for the offence he is charged of.
e. I am sure the accused is not guilty with the offence he is charged to.

a. He is clever with carpentry and you find him at work morning and evening
b. He is clever at carpentry and you find him to work morning and evening
c. He is clever at carpentry and you will find him at work morning and evening
d. He is clever for carpentry and you will find him with work morning and evening
e. He is clever of carpentry and you will find him at with work morning and evening
a. To bury the treasure he killed the man who helped him so that nobody but himself would know where it was.
b. Being the treasure to be buried he killed the man who helped him so that nobody but himself would know where it was.
c. He killed the men who helped him to bury the treasure nobody but himself would know where it was.
d. Although he killed the men who helped him to bury the treasure nobody but himself would know where it was.
e. He killed the men who helped to bury the treasure so that nobody but himself would know where it was.

a. The driver of that car is sounding horn for the last fifteen minutes.
b. The horn has been sounded by the driver of that car for the last fifteen minutes.
c. The driver of that car is being sounding the horn of the last fifteen minutes
d. The driver of that car has been sounding the horn for the last fifteen minutes.
e. The horn is being sound by the driver of that car for the last fifteen minutes.

ANSWERS
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1. c 2. d 3. e 4.a 5. c
6. b 7. a 8. d 9. c 10. a
11. b 12. d 13. a 14.e 15. d
16. c 17. a 18. b 19. d 20. a
21. e 22. c 23. a 24. d 25. d
26. a 27. a 28. c 29. e 30. d

Long Reading Comprehension Exercises with Solutions

Directions for Questions 1 to 5: The passage given below is followed by a set of five questions.
Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal government works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of
the biological makeup of our brains. Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal
instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to
process information or behave intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described language as a psychological faculty, a mental organ,
a neural system, and a computational module. But I prefer the admittedly quaint term ‘instinct.’ It conveys the idea that people know how to talk in more or
less the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. Web-spinning was not invented by some unsung spider genius and does not depend on having had the
right education or on having an aptitude for architecture or the construction trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have spider brains, which
give them the urge to spin and the competence to succeed. Although there are differences between webs and words, I will encourage you to see language in
this way, for it helps to make sense of the phenomena we will explore.

Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular wisdom, especially as it has been passed down in the canon of the humanities and social
sciences. Language is no more a cultural invention than is upright posture. It is not a manifestation of a general capacity to use symbols: a three-year-old, we
shall see, is a grammatical genius, but is quite incompetent at the visual arts, religious iconography, traffic signs, and the other staples of the semiotics
curriculum.
Though language is a magnificent ability unique to Homo sapiens among living species, it does not call for sequestering the study of humans from
the domain of biology, for a magnificent ability unique to a particular living species is far from unique in the animal kingdom. Some kinds of bats home in
on flying insects using Doppler sonar. Some kinds of migratory birds navigate thousands of miles by calibrating the positions of the constellations against

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the time of day and year. In nature's talent show, we are simply a species of primate with our own act, a knack for communicating information about who did
what to whom by modulating the sounds we make when we exhale.
Once you begin to look at language not as the ineffable essence of human uniqueness but as a biological adaption to communicate information, it is
no longer as tempting to see language as an insidious shaper of thought, and, we shall see, it is not. Moreover, seeing language as one of nature.s engineering
marvels- an organ with ‘that perfection of structure and co-adaptation which justly excites our admiration,’ in Darwin.s words - gives us a new respect for
your ordinary Joe and the much-maligned English language (or any language). The complexity of language, from the scientist.s point of view, is part of our
biological birthright; it is not something that parents teach their children or something that must be elaborated in school - as Oscar Wilde said, ‘Education is
an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.’ A preschooler’s tacit knowledge of
grammar is more sophisticated than the thickest style manual or the most state-of-the-art computer language system, and the same applies to all healthy
human beings, even the notorious syntax-fracturing professional athlete and the, you know, like, inarticulate teenage skateboarder. Finally, since language is
the product of a well-engineered biological instinct, we shall see that it is not the nutty barrel of monkeys that entertainer-columnists make it out to be.
1. According to the passage, which of the following does not stem from popular wisdom on language?

(1) Language is a cultural artifact.

(2) Language is a cultural invention.
(3) Language is learnt as we grow.
(4) Language is unique to Homo sapiens.
(5) Language is a psychological faculty.

SOLUTION:
The passage states, ‘For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described language as a
psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module. But I prefer the admittedly quaint term ‘instinct’’. Combine this extract
with ‘Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular wisdom’ and we arrive at option 5 as the correct answer option.
Option1: While the passage mentions cultural artifact, it does not relate it to popular wisdom. Hence,
Option 1 is incorrect.
Option 2 is mentioned in the passage but there is no data to suggest that it is not popular wisdom.
Option 3 is incorrect because the author has criticized the common view that children learn language as they grow, he instead says that children are born
with it.
Option 4 is mentioned in the passage and does not invert popular wisdom in any way.
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Hence, the correct answer is

Option 5.
2. Which of the following can be used to replace the ‘spiders know how to spin webs’ analogy as used by the author?

(1) A kitten learning to jump over a wall

(2) Bees collecting nectar
(3) A donkey carrying a load
(4) A horse running a Derby
(5) A pet dog protecting its owner's property

SOLUTION:
The analogy describes an action which is a critical activity to the species, such that it is instinctive and not something that develops over time. The
analogy emphasises the fact that language is instinctive, and not something that is learnt.
Options 3, 4 and 5 about a donkey carrying the load, a horse running the derby and a pet dog protecting property, are not instinctive and basic actions
attributed to those animals. They have to be trained to perform these functions.
Option 1 is about ‘learning., whereas the original example is about instinctively knowing.
Hence, the correct answer is

Option 2.
3. According to the passage, which of the following is unique to human beings?

(1) Ability to use symbols while communicating

with one another.
(2) Ability to communicate with each other through
voice modulation.
(3) Ability to communicate information to other
members of the species.
(4) Ability to use sound as means of
communication.
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5) All of the above.

SOLUTION:
At the end of the second paragraph, ‘a knack for communicating information about who did what to whom by modulating the sounds we make when
we exhale’. This ability is unique to humans as mentioned in the passage. This resonates with option 2. Option 1, 3 and 4 are negated as the author has not
mentioned or implied in any way that non-humans cannot use symbols, cannot communicate information or do not use sound as a means of communication.
Therefore, option 5 - all of the above - is incorrect. Hence, the correct answer is option 2.

4. According to the passage, complexity of language cannot be taught by parents or at school to children because

(1) children instinctively know language.

(2) children learn the language on their own.
(3) language is not amenable to teaching.
(4) children know language better than their
teachers or parents.
(5) children are born with the knowledge of
semiotics.

SOLUTION:
The passage states, ‘The complexity of language, from the scientist’s point of view, is part of our biological birthright; it is not something that
parents teach their children or something that must be elaborated in school’. This implies that children are born with an instinctive skill for language and that
it cannot be taught.

Option 2 is about learning as they grow and not about instinctively knowing language.
Option 3 is close, but the question is related to ‘complexity of language. The author is silent on whether language is amenable to teaching or not.
Option 4 is irrelevant as there is no comparison between the language skills of teachers/ parents and their children.
Option 5 contradicts the passage. ‘Semiotics’ is the study of symbols and signs and the passage states that children are not good at semiotics. Hence, the
correct answer is option 1.
5. Which of the following best summarizes the passage?

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(1) Language is unique to Homo sapiens.

(2) Language is neither learnt nor taught.
(3) Language is not a cultural invention or artifact
as it is made out.
(4) Language is instinctive ability of human beings.
(5) Language is use of symbols unique to human
beings.

SOLUTION:
Option 4 succinctly summarizes the crux of the author’s arguments. The author is trying to propound the instinctive nature of language. He mentions it is
unique to ‘Homo sapiens’ but that is not the crux of the passage making option 1 unsuitable as a summary.
Option 2 focuses on a non critical aspect of language which deals with „learning. or „teaching., which is true yet not central to the discussion.
Option 3 is incorrect as it focuses on ancillary aspects.
Option 5 has no base in the paragraph, and is a radical statement. Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
Directions for Questions 6 to 10: The passage given below is followed by a set of five questions.
Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
When I was little, children were bought two kinds of ice cream, sold from those white wagons with canopies made of silvery metal: either the two-
cent cone or the four-cent ice-cream pie. The two-cent cone was very small, in fact it could fit comfortably into a child's hand, and it was made by taking the
ice cream from its container with a special scoop and piling it on the cone. Granny always suggested I eat only a part of the cone, then throw away the
pointed end, because it had been touched by the vendor's hand (though that was the best part, nice and crunchy, and it was regularly eaten in secret, after a
pretence of discarding it).

The four-cent pie was made by a special little machine, also silvery, which pressed two disks of sweet biscuit against a cylindrical section of ice
cream. First you had to thrust your tongue into the gap between the biscuits until it touched the central nucleus of ice cream; then, gradually, you ate the
whole thing, the biscuit surfaces softening as they became soaked in creamy nectar. Granny had no advice to give here: in theory the pies had been touched
only by the machine; in practice, the vendor had held them in his hand while giving them to us, but it was impossible to isolate the contaminated area. I was
fascinated, however, by some of my peers, whose parents bought them not a four-cent pie but two two-cent cones. These privileged children advanced

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proudly with one cone in their right hand and one in their left; and expertly moving their head from side to side, they licked first one, then the other. This
liturgy seemed to me so sumptuously enviable, that many times I asked to be allowed to celebrate it. In vain.
My elders were inflexible: a four-cent ice, yes; but two two-cent ones, absolutely no. As anyone can see, neither mathematics nor economy nor
dietetics justified this refusal. Nor did hygiene,
assuming that in due course the tips of both cones were discarded. The pathetic, and obviously mendacious, justification was that a boy concerned with
turning his eyes from one cone to the other was more inclined to stumble over stones, steps, or cracks in the pavement. I dimly sensed that there was another
secret justification, cruelly pedagogical, but I was unable to grasp it.

Today, citizen and victim of a consumer society, a civilization of excess and waste (which the society of the thirties was not), I realize that those dear
and now departed elders were right. Two two-cent cones instead of one at four cents did not signify squandering, economically speaking, but symbolically
they surely did. It was for this precise reason, that I yearned for them: because two ice creams suggested excess. And this was precisely why they were
denied me: because they looked indecent, an insult to poverty, a display of fictitious privilege, a boast of wealth. Only spoiled children ate two cones at
once, those children who in fairy tales were rightly punished, as Pinocchio was when he rejected the skin and the stalk. And parents who encouraged this
weakness, appropriate to little parvenus, were bringing up their children in the foolish theatre of ‘I'd like to but I can't.’
They were preparing them to turn up at tourist-class check-in with a fake Gucci bag bought from a street peddler on the beach at Rimini.
Nowadays the moralist risks seeming at odds with morality, in a world where the consumer civilization now wants even adults to be spoiled, and
promises them always something more, from the wristwatch in the box of detergent to the bonus bangle sheathed, with the magazine it accompanies, in a
plastic envelope. Like the parents of those ambidextrous gluttons I so envied, the consumer civilization pretends to give more, but actually gives, for four
cents, what is worth four cents. You will throw away the old transistor radio to purchase the new one, that boasts an alarm clock as well, but some
inexplicable defect in the mechanism will guarantee that the radio lasts only a year. The new cheap car will have leather seats, double side mirrors adjustable
from inside, and a panelled dashboard, but it will not last nearly so long as the glorious old Fiat 500, which, even when it broke down, could be started again
with a kick. The morality of the old days made Spartans of us all, while today's morality wants all of us to be Sybarites.
6. Which of the following cannot be inferred from
the passage?

(1) Today’s society is more extravagant than the society of the 1930s.
(2) The act of eating two ice cream cones is akin to a ceremonial process.
(3) Elders rightly suggested that a boy turning eyes from one cone to the other was more likely to fall.
(4) Despite seeming to promise more, the consumer civilization gives away exactly what the thing is worth.
(5) The consumer civilization attempts to spoil children and adults alike.
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SOLUTION:

Option 1: The passage mentions that society is slowly moving from a Spartan (rigorously self-disciplined or self-restrained) existence to that of a
Sybarites.(a person devoted to pleasure and luxury) one. As a result today’s society is more extravagant than the society of the 1930s.
Option 2: The passage depicts the procedure of eating two ice-cream cones with a ceremonial air. The passage states, ‘…advanced proudly with one cone in
their right hand and one in their left; and expertly moving their head from side to side, they licked first one, then the other’.
Option 4: The author has plainly said in the passage that in present times things given are what they are worth even if they appear to be more. The passage
states, ‘the consumer civilization pretends to give more, but actually gives, for four cents, what is worth four cents’.
Option 5: The last two paragraphs of the passage give various examples of how the consumer civilization attempts to spoil children and adults alike. Hence,
option 5 is eliminated.
Option 3 cannot be inferred from the passage. Rather the italicised words in the passage suggest the opposite: ‘The pathetic, and obviously mendacious,
justification was that a boy concerned with turning his eyes from one cone to the other was more inclined to stumble over stones, steps, or cracks in the
pavement. I dimly sensed that there was another secret justification, cruelly pedagogical, but I was unable to grasp it’.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.

7. In the passage, the phrase ‘little parvenus’ refers

to
(1) naughty midgets.
(2) old hags.
(3) arrogant people.
(4) young upstarts.
(5) foolish kids.

SOLUTION:
‘Parvenus’ means „a person who has suddenly risen to a higher social and economic class and has not yet gained social acceptance by others in that
class. The appropriate reference is to young upstarts.
The author points out the extravagance of today’s society. The author mentions in the passage, ‘Two two-cent cones instead of one at four cents did
not signify squandering, economically speaking, but symbolically they surely did. It was for this precise reason that I yearned for them: because two ice
creams suggested excess. And this was precisely why they were denied me: because they looked indecent, an insult to poverty, a display of fictitious
privilege, a boast of wealth. Only spoiled children ate two cones at once, those children who in fairy tales were rightly punished, as Pinocchio was when he
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rejected the skin and the stalk. And parents who encouraged this weakness, appropriate to little parvenus, were bringing up their children in the foolish
theatre of ‘I'd like to but I can't.’ They were preparing them to turn up at tourist-class cheek-in with a fake Gucci bag bought from a street peddler on the
beach at Rimini’. The author refers to the parents as „parvenus. or upstarts who muscle their way into a world where they are uninvited.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.

8. The author pined for two two-cent cones instead

of one four-cent pie because
(1) it made dietetic sense.
(2) it suggested intemperance.
(3) it was more fun.
(4) it had a visual appeal.
(5) he was a glutton.

SOLUTION:
The passage states ‘Two two-cent cones instead of one at four cents did not signify squandering, economically speaking, but symbolically they surely
did. It was for this precise reason that I yearned for them’. Intemperance means excessive indulgence of appetite.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2.

9. What does the author mean by ‘nowadays the

moralist risks seeming at odds with morality’?

(1) The moralists of yesterday have become immoral today.

(2) The concept of morality has changed over the years.
(3) Consumerism is amoral.
(4) The risks associated with immorality have gone up.
(5) The purist’s view of morality is fast becoming popular.
SOLUTION:
The passage does not hint at instances of immorality or amorality. This eliminates options 1 and 3. Option 4 is incorrect because though moralistic
risks have been mentioned they have been said to be at odds with morality. There are no indications of them having risen. Option 5 is incorrect. There is no
mention of purists in the passage. Therefore, the popularity of the Purist’s view of morality cannot be established.

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Option 2: The passage states, ‘Nowadays the moralist risks seeming at odds with morality, in a world where the consumer civilization now wants even adults
to be spoiled, and promises them always something more, from the wristwatch in the box of detergent to the bonus bangle sheathed, with the magazine it
accompanies, in a plastic envelope’. The second half of the sentences points to the changes norms/mores in society, and this is our indicator that option 2 is
correct.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2.

10. According to the author, the justification for

refusal to let him eat two cones was plausibly
(1) didactic. (2) dietetic.
(3) dialectic. (4) diatonic.
(5) diastolic.

SOLUTION:
The passage talks about how the issue of whether a single cone or two cones should be purchased was not economical but that of morality. The
author infers from his elder’s behaviour that that was the only justification.

The meanings of the options are:

Didactic means teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson. Dietetic means pertaining to diet or to regulation of the use of food. Dialectic means
pertaining to, or of the nature of logical argumentation. Diatonic means pertaining to the tones, intervals, or harmonies of such scales. Diastolic means
indicating the arterial pressure during the interval between heartbeats. Hence, the correct answer is option 1.
Directions for Questions 11 to 15: The passage given below is followed by a set of five questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each
question.
A remarkable aspect of art of the present century is the range of concepts and ideologies which it embodies. It is almost tempting to see a pattern
emerging within the art field - or alternatively imposed upon it a posteriori - similar to that which exists under the umbrella of science where the general
term covers a whole range of separate, though interconnecting, activities. Any parallelism is however - in this instance at least - misleading. A scientific
discipline develops systematically once its bare tenets have been established, named and categorized as conventions. Many of the concepts of modern art, by
contrast, have resulted from the almost accidental meetings of groups of talented individuals at certain times and certain places. The ideas generated by these
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chance meetings had twofold consequences. Firstly, a corpus of work would be produced which, in great part, remains as a concrete record of the events.
Secondly, the ideas would themselves be disseminated through many different channels of communication - seeds that often bore fruit in contexts far
removed from their generation. Not all movements were exclusively concerned with innovation. Surrealism, for instance, claimed to embody a kind of
insight which can be present in the art of any period. This claim has been generally accepted so that a sixteenth century painting by Spranger or a mysterious
photograph by Atget can legitimately be discussed in surrealist terms.

Briefly, then, the concepts of modern art are of many different (often fundamentally different) kinds and resulted from the exposures of painters,
sculptors and thinkers to the more complex phenomena of the twentieth century, including our ever increasing knowledge of the thought and products of
earlier centuries. Different groups of artists would collaborate in trying to make sense of rapidly changing world of visual and spiritual experience. We
should hardly be surprised if no one group succeeded completely, but achievements, though relative, have been considerable. Landmarks have been
established - concrete statements of position which give a pattern to a situation which could easily have degenerated into total chaos. Beyond this, new
language tools have been created for those who follow - semantic systems which can provide a springboard for further explorations.
The codifying of art is often criticized. Certainly one can understand that artists are wary of being pigeon-holed since they are apt to think of themselves as
individuals - sometimes with good reason. The notion of self-expression, however, no longer carries quite the weight it once did; objectivity has its
defenders.
There is good reason to accept the ideas codified by artists and critics, over the past sixty years or so, as having attained the status of independent
existence - an independence which is not without its own value. The time factor is important here. As an art movement slips into temporal perspective, it
ceases to be a living organism - becoming, rather, a fossil. This is not to say it becomes useless or uninteresting. Just as a scientist can reconstruct the life of
a prehistoric environment from the messages codified into the structure of a fossil, so can an artist decipher whole webs of intellectual and creative
possibility from the recorded structure of a dead art movement. The artist can match the creative patterns crystallized into this structure against the potentials
and possibilities of his own time. AS T.S Eliot observed, no one starts anything from scratch; however consciously you may try to live in the present, you
are still involved with a nexus of behaviour patterns bequeathed from the past. The original and creative person is not someone who ignores these patterns,
but someone who is able to translate and develop them so that they conform
more exactly to his - and our - present needs.

11. Many of the concepts of modern art have been

the product of
(1) ideas generated from planned deliberations between artists, painters and thinkers.
(2) the dissemination of ideas through the state and its organizations.
(3) accidental interactions among people blessed with creative muse.
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(4) patronage by the rich and powerful that supported art.

(5) systematic investigation, codification and conventions.

SOLUTION:
Option 1 is incorrect because of the word planned. The passage states, ‘…many of the concepts of modern art, by contrast, have resulted from the almost
accidental meetings of groups of talented individuals at certain times and certain places. The ideas generated by these chance meetings…’

Neither option 2 nor 4 have been mentioned in the passage. Option 5 contradicts the passage. The passage states, ‘A scientific discipline develops
systematically once its bare tenets have been established, named and categorized as conventions. Many of the concepts of modern art, by contrast, have
resulted from the almost accidental meeting of groups of talented individuals at certain times and certain places.’ This implies that the concepts of modern
art have not been the product of systematic conventions. Moreover the following extract , ‘Certainly one can understand that artists are wary of being
pigeon-holed’ as well as ‘There is good reason to accept the ideas codified by artists and critics, over the past sixty years or so, as having attained the status
of independent existence’ indicates that the concepts of modern art have not been the product of codification. Option 3 is explicitly mentioned in the
passage, ‘…many of the concepts of modern art, by contrast, have resulted from the almost accidental meetings of groups of talented individuals at certain
times and certain places. The ideas generated by these chance meetings…’
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.
12. In the passage, the word ‘fossil’ can be
interpreted as
(1) an art movement that has ceased to remain interesting or useful.
(2) an analogy from the physical world to indicate a historic art movement.
(3) an analogy from the physical world to indicate the barrenness of artistic creations in the past.
(4) an embedded codification of pre-historic life.
(5) an analogy from the physical world to indicate the passing of an era associated with an art movement.
SOLUTION:
Option 1 is incorrect because the passage states, ‘This is not to say that it becomes useless or uninteresting’- the ‘it’ being art.
Option 2 is incorrect because the word ‘fossil’ in the passage is used to draw an analogy between the
physical world and art. Just as scientists can reconstruct the life of a prehistoric environment from a ‘fossil’ so also, an artist can decipher intellectual and
creative possibility from a ‘dead’ art movement.

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The scientists are not reconstructing life but the environment in which these prehistoric creatures lived. Similarly an artist is not bringing back to life
past art forms but rather deriving possibilities for creative inspiration by studying them. ‘When an art form slips into temporal perspective, it ceases to be a
living organism’ meaning it dies. In option 2, ‘historic’ makes it incorrect - it should have been „dead..

Option 3 is incorrect because the passage does not indicate explicitly or implicitly that there was a ‘barrenness of artistic creations in the past’.

Option 4 is literally correct. But the word ‘fossil’ in this case has been used to draw an analogy between
the physical world and ‘dead’ art. Therefore the interpretation of the word ‘fossil’ in this instance is
incorrect.

Option 5 can be implied from, ‘As an art movement slips into temporal perspective, it ceases to be a living organism - becoming, rather, a fossil. This is not
to say it becomes useless or uninteresting. Just as a scientist can reconstruct the life of a prehistoric environment from the messages codified into the
structure of a fossil, so can an artist decipher whole webs of intellectual and creative possibility from the recorded structure of a dead art movement.’
Hence, the correct answer is option 5.
13. In the passage, which of the following
similarities between science and art may lead to
erroneous conclusions?
(1) Both, in general, include a gamut of distinct but interconnecting activities.
(2) Both have movements not necessarily concerned with innovation.
(3) Both depend on collaborations between talented individuals.
(4) Both involve abstract thought and dissemination of ideas.
(5) Both reflect complex priorities of the modern world.
SOLUTION:
Option 2 is incorrect. The passage states, ‘Not all movements were exclusively concerned with innovation’-implying that some artistic movements were
concerned with innovation. However, there is no mention of the status of innovation with regard to science. Hence, there is no data for comparison.

Option 3 is incorrect. While it is mentioned that groups of artists, painters and thinkers collaborated
together to develop concepts of modern art, the passage is silent on the case of the scientific world.
Option 4 is incorrect because the dissemination of ideas is only referred to in the case of Art and not to science.
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Option 5 applies only to Art and not to Science. Option 1 can be obtained from ‘It is almost tempting to see a pattern emerging within the art field - or
alternatively imposed upon it a posteriori - similar to that which exists under the umbrella of science where the general term covers a whole range of
separate, though interconnecting, activities. Any parallelism is however - in this instance at least - misleading.’ The last sentence shows that the author of the
passage feels that the analogy is misleading - leading to erroneous conclusions.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.
14. The range of concepts and ideologies embodied
in the art of the twentieth century is explained by
(1) the existence of movements such as surrealism.
(2) landmarks which give a pattern to the art history of the twentieth century.
(3) new language tools which can be used for further explorations into new areas.
(4) the fast changing world of perceptual and transcendental understanding.
(5) the quick exchange of ideas and concepts enabled by efficient technology.
SOLUTION:
Options 1, 2 and 3 are tangential - while mentioned in the passage they do not address the question stem. In option 5, the phrase, efficient technology makes
it incorrect because this has not been mentioned in the passage as a cause for the range of concepts and ideologies in the art of the twentieth century. Option
4 can be inferred from , ‘Briefly, then, the concepts of modern art are of many different (often fundamentally different) kinds and resulted from the
exposures of painters, sculptors and thinkers to the more complex phenomena of the twentieth century, including our ever increasing knowledge of the
thought and products of earlier centuries. Different groups of artists would collaborate in trying to make sense of rapidly changing world of visual and
spiritual experience’. Here ‘visual’ and ‘spiritual’ are synonymous with „perceptual. and transcendental.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
15. The passage uses an observation by T.S. Eliot
to imply that
(1) creative processes are not original because they always borrow from the past.
(2) we always carry forward the legacy of the past.
(3) past behaviours and thought processes recreate themselves in the present and get labeled as original. or creative.
(4) originality can only thrive in a greenhouse insulated from the past biases.
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(5) innovations and original thinking interpret and develop on past thoughts to suit contemporary needs.
SOLUTION:
The questions refers to the end of the passage, ‘As T.S Eliot observed, no one starts anything from scratch; however consciously you may try to live
in the present, you are still involved with a nexus of behaviour patterns bequeathed from the past. The original and creative person is not someone who
ignores these patterns, but someone who is able to translate and develop them so that they confirm more exactly to his - and our - present needs’.
Option 1 is incorrect. The second sentence means that original creative processes exist although the artist may be ‘involved with a nexus of behaviour
patterns bequeathed from the past’.
Options 2 and 3 do not maintain the tone of the passage, and hence are eliminated in favour of Option 5.

Option 4 contradicts the passage. The passage mentions that the originality of ideas and concepts
developed by artists owe genesis to behaviour patterns bequeathed from the past.

Option 5 can be inferred from the extract above, especially the italicised portions.
Hence, the correct answer is option 5.
Directions for Questions 16 to 20: The passage given below is followed by a set of five questions.
Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
To summarize the Classic Maya collapse, we can tentatively identify five strands. I acknowledge, however, that Maya archaeologists still disagree
vigorously among themselves - in part, because the
different strands evidently varied in importance among different parts of the Maya realm; because detailed archaeological studies are available for only some
Maya sites; and because it remains puzzling why most of the Maya heartland remained nearly empty of population and failed to recover after the collapse
and after re-growth of forests.

With those caveats, it appears to me that one strand consisted of population growth outstripping available resources: a dilemma similar to the one
foreseen by Thomas Malthus in 1798 and being played out today in Rwanda, Haiti, and elsewhere. As the archaeologist David Webster succinctly puts it,
‘Too many farmers grew too many crops on too much of landscape.’ Compounding that mismatch between population and resources was the second strand:
the effects of deforestation and hillside erosion, which caused a decrease in the amount of useable farmland at a time when more rather than less farmland
was needed, and possibly exacerbated by an anthropogenic drought resulting from deforestation, by soil nutrient depletion and other soil problems, and by
the struggle to prevent bracken ferns from overrunning the fields.

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The third strand consisted of increased fighting, as more and more people fought over fewer resources. Maya warfare, already endemic, peaked just
before the collapse. That is not surprising when one reflects that at least five million people, perhaps many more, were crammed into an area smaller than the
US state of Colorado (104,000 square miles). That warfare would have decreased further the amount of land available for agriculture, by creating no-man's
lands between principalities where it was now unsafe to farm. Bringing matters to a head was the strand of climate change. The drought at the time of the
Classic collapse was not the first drought that the Maya had lived through, but it was the most severe. At the time of previous droughts, there were still
uninhabited parts of the Maya landscape, and people at a site affected by drought could save themselves by moving to another site. However, by the time of
the Classic collapse the landscape was now full, there was no useful unoccupied land in the vicinity on which to begin anew, and the whole population could
not be accommodated in the few areas that continued to have reliable water supplies.
As our fifth strand, we have to wonder why the kings and nobles failed to recognize and solve these seemingly obvious problems undermining their
society. Their attention was evidently focused on their short-term concerns of enriching themselves, waging wars, erecting monuments, competing with each
other, and extracting enough food from the peasants to support all those activities. Like most leaders throughout human history, the Maya kings and nobles
did not heed long-term problems, insofar as they perceived them. Finally, while we still have some other past societies to consider in this book before we
switch our attention to the modern world, we must already be struck by some parallels between the Maya and the past societies. As on Mangareva, the Maya
environmental and population problems led to increasing warfare and civil strife. Similarly, on Easter Island and at Chaco Canyon, the Maya peak
population numbers were followed swiftly by political and social collapse. Paralleling the eventual extension of agriculture from Easter Island's coastal
lowlands to its uplands, and from the Mimbres floodplain to the hills, Copan's inhabitants also expanded from the floodplain to the more fragile hill slopes,
leaving them with a larger population to feed when the agricultural boom in the hills went bust. Like Easter Island chiefs erecting ever larger statues,
eventually crowned by pukao, and like Anasazi elite treating themselves to necklaces of 2,000 turquoise beads, Maya kings sought to outdo each other with
more and more impressive temples, covered with thicker and thicker plaster - reminiscent in turn of the extravagant conspicuous consumption by modern
American CEOs. The passivity of Easter chiefs and Maya kings in the face of the real big threats to their societies completes our list of disquieting parallels.
16. According to the passage, which of the
following best represents the factor that has
been cited by the author in the context of
Rwanda and Haiti?
(1) Various ethnic groups competing for land and other resources
(2) Various ethnic groups competing for limited land resources
(3) Various ethnic groups fighting with each other
(4) Various ethnic groups competing for political power
(5) Various ethnic groups fighting for their identity
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SOLUTION:
The question asks for the factor best denoting the case of Rwanda and Haiti. From the second paragraph, ‘…one strand consisted of population
growth outstripping available resources: a dilemma similar to the one foreseen by Thomas Malthus in 1798 and being played out today in Rwanda, Haiti,
and elsewhere. As the archaeologist David Webster succinctly puts it, „Too many farmers grew too many crops on too much of the landscape..
Compounding that mismatch between
population and resources was the second strand: the effects of deforestation and hillside erosion, which caused a decrease in the amount of useable farmland
at a time when more rather than less farmland was needed, and possibly exacerbated by an anthropogenic drought resulting from deforestation, by soil
nutrient depletion and other soil problems, and by the struggle to prevent bracken ferns from overrunning the fields’. The keywords are the words „limited.,
„land .and „resources.. The second strand continues in the same vein and says that land and resources were limited. Combining the two, option 1 is the right
answer option.

Option 2 talks about ‘land resources’ but does not mention other resources which were also scarce.

Options 3 states „ethnic groups fighting with each other.. There is no mention of fighting in the second paragraph.
Option 4 mentions „ethnic groups competing for political power.. There is no mention of this in the
second paragraph. Option 5 states „ethnic groups were fighting for their identity. which is not related to the Rwanda and Haiti context.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.

17. By an anthropogenic drought, the author means

(1) a drought caused by lack of rains.
(2) a drought caused due to deforestation
(3) a drought caused by failure to prevent bracken
ferns from overrunning the fields.
(4) a drought caused by actions of human beings.
(5) a drought caused by climate changes.
SOLUTION:
This was essentially a vocabulary question – you need to know or guess the meaning of Anthropogenic. Anthropogenic means „caused or produced
by humans. From the second paragraph, ‘…anthropogenic drought resulting from deforestation, by soil nutrient depletion and other soil problems, and by
the struggle to prevent bracken ferns from overrunning the fields.’ Option 1 is incorrect because lack of rain cannot be attributed to human intervention.
Options 2 and 3 are incorrect because they are reasons to the causes of the drought and why the drought was anthropogenic. Option 4 means the same as
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anthropogenic. Deforestation and soil nutrient depletion can only be caused by humans. Option 5 is incorrect because a drought caused by climate changes
cannot be said to be caused by humans.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
18. According to the passage, the drought at the
time of Maya collapse had a different impact
compared to the droughts earlier because
(1) the Maya kings continue to be extravagant when common people were suffering.
(2) it happened at the time of collapse of leadership among Mayas.
(3) it happened when the Maya population had occupied all available land suited for agriculture.
(4) it was followed by internecine warfare among Mayans.
(5) irreversible environmental degradation led to this drought.
SOLUTION:
This is a direct question.
Option 1 is the fifth strand is the passage, but there is nothing to indicate that had a different impact compared to earlier droughts. Option 2 has no
supporting data in the passage. Option 4 contradicts the third paragraph, ‘Maya warfare, already endemic, peaked just before the collapse’.
Option 5 is incorrect because ‘the third strand consisted of increased fighting, as more and more people fought over fewer resources.’ This implies that
environmental degradation had nothing to do with this particular drought. The third paragraph mentions ‘at the time of previous droughts, there were still
uninhabited parts of the Maya landscape, and people at a site affected by drought could save themselves by moving to another site. However, by the time of
the Classic collapse the landscape was now full, there was no useful unoccupied land in the vicinity on which to begin anew, and the whole population could
not be accommodated in the few areas that continued to have reliable water supplies.’ From this, option 3 is correct.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.
19. According to the author, why is it difficult to
explain the reasons for Maya collapse?
(1) Copan inhabitants destroyed all records of that period.
(2) The constant deforestation and hillside erosion have wiped out all traces of the Maya kingdom.
(3) Archaeological sites of Mayas do not provide any consistent evidence.
(4) It has not been possible to ascertain which of the factors best explains as to why the Maya civilization collapsed.
(5) At least five million people were crammed into a small area.

SOLUTION:
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Option 1: the passage does not talk about Copan inhabitants destroying the records. The first paragraph mentions that ‘detailed archaeological studies
are available for some Maya sites’ which contradicts options 2. Further, since there is no other evidence in the passage, we have no ground for option 3.
Option 5 is mentioned in the third paragraph; however, it does not explain the reasons for Maya collapse.
The passage mentions five possible strands for the Maya collapse. The passage states, ‘I acknowledge, however, that Maya archaeologists still
disagree vigorously among themselves - in part, because the different strands evidently varied in importance among different parts of the Maya realm;
because detailed archaeological studies are available for only some Maya sites; and because it remains puzzling why most of the Maya heartland remained
nearly empty of population and failed to recover after the collapse and after re-growth of forests’. The summary of this paragraph is option 4.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
20. Which factor has not been cited as one of the
factors causing the collapse of Maya society?
(1) Environmental degradation due to excess population
(2) Social collapse due to excess population
(3) Increased warfare among Maya people
(4) Climate change
(5) Obsession of Maya population with their own short-term concerns.

SOLUTION:
The second paragraph states, ‘…population growth outstripping available resources’. This led to deforestation and soil erosion which ultimately led
to environmental degradation. This eliminates option 1. The last paragraph states ‘…the Maya peak population numbers were followed swiftly by political
and social collapse’. This eliminates option 2. Option 3 is also mentioned in the passage. The third paragraph states ‘the third strand consisted of increased
fighting, as more and more people fought over fewer resources. Maya warfare, already endemic, peaked just before the collapse.’
Option 4 has been cited as one of the factors. In the third paragraph, ‘bringing matters to a head was the
strand of climate change.’ Option 5 is not mentioned in the passage. The fourth paragraph does state ‘short-term concerns of the kings and the nobles’ but
option 5 talks about the Maya population.
Hence, the correct answer is option 5.

Guided Practice- Reading Comprehension Passage -I

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Directions for Questions 41 to 48: Each of the two passages given below is followed by a set of four questions. Choose the best answer to each
question.

Crinoline and croquet are out. As yet, no political activists have thrown themselves in front of the royal horse on Derby Day. Even so, some
historians can spot the parallels. It is a time of rapid technological change. It is a period when the dominance of the world's superpower is coming under
threat. It is an epoch when prosperity masks underlying economic strain. And, crucially, it is a time when policy-makers are confident that all is for the best
in the best of all possible worlds. Welcome to the Edwardian Summer of the second age of globalisation. Spare a moment to take stock of what's been
happening in the past few months. Let's start with the oil price, which has rocketed to more than $65 a barrel, more than double its level 18 months ago. The
accepted wisdom is that we shouldn't worry our little heads about that, because the incentives are there for business to build new production and refining
capacity, which will effortlessly bring demand and supply back into balance and bring crude prices back to S25 a barrel. As Tommy Cooper used to say, 'just
like that'.

Then there is the result of the French referendum on the European Constitution, seen as thick-headed luddites railing vainly against the modern
world. What the French needed to realise, the argument went, was that there was no alternative to the reforms that would make the country more flexible,
more competitive, more dynamic. Just the sort of reforms that allowed Gate Gourmet to sack hundreds of its staff at Heathrow after the sort of ultimatum
that used to be handed out by Victorian mill owners. An alternative way of looking at the French non" is that our neighbours translate "flexibility" as "you're
fired". Finally, take a squint at the United States. Just like Britain a century ago, a period of unquestioned superiority is drawing to a close. China is still a
long way from matching America's wealth, but it is growing at a stupendous rate and economic strength brings geopolitical clout. Already, there is evidence
of a new scramble for Africa as Washington and Beijing compete for oil stocks. Moreover, beneath the surface of the US economy, all is not well. Growth
looks healthy enough, but the competition from China and elsewhere has meant the world's biggest economy now imports far more than it exports. The US
is living beyond its means, but in this time of studied complacency a current account deficit worth 6 percent of gross domestic product is seen as a sign of
strength, not
weakness.

In this new Edwardian summer, comfort is taken from the fact that dearer oil has not had the savage inflationary consequences of 1973-74, when a
fourfold increase in the cost of crude brought an abrupt end to a postwar boom that had gone on uninterrupted for a quarter of a century. True, the cost of
living has been affected by higher transport costs, but we are talking of inflation at 2.3 per cent and not 27 per cent. Yet the idea that higher oil prices are of
little consequence is fanciful. If people are paying more to fill up their cars it leaves them with less to spend on everything else, but there is a reluctance to
consume less. In the 1970s unions were strong and able to negotiate large, compensatory pay deals that served to intensify inflationary pressure. In 2005,
that avenue is pretty much closed off, but the abolition of all the controls on credit that existed in the 1970s means that households are invited to borrow
more rather than consume less. The knock-on effects of higher oil prices are thus felt in different ways - through high levels of indebtedness, in inflated asset
prices, and in balance of payments deficits.
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There are those who point out, rightly, that modern industrial capitalism has proved mightily resilient these past 250 years, and that a sign of the
enduring strength of the system has been the way it apparently shrugged off everything - a stock market crash, 9/11, rising oil prices - that have been thrown
at it in the half decade since the millennium. Even so, there are at least three reasons for concern. First, we have been here before. In terms of political
economy, the first era of globalisation mirrored our own.

There was a belief in unfettered capital flows, in free trade, and in the power of the market. It was a time of massive income inequality and
unprecedented migration. Eventually, though, there was a backlash, manifested in a struggle between free traders and protectionists, and in rising labour
militancy.
Second, the world is traditionally at its most fragile at times when the global balance of power is in flux. By the end of the nineteenth century,
Britain's role as the hegemonic power was being challenged by the rise of the United States, Germany, and Japan while the Ottoman and Hapsburg empires
were clearly in rapid decline, Looking ahead from 2005, it is clear that over the next two or three decades, both China and India - which together account for
half the world's population - will flex their muscles. Finally, there is the question of what rising oil prices tell us. The emergence of China and India means
global demand for crude is likely to remain high at a time when experts say production is about to top out. If supply constraints start to bite, any declines in
the price are likely to be short-term cyclical affairs punctuating a long upward trend.
41. By the expression 'Edwardian Summer', the
author refers to a period in which there is
(1) unparalleled luxury and opulence.
(2) a sense of complacency among people because of all-round prosperity.
(3) A culmination of all-round economic prosperity.
(4) an imminent danger lurking behind economic prosperity.
42. What, according to the author, has resulted in a
widespread belief in the resilience of modern
capitalism?
(1) Growth in the economies of Western countries despite shocks in the form of increase in levels of indebtedness and inflated asset prices.
(2) Increase in the prosperity of Western countries and China despite rising oil prices.
(3) Continued growth of Western economies despite a rise in terrorism, an increase in oil prices and other similar shocks.
(4) The success of continued reforms aimed at making Western economies more dynamic, competitive and efficient.

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43. Which of the following best represents the key

argument made by the author?
(1) The rise in oil prices, the flux in the global balance of power and historical precedents should make us question our belief that the global economic
prosperity would continue.
(2) The belief that modern industrial capitalism is highly resilient and capable of overcoming shocks will be belied soon.
(3) Widespread prosperity leads to neglect of early signs of underlying economic weakness, manifested in higher oil prices and a flux in the global
balance of power.
(4) A crisis is imminent in the West given the growth of countries like China and India and the increase in oil prices.

44. What can be inferred about the author's view

when he states, 'As Tommy Cooper used to say
"just like that"'?
(1) Industry has incentive to build new production and refining capacity and therefore oil prices would reduce.
(2) There would be a correction in the price levels of oil once new production capacity is added.
(3) The decline in oil prices is likely to be short-term in nature.
(4) It is not necessary that oil prices would go down to earlier levels.

PASSAGE II
While complex in the extreme, Derrida's work has proven to be a particularly influential approach to the analysis of the ways in which language
structures our understanding of ourselves and the world we inhabit, an approach he termed deconstruction. In its simplest formulation, deconstruction can be
taken to refer to a methodological strategy which seeks to uncover layers of hidden meaning in a text that have been denied or suppressed.

The term 'text', in this respect, does not refer simply to a written form of communication, however. Rather, texts are something we all produce and
reproduce constantly in our everyday social relations, be they spoken, written or embedded in the construction of material artifacts. At the heart of Derrida's
deconstructive approach is his critique of what he perceives to be the totalitarian impulse of the Enlightenment pursuit to bring all that exists in the world
under the domain of a representative language, a pursuit he refers to as logocentrism. Logocentrism is the search for a rational language that is able to know
and represent the world and all its aspects perfectly and accurately.

Its totalitarian dimension, for Derrida at least, lies primarily in its tendency to marginalize or dismiss all that does not neatly comply with its
particular linguistic representations, a tendency that, throughout history, has all too frequently been manifested in the form of authoritarian institutions. Thus

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logocentrism has, in its search for the truth of absolute representation, subsumed difference and oppressed that which it designates as its alien 'other'. For
Derrida, western civilization has been built upon such a systematic assault on alien cultures and ways of life, typically in the name of reason and progress.
In response to logocentrism, deconstruction posits the idea that the mechanism by which this process of marginalization and the ordering of truth
occurs is through establishing systems of binary opposition. Oppositional linguistic dualisms, such as rational/irrational, culture/nature and good/bad are not,
however, construed as equal partners as they are in, say, the semiological structuralism of Saussure. Rather, they exist, for Derrida, in a series of hierarchical
relationships with the first term normally occupying a superior position. Derrida defines the relationship between such oppositional terms using the
neologism differance (French term for difference). This refers to the realization that in any statement, oppositional terms differ from each other (for instance,
the difference between rationality and irrationality is constructed through oppositional usage), and at the same time, a hierarchical relationship is maintained
by the deference of one term to the other (in the positing of rationality over irrationality, for instance). It is this latter point which is perhaps the key to
understanding Derrida's approach to deconstruction.

For the fact that at any given time one term must defer to its oppositional 'other', means that the two terms are constantly in a state of
interdependence. The presence of one is dependent upon the absence or 'absent-presence' of the 'other', such as in the case of good and evil, whereby to
understand the nature of one, we must constantly relate it to the absent term in order to grasp its meaning. That is, to do good, we must understand that our
act is not evil for without that comparison the term becomes meaningless. Put simply, deconstruction represents an attempt to demonstrate the absent-
presence of this oppositional 'other', to show that what we say or write is in itself not expressive simply of what is present, but also of what is absent. Thus,
deconstruction seeks to reveal the interdependence of apparently dichotomous terms and their meanings relative to their textual context; that is, within the
linguistic power relations which structure dichotomous terms hierarchically. In Derrida's own words, a deconstructive reading "must always aim at a certain
relationship, unperceived by the writer, between what he commands and what he does not command of the patterns of a language that he uses. . . .[It]
attempts to make the not-seen accessible to sight." Meaning, then, is never fixed or stable, whatever the intention of the author of a text.

For Derrida, language is a system of relations that are dynamic, in that all meanings we ascribe to the world are dependent not only on what we
believe to be present but also on what is absent. Thus, any act of interpretation must refer not only to what the author of a text intends, but also to what is
absent from his or her intention. This insight leads, once again, to Derrida's further rejection of the idea of the definitive authority of the intentional agent or
subject. The subject is decentred; it is conceived as the outcome of relations of differance. As author of its own biography, the subject thus becomes the
ideological fiction of modernity and its logocentric philosophy, one that depends upon the formation of hierarchical dualisms, which repress and deny the
presence of the absent 'other'. No meaning can, therefore, ever be definitive, but is merely an outcome of a particular interpretation.

5. According to the passage, Derrida believes that:

(1) Reality can be construed only through the use of rational analysis.
(2) Language limits our construction of reality.
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(3) A universal language will facilitate a common understanding of reality.

(4) We need to uncover the hidden meaning in a system of relations expressed by language.
6. To Derrida, 'logocentrism' does not imply:
(1) A totalitarian impulse.
(2) A domain of representative language.
(3) Interdependence of the meanings of dichotomous terms.
(4) A strategy that seeks to suppress hidden meanings in a text.
7. According to the passage, Derrida believes that
the system of binary opposition
(1) represents a prioritization or hierarchy.
(2) reconciles contradictions and dualities.
(3) weakens the process of marginalization and
ordering of truth.
(4) deconstructs reality.
8. Derrida rejects the idea of 'definitive authority of
the subject' because
(1) interpretation of the text may not make the unseen visible.
(2) the meaning of the text is based on binary opposites.
(3) the implicit power relationship is often ignored.
(4) any act of interpretation must refer to what the author intends.

SOLUTION:
1. “Welcome to the Edwardian Summer...” (end of first paragraph) is clue enough to choose the right answer. The passage does not talk about
unparalleled opulence or a culmination of all round economic prosperity. Hence options 1 and 3 can be eliminated. Option 4 is eliminated because of
the ‘imminent danger’. Nobody is welcomed to an imminent danger. Edwardian as a vocabulary item means ‘of or pertaining to the reign of Edward
VII’ or reflecting the opulence or self-satisfaction characteristic of this reign. Option 2 is correct because the writer is talking about ‘this time of studied
complacency’ almost throughout the passage. Hence, the correct answer is option 2.
2. The last four paragraphs are summarized in option 3. Though all options are almost the same, each one is incomplete in one way or the other when
compared to option 3. For example, if option 1 talks about shocks, it misses out on terrorism, etc. Option 3 is more inclusive and complete. Hence, the
correct answer is option 3.
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3. Options 2 and 3 get eliminated because there are broad generalizations. Such generalizations are the not the key arguments of the writer. The writer is
quite specific about the time and space we are living in. Option 4 gets eliminated because the option stresses the ‘imminent crisis’ whereas the writer
does not, and is cautioning about studied complacency. Option 1 encapsulates the key arguments of the writer by mentioning a few examples and urges
‘us to question’ our complacency which is the key argument of the passage.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.
4. Tommy Copper was a comedian-magician one of whose catchphrases during his performances was ‘Just like that’. The reference occurs in the second
paragraph. The writer talks about the ‘more than doubling of oil prices’ and our optimism that we would find a way to bring the prices down to pre
increase levels. Then the writer in a completely sarcastic tone makes the reference to Tommy Cooper’s catch phrase, implying that this optimism is
ridiculous. Once this understood choosing option 4 becomes easy, because all the other options get eliminated together as they are all contrary to option
4.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
5. The passage states, “in its simplest formulation, deconstruction can be taken to refer to a methodological strategy which seeks to uncover layers of
hidden meaning in a text that have been denied or suppressed.” Options 1 and 3 are contrary to the passage, and option 2 gets eliminated because it says
‘construction of reality’ (interpretation in place of construction may have been acceptable). Hence, the correct answer is option 4.

6. The passage states, “at the heart of Derrida’s deconstructive approach is his critique of what he perceives to be the totalitarian impulse of the
Enlightenment pursuit to bring all that exists in the world under the domain of a representative language, a pursuit he refers to as logocentrism.”
Options 1 and 2 are eliminated form this point of view. Option 4 is eliminated because deconstruction stands for seeking the hidden meaning and
logocentrism stands for suppressing it. If the above eliminates options other than option 3 what supports option 3 is to be found in the paragraph
beginning, “In response to logocentrism, deconstruction posits the idea that the mechanism by which this process of marginalization and the ordering of
truth occurs is through establishing systems of binary opposition.” The binary opposition is then explained as the interdependence in option 3. Hence,
the correct answer is option 3.

7. This is directly stated in the passage. The system of binary opposition, or opposites like rational/irrational are not opposites, “rather, they exist, for
Derrida, in a series of hierarchical relationships with the first term normally occupying a superior position.” No option other than option 1 merits
evaluation if this part of the passage, which is then explained in detail, is clearly understood. Hence, the correct answer is option 1.

8. The answer can be inferred from the last paragraph, beginning, “Meaning, then, is never fixed or stable, …” followed by “Thus, any act of
interpretation must refer not only to what the author of a text intends, but also to what is absent from his or her intention.” This is why Derrida rejects
‘definitive authority’. In this case option 4 is contrary to the passage. It is difficult to see how option 3 is relevant to the question, especially the ‘often’
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in it. Option 2 says the meaning is based on ‘binary opposites’ – whereas binary opposites may be an interpretation/analysis rather than the meaning of
the text is based on it. The last paragraph clearly supports the inference in option 1.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.

Guided Practice- Reading Comprehension/General Comprehension

Directions for Questions 01 to 03: The passage given below is followed by a set of three
questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.

To discover the relation between rules, paradigms, and normal science, consider first how
the historian isolates the particular loci of commitment that have been described as accepted rules. Close historical investigation of a given specialty at a
given time discloses a set of recurrent and quasi-standard illustrations of various theories in their conceptual, observational, and instrumental applications.
These are the community's paradigms, revealed in its textbooks, lectures, and laboratory exercises. By studying them and by practicing with them, the
members of the corresponding community learn their trade. The historian, of course, will discover in addition a penumbral area occupied by achievements
whose status is still in doubt, but the core of solved problems and techniques will usually be clear. Despite occasional ambiguities, the paradigms of a mature
scientific community can be determined with relative ease.
That demands a second step and one of a somewhat different kind. When undertaking it, the historian must compare the community's paradigms with
each other and with its current research reports. In doing so, his object is to discover what isolable elements, explicit or implicit, the members of that
community may have abstracted from their more global paradigms and deploy it as rules in their research. Anyone who has attempted to describe or analyze
the evolution of a particular scientific tradition will necessarily have sought accepted principles and rules of this sort. Almost certainly, he will have met with
at least partial success.
But, if his experience has been at all like my own, he will have found the search for rules both more difficult and less satisfying than the search for
paradigms. Some of the generalizations he employs to describe the community's shared beliefs will present more problems. Others, however, will seem a
shade too strong. Phrased in just that way, or in any other way he can imagine, they would almost certainly have been rejected by some members of the
group he studies. Nevertheless, if the coherence of the research tradition is to be understood in terms of rules, some specification of common ground in the
corresponding area is needed. As a result, the search for a body of rules competent to constitute a given normal research tradition becomes a source of
continual and deep frustration.
Recognizing that frustration, however, makes it possible to diagnose its source. Scientists can agree that a Newton, Lavoisier, Maxwell, or Einstein
has produced an apparently permanent solution to a group of outstanding problems and still disagree, sometimes without being aware of it, about the
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particular abstract characteristics that make those solutions permanent. They can, that is, agree in their identification of a paradigm without agreeing on, or
even attempting to produce, a full interpretation or rationalization of it.
Lack of a standard interpretation or of an agreed reduction to rules will not prevent a paradigm from guiding research. Normal science can be
determined in part by the direct inspection of paradigms, a process that is often aided by but does not depend upon the formulation of rules and assumption.
Indeed, the existence of a paradigm need not even imply that any full set of rules exists.
01. What is the author attempting to illustrate
through this passage?
(1) Relationships between rules, paradigms, and normal science.
(2) How a historian would isolate a particular ‘loci of commitment’.
(3) How a set of shared beliefs evolve in to a paradigm.
(4) Ways of understanding a scientific tradition.
(5) The frustrations of attempting to define a paradigm of a tradition.
02. The term ‘loci of commitment’ as used in the
passage would most likely correspond with
which of the following?
(1) Loyalty between a group of scientists in a research laboratory.
(2) Loyalty between groups of scientists across research laboratories.
(3) Loyalty to a certain paradigm of scientific inquiry.
(4) Loyalty to global patterns of scientific inquiry.
(5) Loyalty to evolving trends of scientific inquiry.
03. The author of this passage is likely to agree
with which of the following?
(1) Paradigms almost entirely define a scientific tradition.
(2) A group of scientists investigating a phenomenon would benefit by defining a set of rules.
(3) Acceptance by the giants of a tradition is a sine qua non for a paradigm to emerge.
(4) Choice of isolation mechanism determines the types of paradigm that may emerge from a tradition.
(5) Paradigms are a general representation of rules and beliefs of a scientific tradition.

Directions for Questions 04to 06: The passage given below is followed by a set of three
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questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question

The difficulties historians face in establishing cause-and-effect relations in the history of human societies are broadly similar to the difficulties facing
astronomers, climatologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, geologists, and palaeontologists. To varying degrees each of these fields is plagued by the
impossibility of performing replicated, controlled experimental interventions, the complexity arising from enormous numbers of variables, the resulting
uniqueness of each system, the consequent impossibility of formulating universal laws, and the difficulties of predicting emergent properties and future
behaviour.

Prediction in history, as in other historical sciences, is most feasible on large spatial scales and over long times, when the unique features of millions
of small-scale brief events become averaged out. Just as I could predict the sex ratio of the next 1,000 newborns but not the sexes of my own two children,
the historian can recognize factors that made inevitable the broad outcome of the collision between American and Eurasian societies after 13,000 years of
separate developments, but not the outcome of the 1960 U.S. presidential election. The details of which candidate said what during a single televised debate
in October 1960 Could have given the electoral victory to Nixon instead of to Kennedy, but no details of who said what could have blocked the European
conquest of Native Americans.
How can students of human history profit from the experience of scientists in other historical sciences? A methodology that has proved useful
involves the comparative method and so-called natural experiments. While neither astronomers studying galaxy formation nor human historians can
manipulate their systems in controlled laboratory experiments, they both can take advantage of natural experiments, by comparing systems differing in the
presence or absence (or in the strong or weak effect) of some putative causative factor. For example, epidemiologists, forbidden to feed large amounts of salt
to people experimentally, have still been able to identify effects of high salt intake by comparing groups of humans who already differ greatly in their salt
intake; and cultural anthropologists, unable to provide human groups experimentally with varying resource abundances for many centuries, still study long-
term effects of resource abundance on human societies by comparing recent Polynesian populations living on islands differing naturally in resource
abundance.

The student of human history can draw on many more natural experiments than just comparisons among the five inhabited continents. Comparisons
can also utilize large islands that have developed complex societies in a considerable degree of isolation (such as Japan, Madagascar, Native American
Hispaniola, New Guinea, Hawaii, and many others), as well as societies on hundreds of smaller islands and regional societies within each of the continents.
Natural experiments in any field, whether in ecology or human history, are inherently open to potential methodological criticisms. Those include
confounding effects of natural variation in additional variables besides the one of interest, as well as problems in inferring chains of causation from observed
correlations between variables. Such methodological problems have been discussed in great detail for some of the historical sciences. In particular,
epidemiology, the science of drawing inferences about human diseases by comparing groups of people (often by retrospective historical studies), has for a
long time successfully employed formalized procedures for dealing with problems similar to those facing historians of human societies. In short, I
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acknowledge that it is much more difficult to understand human history than to understand problems in fields of science where history is unimportant and
where fewer individual variables operate.
Nevertheless, successful methodologies for analyzing historical problems have been worked out in several fields. As a result, the histories of
dinosaurs, nebulae, and glaciers are generally acknowledged to belong to fields of science rather than to the humanities.
04. Why do islands with considerable degree of
isolation provide valuable insights into human
history?
(1) Isolated islands may evolve differently and this difference is of interest to us.
(2) Isolated islands increase the number of observations available to historians.
(3) Isolated islands, differing in their endowments and size may evolve differently and this difference can be attributed to their endowments and size.
(4) Isolated islands, in so far as they are inhabited, arouse curiosity about how human beings evolved there.
05. According to the author, why is prediction
difficult in history?
(1) Historical explanations are usually broad so that no prediction is possible.
(2) Historical out comers depend upon a large number of factors and hence predictions is difficult for each case.
(3) Historical sciences, by their very nature, are not interested in a multitude of minor factors, which might be important in a specific historical outcome.
(4) Historians are interested in evolution of human history and hence are only interested in log term predictions.
(5) Historical sciences suffer from the inability to conduct controlled experiments and therefore have explanations based on a few long-term factors.
06. According to the author, which of the following
statements would be true?
(1) Students of history are missing significant opportunities by not conducting any natural experiments.
(2) Complex societies inhabiting large islands provide great opportunities for natural experiments.
(3) Students of history are missing significant opportunities by not studying an adequate variety of natural experiments.
(4) A unique problem faced by historians is their inability to establish cause and effect relationships.
(5) Cultural anthropologists have overcome the problem of confounding variables through natural experiments.
Directions for Questions 07 to 09: The passage given below is followed by a set of three
questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.

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Human Biology does nothing to structure human society. Age may enfeeble us all, but cultures vary considerably in the prestige and power they
accord to the elderly. Giving birth is a necessary condition for being a mother, but it is not sufficient. We expect mothers to behave in maternal ways and to
display appropriately maternal sentiments. We prescribe a clutch of norms or rules that govern the role of a mother. That the social role is independent of the
biological base can be demonstrated by going back three sentences.

Giving birth is certainly not sufficient to be a mother but, as adoption and fostering show, it is not even necessary! The fine detail of what is expected
of a mother or a father or a dutiful son differs from culture to culture, but everywhere behaviour is coordinated by the reciprocal nature of roles. Husbands
and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, waiters and customers, teachers and pupils, warlords and followers; each makes sense only in its
relation to the other. The term ‘role’ is an appropriate one, because the metaphor of an actor in a play neatly expresses the rule-governed nature or scripted
nature of much of social life and the sense that society is a joint production. Social life occurs only because people play their parts (and that is as true for war
and conflicts as for peace and love) and those parts make sense only in the context of the overall show. The drama metaphor also reminds us of the artistic
licence available to the players. We can play a part straight or, as the following from J.P. Sartre conveys, we can ham it up. Let us consider this waiter in the
cafe. His movement is quick and forward, a little too precise, a little too rapid. He comes towards the patrons with a step a little too quick. He bends forward
a little too eagerly; his voice, his eyes express an interest a little too solicitous for the order of the customer. Finally there he returns, trying to imitate in his
walk the inflexible stiffness of some kind of automaton while carrying his tray with the recklessness of a tightrope-walker....
All his behaviour seems to us a game....But what is he playing? We need not watch long before we can explain it: he is playing at being a waiter in a
cafe.
The American sociologist Erving Goffman built an influential body of social analysis on elaborations of the metaphor of social life as drama. Perhaps
his most telling point was that it is only through acting out a part that we express character. It is not enough to be evil or virtuous; we have to be seen to be
evil or virtuous. There is distinction between the roles we play and some underlying self. Here we might note that some roles are more absorbing than others.
We would not be surprised by the waitress who plays the part in such a way as to signal to us that she is much more than her occupation. We would be
surprised and offended by the father who played his part ‘tongue in cheek’. Some roles are broader and more far-reaching than others. Describing someone
as a clergyman or faith healer would say far more about that person than describing someone as a bus driver.
07. What is the thematic highlight of this passage?
(1) In the absence of strong biological linkages, reciprocal roles provide the mechanism for coordinating human behaviour.
(2) In the absence of reciprocal roles, biological linkages provide the mechanism for coordinating human behaviour.
(3) Human behaviour is independent of biological linkages and reciprocal roles.
(4) Human behaviour depends on biological linkages and reciprocal roles.
(5) Reciprocal roles determine normative human behavior in society.

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8. Which of the following would have been true if

biological linkages structured human society?
(1) The role of mother would have been defined through her reciprocal relationship with her children.
(2) We would not have been offended by the father playing his role ‘tongue in cheek’.
(3) Women would have adopted and fostered children rather than giving birth to them.
(4) Even if warlords were physically weaker than their followers, they would still dominate them.
(5) Waiters would have stronger motivation to serve their customers.
9. It has been claimed in the passage that “some
roles are more absorbing than others”.
According to passage, which of the following
seem(s) appropriate reason(s) for such a claim?
a. Some roles carry great expectations from the society preventing manifestation of the true self.
b. Society ascribes so much importance to some roles that the conception of self may get aligned with the roles being performed.
c. Some roles require development of skill and expertise leaving little time for manifestation of self.
(1) A only (2) B only
(3) C only (4) A & B
(5) B & C
Directions for Questions 10 to 12: The passage given below is followed by a set of three
questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
Every civilized society lives and thrives on a silent but profound agreement as to what is to be accepted as the valid mould of experience. Civilization
is a complex system of dams, dykes, and canals warding off, directing, and articulating the influx of the surrounding fluid element; a fertile fenland,
elaborately drained and protected from the high tides of chaotic, unexercised, and inarticulate experience. In such a culture, stable and sure of itself within
the frontiers of 'naturalized' experience, the arts wield their creative power not so much in width as in depth. They do not create new experience, but deepen
and purify the old. Their works do not differ from one another like a new horizon from a new horizon, but like a madonna from a madonna.

The periods of art which are most vigorous in creative passion seem to occur when the established pattern of experience loosens its rigidity without
as yet losing its force. Such a period was the Renaissance, and Shakespeare its poetic consummation. Then it was as though the discipline of the old order
gave depth to the excitement of the breaking away, the depth of job and tragedy, of incomparable conquests and irredeemable losses. Adventurers of
experience set out as though in lifeboats to rescue and bring back to the shore treasures of knowing and feeling which the old order had left floating on the
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high seas. The works of the early Renaissance and the poetry of Shakespeare vibrate with the compassion for live experience in danger of dying from
exposure and neglect. In this compassion was the creative genius of the age. Yet, it was a genius of courage, not of desperate audacity. For, however
elusively, it still knew of harbours and anchors, of homes to which to return, and of barns in which to store the harvest. The exploring spirit of art was in the
depths of its consciousness still aware of a scheme of things into which to fit its exploits and creations. But the more this scheme of things loses its stability,
the more boundless and uncharted appears the ocean of potential exploration. In the blank confusion of infinite potentialities flotsam of significance gets
attached to jetsam of experience; for everything is sea, everything is at sea –
.... The sea is all about us; The sea is the land's edge also, the granite Into which it reaches, the beaches where it tosses Its hints of earlier and other
creation ..

- and Rilke tells a story in which, as in T.S. Eliot's poem, it is again the sea and the distance of 'other creation' that becomes the image of the poet's reality. A
rowing boat sets out on a difficult passage. The oarsmen labour in exact rhythm. There is no sign yet of the destination. Suddenly a man, seemingly idle,
breaks out into song. And if the labour of the oarsmen meaninglessly defeats the real resistance of the real waves, it is the idle single who magically
conquers the despair of apparent aimlessness.

While the people next to him try to come to grips with the element that is next to them, his voice seems to bind the boat to the farthest distance so
that the farthest distance draws it towards itself. 'I don't know why and how,' is Rilke's conclusion, 'but suddenly I understood the situation of the poet, his
place and function in this age. It does not matter if one denies him every place - except this one. There one must tolerate him.'
10. In the passage, the expression “like a madonna from a madonna” alludes to
(1) The difference arising as a consequence of artistic license.
(2) The difference between two artistic interpretations.
(3) The difference between ‘life’ and ‘interpretation of life’.
(4) The difference between ‘width’ and ‘depth’ of creative power.
(5) The difference between the legendary character and the modern day singer.
11. The sea and ‘other creation’ leads Rilke to
(1) Define the place of the poet in his culture.
(2) Reflect on the role of the oarsman and the singer.
(3) Muse on artistic labour and its aim lessens.
(4) Understand the elements that one has to deal with.
(5) Delve into natural experience and real waves.

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12. According to the passage, the term

“adventurers of experience” refers to
(1) Poets and artists who are driven by courage.
(2) Poets and artists who create their own genre.
(3) Poets and artists of the Renaissance.
(4) Poets and artists who revitalize and enrich the past for us.
(5) Poets and artists who delve in flotsam and jetsam in sea.

SOLUTIONS:
1. Option 1 is factually correct and answers the question how rather than what. Options 2, 3 and 5 are partial in answering the question what the author is
trying to illustrate. Option 4 is supported by the following: “To discover the relation between rules, paradigms, and normal science, consider first how
the historian isolates the particular loci of commitment that have been described as accepted rules.” (at the beginning of the passage) and “Normal
science can be determined in part by the direct inspection of paradigms, … formulation of rules and assumption.” (Towards the end of the passage). This,
then is the purpose of the passage. Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
2. The meaning given in option 3 to ‘loci of commitment’ is explicitly stated in the passage. The passage says: the historian tries to isolate the ‘particular
loci of commitment’ at a given time and then explains what he is trying to find out and concludes by saying ‘these are the community’s paradigms’.
Thus, loci of commitment are the same as the paradigms. None of the other options are worth evaluating because they are further in the passage and not
related to the question. Hence, the correct answer is option 3.
3. Option 5 is a mere definition of the term ‘paradigm’ as used in the passage. Paradigm in the context means a set of broad guidelines accepted by a group
of researchers. They are not as rigid as rules. They are not very concrete and differ from community to community. Option 1 is easily eliminated because
of “entirely define’ which is too drastic. Option 2 is eliminated because of ’would benefit’ – nothing in the passage even implicitly supports this. Option
3 is contrary to the passage in the part referring to Newton, Lavoisier, Maxwell, and Einstein. Option 4 – ‘the choice of isolation mechanism’ is not
discussed in the passage, nor is it even indirectly referred to. Hence, the correct answer is option 5.
4. The answer is supported by the paragraph beginning “The student of human history can draw on many more natural experiments than just comparisons
among the five inhabited continents. Comparisons can also utilize large islands that have developed complex societies in a considerable degree of
isolation ….. as well as societies on hundreds of smaller islands and regional societies within each of the continents.”
Option 1 and 3 say the same thing. Option 1 is eliminated because the ‘difference’ mentioned in option 1 is explained in 3. Hence option 3 scores over
option 1. Option 4 is eliminated because ‘the good comparison to large islands’ is inconsequential to the student of history. The student is more
interested in knowing how endowments and size affect societies – as a natural experiment. Option 5 is eliminated because the paragraph does says
nothing about arousing ‘curiosity about how humans evolved’ as stated in the option. Hence, the correct answer is option 3.
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5. The answer is directly supported by “The student of human history can draw on many more natural experiments than …. the five inhabited continents.
Comparisons can also utilize large islands ….. as well as societies on hundred of smaller islands and regional societies within each of the continents”.
The implication is expressed in option 3. Option 1 is false in “not conducting…” – this is not true.

Option 2 is false – the passage nowhere says that large islands provide great opportunities for natural experiments” – they are one of the opportunities
among many. The problem faced by historians is not ‘unique’ as stated in option 4. The passage explicitly states that it is faced by several other studies
mentioned in the first sentence itself. There is no data in the passage (even by implication) about cultural anthropologists. Hence option 5 too is wrong.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.
6. The answer is directly supported by “The student of human history can draw on many more natural experiments than …. the five inhabited continents.
Comparisons can also utilize large islands ….. as well as societies on hundred of smaller islands and regional societies within each of the continents”.
The implication is expressed in option 3.
Option 1 is false in “not conducting…” – this is not true. Option 2 is false – the passage nowhere says that large islands provide great opportunities for
natural experiments” – they are one of the opportunities among many. The problem faced by historians is not ‘unique’ as stated in option 4. The passage
explicitly states that it is faced by several other studies mentioned in the first sentence itself. There is no data in the passage (even by implication) about
cultural anthropologists. Hence option 5 too is wrong. Hence, the correct answer is option 3.

7. The theme of the passage is that biological linkages (for example mother – child; father – child) do not structure human society. We expect a biological
mother to display certain characteristics in her ‘role’ as a mother as an ideal. The passage is then an explanation of how human society is structured on
the basis of such definitions of roles considered as ideals. Only option 5 captures this briefly. Option 1 talks about ‘absence of strong biological linkages’
which is not dealt with in the passage. Option 2 is contrary to the theme of the passage. Option 3 which states “… behavior is independent of …
reciprocal roles” is contrary to the passage. Option 4 may be evaluated as the answer, but passage does not state that human behavior is dependent on
biological linkages, and the example of the step mother disproves this option. Only option 5 captures the theme of the passage. Hence, the correct answer
is option 5.
8. There is distinction between the roles we play and some underlying self. Here we might note that some roles are more absorbing than others. We would
not be surprised by the waitress who plays the part in such a way as to signal to us that she is much more than her occupation. We would be surprised
and offended by the father who played his part ‘tongue in cheek’ (insincerely). The father’s self is denied by his identification with his biological
relationship. If this does not happen, if a father behaves in a tongue in cheek manner, we are offended. If biological relations structured human society it
is enough to be a biological father to be accepted by society to be so. His behavior is unimportant. All the other options support the fact that ‘reciprocal
relationship’ structure human society. Hence, the correct answer is option 2.

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9. The "two discernible" or "official discourses" makes it compulsory to place statement E after statement A, because statement E talks about "a third
unofficial discourse". (In other words if not placed next to statement A, statement E cannot be placed anywhere else). AE is the first mandatory pair.
'These frameworks' in statement D is explained in statement E so that statement D unless placed next to statement E, will not make sense. (In other
words ED too is mandatory.) The idea of motherhood from statement D (biological tie) is continued in statement B. Thus the links in EDB are most
obvious. Statements C and B too are clearly linked because statement B ends with reference to 'dominant discourse' and statement C begins with
'historical work' making EDBC most logical sequence. Hence, the correct answer is option 1.
10. The lines, “… the art wield their creative power not so much in width as in depth. They do not create new experience, but deepen and purify the old.
Their works do not differ from one another like a new horizon from a new horizon…” tell us that the works of art do not differ in their ‘width’ and
’depth’ (as mentioned in option 4) ‘life’ and its ‘interpretation’ (as mentioned in option 3) , but are merely different interpretations of the ‘old’
experience as one painting of Madonna (Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus) differs from another version. This eliminates options 3 and 4. The
consequence of artistic license is not discussed in the passage so this eliminates option 1. Option 5 is ridiculous because the Madonna here does not refer
to the modern day singer. Hence, the correct answer is option 2.
11. Rilke’s conclusion is almost verbatim repeated in option 1. “I don’t know why and how,’ is Rilke’s conclusion, ‘but suddenly I understood the situation
of the poet, his place and function in this age.” These are the concluding words of Rilke from the passage after the example of the ‘sea’ and ‘the other
creation’ mentioned in the question. Option 2 is mundane and quotes the example itself and not its purpose. Option 3 is abstract, and an ‘aimlessness’
cannot be attributed either to the oarsmen or the singer. Option 4 ‘understanding the elements’ is not the purpose of either the oarsmen or the singer.
Option 5 is vague; the passage does not explain either natural experience or real waves. Hence, the correct answer is option 1.
12. Adventurers of experience set out as though in lifeboats to rescue and bring back to the shore treasures of knowing and feeling which the old order had
left floating on the high seas. The work of the early Renaissance and the poetry of Shakespeare vibrate with the compassion for live experience in danger
of dying from exposure and neglect. In this compassion was the creative genius of the age.” Renaissance artists are cited as examples of ‘adventurers of
experience’. These italicized words make option 4 right. As a result, option 3 is eliminated as being merely an example. Driven by courage (option1)
create their own genre (option 2) are partial and not the intended meaning of the writer. This eliminates options 1 and 2.

Option 5 is also related to the example in a literal way, whereas the writer is being symbolic in calling the artists adventurers. This eliminates option 5.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.

GENERAL COMPREHENSION
Analyze the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the question nos. 1 through 7 that follow.
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India is renowned for its diversity. Dissimilitude abounds in every sphere -from the physical elements of its land and people to the intangible
workings of its beliefs and practices. Indeed, given this variety, India itself appears to be not a single entity but an amalgamation, a "constructs" arising from
the conjoining of innumerable, discrete parts. Modem scholarship has, quite properly, tended to explore these elements in isolation. (In part, this trend
represents the conscious reversal of the stance taken by an earlier generation of scholars whose work reified India into a monolithic entity - a critical element
in the much maligned "Orientalist" enterprise.) Nonetheless, the representation of India as a singular "Whole" is not an entirely capricious enterprise; for
India is an identifiable entity, united by - if not born out of - certain deep and pervasive structures. Thus, for example, the Hindu tradition has long
maintained a body of mythology that weaves the disparate temples, gods, even geographic landscapes that exist throughout the subcontinent into a unified,
albeit syncretic, whole.
In the realm of thought, there is no more pervasive, unifying structure than karma.
It is the "doctrine" or "law" that ties actions to results and creates a determinant link between an individual's status in this life and his or her fate in
future lives. Following what is considered to be its appearances in the Upanishads, the doctrine reaches into nearly every corner of Hindu thought. Indeed, its
dominance is such in the Hindu world view that karma encompasses, at the same time, life-affirming and life-negating functions; for just as it defines the
world in terms of the "positive" function of delineating a doctrine of rewards and punishments, so too it defines the world through its "negative"
representation of action as an all but inescapable trap, an unremitting cycle of death and rebirth. Despite - or perhaps because of- karma's ubiquity, the
doctrine is not easily defined. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty reports of a scholarly conference devoted to the study of karma that although the participants
admitted to a general sense of the doctrine's parameters, considerable time was in a "lively but ultimately vain attempt to define karma and rebirth".

The base meaning of the term "karma" (or, more precisely, in its Sanskrit stem form, karma a neuter substantive) is "action". As a doctrine, karma
encompasses a number of quasi-independent concepts: rebirth (punafjanam), consequence (phala, literally "fruit," a term that suggests the "ripening" of
actions into consequences), and the valuation or "ethic-ization" of acts, qualifying them as either "good" (puny a or sukannan) or "bad" (papam
orduskarman). In a general way, however, for at least the past two thousand years, the following (from the well known text, the Bhagavata Parana) has held
true as representing the principal elements of the harm a doctrine:
"The same person enjoys the fruit of the same sinful or a meritorious act in the next world in the same manner and to the same extent according to the
manner and extent, to which that (sinful or meritorious) act has been done by him in this world." Nevertheless, depending on the doctrine's context, which
itself ranges from its appearance in a vast number of literary sources to its usage on the popular level, not all these elements may be present (though in a
general way they may be implicit).

1. The Orientalist perspective, according to the

author:
a. Viewed India as a country of diversity
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b. Viewed India as if it was a single and unitary entity devoid of diversity.

c. Viewed India both as single and diverse entity.
d. Viewed India as land of karma.
e. Viewed India in the entirety.
The correct answer is option B.
2. "Reify" in the passage means:
a. To make real out of abstract
b. Reversal of stance
c. Unitary whole
d. Diversity
e. Unity in diversity
The correct answer is option C.
3. "Ethic-ization" in the passage means
a. Process of making something ethical
b. Converting unethical persons into ethical
c. Judging and evaluation.
d. Teaching ethics
e. None of the above
The correct answer is option E.
4. Consider the following statements:

1. Meaning of karma is contextual.

2. Meaning of karma is not unanimous.
3. Meaning of karma includes many other quasi-independent concepts.
4. Karma also means actions and their rewards.
Which of the above statements are true?
A. 1,2,3 B. 2,3,4
C. 1,3,4 D. None of the above

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E. All the four are true

The correct answer is option E.
5. The base meaning of karma is:

a. reward and punishment.

b. only those actions which yield a "phala".
c. any action.
d. ripening of actions into consequences.
e. None of the above
The correct answer is option C.

6. As per the author, which of the following

statements is wrong?
a. India is a diverse country.
b. Doctrine of karma runs across divergent Hindu thoughts.
c. Doctrine of karma has a rich scholarly discourse.
d. Scholars could not resolve the meaning of karma.
e. Modern scholars have studied Hinduism as a syncretic whole.
The correct answer is option A.

7. Which of the following, if true, would be

required for the concept of karma - as defined in
Bhagavata Purana - to be made equally valid
across different space-time combinations?
a. Karma is judged based on the observers' perception, and hence the observer is a necessary condition for its validity.
b. Karma is an orientalist concept limited to oriental countries.
c. Each epoch will have its own
understanding of karma and therefore there
can not be uniform validity of the concept of
karma.
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d. The information of the past actions and

the righteousness of each action would be
embodied in the individual.
e. Each space-time combination would have
different norms of righteousness and their
respective expert panels which will judge
each action as per those norms.
The correct answer is option D.

Analyse the passage given and provide an appropriate answer for the question nos. 9 through 11 that follow.
Deborah Mayo is a philosopher of science who has attempted to capture the implications of the new experimental ism in a philosophically rigorous
way. Mayo focuses on the detailed way in which claims are validated by experiment, and is concerned with identifying just what claims are borne out and
how. A key idea underlying her treatment is that a claim can only be said to be supported by experiment if the various ways in which the claim could be as
fault have been investigated and eliminated. A claim can only be said to be borne out by experiment, and a severe test of a claim, as usefully construed by
Mayo, must be such that the claim would be unlikely to pass it if it were false.
Her idea can be explained by some simple examples. Suppose Snell's law of refraction of light is tested by some very rough experiments in which
very large margins of error are attributed to the measurements of angles of incidence and refraction, and suppose that the results are shown to be compatible
with the law within those margins of error. Has the law been supported by experiments that have severely tested it? From Mayo's perspective the answer is
"no" because, owing to the roughness of the measurements, the law of refraction would be quite likely to pass this test even if it were false and some other
law differing not too much from Snell's law true. An exercise I carried out in my school-teaching days serves to drive this point home. My students had
conducted some not very careful experiments to test Snell's law. I then presented them with some alternative laws of refraction that had been suggested in
antiquity and mediaeval times, prior to the discovery of Snell's law, and invited the students to test them with the measurements they had used to test Snell's
law; because of the wide margins of error they had attributed to their measurements, all of these alternative laws pass the test. This clearly brings out the
point that the experiments in question did not constitute a severe test of Snell's law. The law would have passed the test even if it were false and one of the
historical alternatives true.

9. Which of the following conclusion can be drawn

from the passage?
a. Experimental data might support multiple theoretical explanations at the same time, hence validity of theories needs to be tested further.
b. Precise measurement is a sufficient condition to ensure validity of conclusions resulting from an experiment.
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c. Precise measurement is both a necessary and sufficient condition to ensure validity of conclusions resulting from an experiment.
d. Precise measurement along with experimenter's knowledge of the theory underpinning the experiment is sufficient to ensure the validity of conclusions
drawn from experiments.
e. All of these
The correct answer is option C.
10. As per Mayo's perspective, which of the
following best defines the phrase "scientific
explanation"?
a. One which is most detailed in its explanation of natural phenomena.
b. One which has been thoroughly tested by scientific experts.
c. One which survives examinations better than other explanations.
d. One which refutes other explanations convincingly.
e. All of these.
The correct answer is option D.
11. The author's use of Snell's law of refraction to
illustrate Mayo's perspective can best said to be
A. Contrived. B. Premeditated.
C. Superfluous. D. Illustrative.
E. Inadequate.
The correct answer is option D.
Analyze the passage given and provide an appropriate answer for the question nos. 12 through 15 that follow.
Enunciated by Jung as an integral part of his psychology in 1916 immediately after his nsettling confrontation with the unconscious, the anscendent
function was seen by Jung as uniting the opposites, transforming psyche, and central to the individuation process. It also undoubtedly reflects his personal
experience in coming to terms with the unconscious. Jung portrayed the transcendent function as operating through symbol and fantasy and mediating
between the opposites of consciousness and the unconscious to prompt the emergence of a new, third posture that transcends the two. In exploring the details
of the transcendent function and its connection to other Jungian constructs, this work has unearthed significant changes, ambiguities, and inconsistencies in
Jung's writings. Further, it has identified two separate images of the transcendent function: (1) the narrow transcendent function, the function or process
within Jung's pantheon of psychic structures, generally seen as the uniting of the opposites of consciousness and the unconscious from which a new attitude
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emerges; and (2) the expansive transcendent function, the root metaphor for psyche or being psychological that subsumes Jung's pantheon and that
apprehends the most fundamental psychic activity of interacting with the unknown or other. This book has also posited that the expansive transcendent
function, as the root metaphor for exchanges between conscious and the unconscious, is the wellspring from whence flows other key Jungian structures such
as the archetypes and the Self, and is the core of the individuation process. The expansive transcendent function has been explored further by surveying other
schools of psychology, with both depth and non-depth orientations, and evaluating the transcendent function alongside structures or processes in those other
schools which play similar mediatory and/or transitional roles.
12. The above passage is most likely an excerpt
from:
a. A research note
b. An entry on a psychopathology blog
c. A popular magazine article
d. A scholarly treatise
e. A newspaper article
The correct answer is option A.
13. It can be definitely inferred from the passage
above that
a. The expansive transcendent function would include elements of both the Consciousness and the Unconscious.
b. Archetypes emerge from the narrow transcendent function.
c. The whole work, from which this excerpt is taken, primarily concerns itself with the inconsistencies in Jung's writings.
d. Jung's pantheon of concepts subsumes the root metaphor of psyche.
e. The transcendent is the core of the individuation process.

The correct answer is option C.

14. A comparison similar to the distinction
between the two images of the transcendent
function would be:
a. raucous: hilarious
b. synchronicity: ontology
c. recession: withdrawal
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d. penurious: decrepit
e. none of the above

The correct answer is option E.

15. As per the passage, the key Jungian structure –
other than the Self - that emerges from the
expansive transcendent function may NOT be
expressed as a(n):
A. Stereotype B. Anomaly
C. Idealized model D. Original pattern
E. Epitome
The correct answer is option C.
Directions (26-23): Go through the caselets below and answer the questions that follow.

Question No (16-23): According to recent reports, CEOs of large organisations are paid more than CEOs of small organisations. It does not seem fair that
just because a CEO is heading a big organisation s/he should be paid more. CEOs' salary should be related to performance, especially growth in terms of
sales and profits. Of course, big organisations are more complex than the small, but all CEOs require significant amount of energy and time in managing
organisations. There is no proof that CEOs of big organisations are more stressed than CEOs of small organisations. All CEOs should be paid according to
their performance.

16. A person seeking to refute the argument might

argue that
a. CEOs should be paid equally.
b. Managing big organisation is more challenging than small.
c. CEOs, who travel more should be paid more.
d. If CEOs of small companies perform well, the company would become big and so would be CEOs' salary.
e. Highly qualified CEOs should be paid more because they have acquired difficult education.
The correct answer is option B.
17. Which of the following, if true, would
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strengthen the speaker's argument?

a. CEOs of small organisations come from good educational background.
b. CEOs of big organisations are very difficult to hire.
c. A few big family businesses have CEOs from within the family.
d. Big organisations contribute more towards moral development of society.
E. CEOs in big organisation take much longer to reach top, as compared to their counterparts in small organisations.
The correct answer is option A.
Question No (18-19): Hindi ought to be the official language of India. There is no reason for the government to spend money printing documents in
different languages, just to cater to people who cannot read/write Hindi. The government has better ways to spend tax payers' money. People across India
should read/write Hindi or learn it at the earliest.
18. Which of the following, if true, would weaken
the speaker's argument the most?
a. The government currently translates official documents into more than eighteen languages.
b. Hindi is the most difficult language in the world to speak.
c. Most people who travel across India learn Hindi within five years.
d. Making Hindi the official language is a politically unpopular idea.
e. People who are multilingual usually pay maximum taxes.
The correct answer is option B.
19. United Nations members contribute funds,
proportionate to their population, for
facilitating smooth functioning of the UN. By
2010, India, being the most populous nation on
the planet, would contribute the maximum
amount to the UN. Therefore, official language
of United Nations should be changed to Hindi.
Which of the following is true?
a. The point above contradicts the speaker's argument.
b. The point above extends the speaker's argument.
c. The point above is similar to speaker's argument.
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d. The point above concludes speaker's argument.

e. The point above strengthens the speaker's argument.
The correct answer is option B.
Question No (20-21): The Bistupur-Sakchi corner needs a speed-breaker. Loyola school children cross this intersection, on their way to the school, and
many a times do not check out for traffic. I get to read regular reports of cars and other vehicles hitting children. I know that speed-breakers are irritating for
drivers, and I know that children cannot be protected from every danger, but this is one of the worst intersections in town. There needs to be a speed-breaker
so that vehicles have to slow down and the children be made safer.
20. Which of the following arguments is used in
the above passage?
a. Analogy—comparing the intersection to something dangerous.
b. Emotive—referring to the safety of children to get people interested.
c. Statistical analysis—noting the number of children hit by vehicles.
d. Personalization—telling the story of one child's near accident at the intersection.
e. Attack—pointing out people who an against speed-breakers as being uncaring, about children.
The correct answer is option B.
Note :-The Question was missing in Set "A", only the options were present.
21. According to a recent research conducted by the district road planning department, ten percent students come wit parents in cars, twenty percent students
us auto-rickshaws, twenty percent students us taxis, forty percent students use the school buses and ten percent students live in the hostel inside the school.
Which of the following is true about the above paragraph?
a. It extends speaker's argument using analogy.
b. It extends the speaker's argument using statistical data.
c. It is similar to speaker's argument.
d. It concludes speaker's argument by using personalization.
e. It contradicts the speaker's argument using statistical data.

The correct answer is option E.

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Question No (22-23): History, if viewed a repository not merely of anecdotes chronology, could produce a decisive transformation in the image of science
which we are now possessed. That image has previously been drawn, even scientists themselves, mainly from the study of finished scientific achievements
as the are recorded in the classics and, more recently, in the textbooks from which each new scientific generation learns to practice its trade.
22. Which of the following best summarizes the
above paragraph?
a. Scientific achievements are recorded in classics and text books.
b. History of science can be inferred from finished scientific achievement
c. Different ways of looking at history can produce altogether different knowledge.
d. Text books may be biased.
e. All of above.

The correct answer is option C.

23. Which of the following statements is the author
most likely to agree with?
a. History of science presents a scientific way of looking at scientific developments and thus contributes to progress in science.
b. History of science should contain only the chronology of the scientific achievements.
c. More number of scientific theories results in more number of publications, which benefits publishers.
d. History of science should purposely present different images of science to people.
e. History of science can present multiple interpretations to people regarding the process of scientific developments.
The correct answer is option E.
Analyse the passage given and provide an appropriate answer for the question nos. 24 through 29 that follow.
Every conscious mental state has a qualitative character that we refer to as mood. We are always in a mood that is pleasurable or unpleasurable to
some degree. It may be that bad moods relate to their being too positive reinforcement in a person's current life and too many punishments. In any case,
moods are distinguished from emotions proper by not being tied to any specific object. But, this distinction is not watertight, in that emotions need not be
directed at objects that are completely specific (we can be angry just at people generally) while there is always a sense of a mood having a general objective
like the state of the world at large. Moods manifest themselves in positive or negative feelings that are tied to health, personality, or perceived quality of life.
Moods can also relate to emotions proper, as in the aftermath of an emotional incident such as the failure to secure a loan. A mood on this basis is the mind's
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judgment on the recent past. For Goldie, emotion can bubble up and down within a mood, while an emotion can involve characteristics that are non-object
specific.
What is important for marketing is that moods colour outlook and bias judgements. Hence the importance of consumer confidence surveys, as consumer
confidence typically reflects national mood. There is mood - congruence when thoughts and actions fall inline with mood. As Goleman says, there is a
"constant stream of feeling" that runs "in perfect to our steam of thought". Mood congruence occurs because a positive mood evokes pleasant associations
that lighten subsequent appraisals (thoughts) and actions, while a negative arouses pessimistic associations that influence future judgment and behaviour.
When consumers are in a good mood, they are more optimistic about buying more confident in buying, and much more willing to tolerate things like waiting
in line. On the other hand, being in a mood makes buying behaviour in the "right mood" by the use of music and friendly staff or, say, opens bakeries in
shopping malls that delight the passer-by with the smell of fresh bread.

Thayer views moods as a mixture of biological and psychological influences and, as such, a sort of clinical thermometer, reflecting all the internal
and external events that influence us. For Thayer, the key components of mood are energy and tension in different combinations. A specific mixture of
energy and tension, together with the thoughts they influence, produces moods. He discusses four mood states:
 Calm-energy: he regards this as the optimal mood of feeling good

Calm-tiredness: he regards this as feeling a little

tired without any stress, which can be pleasant.
 Tense-energy: involves a low level of anxiety
suited to a fight-or-flight disposition.
 Tense-tiredness: is a mixture of fatigue and
anxiety, which underlies the unpleasant feeling of
depression.

People generally can "feel down" or "feel good" as a result of happenings in the world around them. This represents the national mood. People feel
elated when the national soccer team wins an international match or depressed when their team has lost. An elated mood of calm -energy is an optimistic
mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are deeply influenced by the prevailing social climate. Marketers recognize
the phenomenon and talk about the national mood being, say for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change, though. Writing early in the
nineteenth century, Toqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by the ostentation of material display; in the "Gilded Age", sixty years later, many
were only too eager to embrace a materialistic vulgarity. The problem lies in anticipating changes in national mood, since a change in mood affects
everything from buying of equities to the buying of houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should be interested in national events that
are likely to produce a move toward a tense- tiredness state or toward a calm-energy state, since these are the polar extremes and are more likely to influence
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behaviour. Artists sensitive to national moods express the long-term changes. An example is the long - term emotional journey from Charles Dickens's
depiction of the death of little Nell to Oscar Wilde's cruel flippancy about it. "One would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of little
Nell", which reflects the mood change from high Victorian sentimentality to the acerbic cynicism of the end of the century, as shown in writers like Thomas
Hardy and artists like Aubrey Beardsley.
Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered. Under such conditions the mind falls into dwelling on the
unpleasant, with a negative mood developing. Csikszentmihalyi argues that humans need to keep consciousness fully active is what influences a good deal of
consumer behaviour. Sometimes it does not matter what we are shopping for - the point is to shop for anything, regardless, as consuming is one way to
respond to the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.
24. Which one of the following statements best
summarizes the above passage?
a. The passage highlights how moods affect nations.
b. The passage highlights the importance of moods and emotions in marketing.
c. The passage draws distinction between moods and emotions.
d. Some writers influenced national moods through their writings.
e. Thayer categorised moods into four states.
The correct answer is option B.
25. Which of the following is the closest to
"conspicuous consumption" in the passage?
a. Audible consumption
b. Consumption driven by moods and emotions
c. Socially responsible consumption
d. Consumption of material items for impressing others
e. Private but not public consumption
The correct answer is option D.
26. What is "moods congruence"?
a. When moods and emotions are synchronized.
b. When moods are synchronous with thoughts and actions.
c. When emotions are synchronous with actions and thoughts.
d. When moods are synchronous with thoughts but not with action.
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e. When moods are synchronous with action but not with thought.
The correct answer is option B.

27. Implication and Proposition are defined as

follows:
Implication: a statement which follows from the
given text. Proposition: a statement which forms
a part of the given text. Consider the two
statements below and decide whether they are
implications or propositions.
I. The marketers should understand and make use
of moods and emotions in designing and selling
products and services.
II. Consuming is nothing but way of filling the
void in consciousness.

a. Both statements are implications.

b. First is implication, second is proposition.
c. Both are propositions.
d. First is proposition, second is implication.
e. Both are neither implication nor proposition.
The correct answer is option B.
28. Which statements from the ones given below
are correct?
1. In general, emotions are object specific
2. In general, moods are not object specific
3. Moods and emotions are same
4. As per Thayer, moods are a mix of biological
and psychological influences
A 1,2,3 B. 2,3,4
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C. 2,4,3 D. 1,2,4
E. All four are right.
The correct answer is option D.
29. The statement "Moods provide energy for
human actions" is __.
A. always right.
B. always wrong.
C. sometimes right.
D. not derived from the passage.
E. contradictory.

The correct answer is option A.

Directions (30-31): Go through the caselets below and answer the questions that follow.
30. Goodricke Group Ltd is planning to give top priority to core competence of production and marketing of tea in 2007. The company intends to increase
the production of orthodox varieties of tea. Goodricke is planning to invest Rs. 10 crore to modernise the factories. The company has announced a net profit
of Rs. 5.49 crore for 2006 as against Rs. 3.76 crore in 2005.Which of the following can be deduced from the caselet?
a. Production and marketing is core competency of Goodricke Group.
b. Increase in production of existing products enhances core competence.
c. Core competence leads to modernization.
d. Core competence can be used for furthering company's interests.
e. Goodricke has given top priority to production because it has earned net profits of Rs. 5.49 crore.
The correct answer is option D.
31. The author reflects on the concept of Blue Ocean Strategy. He explains that this concept delivers an instinctive framework for developing uncontested
market space and making the competition irrelevant. The author remarks that Blue Ocean Strategy is about having the best mix of attributes that result in
creation of uncontested market space and high growth, and not about being the best.
The above paragraph appears to be an attempt at

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a. defining Blue Ocean strategy.

b. developing the framework for Blue Ocean strategy.
c. reviewing an article or a book on Blue Ocean strategy.
d. highlighting how Blue Ocean strategy leads to better returns.
e. None of above.

The correct answer is option A.

Vocabulary Section
Some words to help in building your vocabulary
Words for Vocabulary Development
Read two sets at a time. Let there be at least 8 hours of gap between two readings of synonyms sets.
Abhor hate
Bigot narrow-minded, prejudiced person
Counterfeit fake; false
Enfranchise give voting rights
Hamper hinder; obstruct
Kindle to start a fire
Noxious harmful; poisonous; lethal
Placid calm; peaceful
Remuneration payment for work done
Talisman lucky charm

Abrasive rough; coarse; harsh

Bilk cheat; defraud
Covert hidden; undercover
Engender cause
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Hangar storage area (like garage) for a plane

Knotty complex; difficult to solve
Nuance something subtle; a fine shade of meaning
Plagiarism taking credit for someone else's writing or ideas
Renown fame
Tangent going off the main subject

Abasement humiliation; degradation

Billowing swelling; fluttering; waving
Cower recoil in fear or servility; shrink away from
Enhance improve; make better or clearer
Harangue noisy, attacking speech
Labyrinth a maze
Nullify to counter; make unimportant
Plaintiff petitioner (in court of law)
Replete full
Tangible can be touched

Abrogate cancel; deny; repeal

Blasphemy speech which offends religious sentiments
Credible believable
Enigma puzzle; mystery
Harbingers indicators; bringers of warnings
Labyrinthine complicated; highly convoluted
Nuzzle cuddle; snuggle

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Plaudit statement giving strong praise

Reprehensible shameful; very bad
Tardy slow; late; overdue; delayed

Absolution forgiveness; pardon; release

Blatant obvious
Creditable praiseworthy
Ensconce establish firmly in a position
Hasten hurry; accelerate; rush
Laceration a cut
Obdurate stubborn
Plausible can be believed; reasonable
Reprieve a respite; postponement of a sentence
Tawdry of little value; gaudy

Abstain desist; go without; withdraw

Blighted damaged; destroyed; ruined
Credulous gullible; ready to believe anything
Enshroud cover
Haughtiness arrogance; pride
Lachrymose tearful; sad
Obfuscate deliberately make something difficult to understand
Plethora an excess
Repudiate shun; eschew
Tedium boredom

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Abstemious self denying; refraining from indulging

Blithe free-spirited; carefree
Crepuscular active at dawn and dusk
Enunciation clear pronunciation; accent; articulation
Headstrong stubborn; willful
Lackluster dull; monotonous; bland
Objective unbiased; not subjective
Pliable flexible; not stubborn
Rescind retract; repeal
Temper to moderate; soften

Abstruse difficult to understand; obscure

Blunderbuss 1. ancient weapon (type of gun); 2. a clumsy person
Cringe recoil; flinch; shy away
Envenom to cause bitterness and bad feeling
Hedonism self indulgence; pleasure-seeking
Laconic using few words; brief; to the point
Oblique indirect; slanting
Plumage feathers of a bird
Resignation acceptance of fate
Tenacious stubborn; resolute; holding firm to a purpose

Accolade tribute; honor; praise

Bolster support; prop up
Cryptic puzzling; enigmatic
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Ephemeral short-lived
Hedonist a pleasure seeker
Lamentation expression of regret or sorrow
Obliterate destroy; demolish; eradicate
Plummet fall suddenly and steeply
Resolution determination
Tentative not certain

Acquiesce to agree to; give in to

Bombast arrogant, pompous language
Curtail cut short
someone who appreciates good food
Epicure
and drink
Heed listen to
Lampoon ridicule; spoof
Oblivious totally unaware
Podium raised platform
Resonant echoing
Tenuous flimsy; not solid

Acrid sharp; pungent (used of smells and tastes)

Boorish ill-mannered
Cynical believing that people act only out of selfish motives
Epistle a letter (form of communication)
Heresy against orthodox opinion
Lance spear; spike; javelin
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Obscure difficult to understand; partially hidden

Poignant deeply moving; strongly affecting the emotions
Respite a break; intermission
Terse concise; to the point

Acrophobia fear of heights

Bourgeois middle class
Debility weakness; incapacity
Epistolary concerned with letters; through correspondence
Hiatus interruption; pause
Languid tired; slow
Obscured hidden; covered; buried
Poised calm; collected; self-possessed
Resplendent shining; glowing
Therapeutic medicinal; curative

Acuity sharpness (mental or visual)

Braggart someone who boasts
Debunking exposing false claims or myths
Epitomized typified; characterized; personified
Hidebound rigid in opinions
Languish decay; fade away; get weaker
Obsequious servile; submissive
Polemical causing debate or argument
Restorative a tonic
Thwart prevent; frustrate
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Adamant forceful; inflexible

Brawny muscular
Decathlon an athletic competition with ten events

Equivocate speak ambiguously; avoid telling the truth

Hieroglyphics 1. picture writing; 2. writing which is difficult to read or enigmatic
Larceny theft; robbery; stealing
Obsession a dominating concern
Ponderous weighty; slow and heavy
Retention preservation; withholding
Timorous cowardly; fearful

Adroit skilful
Brevity being brief
Decorum dignified, correct behavior [decorous (a)]
Err make a mistake
Hinder obstruct
Largess generosity
Obsolete no longer valid
Pontificate speak pompously or dogmatically
Reticent restrained; holding something back; uncommunicative
Tirade stream of verbal abuse

Adulation strong admiration; worship

Bristle to show irritation

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Decoy lure; trap; trick

Erratic wandering; irregular
Histrionic theatrical; exaggerated
Laud praise
Obstreperous noisy and boisterous
Portend foretell
Retraction withdrawal; cancellation of a statement
Titter giggle quietly

Adversity hardship
Broach start to discuss; approach
Deference respect
Esoteric obscure and difficult to understand
Hoary old
Lavish on a grand scale; wasteful
Obtuse mentally dull
Portent a warning sign; omen
Revere worship
Tome large book

Advocate support
Brusque blunt; abrupt
Defoliate cause leaves to fall off
Espouse promote; take up; support
Hone sharpen; increase; whet
Lax careless; not strict
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Obviate avoid; make unnecessary

Poseur someone who puts on an act
Riddled full of (usually full of holes)
Torpid inactive; lazy; stagnant

Aesthetic concerning art or beauty

Bulwark fortification; barricade; wall
Defunct no longer in existence
Etymology the study of word origins
Hyperbole grossly exaggerated speech
Legend 1. key to map; 2. myth or story
Odious hateful
Posterity future generations
Rife common
Torpor dormancy; sluggishness; inactivity

Affable friendly; social; easygoing

Bureaucracy officialdom
Degradation deprivation; poverty; debasement
Eulogy praise
Hypochondriac a person obsessed with health; having imaginary illnesses
Legion in large numbers
Officious domineering; intrusive; meddlesome
Posthumous after death
Rigor thoroughness

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Totter walk unsteadily

Alacrity eagerness; enthusiasm; quickness

Burgeon grow; flourish; put forth new shoots
Deleterious harmful
Euphemism a polite phrase to cover something unpleasant
Hypocritical insincere
Lethargic tired; without energy
Ogle stare at; observe in an obvious manner
Postulate hypothesize; propose
Robust strong; healthy; tough
Tractable obedient; dutiful; polite

Alchemy medieval chemistry; attempt to change base metal into gold

Burnish polish
Deliberate to think over deeply
Euphony pleasant sounds
Iconoclast person who opposes orthodoxy
Levity flippancy; joking about serious matters
Olfactory concerned with the sense of smell
Potable suitable for drinking
Rotund round
Tranquil peaceful

Alibi an excuse that shows someone was not at a crime scene

Buttress strengthen; support
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Delineation demarcation; explanation; definition; outlining

Evacuate vacate; empty; abandon
Idiosyncrasy a personal peculiarity; something unique to an individual
Libertarian someone who opposes tyranny
Ominous threatening
Potent powerful; compelling; strong
Ruminate think over something; ponder
Transcribe copy

Allay to lessen
Byline the line that tells you who wrote an article
Demur hesitate; refuse
Exacerbate make worse
Ignominious shameful
Liniment soothing lotion
Omnipotent all-powerful
Pragmatic practical
Ruse trick; stratagem
Transgress go astray; disobey; commit a sin

Alleviate make less severe

Cacophony discordant loud noises
Denounce condemn; speak out against
Exasperated frustrated; annoyed
Ignominy shame [ignominious (a) = shameful]
Lithe flexible; supple
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Omniscient all-knowing
Pragmatist practical person; one who is concerned with usefulness
Saccharin falsely sweet
Transient short-lived; ephemeral

Aloof distant; detached; cold

Cajole coax
Deplete use up; lessen
Exceptionable very bad (something which we should object to)
Illuminate to light up or make clear
Livid very angry
Onerous burdensome; hard to undertake
Preamble introductory material
Sacrosanct very holy; inviolable
Traverse to move across

putting others first; being self-

Altruism
sacrificing
Caldron huge cooking pot
Deplore regret
free someone from blame; pardon;
Exculpate
acquit
Illusory deceptive; false; misleading
person who tries to persuade someone
Lobbyist
to support a particular cause
Onus burden
Precarious unstable; risky
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Sagacious wise
Trepidation fear
Amass accumulate
Callow immature
Depravity moral corruption
Execrable very, very bad
Immoderate excessive; extreme
Lofty snooty; arrogant; haughty
Opaque does not let light through
Precedent a previous occurrence used as a guide
Sage a wise person
Trinket something of little value; knick-knack

Ambiguity uncertainty; vagueness

Candid frank; honest
Deprecate criticize; denounce
Exegesis scholarly explanation or interpretation
Immutable unchanging; permanent
Longevity long life
Opulent wealthy; rich; magnificent
Precept guiding principle
Salacious lecherous; erotic
Trite unoriginal; dull

Ambiguous unclear in meaning; can be interpreted in different ways

Candor frankness; openness
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Deride ridicule; make fun of; mock

Exemplary outstandingly good; setting a fine example
Impartial unbiased; neutral
Loquacious talkative
Ordain 1. destine; 2. confer holy orders on a priest
Precinct district of a city
Sallow yellowish
Trivial unimportant

Ambivalence lack of clarity; wavering; being undecided

Cantankerous bad-tempered; quarrelsome
Derogatory uncomplimentary
Exemplify to serve as a good example
Impecunious having no money
Lucid clear
Ornate highly decorated
Precipice steep slope
Salubrious health-giving
Truant shirker; someone absent without permission

Ambulatory able to walk around (used of hospital patients)

Capacious spacious
Desecrate to damage or pollute a holy place
Exhaustive complete and thorough
Impious wicked; profane
Ludicrous ridiculous; silly
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Orthodox conventional
Precipitous done in a hurry
Salutary something which teaches you a lesson; beneficial
Truncate cut short

Ameliorate make better

Capitulate surrender; give in to
Desecration spoiling something holy
Exonerates acquits; absolves; removes blame
Impoverished destitute; poor
Lukewarm 1. unenthusiastic; 2. neither hot nor cold
Ossify 1. turn to bone; 2. become fixed and rigid
Preclude prevent or make impossible
Sanctimonious hypocritically holy
Tumult uproar; noise

Amelioration improvement
Carping constant criticism
Desist stop; discontinue; cease
Exorcism getting free/rid of; eliminating (especially demons)
Impromptu unrehearsed; spontaneous
Lummox clumsy person
Ostentatious showy
Precocious developing early
Sanction give approval to
Turpitude depravity
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Amiable friendly
Cartographer person who makes maps
Despondent having no hope; miserable
Expatriate refugee; emigrant; someone living away from his own country
Inadvertent not intentional
Luscious juicy; moist; succulent
Oust push out of a position
Predecessor one who came before
Sanguinary bloodthirsty; bloody
Tyro novice; beginner

Amity friendship
Castigate scold strongly
Destitution hardship; poverty; misery
Expedient convenient; practical
Incantation chant; invocation; prayer
Lynch assassinate; kill; illegal hanging
Overt obvious; not hidden
Predicament dilemma; difficult situation
Sanguine optimistic; cheerful
Ubiquitous found everywhere; omnipresent

Amorphous lacking in shape

Catharsis purging of pent-up emotions
Deter put off; prevent
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Expedite make faster

Incarceration putting in prison
Machinations plots and plans
Overwrought worked up; in an emotional state
Preeminent famous; outstanding
Sardonic mocking
Unalloyed undiluted; total

Analgesic medicine to combat pain

Caucus type of private political meeting
Deteriorate worsen; decline
Exposition clear explanation
Incessant without stopping
Maelstrom whirlpool; storm in the ocean
Palatable good to eat; agreeable
Prerogative right or privilege
Savant person with knowledge
Unctuous oily; using excessive flattery

Analogous comparable
Caustic burning
Detrimental harmful
Extol praise
Incipient just beginning
Magnanimous generous; big-hearted
Palisade fence made of posts
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Prescient having fore-knowledge

Scale to climb
Undermined damaged; attacked

Anarchy chaos; lack of government

Cavalcade procession of vehicles
Devoured greedily eaten/consumed
Extradite deport from one country back to the home country
Inclination tendency; a leaning toward
Magnate powerful businessman
Palliative a remedy that improves but doesn't cure
Presentiment a feeling that something might happen
Scapegoat person on whom blame is placed for faults of others
Underscore emphasize

Anecdote a brief amusing story

Celerity speed
Dexterous skilful with hands
Extraneous irrelevant
Incoherent not clear
Maladroit clumsy; unskillful
Pallid pale
Presumptuous assuming too much; arrogant
Scrupulous careful; diligent; painstaking
Unequivocal clear; obvious

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Animosity hatred; antagonism

Censorious disapproving; critical
Dichotomy a division into two parts
Extrapolate extend; predict on the basis of known data
Incongruous not fitting in; out of place
Malady illness
Palpable easily felt; easily perceived
Pretentious pompous; self-important
Scrutinize examine carefully
Unfetter set free

Annex (n) a building which is an addition to an existing building

Censure blame
Didactic intended to teach; instructive
Extrinsic irrelevant; on the outside
Inconsequential unimportant; insignificant; negligible
Malediction a curse
Panacea remedy for all ills
Prevaricate speak misleadingly and evasively
Scuttle sink
Unfrock to remove a priest from his position

Annex (v) take possession of; seize; capture

Cerebral intellectual
Diffident lacking confidence
Fallacious false
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Inconspicuous not easily seen; subtle; not noticeable

Malefactor a wrong-doer
Paradigm 1. example; 2. model; 3. way of looking at things
Pristine unspoiled
Seminary an institution in which priests are trained
Unprecedented never having happened before

Anomaly something which does not fit in a pattern; irregularity

Certitude certainty
Digress wander off the subject
Falter hesitate; waver
Indelible cannot be wiped out
Malinger deliberately avoid work; shirk
Paradox apparently contradictory statement
Proclivity tendency towards
Sensuous appealing to the senses
Unscathed unharmed; intact; without a scratch

Antagonism hostility; strong opposition

Charlatan trickster who claims knowledge he doesn't have
Dike dam; embankment
Fanatical obsessive; fixated
Indifferent 1. neutral; 2. not outstanding
Malingerer person who deliberately tries to avoid work
Paragon a perfect example
Procrastinate delay; put off
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Sentinel guard; sentry

Unwitting not deliberate; unconscious

Antagonistic opposed; hostile; aggressive

Chary wary of; cautious about; reluctant to give
Dilatory slow; falling behind with one's work
Fanaticism passion; excessive devotion
Indigenous native to a particular area
Malleable flexible; can be shaped
Paramount of supreme importance
Prodigal wasteful; extravagant
Sequester isolate
Upbraid scold; tell off; reprimand

Antediluvian outdated; prehistoric; very old-fashioned

Chastises punishes
Dilemma puzzling situation
Fastidious overly particular; finicky
Indolence laziness
Mallet 1. wooden hammer; 2. stick used for polo
Parasite 1. scrounger; 2. animal which takes digested food from another
Prodigious very large
Serendipity fortunate coincidence; unsought discovery
Uproarious hilarious; hysterical; very funny

Anthology a book which is a collection of poems or stories

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Chicanery trickery
Dilettante person who dabbles in a subject without serious study
Fatuous silly; foolish
Inductee novice; beginner
Manipulatable influencable; controllable
Parched dried up
Profane unholy
Serene calm; peaceful
Upshot outcome

Anthropocentrism putting man at the center of one's philosophy

Chimerical changeable; unstable
Diligent hard-working
Feasible possible and practicable
Indulgent pampering; satisfying desires
Marred damaged; spoiled
Pariah an outcast from society
Profanity swearing; cursing
Serrated jagged; saw-like
Urbane sophisticated; suave

Anecdote a brief amusing story

Celerity speed
Dexterous skilful with hands
Extraneous irrelevant
Incoherent not clear
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Maladroit clumsy; unskillful

Pallid pale
Presumptuous assuming too much; arrogant
Scrupulous careful; diligent; painstaking
Unequivocal clear; obvious

Animosity hatred; antagonism

Censorious disapproving; critical
Dichotomy a division into two parts
Extrapolate extend; predict on the basis of known data
Incongruous not fitting in; out of place
Malady illness
Palpable easily felt; easily perceived
Pretentious pompous; self-important
Scrutinize examine carefully
Unfetter set free

Annex (n) a building which is an addition to an existing building

Censure blame
Didactic intended to teach; instructive
Extrinsic irrelevant; on the outside
Inconsequential unimportant; insignificant; negligible
Malediction a curse
Panacea remedy for all ills
Prevaricate speak misleadingly and evasively
Scuttle sink
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Unfrock to remove a priest from his position

Annex (v) take possession of; seize; capture

Cerebral intellectual
Diffident lacking confidence
Fallacious false
Inconspicuous not easily seen; subtle; not noticeable
Malefactor a wrong-doer
Paradigm 1. example; 2. model; 3. way of looking at things
Pristine unspoiled
Seminary an institution in which priests are trained
Unprecedented never having happened before
Anomaly something which does not fit in a pattern; irregularity
Certitude certainty
Digress wander off the subject
Falter hesitate; waver
Indelible cannot be wiped out
Malinger deliberately avoid work; shirk
Paradox apparently contradictory statement
Proclivity tendency towards
Sensuous appealing to the senses
Unscathed unharmed; intact; without a scratch

Antagonism hostility; strong opposition

Charlatan trickster who claims knowledge he doesn't have
Dike dam; embankment
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Fanatical obsessive; fixated

Indifferent 1. neutral; 2. not outstanding
Malingerer person who deliberately tries to avoid work
Paragon a perfect example
Procrastinate delay; put off
Sentinel guard; sentry
Unwitting not deliberate; unconscious

Antagonistic opposed; hostile; aggressive

Chary wary of; cautious about; reluctant to give
Dilatory slow; falling behind with one's work
Fanaticism passion; excessive devotion
Indigenous native to a particular area
Malleable flexible; can be shaped
Paramount of supreme importance
Prodigal wasteful; extravagant
Sequester isolate
Upbraid scold; tell off; reprimand

Antediluvian outdated; prehistoric; very old-fashioned

Chastises punishes
Dilemma puzzling situation
Fastidious overly particular; finicky
Indolence laziness
Mallet 1. wooden hammer; 2. stick used for polo

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Parasite 1. scrounger; 2. animal which takes digested food from another

Prodigious very large
Serendipity fortunate coincidence; unsought discovery
Uproarious hilarious; hysterical; very funny

Anthology a book which is a collection of poems or stories

Chicanery trickery
Dilettante person who dabbles in a subject without serious study
Fatuous silly; foolish
Inductee novice; beginner
Manipulatable influencable; controllable
Parched dried up
Profane unholy
Serene calm; peaceful
Upshot outcome

Anthropocentrism putting man at the center of one's philosophy

Chimerical changeable; unstable
Diligent hard-working
Feasible possible and practicable
Indulgent pampering; satisfying desires
Marred damaged; spoiled
Pariah an outcast from society
Profanity swearing; cursing
Serrated jagged; saw-like
Urbane sophisticated; suave
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Antiquated outdated; old fashioned

Choleric easily angered
Diorama model of a scene
Fecund fertile
Inebriation drunkenness; intoxication
Marshal to gather together
Parity equality
Profound having deep meaning
Servile overly submissive; groveling
Usurp take someone's position (usually by force)

Apathetic indifferent; uninterested; lethargic

Chronicler person who records historical information
Dirge mournful song
Felicitous apt
Ineffable cannot be expressed in words
Marsupial pouched mammal (like a kangaroo)
Parochial narrow-minded; concerned only with local matters
Profundity depth
Skeptical doubting; not gullible
Utilitarian useful

Apathy lack of interest or emotion

Circuitous indirect
Disapprobation disapproval
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Fervor passion; enthusiasm

Inept incompetent; unskilled; useless
Martinet person who believes in strict discipline
Parody a mockery; imitation for ridicule; spoof
Proletarian member of the working class
Skirmish minor battle
Utopian a believer in an ideal world

Apocryphal of doubtful origin

Circumlocution using too many words; long-windedness
Discern to distinguish one thing from another
Fickle unpredictable; whimsical; easily swayed
Inertia inactivity; lethargy
Masochist person who intentionally inflicts pain on himself
Parry ward off; avoid
Prolific producing a lot
Sluggard slow-moving; lethargic person
Vacillate waver; hesitate

Appease pacify; soothe; calm down; make peace with

Circumscribe limit
Discord disagreement
Finesse skill
Inevitable cannot be avoided
Matriarchy society governed by women
Parsimonious economical; frugal; thrifty
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Proponents promoters; supporters

Smelt refine an ore
Vacuous empty; silly; meaningless

Apprehensive worried; fearful

Circumspect cautious; considering all sides
Discordancy cacophony; harshness; jarring
Fitful not continuous; stopping and starting
Inexorable relentless
Maverick a loner
Parsimony stinginess; frugality; cost-cutting
Prosaic dull; boring; ordinary
Smorgasbord a Swedish buffet of cold dishes
Vagrant person wandering without a home

Arable can be cultivated

Circumvent avoid
Discrepancy something which does not match up; inconsistency
Flagrant clearly wrong
Inexpedient not advisable
Meager in short supply
Partisan biased; one-sided; committed to one group
Proscribe forbid
Solace comfort for grief
Vapid dull; uninspiring
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Arbitrary random; for no definite reason

Clairvoyant psychic; mystic
Discriminate to make a clear distinction; see the difference
Flamboyant showy; ornate
Infallible perfect; flawless; cannot make mistakes
Meander wander from side to side
Pathos evoking sadness or pity
Prosody study of versification
Solicit to ask for; seek
Variegated multicolored; speckled

Arcane obscure; known only to a few people

Clamor shout; scream
Discursiveness long windedness; indirectness
Flaunt show off; display in a showy manner
Infamous famous for something bad
Mellow soft; melodious; ripe
Patron one who give support (usually financial)
Prostration 1. lying face down; 2. be overcome with extreme weakness
Somnambulist sleepwalker
Vehemence violence; fervor; forcefulness

Archaic ancient; outdated; old fashioned

Clandestine secret; covert; stealthy

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Disdain contempt; strong dislike

Flippant making jokes about serious matters
Infer deduce; conclude
Menagerie collection of animals
Patronize condescend to; behave in an arrogant manner towards
Protagonist main character in film, book, play etc.
Soothsayer fortuneteller
Vehement forceful

Atheist person who does not believe in God

Colloquial local and informal (used of language)
Dotard foolish old man
Furrow groove
Instigator troublemaker; person who entices others to do something
Misnomer wrong name
Percipient perceptive; insightful
Quaff drink down quickly
Staunch loyal; faithful; dependable
Vilification blackening someone's name

Atrophy waste away from lack of use

Collusion plotting and planning
Drawl speak slowly with words running together
Furtive hidden and secret
Insurgent a rebel
Misogynist hater of women
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Perdition damnation
Quagmire marsh; bog
Stereotype fixed image
Vindicate prove right; remove blame

Attenuate weaken
Commandeer take possession of
Drivel nonsense
Futile useless; hopeless
Interminable never-ending
Misrepresentation deliberately deceiving
Peremptory in a commanding manner
Quaint picturesque
Stevedore dockworker
Virtuoso an accomplished musician

Augment increase; make bigger

Complacent self-satisfied; smug
Droll dryly amusing
Galleon ancient type of sailing ship
Intermittent sporadic; irregular
Mitigate lessen; make less severe
Perfidy treachery
Quandary dilemma; puzzle
Stifle suppress
Virulent dangerous; harmful
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Auspicious favorable; promising to turn out well

Compliant easy to control; submissive
Drone 1. monotonous noise (n); 2. to speak with no emotion (v); 3.male bee
Gambol frolic; leap; bound
Intransigence stubbornness
Modicum small amount
Perfunctory superficial; cursory
Quarantine isolation to prevent the spread of disease
Stoic known for fortitude; indifferent to pleasure or pain
Vital essential; alive; important

Austere severely plain

Concatenate link together
Dubious doubtful
Garble distort; confuse; muddle
Intransigent stubborn; unyielding
Momentous very important
Peripatetic nomadic; moving from place to place
Quarry 1. something that is hunted; 2. mine for stone
Stoke add fuel to; strengthen
Vitriolic corrosive; strongly attacking

Aversion a dislike of
Concatenation linking into chains
Dupe to fool someone

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Garish gaudy
Intrepid brave
Monotonous dull; unvarying
Peripheral on the edge; not important
Querulous always complaining
Stolid impassive; dull; indifferent
Vivacity liveliness; animation

Balk hinder and prevent; hesitate over

Conciliate to bring together; end a dispute
Dynamic lively; vibrant; energetic
Garner gather; collect
Inveterate habitual
Moratorium temporary prohibition or halt to activity
Perjury telling lies under oath
Quirk oddity
Stratagem plot; plan; trick
Vivify enliven

Banal common; dull

Concise stated in few words
Ebullient very lively; cheerful; jovial; happy
Garrulous talkative
Invidious arousing envy
Moribund on the point of death
Pernicious destructive; harmful
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Ramble wander aimlessly

Strident loud and harsh
Vociferous noisy; loud in speech

Banality ordinariness; dullness

Condescend talk down to
Eccentric unusual; quirky; odd
Gaunt emaciated; bony and angular
Inviolable cannot be invaded
Morose gloomy; bad tempered
Persnickety fastidious; fussy
Ramifications branches; subdivisions of a complex system; outcomes
Stringent strict or severe
Volatile dangerously unstable; evaporates easily

Bane troublesome influence

Condone tacitly support; overlook
Eclectic taking things from different sources
Genre a category; type
Irascible easily angered
Mundane ordinary; worldly
Perpetuated caused to continue
Rancor resentment; animosity; bad feeling
Strut swagger; show off
Voluble talkative
Bard Poet
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Condoning overlooking; disregarding; ignoring

Edifice Building; structure; construction
Germane Relevant
Ire anger [irate (a) = very angry]
Munificent generous; charitable
Perpetuity eternity
Rant use bombastic language
Stupefying astonishing; shocking; stunning into silence
Voluminous very large; spacious

Bastion fortress; stronghold

Conflagration big fire
Efface wipe out; remove all trace of
Germinal just growing; not developed; immature
Irksome annoying; infuriating
Mutinous very rebellious
Personable attractive
Ratify approve; consent
Subpoena summons to court
Voracious ravenous

Befuddle confuse
Confound confuse
Effigy a model of a person
Gibbering making meaningless noises
Ironic satiric; unexpected
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Myriad in large numbers

Perspicacious insightful; sharp; wise
Raucous rough and unpleasant (of sounds)
Substantiate give supporting evidence
Waive surrender; give up

Begrudge resent
Congeal to solidify
Effusive gushing; demonstrative
Glacial hostile; unfriendly; cold; icy
Irrational unreasonable; absurd
Navigable suitable for sailing
Perspicacity insight
Raze destroy; demolish; tear down
Subterfuge a trick
Wane grow less

Beguile mislead; lure

Congenital present from birth
Egalitarianism belief in equality
Goad prod; urge
Irreproachable cannot be criticized; perfect
Nebulous vague
Pertinent relevant
Rebuttal denial
Subtle not obvious
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Wary hesitant; cautious

Belabor explain in unnecessary detail

Connoisseur person with refined taste and good judgment
Egregious outstandingly, obviously bad
Grate (v) 1. to annoy; aggravate; vex; 2. shred
Irrevocable cannot be cancelled; unchangeable
Nefarious wicked; immoral; disreputable

Peruse read carefully

Recant disclaim; retract statement
Subversive rebellious; revolutionary
Wax to increase; to grow

Beleaguer besiege; attack

Consecrate dedicate
Egress exit
Gratis free of charge; without payment
Itinerant nomadic; wandering from place to place
Negate cancel; deny
Pervasive spreading everywhere

Recapitulate summarize
Succinct concise

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Waylay accost; stop; approach; hinder

Belie contradict
Consensus general agreement
Eloquent fluent and persuasive in speech
Gratuitous unwarranted
Jaded tired; bored; worn out
Negligence carelessness
Petrify 1. terrify; 2. turn to stone
Receptacle container; vessel; holder
Suffragist someone who campaigns for voting rights
Weighty serious

Belittle to demean
Conspicuous easily seen; prominent
Elucidate make clear
Gravity seriousness
Jargon specialized language used by experts
Neologism newly coined word
Petulant sulky; peevish
Recluse someone who cuts himself off from life
Supercilious proud and haughty
Whelp young dog

Bellicose war-like; aggressive

Consummate complete; total; supremely good
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Elusive hard to pin down

Gregarious extroverted; sociable; outgoing
Jaundiced cynical; pessimistic
Nettle annoy
Phenomenon an event or happening (plural: phenomena)
Recuperate get better after illness
Superlative extremely good; the best
Whet sharpen

Belligerent aggressive; ready to fight

Contemporary living or happening at the same time
Emaciated very thin; withered
Gritty coarse; granular
Jaunt short pleasure trip
Niggardly miserly; stingy
Philanthropy charity; love of mankind
Red tape formalities; paperwork; official procedure
Surly grumpy; rude
Whimsical capricious; changeable
Bemoan complain about
Contrite sorry
Emancipate set free
Guffaw sudden loud laughter
Jeopardize put at risk; endanger
Nomadic wandering from place to place
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Philistine uncultured person

Redolent smelling of; giving off odors
Surreptitious secret; sneaky; stealthy
Willful stubborn

Benevolent kindly
Contrition sorrow and repentance
Embezzle defraud; steal
Guile cunning; craftiness
Jingoistic extremely patriotic; nationalistic
Nonchalance an appearance of indifference; calm and composed
Phlegmatic calm; imperturbable
Redress put right something that was wrong
Surreptitiously secretly; furtively; stealthily
Wily cunning

Benign kindly; harmless

Contumacious stubborn
Embroil involve in hostility or argument
Guileless frank; straightforward; honest
Jocular in a joking manner
Nondescript having no special features; dull and ordinary
Pillage plunder
Redundant unnecessary; superfluous
Susceptible vulnerable
Wispy flimsy; frail; delicate

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Benignity compassion; gentleness; fondness

Contusion a bruise
Emerge come out; appear
Gullibility unwariness; trustfulness; being easily fooled
Jollity gaiety; happiness
Nonentity a person of no importance; not famous
Pinnacle topmost point
Referendum public vote
Suspect doubtful
Wistful melancholy; pensive; expressing a longing for

Bequeath leave something in one's will to be given after one's death

Conundrum a puzzle
Emulate to imitate something admired
Gullible easily fooled
Jubilant ecstatic; delighted; rejoicing
Nostalgia longing for the past
Pious very religious
Refute disprove
Sybarite lover of luxury
Zany crazy; wacky

Berate scold; criticize

Conventional usual; customary; common
Endorse give support or approval to
Gustatory concerned with the sense of taste
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Judicious correct in judgment; wise

Notoriety infamy; known for wrong doing
Pivotal of central importance
Regale entertain
Sycophant bootlicker; flatterer
Zeal enthusiasm

Beret type of cap

Corpulent fat
Endurance staying power; patience; stamina
Hackneyed common and over-used
Jurisprudence science or study of law
Novel new; unusual
Placate pacify; soothe; calm
Relegate dismiss to a lower position
Taciturn quiet; saying little
Zealot fanatic

Bestial behaving like a beast; brutal

Corrugated highly folded
Enduring lasting
Hallowed worshipped; consecrated
Juxtapose place next to
Novice a beginner; tyro
Placebo harmless medicine with no effect; dummy medicine
Remorse regret; sorrow; contrition
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ENGLISH COMPREHENSION

Tactile concerned with the sense of touch

Zenith summit

Abate reduce in intensity

Abjure renounce; swear to refrain from something
Blandishment words used to coax or flatter [blandish (v)]
Boor ill-mannered person [boorish (a)]
Cardinal 1. high ranking church official; 2. major, important
Deliberate 1. slow (a); 2. to think over (v); 3. on purpose (a)
Equivocation speaking ambiguously [equivocate (v), equivocal (a)]
Feckless feeble; helpless; lacking in initiative
Imperturbability quality of being calm and not easily disturbed [imperturbable (a)]
Meretricious falsely attractive; tawdry

Augury prediction, looking for omens [auger (v)]

Boycott refuse to have dealings with
Glib slick; superficial esp. in speech
Incise cut into [incision (n); incisive (a)]
Moralistic concerned with morals [moralize (v)]
Ostracism shunning; social isolation [ostracize (v)]
Penchant inclination; leaning; tendency; predilection
Rarefy make less dense [rarefaction (n)]
Repine fret; be discontented
Stipulate specify [stipulation (n)]

Diaphanous transparent; thin and delicate

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ENGLISH COMPREHENSION

Feint pretended attack; a move intended to deceive

Inured hardened; habituated
Mettlesome spirited [mettle (n)]
Puissance power
Recondite obscure
Stygian very dark
Touting advertising; supporting [tout (v)]
Virtuosity skill, expertise [virtuoso (n); virtuosi (n.pl)]
Volubility excessive talkativeness [voluble (a)]

Caret punctuation mark signifying omission

Contiguous adjacent; touching; abutting [contiguity (n)]
Damp (used of vibration) reduce in extent
Ellipsis omission of essential words
Extirpation wiping out; complete destruction [extirpate (v)]
Foppish behaving or dressing like a dandy; excessively concerned with fashion
Gaffe blunder; social mistake
Hortatory encouraging; exhorting
Opprobrious expressing great scorn [opprobrium (n)]
Recumbent reclining; lying down

Ambidextrous able to use both left and right hands equally well
Culpability guilt [culpable = blameworthy]
Discernment judgment; perceptiveness
Encomium praise
Inveigle coax; cajole; wheedle; entice
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Minatory threatening
Ossified turned to bone; become rigid [ossification (n)]
Plumb measure depth of (v); exact (a. slang)
Quintessential most typical; the perfect example of [quintessence (n)]
Runic mysterious; magical

Accretion accumulation of matter; growth produced by adding from the outside

Anachronistic occurring in the wrong time period [anachronism (n)]
Chronic long lasting (often used for diseases in which case the opposite is acute)
Churlishness rudeness; ill-mannered behavior
Demagogue mob leader (who appeals to base instincts) [demagogy/demagoguery (n)]
Effrontery daring; audacity (has a negative connotation)
Idyll story or incident in peaceful or ideal setting [idyllic (a)]
Interregnum interval between reigns or governments
Nugatory of minor significance; futile
Sinecure job which pays salary but requiring little effort

Anodized electroplated; coated with thin layer of metal

Aphoristic expressed tersely [aphorism (n) = short statement; maxim]
Canonical orthodox [canon (n) = set of accepted works]
Commens
equal in significance
urate
Dexterity skill, esp. with hands [dexterous (a)]
Extant still in existence (opposite of extinct)
Impugned challenged; called into question
Probity uprightness; honesty
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ENGLISH COMPREHENSION

Raconteur person who relates a story

Solicitous kindly; expressing care and concern
Amalgamate join; consolidate [amalgamation (n)]
Baleful evil
Coerce force [coercion (n); coercing (a)]
Inchoate undeveloped; nascent
Iniquitous evil; unjust [iniquity (n)]
Libertine dissolute person; prodigal
Millinery hats and hat-making
Natty neat; dapper; smart
Occluded obscured; blocked
Sidereal of or related to stars

Avaricious greedy for money

Extirpate wipe out totally
Halcyon peaceful and happy; calm (esp. of summer weather)
List (v) 1. to lean to one side; 2. to write in order
Maudlin sad; sentimental; inclined to weep
Refulgent glowing; radiant
Subliminal below the threshold of consciousness
Testiness irritability; irascibility [testy (a)]

Vituperate attack bitterly

Whittle 1. carve with knife; 2. reduce step by step

Colander bowl with holes used to drain vegetables etc.

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Cumbersome bulky; difficult to carry [encumber = to burden]

Diaphanous transparent; thin and delicate
Dispatch 1. send (v); 2. speed; celerity (n)
Epistemology theory of knowledge
Froward stubborn; wayward; disobedient
Supine lying flat on one’s back
Throwback exhibiting primitive, or ancestral, traits
Untoward unexpected

Verisimilar true to life; giving the appearance of reality

Abysmal very deep; very bad
Approbation approval [opp. disapprobation]
Bent (n) inclination; aptitude
Cadge get by begging
Debacle disaster
Extemporize speak without preparation or rehearsal [extemporaneous (a)]
Incumbents occupiers of a job or position
Lambaste attack verbally
Noisome disgusting
Pastiche work (usually artistic) which imitates, or is composed of parts taken from varied sources

Arboreal living in trees; concerned with trees

Centrifuge device to separate substances by spinning them at high speed
Cloistered isolated
Disabuse make someone aware of an error in thinking

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ENGLISH COMPREHENSION

Engendering causing; bringing into being [engender (v)]

Intemperate excessive; immoderate [intemperance (n)]
Lugubrious sad; gloomy
Nonplussed confused
Pedagogy science of education; teaching
Satiate satisfy; fill completely [satiable (a); satiation (n)]
Slake quench; satisfy

Artless without effort; without trickery; simple

Comeliness beauty; prettiness [comely (a)]
Doff take off (esp. of a hat)
Don put on (esp. of clothes)
Erudition learning; scholarly knowledge [erudite (a)]
Plaintive sad; mournful
Suborn bribe
Tendentious dogmatic; biased
Tortuous indirect; winding
Verbiage excessive or meaningless wordiness

Atonement making amends for sin or crime [atone (v)]

Complaisance flexibility; willingness to please [complaisant (a)]
Daguerreotype forerunner of the photograph
Fawn behave in a sycophantic way; grovel [fawning (a)]
Gregariousness sociability; liking for crowds [gregarious (a)]
Nascent emerging; newly formed
Paean praise; tribute (esp. in song)
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Reproof scolding; criticism [reprove (v)]

Scurvy 1. disease due to lack of vitamin C; 2. contemptible; rascally
Tutelary serving as a guardian [tutelage (n)]

Abscission cutting; process causing leaves to fall off

Contentious causing argument [contention (n); contend (v)]
Debilitating weakening [debilitate (v)]
Foible quirk; minor weakness
Importune beg; solicit [importunate (a)]
Pertain be relevant to [pertinent (a)]
Slew glut; excess
Toady sycophant; flatterer
Torrid hot and steamy
Veracious true [veracity (n)]

Asperity using harsh or critical tone

Blowhard boastful person
Disingenuous crafty
Evanescent short-lived [evanescence (n)]
Intangible cannot be touched; abstract [intangibility (n)]
Labile changing rapidly; unstable
Malapropism use of similar sounding but incorrect word
Posture (v) to put on an act
Proximate immediate; nearest
Pugnacious aggressive, ready to fight [pugnacity (n)]

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Foreshadowed indicated a future event [foreshadow (v)]

Gaucherie awkwardness [gauche (a)]
Heterodox unorthodox
Inscrutability quality of being difficult to comprehend [inscrutable (a)]
Limerick short amusing poem
Mannered stylized; pretentious
Pluck (n) courage
Sedulous persevering; eager and thorough
Syllogism type of logical reasoning
Vicissitude unexpected change in fortune or circumstances

Acolyte disciple; follower or attendant

Admonitory scolding [admonition (n)]
Caprices whimsies; fancies
Cornucopia symbol (horn filled with fruit etc.) denoting natural abundance
Deferential showing respect [deference (n); defer (v)]
Intractability stubbornness; resistance [intractable (a)]
Luminary eminent person
Minion underling; servant
Undergird support; strengthen
Vitiate weaken; sap energy

Coterie clique; small group with common interests

Denigrate decry; criticize; belittle
Empirical found by experiment or practice
Gainsay contradict
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Hyperbole exaggeration [hyperbolic (a)]

Modest 1. bashful; unpretentious; 2. not excessive
Prolixity wordiness [prolix (a)]
Rebus puzzle in which pictures give clues
Sere withered; old
Vulpine like a fox [compare with bovine (cow-like); porcine (pig-like), etc.]

Corroborate give supporting evidence [corroboration (n)]

Exacerbated made worse [exacerbate (v); exacerbation (n)]
Exact (v) to demand; extort
Faddish whimsical; following a fashion
Hapless unlucky
Misconstrue put a wrong interpretation on something
Perennial long-lasting
Rent torn (past participle of the verb to rend)
Shard fragment of pottery
Xenophobe person afraid of foreigners

Alleviated made less severe [alleviation (n); alleviate (v)]

Apostrophe 1. punctuation mark; 2. appeal to someone not present (a figure of speech)
Centurion roman soldier (commander of a company of 100 soldiers)
Emollient softening (a); something which softens (n)
Fusillade long burst of gunfire
Inerrancy infallibility; inability to make mistakes [inerrant (a)]
Mince 1. chop into small pieces; 2. walk with tiny steps, 3. speak in an affected manner

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Palpate medical term meaning to examine with the hands

Platitude unoriginal, obvious saying
Quibble 1. (v) to argue about minor matters; to play on words when finding fault; 2. (n) a minor verbal point in an argument

Apprehension slight fear; sense of something unfavorable

Conniving cunning; scheming [connive (v)]
Derision mockery [deride (v)]
Epigram short, witty saying
Lassitude lack of energy; weariness
Pedantic over-insistent on matters of book-learning [pedant (n)]
Phenomenology branch of science concerned with things as they are perceived; not directly derived from theory
Precipitate 1. hurried (a); 2. insoluble product of a reaction in chemistry (n), 3. to instigate or speed up an action (v)
Renege go back on promise or retract statement

Armada fleet of ships

Dawdler slow person who falls behind others [dawdle (v)]
Dross something worthless; impurities left after refining
Expiate atone; make amends for
Hack 1. chop roughly; 2. person who writes to earn money, 3. hired horse
Prone 1. vulnerable to; 2. horizontal
Propensity tendency; inclination
Scabbard cover for a sword
Skiff small boat
Umbrage 1. shadow; 2. offence; sense of injury

Dilettantism dabbling esp. in the arts [dilettante (n) = person who dabbles]
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Enervate weaken
Malevolent having evil intentions [malevolence(n)]
Neophyte new convert; tyro

Panegyric speech praising someone; laudatory words

Presage forewarn of; indicate
Serration jagged edge
Slight 1. minor (a); 2. perceived insult (v) and (n)
Tare 1. weed; 2. allowance made for container when weighing
Unprepossessing unattractive
Aberration deviation from the normal
Cant insincere talk
Disinter dig up [opposite inter = bury]
Façade 1. front elevation of building, 2. false appearance or demeanor
Impeding hindering [impede (v); impediment (n)]
Lacuna gap; missing part [plural = lacunae]
Monolithic united in purpose; forming a single unit
Pied multicolored
Roster list of names
Seemly appropriate (of behavior); decorous

Analogue 1. something similar; 2. output proportional to input (engineering)

Coda piece of music at the end of a musical work; finale; final part of document
Commingle mix
Equivocal ambiguous; open to interpretation [equivocate (v), equivocation (n)]

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Fallible capable of making mistakes [fallibility (n)]

Hallow respect; worship
Indigence poverty
Papyrus material used for writing on before paper was invented
Pique 1. annoyance (n); 2. to stimulate interest; to annoy (v)
Sap 1. liquid inside plants (n); 2. to drain; to undermine (v); 3. a fool (n)

Arbitrator mediator; person appointed to judge a dispute [arbitrate (v)]

Descry to see (esp. at a distance); catch sight of
Facetious not intended to be taken seriously
Indecorous unseemly; inappropriate (of behavior)
Proliferate grow and spread [proliferation (n)]
Scotch (v) to prevent; stop; disable
Strut 1. supporting rod (n); 2. to walk in an arrogant manner; show off (v)
Toy (v) to play with
Usury lending money at high interest rates
Wag (n) a witty person

Atavism reappearance of ancestral traits; regression [atavistic (a)]

Filibuster delaying tactics
Gambit opening move; transaction
Mitigation making less severe [mitigate (v)]
Obligate compulsory
Predilection leaning; interest; talent
Propitiate appease; try to gain favor [propitiation (n)]
Stanch to stop
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Travesty parody; ridiculous error

Waft drift smoothly (v); whiff; smell (n)

Forage search for food

Lumber 1. walk in an ungainly way; 2. timber (wood)
Muse 1. think; meditate (v); 2. a source of inspiration (n) [in mythology, a goddess who gives inspiration]
Prescience foreknowledge
Prune 1. to trim; 2. a dried plum
Ready (used of wit) quick
Resolve firmness (n)
Squalid dirty and demeaning
Sullied made dirty or impure [opposite unsullied; sully (v)]
Veneration worship; respect [venerable (a), venerate (v)]

Demur object; hesitate to accept

Duplicity cunning; deception; double dealing
Exigency urgent matter; pressing need
Expostulate offer strong objections; remonstrate
Gossamer delicate; filmy; like gauze
Inefficacious ineffective
Pine 1. type of evergreen tree; 2. grieve
Prudish narrow-minded; excessively concerned with morals [prudery (n), prude (n)]
Quixotic impractically idealistic
Stipple cover with dots of paint etc.

Abrasion 1. damage to skin caused by scraping; 2. process of scraping or rubbing [abrade (v)]
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Adumbrate outline; indicate

Cognitive concerned with thinking or perceiving [cognition (n)]
Deign condescend

Fervid passionate
Gall 1. bitterness (bad feeling); 2. confidence; 3. abnormal growth on a plant
Levee 1. raised bank of a river; 2. morning reception held by a monarch
Preternatural unnatural; abnormal
Quell suppress
Score (n) written form of music

Abut to adjoin

Consternation worry and concern

Gavel judge’s hammer

Lien right to sell property held as a security; legal hold on job etc.
Parenthesis remarks deviating from the main point [parentheses are round brackets in punctuation]
Sinewy vigorous; having well-developed muscles [a sinew is a tendon]
Steep (v) to soak in water
Tamp to plug; press loose matter down tightly (e.g. pack explosives into a hole)
Venturing 1. hazarding; risking; putting forward; 2. going somewhere [venturesome means courageous or willing to take risks]
Wry 1. twisted or bent to one side; 2. dryly humorous

Arduous hard
Decimated kill or destroy a large part of (originally one tenth)
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Fledge 1. grow feathers; 2. leave nest [fledgling (n) = an inexperienced person or a baby bird]
Gouge cut or dig out
Picayune insignificant; of little value
Riveting fascinating [to rivet literally means to fix metal plates using metal pins]
Soliloquy solo speech
Supplicant person who requests or begs for something [supplicate (v)]
Transcendental supernatural; going beyond normal experience [transcendent (a)]
Veritable true; genuine [verity (n)]

Condescension talking down to someone [condescending (a)]

Divest remove; take off
Eddy circular current
Epaulet shoulder decoration
Fallacy wrong idea [fallacious (a)]
Fringe 1. decorative border with tassels (n); 2. to form an edge (v)
Leaven to make light; modify; cause bread to rise using yeast etc.
Patronize 1. to talk down to; condescend; 2. to be a customer of
Prominent 1. eminent; 2. protruding; 3. obvious
Statute law [statutory (a)]

Antipathy hatred
Aver affirm
Expatiate speak or write at great length
Flag (v) 1. to lose energy; 2. to signal
Flail 1. tool used to thresh grain; 2. to thresh (separate grain from chaff); 3. to wave arms about wildly
Indicted accused (of crime)
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Loll laze around; hang out (when used of the tongue)

Malign slander
Secure (v) 1. to fix firmly; 2. to obtain
Talon long pointed nail or claw

Abeyance state of inactivity; disuse

Disarm 1. take away weapons; 2. win over to one’s side [disarming (a)]
Elaborate 1. complex and detailed (a); 2. to expand on (v)
Foment 1. stir up; 2. bathe with hot liquids (medical)
Jockeying maneuvering; struggling to get ahead of others [jockey (v)]
Minutiae small details
Rue regret [rueful (a)]
Somatic concerned with the body
Stinting holding back; limiting the supply (of supplies/money etc.) [stint (v)]
Temperate moderate

Allure 1. attraction (n); 2. to attract (v)

Caulk treat with substance such as tar to make water-tight
Conscript 1. person enlisted compulsorily into the armed forces; 2. (v) to enlist compulsorily
Desultory aimless; inconsistent in effort
Elegy poem concerned with death; praise of a dead person
Fallow uncultivated
Forbearing tolerant [forbear (v); forbearance (n)]
Hegemony political domination; complete authority
Improbity lack of honesty or integrity
Qualm hesitation or fear
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Assay 1. try; 2. assess purity

Chauvinist someone excessively patriotic [chauvinism (n)]
Discrete separate; discontinuous (not to be confused with discreet - prudent; diplomatic]
Enlist 1. sign up for the army; 2. obtain
Fabricated made up; false; manufactured [fabricate (v); fabrication(n)]
Fulminate 1. attack loudly in words; denounce thunderously; 2. explode noisily
Hawser thick rope or cable
Jibe agree with; complement; match up with (in British usage jibe means mock)
Peer 1. an equal; 2. to stare at; 3. nobleman
Stickler one who is strict about rules or details

Cloture closure; terminating a debate by voting

Congruent matching [congruency (n)]
Dally waste time; flirt
Dissemble avoid the truth
Dote be excessively fond of [doting (a)]
Errant 1. wandering; 2. wrong; 3. straying from accepted standards
Fervent passionate
Stomach (v) to tolerate
Synapse junction between two nerve cells
Undercutting offering a lower price; undermining

Arson deliberate, criminal starting of fires

Carrion dead flesh; carcasses
Intelligible can be understood

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Ironclad cannot be altered; firm

Lint fluff; soft material used to cover wounds
Pretension assumed attitude of superiority; arrogance
Pundit expert
Pyre ceremonial fire
Sate satisfy
Syncopation type of musical rhythm with missed beats

Abraded worn away; eroded [abrade (v); abrasion (n)]

Apposite fitting; suitable

Diatribe tirade; violent denunciation; stream of criticism

Gerontocracy government by the aged
Maculated spotted
Quisling traitor
Sedulity thoroughness; perseverance [sedulous (a)]
Seine type of fishing net
Tender to offer
Waffle talk nonsense

Burlesque 1. comic play; 2. lampoon

Exemplar model type [exemplary (a)]
Homiletics art of preaching and giving sermons
Impugn challenge; question someone’s honor etc.
Incubus encumbrance; nightmarish thing
Lope run with long strides
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Macerate soften or break up by soaking; weaken

Nostrum remedy
Saw 1. tool for cutting; 2. wise saying
Sibyl prophetess

Brook 1. small stream; 2. tolerate

Emboss decorate with a raised design
Eschew shun; avoid
Limpid transparently clear
Liturgy form of worship
Nexus connection
Odometer instrument to measure distance covered
Purchase 1. grip; 2. buy
Quotidian daily; routine
Seminal essential; formative

Agog amazed; wide-eyed with enthusiasm

Amortize pay off a debt in installments
Curmudgeon grumpy person
Dormancy state of inactivity
Efficacy effectiveness
Epithet phrase used as a label or to express the essential nature of
Figurehead symbol of power; nominal leader
Fracas fight; disturbance
Jamb door post
Milk to squeeze; obtain by application of pressure
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Chorales simple hymns

Dissonance discord; disagreement
Frieze decorative border
Gist essence; main point
Latent hidden; real but undeveloped
Partiality bias
Plodding walking slowly and heavily; uninspired
Rekindle relight; revive
Symphony type of musical composition
Tarnished made dull; spoil (reputation)

Compromised 1. damaged or put in doubt (esp. of reputation); 2. reached an agreement by giving up part of a claim
Drabness dullness
Endow give gift; provide with money etc.
Esoterica obscure details
Falters hesitates
Prattle mindless talk
Prohibitive 1. prohibiting; 2. exorbitantly expensive
Purist conservative; one who insists on correct forms of language etc.
Quack charlatan; fake
Taunt mock; tease

Arresting (a) attracting attention; striking

Barrage extended gunfire to cover an attack; dam across river; deluge or information etc.
Chantey type of song sung by sailors
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Ferrous concerned with iron or its compounds

Manipulative scheming
Orate speak in a pompous manner
Psychosis severe mental disturbance
Savor enjoy
Table (v) put down for future discussion
Underwrite give guarantee, insure

Dissident person who disagrees [dissidence (n)]

Enigmatic puzzling [enigma (n)]
Foolhardy reckless [foolhardiness (n)]
Homogeneity evenness; uniformity
Personification 1. represent something as a person; 2. a concrete example of
Plaque 1. surface deposit on teeth or in artery etc.; 2. decorative plate or sign
Plausibility believability [plausible (a)]
Resilience resistance; ability to spring back [resilience (a)]
Trilogy set of three (literary works etc.); tetralogy = set of four
Vagary something unaccountable; freak

Aisle corridor; passageway (esp. between rows of seats)

Discountenance disallow
Imperative must be obeyed
Indigent poor; needy [indigence (n)]
Nadir lowest point
Paranoia mental state characterized by delusions or excessive fear
Prudence caution; wisdom
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Resuscitation revival from unconsciousness [resuscitate (v)]

Shirk avoid (esp. work)
Teetotalism total abstinence from alcohol

Balm soothing ointment or anything soothing [balmy (a)]

Calibrate mark an accurate scale on a device
Cataclysmic violently disruptive [cataclysm (n)]
Impropriety inappropriate behavior
Pith center; soft part of stem; essence
Primordial present from the beginning of time
Reconnaissance examination or survey conducted in advance [reconnoiter (v)]
Sinistral left-handed (or counterclockwise) [dextral - right handed]
Tempers moderates
Undermine subvert; attempt to overthrow

IDIOMS
A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush:
Having something that is certain is much better than taking a risk for more, because chances are you might lose everything.

A Blessing In Disguise:
Something good that isn't recognized at first.

A Chip On Your Shoulder:

Being upset for something that happened in the past.

A Dime A Dozen:
Anything that is common and easy to get.

A Doubting Thomas:
A skeptic who needs physical or personal evidence in order to believe something.
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A Drop in the Bucket:

A very small part of something big or whole.

A Fool And His Money Are Easily Parted:

It's easy for a foolish person to lose his/her money.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand:

Everyone involved must unify and function together or it will not work out.

A Leopard Can't Change His Spots:

You cannot change who you are.

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned:

By not spending money, you are saving money (little by little).

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words:

A visual presentation is far more descriptive than words.
A Piece of Cake:
A task that can be accomplished very easily.

A Slap on the Wrist:

A very mild punishment.

A Taste Of Your Own Medicine:

When you are mistreated the same way you mistreat others.
A Toss-Up:
A result that is still unclear and can go either way.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words:

It's better to actually do something than just talk about it.

Add Fuel To The Fire:

Whenever something is done to make a bad situation even worse than it is.

Against The Clock:

Rushed and short on time.

All Bark And No Bite:

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When someone is threatening and/or aggressive but not willing to engage in a fight.

All Greek to me:

Meaningless and incomprehensible like someone who cannot read, speak, or understand any of the Greek language would be.

All In The Same Boat:

When everyone is facing the same challenges.

An Arm And A Leg:

Very expensive. A large amount of money.

An Axe To Grind:
To have a dispute with someone.

Apple of My Eye:
Someone who is cherished above all others.

As High As A Kite:
Anything that is high up in the sky.

At The Drop Of A Hat:

Willing to do something immediately.

B
Back Seat Driver:
People who criticize from the sidelines, much like someone giving unwanted advice from the back seat of a vehicle to the driver.

Back To Square One:

Having to start all over again.

Back To The Drawing Board:

When an attempt fails and it's time to start all over.

Baker's Dozen:
Thirteen.

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Barking Up The Wrong Tree:

A mistake made in something you are trying to achieve.

Beat A Dead Horse:

To force an issue that has already ended.

Beating Around The Bush:

Avoiding the main topic. Not speaking directly about the issue.

Bend Over Backwards:

Do whatever it takes to help. Willing to do anything.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place:

Stuck between two very bad options.

Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:

To take on a task that is way to big.

Bite Your Tongue:

To avoid talking.

Blood Is Thicker Than Water:

The family bond is closer than anything else.

Blue Moon:
A rare event or occurance.

Break A Leg:
A superstitious way to say 'good luck' without saying 'good luck', but rather the opposite.

Buy A Lemon:
To purchase a vehicle that constantly gives problems or stops running after you drive it away.

C
Can't Cut The Mustard :
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Someone who isn't adequate enough to compete or participate.

Cast Iron Stomach:

Someone who has no problems, complications or ill effects with eating anything or drinking anything.

Charley Horse:
Stiffness in the leg / A leg cramp.

Chew someone out:

Verbally scold someone.

Chip on his Shoulder:

Angry today about something that occured in the past.

Chow Down:
To eat.

Close but no Cigar:

To be very near and almost accomplish a goal, but fall short.

Cock and Bull Story:

An unbelievable tale.

Come Hell Or High Water:

Any difficult situation or obstacle.

Crack Someone Up:

To make someone laugh.

Cross Your Fingers:

To hope that something happens the way you want it to.

Cry Over Spilt Milk:

When you complain about a loss from the past.

Cry Wolf:
Intentionally raise a false alarm.

Cup Of Joe:
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A cup of coffee.

Curiosity Killed The Cat:

Being Inquisitive can lead you into a dangerous situation.

Cut to the Chase:

Leave out all the unnecessary details and just get to the point.

D
Dark Horse:
One who was previously unknown and is now prominent.

Dead Ringer:
100% identical. A duplicate.

Devil's Advocate:
Someone who takes a position for the sake of argument without believing in that particular side of the arguement. It can also mean one who presents a counter
argument for a position they do believe in, to another debater.

Dog Days of Summer:

The hottest days of the summer season.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch:

Don't rely on it until your sure of it.

Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth:

When someone gives you a gift, don't be ungrateful.

Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket:

Do not put all your resources in one possibility.

Doozy:
Something outstanding.

Down To The Wire:

Something that ends at the last minute or last few seconds.

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Drastic Times Call For Drastic Measures:

When you are extremely desperate you need to take extremely desperate actions.

Drink like a fish:

To drink very heavily.

Drive someone up the wall:

To irritate and/or annoy very much.

Dropping Like Flies:

A large number of people either falling ill or dying.

Dry Run:
Rehearsal.

E
Eighty Six:
A certain item is no longer available. Or this idiom can also mean, to throw away.

Elvis has left the building:

The show has come to an end. It's all over.

Ethnic Cleansing:
Killing of a certain ethnic or religious group on a massive scale.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining:

Be optomistic, even difficult times will lead to better days.

Everything But The Kitchen Sink:

Almost everything and anything has been included.

Excuse my French:
Please forgive me for cussing.

Cock and Bull Story:

An unbelievable tale.

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Cock and Bull Story:

An unbelievable tale.

F
Feeding Frenzy:
An aggressive attack on someone by a group.

Field Day:
An enjoyable day or circumstance.

Finding Your Feet:

To become more comfortable in whatever you are doing.

Finger lickin' good:

A very tasty food or meal.

Fixed In Your Ways:

Not willing or wanting to change from your normal way of doing something.

Flash In The Pan:

Something that shows potential or looks promising in the beginning but fails to deliver anything in the end.

Flea Market:
A swap meet. A place where people gather to buy and sell inexpensive goods.

Flesh and Blood:

This idiom can mean living material of which people are made of, or it can refer to someone's family.

Flip The Bird:

To raise your middle finger at someone.

Foam at the Mouth:

To be enraged and show it.

Fools' Gold:
Iron pyrites, a worthless rock that resembles real gold.

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French Kiss:
An open mouth kiss where tongues touch.

From Rags To Riches:

To go from being very poor to being very wealthy.

Fuddy-duddy:
An old-fashioned and foolish type of person.

Full Monty:
This idiom can mean either, "the whole thing" or "completely nude".

Funny Farm:
A mental institutional facility.

G
Get Down to Brass Tacks:
To become serious about something.

Get Over It:

To move beyond something that is bothering you.

Get Up On The Wrong Side Of The Bed:

Someone who is having a horrible day.

Get Your Walking Papers:

Get fired from a job.

Give Him The Slip:

To get away from. To escape.

Go Down Like A Lead Balloon:

To be received badly by an audience.

Go For Broke:
To gamble everything you have.

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Go Out On A Limb:
Put yourself in a tough position in order to support someone/something.

Go The Extra Mile:

Going above and beyond whatever is required for the task at hand.

Good Samaritan:
Someone who helps others when they are in need, with no discussion for compensation, and no thought of a reward.

Graveyard Shift:
Working hours from about 12:00 am to 8:00 am. The time of the day when most other people are sleeping.

Great Minds Think Alike:

Intelligent people think like each other.

Green Room:
The waiting room, especially for those who are about to go on a tv or radio show.

Gut Feeling:
A personal intuition you get, especially when feel something may not be right.

H
Haste Makes Waste:
Quickly doing things results in a poor ending.

Hat Trick:
When one player scores three goals in the same hockey game. This idiom can also mean three scores in any other sport, such as 3 homeruns, 3 touchdowns, 3
soccer goals, etc.

Have an Axe to Grind:

To have a dispute with someone.

He Lost His Head:

Angry and overcome by emotions.

Head Over Heels:

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Very excited and/or joyful, especially when in love.

Hell in a Handbasket:
Deteriorating and headed for complete disaster.

High Five:
Slapping palms above each others heads as celebration gesture.

High on the Hog:

Living in Luxury.

Hit The Books:

To study, especially for a test or exam.

Hit The Hay:

Go to bed or go to sleep.

Hit The Nail on the Head:

Do something exactly right or say something exactly right.

Hit The Sack:

Go to bed or go to sleep.

Hocus Pocus:
In general, a term used in magic or trickery.

Hold Your Horses:

Be patient.

I
Icing On The Cake:
When you already have it good and get something on top of what you already have.

Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools:

You are more likely to get in trouble if you have nothing to do.

If It's Not One Thing, It's Another:

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When one thing goes wrong, then another, and another...

In Like Flynn:
To be easily successful, especially when sexual or romantic.

In The Bag:
To have something secured.

In The Buff:
Nude.

In The Heat Of The Moment:

Overwhelmed by what is happening in the moment.

In Your Face:
An aggressive and bold confrontation.

It Takes Two To Tango:

A two person conflict where both people are at fault.

It's A Small World:

You frequently see the same people in different places.

Its Anyone's Call:

A competition where the outcome is difficult to judge or predict.
Ivy League:
Since 1954 the Ivy League has been the following universities: Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Yale, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Harvard.

J
Jaywalk:
Crossing the street (from the middle) without using the crosswalk.

Joshing Me:
Tricking me.

K
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Keep An Eye On Him:

You should carefully watch him.

Keep body and soul together:

To earn a sufficient amount of money in order to keep yourself alive .

Keep your chin up:

To remain joyful in a tough situation.

Kick The Bucket:

Die.

Kitty-corner:
Diagonally across. Sometimes called Catty-Corner as well.

Knee Jerk Reaction:

A quick and automatic response.

Knock On Wood:
Knuckle tapping on wood in order to avoid some bad luck.

Know the Ropes:

To understand the details.

L
Last but not least:
An introduction phrase to let the audience know that the last person mentioned is no less important than those introduced before him/her.

Lend Me Your Ear:

To politely ask for someone's full attention.

Let Bygones Be Bygones:

To forget about a disagreement or arguement.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie:

To avoid restarting a conflict.

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Let The Cat Out Of The Bag:

To share a secret that wasn't suppose to be shared.

Level playing field:

A fair competition where no side has an advantage.

Like a chicken with its head cut off:

To act in a frenzied manner.

liquor someone up:

To get someone drunk.

Long in the Tooth:

Old people (or horses).

Loose Cannon:
Someone who is unpredictable and can cause damage if not kept in check.

M
Make No Bones About:
To state a fact so there are no doubts or objections.

Method To My Madness:
Strange or crazy actions that appear meaningless but in the end are done for a good reason.

Mumbo Jumbo:
Nonsense or meaningless speech.

Mum's the word:

To keep quiet. To say nothing.

N
Nest Egg:
Savings set aside for future use.

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Never Bite The Hand That Feeds You:

Don't hurt anyone that helps you.

New kid on the block:

Someone new to the group or area.

New York Minute:

A minute that seems to go by quickly, especially in a fast paced environment.

No Dice:
To not agree. To not accept a proposition.

No Room to Swing a Cat:

An unsually small or confined space.

Not Playing With a Full Deck:

Someone who lacks intelligence.

O
Off On The Wrong Foot:
Getting a bad start on a relationship or task.

Off The Hook:

No longer have to deal with a tough situation.

Off the Record:

Something said in confidence that the one speaking doesn't want attributed to him/her.

On Pins And Needles:

Anxious or nervous, especially in anticipation of something.

On The Fence:
Undecided.

On The Same Page:

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When multiple people all agree on the same thing.

Out Of The Blue:

Something that suddenly and unexpectedly occurs.

Out On A Limb:
When someone puts themself in a risky situation.

Out On The Town:

To enjoy yourself by going out.

Over My Dead Body:

When you absolutely will not allow something to happen.

Over the Top:

Very excessive.

P
Pass The Buck:
Avoid responsibility by giving it to someone else.

Pedal to the metal:

To go full speed, especially while driving a vehicle.

Peeping Tom:
Someone who observes people in the nude or sexually active people, mainly for his own gratification.

Pick up your ears:

To listen very carefully.

Pig In A Poke:
A deal that is made without first examining it.

Pig Out :
To eat alot and eat it quickly.

Pipe Down:
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To shut-up or be quiet.
Practice Makes Perfect:
By constantly practicing, you will become better.

Pull the plug:

To stop something. To bring something to an end.

Pulling Your Leg:

Tricking someone as a joke.

Put a sock in it:

To tell noisy person or a group to be quiet.

Q
Queer the pitch:
Destroy or ruin a plan.

R
Raincheck:
An offer or deal that is declined right now but willing to accept later.

Raining Cats and Dogs:

A very loud and noisy rain storm.

Ring Fencing:
Seperated usual judgement to guarantee protection, especially project funds.

Rise and Shine:

Time to get out of bed and get ready for work/school.

Rome Was Not Built In One Day:

If you want something to be completely properly, then its going to take time.

Rule Of Thumb:
A rough estimate.
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Run out of steam:

To be completely out of energy.

S
Saved By The Bell:
Saved at the last possible moment.

Scapegoat:
Someone else who takes the blame.

Scot-free:
To escape and not have to pay.

Sick As A Dog:
To be very sick (with the flu or a cold).

Sitting Shotgun:
Riding in the front passenger seat of a car.

Sixth Sense:
A paranormal sense that allows you to communicate with the dead.

Skid Row:
The rundown area of a city where the homeless and drug users live.

Smell A Rat:
To detect somone in the group is betraying the others.

Smell Something Fishy:

Detecting that something isn't right and there might be a reason for it.

Son of a Gun:
A scamp.

Southpaw:
Someone who is left-handed.
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ENGLISH COMPREHENSION

Spitting Image:
The exact likeness or kind.

Start From Scratch:

To do it all over again from the beginning.

T
The Ball Is In Your Court:
It is your decision this time.

The Best Of Both Worlds:

There are two choices and you have them both.

The Bigger They Are The Harder They Fall:

While the bigger and stronger opponent might be alot more difficult to beat, when you do they suffer a much bigger loss.

The Last Straw:

When one small burden after another creates an unbearable situation, the last straw is the last small burden that one can take.

The Whole Nine Yards:

Everything. All of it.

Third times a charm:

After no success the first two times, the third try is a lucky one.

Tie the knot:

To get married.

Til the cows come home:

A long time.

To Make A Long Story Short:

Something someone would say during a long and boring story in order to keep his/her audience from losing attention. Usually the story isn't shortened.

To Steal Someone's Thunder:

To take the credit for something someone else did.

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ENGLISH COMPREHENSION

Tongue And Cheek:

humor, not to be taken serious.

Turn A Blind Eye:

Refuse to acknowledge something you know is real or legit.

Twenty three skidoo:

To be turned away.

U
Under the weather:
Feeling ill or sick.

Up a blind alley:
Going down a course of action that leads to a bad outcome.

Use Your Loaf:

Use your head. Think smart.

V
Van Gogh's ear for music:
Tone deaf.

Variety Is The Spice Of Life:

The more experiences you try the more exciting life can be.

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W
Wag the Dog:
A diversion away from something of greater importance.

Water Under The Bridge:

Anything from the past that isn't significant or important anymore.
Wear Your Heart On Your Sleeve:
To openly and freely express your emotions.
When It Rains, It Pours:
Since it rarely rains, when it does it will be a huge storm.

When Pigs Fly :

Something that will never ever happen.

Wild and Woolly:

Uncultured and without laws.

Wine and Dine:

When somebody is treated to an expensive meal.

Without A Doubt:
For certain.

X
X marks the spot:
A phrase that is said when someone finds something he/she has been looking for.

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Y
You Are What You Eat:
In order to stay healthy you must eat healthy foods.

You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover:

Decisions shouldn't be made primarily on appearance.

You Can't Take it With You:

Enjoy what you have and not what you don't have, since when you die you cannot take things (such as money) with you.

Your Guess Is As Good As Mine:

I have no idea.

Z
Zero Tolerance:
No crime or law breaking big or small will be overlooked.

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