Paragraph: The flower was not invented to please us.

It flaunted its petals and spread its perfume to attract an insect. The insect carries the pollen from flower to flower so that pollen is not carried away by wind and thus not wasted. What we call a flower’s beauty is merely a by-product and a human invention. The perfume is not there to please us, it pleases us because it is there and we have been conditioned to it.

Q. Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. The author of the passage believes that flowers are creations of Nature’s luxury.
2. The author of the passage does not believe in the usefulness of flowers except as things of beauty.

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer: d) Neither 1 nor 2

Paragraph: Green growth involves rethinking growth strategies with regard to the impacts on environmental sustainability

and the environmental resources available to poor and vulnerable groups.
In rethinking growth, we need to focus on the current reality of a resource-constrained world. Resource intensive and, in particular energy intensive processes will need to make way for more efficient and resource frugal development strategies if we are to avoid an economic dead end or a world in which only a small elite is able to enjoy affluence in the midst of a sea of poverty.

Q. Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the above passage?
a) Environmental sustainability is inimical to our objective of achieving a high rate of GDP growth.
b) Poverty eradication is not possible without a rapid economic growth and the consequent environmental degradation.
c) Maintaining high environmental standards is now a prerequisite for achieving a steady, sufficient and inclusive growth.
d) With large populations, rampant poverty and limited resources of today’s world, environmental degradation cannot be prevented and inequalities are inevitable.
Correct answer: c) Maintaining high environmental standards is now a prerequisite for achieving a steady, sufficient and inclusive growth.

Paragraph: Now-a-days there is a growing trend to use interconnected home devices.

As consumers increasingly network their homes, the connected home device manufacturers and service providers will seek to overcome “thin profit margins by gathering more of our personal data-with or without our agreement turning the home into a corporate storefront”. Corporate marketers will have powerful incentives to observe consumer behaviour to understand the buying needs and preferences of the device owners.

Q. Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational, and practical message implied by the passage?
a) Knowledge of consumer behaviour leads to more capital expenditure in manufacturing sector.
b) Knowledge of consumer behaviour stimulates the growth of commerce and trade and thus helps in the overall economic development of the country.
c) Interconnected devices give a lot of comfort to home users and improve the overall quality of life.
d) Interconnected devices can be at security risk and home users may have privacy risk.
Correct answer: d) Interconnected devices can be at security risk and home users may have privacy risk.

Paragraph: In a robust democracy, reality, howsoever inconvenient it may be,

finds its expression both in the speech of political leaders and the other social forms of assertion. The existence of the real has to be transparent, both through its circulation in and by the media as well as its argumentative articulation in deliberative democracy. A normatively responsible media through its communication effect has the responsibility to circulate the content of reality without distortion.

Q. Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the above passage?
a) Responsible media should not distort the real in an ideal democracy.
b) Fake news seems inherent in the life of an ideal democracy.
c) There should not be any kind of restrictions on the freedom of expression in an ideal democracy.
d) Irresponsible media and political leaders cannot be effectively controlled in an ideal democracy.
Correct answer: a) Responsible media should not distort the real in an ideal democracy.

Paragraph: When an international team of pumped a carbon dioxide

and water mix into underground basalt rocks, basic chemistry took over.
The acidic mixture dissolved rocks’ calcium and magnesium and formed limestone Basically carbon dioxide is converted into stone, exclaimed the scientists.

Q. Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational, and practical suggestion implied by the passage?
a) It is a cheap and practical method to produce limestone at commercial level for building purposes.
b) This can be used as one of the methods of carbon sequestration.
c) Basalt rock can be made a good source of calcium and magnesium minerals by this method.
d) Good rock-dissolving acid can be produced by mixing carbon dioxide and water.
Correct answer: b) This can be used as one of the methods of carbon sequestration.

Paragraph: When a child reaches adolescence, there is apt to be a conflict between the parents and the child,

since the latter considers himself to be by now quite capable of managing his own affairs, while the former are filled with parental solicitude, which is often a disguise for love of power. Parents consider, usually, that the various moral problems which arise in adolescence are peculiarly their province. The options they express, however, are so dogmatic that the young seldom confide in them, and usually go their own way in secret.

Q1. Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. The adolescent does not feel comfortable with his parents because they tend to be dominating and assertive.
2. The adolescent of modern times does not have much respect for parents.

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer: a) 1 only

Q2. Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea of the above passage?
a) Parents in general may not be of much help when children are on their way to becoming adults.
b) When children reach adolescence, involvement of parents in their lives is unnecessary.
c) Modern-day nuclear families are not capable of bringing up children properly.
d) In modern societies, adolescents tend to be Stubborn, disobedient and careless.
Correct answer: a) Parents in general may not be of much help when children are on their way to becoming adults.

Paragraph: Conventional classrooms, by emphasizing fixed duration over learning effectiveness, resign themselves to variable outcomes.

The tyranny of the classroom is that every learner is subjected to the same set of lectures in the same way for the same duration. In the end, a few learners shine, some survive, and the rest are left behind. After the fixed duration, the classroom model moves on, with not a thought spared for those left behind. This is how we end up with 10 percent employability in our graduates after a decade and half of formal education. Repeating the same ineffectual script in the realm of skill education will not produce different results.

Q1. Which of the following statements best reflects/reflect the most logical and rational inference/inferences that can be made from the passage?
1. In conventional classroom learning, the central goal is duration of Learning rather than attainment of competency.
2. Conventional classrooms encourage one-size-fits-all approach and stamp out all differentiation.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer: c) Both 1 and 2

Q2. Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. As a large number of workers in our country are employed in the unorganized sector, India does not need to change its present conventional classroom system of education.
2. Even with its present conventional classroom system of education, India produces a sufficient number of skilled workers to fully realize the benefits of demographic dividend.

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer: d) Neither 1 nor 2

Paragraph: Only with long experience and opening of his wares on many a beach where his language is not spoken,

will the merchant come to know the worth of what he carries, and what is parochial and what is universal in his choice.
Such delicate goods as justice, love and honour, courtesy, and indeed all the things we care for, are valid everywhere but they are variously moulded and often differently handled, and sometimes nearly unrecognizable if you meet them in a foreign land, and the art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows.

Q1. When we meet other people while we travel, we learn to differentiate between
a) imagination and understanding
b) communities and nationalities
c) local values and universal values
d) friends and foes
Correct answer: c) local values and universal values

Q2. With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. Travel leads to an understanding of humans.
2. Travel helps those who wish to learn fundamental common values.
3. A person with long experience in travel can resolve differences amongst people.

Which of the assumptions given above are valid?
a) 1 and 2 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Correct answer: a) 1 and 2 only

Paragraph: “The history of science is the real history of mankind.”

In this striking epigram, a nineteenth-century writer links science with its background. Like most epigrams, its power lies in emphasizing by contrast an aspect of truth which may be easily overlooked. In this case, it is easy to overlook the relations between science and mankind, and to treat the former has some abstract third party, which can sometimes be praised for its beneficial influences, but frequently and conveniently blamed for the horrors of war. Science and mankind cannot be divorced from time to time at men’s convenience. Yet we have seen that, in spite of countless opportunities of improvement, the opening years of the present period of civilization have been dominated by international conflict. Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?

Q1. Which of the following is/are emphatically conveyed by the author of the passage?
1. Without science, mankind could not have continued to exist till today.
2. It is the science that will ultimately determine the destiny of mankind.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer: d) Neither 1 nor 2

Q2. Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. The horrors of modern life are the inevitable result of the progress of science.
2. The aspect of truth likely to be overlooked is that science is what man has made it.

Which of the assumptions given above is/are correct?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer: b) 2 only

Paragraph:

We take it for granted now that science has a social responsibility.

The idea would not have occurred to Newton or Galileo. They thought of science as an account of the world as it is, and the only responsibility that they acknowledged was to tell the truth. The idea that science is a social enterprise is modern, and it begins at the industrial revolution. We are surprised that we cannot trace a social sense further back, because we nurse the illusion that the industrial revolution ended a golden age.

Q. Which one of the following statements best reflects the thinking of the author about the science?
a) Science must value the commitment of the scientists.
b) Science is a product of civilized society and must be used for the promotion of scientific awareness in people.
c) Industrial revolution was made possible by the advancements in science.
d) Science must pursue truth but be responsible for social welfare.
Correct answer: d) Science must pursue truth but be responsible for social welfare.