English Usage Test 47

Directions: Read the paragraph and answer the question that follows.

We are entering the Age of the Terrific Deal, where choices are almost limitless and it's easy to switch to something better. This is the first principle of the new economy. Understanding it is the first step towards understanding what is happening to the rest of our lives. All else follows.
And who doesn't want a better deal? Only the indolent, insane, or congenitally complacent would pass up a product that's obviously better (and costs no more) or cheaper (and of the same quality), an investment with a higher return, a more rewarding job, a more comfortable community. You owe it to yourself, your family.
You owe it to capitalism. The insistence on a better deal didn't begin in America. It's just more extreme here. For most of history, humankind lived in villages surrounded by dense forests, deserts, or otherwise dangerous and mysterious terrain.

What is the theme of the passage?

Directions: Read the paragraph and answer the question that follows.

Whatever is, is in some sense the seed of what is to emerge from it... To be in process of change is not an evil, any more than to be the product of change is a good...
Time is a river, the resistless flow of all created things. One thing no sooner comes in sight than it is hurried past and another is borne along, only to be swept away in its turn...
What follows is ever closely linked to what precedes; it is not a procession of isolated events, merely obeying the laws of sequence, but a rational continuity. Moreover, just as things already in existence are all harmoniously co-ordinated, things in the act of coming into existence exhibit the same marvel of concatenation, rather than simply the bare fact of succession.

What is the theme of the passage?

Directions: In the following question, four statements are provided. These statements form a coherent paragraph when properly arranged. Select the alternative representing the proper and logical sequencing of these statements.

A. The new Hinduism, which is being currently propagated by the parishads (like Vishwa Hindu Parishad), sanghs (like Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh), and samajs (like Bhartiya Samaj), is an attempt to restructure the indigenous religion as a monolithic uniform religion.
B. This seems to be a fundamental departure from the essentials of what may be called the indigenous Hindu religion.
C. In recent years, the discussion and movement on Hinduism has come to be largely galvanized for political ends.
D. As such, a rather different focus has been provided to Hinduism.

Directions: In the following question, five statements are provided. These statements form a coherent paragraph when properly arranged. Select the alternative representing the proper and logical sequencing of these statements.

A. Every problem is likely to be unique and is likely to have individualistic traits which may differentiate it from other problems.
B. As already stated, though every social problem is caused by multiple factors, yet it is always possible to find out the chief factor, the cooperative factors and the minor that aggravates in the origin and development of the problem.
C. This happens when a social problem is occasioned by natural factors like droughts or floods or when the conflict of social interests blocks the application of curative programmes, or a revolution is needed to change the existing political or economic systems.
D. The solving of a social problem depends upon finding out the causes of troublesome social conditions which create the problem.
E. Many a time, the nature of the social problem is such that the control becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Directions: In the following question, four statements are provided. These statements form a coherent paragraph when properly arranged. Select the alternative representing the proper and logical sequencing of these statements.

A. From the Han Dynasty onwards, the Chinese emperors took the lead in codifying the ceremonial music played in the imperial court.
B. Peace, as the goal of life, the goal of a political regime and political career, has been ingrained in Chinese thinking.
C. The literary text of this music is known as yuefu (literally 'music office').
D. One Chinese ruler who was very diligent in scripting the court songs was the reigning empress Wu Zetian (624-705), who had the unique distinction to be the only woman who sat in the chair of the 'Son of Heaven' (emperor) in Chinese history.

Directions: In the following question, four statements are provided. These statements form a coherent paragraph when properly arranged. Select the alternative representing the proper and logical sequencing of these statements.

A. We feel that a very concrete help can come to us from the experience and work of Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekanada.
B. A transition to be made from the state of extreme fragmentation in which we live today to a future possibility of re-creating life is on the basis of a concrete experience of 'wholeness'.
C. There is a possibility to change from our present status of 'mental' beings to a status of beings poised in the Spirit.
D. From 'within' to 'without' is the innate movement of the spiritual consciousness till, in its own unfolding, it reaches a point where the 'without' ceases to be, for all are contained in one whole.

Directions: In the following question, four statements are provided. These statements form a coherent paragraph when properly arranged. Select the alternative representing the proper and logical sequencing of these statements.

A. The disappearance of loyalties to these divisions may not be feasible but they need not to be perceived and denounced as anti-national.
B. If an individual thinks that he belongs to certain caste, village, region and religion, he also thinks that he is an Indian and as a citizen, he has certain responsibilities and duties to perform.
C. The 'divisions' in the country may be dysfunctional but their values may not necessarily be inconsistent with being a citizen of India.
D. Such feelings alone maintain unity at a higher level among the individuals and keep the society integrate, such a concept of unity need not make people afraid of diversities in the society.

Directions: Rearrange the following jumbled sentences to form a coherent paragraph.

A. Mere making of a promise or a provision in the constitution is not likely to provide work for anyone, except perhaps for the politicians who are experts in making impossible promises.
B. With cold hard statistics, can a concrete blueprint of an employment generation programme be worked out?
C. They find nothing wrong in adding one more promise of ‘Right to Work’ without giving substantial thought to comprehensive economic policies, innovative employment generation schemes, efficient organisation of the economic system, and other pragmatic and result–oriented techniques.
D. The feeling is that the slogan of ‘Right to Work’ is nothing but a digressive, escapist, tangential, flippant, and a comic proposal.
E. In the present situation of our country, is the guarantee of the Right to Work feasible?