English Reading Comprehension

We can make contact with the dead by going into the works of

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answer the question.

My father died twice. The first time was in an ambulance as he rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. His heart had stopped beating for several minutes before the paramedics were able to revive him. Afterwards, he described a vision he had as he lay without a pulse in the speeding ambulance. He saw his brother Joe, who had passed away some years earlier, dressed in flowing white robes sitting on a kind of throne at the top of hill. As my father approached, Joe was laughing uproariously and waving his hand, urging him to turn around and go back. The second time my father died was about three years later. Again it was his heart that failed him. This time, though his brother Joe wasn¢t there to wave him back to this world.

What my father encountered in the back of that ambulance was a classic example of a near death experience (NDE). According to statistics compiled by the International Association for Near-Death studies some 35-40% of people who have had a close brush with death later report a NDE. They commonly tell of a feeling that the self has left the body a sensation of moving through a dark space or tunnel a vision of golden or white light and the receipt in some form of the message "your time has not yet come."

Are NDEs evidence for life after death or are they just the last, desperate projections of the dying brain? While modem science can explain why we age, it tells us very little about why we die, much less about what happens if anything after death. "In death, science is pitted against an impenetrable information barrier", says David Darling, an astronomer and physicist who has written several books on death and dying. "When we die, each of us makes a solo flight across that barrier and gives up all possibility of sending back news of what we find."

Many people don't require hard evidence about what's on the other side. They are satisfied with the explanations provided for millennia by the world's religions. But for those not blessed with religious faith, science may never be able to prove whether the NDE is a news flash from the hereafter or just one of the mind's grandest illusions. Darling suggests there are two events that approximate death: the near death experiences itself and the memory loss suffered by victims of Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. "Losing your memory is perhaps as close as we can come to death without actually dying", he says. "The person is dead because the memories are gone. And memories are the only things that give meaning and identity to our lives."

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

The idea is not as far-out as it seems. According to Chris Winter, Peter Cochrane and Ian Pearson, futurologists at British Telecom's Advanced Research Department, computers (or “soulcatchers") with storage and processing capacities equivalent to the human brain will be developed within the next 20 years. "We will be able to transfer human minds into some machine form", says Pearson. Perhaps our only chance of making full use of such technology is to become part of the technology itself.

But are these intimations of immortality real? The silicon soul described by Leary is actually not a captured consciousness at all, but an elaborate interactive home video of history. As useful and entertaining as that might be, it’s a far cry from life after death. And how big an improvement is it over say the good old-fashioned book? We can already make contact with some of the world's great lost simply by dipping into the novels of James Joyce or the poems of John Donne.

In his book, ‘Dancing on the Grave’, British anthropologist Nigel Barely describes a trip to Africa during which a group of tribal elders explain their idea of reincarnation by visiting a local brewery. “You could see returned bottles through a plate glass window", Barely writes “entering via one door, whirling from machine to machine being endlessly refilled with squirting beer relabelled and pushed out through another door.... life, death, spirit and body”. Now you have seen (the elders) said. Though it comes from Africa, this little episode is a fitting metaphor for Western attitudes towards death: the body is a machine and death is a spanner in the works. But you don't have to postulate the existence of an eternal soul to acknowledge that there may be some things in the universe, like death, that we just can't fix. Let's not be too proud that our technological prowess may one day bring immortality. “Never send to know for whom the computer crashes, it crashes for thee”.

Choose the word most opposite in meaning to the word 'Parried', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answer the question.

My father died twice. The first time was in an ambulance as he rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. His heart had stopped beating for several minutes before the paramedics were able to revive him. Afterwards, he described a vision he had as he lay without a pulse in the speeding ambulance. He saw his brother Joe, who had passed away some years earlier, dressed in flowing white robes sitting on a kind of throne at the top of hill. As my father approached, Joe was laughing uproariously and waving his hand, urging him to turn around and go back. The second time my father died was about three years later. Again it was his heart that failed him. This time, though his brother Joe wasn¢t there to wave him back to this world.

What my father encountered in the back of that ambulance was a classic example of a near death experience (NDE). According to statistics compiled by the International Association for Near-Death studies some 35-40% of people who have had a close brush with death later report a NDE. They commonly tell of a feeling that the self has left the body a sensation of moving through a dark space or tunnel a vision of golden or white light and the receipt in some form of the message "your time has not yet come."

Are NDEs evidence for life after death or are they just the last, desperate projections of the dying brain? While modem science can explain why we age, it tells us very little about why we die, much less about what happens if anything after death. "In death, science is pitted against an impenetrable information barrier", says David Darling, an astronomer and physicist who has written several books on death and dying. "When we die, each of us makes a solo flight across that barrier and gives up all possibility of sending back news of what we find."

Many people don't require hard evidence about what's on the other side. They are satisfied with the explanations provided for millennia by the world's religions. But for those not blessed with religious faith, science may never be able to prove whether the NDE is a news flash from the hereafter or just one of the mind's grandest illusions. Darling suggests there are two events that approximate death: the near death experiences itself and the memory loss suffered by victims of Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. "Losing your memory is perhaps as close as we can come to death without actually dying", he says. "The person is dead because the memories are gone. And memories are the only things that give meaning and identity to our lives."

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

The idea is not as far-out as it seems. According to Chris Winter, Peter Cochrane and Ian Pearson, futurologists at British Telecom's Advanced Research Department, computers (or “soulcatchers") with storage and processing capacities equivalent to the human brain will be developed within the next 20 years. "We will be able to transfer human minds into some machine form", says Pearson. Perhaps our only chance of making full use of such technology is to become part of the technology itself.

But are these intimations of immortality real? The silicon soul described by Leary is actually not a captured consciousness at all, but an elaborate interactive home video of history. As useful and entertaining as that might be, it’s a far cry from life after death. And how big an improvement is it over say the good old-fashioned book? We can already make contact with some of the world's great lost simply by dipping into the novels of James Joyce or the poems of John Donne.

In his book, ‘Dancing on the Grave’, British anthropologist Nigel Barely describes a trip to Africa during which a group of tribal elders explain their idea of reincarnation by visiting a local brewery. “You could see returned bottles through a plate glass window", Barely writes “entering via one door, whirling from machine to machine being endlessly refilled with squirting beer relabelled and pushed out through another door.... life, death, spirit and body”. Now you have seen (the elders) said. Though it comes from Africa, this little episode is a fitting metaphor for Western attitudes towards death: the body is a machine and death is a spanner in the works. But you don't have to postulate the existence of an eternal soul to acknowledge that there may be some things in the universe, like death, that we just can't fix. Let's not be too proud that our technological prowess may one day bring immortality. “Never send to know for whom the computer crashes, it crashes for thee”.

For how many dollars did Zhu sell his first violin?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answer the question.

Three years ago, a little-known craftsman from the dusty backstreets of southern China's Guangzhou city caught the world of classical musicians off guard. Zhu Ming-Jiang was awarded a gold medal from the prestigious Violin Society of America - its highest accolade - for an instrument handcrafted in the tradition of Italian masters of the 17th century, the great age of violinmakers. Seasoned music critics were aghast. China was one of the world’s biggest exporters of violins, but its instruments were notorious for their inferiority and sold by the truckload primarily because they were cheap. That general picture won't change overnight, since Zhu makes just 10 violins a year, but at least China can now lay claim to producing a contemporary equivalent to the famed Stradivarius.

Zhu's life has been full of surprising turns. The second son of two accountants, Zhu was forced as a teenager to abandon his education and like tens of thousands of other intellectual young Chinese during the 1960s and 70s, was sent to the countryside to be "re-educated" by peasants. "I wanted to be a carpenter, even a painter", says Zhu. "But I was labouring in fields of sugarcane and looking for a way out”. Zhu seized his chance to escape the rural backwaters of Panyu County just south of Guangzhou two years later in 1976 when China set up the Guangzhou Musical Instruments School. He was one of the 25 students chosen nationwide because he had shown promise as a sculptor of wood, an essential skill in the delicate crafting of musical instruments.

Zhu rapidly improved his skills and by 1986 he had graduated from the school and was working for the Guangzhou Musical Instruments Research Institute. Zhu's craft gained international recognition because senior Communist Party cadres often entered his violins in international competitions. They also flitted abroad to collect the prizes giving him little opportunity to enjoy the acclaim. By that time Zhu was secretly making violins at home because he wanted to use his own name in competitions and he felt that many of the violins produced by the institute were of poor quality.

Zhu struck out on his own in 1991, setting up a tiny workshop in his suburban apartment. In addition to the Violin Society of America’s gold medal, Zhu has collected nine other international awards and musicians in the United States, Europe and Asia now keenly seek his instruments. Zhu won't reveal the secrets of his craft which hehas been practicing for 21 years. While he sold his first violin for sixty dollars, he won't reveal his prices. Like the secrets of his craft, these  too are secret to all but serious potential buyers. "Price?", Zhu asks. “What price the sound of a violin, that makes you feel that you have just tasted sweet spring water after a long journey over the mountains?" For a country boy who reluctantly gave up carpentry to court the respect of composers and musicians, the rewards of that journey have been sweet indeed.

Which word in the passage means to make small changes to something in order to improve or repair it?

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

Nobody knew that one of America's first beloved cereals was invented by accident. It all started with Will Keith Kellogg, his interest in medicine and a bout of forgetfulness. Kellogg used to help his brother, who worked as a doctor at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, with patients and their diets. One day he was conducting research with his brother and helping cook meals for patients, Kellogg stumbled upon a discovery that would change his life. Responsible for making bread dough one day, Kellogg accidentally left his main ingredient, boiled wheat, sitting out for several hours. When he came back to roll the ingredient into dough, the wheat became flaky. Curious to see what would happen, Kellogg baked the flaky dough anyway, creating a crunchy and flaky snack. The flakes were a hit with patients, so Kellogg embarked on a mission to enhance the product for large-scale sale. Will Kellogg tinkered with his recipe and finally settled on using corn as a main ingredient for the flakes. He launched his business, 'The Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company', in 1906, which eventually came to be known as the Kellogg's company that sells Corn Flakes, other cereals and convenience foods today.

What is the passage about?

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

Nobody knew that one of America's first beloved cereals was invented by accident. It all started with Will Keith Kellogg, his interest in medicine and a bout of forgetfulness. Kellogg used to help his brother, who worked as a doctor at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, with patients and their diets. One day he was conducting research with his brother and helping cook meals for patients, Kellogg stumbled upon a discovery that would change his life. Responsible for making bread dough one day, Kellogg accidentally left his main ingredient, boiled wheat, sitting out for several hours. When he came back to roll the ingredient into dough, the wheat became flaky. Curious to see what would happen, Kellogg baked the flaky dough anyway, creating a crunchy and flaky snack. The flakes were a hit with patients, so Kellogg embarked on a mission to enhance the product for large-scale sale. Will Kellogg tinkered with his recipe and finally settled on using corn as a main ingredient for the flakes. He launched his business, 'The Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company', in 1906, which eventually came to be known as the Kellogg's company that sells Corn Flakes, other cereals and convenience foods today.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word ‘Dangle’ as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering the question.

There is nothing like a tropical rain forest for replacing arrogance with awe. Who could enter these primordial places, these untamed Edens, and not be wonderstruck? Dark and mysterious even in daytime, rain forests inspire respect. They are one of Nature's last frontiers, alive with flora and fauna seen rarely or never by human beings, and colonized by a handful of indigenous tribes that have had little or no contact with the outside world. Vast, fecund and biologically diverse, rain forests are bountiful and seemingly inexhaustible ecosystems that have supplied the human race with a staggering treasure trove including timber, fruit, spices and medicines. Although much more bounty lies in wait, the pace of discovery in the rain forest is naturally slow. The sheer number of plants to study is staggering and scientific experimentation takes time and money. Even when a chemical needle is found in a rain forest haystack, it still takes years to get a new drug to market.

The English naturalist and author Gerald Durrell assailed those who would ravage the rain forests loggers, ranchers and miners, for acting "with the savage, unthinking ferocity of a troupe of drunken apes in art gallery". But, he added, "whereas pictures can be repainted, tropical rain forests can't be recreated". Indeed, what could replace the wondrous electric fish of the Amazon River, the poison-sweating frogs of Panama, or the host of plants and animals whose secrets and potential benefits have yet to be fathomed? In a word, nothing. When they are gone, they are.

The world's rain forests still hold a host of secrets, many of which are being slowly unravelled as new discoveries of plant and animal life are made. According to conservative estimates, about 30 million species of plants and animals - more than half of all life forms on Earth - live in the tropical rain forests. But some scientists suggest there could be up to 80 million or more species living in this mysterious and still largely unexplored realm. This higher figure could very well be proved right as researchers probe the forest canopy, the treetop network of leaves, vines and branches that forms a world within a world. In these huge green expanses scores of meters above the forest floor, sky gardens of orchids and philodendrons bloom without benefit of soil. Birds avoid the rain by hanging upside down beneath broad leaves. Green iguanas climb aloft to bask nearer the tropical sun. Sloths dangle motionless for hours, avoiding eagles and other predators. And everywhere is the buzz and flutter of insects, which inhabit the rain forest in incredible variety and numbers. While new species of larger creatures such as a dwarf deer identified in Vietnam's Vu Quag forest in April are rarely discovered, the insect world still offers plentiful newness, especially in the rain forest canopy.

This treetop world enchants Andrew Mitchell, an Oxford-based naturalist and author who is program director for Earth Watch, an organisation that matches volunteer members of the public with scientific and conservation projects worldwide. Mitchell has extensively explored the rain forests of Asia and Latin America, making perilous climbs into the canopy, which he describes as the "penthouse where the trees have their sex lives". The canopy is physically and biologically the most active part of any rain forest. With its complex system of interdependence among animals, plants and insects, it is also the least understood. "Half of all life lives there and it's where the reproductive biology of trees goes on", explains Mitchell. "If we're trying to save rain forests, we won't get anywhere unless we understand how these trees reproduce". As commercial development encroaches ever deeper into once-remote areas, saving the rain forests is becoming an increasingly urgent task. Some 6% of Earth's land area is rain forest, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, and more than 1% of that - about 17 million hectares - is being lost each year through logging, mining and agriculture.

According to the passage, the Triple Underpass is most probably

Passage –III

With a phalanx of Dallas police motorcycle officers clearing the way ahead, the big limousine carrying the Kennedy family made a 90-degree turn from Main onto Houston in front of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Almost two dozen deputies and other lawmen stood on the sidewalk watching.

Atop the building was a large Hertz Rent-A-Car sign that had a digital time and temperature display. In front of the Depository, the limousine slowed to a crawl to make a 120-degree turn onto Elm Street, although turns of more than 90-degrees were prohibited by the Secret Service. The turn was so tight that Greer almost ran the limousine up onto the north curb near the Depository's front door, according to Depository Superintendent Roy Truly.
The car continued a slow glide down the incline of Elm into Dealey Plaza, maintaining its position in the center lane of the three-lane street. The crowds thinned out as the Triple Underpass approached and security men began to relax. About three car lengths ahead of the presidential limousine in the lead car, Agent Lawson, a former Army counterintelligence man now with the Secret Service White House detail was sitting in the right front seat. He looked at his watch. It was 12:30 p.m. Picking up the car's microphone; he radioed the Trade Mart saying: 'We'll be there in about five minutes.’
In the presidential limousine, Kennedy was waving to his right hand at a group of people standing near a sign reading STEMMONS FREEWAY. His right arm and hand was slightly over the side of the car. Mrs. Kennedy had been waving to her left, but her thoughts were on the Texas heat. Mrs. Kennedy later told the Warren Commission: 'And in the motorcade, I waved to the left side and Mr. Kennedy was waving mostly to the right and that explains why we were not looking at each other very often. The climate also was very inhospitable; it was extremely hot and the heat was blinding us.’ Sensing her discomfort, Mrs. Connally, an old acquaintance of Mrs. Kennedy’s, turned and said: 'We'll soon be there.'

Mrs. Kennedy recalled seeing the Triple Underpass ahead: We saw that we were approaching an underpass, which I thought at the time was a blessing for us as it would offer respite from the heat.’ Mrs. Connally had wanted to mention the warm and enthusiastic welcome for some time, but she had held back. Now she could contain herself no longer. Turning to Kennedy, she said: 'Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn’t love you.' According to Mrs. Kennedy, the President smiled and replied: 'No, you certainly can’t.’

Soon after this remark Mrs. Connally heard a frightening noise off to her right. She looked in that direction and caught a peripheral glimpse of Kennedy raising both hands to his neck. She heard no sound from the President, but noticed a blank, ‘nothing' expression on his face. Kellerman, sitting directly in front of Connally and Kennedy, noticed they had just passed a highway sign when he heard a 'pop' to his right and immediately looked in that direction, surveying the easternmost slope of the Grassy Knoll. Kellerman told the Warren Commission: turning to the right to view whatever it was ...I heard someone saying that he had been hit and I was pretty sure that it was the president. Also I remember him putting his hands up here like this [indicating both hands up near the head] . . . [It] was enough for me to verify that the man was hit.

Immediately after this I grabbed the speaker and said to the driver, “Let’s get out of here we’re hit,” and agin I spoke into the microphone, ’Lawson, this is Kellerman………we are hit and need to go to the hospital immediately.’ And just as I talking , I heard a flurry of shells come into the car. 

Mrs. Connally testified she heard Kellerman say: 'Pull out of the motorcade. Take us to the nearest hospital.' The limousine indeed pulled out of the motorcade and raced to Parkland Hospital.
Driver Greer said he was busy looking ahead to the railroad overpass when he heard a noise he thought was a motorcade backfire. Then he heard the noise again and caught a glimpse of Connally starting to slump over. He then heard two more noises that seemed to come one on top of the other. Greer said after the second noise and a glance over his right shoulder at Connally, he stepped on the accelerator. However, a film taken that day shows the limousine brake lights remained on until after the fatal shot to Kennedy.

In paragraph 3 of the passage, what does the author mean by the expression 'the crowds thinned out'?

Passage –III

With a phalanx of Dallas police motorcycle officers clearing the way ahead, the big limousine carrying the Kennedy family made a 90-degree turn from Main onto Houston in front of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Almost two dozen deputies and other lawmen stood on the sidewalk watching.

Atop the building was a large Hertz Rent-A-Car sign that had a digital time and temperature display. In front of the Depository, the limousine slowed to a crawl to make a 120-degree turn onto Elm Street, although turns of more than 90-degrees were prohibited by the Secret Service. The turn was so tight that Greer almost ran the limousine up onto the north curb near the Depository's front door, according to Depository Superintendent Roy Truly.
The car continued a slow glide down the incline of Elm into Dealey Plaza, maintaining its position in the center lane of the three-lane street. The crowds thinned out as the Triple Underpass approached and security men began to relax. About three car lengths ahead of the presidential limousine in the lead car, Agent Lawson, a former Army counterintelligence man now with the Secret Service White House detail was sitting in the right front seat. He looked at his watch. It was 12:30 p.m. Picking up the car's microphone; he radioed the Trade Mart saying: 'We'll be there in about five minutes.’
In the presidential limousine, Kennedy was waving to his right hand at a group of people standing near a sign reading STEMMONS FREEWAY. His right arm and hand was slightly over the side of the car. Mrs. Kennedy had been waving to her left, but her thoughts were on the Texas heat. Mrs. Kennedy later told the Warren Commission: 'And in the motorcade, I waved to the left side and Mr. Kennedy was waving mostly to the right and that explains why we were not looking at each other very often. The climate also was very inhospitable; it was extremely hot and the heat was blinding us.’ Sensing her discomfort, Mrs. Connally, an old acquaintance of Mrs. Kennedy’s, turned and said: 'We'll soon be there.'

Mrs. Kennedy recalled seeing the Triple Underpass ahead: We saw that we were approaching an underpass, which I thought at the time was a blessing for us as it would offer respite from the heat.’ Mrs. Connally had wanted to mention the warm and enthusiastic welcome for some time, but she had held back. Now she could contain herself no longer. Turning to Kennedy, she said: 'Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn’t love you.' According to Mrs. Kennedy, the President smiled and replied: 'No, you certainly can’t.’

Soon after this remark Mrs. Connally heard a frightening noise off to her right. She looked in that direction and caught a peripheral glimpse of Kennedy raising both hands to his neck. She heard no sound from the President, but noticed a blank, ‘nothing' expression on his face. Kellerman, sitting directly in front of Connally and Kennedy, noticed they had just passed a highway sign when he heard a 'pop' to his right and immediately looked in that direction, surveying the easternmost slope of the Grassy Knoll. Kellerman told the Warren Commission: turning to the right to view whatever it was ...I heard someone saying that he had been hit and I was pretty sure that it was the president. Also I remember him putting his hands up here like this [indicating both hands up near the head] . . . [It] was enough for me to verify that the man was hit.

Immediately after this I grabbed the speaker and said to the driver, “Let’s get out of here we’re hit,” and agin I spoke into the microphone, ’Lawson, this is Kellerman………we are hit and need to go to the hospital immediately.’ And just as I talking , I heard a flurry of shells come into the car. 

Mrs. Connally testified she heard Kellerman say: 'Pull out of the motorcade. Take us to the nearest hospital.' The limousine indeed pulled out of the motorcade and raced to Parkland Hospital.
Driver Greer said he was busy looking ahead to the railroad overpass when he heard a noise he thought was a motorcade backfire. Then he heard the noise again and caught a glimpse of Connally starting to slump over. He then heard two more noises that seemed to come one on top of the other. Greer said after the second noise and a glance over his right shoulder at Connally, he stepped on the accelerator. However, a film taken that day shows the limousine brake lights remained on until after the fatal shot to Kennedy.

The word phalanx as used in the passage means

Passage –III

With a phalanx of Dallas police motorcycle officers clearing the way ahead, the big limousine carrying the Kennedy family made a 90-degree turn from Main onto Houston in front of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Almost two dozen deputies and other lawmen stood on the sidewalk watching.

Atop the building was a large Hertz Rent-A-Car sign that had a digital time and temperature display. In front of the Depository, the limousine slowed to a crawl to make a 120-degree turn onto Elm Street, although turns of more than 90-degrees were prohibited by the Secret Service. The turn was so tight that Greer almost ran the limousine up onto the north curb near the Depository's front door, according to Depository Superintendent Roy Truly.
The car continued a slow glide down the incline of Elm into Dealey Plaza, maintaining its position in the center lane of the three-lane street. The crowds thinned out as the Triple Underpass approached and security men began to relax. About three car lengths ahead of the presidential limousine in the lead car, Agent Lawson, a former Army counterintelligence man now with the Secret Service White House detail was sitting in the right front seat. He looked at his watch. It was 12:30 p.m. Picking up the car's microphone; he radioed the Trade Mart saying: 'We'll be there in about five minutes.’
In the presidential limousine, Kennedy was waving to his right hand at a group of people standing near a sign reading STEMMONS FREEWAY. His right arm and hand was slightly over the side of the car. Mrs. Kennedy had been waving to her left, but her thoughts were on the Texas heat. Mrs. Kennedy later told the Warren Commission: 'And in the motorcade, I waved to the left side and Mr. Kennedy was waving mostly to the right and that explains why we were not looking at each other very often. The climate also was very inhospitable; it was extremely hot and the heat was blinding us.’ Sensing her discomfort, Mrs. Connally, an old acquaintance of Mrs. Kennedy’s, turned and said: 'We'll soon be there.'

Mrs. Kennedy recalled seeing the Triple Underpass ahead: We saw that we were approaching an underpass, which I thought at the time was a blessing for us as it would offer respite from the heat.’ Mrs. Connally had wanted to mention the warm and enthusiastic welcome for some time, but she had held back. Now she could contain herself no longer. Turning to Kennedy, she said: 'Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn’t love you.' According to Mrs. Kennedy, the President smiled and replied: 'No, you certainly can’t.’

Soon after this remark Mrs. Connally heard a frightening noise off to her right. She looked in that direction and caught a peripheral glimpse of Kennedy raising both hands to his neck. She heard no sound from the President, but noticed a blank, ‘nothing' expression on his face. Kellerman, sitting directly in front of Connally and Kennedy, noticed they had just passed a highway sign when he heard a 'pop' to his right and immediately looked in that direction, surveying the easternmost slope of the Grassy Knoll. Kellerman told the Warren Commission: turning to the right to view whatever it was ...I heard someone saying that he had been hit and I was pretty sure that it was the president. Also I remember him putting his hands up here like this [indicating both hands up near the head] . . . [It] was enough for me to verify that the man was hit.

Immediately after this I grabbed the speaker and said to the driver, “Let’s get out of here we’re hit,” and agin I spoke into the microphone, ’Lawson, this is Kellerman………we are hit and need to go to the hospital immediately.’ And just as I talking , I heard a flurry of shells come into the car. 

Mrs. Connally testified she heard Kellerman say: 'Pull out of the motorcade. Take us to the nearest hospital.' The limousine indeed pulled out of the motorcade and raced to Parkland Hospital.
Driver Greer said he was busy looking ahead to the railroad overpass when he heard a noise he thought was a motorcade backfire. Then he heard the noise again and caught a glimpse of Connally starting to slump over. He then heard two more noises that seemed to come one on top of the other. Greer said after the second noise and a glance over his right shoulder at Connally, he stepped on the accelerator. However, a film taken that day shows the limousine brake lights remained on until after the fatal shot to Kennedy.

According to the passage how many people were in Kennedys car when he was shot?

Passage –III

With a phalanx of Dallas police motorcycle officers clearing the way ahead, the big limousine carrying the Kennedy family made a 90-degree turn from Main onto Houston in front of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Almost two dozen deputies and other lawmen stood on the sidewalk watching.

Atop the building was a large Hertz Rent-A-Car sign that had a digital time and temperature display. In front of the Depository, the limousine slowed to a crawl to make a 120-degree turn onto Elm Street, although turns of more than 90-degrees were prohibited by the Secret Service. The turn was so tight that Greer almost ran the limousine up onto the north curb near the Depository's front door, according to Depository Superintendent Roy Truly.
The car continued a slow glide down the incline of Elm into Dealey Plaza, maintaining its position in the center lane of the three-lane street. The crowds thinned out as the Triple Underpass approached and security men began to relax. About three car lengths ahead of the presidential limousine in the lead car, Agent Lawson, a former Army counterintelligence man now with the Secret Service White House detail was sitting in the right front seat. He looked at his watch. It was 12:30 p.m. Picking up the car's microphone; he radioed the Trade Mart saying: 'We'll be there in about five minutes.’
In the presidential limousine, Kennedy was waving to his right hand at a group of people standing near a sign reading STEMMONS FREEWAY. His right arm and hand was slightly over the side of the car. Mrs. Kennedy had been waving to her left, but her thoughts were on the Texas heat. Mrs. Kennedy later told the Warren Commission: 'And in the motorcade, I waved to the left side and Mr. Kennedy was waving mostly to the right and that explains why we were not looking at each other very often. The climate also was very inhospitable; it was extremely hot and the heat was blinding us.’ Sensing her discomfort, Mrs. Connally, an old acquaintance of Mrs. Kennedy’s, turned and said: 'We'll soon be there.'

Mrs. Kennedy recalled seeing the Triple Underpass ahead: We saw that we were approaching an underpass, which I thought at the time was a blessing for us as it would offer respite from the heat.’ Mrs. Connally had wanted to mention the warm and enthusiastic welcome for some time, but she had held back. Now she could contain herself no longer. Turning to Kennedy, she said: 'Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn’t love you.' According to Mrs. Kennedy, the President smiled and replied: 'No, you certainly can’t.’

Soon after this remark Mrs. Connally heard a frightening noise off to her right. She looked in that direction and caught a peripheral glimpse of Kennedy raising both hands to his neck. She heard no sound from the President, but noticed a blank, ‘nothing' expression on his face. Kellerman, sitting directly in front of Connally and Kennedy, noticed they had just passed a highway sign when he heard a 'pop' to his right and immediately looked in that direction, surveying the easternmost slope of the Grassy Knoll. Kellerman told the Warren Commission: turning to the right to view whatever it was ...I heard someone saying that he had been hit and I was pretty sure that it was the president. Also I remember him putting his hands up here like this [indicating both hands up near the head] . . . [It] was enough for me to verify that the man was hit.

Immediately after this I grabbed the speaker and said to the driver, “Let’s get out of here we’re hit,” and agin I spoke into the microphone, ’Lawson, this is Kellerman………we are hit and need to go to the hospital immediately.’ And just as I talking , I heard a flurry of shells come into the car. 

Mrs. Connally testified she heard Kellerman say: 'Pull out of the motorcade. Take us to the nearest hospital.' The limousine indeed pulled out of the motorcade and raced to Parkland Hospital.
Driver Greer said he was busy looking ahead to the railroad overpass when he heard a noise he thought was a motorcade backfire. Then he heard the noise again and caught a glimpse of Connally starting to slump over. He then heard two more noises that seemed to come one on top of the other. Greer said after the second noise and a glance over his right shoulder at Connally, he stepped on the accelerator. However, a film taken that day shows the limousine brake lights remained on until after the fatal shot to Kennedy.

According to the passage, Mrs. Connally was

Passage –III

With a phalanx of Dallas police motorcycle officers clearing the way ahead, the big limousine carrying the Kennedy family made a 90-degree turn from Main onto Houston in front of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Almost two dozen deputies and other lawmen stood on the sidewalk watching.

Atop the building was a large Hertz Rent-A-Car sign that had a digital time and temperature display. In front of the Depository, the limousine slowed to a crawl to make a 120-degree turn onto Elm Street, although turns of more than 90-degrees were prohibited by the Secret Service. The turn was so tight that Greer almost ran the limousine up onto the north curb near the Depository's front door, according to Depository Superintendent Roy Truly.
The car continued a slow glide down the incline of Elm into Dealey Plaza, maintaining its position in the center lane of the three-lane street. The crowds thinned out as the Triple Underpass approached and security men began to relax. About three car lengths ahead of the presidential limousine in the lead car, Agent Lawson, a former Army counterintelligence man now with the Secret Service White House detail was sitting in the right front seat. He looked at his watch. It was 12:30 p.m. Picking up the car's microphone; he radioed the Trade Mart saying: 'We'll be there in about five minutes.’
In the presidential limousine, Kennedy was waving to his right hand at a group of people standing near a sign reading STEMMONS FREEWAY. His right arm and hand was slightly over the side of the car. Mrs. Kennedy had been waving to her left, but her thoughts were on the Texas heat. Mrs. Kennedy later told the Warren Commission: 'And in the motorcade, I waved to the left side and Mr. Kennedy was waving mostly to the right and that explains why we were not looking at each other very often. The climate also was very inhospitable; it was extremely hot and the heat was blinding us.’ Sensing her discomfort, Mrs. Connally, an old acquaintance of Mrs. Kennedy’s, turned and said: 'We'll soon be there.'

Mrs. Kennedy recalled seeing the Triple Underpass ahead: We saw that we were approaching an underpass, which I thought at the time was a blessing for us as it would offer respite from the heat.’ Mrs. Connally had wanted to mention the warm and enthusiastic welcome for some time, but she had held back. Now she could contain herself no longer. Turning to Kennedy, she said: 'Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn’t love you.' According to Mrs. Kennedy, the President smiled and replied: 'No, you certainly can’t.’

Soon after this remark Mrs. Connally heard a frightening noise off to her right. She looked in that direction and caught a peripheral glimpse of Kennedy raising both hands to his neck. She heard no sound from the President, but noticed a blank, ‘nothing' expression on his face. Kellerman, sitting directly in front of Connally and Kennedy, noticed they had just passed a highway sign when he heard a 'pop' to his right and immediately looked in that direction, surveying the easternmost slope of the Grassy Knoll. Kellerman told the Warren Commission: turning to the right to view whatever it was ...I heard someone saying that he had been hit and I was pretty sure that it was the president. Also I remember him putting his hands up here like this [indicating both hands up near the head] . . . [It] was enough for me to verify that the man was hit.

Immediately after this I grabbed the speaker and said to the driver, “Let’s get out of here we’re hit,” and agin I spoke into the microphone, ’Lawson, this is Kellerman………we are hit and need to go to the hospital immediately.’ And just as I talking , I heard a flurry of shells come into the car. 

Mrs. Connally testified she heard Kellerman say: 'Pull out of the motorcade. Take us to the nearest hospital.' The limousine indeed pulled out of the motorcade and raced to Parkland Hospital.
Driver Greer said he was busy looking ahead to the railroad overpass when he heard a noise he thought was a motorcade backfire. Then he heard the noise again and caught a glimpse of Connally starting to slump over. He then heard two more noises that seemed to come one on top of the other. Greer said after the second noise and a glance over his right shoulder at Connally, he stepped on the accelerator. However, a film taken that day shows the limousine brake lights remained on until after the fatal shot to Kennedy.

Directions: In this question, two sentences I and II are given. Each sentence has a blank. Five words, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are suggested. Out of these, only one fits at both the places in the context of each sentence. The number of that word is the answer.

I ______ the book over the cupboard. II There is no _________ for jealousy if you look for the fault within.

Abode

Directions: Read the passage and select appropriate contextual meanings for the words underlined.

The Road to Heaven

Once upon a time, there lived a famous saint. He was blessed with spiritual powers. The saint had a large following and needed to travel a lot to give sermons to his followers. Realizing the saint’s needs for comfort on such journeys, he was promptly provided with a palanquin and bearers by one of his wealthy disciples. The comfort of travelling in shade overruled all his moral arguments. His popularity and wealth grew. One day on such a journey, he was stopped by a very unkempt figure of a man. “I want to go to heaven,” the man said. “Stretch your arms upwards and look towards the sky. You will find the way to heaven”, the Sage said.
Many years passed and the saint had an even larger following. One day he was passing through the same way, when he saw the same man standing in the middle of the road with his hands stretched towards the sky. The man had grown a beard up to his knees and his clothes were torn but on approaching him, the sage saw a strange light in his eyes. The man was in a trance.  Soon a miracle happened. He started to rise above the ground. The sage ran and caught hold of the feet of the mad man.
Later the sage gave his last sermon and said that the road to God’s abode is not through reading scriptures.