Reading Comprehension

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

The longing not to die but to persist forever cannot arise in the mind which is locked up in time. Thus it is that man is not limited by time, really speaking. Otherwise, this desire to live long cannot arise in the mind. He is not even limited to space; otherwise, the desire to break the limitations of the world outside and probe into the corners of creation cannot arise in him. The longing to possess the whole world is not possible if it is locked up in a little space.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

Celebrated novelists’ greatness can be ascribed to partly their skill at binding the reader to a compelling narrative and partly due to the quality of the narrative itself. Every man who has lived his own life has many new and strange things to tell – his experiences, his secrets, happenings that befell him, men and women he encountered in his journey, friends and relatives etc. The stories of his life may never be less than the substance of an enchanting novel. However, neither are all men endowed with the extraordinary ability to chronicle their life nor may they have the choice to devote time to penning down their life stories when so much more is happening in their life while they remain ever more active and responsive to the tumult in life.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

When one starts an institution, opens up an organisation, has followers, conducts conferences, writes books, meets people and does various things, it is very easy for the mind to miss its main purpose in the background and be carried away by the books that are written, the glory that comes as a consequence of one’s importance, the largeness of the institution, the number of the followers, and the facilities or comforts which are provided to the body and to the ego. No one loves anything more than comfort. Physical, psychological and social comfort is what we seek. It is very easy to interpret comfort in a very convenient manner, going on a tangent and totally missing the point, and in a way deceiving oneself. This is something one has to guard against, especially when one takes to a spiritual path and a religious life, and regards oneself as a spiritual seeker, a humble disciple of a great Master or perhaps a servant of God.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

The question whether there exists in man a non-material substance to which he owes his mental life did not come within the orbit of Helvelius’s studies. He touched upon the matter only en passant, and dealt with it most cautiously. On the one hand, he did not want to irritate the censors, for which reason he spoke with obvious deference of the Church, which had “established our faith on this point”. On the other hand, he disliked flights of “philosophical fancy”. We must follow up an observation, he said, halt at the moment it leaves us, and have the courage not to know what, cannot yet be known. This smacks of “reserve” rather than of “vanity” or the “superficial”.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

In self-conscious beings, we meet with a set of phenomena quite distinct from the physical or the vital or the merely conscious. Reflective mind is different from the unreflective mind of the infant or the animal. When the plain man protests that men are not to be confused with apes, he declares that however primitive man may be, he is still distinctly human. Man had been on earth for hundreds of thousands of years. Early specimens such as Pithecanthropus were dug up in Java and the skull of Eoanthropus was found at Piltdown. However strange and brutish they may seem, they were distinctly men. They not only used tools which were ready to hand, but made tools for their use. They had reason which was distinct from instinct, however highly developed the latter may be.

Directions: The question is independent of one another.

There needs to be a significant change in the evaluation policy of many post graduation colleges when recruiting from graduation colleges. Most post-grad colleges look at academic performance, and as a result many deserving candidates are not even evaluated by these colleges. Aptitude tests, on the other hand, are better indicators of future academic performance, and deserve a look in. Which of the following is an assumption of the passage?

According to the author, the term “Industrial Revolution”

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage2
Each generation sees the Industrial Revolution from a different standpoint. Indeed, it has so many aspects, its manifestations at different times and in different places have varied so much that by the judicious selection of facts it is easy to represent it in very conflicting ways.
Modern historians have shown how slow was the coming of the machine and the factory, and have stressed the fact that the so-called revolution in the eighteenth century was almost confined to cotton and iron; that the date of an invention and its effective use in industry are two very different things; that in 1830 the great majority of workers were still outside the factory system; that some of the evils of transition “and notably the misfortunes of the hand-loom weavers“ were increased because the new methods took so long to establish themselves. By tracking back origins on one hand, and by correcting false notions of the great rapidity of the change on the other, they have corrected the over-insistence on those critical  years, so dear to text-books, between 1760 and 1830. But there is no doubt at all that the time did seem epoch-making to those who lived in it, and in fact was epoch-making.
One might suppose the term revolution as applied to industrial change would have been suggested by the French Revolution. And so it was. Blanqui, the French economist, is said to have been the first to speak of the tindustrial revolution in the early nineteenth century, to show that he thought economic change in England as revolutionary as political change in  France: France had had a political revolution, England an economic one. The idea was developed by Marx, but the term did not come in to general use till Toynbee used it in lectures given in 1881, which were published as The Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century in England.

The writer had not visualized the possibilities of steam, but these had particularly captured the imagination of his contemporaries. When Boswell, that prince of interviewers, visited Soho in 1776, where Boulton and Watt were constructing their steam-engines, Boulton, whom he calls the iron chieftain, said to him ‘I sell here what all the world desires, power.’ Insd 1784 the first balloon ascent was made in England, when Lunardi, secretary to the Neapolitan ambassador, was, as he says, ‘the first aerial traveler in the English atmosphere’. He went up, amidst immense excitement, with a cat as passenger, from the Artillery Garden (close to Bedlam, as sceptics  pointed out), landed the cat which had suffered from the cold – at Ware in Hertfordshire. Men’s minds began to dwell on the possibilities of steam and aerial navigation. Erasmus Darwin, in 1792,  described, with unpoetic precision, the actual achievements of steam.

The giant-Power from earth’s remotest caves lifts with strong arm her dark reluctant waves. Here high in air the rising stream he pours To clay built cisterns, or to lead-line towers: Fresh thro’a thousand pipes the wave distils, And thirsty cities drink the exuberant rills. There the vast mill-stone with inebriate whirl on trembling floors his forceful fingers twirl, Feast without blood! And nourish human-kind.

It may be as well to explain that these lines refer to the pumping of water from coal-mines for drainage and from rivers for the purposes of water-supply – this last was done in London from the Thames. Then comes an evident allusion to the Albion mills built in London by Watt in 1786, with the help of Rennie. Fifty pairs of mill-stones were set in motion by two  engines. It created a sensation and it became the fashion to visit it – to Watt’s annoyance: ‘What have Dukes, Lords and Ladies to do with masquerading in a flour mill?’ he wrote to Boulton. Darwin then went on to prophesy:

Soon shall thy arm, UNCONQUER’D STEAM ! afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying-chariot through the fields of air. Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above, Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move; Or warrior-bands alarm the gaping crowd, And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud.

We know how cotton and iron enabled England to resist Napoleon and subsidize her allies. But what is often forgotten is the marvelous way in which the growth of industry and trade mitigated disaster during the American War (1775-83) and was the basis of the wonderful recovery which the country made during the ten years’ peace which ollowed. As a modern historian has said,

According to the author, the “going fishing” analogy may not be useful to solve the recruitment problem because

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage 3
A number of effective methods for generating new ideas are based on the use of analogies. One of the major difficulties in generating new ideas is to get going. The advantage of an analogy is that it has a life of its own. For instance, in the analogy of going fishing the process is so well known that one moves from one step to another without difficulty: finding time, choosing a stretch of water, perhaps getting a license, preparing the rod and tackle, choosing a position by the water, selecting bait,  changing  bait,  moving  about,  patience,  catching  something,  or  the  fish  that  got  away, fisherman’s stories, and so on.

In using  the analogy  method,  one  translates  the  problem  situation  in  to  an  analogy  and  then develops the analogy in its own right. From time to time, one translates back to the real problem to see  what  would  happen  if  the  process  taking  place  in  the analogy  took  place  in  the  problem situation.  For  instance,  the  fishing  analogy  might  have  been used  in  considering  a  management recruitment  problem.  “Stretch  of  water”  would  now  read  area  of  exploration,  perhaps  campus, perhaps  business  college,  perhaps  other  corporations.  “Bait” would  now  read  salary,  fringe benefits, stock options, promotion prospects, status, responsibility, location, or others.

mouth, and  the  like.  One would  then  come  to  the  point  when  no  fish?  Perhaps  those  waters  were overfished, perhaps the bait was unsuitable, perhaps the weather conditions were not right, perhaps it was a matter of too little patience. One might then consider whether the object of the fishing was sport, the odd chance of getting something really worthwhile, or the need to have some fish to eat. If it was the last, one might consider buying fish from a professional fish catcher, buying frozen fish from a store and spending extra time cooking it, or even changing the menu so that frozen fish fitted in (fresh salmon might dominate a menu but fish fingers would not). Translated back in to the problem situation, this would all mean that if changing the incentives and the search area were unsuccessful,  then  one  ought to  have more patience, or  employ professional search agencies, or decide to spend more time on executive training on the job, or even tailor the job in such a way that exceptional executive talent was no longer required.

Analogies serve as vehicles for processes, functions, relationships, and it is these which are being transferred to the original problem and tried out to see if they fit or what ideas they set off. The natural  development  of  an analogy is quite unrelated  to  the actual problem and  so  it provides a source of discontinuity. The problem is forced (or encouraged) to develop along a line different from its natural development.

The use of an analogy to get a problem moving is quite a different thing from arguing by analogy. No  matter  how  good  the  fit,  the  development  of  an  analogy  can  prove  nothing  about  the development of the problem situation. As usual in lateral thinking, the way one arrives at a new idea can never by itself justify that idea. The idea must stand in its own right.

According to the passage, all of the following are necessarily true, except

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage 1
Although the camel caravan is recognized as the best means of transport for valuable goods over great distances, yet, for local journeys or when, owing to the perishable nature of the cargo, time is of great importance, the Turki with his drove of little donkeys is the man. He is met on every road of Turkestan, always hustling his beasts through a cloud of dust and lashing them right and left to keep them up to speed. He is a great burly fellow, dressed in loose clothes which increase his bulk, and his baggy trousers are stuffed in to high leather boots. His chapan(coat) is tied in with a thick belt, and he wears a round hat with a sheepskin border which mixes with his loose hair to form a shaggy frame to the weather-beaten face. One man, or at the most two, will drive twenty donkeys, riding behind them, shouting incessantly, and never letting them slacken to normal walking-pace.

He  mainly  conveys  melons,  early  vegetable and  fruits  —  apricots  peaches,  grapes  and pears according  to  season  —  but  makes  up  his  load  with  rolls  of  loosely  woven,  undyed  cotton.  He knows no organization of travel life, but pushes on from stage to stage with restless energy. When the donkeys must be fed he drives them in to an inn-court, tosses the panniers from their backs, carelessly throws fodder in to the manger, pulls some hard cakes of bread from his own food-bag and sits down to a meal of bread soaked in tea. He carries with himself what he will need to eat on the road. He takes a short sleep while the animals finish their grain, then he flings himself on to his beast’s back and urges the drove on for as far as he dare before feeding them again.

The donkeys are small and cheap, so he is careless of life and sacrifices them in large numbers to his  passion  for  speed  and  his reckless output of strength. He will use dangerous short-cuts over which no other class of transport-man will use venture, and in bad weather many beasts die by the roadside.  This  does  not trouble  him,  and  he  just lifts  the  load  from  the exhausted  creature and divides its weight among the others, then pushes on again, regardless of suffering, to deliver the cargo  at  market,  for  he  has  a  master  as  impatient  as  himself  waiting  at the  other  end.  He  will normally do five stages in three days and nothing may stand in his way, but when the goods are handed over and he can lodge in an inn, he enjoys twenty-four hours of sheer luxury. There is hot, greasy pilau  to  eat, women to  wait on him, and  long carefree hours of sleep to enjoy before he stars again on the hectic return journey.

The  Chinese  method of  transport is  quite  different.  Great  carts  which  cross  the  Gobi link  the commercial life  of  China  proper  with  the  raw  material  markets  of  Turkestan,  and  a carter  who leaves  Kashgar  in  February  will  swing  through  the  gates  of  his  Honan home  town  in  August without having shifted his splendidly packed cargo. In the course of this phenomenal journey he will only need to change the axle a few times in order to adjust the cart to the wider desert gauge or  the narrowing Kansu or  Honan ruts. The widest axle is required between Suchow and Hami, and the narrowest in Honan.

they  must  plough  and  sow,  then  reap  the  harvest.  If  the  grain  were carefully  stored  against the arrival of his troops, it would support them through the following year. Thanks to such good ta- suan, he carried the campaign to a successful issue.

The Chinese transport system across the Gobi has been built up on the principle of ta-suan, and in entire contrast  with  the  native  genius  of  the  reckless  Turki  driver.  The  distances  which  make a possible  stage  for  man  and beast  have  been  meticulously  calculated,  as  well  as  the equipment necessary to ensure reasonable ease on the journey. The Chinese understand the art of elimination and  how  not to  encumber  themselves  with  superfluous  impedimenta.  Before  leaving home  the Chinese carter has thought out where he can exchange his money to best advantage, what goods can be bought and sold most profitably in each place, and where money invested in an extra horse or  mule  will  bring  in  most  profit.  He  leaves  Central  China with large sleek mules for  which he himself has paid a good price, but which he sells to rich Tungans at Suchow at tremendous profit, and himself buys rough but desert-hardened beasts. For the return journey he will invest some of his depreciated paper taels in good Turkestan horses, which are very cheap in Dzungaria but fetch a big price in Central China.

According to the passage, the key difference between the Chinese carter and the Turki transporter is

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage 1
Although the camel caravan is recognized as the best means of transport for valuable goods over great distances, yet, for local journeys or when, owing to the perishable nature of the cargo, time is of great importance, the Turki with his drove of little donkeys is the man. He is met on every road of Turkestan, always hustling his beasts through a cloud of dust and lashing them right and left to keep them up to speed. He is a great burly fellow, dressed in loose clothes which increase his bulk, and his baggy trousers are stuffed in to high leather boots. His chapan(coat) is tied in with a thick belt, and he wears a round hat with a sheepskin border which mixes with his loose hair to form a shaggy frame to the weather-beaten face. One man, or at the most two, will drive twenty donkeys, riding behind them, shouting incessantly, and never letting them slacken to normal walking-pace.

He  mainly  conveys  melons,  early  vegetable and  fruits  —  apricots  peaches,  grapes  and pears according  to  season  —  but  makes  up  his  load  with  rolls  of  loosely  woven,  undyed  cotton.  He knows no organization of travel life, but pushes on from stage to stage with restless energy. When the donkeys must be fed he drives them in to an inn-court, tosses the panniers from their backs, carelessly throws fodder in to the manger, pulls some hard cakes of bread from his own food-bag and sits down to a meal of bread soaked in tea. He carries with himself what he will need to eat on the road. He takes a short sleep while the animals finish their grain, then he flings himself on to his beast’s back and urges the drove on for as far as he dare before feeding them again.

The donkeys are small and cheap, so he is careless of life and sacrifices them in large numbers to his  passion  for  speed  and  his reckless output of strength. He will use dangerous short-cuts over which no other class of transport-man will use venture, and in bad weather many beasts die by the roadside.  This  does  not trouble  him,  and  he  just lifts  the  load  from  the exhausted  creature and divides its weight among the others, then pushes on again, regardless of suffering, to deliver the cargo  at  market,  for  he  has  a  master  as  impatient  as  himself  waiting  at the  other  end.  He  will normally do five stages in three days and nothing may stand in his way, but when the goods are handed over and he can lodge in an inn, he enjoys twenty-four hours of sheer luxury. There is hot, greasy pilau  to  eat, women to  wait on him, and  long carefree hours of sleep to enjoy before he stars again on the hectic return journey.

The  Chinese  method of  transport is  quite  different.  Great  carts  which  cross  the  Gobi link  the commercial life  of  China  proper  with  the  raw  material  markets  of  Turkestan,  and  a carter  who leaves  Kashgar  in  February  will  swing  through  the  gates  of  his  Honan home  town  in  August without having shifted his splendidly packed cargo. In the course of this phenomenal journey he will only need to change the axle a few times in order to adjust the cart to the wider desert gauge or  the narrowing Kansu or  Honan ruts. The widest axle is required between Suchow and Hami, and the narrowest in Honan.

they  must  plough  and  sow,  then  reap  the  harvest.  If  the  grain  were carefully  stored  against the arrival of his troops, it would support them through the following year. Thanks to such good ta- suan, he carried the campaign to a successful issue.

The Chinese transport system across the Gobi has been built up on the principle of ta-suan, and in entire contrast  with  the  native  genius  of  the  reckless  Turki  driver.  The  distances  which  make a possible  stage  for  man  and beast  have  been  meticulously  calculated,  as  well  as  the equipment necessary to ensure reasonable ease on the journey. The Chinese understand the art of elimination and  how  not to  encumber  themselves  with  superfluous  impedimenta.  Before  leaving home  the Chinese carter has thought out where he can exchange his money to best advantage, what goods can be bought and sold most profitably in each place, and where money invested in an extra horse or  mule  will  bring  in  most  profit.  He  leaves  Central  China with large sleek mules for  which he himself has paid a good price, but which he sells to rich Tungans at Suchow at tremendous profit, and himself buys rough but desert-hardened beasts. For the return journey he will invest some of his depreciated paper taels in good Turkestan horses, which are very cheap in Dzungaria but fetch a big price in Central China.

According to the author, the Chinese transporter is akin to the professional banker as he i. takes advantage of time and place, and is never stuck with worthless assets. ii. takes advantage of the different needs of each market, and benefits from dealing in the right currency at the right market. iii. has meticulously calculated his needs for the journey, and only carries bare necessities and equipment.

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage 1
Although the camel caravan is recognized as the best means of transport for valuable goods over great distances, yet, for local journeys or when, owing to the perishable nature of the cargo, time is of great importance, the Turki with his drove of little donkeys is the man. He is met on every road of Turkestan, always hustling his beasts through a cloud of dust and lashing them right and left to keep them up to speed. He is a great burly fellow, dressed in loose clothes which increase his bulk, and his baggy trousers are stuffed in to high leather boots. His chapan(coat) is tied in with a thick belt, and he wears a round hat with a sheepskin border which mixes with his loose hair to form a shaggy frame to the weather-beaten face. One man, or at the most two, will drive twenty donkeys, riding behind them, shouting incessantly, and never letting them slacken to normal walking-pace.

He  mainly  conveys  melons,  early  vegetable and  fruits  —  apricots  peaches,  grapes  and pears according  to  season  —  but  makes  up  his  load  with  rolls  of  loosely  woven,  undyed  cotton.  He knows no organization of travel life, but pushes on from stage to stage with restless energy. When the donkeys must be fed he drives them in to an inn-court, tosses the panniers from their backs, carelessly throws fodder in to the manger, pulls some hard cakes of bread from his own food-bag and sits down to a meal of bread soaked in tea. He carries with himself what he will need to eat on the road. He takes a short sleep while the animals finish their grain, then he flings himself on to his beast’s back and urges the drove on for as far as he dare before feeding them again.

The donkeys are small and cheap, so he is careless of life and sacrifices them in large numbers to his  passion  for  speed  and  his reckless output of strength. He will use dangerous short-cuts over which no other class of transport-man will use venture, and in bad weather many beasts die by the roadside.  This  does  not trouble  him,  and  he  just lifts  the  load  from  the exhausted  creature and divides its weight among the others, then pushes on again, regardless of suffering, to deliver the cargo  at  market,  for  he  has  a  master  as  impatient  as  himself  waiting  at the  other  end.  He  will normally do five stages in three days and nothing may stand in his way, but when the goods are handed over and he can lodge in an inn, he enjoys twenty-four hours of sheer luxury. There is hot, greasy pilau  to  eat, women to  wait on him, and  long carefree hours of sleep to enjoy before he stars again on the hectic return journey.

The  Chinese  method of  transport is  quite  different.  Great  carts  which  cross  the  Gobi link  the commercial life  of  China  proper  with  the  raw  material  markets  of  Turkestan,  and  a carter  who leaves  Kashgar  in  February  will  swing  through  the  gates  of  his  Honan home  town  in  August without having shifted his splendidly packed cargo. In the course of this phenomenal journey he will only need to change the axle a few times in order to adjust the cart to the wider desert gauge or  the narrowing Kansu or  Honan ruts. The widest axle is required between Suchow and Hami, and the narrowest in Honan.

they  must  plough  and  sow,  then  reap  the  harvest.  If  the  grain  were carefully  stored  against the arrival of his troops, it would support them through the following year. Thanks to such good ta- suan, he carried the campaign to a successful issue.

The Chinese transport system across the Gobi has been built up on the principle of ta-suan, and in entire contrast  with  the  native  genius  of  the  reckless  Turki  driver.  The  distances  which  make a possible  stage  for  man  and beast  have  been  meticulously  calculated,  as  well  as  the equipment necessary to ensure reasonable ease on the journey. The Chinese understand the art of elimination and  how  not to  encumber  themselves  with  superfluous  impedimenta.  Before  leaving home  the Chinese carter has thought out where he can exchange his money to best advantage, what goods can be bought and sold most profitably in each place, and where money invested in an extra horse or  mule  will  bring  in  most  profit.  He  leaves  Central  China with large sleek mules for  which he himself has paid a good price, but which he sells to rich Tungans at Suchow at tremendous profit, and himself buys rough but desert-hardened beasts. For the return journey he will invest some of his depreciated paper taels in good Turkestan horses, which are very cheap in Dzungaria but fetch a big price in Central China.

According to the passage,

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage2
Each generation sees the Industrial Revolution from a different standpoint. Indeed, it has so many aspects, its manifestations at different times and in different places have varied so much that by the judicious selection of facts it is easy to represent it in very conflicting ways.
Modern historians have shown how slow was the coming of the machine and the factory, and have stressed the fact that the so-called revolution in the eighteenth century was almost confined to cotton and iron; that the date of an invention and its effective use in industry are two very different things; that in 1830 the great majority of workers were still outside the factory system; that some of the evils of transition “and notably the misfortunes of the hand-loom weavers“ were increased because the new methods took so long to establish themselves. By tracking back origins on one hand, and by correcting false notions of the great rapidity of the change on the other, they have corrected the over-insistence on those critical  years, so dear to text-books, between 1760 and 1830. But there is no doubt at all that the time did seem epoch-making to those who lived in it, and in fact was epoch-making.
One might suppose the term revolution as applied to industrial change would have been suggested by the French Revolution. And so it was. Blanqui, the French economist, is said to have been the first to speak of the tindustrial revolution in the early nineteenth century, to show that he thought economic change in England as revolutionary as political change in  France: France had had a political revolution, England an economic one. The idea was developed by Marx, but the term did not come in to general use till Toynbee used it in lectures given in 1881, which were published as The Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century in England.

The writer had not visualized the possibilities of steam, but these had particularly captured the imagination of his contemporaries. When Boswell, that prince of interviewers, visited Soho in 1776, where Boulton and Watt were constructing their steam-engines, Boulton, whom he calls the iron chieftain, said to him ‘I sell here what all the world desires, power.’ Insd 1784 the first balloon ascent was made in England, when Lunardi, secretary to the Neapolitan ambassador, was, as he says, ‘the first aerial traveler in the English atmosphere’. He went up, amidst immense excitement, with a cat as passenger, from the Artillery Garden (close to Bedlam, as sceptics  pointed out), landed the cat which had suffered from the cold – at Ware in Hertfordshire. Men’s minds began to dwell on the possibilities of steam and aerial navigation. Erasmus Darwin, in 1792,  described, with unpoetic precision, the actual achievements of steam.

The giant-Power from earth’s remotest caves lifts with strong arm her dark reluctant waves. Here high in air the rising stream he pours To clay built cisterns, or to lead-line towers: Fresh thro’a thousand pipes the wave distils, And thirsty cities drink the exuberant rills. There the vast mill-stone with inebriate whirl on trembling floors his forceful fingers twirl, Feast without blood! And nourish human-kind.

It may be as well to explain that these lines refer to the pumping of water from coal-mines for drainage and from rivers for the purposes of water-supply – this last was done in London from the Thames. Then comes an evident allusion to the Albion mills built in London by Watt in 1786, with the help of Rennie. Fifty pairs of mill-stones were set in motion by two  engines. It created a sensation and it became the fashion to visit it – to Watt’s annoyance: ‘What have Dukes, Lords and Ladies to do with masquerading in a flour mill?’ he wrote to Boulton. Darwin then went on to prophesy:

Soon shall thy arm, UNCONQUER’D STEAM ! afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying-chariot through the fields of air. Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above, Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move; Or warrior-bands alarm the gaping crowd, And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud.

We know how cotton and iron enabled England to resist Napoleon and subsidize her allies. But what is often forgotten is the marvelous way in which the growth of industry and trade mitigated disaster during the American War (1775-83) and was the basis of the wonderful recovery which the country made during the ten years’ peace which ollowed. As a modern historian has said,

The author is of the opinion that

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage 1
Although the camel caravan is recognized as the best means of transport for valuable goods over great distances, yet, for local journeys or when, owing to the perishable nature of the cargo, time is of great importance, the Turki with his drove of little donkeys is the man. He is met on every road of Turkestan, always hustling his beasts through a cloud of dust and lashing them right and left to keep them up to speed. He is a great burly fellow, dressed in loose clothes which increase his bulk, and his baggy trousers are stuffed in to high leather boots. His chapan(coat) is tied in with a thick belt, and he wears a round hat with a sheepskin border which mixes with his loose hair to form a shaggy frame to the weather-beaten face. One man, or at the most two, will drive twenty donkeys, riding behind them, shouting incessantly, and never letting them slacken to normal walking-pace.

He  mainly  conveys  melons,  early  vegetable and  fruits  —  apricots  peaches,  grapes  and pears according  to  season  —  but  makes  up  his  load  with  rolls  of  loosely  woven,  undyed  cotton.  He knows no organization of travel life, but pushes on from stage to stage with restless energy. When the donkeys must be fed he drives them in to an inn-court, tosses the panniers from their backs, carelessly throws fodder in to the manger, pulls some hard cakes of bread from his own food-bag and sits down to a meal of bread soaked in tea. He carries with himself what he will need to eat on the road. He takes a short sleep while the animals finish their grain, then he flings himself on to his beast’s back and urges the drove on for as far as he dare before feeding them again.

The donkeys are small and cheap, so he is careless of life and sacrifices them in large numbers to his  passion  for  speed  and  his reckless output of strength. He will use dangerous short-cuts over which no other class of transport-man will use venture, and in bad weather many beasts die by the roadside.  This  does  not trouble  him,  and  he  just lifts  the  load  from  the exhausted  creature and divides its weight among the others, then pushes on again, regardless of suffering, to deliver the cargo  at  market,  for  he  has  a  master  as  impatient  as  himself  waiting  at the  other  end.  He  will normally do five stages in three days and nothing may stand in his way, but when the goods are handed over and he can lodge in an inn, he enjoys twenty-four hours of sheer luxury. There is hot, greasy pilau  to  eat, women to  wait on him, and  long carefree hours of sleep to enjoy before he stars again on the hectic return journey.

The  Chinese  method of  transport is  quite  different.  Great  carts  which  cross  the  Gobi link  the commercial life  of  China  proper  with  the  raw  material  markets  of  Turkestan,  and  a carter  who leaves  Kashgar  in  February  will  swing  through  the  gates  of  his  Honan home  town  in  August without having shifted his splendidly packed cargo. In the course of this phenomenal journey he will only need to change the axle a few times in order to adjust the cart to the wider desert gauge or  the narrowing Kansu or  Honan ruts. The widest axle is required between Suchow and Hami, and the narrowest in Honan.

they  must  plough  and  sow,  then  reap  the  harvest.  If  the  grain  were carefully  stored  against the arrival of his troops, it would support them through the following year. Thanks to such good ta- suan, he carried the campaign to a successful issue.

The Chinese transport system across the Gobi has been built up on the principle of ta-suan, and in entire contrast  with  the  native  genius  of  the  reckless  Turki  driver.  The  distances  which  make a possible  stage  for  man  and beast  have  been  meticulously  calculated,  as  well  as  the equipment necessary to ensure reasonable ease on the journey. The Chinese understand the art of elimination and  how  not to  encumber  themselves  with  superfluous  impedimenta.  Before  leaving home  the Chinese carter has thought out where he can exchange his money to best advantage, what goods can be bought and sold most profitably in each place, and where money invested in an extra horse or  mule  will  bring  in  most  profit.  He  leaves  Central  China with large sleek mules for  which he himself has paid a good price, but which he sells to rich Tungans at Suchow at tremendous profit, and himself buys rough but desert-hardened beasts. For the return journey he will invest some of his depreciated paper taels in good Turkestan horses, which are very cheap in Dzungaria but fetch a big price in Central China.

In the context of the passage, according to the author, a life in the military develops arrogance in man and deforms him because

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage 4
The  best  graduates  of  Saint-Cyr  were  given  the choice  of  their  first  appointment.  Charles  de Gaulle had also won that right, and he now faced the question: where should he begin his service? Traditionally, the most prestigious service was cavalry, and last on this scale, as everywhere, was long-suffering infantry. However strange that may seem at first glance, our junior lieutenant chose precisely  the  thankless  lot  of  an  infantryman.  Moreover,  he  decided  to  serve  in  that  very  33rd Infantry Regiment at Arras where he had gone through his service in the ranks. Charles de Gaulle would  always surprise everyone  by his  unexpected decisions,  but this  one  was  not  as  rash  as  it might  seem.  Picturesque cavalry  inevitably  lost its  former  glory  in  the epoch  of  mass  use  of machine-guns  while artillery was  regarded  as  a  kind of  auxiliary service  in  France;  but infantry remained  the  main  striking  force called  upon  to perform  those  really  great  deeds  of  which  de Gaulle dreamed. True, there were also the particularly fashionable Navy and aviation, which was then coming in to being. But these services required highly specialized training.

Finally, Charles de Gaulle knew, of course, that the newly appointed commander of 33rd  Infantry was Philippe Petain, well known in the army not only for his obstreperousness and frictions with his superiors, which adversely affected  his career, but also for his critical attitude to the official military doctrine. Petain was extremely conservative. Ignoring the new law segregating the church from  the  state,  he  openly  encouraged officers  to  attend  Mass  regularly.  In  any  case  he  had  the reputation  of  an  intelligent,  energetic,  and  exacting  officer  who  could be a  good  teacher  of  the military craft.

The  moment  came  when  the  raw  young  officer,  his  fresh  epaulets  glittering,  reported  to  his colonel.  The  22-year-old  junior  lieutenant,  black  eyed,  very tall,  stood  for  the  first time  face  to face with the 56-year-old  colonel ironically looking at him with his pale blue eyes. De Gaulle’s destiny would for a long time be linked with Petain…

The Young officer who would serve for many years under Colonel (later Marshall) Petain would feel great respect for his patron. It is interesting that even after Petain’s disgrace at the end, when he became France’s traitor, de Gaulle would retain something of that feeling. He would write in his memoir : “My first  colonel, Petain, showed me the meaning of the gift and art of command.”

According to the passage, Charles de Gaulle choose the 33^rd infantry regiment primarily because

Directions:  Read the passage and answer the question based on the contents of the passage.
Passage 4
The  best  graduates  of  Saint-Cyr  were  given  the choice  of  their  first  appointment.  Charles  de Gaulle had also won that right, and he now faced the question: where should he begin his service? Traditionally, the most prestigious service was cavalry, and last on this scale, as everywhere, was long-suffering infantry. However strange that may seem at first glance, our junior lieutenant chose precisely  the  thankless  lot  of  an  infantryman.  Moreover,  he  decided  to  serve  in  that  very  33rd Infantry Regiment at Arras where he had gone through his service in the ranks. Charles de Gaulle would  always surprise everyone  by his  unexpected decisions,  but this  one  was  not  as  rash  as  it might  seem.  Picturesque cavalry  inevitably  lost its  former  glory  in  the epoch  of  mass  use  of machine-guns  while artillery was  regarded  as  a  kind of  auxiliary service  in  France;  but infantry remained  the  main  striking  force called  upon  to perform  those  really  great  deeds  of  which  de Gaulle dreamed. True, there were also the particularly fashionable Navy and aviation, which was then coming in to being. But these services required highly specialized training.

Finally, Charles de Gaulle knew, of course, that the newly appointed commander of 33rd  Infantry was Philippe Petain, well known in the army not only for his obstreperousness and frictions with his superiors, which adversely affected  his career, but also for his critical attitude to the official military doctrine. Petain was extremely conservative. Ignoring the new law segregating the church from  the  state,  he  openly  encouraged officers  to  attend  Mass  regularly.  In  any  case  he  had  the reputation  of  an  intelligent,  energetic,  and  exacting  officer  who  could be a  good  teacher  of  the military craft.

The  moment  came  when  the  raw  young  officer,  his  fresh  epaulets  glittering,  reported  to  his colonel.  The  22-year-old  junior  lieutenant,  black  eyed,  very tall,  stood  for  the  first time  face  to face with the 56-year-old  colonel ironically looking at him with his pale blue eyes. De Gaulle’s destiny would for a long time be linked with Petain…

The Young officer who would serve for many years under Colonel (later Marshall) Petain would feel great respect for his patron. It is interesting that even after Petain’s disgrace at the end, when he became France’s traitor, de Gaulle would retain something of that feeling. He would write in his memoir : “My first  colonel, Petain, showed me the meaning of the gift and art of command.”