Reading Comprehension

For thousand of years millions of men have labored to clear the forests, to drain the marshes, and to open up highways by land and water. Every inch of soil we cultivate in Europe has been watered by the sweat of several races of men. Every acre has its story of enforced labor, of intolerable toil, of people's sufferings. Every mile of railway, every yard of tunnel, _________.

What is the most critical completion of the passage?

Countries care deeply about their economic ranking as sports fans do about their team's status in a sports league. The year 2007 saw much drum-beating with China leapfrogging in league tables, leaving the US behind on the charts. China's exports exceeded the US figures for the first time ever last year. Yet more table-topping is expected in 2008.

Which of the following can be reasonably inferred from the above-cited passage?

The negative meaning of the word 'neta' in India today is due to

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage I
Mahatma Gandhi exercised leadership through his personal example and influence rather than through power. But would his style of leadership have worked in the West? Gandhi's example, even more than those of Lincoln, de Gaulle and Hitler, reveals the extent to which leadership is bound up with culture. For a long time the word 'culture' was used mainly as a synonym for Western civilization - the secular process of human development. In England it acquired definite class associations. But in the late eighteenth century the German writer Johann Herder challenged this view, 'Nothing is more indeterminate than this word, 'he wrote, 'and nothing more deceptive than its application to all nations and periods. 'Herder attacked the comfortable assumption that the self-development of humanity had moved in a unilinear progression to flower in the European culture around him. Indeed, he attacked the European assumption of cultural superiority.

The passage suggests that Gandhi's leadership

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage I
Mahatma Gandhi exercised leadership through his personal example and influence rather than through power. But would his style of leadership have worked in the West? Gandhi's example, even more than those of Lincoln, de Gaulle and Hitler, reveals the extent to which leadership is bound up with culture. For a long time the word 'culture' was used mainly as a synonym for Western civilization - the secular process of human development. In England it acquired definite class associations. But in the late eighteenth century the German writer Johann Herder challenged this view, 'Nothing is more indeterminate than this word, 'he wrote, 'and nothing more deceptive than its application to all nations and periods. 'Herder attacked the comfortable assumption that the self-development of humanity had moved in a unilinear progression to flower in the European culture around him. Indeed, he attacked the European assumption of cultural superiority.

Johann Herder challenged the view that

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage I
Mahatma Gandhi exercised leadership through his personal example and influence rather than through power. But would his style of leadership have worked in the West? Gandhi's example, even more than those of Lincoln, de Gaulle and Hitler, reveals the extent to which leadership is bound up with culture. For a long time the word 'culture' was used mainly as a synonym for Western civilization - the secular process of human development. In England it acquired definite class associations. But in the late eighteenth century the German writer Johann Herder challenged this view, 'Nothing is more indeterminate than this word, 'he wrote, 'and nothing more deceptive than its application to all nations and periods. 'Herder attacked the comfortable assumption that the self-development of humanity had moved in a unilinear progression to flower in the European culture around him. Indeed, he attacked the European assumption of cultural superiority.

While carrying out her work, Nightingale faced the most difficult challenges from

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage II
Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Andy Summers seeks to debunk the idealization and present a reality at odds with Nightingale's heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until the War's end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. In addition, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal, The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition offered by few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale's place 'in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.

By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations' They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the War. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of the neighbouring civilian population, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British army's medical services were still using the cost accounting system she had devised in the eighteen sixties.

After the Crimean War, the sanitary conditions in Britain were

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage II
Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Andy Summers seeks to debunk the idealization and present a reality at odds with Nightingale's heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until the War's end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. In addition, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal, The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition offered by few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale's place 'in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.

By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations' They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the War. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of the neighbouring civilian population, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British army's medical services were still using the cost accounting system she had devised in the eighteen sixties.

The passage upholds the view of

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage I
Mahatma Gandhi exercised leadership through his personal example and influence rather than through power. But would his style of leadership have worked in the West? Gandhi's example, even more than those of Lincoln, de Gaulle and Hitler, reveals the extent to which leadership is bound up with culture. For a long time the word 'culture' was used mainly as a synonym for Western civilization - the secular process of human development. In England it acquired definite class associations. But in the late eighteenth century the German writer Johann Herder challenged this view, 'Nothing is more indeterminate than this word, 'he wrote, 'and nothing more deceptive than its application to all nations and periods. 'Herder attacked the comfortable assumption that the self-development of humanity had moved in a unilinear progression to flower in the European culture around him. Indeed, he attacked the European assumption of cultural superiority.

The above passage aims to prove that leadership is a question of

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage I
Mahatma Gandhi exercised leadership through his personal example and influence rather than through power. But would his style of leadership have worked in the West? Gandhi's example, even more than those of Lincoln, de Gaulle and Hitler, reveals the extent to which leadership is bound up with culture. For a long time the word 'culture' was used mainly as a synonym for Western civilization - the secular process of human development. In England it acquired definite class associations. But in the late eighteenth century the German writer Johann Herder challenged this view, 'Nothing is more indeterminate than this word, 'he wrote, 'and nothing more deceptive than its application to all nations and periods. 'Herder attacked the comfortable assumption that the self-development of humanity had moved in a unilinear progression to flower in the European culture around him. Indeed, he attacked the European assumption of cultural superiority.

The author of the passage

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage II
Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Andy Summers seeks to debunk the idealization and present a reality at odds with Nightingale's heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until the War's end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. In addition, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal, The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition offered by few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale's place 'in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.

By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations' They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the War. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of the neighbouring civilian population, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British army's medical services were still using the cost accounting system she had devised in the eighteen sixties.

The most suitable title of the passage would be

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage I
Mahatma Gandhi exercised leadership through his personal example and influence rather than through power. But would his style of leadership have worked in the West? Gandhi's example, even more than those of Lincoln, de Gaulle and Hitler, reveals the extent to which leadership is bound up with culture. For a long time the word 'culture' was used mainly as a synonym for Western civilization - the secular process of human development. In England it acquired definite class associations. But in the late eighteenth century the German writer Johann Herder challenged this view, 'Nothing is more indeterminate than this word, 'he wrote, 'and nothing more deceptive than its application to all nations and periods. 'Herder attacked the comfortable assumption that the self-development of humanity had moved in a unilinear progression to flower in the European culture around him. Indeed, he attacked the European assumption of cultural superiority.

In the final analysis, the author of the passage

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage II
Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Andy Summers seeks to debunk the idealization and present a reality at odds with Nightingale's heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until the War's end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. In addition, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal, The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition offered by few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale's place 'in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.

By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations' They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the War. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of the neighbouring civilian population, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British army's medical services were still using the cost accounting system she had devised in the eighteen sixties.

The author disagrees with the view that

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage I
Mahatma Gandhi exercised leadership through his personal example and influence rather than through power. But would his style of leadership have worked in the West? Gandhi's example, even more than those of Lincoln, de Gaulle and Hitler, reveals the extent to which leadership is bound up with culture. For a long time the word 'culture' was used mainly as a synonym for Western civilization - the secular process of human development. In England it acquired definite class associations. But in the late eighteenth century the German writer Johann Herder challenged this view, 'Nothing is more indeterminate than this word, 'he wrote, 'and nothing more deceptive than its application to all nations and periods. 'Herder attacked the comfortable assumption that the self-development of humanity had moved in a unilinear progression to flower in the European culture around him. Indeed, he attacked the European assumption of cultural superiority.

Andy Summers argues that the Nightingale's heroic reputation was due to

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage II
Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Andy Summers seeks to debunk the idealization and present a reality at odds with Nightingale's heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until the War's end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. In addition, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal, The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition offered by few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale's place 'in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.

By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations' They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the War. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of the neighbouring civilian population, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British army's medical services were still using the cost accounting system she had devised in the eighteen sixties.

The editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters credit her

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Passage II
Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Andy Summers seeks to debunk the idealization and present a reality at odds with Nightingale's heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until the War's end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. In addition, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal, The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition offered by few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale's place 'in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.

By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations' They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the War. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of the neighbouring civilian population, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British army's medical services were still using the cost accounting system she had devised in the eighteen sixties.