Reading Comprehension

What is the best way to deal with sentence 12?

Directions for the question:

The following passage is an early draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage need to be rewritten. Read the passage and select the best answer for the question that follows. Keep in mind that some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask to consider organization and development. In choosing the answer, follow the requirements of standard written English.

[1] Towards the ending of the summer of 1917 it was being very hot in New York, and hotter still aboard the transatlantic liner. [2] One glance at our cabins, at the crowded decks and the dining-room, sufficed to bring home to us that the days of luxurious sea travel, of a la carte restaurants, and Louis Seize bedrooms were gone - at least for a period. [3] The prospect of a voyage of nearly two weeks was not enticing. [4] The ship, to be sure, was far from being the best of those still running on a line which had gained a magic reputation of immunity from submarines; three years ago she carried only second and third class passengers! [5] But most of us were in a hurry to get to the countries where war had already become a grim and terrible reality. [6] In one way or another we had all enrolled.
[7] The first welcome discovery among the crowd wandering aimlessly and somewhat disconsolately about the decks was the cheerful face of a friend whom at first I did not recognize because of his amazing disguise in uniform. [8] He had been associated in my mind with dinner parties and clubs.
[9] That life was past. [10] He had laid up his yacht and joined the Red Cross and, henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst the discomforts and dangers of the Western Front. [11] The likewise cheerful members of a group whom I found gathered by the after rail were similarly attired. [12] Two well-known specialists from the Gens General Hospital made significant contributions to serve the people of France which was almost doctorless. [13] When I reached France it seemed to me that I met all the celebrated medical men I ever heard of. [14] A third in the group was a business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and left a startled family in charge of a trust company. [15] Though his physical activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, he wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by the prospect - still somewhat remotely ahead of him - of a journey across the Atlantic to the active war zone.

In context what is the best place for sentence (8)?

Directions for the question:

The following passage is an early draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage need to be rewritten. Read the passage and select the best answer for the question that follows. Keep in mind that some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask to consider organization and development. In choosing the answer, follow the requirements of standard written English.

[1] The whole progress of human civilization beyond its earliest stages has been made possible by the invention of methods of thought. [2] These methods enable us to interpret and forecast the working of nature more successfully than we could if we merely followed the line of least resistance in the use of our minds. [3] These methods, when applied in politics, still represent a difficult and uncertain art rather than a science producing its effects with mechanical accuracy.
[4] When the great thinkers of Greece laid down rules for valid reasoning, they had the needs of politics particularly in their minds. [5] If Plato could visit us now, he would learn that while our artisans proceed by rigorous and confident processes to exact results, our statesmen, like the artisans of ancient Athens, still trust to empirical maxims and personal skill. [6] Why is it, he would ask us, that valid reasoning has proved to be so much more difficult in politics than in the physical sciences?
[7] The universe which presents itself to our reason is the same as that which presents itself to our feelings and impulses—an unending stream of sensations and memories - every one of which is different from every other. [8] Our first answer might be found in the character of the material with which political reasoning has to deal. [9] Before these, unless we can select and recognize and simplify, we must stand helpless, unable to either act or think. [10] Man has therefore to create entities that shall be the material of his reasoning, just as he creates entities to be the objects of his emotions and the stimulus of his instinctive inferences. [11] Exact reasoning requires exact comparison. [12] In the desert or the forest there were few things which our ancestors could compare exactly. [13] The heavenly bodies seem, indeed, to have been the first objects of consciously exact reasoning, because they were so distant that nothing could be known of them except position and movement, and their position and movement could be exactly compared from night to night.

In context, which of the following is the best way to phrase sentence 11 (reproduced below)?

The likewise cheerful members of a group whom I found gathered by the after rail were similarly attired.

Directions for the question:

The following passage is an early draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage need to be rewritten. Read the passage and select the best answer for the question that follows. Keep in mind that some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask to consider organization and development. In choosing the answer, follow the requirements of standard written English.

[1] Towards the ending of the summer of 1917 it was being very hot in New York, and hotter still aboard the transatlantic liner. [2] One glance at our cabins, at the crowded decks and the dining-room, sufficed to bring home to us that the days of luxurious sea travel, of a la carte restaurants, and Louis Seize bedrooms were gone - at least for a period. [3] The prospect of a voyage of nearly two weeks was not enticing. [4] The ship, to be sure, was far from being the best of those still running on a line which had gained a magic reputation of immunity from submarines; three years ago she carried only second and third class passengers! [5] But most of us were in a hurry to get to the countries where war had already become a grim and terrible reality. [6] In one way or another we had all enrolled.
[7] The first welcome discovery among the crowd wandering aimlessly and somewhat disconsolately about the decks was the cheerful face of a friend whom at first I did not recognize because of his amazing disguise in uniform. [8] He had been associated in my mind with dinner parties and clubs.
[9] That life was past. [10] He had laid up his yacht and joined the Red Cross and, henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst the discomforts and dangers of the Western Front. [11] The likewise cheerful members of a group whom I found gathered by the after rail were similarly attired. [12] Two well-known specialists from the Gens General Hospital made significant contributions to serve the people of France which was almost doctorless. [13] When I reached France it seemed to me that I met all the celebrated medical men I ever heard of. [14] A third in the group was a business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and left a startled family in charge of a trust company. [15] Though his physical activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, he wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by the prospect - still somewhat remotely ahead of him - of a journey across the Atlantic to the active war zone.

Which of the following will most strengthen the author's argument in paragraph 3?

Directions for the question:

The following passage is an early draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage need to be rewritten. Read the passage and select the best answer for the question that follows. Keep in mind that some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask to consider organization and development. In choosing the answer, follow the requirements of standard written English.

[1] There are two principal methods of treating disease. [2] One is the combative, the other the preventive. [3] The trend of medical research henceforth has almost entirely been along combative lines, although the progressive physician learns to work more and more along preventive lines. [4] The slogan of medical science has been, "Kill the germ and cure the disease." [5] The usual procedure is to wait until acute or chronic diseases have fully developed, and then, if possible, to subdue them by means of drugs, surgical operations, and by means of the morbid products of disease, in the form of serums, antitoxins, vaccines, etc.
[6] The combative methods fight disease with disease, poison with poison, and germs with germs and germ products. [7] In the language of the Good Book, it is "Beelzebub against the Devil." [8] The preventive method does not wait until diseases have fully developed and gained the ascendancy in the body, but concentrates its best endeavors on preventing, by hygienic living and by natural methods of treatment, the development of diseases. [9] By these put the human body in a normal and healthy condition which is practically proof against infection or contagion by disease taints and miasmas, and against the inroads of germs, bacteria and parasites.
[10] The question is, which method is the most practical, the most successful and most popular? [11] Which will stand the test in the great struggle for existence?
[12] The medical profession has good reason to be alarmed by the inroads made in its work by irregular, unorthodox systems, schools and cults of treating human ailments. [13] But instead of raging at the audacious presumption of these interlopers, would it not be better to inquire if there is not some reason for the astonishing spread and popularity of these therapeutic innovations?

Directions: In the following passage, the opening statement has been deleted. Which one of the statements, given below the passage, should precede the passage?

Women have only been, dare I use the word 'emancipated', during the last 60 years. So, if they have reached this 50% plus educational achievement level to date, based upon simple viral expansion then women must dominate educational achievement within the next 10 years. Perhaps in reality we are looking at the scenario where 'Big is not necessarily best' and that 'Quality is more often found in smaller packages'

Directions: In the following passage, the opening statement has been deleted. Which of the statements, given below the passage, should precede the passage?

Scientists had formerly paid little attention to asteroid dust, assuming that the burnt matter disintegrated into nanometer-sized particles that did not affect Earth's environment. Some researchers (and science fiction writers) were more interested in the damage that could be caused by the intact portion of a large asteroid striking Earth. But the size of an asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere is significantly reduced by the fireball caused by the friction of its passage. The mass turned to dust may be as much as 90 to 99 percent of the original asteroid. Where does this dust go? The uniquely well-observed descent of a particular asteroid and its resultant dust cloud gave an unexpected answer. But little formal analysis has been done on the atmospheric effect of the dust that must have been deposited in the atmosphere over ages.

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

Very early in the study of genetics biologists began to pay particular attention to the aberrations now known as mutations; this investigation was initiated by de Vries at the turn of the century and brilliantly developed by Morgan and his school from 1910 on. A gene, by definition, is a living particle that reproduces itself, and nearly always it does so exactly. But occasionally, probably under the influence of some outside agent, it forms an imperfect copy of itself. If this altered gene is able to reproduce itself in its new form, the result is a mutation, which is evidenced in permanent change in some trait of the organism.

What according to you would succeed the passage?

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

As it is, lAS recruitment is a mess. Collegians mugging books late into the night to crack the civil services exam have a rather poor idea of what they're doing. Or why. At this age, their motives are often driven by parental authority, hoary notions of status, marriage-market value and material aspirations. The country's well being?

What according to you would succeed the passage?

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

Only the most naive scientist believes that the perfect model is the one that perfectly represents reality. Such a model would have the same drawbacks as a map as large and detailed as the city it represents, a map depicting every street, every park, every building, every tree, every pothole, every inhabitant. Were such a map possible, its specificity would defeat its purpose: to generalise and abstract.

What according to you would succeed the passage?

What is theme of the passage?

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

Every one has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say.
Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man's behaviour does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behaviour which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies: To hell with your standards�. Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat first should not keep it, or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange. It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behaviour about which they really agreed. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals, but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word Quarreling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do what unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are; just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.

Which of the following would be the appropriate title for the passage?

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

Every one has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say.
Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man's behaviour does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behaviour which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies: To hell with your standards�. Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat first should not keep it, or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange. It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behaviour about which they really agreed. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals, but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word Quarreling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do what unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are; just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.

What according to you would succeed the passage?

Directions: Read the paragraph and answer the question that follows.
Whose government is unostentatious, quite unostentatious, his people will be prosperous, quite prosperous. Whose government is prying, quite prying, his people will be needy, quite needy. Misery, alas! rests upon happiness. Happiness, alas! underlies misery. But who foresees the catastrophe? It will not be prevented!
What is ordinary becomes again extraordinary. What is good becomes again unpropitious. This bewilders people, and it happens constantly since times immemorial.
Therefore, the holy man is square but not sharp, strict but not obnoxious, upright but not restraining, bright but not dazzling. To govern the people is the affair of heaven and there is nothing like thrift; thrift is said to come from early practice.
By early practice it is said that we can accumulate an abundance of virtue. If one accumulates an abundance of virtue then there is nothing that can not be overcome. This is called the possession of deep roots and of a staunch stem. To life, to ever lastingness to comprehension, this is the way....
Treat things before they exist. Regulate things before disorder begins. The stout tree has originated from a tiny rootlet. A tower of nine stories is raised by heaping up (bricks of) clay. A thousand miles' journey begins with a foot. The people when undertaking an enterprise are always near completion, and yet they fail.

Directions: Read the following passage/information and answer the question that follows:

For many people in the United States who are concerned about the cost of heating homes and businesses, wood has become an alternative energy source to coal, oil and gas. Nevertheless, wood will never supply more than a modest fraction of our continuing energy needs.

Which of the following, if true, does not support the claim made in the last sentence in the passage above?

Directions: Read the following passage/information and answer the question that follows.

The greater the division of labour in an economy, the greater the need for coordination. This is because increased division of labour entails a large number of specialised producers, which results in a greater burden on managers and, potentially, in a greater number of disruptions of supply and production. There is always more division of labour in market economies than in planned economies.

From the information available in the passage, we can definitely conclude that

Directions: Read the following passage/information and answer the question that follows:

At the time of independence, the total area under cultivation was only 29%. Yet for almost 2 decades, the production of food grains kept on increasing. In 1965, food grains production was increasing at the rate of 7% per annum. In 1985, the total area under cultivation was 69%, but the rate of increase in the production was less than 1.5%. It was less than the minimum increase required to feed the increasing population.

It can properly be inferred from the passage that