Reading Comprehension Questions

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the whole passage?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

The temptation, to any man who is interested in ideas and primarily in literature, to put literature into the corner until he cleaned up the whole country first, is almost irresistible. Some persons have succeeded so well in this later profession of setting the house in order, and have attracted so much more attention than Arnold, that we must conclude that it is indeed their proper role, and that they have done well for themselves in laying literature aside.
Not only is the critic tempted outside of criticism. The criticism proper betrays such poverty of ideas and such atrophy of sensibility that men who ought to preserve their critical ability for the improvement of their own creative work are tempted into criticism. This is not to suggest as a corollary to this that the ‘creative’ gift is ‘higher’ than the critical.  When one creative mind is better than another, the reason often is that the better is the more critical. But the great bulk of the work of criticism could have been done by minds of the second order, and it is just these minds of the second order that are difficult to find. They are necessary for the rapid circulation of ideas. The periodical press — the ideal literary periodical — is an instrument of transport; and the literary periodical press is dependent upon the existence of a sufficient number of second-order (not ‘second rate,’ the expression is too derogatory) minds to supply its material. These minds are necessary for that ‘current of ideas,’ that ‘society permeated by fresh thought,’ of which Arnold speaks.
It is a perpetual heresy of English to believe that only the first-order mind, the Genius, the Great Man, matters; that he is solitary, and produced best in the least favourable environment, perhaps the Public School; and that it is most likely a sign of inferiority that Paris can show so many minds of the second order. If too much bad verse is published in London, it does not occur to us to raise our standards, to do anything to educate the poetasters; the remedy is, kill them off.
We quite agree that poetry is not a formula. It is part of the business of the critic to preserve tradition — where a good tradition exists. It is part of his business to see literature steadily and to see it whole; and this is eminently to see it not as consecrated by time, but to see it beyond time; to see the best work of our time and the best work of twenty-five hundred years ago with the same eyes. It is part of his business to help the poetaster to understand his own limitations. The poetaster who understands his own limitations will be one of our useful second-order minds; a good minor poet (something which is very rare) or another good critic. As for the first-order minds, when they happen, they will be none the worse off for a ‘current of ideas’; the solitude with which they will always and everywhere be invested is a very different thing from isolation, or a monarchy of death.

  1. To define and clarify the role of literary critics

  2. To determine constituents of literary criticism

  3. To bring literary critics at par with poetasters

  4. To denigrate the minds of the first order

  5. To find a literary critic with 'current of ideas'

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The author has tried to define that role and provides clarifications on certain traits of literary critics. This is the underlying idea of the passage.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the fourth paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

Data of educational psychology are obtained through various methods. These methods range in reliability from extremely low to very high. In addition to the questionable validity of the information obtained by research, there are certain risks of inference involved when the results of laboratory investigations are extrapolated to classroom applications. Every classroom is unique in many ways and there are certain risks in generalizing from the laboratory to the classroom as well as from one type of classroom to another.
Educational psychologists and educators in the field would do a service to the profession if they would cross-validate laboratory studies in the classroom and pool the results from such studies in several schools to determine the generality of their findings.
Conventional textbooks are quite unsatisfactory for the student who wishes to critically evaluate the reliability of the methods used in obtaining the information presented. The book, which presents enough of the methodology of the studies from which all of the data presented are derived, would be able to cover a very limited area of subject matter and a small number of studies. It is necessary, therefore, for textbooks to become authoritarian in tenor and subject-matter oriented if they are to be useful to the student who is largely a consumer of research data. Data presented in textbook fashion must be accepted largely on faith — faith in the veracity of the presentations and in the reliability of the research methods used.
The student who is critical will want to go back to the original studies to check on the original methods and data on issues which are crucial for him. There are books of readings available in which selected studies are presented in their complete forms. These constitute useful supplements to the subject-matter oriented textbook. A textbook should be perceived by the student as a presentation of the best available information to date, organized and interpreted within a limited frame of reference.

  1. How best the data-oriented information is utilized depends on the quality of the users and not on the quality of data.

  2. A serious student will always revert to original studies to resolve the issues that are crucial for him.

  3. Though some may need supplements, students trust textbooks that give the best input, are well-presented and interpreted within a limited framework of reference.

  4. Only a keen student likes to revert to original studies to check on the originality of the materials relevant to issues crucial for him.

  5. A textbook that contains useful supplements to the subject-matters with selected studies is useful for students.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The thrust of the paragraph is on students who want materials that are useful to them and are impeccable in orientation. But the critically inclined may need 'complete forms'.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the first paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

With Charles Darwin’s popularization of the concept of evolution, man became interested in his biological origins and affiliations. This interest was centered on man’s phylogenetic origins. Starting with the work on heredity of Gregor Mendel in the 1860s and the recognition of its significance in 1900, interest shifted to the problem of man’s ontogenetic origins. Mendel’s simple ‘laws of heredity’ came to be widely known and were uncritically assumed to apply to all human characteristics. Most physical characteristics, intelligence, and many aspects of personality were thought to operate as simple Mendelian unit characters in their transmission from parent to child. This belief stimulated an interest to eugenic movements that proposed to bring about race betterment through sterilization of the unfit and encouragement of marriage among the superior members of society. Many groups of people organized to promote such programmes. Feeble-mindedness, poverty, crime, and immorality were thought to be largely matters of poor heredity. Several studies of family lines were published that seemed to give considerable support to this general concept.
From 1900 to about 1920 there was an overemphasis on the role of heredity in producing these conditions. The fixity and certainty of hereditary determination were grossly overestimated, and the environmental contribution to intelligence, personality, morality, and crime was either ignored or underestimated. The one fundamental fact of logic — that correlation does not prove causation — was forgotten. Because certain traits follow family lines, it does not follow that they are necessarily inherited. There is a ‘social heredity’ involved in the transmission of many things from generation to generation, and it is easy to confuse its effects with those of biology heredity.
Starting in the 1920s and ‘30s there set in a reaction against the uncritical application of the simple Mendelian concepts to all human characteristics and the resulting disregard of the importance of environmental factors. The extreme hereditarians were accused of being mechanistic in their frame of reference, deterministic in their philosophy, and unscientific in their methods.
Behavior trends, intellectual level, special talents, and temperament are not inherited as such, but heredity is certainly a factor in determining all of them. Genes affect behavior indirectly through their influence on the structural development of the individual. Genes affect structural conditions which, in turn, influence function. Such complex things as feeble-mindedness, musical talent, mathematical aptitude, and criminality can hardly be inherited. However, the genes can be crucial factors in determining the development of the nervous system, the sensitivity of the ear, the discriminating ability of the eye, the length, diameter, and nature of the vocal cords, and as such things as the size and shape of the hands.

  1. More than Darwin's theory of evolution, it was the 'laws of heredity' that led to the idea of race betterment through sterilization.

  2. If Darwin's evolutionary principles gave fillip to study of man's biological origin and affiliation, Mendel's laws of heredity shifted focus on to man's origin as an individual.

  3. 'Laws of heredity' propounded by Mendel suffered from the infirmity of not having been subjected to strict scrutiny like the theory of evolution.

  4. When experiments are made on the basis of certain theories that are not properly examined, the results are often of little consequence.

  5. The general concept of race betterment through sterilization of the unfit and encouragement of marriage among the superior members of society was misplaced.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Interests centered on phylogenetic origins and ontogenetic origins are direct pointers to the answer.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the opening paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

Data of educational psychology are obtained through various methods. These methods range in reliability from extremely low to very high. In addition to the questionable validity of the information obtained by research, there are certain risks of inference involved when the results of laboratory investigations are extrapolated to classroom applications. Every classroom is unique in many ways and there are certain risks in generalizing from the laboratory to the classroom as well as from one type of classroom to another.
Educational psychologists and educators in the field would do a service to the profession if they would cross-validate laboratory studies in the classroom and pool the results from such studies in several schools to determine the generality of their findings.
Conventional textbooks are quite unsatisfactory for the student who wishes to critically evaluate the reliability of the methods used in obtaining the information presented. The book, which presents enough of the methodology of the studies from which all of the data presented are derived, would be able to cover a very limited area of subject matter and a small number of studies. It is necessary, therefore, for textbooks to become authoritarian in tenor and subject-matter oriented if they are to be useful to the student who is largely a consumer of research data. Data presented in textbook fashion must be accepted largely on faith — faith in the veracity of the presentations and in the reliability of the research methods used.
The student who is critical will want to go back to the original studies to check on the original methods and data on issues which are crucial for him. There are books of readings available in which selected studies are presented in their complete forms. These constitute useful supplements to the subject-matter oriented textbook. A textbook should be perceived by the student as a presentation of the best available information to date, organized and interpreted within a limited frame of reference.

  1. Not all methods of data collection are reliable as some of them employ methods that are questionable.

  2. Reliability of data could be ensured by recognizing that every class room is unique.

  3. Whatever methods of obtaining information in education psychology are used must have the core element of reliability.

  4. Since some methods of collecting data related to educational psychology are low on reliability, there often is low validity and questionable extrapolation.

  5. Since data of educational psychology are collected through methods that are suspect, they do not serve the desired purpose.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

This is the best summary because it touches the issues of reliability, validity and extrapolation.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the second paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

With Charles Darwin’s popularization of the concept of evolution, man became interested in his biological origins and affiliations. This interest was centered on man’s phylogenetic origins. Starting with the work on heredity of Gregor Mendel in the 1860s and the recognition of its significance in 1900, interest shifted to the problem of man’s ontogenetic origins. Mendel’s simple ‘laws of heredity’ came to be widely known and were uncritically assumed to apply to all human characteristics. Most physical characteristics, intelligence, and many aspects of personality were thought to operate as simple Mendelian unit characters in their transmission from parent to child. This belief stimulated an interest to eugenic movements that proposed to bring about race betterment through sterilization of the unfit and encouragement of marriage among the superior members of society. Many groups of people organized to promote such programmes. Feeble-mindedness, poverty, crime, and immorality were thought to be largely matters of poor heredity. Several studies of family lines were published that seemed to give considerable support to this general concept.
From 1900 to about 1920 there was an overemphasis on the role of heredity in producing these conditions. The fixity and certainty of hereditary determination were grossly overestimated, and the environmental contribution to intelligence, personality, morality, and crime was either ignored or underestimated. The one fundamental fact of logic — that correlation does not prove causation — was forgotten. Because certain traits follow family lines, it does not follow that they are necessarily inherited. There is a ‘social heredity’ involved in the transmission of many things from generation to generation, and it is easy to confuse its effects with those of biology heredity.
Starting in the 1920s and ‘30s there set in a reaction against the uncritical application of the simple Mendelian concepts to all human characteristics and the resulting disregard of the importance of environmental factors. The extreme hereditarians were accused of being mechanistic in their frame of reference, deterministic in their philosophy, and unscientific in their methods.
Behavior trends, intellectual level, special talents, and temperament are not inherited as such, but heredity is certainly a factor in determining all of them. Genes affect behavior indirectly through their influence on the structural development of the individual. Genes affect structural conditions which, in turn, influence function. Such complex things as feeble-mindedness, musical talent, mathematical aptitude, and criminality can hardly be inherited. However, the genes can be crucial factors in determining the development of the nervous system, the sensitivity of the ear, the discriminating ability of the eye, the length, diameter, and nature of the vocal cords, and as such things as the size and shape of the hands.

  1. The role of heredity was accorded far too much importance in a particular period of time.

  2. Contribution of environment to overall development of an individual can never be overlooked.

  3. Even if certain traits follow family lines, they are not necessarily inherited.

  4. The line of demarcation between social heredity and biological heredity should never be blurred.

  5. While determining heredity it must not be forgotten that correlation does not prove causation.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The basic issue is of heredity, of inheritance and of establishing correlation which this option clearly states.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the whole passage?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

Data of educational psychology are obtained through various methods. These methods range in reliability from extremely low to very high. In addition to the questionable validity of the information obtained by research, there are certain risks of inference involved when the results of laboratory investigations are extrapolated to classroom applications. Every classroom is unique in many ways and there are certain risks in generalizing from the laboratory to the classroom as well as from one type of classroom to another.
Educational psychologists and educators in the field would do a service to the profession if they would cross-validate laboratory studies in the classroom and pool the results from such studies in several schools to determine the generality of their findings.
Conventional textbooks are quite unsatisfactory for the student who wishes to critically evaluate the reliability of the methods used in obtaining the information presented. The book, which presents enough of the methodology of the studies from which all of the data presented are derived, would be able to cover a very limited area of subject matter and a small number of studies. It is necessary, therefore, for textbooks to become authoritarian in tenor and subject-matter oriented if they are to be useful to the student who is largely a consumer of research data. Data presented in textbook fashion must be accepted largely on faith — faith in the veracity of the presentations and in the reliability of the research methods used.
The student who is critical will want to go back to the original studies to check on the original methods and data on issues which are crucial for him. There are books of readings available in which selected studies are presented in their complete forms. These constitute useful supplements to the subject-matter oriented textbook. A textbook should be perceived by the student as a presentation of the best available information to date, organized and interpreted within a limited frame of reference.

  1. Quality textbook present authentic and reliable data; so the research methods employed must be unimpeachable.

  2. Data obtained through laboratory studies have to be cross-validated with results obtained from different sources.

  3. It is the faith in the materials presented and the method used to present them that determine the acceptability of a textbook.

  4. Conventional textbooks do not always provide a discerning student with study materials in complete form with well organized and authentic data.

  5. Faith is central to a textbook; this element alone serves the purpose of the student community.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Students and textbooks are two key elements and the underlying idea must veer around them. With other elements also taken care of, this is the central idea of the passage.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the whole passage?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

With Charles Darwin’s popularization of the concept of evolution, man became interested in his biological origins and affiliations. This interest was centered on man’s phylogenetic origins. Starting with the work on heredity of Gregor Mendel in the 1860s and the recognition of its significance in 1900, interest shifted to the problem of man’s ontogenetic origins. Mendel’s simple ‘laws of heredity’ came to be widely known and were uncritically assumed to apply to all human characteristics. Most physical characteristics, intelligence, and many aspects of personality were thought to operate as simple Mendelian unit characters in their transmission from parent to child. This belief stimulated an interest to eugenic movements that proposed to bring about race betterment through sterilization of the unfit and encouragement of marriage among the superior members of society. Many groups of people organized to promote such programmes. Feeble-mindedness, poverty, crime, and immorality were thought to be largely matters of poor heredity. Several studies of family lines were published that seemed to give considerable support to this general concept.
From 1900 to about 1920 there was an overemphasis on the role of heredity in producing these conditions. The fixity and certainty of hereditary determination were grossly overestimated, and the environmental contribution to intelligence, personality, morality, and crime was either ignored or underestimated. The one fundamental fact of logic — that correlation does not prove causation — was forgotten. Because certain traits follow family lines, it does not follow that they are necessarily inherited. There is a ‘social heredity’ involved in the transmission of many things from generation to generation, and it is easy to confuse its effects with those of biology heredity.
Starting in the 1920s and ‘30s there set in a reaction against the uncritical application of the simple Mendelian concepts to all human characteristics and the resulting disregard of the importance of environmental factors. The extreme hereditarians were accused of being mechanistic in their frame of reference, deterministic in their philosophy, and unscientific in their methods.
Behavior trends, intellectual level, special talents, and temperament are not inherited as such, but heredity is certainly a factor in determining all of them. Genes affect behavior indirectly through their influence on the structural development of the individual. Genes affect structural conditions which, in turn, influence function. Such complex things as feeble-mindedness, musical talent, mathematical aptitude, and criminality can hardly be inherited. However, the genes can be crucial factors in determining the development of the nervous system, the sensitivity of the ear, the discriminating ability of the eye, the length, diameter, and nature of the vocal cords, and as such things as the size and shape of the hands.

  1. To show the importance of heredity in our life.

  2. To strike a balance between 'social' & 'biology' heredity.

  3. To clear the mist surrounding Darwin's theory.

  4. To understand the complexity of genes.

  5. To correctly evaluate the 'laws of heredity'.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

It is the 'law of heredity' propounded by Mendelian that is at the centre of it all. Correct evaluation and its critical application are central to it and that is the underlying idea of the passage.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the second paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

Data of educational psychology are obtained through various methods. These methods range in reliability from extremely low to very high. In addition to the questionable validity of the information obtained by research, there are certain risks of inference involved when the results of laboratory investigations are extrapolated to classroom applications. Every classroom is unique in many ways and there are certain risks in generalizing from the laboratory to the classroom as well as from one type of classroom to another.
Educational psychologists and educators in the field would do a service to the profession if they would cross-validate laboratory studies in the classroom and pool the results from such studies in several schools to determine the generality of their findings.
Conventional textbooks are quite unsatisfactory for the student who wishes to critically evaluate the reliability of the methods used in obtaining the information presented. The book, which presents enough of the methodology of the studies from which all of the data presented are derived, would be able to cover a very limited area of subject matter and a small number of studies. It is necessary, therefore, for textbooks to become authoritarian in tenor and subject-matter oriented if they are to be useful to the student who is largely a consumer of research data. Data presented in textbook fashion must be accepted largely on faith — faith in the veracity of the presentations and in the reliability of the research methods used.
The student who is critical will want to go back to the original studies to check on the original methods and data on issues which are crucial for him. There are books of readings available in which selected studies are presented in their complete forms. These constitute useful supplements to the subject-matter oriented textbook. A textbook should be perceived by the student as a presentation of the best available information to date, organized and interpreted within a limited frame of reference.

  1. It is important for any data collection exercise to pool the results of various sources and come to a general conclusion.

  2. Cross-validation of laboratory studies is essential for its efficaciousness.

  3. Each result originating from various laboratory studies has its own validity and serves its own purpose.

  4. It is for the educational psychologists and the educators to decide what would be the best method of data collection.

  5. Education psychology should be cross validated.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

This option takes into account the efficaciousness of the data collated after cross-validation and that is the essence.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the fourth paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

With Charles Darwin’s popularization of the concept of evolution, man became interested in his biological origins and affiliations. This interest was centered on man’s phylogenetic origins. Starting with the work on heredity of Gregor Mendel in the 1860s and the recognition of its significance in 1900, interest shifted to the problem of man’s ontogenetic origins. Mendel’s simple ‘laws of heredity’ came to be widely known and were uncritically assumed to apply to all human characteristics. Most physical characteristics, intelligence, and many aspects of personality were thought to operate as simple Mendelian unit characters in their transmission from parent to child. This belief stimulated an interest to eugenic movements that proposed to bring about race betterment through sterilization of the unfit and encouragement of marriage among the superior members of society. Many groups of people organized to promote such programmes. Feeble-mindedness, poverty, crime, and immorality were thought to be largely matters of poor heredity. Several studies of family lines were published that seemed to give considerable support to this general concept.
From 1900 to about 1920 there was an overemphasis on the role of heredity in producing these conditions. The fixity and certainty of hereditary determination were grossly overestimated, and the environmental contribution to intelligence, personality, morality, and crime was either ignored or underestimated. The one fundamental fact of logic — that correlation does not prove causation — was forgotten. Because certain traits follow family lines, it does not follow that they are necessarily inherited. There is a ‘social heredity’ involved in the transmission of many things from generation to generation, and it is easy to confuse its effects with those of biology heredity.
Starting in the 1920s and ‘30s there set in a reaction against the uncritical application of the simple Mendelian concepts to all human characteristics and the resulting disregard of the importance of environmental factors. The extreme hereditarians were accused of being mechanistic in their frame of reference, deterministic in their philosophy, and unscientific in their methods.
Behavior trends, intellectual level, special talents, and temperament are not inherited as such, but heredity is certainly a factor in determining all of them. Genes affect behavior indirectly through their influence on the structural development of the individual. Genes affect structural conditions which, in turn, influence function. Such complex things as feeble-mindedness, musical talent, mathematical aptitude, and criminality can hardly be inherited. However, the genes can be crucial factors in determining the development of the nervous system, the sensitivity of the ear, the discriminating ability of the eye, the length, diameter, and nature of the vocal cords, and as such things as the size and shape of the hands.

  1. While some complex traits may not be inherited, genes may help in developing the nervous system that shapes up our life.

  2. Genes affect behavioral pattern of an individual and directly influence his intellectual growth.

  3. Heredity plays an important role in determining the quality of an individual in as much as it shapes his being and his behavior.

  4. Heredity plays a crucial but undeterministic role in determining our behavior trends and intellectual levels.

  5. Genes shape not only our approach to life; it also shapes the length and size of our hands and other limbs.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

There are many traits that are not inherited but heredity plays a very crucial part in determining them. This is the essence of the paragraph and the best summary.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the third paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

Data of educational psychology are obtained through various methods. These methods range in reliability from extremely low to very high. In addition to the questionable validity of the information obtained by research, there are certain risks of inference involved when the results of laboratory investigations are extrapolated to classroom applications. Every classroom is unique in many ways and there are certain risks in generalizing from the laboratory to the classroom as well as from one type of classroom to another.
Educational psychologists and educators in the field would do a service to the profession if they would cross-validate laboratory studies in the classroom and pool the results from such studies in several schools to determine the generality of their findings.
Conventional textbooks are quite unsatisfactory for the student who wishes to critically evaluate the reliability of the methods used in obtaining the information presented. The book, which presents enough of the methodology of the studies from which all of the data presented are derived, would be able to cover a very limited area of subject matter and a small number of studies. It is necessary, therefore, for textbooks to become authoritarian in tenor and subject-matter oriented if they are to be useful to the student who is largely a consumer of research data. Data presented in textbook fashion must be accepted largely on faith — faith in the veracity of the presentations and in the reliability of the research methods used.
The student who is critical will want to go back to the original studies to check on the original methods and data on issues which are crucial for him. There are books of readings available in which selected studies are presented in their complete forms. These constitute useful supplements to the subject-matter oriented textbook. A textbook should be perceived by the student as a presentation of the best available information to date, organized and interpreted within a limited frame of reference.

  1. It is not enough for a textbook to contain data derived from various sources if students do not find them useful.

  2. Textbooks can never be exhaustive as they will always be constrained by limited scope of studies and researches made.

  3. Unquestionable reliability of data made available is more important than the quantum of data.

  4. A textbook must be unblemished in character, authoritative in tenor and subject-matter oriented.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

So as to have “faith in the veracity of the presentations and in the reliability of the research methods used”.

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the third paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

With Charles Darwin’s popularization of the concept of evolution, man became interested in his biological origins and affiliations. This interest was centered on man’s phylogenetic origins. Starting with the work on heredity of Gregor Mendel in the 1860s and the recognition of its significance in 1900, interest shifted to the problem of man’s ontogenetic origins. Mendel’s simple ‘laws of heredity’ came to be widely known and were uncritically assumed to apply to all human characteristics. Most physical characteristics, intelligence, and many aspects of personality were thought to operate as simple Mendelian unit characters in their transmission from parent to child. This belief stimulated an interest to eugenic movements that proposed to bring about race betterment through sterilization of the unfit and encouragement of marriage among the superior members of society. Many groups of people organized to promote such programmes. Feeble-mindedness, poverty, crime, and immorality were thought to be largely matters of poor heredity. Several studies of family lines were published that seemed to give considerable support to this general concept.
From 1900 to about 1920 there was an overemphasis on the role of heredity in producing these conditions. The fixity and certainty of hereditary determination were grossly overestimated, and the environmental contribution to intelligence, personality, morality, and crime was either ignored or underestimated. The one fundamental fact of logic — that correlation does not prove causation — was forgotten. Because certain traits follow family lines, it does not follow that they are necessarily inherited. There is a ‘social heredity’ involved in the transmission of many things from generation to generation, and it is easy to confuse its effects with those of biology heredity.
Starting in the 1920s and ‘30s there set in a reaction against the uncritical application of the simple Mendelian concepts to all human characteristics and the resulting disregard of the importance of environmental factors. The extreme hereditarians were accused of being mechanistic in their frame of reference, deterministic in their philosophy, and unscientific in their methods.
Behavior trends, intellectual level, special talents, and temperament are not inherited as such, but heredity is certainly a factor in determining all of them. Genes affect behavior indirectly through their influence on the structural development of the individual. Genes affect structural conditions which, in turn, influence function. Such complex things as feeble-mindedness, musical talent, mathematical aptitude, and criminality can hardly be inherited. However, the genes can be crucial factors in determining the development of the nervous system, the sensitivity of the ear, the discriminating ability of the eye, the length, diameter, and nature of the vocal cords, and as such things as the size and shape of the hands.

  1. The Mendelian concept had turned the whole issue of heredity topsy-turvy in 1920s and 1930s.

  2. The Mendelian concept did not have much to do with the kind of reactions that one noticed in 1920s and 1930s.

  3. It was not the Mendelian concept but its uncritical application that had set in motion a mechanistic, deterministic and unscientific approach.

  4. Hereditarians were accused of being extreme in their approach to the concept of heredity.

  5. Unscientific methods were employed to apply the simple Mendelian concept of heredity.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The important aspect is the reaction against the uncritical application of the Mendelian concept.

Multiple choice
  1. grandeur

  2. dignity

  3. dextrousness

  4. inventiveness

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Innovativeness refers to creative, original thinking and the ability to present ideas in fresh ways. Among the options, 'inventiveness' is the closest synonym, capturing the essence of bringing novel approaches to presentations.

Multiple choice
  1. Idea

  2. Capacity

  3. Ability

  4. Willingness

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Aptitude refers to natural ability or talent. In the context of presentations, it means having an inherent capability or skill. 'Ability' is the most appropriate synonym among the options.

Multiple choice
  1. attitude

  2. innocence

  3. appeal

  4. intimacy

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Charisma in presentations refers to a magnetic personal quality that attracts and influences audiences. 'Appeal' best captures this sense of attractiveness and ability to draw people in.

Multiple choice
  1. proficiency

  2. sufficiency

  3. experience

  4. requirement

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Expertise refers to deep knowledge and skill in a specific subject area. 'Proficiency' is the closest synonym, representing demonstrated competence and mastery in the subject matter.