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Q1
Odd one out TYPE IN THE ANSWER
Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. The profound emotional impact of music has inspired ongoing research into its relationship with emotions. 2. Music is a universal phenomenon that utilizes a myriad brain resources. 3. This inherent connection to musical expression is deeply intertwined with human identity and experience. 4. The proclivity to create and appreciate music is ubiquitous among humans, permeating daily life across diverse societies. 5. Engaging with music is among the most cognitively demanding tasks a human can undergo, and it is identified across cultures.
Four sentences build one argument: music is a universal, innate human activity that is cognitively demanding.
Sentence 4 opens: the urge to create and enjoy music is ubiquitous across societies.
Sentence 3 follows with "This inherent connection to musical expression", where "this" points back to the universal proclivity in 4 and ties it to human identity.
Sentence 2 restates music as a universal phenomenon and introduces the brain resources it uses.
Sentence 5 develops that point: engaging with music is among the most cognitively demanding tasks, and it is found across cultures.
Sentence 1 shifts to a different subject: research into music's emotional impact. Nothing else in the group mentions emotion or research, and no sentence leads into or follows from it. It belongs to a different paragraph.
Hence, the answer is 1.
Q2
Odd one out TYPE IN THE ANSWER
Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. About half of all the oxygen we breathe is made near the surface of the ocean by phytoplankton that photosynthesize just like land-dwelling plants. 2. A team of scientists that includes Boston University experts has discovered they also produce oxygen on the seafloor. 3. The research team used deep-sea chambers that land on the seafloor and enclose the seawater, sediment, polymetallic nodules, and living organisms. 4. The discovery is a surprise considering oxygen is typically created by plants and organisms with help from the sun—not by rocks on the ocean floor. 5. The deep-sea rocks, called polymetallic nodules, don't only host a surprising number of sea critters.
The coherent paragraph reports a surprising discovery: deep-sea rocks produce oxygen.
Sentence 1 gives the familiar background: about half of our oxygen comes from phytoplankton near the ocean surface.
Sentence 5 brings in the new subject, the polymetallic nodules, which "don't only host" sea creatures. That phrase sets up an "also".
Sentence 2 supplies it: scientists found "they also produce oxygen on the seafloor". "They" means the nodules, so 5-2 is a fixed pair.
Sentence 4 explains why this is "a surprise": oxygen usually comes from sunlight-driven life, not from rocks.
Sentence 3 describes the method (deep-sea chambers enclosing seawater and sediment). The paragraph is about what was found and why it is surprising, not how the experiment was run, so 3 is the procedural detail that does not fit the 1-5-2-4 flow.
Hence, the answer is 3.
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Once a society accepts a secular mode of creativity, within which the creator replaces God, imaginative transactions assume a self-conscious form. The tribal imagination, on the other hand, is still to a large extent dreamlike and hallucinatory. It admits fusion between various planes of existence and levels of time in a natural and artless manner. In tribal stories, oceans fly in the sky as birds, mountains swim in water as fish, animals speak as humans and stars grow like plants. Spatial order and temporal sequence do not restrict the narrative. This is not to say that tribal creations have no conventions or rules, but simply that they admit the principle of association between emotion and the narrative motif. Thus stars, seas, mountains, trees, men and animals can be angry, sad or happy.
It might be said that tribal artists work more on the basis of their racial and sensory memory than on the basis of a cultivated imagination. In order to understand this distinction, we must understand the difference between imagination and memory. In the animate world, consciousness meets two immediate material realities: space and time. We put meaning into space by perceiving it in terms of images. The image-making faculty is a genetic gift to the human mind—this power of imagination helps us understand the space that envelops us. With regard to time, we make connections with the help of memory; one remembers being the same person today as one was yesterday.
The tribal mind has a more acute sense of time than the sense of space. Somewhere along the history of human civilization, tribal communities seem to have realized that domination over territorial space was not their lot. Thus, they seem to have turned almost obsessively to gaining domination over time. This urge is substantiated in their ritual of conversing with their dead ancestors: year after year, tribals in many parts of India worship terracotta or carved-wood objects representing their ancestors, aspiring to enter a trance in which they can converse with the dead. Over the centuries, an amazingly sharp memory has helped tribals classify material and natural objects into a highly complex system of knowledge. . . .
One of the main characteristics of the tribal arts is their distinct manner of constructing space and imagery, which might be described as 'hallucinatory'. In both oral and visual forms of representation, tribal artists seem to interpret verbal or pictorial space as demarcated by an extremely flexible 'frame'. The boundaries between art and non-art become almost invisible. A tribal epic can begin its narration from a trivial everyday event; tribal paintings merge with living space as if the two were one and the same. And within the narrative itself, or within the painted imagery, there is no deliberate attempt to follow a sequence. The episodes retold and the images created take on the apparently chaotic shapes of dreams. In a way, the syntax of language and the grammar of painting are the same, as if literature were painted words and painting were a song of images.
Q3
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
All of the following, if true, would weaken the passage's claims about the hallucinatory tribal imagination EXCEPT that:
The passage says the tribal imagination is "dreamlike and hallucinatory": it fuses planes of existence and levels of time, ignores spatial order and temporal sequence, and blurs art and everyday life ("A tribal epic can begin its narration from a trivial everyday event").
Option A does not weaken this. Conversing with the dead fits the passage, which describes rituals of entering a trance to talk with ancestors. Stories featuring such rituals are consistent with a mind that freely crosses between the living and the dead.
Option B weakens it: the passage says tribal art merges with daily life and starts from trivial events, so excluding the mundane contradicts this.
Option C weakens it: a neat beginning, middle and end goes against "no deliberate attempt to follow a sequence".
Option D weakens it: depicting nature by rational science goes against oceans flying as birds and stars growing like plants.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q4
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
On the basis of the passage, which one of the following explains the main difference between imagination and memory?
Paragraph 2 sets out the distinction directly: consciousness meets two realities, space and time. "We put meaning into space by perceiving it in terms of images", which is the work of imagination, while "With regard to time, we make connections with the help of memory." Option B states exactly this.
Option A is about how tribal groups use the two faculties, not about how the faculties themselves differ.
Option C distorts the text: "racial and sensory" describes tribal artists' memory, not memory in general, and the passage does not call memory intuitive.
Option D gives a true detail about imagination (a "genetic gift") but pairs it with a claim about memory that the passage never makes, and it misses the space/time contrast.
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q5
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which one of the following best explains why tribals in India worship their dead ancestors?
Paragraph 3 says tribal communities, realising that controlling territorial space "was not their lot", turned "almost obsessively to gaining domination over time". It adds that "This urge is substantiated in their ritual of conversing with their dead ancestors". So ancestor worship and conversing with the dead are a way of gaining control over time, as option C says.
Option A gives a separate result of their sharp memory (a classification system), not the reason for the worship.
Option B describes how they worship (terracotta and wood objects), not why; and "respect" is not the reason the passage gives.
Option D contradicts the passage, which says they gave up on territorial domination.
Hence, the answer is (C).
Q6
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Non-human living forms exhibit human emotions in tribal narratives because tribal narratives:
Paragraph 1 says the tribal imagination "admits fusion between various planes of existence": oceans fly, mountains swim, animals speak. Because the boundaries between kinds of beings are fluid, the narratives follow "the principle of association between emotion and the narrative motif". That is why stars, seas, trees and animals can be angry, sad or happy. "Existential fluidity" sums this up.
Option A is a judgement the author never makes; the passage presents this imagination as different, not underdeveloped.
Option B is contradicted: "This is not to say that tribal creations have no conventions or rules".
Option C reverses the passage: the self-conscious form belongs to secular societies, while tribal imagination is dreamlike.
Hence, the answer is (D).
Q7
Para Summary MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
In investigating memory-beliefs, there are certain points which must be borne in mind. In the first place, everything constituting a memory-belief is happening now, not in that past time to which the belief is said to refer. It is not logically necessary to the existence of a memory-belief that the event remembered should have occurred, or even that the past should have existed at all. There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that "remembered" a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago. Hence the occurrences which are CALLED knowledge of the past are logically independent of the past; they are wholly analysable into present contents, which might, theoretically, be just what they are even if no past had existed.
The passage argues that a memory-belief happens entirely now, so it does not logically require that the remembered event, or even any past, ever existed. The five-minute-old world is only an illustration. It concludes that so-called knowledge of the past is logically independent of the past and can be analysed fully into present contents.
Option A gives both the conclusion (knowledge of the past is independent of the past) and the reason (remembering happens in the present and needs no real past).
Option B is narrow, and "figment of our imagination" adds an idea the passage does not raise; it leaves out the present-tense basis and the conclusion.
Option C spends its weight on the five-minute illustration, and "depend wholly on what is remembered" muddles the point that memory-beliefs consist of present contents.
Option D is close but leaves out why: that everything in a memory-belief happens now. So it misses the logical core of the argument.
Hence, the answer is (A).
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Imagine a world in which artificial intelligence is entrusted with the highest moral responsibilities: sentencing criminals, allocating medical resources, and even mediating conflicts between nations. This might seem like the pinnacle of human progress: an entity unburdened by emotion, prejudice or inconsistency, making ethical decisions with impeccable precision. . . .
Yet beneath this vision of an idealised moral arbiter lies a fundamental question: can a machine understand morality as humans do, or is it confined to a simulacrum of ethical reasoning? AI might replicate human decisions without improving on them, carrying forward the same biases, blind spots and cultural distortions from human moral judgment. In trying to emulate us, it might only reproduce our limitations, not transcend them. But there is a deeper concern. Moral judgment draws on intuition, historical awareness and context – qualities that resist formalisation. Ethics may be so embedded in lived experience that any attempt to encode it into formal structures risks flattening its most essential features. If so, AI would not merely reflect human shortcomings; it would strip morality of the very depth that makes ethical reflection possible in the first place.
Still, many have tried to formalise ethics, by treating certain moral claims not as conclusions, but as starting points. A classic example comes from utilitarianism, which often takes as a foundational axiom the principle that one should act to maximise overall wellbeing. From this, more specific principles can be derived, for example, that it is right to benefit the greatest number, or that actions should be judged by their consequences for total happiness. As computational resources increase, AI becomes increasingly well-suited to the task of starting from fixed ethical assumptions and reasoning through their implications in complex situations.
But what, exactly, does it mean to formalise something like ethics? The question is easier to grasp by looking at fields in which formal systems have long played a central role. Physics, for instance, has relied on formalisation for centuries. There is no single physical theory that explains everything. Instead, we have many physical theories, each designed to describe specific aspects of the Universe: from the behaviour of quarks and electrons to the motion of galaxies. These theories often diverge. Aristotelian physics, for instance, explained falling objects in terms of natural motion toward Earth's centre; Newtonian mechanics replaced this with a universal force of gravity. These explanations are not just different; they are incompatible. Yet both share a common structure: they begin with basic postulates – assumptions about motion, force or mass – and derive increasingly complex consequences. . . .
Ethical theories have a similar structure. Like physical theories, they attempt to describe a domain – in this case, the moral landscape. They aim to answer questions about which actions are right or wrong, and why. These theories also diverge and, even when they recommend similar actions, such as giving to charity, they justify them in different ways. Ethical theories also often begin with a small set of foundational principles or claims, from which they reason about more complex moral problems.
Q8
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?
The passage moves through four steps: (1) the appeal of an AI moral arbiter free of emotion and prejudice; (2) doubt about whether a machine can grasp morality, and the worry that formalising ethics flattens intuition, history and context; (3) the fact that ethics can still be formalised from axioms (utilitarianism), which AI handles well as computing power grows; (4) an analogy with physics, where many theories share a postulate-and-derivation structure yet stay divergent.
Option A follows all four steps: appeal versus doubt, codification eroding case-sensitive judgement, axiom-led reasoning at scale, and the physics analogy showing "structured plurality".
Option B is too extreme: the passage never rejects formal methods outright or bans AI "under any conditions".
Option C reverses two points: the passage fears codification loses nuance, and the physics analogy stresses divergence, not convergence.
Option D misreads the tone: the passage worries that reproducing human judgement copies our limitations; it does not call this progress.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q9
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Choose the one option below that comes closest to being the opposite of "utilitarianism".
The passage defines utilitarianism by its axiom: act to maximise overall wellbeing, judging actions by their consequences for total happiness. The opposite approach must reject maximising the total.
Option D does this. A prioritarian approach gives extra weight to the worst-off "rather than to maximising total welfare", so it directly rejects the utilitarian aggregate.
Option A carries a deontological label, but the policy still picks "the highest total benefit" and treats duty as secondary, which is utilitarian in practice.
Option B contradicts itself: it claims to ignore outcomes yet judges choices by "broadest societal benefit", a utilitarian test.
Option C ranks policies by "overall social welfare", which is simply utilitarianism.
Hence, the answer is (D).
Q10
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
All of the following can reasonably be inferred from the passage EXCEPT:
Option A says the argument forecasts convergence on one ethical system and treats contextual judgement as unnecessary. Both parts contradict the passage. The physics analogy stresses that theories "diverge" and are even "incompatible", and ethical theories "also diverge". The passage also stresses that moral judgement draws on intuition and context, which "resist formalisation". So A cannot be inferred.
Option B restates paragraph 2: encoding ethics risks flattening it, and AI would reproduce our limitations rather than transcend them.
Option C follows from paragraphs 4 and 5: physical and ethical theories share a structure of postulates leading to consequences while still diverging.
Option D is a fair reading of paragraphs 1 and 2: the AI arbiter appeals because it is impartial and consistent, yet the passage asks whether it truly understands morality or only simulates it.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q11
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage compares ethics to physics, where different theories apply to different aspects of a domain and says AI can reason from fixed starting points in complex cases. Which one of the assumptions below must hold for that comparison to guide practice?
In physics, different theories cover different aspects of the Universe, and each begins from its own postulates. If ethics works the same way, with several divergent theories each with its own starting principles, then an AI reasoning "from fixed starting points" must first know which starting points apply to the case in front of it. Without a principled way of matching frameworks to classes of cases, the analogy cannot guide practice. Option A states this necessary assumption.
Option B goes against the analogy, which rests on many theories, not one master framework.
Option C contradicts the passage: ethical theories diverge and justify actions differently, so selection does matter.
Option D is too strong ("never", "without any overlap whatsoever"). The comparison needs a way to choose a framework, not a world in which cases never overlap.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q12
Para Jumbles TYPE IN THE ANSWER
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. When I ask the distinguished LGBTQ activist and writer Cherie Moraga whether she uses Latinx to refer to herself, she tells me, 'I worked too hard for the "a" in Latina to give it up! I refer to myself as Xicana.' 2. Of our accumulated ethnic population, only a third use Hispanic to identify themselves, a mere 14 percent use Latino, and less than 2 percent recognize Latinx. 3.They have done this, although gender in languages is grammatical, not sociological or sexual, and found in linguistic families throughout the world, from French to Russian to Japanese. 4. More recently, activists seeking to render our name gender neutral, out of respect for our LGBTQ members, have devised yet another name for us: Latinx.
The paragraph is about the gender-neutral label Latinx and how little the community uses it.
4 opens: activists have "devised yet another name for us: Latinx", to make the name gender neutral. It introduces the term the rest of the paragraph discusses.
3 must follow 4: "They have done this" refers to the activists and their act of coining Latinx. It then objects that grammatical gender has nothing to do with sex. So 4-3 is a fixed pair.
1 adds a personal example of resistance: even an LGBTQ activist, Cherie Moraga, refuses the term and keeps the "a" of Latina.
2 closes with the numbers: under 2 percent recognise Latinx, against a third using Hispanic. This widens Moraga's single case into a community-wide fact.
Sentence 2 cannot open: it names Latinx as if already known, while 4 is clearly where the term is introduced.
Hence, the answer is 4312.
Q13
Missing Sentence MULTIPLE CHOICE
The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
Sentence: In each of the affected males, the genetic defect was located to the X chromosome in the region of p11-12.
Paragraph: The first suggested evidence of a human genetic mutation associated with aggressive behaviour came from a study in 1993. _____(1)____. Genetic and metabolic studies were conducted on a large Dutch family in which several of the males has a syndrome of borderline mental retardation and abnormal behaviour. _____(2)____. The undesirable behaviour included impulsive aggression, arson and exhibitionism. _____(3)____. A point mutation was identified in the eighth exon of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) structural gene which changes glutamine to a termination codon. _____(4)____.
The paragraph moves from the study, to the family and its symptoms, to the genetic findings. The missing sentence says that in each affected male the defect was located to the X chromosome, in a broad region (p11-12). That is the first, general step of the genetic finding.
Before slot 3, the paragraph has just described the behaviour (aggression, arson, exhibitionism), so the next step is to say where the defect lies.
After slot 3, "A point mutation was identified" in the MAOA gene gives the precise mutation. This narrows down from the chromosomal region. The order region first, then exact mutation, is logical.
Slot 1 is too early: the "affected males" have not yet been introduced. Slot 2 would break the link between the syndrome and the list of behaviours that describes it. Slot 4 would place the broad location after the precise mutation, which reverses the order of discovery.
Slot 3 is option (C).
Hence, the answer is (C).
Q14
Para Summary MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The return to the tailor is the juxtaposition of three key things for the mindful Indian shopper. The first is the conscious shift away from the homogeneity of fast fashion, the idea of a hundred other people owning exactly the same Zara trench coat or H&M pleated skirt. The second is an actual understanding of the waste behind the fast fashion market, and wanting not to contribute to that anymore. The last is the shift toward customisation and fit—the idea of having imaginations brought to life and to have them fit exactly; without paying exorbitant rates for that bespoke tailoring. For the individual with a keen fashion sense and a genuine desire to move away from the waste and uniformity of fast fashion without paying the premium for it that indie brands would invariably demand, the tailor is the perfect crossover.
The passage gives three reasons the mindful Indian shopper is returning to the tailor: moving away from the sameness of fast fashion, avoiding its waste, and wanting customisation and fit without paying bespoke or indie-brand premiums.
Option C includes all three: away from uniformity and waste, towards customisation, at prices that are not exorbitant.
Option A mentions cost, fit and fashion but leaves out the core motives of avoiding waste and homogeneity.
Option B overgeneralises ("All Indian shoppers") and wrongly calls Zara and H&M expensive brands; they are the fast-fashion examples.
Option D distorts the passage: it is fast fashion, not expensive branded clothing, that is criticised as wasteful, and it is the mindful shopper, not everyone, who is returning.
Hence, the answer is (C).
Q15
Missing Sentence MULTIPLE CHOICE
The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
Sentence: Productivity gains, once expected to feed through to broader living standards, now primarily serve to enhance returns to wealth.
Paragraph: Economists now argue that inequality is no longer a by-product of growth but a condition of it. ____ (1) ____. Unlike wages, wealth reflects not just income but also access to assets, favourable institutional conditions – such as low interest rates – and public policies like low taxes and housing shortages. ____ (2) ____. In other words, wealth depends on political choices in ways that income currently does not. It's not just the inequality itself that is the issue but the erosion of mechanisms that once constrained it. ____ (3) ____. Wealth and income inequality are linked, but where wages have stagnated and collective bargaining has weakened, capital income – derived from profits, rents and interest – has been boosted by design. ____ (4) ____.
The opening line claims that inequality is now "a condition" of growth. The missing sentence explains how: the fruits of growth (productivity gains) no longer raise general living standards but go mainly to returns to wealth.
At slot 1 it gives the mechanism behind the opening claim, and it introduces wealth.
The next sentence, "Unlike wages, wealth reflects...", needs wealth to have been mentioned already. Without the inserted sentence, the paragraph jumps from growth straight to a wages-versus-wealth contrast. With it, the line "broader living standards (wages) versus returns to wealth" leads directly into "Unlike wages, wealth...".
Slot 2 would split "wealth reflects... public policies" from its restatement "In other words, wealth depends on political choices". Slot 3 would come between the point about eroded mechanisms and the sentence that illustrates it (stagnant wages, weak collective bargaining). Slot 4 reads acceptably but only repeats what "capital income... boosted by design" has already said, while slot 1 fills a real gap in the logic.
Slot 1 is option (B).
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q16
Para Jumbles TYPE IN THE ANSWER
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. The effigy of a candidate establishes a personal link between him and the voters; the candidate does not only offer a programme for judgement, he suggests a physical climate, a set of daily choices expressed in a morphology, a way of dressing, a posture. 2. Some candidates for Parliament adorn their electoral prospectus with a portrait; this presupposes that photography has a power to convert which must be analysed. 3. Inasmuch as photography is an ellipse of language and a condensation of an 'ineffable' social whole, it constitutes an anti-intellectual weapon and tends to spirit away 'politics' (that is to say a body of problems and solutions) to the advantage of a 'manner of being', a socio-moral status. 4. Photography tends to restore the paternalistic nature of elections, whose elitist essence has been disrupted by proportional representation and the rule of parties (the Right seems to use it more than the Left).
The paragraph analyses why election candidates use their photographs.
2 opens: some candidates put a portrait on their electoral prospectus, which suggests photography has "a power to convert which must be analysed". It sets up the analysis that follows.
1 starts that analysis: "The effigy of a candidate" refers back to the portrait in 2. It explains that the picture creates a personal link and offers a way of being (dress, posture), not just a programme.
4 moves from the individual voter to the electoral system: photography restores the paternalistic, personality-centred nature of elections that party rule had disrupted.
3 concludes with the general principle ("Inasmuch as..."): photography condenses a social whole, so it is an anti-intellectual weapon that replaces politics as problems and solutions with a "manner of being". This picks up the "physical climate" and "posture" of 1.
Only 2 can open, since it introduces the portrait, and 2-1 is a fixed pair (portrait, then effigy). 3 is the broadest statement, so it comes last.
Hence, the answer is 2143.
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
In 1982, a raging controversy broke out over a forest act drafted by the Government of India. This act sought to strengthen the already extensive powers enjoyed by the forest bureaucracy in controlling the extraction, disposal and sale of forest produce. It also gave forest officials greater powers to strictly regulate the entry of any person into reserved forest areas. While forest officials justified the act on the grounds that it was necessary to stop the continuing deforestation, it was bitterly opposed by representatives of grassroots organisations, who argued that it was a major violation of the rights of peasants and tribals living in and around forest areas. . . .
The debate over the draft forest act fuelled a larger controversy over the orientation of state forest policy. It was pointed out, for example, that the draft act was closely modelled on its predecessor, the Forest Act of 1878. The earlier Act rested on a usurpation of rights of ownership by the colonial state which had little precedent in precolonial history. It was further argued that the system of forestry introduced by the British—and continued, with little modification, after 1947—emphasised revenue generation and commercial exploitation, while its policing orientation excluded villagers who had the most longstanding claim on forest resources. Critics called for a complete overhaul of forest administration, pressing the government to formulate policy and legislation more appropriate to present needs. . . .
That debate is not over yet. The draft act was shelved, though it has not as yet been formally withdrawn. Meanwhile, the 1878 Act (as modified by an amendment in 1927) continues to be in operation. In response to its critics, the government has made some important changes in forest policy, e.g., no longer treating forests as a source of revenue, and stopping ecologically hazardous practices such as the clearfelling of natural forests. At the same time, it has shown little inclination to meet the major demand of the critics of forest policy—namely, abandoning the principle of state monopoly over forest land by handing over areas of degraded forests to individuals and communities for afforestation.
. . . [The] 1878 Forest Act itself was passed only after a bitter and prolonged debate within the colonial bureaucracy, in which protagonists put forward arguments strikingly similar to those being advanced today. As is well known, the Indian Forest Department owes its origin to the requirements of railway companies. The early years of the expansion of the railway network, c. 1853 onwards, led to tremendous deforestation in peninsular India owing to the railway's requirements of fuelwood and construction timber. Huge quantities of durable timbers were also needed for use as sleepers across the newly laid tracks. Inexperienced in forestry, the British called in German experts to commence systematic forest management. The Indian Forest Department was started in 1864, with Dietrich Brandis, formerly a Lecturer at Bonn, as the first Inspector General of Forests. The new department needed legislative backing to function effectively, and in the following year, 1865, the first forest act was passed. . . .
Q17
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
According to the passage, which one of the following reforms is yet to happen in India's forest policies?
Paragraph 3 lists the changes the government has made: forests are no longer treated as a revenue source, and harmful practices such as clear-felling have stopped. It then says the government has shown "little inclination" to meet the critics' main demand: give up state monopoly "by handing over areas of degraded forests to individuals and communities for afforestation". Involving local people in growing forests is therefore the reform still pending.
Option A is not stated as pending; the passage notes that clear-felling has already stopped, and it says nothing about a total ban.
Option B has already happened in substance: stopping "ecologically hazardous practices" shows that ecological importance is recognised.
Option D is the reverse of the critics' demand; the state's claim is already established and is what critics want reduced.
Hence, the answer is (C).
Q18
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
According to the passage, which one of the following is not common to the 1878 Forest Act and the 1982 draft forest act?
The passage never says either Act caused deforestation. Large-scale deforestation came from railway expansion after 1853, before the forest acts. The 1982 draft was even defended as "necessary to stop the continuing deforestation", and it was shelved, so it never came into force. Option A is therefore not common to the two Acts.
Option B is common: the 1982 draft strengthened the forest bureaucracy's control, and it was "closely modelled" on the 1878 Act, which rested on the state taking over ownership rights.
Option C is common: the 1878 Act was colonial, and critics saw the 1982 draft as continuing colonial forestry.
Option D is common: the 1982 draft caused a "raging controversy", and the 1878 Act came "only after a bitter and prolonged debate".
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q19
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which one of the following best encapsulates the reason for the "raging controversy" developing into a "larger controversy"?
The "raging controversy" was about the draft act's specific provisions and the rights of forest dwellers. Paragraph 2 says this debate "fuelled a larger controversy over the orientation of state forest policy", and the first point raised was that the draft "was closely modelled on its predecessor, the Forest Act of 1878", a colonial law. Linking the draft to colonial forestry is what widened the dispute from one bill to the whole policy, as option B says.
Option A describes the original dispute (officials against grassroots groups), not what widened it; "unjustifiably" is also an added judgement.
Option C is the grassroots objection behind the first controversy, not the reason it grew.
Option D is not stated: the commercial focus is said of the British forestry system in general, not of something the 1982 draft would add.
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q20
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
All of the following, if true, would weaken the narrative presented in the passage EXCEPT that:
The passage's account is this: railway needs drove deforestation; the British brought in German experts and set up a forest department; colonial law took over ownership with "little precedent in precolonial history"; and this policing system shut out villagers with the oldest claims to the forest.
Option B does not weaken this. If German foresters were known for violating indigenous rights, that fits, and even supports, the picture of a colonial forestry system that excluded forest dwellers.
Option A weakens it: if railway timber was imported, the link between railway expansion and Indian deforestation, and so the origin of the Forest Department, breaks down.
Option C weakens it: if precolonial rulers already denied access, colonial control would have a clear precedent, which the passage denies.
Option D weakens it: if tribal groups caused mass deforestation, their claim to forest resources looks weaker and state control more justified.
Hence, the answer is (B).
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Over the course of the twentieth century, humans built, on average, one large dam a day, hulking structures of steel and concrete designed to control flooding, facilitate irrigation, and generate electricity. Dams were also lucrative contracts, large-scale employers, and the physical instantiation of a messianic drive to conquer territories and control nature. Some of the results of that drive were charismatic mega-infrastructure—the Hoover on the Colorado River or the Aswan on the Nile—but most of the tens of thousands of dams that dot the Earth's landscape have drawn little attention. These are the smaller, though not inconsequential, barriers that today impede the flow of water on nearly two-thirds of the world's large waterways. Chances are, what your map calls a "lake" is actually a reservoir, and that thin blue line that emerges from it once flowed very differently.
Damming a river is always a partisan act. Even when explicit infrastructure goals—irrigation, flood control, electrification—were met, other consequences were significant and often deleterious. Across the world, river control displaced millions of people, threatening livelihoods, foodways, and cultures. In the western United States, dams were often an instrument of colonialism, used to dispossess Indigenous people and subsidize settler agriculture. And as dams slowed the flow of water, inhibited the movement of nutrients, and increased the amount of toxic algae and other parasites, they snuffed out entire river ecologies. Declining fish populations are the most evident effect, but dams also threaten a host of other animals—from birds and reptiles to fungi and plants—with extinction. Every major dam, then, is also a sacrifice zone, a place where lives, livelihoods, and ways of life are eliminated so that new sorts of landscapes can support water-intensive agriculture and cities that sprout downstream of new reservoirs.
Such sacrifices have been justified as offerings at the temples of modernity. Justified by—and for—whom, though? Over the course of the twentieth century, rarely were the costs and benefits weighed thoughtfully and decided democratically. As Kader Asmal, chair of the landmark 2000 World Commission on Dams, concluded, "There have been precious few, if any, comprehensive, independent analyses as to why dams came about, how dams perform over time, and whether we are getting a fair return from our $2 trillion investment." A quarter-century later, Asmal's words ring ever truer. A litany of dams built in the mid-twentieth century are approaching the end of their expected lives, with worrying prospects for their durability. Droughts, magnified and multiplied by the effects of climate change, have forced more and more to run below capacity. If ever there were a time to rethink the mania for dams, it would be now.
There is some evidence that a combination of opposition, alternative energy sources, and a lack of viable projects has slowed the construction of major dams. But a wave of recent and ongoing construction, from India and China to Ethiopia and Canada, continues to tilt the global balance firmly in favor of water impoundment.
Q21
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which one of the following sets of terms is closest to mapping the key arguments of the passage?
The passage moves in four steps, and option A names each one:
Mega-infrastructure: paragraph 1 describes the century of dam-building, from showpieces like the Hoover and Aswan to thousands of smaller dams.
Sacrifice zone: paragraph 2 lists the human and ecological costs and concludes that every major dam is a sacrifice zone.
Worshipping modernity: paragraph 3 says these sacrifices were justified as "offerings at the temples of modernity", and asks who decided this.
Water impoundment: paragraph 4 notes that new construction keeps the global balance in favour of impounding water.
Option B lists minor details (toxic algae, quarter century) instead of arguments. Option C uses peripheral terms (lucrative contracts, expected lives). Option D includes "alternative energy", a passing mention, and "physical instantiation", a phrase rather than a theme. None of them follows the passage's line of argument.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q22
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
The word "instantiation" is used in the first paragraph. Which one of the following pairs of terms would be the best substitute for it in the context of its usage in the paragraph?
Dams were "the physical instantiation of a messianic drive to conquer territories and control nature". Here "instantiation" means a concrete instance that embodies an abstract drive: the dam is where the ambition takes visible form. "Exemplification and manifestation" carries both senses, being an example of the drive and making it visible.
Option A (durability, timeliness) has nothing to do with embodying an idea.
Option B: "concreteness" is partly close, but "viability" (feasibility) is unrelated to the meaning here.
Option C (development, construction) describes the act of building, not the idea of something embodying an abstract drive.
Hence, the answer is (D).
Q23
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
All of the following statements may be considered valid inferences from the passage EXCEPT that:
The passage calls smaller dams "not inconsequential". It says they block water on nearly two-thirds of large waterways, and it never compares their safety with that of large dams. So option B is not a valid inference.
Option A is valid: in the western US, dams were "an instrument of colonialism, used to dispossess Indigenous people".
Option C is valid: despite opposition and alternative energy slowing construction, a wave of new dams continues in India, China, Ethiopia and Canada.
Option D is valid: the passage cites the $2 trillion investment, questions whether we get "a fair return", and lists the heavy human and ecological costs.
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q24
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
What does the author wish to communicate by referring to the Hoover and Aswan dams in the first paragraph?
Paragraph 1 says that some results of the drive to control nature were "charismatic mega-infrastructure—the Hoover... or the Aswan", "but most of the tens of thousands of dams... have drawn little attention". The famous dams are named to contrast them with the many smaller but "not inconsequential" dams that also express that drive. Option D captures this.
Option A misreads the "thin blue line" remark, which is about rivers below reservoirs in general, not these two rivers.
Option B invents a claim: "messianic" describes the drive, and employers are never said to become messianic figures.
Option C misapplies "charismatic", which describes the structures, not their designers or builders.
