291 questions asked across 12 exam years, newest first
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the items that follow the passage. Your answers to these items should be based solely on the passage. Can agricultural productivity meet human needs in the long run? Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable, further increases in output will not be achieved easily. Global population growth, while showing signs of slowing down, has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture, accelerating worldwide ecological disruptions. Reserves of arable land and fresh water have diminished alarmingly. Chemical runoffs have compounded pollution problems. Invasion of natural habitats have hastened species extinction. Desertification has been severe in the last hundred years, especially in North Africa, southern portions of Africa, Australia, northern Mexico, and the American Southwest. Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II, with agricultural pressures causing three-quarters of that loss. Government intervention has produced its share of catastrophes, ranging from a terrible famine in China between 1958-1961 that may have killed 30 million people and destroyed the Aral Sea. Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind's agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Why do twentieth century advances not seem sustainable?
Answer: B
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the items that follow the passage. Your answers to these items should be based solely on the passage. Can agricultural productivity meet human needs in the long run? Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable, further increases in output will not be achieved easily. Global population growth, while showing signs of slowing down, has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture, accelerating worldwide ecological disruptions. Reserves of arable land and fresh water have diminished alarmingly. Chemical runoffs have compounded pollution problems. Invasion of natural habitats have hastened species extinction. Desertification has been severe in the last hundred years, especially in North Africa, southern portions of Africa, Australia, northern Mexico, and the American Southwest. Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II, with agricultural pressures causing three-quarters of that loss. Government inter- vention has produced its share of catastrophes, ranging from a terrible famine in China between 1958-1961 that may have killed 30 million people and destroyed the Aral Sea. Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind's agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.
What pushes farmers into places unsuited for agriculture?
Answer: A
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the items that follow the passage. Your answers to these items should be based solely on the passage. Can agricultural productivity meet human needs in the long run? Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable, further increases in output will not be achieved easily. Global population growth, while showing signs of slowing down, has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture, accelerating worldwide ecological disruptions. Reserves of arable land and fresh water have diminished alarmingly. Chemical runoffs have compounded pollution problems. Invasion of natural habitats have hastened species extinction. Desertification has been severe in the last hundred years, especially in North Africa, southern portions of Africa, Australia, northern Mexico, and the American Southwest. Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II, with agricultural pressures causing three-quarters of that loss. Government inter- vention has produced its share of catastrophes, ranging from a terrible famine in China between 1958-1961 that may have killed 30 million people and destroyed the Aral Sea. Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind's agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.
Which one of the following is NOT true, according to the passage, for ecological degradation?
Answer: D
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the items that follow the passage. Your answers to these items should be based solely on the passage. Can agricultural productivity meet human needs in the long run? Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable, further increases in output will not be achieved easily. Global population growth, while showing signs of slowing down, has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture, accelerating worldwide ecological disruptions. Reserves of arable land and fresh water have diminished alarmingly. Chemical runoffs have compounded pollution problems. Invasion of natural habitats have hastened species extinction. Desertification has been severe in the last hundred years, especially in North Africa, southern portions of Africa, Australia, northern Mexico, and the American Southwest. Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II, with agricultural pressures causing three-quarters of that loss. Government inter- vention has produced its share of catastrophes, ranging from a terrible famine in China between 1958-1961 that may have killed 30 million people and destroyed the Aral Sea. Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind's agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.
What is the conclusion of the author in the passage about the prospects of agriculture in the world?
Answer: A
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the items that follow the passage. Your answers to these items should be based solely on the passage. Can agricultural productivity meet human needs in the long run? Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable, further increases in output will not be achieved easily. Global population growth, while showing signs of slowing down, has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture, accelerating worldwide ecological disruptions. Reserves of arable land and fresh water have diminished alarmingly. Chemical runoffs have compounded pollution problems. Invasion of natural habitats have hastened species extinction. Desertification has been severe in the last hundred years, especially in North Africa, southern portions of Africa, Australia, northern Mexico, and the American Southwest. Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II, with agricultural pressures causing three-quarters of that loss. Government inter- vention has produced its share of catastrophes, ranging from a terrible famine in China between 1958-1961 that may have killed 30 million people and destroyed the Aral Sea. Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind's agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.
Which one of the following words means 'incursion'?
Answer: A
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet. S1: Sufism is an English word coined in the Nineteenth Century S6 : It may also have been suffa, the platform outside a place of Islamic worship P. Historians have understood this term in several ways Q. According to some scholars, it is derived from suf, meaning wool R. Others derive it from safa, meaning purity S. The word used for Sufism in Islamic texts is tasawwuf
Answer: B
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet. S1: Al-Biruni was born in 973, in Khwarizm in _ present-day Uzbekistan S6 : He arrived in Ghazni as a hostage, but gradually developed a liking for the city P. In 1017, when Sultan Mahmud invaded Khwarizm, he _ took several scholars back to his capital, Ghazni : Al-Biruni was one among them Q. He was well versed in several languages; Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Sanskrit R. Khwarizm was an important centre of learning, and Al-Biruni received the best education available at the time S. However he did not know Greek, although he was familiar with the works of Plato and other Greek philosophers
Answer: B
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet. S1: Vijayanagara or ‘city of victory’ was the name of both a city and an empire S6 : They remembered it as Hampi, a name derived from that of the local mother goddess, Pampadevi P. In its heyday it stretched from the river Krishna in the north to the extreme south of the Indian peninsula Q. Although it fell into ruin in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, it continued to live in the memories of the people who inhabited the Krishna-Tungabhadra doab R. In 1565 the city was sacked and subsequently deserted S. The Empire was founded in the fourteenth century
Answer: A
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet. S1: Liberalisation and _ globalisation freed India’s economy from the low GDP trap that had impeded India’s progress S6 : Today India has transformed into one of the largest economies of the world P. India’s 3 pe rate of growth and a set of emergent circumstances led to a balance of payment crisis in the early 1990s Q. Ease of business was ensured, and the requirement for import licences, and production quotas, were removed R. Apart from these measures India also took a loan from the IMF to tide over the crisis, but after 1993, India has not taken another loan from the IMF S. In a landmark budget in 1991, responding to the emergent crisis, India delicenced many industries and liberalised its economic policies
Answer: D
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet. S1: In many countries, there are millions of people who are underprivileged and deprived S6 : In the past forced labour was imposed by landlords, moneylenders, and other wealthy persons P. Both of these are prohibited under the Constitution of India Q. One such form of exploitation in our country has been begar or forced labour without payment R. The marginalised are often subjected to exploitation by their fellow human beings S. Another closely related form of exploitation is buying and selling of human beings and using them as slaves
Answer: B
An attempt to determine the number of languages in the world is affected by other factors. A few new languages do continue to be discovered, even these days, as unexplored regions of the world begin to be opened up. The discovery does not usually take place straight away. Often there are similarities with an already known language which make the investigators assume that what they have found is just a dialect of that language. Only after a considerable period of contact does it transpire that the speech is so different that it has to be considered a different language. It takes a language survey to establish the facts, and there are still many countries where such surveys are incomplete or have not even begun. The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be. Because many such peoples are bilingual or multilingual, and converse with outsiders in lingua franca, it may take a while before linguists come to realize that there is an ethnic language there at all. Which one of the following is NOT the reason for the difficulty in estimating the number of
languages of the world ?
Answer: D
An attempt to determine the number of languages in the world is affected by other factors. A few new languages do continue to be discovered, even these days, as unexplored regions of the world begin to be opened up. The discovery does not usually take place straight away. Often there are similarities with an already known language which make the investigators assume that what they have found is just a dialect of that language. Only after a considerable period of contact does it transpire that the speech is so different that it has to be considered a different language. It takes a language survey to establish the facts, and there are still many countries where such surveys are incomplete or have not even begun. The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be. Because many such peoples are bilingual or multilingual, and converse with outsiders in lingua franca, it may take a while before linguists come to realize that there is an ethnic language there at all. Which one of the following is NOT the reason for the difficulty in estimating the number of
Which one of the following is a way to establish the discovery of a new language ?
Answer: A
An attempt to determine the number of languages in the world is affected by other factors. A few new languages do continue to be discovered, even these days, as unexplored regions of the world begin to be opened up. The discovery does not usually take place straight away. Often there are similarities with an already known language which make the investigators assume that what they have found is just a dialect of that language. Only after a considerable period of contact does it transpire that the speech is so different that it has to be considered a different language. It takes a language survey to establish the facts, and there are still many countries where such surveys are incomplete or have not even begun. The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be. Because many such peoples are bilingual or multilingual, and converse with outsiders in lingua franca, it may take a while before linguists come to realize that there is an ethnic language there at all. Which one of the following is NOT the reason for the difficulty in estimating the number of
Which one of the following statements is correct ?
Answer: C
An attempt to determine the number of languages in the world is affected by other factors. A few new languages do continue to be discovered, even these days, as unexplored regions of the world begin to be opened up. The discovery does not usually take place straight away. Often there are similarities with an already known language which make the investigators assume that what they have found is just a dialect of that language. Only after a considerable period of contact does it transpire that the speech is so different that it has to be considered a different language. It takes a language survey to establish the facts, and there are still many countries where such surveys are incomplete or have not even begun. The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be. Because many such peoples are bilingual or multilingual, and converse with outsiders in lingua franca, it may take a while before linguists come to realize that there is an ethnic language there at all. Which one of the following is NOT the reason for the difficulty in estimating the number of
‘The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be,’ means
Answer: A
An attempt to determine the number of languages in the world is affected by other factors. A few new languages do continue to be discovered, even these days, as unexplored regions of the world begin to be opened up. The discovery does not usually take place straight away. Often there are similarities with an already known language which make the investigators assume that what they have found is just a dialect of that language. Only after a considerable period of contact does it transpire that the speech is so different that it has to be considered a different language. It takes a language survey to establish the facts, and there are still many countries where such surveys are incomplete or have not even begun. The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be. Because many such peoples are bilingual or multilingual, and converse with outsiders in lingua franca, it may take a while before linguists come to realize that there is an ethnic language there at all. Which one of the following is NOT the reason for the difficulty in estimating the number of
Which one of the following words from passage means ‘come to be known’ ?
Answer: A
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of which comprise a passage. The first and the sixth sentences are fixed in their position as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find out the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the answer sheet. S1: Although all sources of energy commonly come from natural processes, non-renewable resources, are being rapidly depleted and at the rate they are being used. S6: The sustainable use of natural resources in a manner that provides for resource needs for current resources for humans over a period of time can be termed as con- servation. P: This will increase the time and cost of mining and once these resources are used up they cannot be replaced. Q: Hence, we must remember that though our country is rich in natural deposits these resources are not. R: Extraction of these ores through the process of mining will soon become difficult and also expensive because these minerals are often located deep from greater depths over time.
S: Mineral resources can be said to be finite and non-renewable.
Answer: C
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of which comprise a passage. The first and the sixth sentences are fixed in their position as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find out the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the answer sheet. S1: Although all sources of energy commonly come from natural processes, non-renewable resources, are being rapidly depleted and at the rate they are being used. S6: The sustainable use of natural resources in a manner that provides for resource needs for current resources for humans over a period of time can be termed as con- servation. P: This will increase the time and cost of mining and once these resources are used up they cannot be replaced. Q: Hence, we must remember that though our country is rich in natural deposits these resources are not. R: Extraction of these ores through the process of mining will soon become difficult and also expensive because these minerals are often located deep from greater depths over time.
S1: India, at present has one of the largest road networks in the world. S6: It passes through Peshawar, Delhi and Amritsar and terminates in Kabul (Afghanistan). P: The importance of roads has been recognised in India since the ancient times. Q: The Grand Trunk Road was built by Sher Shah Suri across the Indo-Gangetic plain from Chittagong (Bangladesh) to Peshawar (Pakistan). R: Kings such as Ashoka and Akbar also improved the con- struction of roads and people. S: Construction of goods continued as an important activity in the late medieval period.
Answer: D
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of which comprise a passage. The first and the sixth sentences are fixed in their position as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find out the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the answer sheet. S1: Although all sources of energy commonly come from natural processes, non-renewable resources, are being rapidly depleted and at the rate they are being used. S6: The sustainable use of natural resources in a manner that provides for resource needs for current resources for humans over a period of time can be termed as con- servation. P: This will increase the time and cost of mining and once these resources are used up they cannot be replaced. Q: Hence, we must remember that though our country is rich in natural deposits these resources are not. R: Extraction of these ores through the process of mining will soon become difficult and also expensive because these minerals are often located deep from greater depths over time.
S1: National highways connect one state with another and are of national importance. S6: These road systems are also known as primary road systems and are laid and operated under the National Highway Authority of India. P: They are important because while others are built to connect 75 per cent of the total road networks, they carry 40 per cent of the total road traffic. Q: The infrastructure of the country is therefore crucial, and the development and maintenance is of critical importance. R: This is due to the traffic because these roads connect long distances and pass through many cities and towns. S: Since they cover the length and breadth of the country and link cities and towns, these highways are the primary facilitators of trade and connectivity.
Answer: B
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of which comprise a passage. The first and the sixth sentences are fixed in their position as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find out the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the answer sheet. S1: Although all sources of energy commonly come from natural processes, non-renewable resources, are being rapidly depleted and at the rate they are being used. S6: The sustainable use of natural resources in a manner that provides for resource needs for current resources for humans over a period of time can be termed as con- servation. P: This will increase the time and cost of mining and once these resources are used up they cannot be replaced. Q: Hence, we must remember that though our country is rich in natural deposits these resources are not. R: Extraction of these ores through the process of mining will soon become difficult and also expensive because these minerals are often located deep from greater depths over time.
S1: The South African Constitution was inaugurated in December 1996. S6: special constitutional court enforces the rights enshrined in the Constitution. P: Its creation and promulgation took place at a time when South Africa was after the brutal era of the Warfield Government. Q: The South African Constitution says that its "Bill of Rights is the cornerstone of democracy in South Africa." R: Apropos, it forbids discrimination on the grounds of "race, gender, sexual orientation, status, ethnic or social origin, colour, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth." S: The Bill of Rights grants perhaps the most extensive range of rights to its citizens.
Answer: D
Directions : In this section each item consists of six sentences of which comprise a passage. The first and the sixth sentences are fixed in their position as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find out the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the answer sheet. S1: Although all sources of energy commonly come from natural processes, non-renewable resources, are being rapidly depleted and at the rate they are being used. S6: The sustainable use of natural resources in a manner that provides for resource needs for current resources for humans over a period of time can be termed as con- servation. P: This will increase the time and cost of mining and once these resources are used up they cannot be replaced. Q: Hence, we must remember that though our country is rich in natural deposits these resources are not. R: Extraction of these ores through the process of mining will soon become difficult and also expensive because these minerals are often located deep from greater depths over time.
S1: Our Constitution reminds us of the necessity of representation in decision making. S6: Elections have today become the most crucial symbol of the democratic process. P: This is why elections become important. Q: Our representatives are elected by the people. R: Whenever we think of India as a democracy, our mind invariably turns to universal suffrage. S: All citizens cannot participate in every decision.
Answer: B
