Directions (1-5): Read the following passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four given alternatives.
Today perhaps your only association with the word ‘polio’ is the Sabin Oral Vaccine that protects children from the disease. Fifty-five years ago, this was not so. The dreaded disease, which mainly affects the brain and the spinal cord, causes stiffening and weakening of the muscles, crippling and paralysis which is why I am in a wheelchair today. If somebody had predicted, when I was born, that this would happen to me, no one would have believed it. I was the seventh child in a family of four pairs of brothers and sisters, with a huge 23-year gap between the first and the last. I was told that, unlike the others, I was so fair and brown-haired that I looked more like a foreigner than a Dawood Bohri. I was also considered to be the healthiest of the brood.
Q1. In this passage, the word ‘brood’ refers to
(a) polio victims
(b) foreign children
(c) children in the family
(d) Indian children
Q2. In his childhood, the narrator said: “more like a foreigner than a Dawood Bohri”. This was because he was
(a) a foreign child
(b) a very healthy boy
(c) tall and smart
(d) fair and brown-haired
Q3. The narrator was the seventh child in a family of
(a) 8 children
(b) 16 children
(c) 23 children
(d) 4 children
Q4. In this passage, the narrator is a patient of
(a) heart disease
(b) polio
(c) paralysis
(d) nervous weakness
Q5. In his childhood, the narrator was
(a) a weakling
(b) very healthy
(c) tall and slim
(d) short and stout
Directions (6-9): Read the following passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four given alternatives.
The shoemaker had for ages suffered from a heart condition and five years ago, after an attack, it had appeared as though he would have to either sacrifice his business upon the auction block and live on a pittance thereafter; or put himself at the mercy of unscrupulous employees who would in the end probably ruin him. But just at the moment of his darkest despair, a Polish refugee, Sobel, appeared one night from the street and begged for work. He was a stocky man, poorly dressed, with a bald head, severely plain face and soft blue eyes prone to tears over the sad books he read. Though he confessed he knew nothing of shoemaking, he said he was apt and would work for very little if Feld taught him the trade. Feld took him on and within six weeks the refugee rebuilt as good a shoe as he, and not long thereafter expertly ran the business for the shoemaker.
Feld could trust him with anything, and did frequently, going home after an hour or two at the store, leaving all the money in the till knowing Sobel would guard every cent of it. The amazing thing was that he demanded so little. His wants were few; in money, he was not interested-in nothing but books, it seemed. These he lent one by one to Feld’s daughter Mirian together with his profuse queer written comments, manufactured during his lonely evenings, which his daughter, from her fourteenth year, read page by page.
Feld’s conscience bothered him for not insisting that his assistant accepts a better wage than he was getting, though Feld had honestly told him he could earn a handsome salary if he worked elsewhere, or maybe opened a place of his own. But the assistant answered, somewhat ungraciously, that he was not interested in going elsewhere. Feld frequently asked himself what kept him there, why did he stay? He finally told himself that the man no doubt because of his terrible experiences as a refugee, was afraid of the world.
Q6. After his heart attack, Feld feared that he would have to
(a) take in several employees to help him in his work
(b) teach his daughter, Miriam, the trade of shoemaking
(c) give up the business immediately and rest in a hospital
(d) sell his business for very little and live as a poor man
Q7. Sobel begged for work for a pittance
(a) because he confessed that he knew nothing of shoe-making
(b) because he admitted that he was a poor man
(c) because he clearly said that he belonged to Poland
(d) because he declared that he was a man of honesty
Q8. Feld trusted Sobel and
(a) he left the money to the latter’s care
(b) he sent him out on business errands
(c) he found that Sobel never told a lie
(d) he felt that people of Poland were honest
Q9. Feld was a man of conscience
(a) because he had the love for the poor
(b) because he wanted to sell his shoes at a low price
(c) because he felt that Sobel could get a better salary elsewhere
(d) because he had given employment to Sobel
Directions (10-15): Read the following passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four given alternatives.
Many of the underdeveloped countries will promote the growth of their economies in one way or another, whether they receive substantial outside aid in the process or not. The character of that development, however, is likely to be strongly influenced by the types and amounts of aid available. The outcome is much more likely to be favorable, from the standpoint of the objectives set up previously for successful development, if there is substantial international aid than if there is not. By substantial aid I mean not only large amount of technical assistance but also of capital. Initially, the capacity of an underdeveloped country to use capital productively may be surprisingly small-limited by a lack of organization, trained personnel, and other social obstacles. At this stage, technical assistance is its main need from outside, with comparatively small amounts of capital, much of which may have to be in the form of grants for nonself-liquidating projects in education, health, access roads to rural areas, and the like. If at this stage, substantial capital is available from outside to supplement what can be formed internally (and to stimulate internal capital formation, for it does that too) the rate of economic growth can be considerably increased, and the strains, frustrations and political risks of the development process are likely to be considerably less.
It is possible for underdeveloped economies to modernize themselves with very little capital from outside. Japan’s import of capital was small, though some of it came at crucial times. The contribution of foreign direct investments to the advancement of technical know-how also was greater than would be indicated merely by the size of the investment. The Soviet Union industrialized its economy with practically no aid from foreign investment capital, except for the foreign-owned installations confiscated after the revolution, though it imported machinery in the early days on short-term or intermediate-term credits and hired services of foreign experts.
Both Japan and Russia achieved their development in an authoritarian political and social framework. The outcome in both cases, from the standpoint of peace in the world and democratic ideals, was highly unfavorable.
In the absence of outside aid, the only way to accumulate capital is to increase production without taking much of the benefit in more consumption, or even while pushing consumption standards down. Where the people are already near subsistence level this may mean extreme hardship. Somehow the people must be motivated to change their accustomed ways quickly, to work hard, and to forego present consumption so that capital investment can be made.
Q10. The passage says
(a) Without foreign aid, no underdeveloped country can grow
(b) Underdeveloped countries must refrain from seeking foreign aid
(c) The economies of underdeveloped countries are more likely to grow faster with substantial foreign aid than without
(d) Underdeveloped countries are economically backward because their governments have not got their priorities right
Q11. Substantial aid in this context means
(a) technical assistance in the form of trained personnel
(b) capital in the form of bank loans and overdrafts
(c) a large amount of technical assistance and capital
(d) a cheap and plentiful supply of labor
Q12. The availability of substantial capital from outside
(a) can help to stimulate the internal capital formation
(b) does encourage wasteful tendencies
(c) seldom helps to accelerate the rate of international growth
(d) tends to discourage the local capital formation
Q13. The passage says that
(a) Japan imported substantial capital before it became modernized
(b) The Soviet Union industrialized its economy with plenty of foreign investment capital
(c) Japan rejected offers of substantial foreign capital investment at the early stages of its economic development
(d) In the early days of its economic development, the Soviet Union imported machinery on short-term or intermediate-term credits and hired foreign experts
Q14. Which of the following points or statements did the writer actually make?
(a) Japan and Russia achieved their development in a democratic framework
(b) Japan and Russia achieved their development in an authoritarian political and social framework
(c) Japan and the Soviet Union would have developed faster had they relied on democratic methods
(d) Japan and the Soviet Union are still among the underdeveloped countries of the world
Q15. In the absence of outside aid, the only way to accumulate capital is to
(a) Increase tax and import duties
(b) Launch an internal campaign for the conservation of goods and property
(c) Increase production without taking much of the benefit in more consumption
(d) Make conditions attractive to foreign investors
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