Comprehension
Direction: You have two brief passages with 5 questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
Two hundred years after Malthus predicted that population growth would overtake food production by a margin of 256 to 9, the simple fact is that food production had always been ahead of the population growth. Malthus’ doomsday prediction simply did not come true due to two major reasons: first, population did not grow geometrically and birth rates in all Western countries fell during the 20th Century, resulting in very slow population growth. Over the past quarter century, birth rates have been falling in the developing countries too. Second, modern agricultural practices and better irrigation have resulted in tremendous growth in food production in almost all parts of the globe, with the notable exception of sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, at the global level, the Malthusian doomsday never befell on us. India’s population grew by about two and a half times in the past 45 years -from 361 million in 1951 to an estimated 916 million in 1995. But during the same period, India’s food-grain production grew by nearly four times from 51 million tonnes in 1951 to 191 million tonnes in 1995. As a result, the per capita food grain availability in India has gone up considerably since the independence. That is, the Malthusian prediction has not come true even in India.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
dooms day : the last day of the world
befell : something unpleasant happened to somebody
- In the developing countries, the birth rate is
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falling
Correct Option: C
falling
Direction: Read the following passage and mark the correct answers based on the passage.
PASSAGE
The two dominant features of our age are science and democracy. They have come to stay. We cannot ask educated people to accept the deliverances of faith without rational evidence. Whatever we are called upon to accept must be justified and supported by reason. Otherwise our religious beliefs will be reduced to wishful thinking. Modern man must learn to live with a religion which commends itself to his intellectual conscience, to the spirit of science. Besides, religion should be the sustaining faith of democracy which insists on the intellectual and spiritual development of every human being irrespective of his caste, creed, community, or race. Any religion which divides man from man or supports privileges, exploitation, wars, cannot commend itself to us today.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
dominant : more important/powerful/noticeable than other things
deliverances : an expressed thought/judgement
rational : based on reason called
upon : ordered ; required wishful thinking: thinking in a way in which one wishes/ believes to be real/likely to become true commends : approves
sustaining : continuing
privileges : special rights/advantages
- What, according to the writer, is the role of religion in the present age?
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To inculcate scientific spirit in man
Correct Option: B
To inculcate scientific spirit in man
- The writer says that
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Faith without rational evidence may not be acceptable to the educated people
Correct Option: D
Faith without rational evidence may not be acceptable to the educated people
- The writer of the passage stresses the importance of
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science and democracy
Correct Option: C
science and democracy
- Which of the following is correct?
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A good religion supports democratic system
Correct Option: D
A good religion supports democratic system