Direction: In the following questions, you have two brief passages with 5 questions in each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
Passage
At first sight, silence would seem to be the essence of non-communication. Yet we know that in some circumstances silence can speak volumes. It is also a potent tool in the communication tool-box, for the speaker, as it adds emphasis to point, allowing time for its full significance to sink in. Handled skillfully, it can build up anticipation for what is to come - the pregnant pause. It gives opportunity to make eye contact with the audience and gauge their reactions. It is an essential component of the timing of one’s delivery. For the listener, silence can buy time, either to digest what has been said or to consider a response, or both. Silence will often lure the speaker into saying more than he or she may have intended.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) potent (Adj.) : powerful
(2) significance (N.) : the importance of something
(3) sink in (Phr. V.) : to be fully understood/realized
(4) anticipation (N.) : the fact of seeing that something might happen in the future and perhaps doing something about it now
(5) a pregnant pause (Id.) : an occasion when nobody speaks, although people are aware that there are feelings/thoughts to express
(6) gauge (V.) : to make a judgement about something, especially people’s feelings/attitudes
(7) buy time (Id.) : to do something in order to delay an event, a decision, etc.
(8) lure (V.) : to persuade/trick somebody to do something by promising him a reward

Direction: In the following questions, you have two brief passages with 5 questions in each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
Passage
Poverty has its own meaning in different persons. Poverty or the state of being poor is a relative term. Its meaning varies depending upon the state of the economy. Poverty is always and everywhere a social phenomenon in which a section of the society is unable to fulfil even its basic necessities of life. When a substantial segment of a society is deprived of the minimum level of living and continues at a bare subsistence level, that society is said to be plagued with mass poverty. The countries of the Third World exhibit invariably the existence of mass poverty, although pockets of poverty exist even in the developed countries of Europe and America. It is a matter of great disappointment for India’s economic planning that even after more than 60 years since Independence, India still suffers from the problem of mass poverty. Poverty is affecting our mind, affecting our state, our country and the world. Although there was the Global Economic Crisis, India was not as affected by it as was the USA and other European countries. This is because of the paradoxical situation of the Indian economy. It is ridden by extreme poverty on the one side while it also has a thriving and growing economy on the other.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) substantial (Adj.) : considerable
(2) deprived (V.) : without the basic needs
(3) bare (Adj.) : just enough
(4) subsistence (N.) : the state of having just enough money/food to stay alive
(5) plagued (V.) : suffering from
(6) paradoxical (Adj.) : seemingly contradictory but nonetheless possibly true
(7) ridden (Adj.) : full of unpleasant things
(8) thriving (Adj.) : flourishing
(9) invariably (Adv.) : always ; without fail