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

Direction: In the following questions, 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
Self-directed learning, in its broadest meaning, describes a process in which individuals take the initiative with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying resources for learning, choosing and implementing learning strategies and evaluating learning outcomes. Thus it is important to attain new knowledge easily and skillfully for the rest of his or her life. What is the need for self-directed learning? One reason is that there is convincing evidence that people, who take the initiative in learning, learn more things and learn better than people who sit at the feet of teachers passively waiting to be taught. The second reason is that self-directed learning is more in tune with our natural processes of psychological development; an essential aspect of maturing is developing the ability to take increasing responsibility of our own lives to become increasingly self-directed. The third reason is that many of the new developments in education put a heavy responsibility on the learners to take a good deal of initiative in their own learning. To meet the challenges in today’s instructive environment, self-directed learning is the most essential one.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) passively (Adv.) : without trying to change anything/ oppose what happens/what people do
(2) in tune (with)(Id.) : in agreement