Comprehension
Direction: In the following questions, read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
A small band of biologists share a dream – to find species of sea or land animals hitherto completely unknown or to discover living examples of animals thought to have died out ages ago. Finds made in this century encourage these dreamers, whose field is aptly named cryptozoology–literally, the science of hidden animals. Size and habitat are often responsible for an animal’s having been overlooked. Not surprisingly, a bumblebee size bat that lives in caves in Thailand eluded detection until 1973. But larger animals in less remote sites have also remained hidden. Herds of a species of peccary supposedly extinct since the last ice age, for instance, were found in Paraguay in 1975. Native people sometimes offer scientists useful clues. An unusual feather in a local’s hat sparked the discovery of a showy African peacock in 1936, and accounts of giant lizards on the Indonesian island of Komodo proved not to be mere myth when naturalist P.A.Ouwens identified four of the creatures captured in 1912. As cryptozoologists follow such leads into little-explored areas, they remain optimistic that it is not too late to uncover sensational surprises.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) hitherto (Adv.) : until now
(2) aptly (Adv.) : in a way that is suitable/appropriate in the circumstances
(3) eluded (V.) : to manage to escape
(4) detection (N.) : the fact of being discovered
(5) peccary (N.) : an animal like a pig (Southern US, Mexico, Central and S. America)
(6) myth (N.) : a story from ancient times ; legend
(7) optimistic (Adj.) : expecting good things to happen
- Often the cryptozoologists get a lot of leads from _____
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native people.
Correct Option: A
native people.
- ____ still look forward to discovering sensational surprises.
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A small band of biologists
Correct Option: D
A small band of biologists
- A bumblebee–size bat that lives in caves in Thailand was dicovered in ________
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1973
Correct Option: A
1973
- Myths refer to ________
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legends
Correct Option: C
legends
Direction: In the following questions, read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
The recent change to all-volunteer armed forces in the United States will eventually produce a gradual increase in the proportion of women in the armed forces and in the variety of women’s assignments, but probably not the dramatic gains for women that might have been expected. This is so even though the armed forces operate in an ethos of institutional change oriented toward occupational equality and under the federal sanction of equal pay for equal work. The difficulty is that women are unlikely to be trained for any direct combat operations. A significant portion of the larger society remains uncomfortable as yet with extending equality in this direction. Therefore, for women in the military, the search for equality will still be based on functional equivalence, not identity or even similarity of task. Opportunities seem certain to arise. The growing emphasis on deterrence is bound to offer increasing scope for women to become involved in novel types of noncombat military assignments.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) ethos (N.) : the moral ideas and attitudes that belong to a particular group/society
(2) deterrence (N.) : the fact of somebody less likely to do something
(3)combat (N.) : fighting/a fight, especially during a time of war
- The dramatic gains for women and change in the attitude of a significant portion of the larger society are logically related to each other in as much as the author puts forward the latter as
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a pre-condition for any prospect of achieving the former.
Correct Option: D
a pre-condition for any prospect of achieving the former.