Direction: In the following questions, you have three passages with 10 questions in each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question, out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
Tagore was a man of extraordinary vision and progressive thinking. Spiritualism and rationalism were reconciled in Tagore. He had the visionary power of seeing the future in the seeds of the present events. In his book ‘Nationalism’, published in 1916. Tagore expressed his concerns about the dangers of religious fanaticism and racism which caused the most destructive wars in the history of the world. He was a seer who foresaw the destructive and dangerous effect of science and technologies on man and nature. Machines, he had predicted, would dominate man and destroy the beauty of nature and fine human qualities. Tagore’s prophecies have, to a great extent, come true. The basic difference between the West and the East was clearly perceived by Tagore. Materialism characterizes the western civilization whereas the east is dominated by spiritualism. Tagore had known and prophesied it. However, he was optimistic of the mutual cultural enrichment through the association between the West and the East. Another important quality of Tagore as a thinker was revealed in his crusade against many superstitious beliefs of the Indians. He spoke out against caste discriminations which divided the Indian society. It required courage, intellectual as well as spiritual, to fight against the age-old customs such as child marriage and casteism. All this was possible because he was a thinker who thought and acted ahead of his own time.

Direction: In the following questions, you have brief passages with 5/10 questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
Passage
Let us wish nothing that will make the world poorer; nothing that will bring pain or privation to our fellowmen. We shall not dwell upon the past unhappiness, which avails us nothing and begets nothing but grief. We will not compare past and present joys, to the detriment of the present ones. We will not be discouraged if the way is all uphill, and travelling is slow, so long as we are rising. We will not make too heroic resolutions, beyond our strength to perform, lest they become but shameful memories. We will try by words and deeds to show a livelier appreciation of the good that comes our way. We will strive to cultivate more intelligently the art of giving, and to understand the truth that what we keep we lose, and what we give away remains forever ours.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) privation (N.) : a lack of the basic things that people need for living
(2) dwell upon (Phr.V.) : to think/talk a lot about something, especially something it would be better to forget
(3) avails (V.) : to be helpful/useful to somebody
(4) begets (V.) : to make something happen
(5) detriment (N.) : the act of causing harm/damage
(6) uphill (Adj.) : a struggle that is diffiult to win/takes a lot of effort over a long period of time
(7) lest (Conj.) : in order to prevent something from happening
(8) livelier (Adj.) : full of life and energy ; active and enthusiastic
(9) strive (V.) : to try very hard to achieve something
(10) cultivate (V.) : to develop an attitude, a way of talking/behaving, etc.

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
It is sad that in country after country, progress should become synonymous with an assault on nature. We who are a part of nature and dependent on her for every need, speak constantly about ‘exploiting’ nature. When the highest mountain in the world was climbed in 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru objected to the phrase ‘conquest of Everest’ which he thought was arrogant. Is it surprising that this lack of consideration and the constant need to prove one’s superiority should be projected on to our treatment of our fellowmen ? I remember Edward Thompson, a British writer and a good friend of India, once telling Mr. Gandhi that wildlife was fast disappearing. Remarked Mr. Gandhi : ‘It is decreasing in the jungles but it is increasing in the towns !’ On the one hand the rich look askance at our continuing poverty; on the other they warn us against their own methods. We do not wish to impoverish the environment any further and yet we cannot forget the grim poverty of large numbers of people. Area not poverty and need the great polluters ? For instance, unless we are in a position to provide employment and purchasing power for the daily necessities of the tribal people and those who live in and around our jungles, we cannot prevent them from combing the forest for food and livelihood, from poaching and from despoiling the vegetation.