Direction: You have 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
The Stone Age was a period of history which began in approximately 2 million B.C. and lasted until 3000 B.C. Its name was derived from the stone tools and weapons that modern scientists discovered. This period was divided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Ages. During the first period (2 million to 8000 B.C.) the first hatchet and the use of fire for heating and cooking were developed. As a result of the Ice Age, which evolved about 1 million years in the Paleolithic Age, people were forced to seek shelter in caves, wear clothing and develop new tools. During the Mesolithic Age (8000 to 6000 B.C.) people made crude pottery and the first fish hooks, took dogs for hunting, and developed a bow and arrow, which was used until the fourteenth century A.D. The Neolithic Age (6000 to 3000 B.C.) saw humankind domesticating sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle, becoming less nomadic than in the previous Ages, establishing permanent settlements and creating governments.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
hatchet : a small axe.

Direction: You have one brief passage with 5 questions. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
This is the thorny side of the prevailing examination system. Most examiners have perfected their skill in making it a veritable nightmare for majority of the students.Quite unwittingly we have increased the enrolment in schools alarmingly. Most of the students have neither the requisite aptitude to learn nor any clear-cut goal in life. The destiny of students would be decided in the final examination of a written nature to test bookish, rote memory. All laudable objectives of kindling originality and problem solving ability are trumpeted only in educational seminars and workshops. Ultimately all these are gone with the wind. No wonder examination hangs like a Damocles’ sword. Compare this with a related discipline such as music and dance. None would venture to seek entry into such centres of excellence unless one has proven aptitude to profit from training. Here the students have excellent rapport with their teachers who evaluate their performance on a day-to-day basis and provide constant feedback. Students enjoy practising at home what they are taught in class. As they realise their progress by constant reinforcement, they welcome and enjoy examination in class. Under the watchful guidance of committed teachers, students grow and blossom out as well-trained artistes. This is possible and feasible because the teacherpupil ratio is ideal and the attitude of the learner is based on devotion and dedication.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
veritable : a word used for emphasizing that somebody/something can be compared to somebody/something else that is more exciting, more impressive, etc; positive rote
memory : learning by repeating, until you remember it rather than by understanding the meaning of it.
laudable : deserving to be praised/admired, even if not successful.
kindling : making something such as an interest, emotion, etc.
start to grow/feel in somebody. trumpeted : talked about/something publicly in a proud/enthusiastic way.
gonewit h :disappeared; gone for the wind ever.
Damocles : a bad/unpleasant sword thing that might happen to you at any time and that makes you feel worried/frightened.
Venture : to say/do something in a careful way.
feasible : that is possible and likely to be achieved.