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Verbal Ability
DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 3: In each question, there are five sentences or parts of sentences that form a
paragraph. Identify the sentence(s) or part(s) of sentence(s) that is / are correct in terms of grammar and usage.
Then, choose the most appropriate option.

1. A. The first thing that might be told about these arguments is that
B. they are static in character evidently and fail
C. to take account of the dynamics of development.
D. To do justice to the real situation it is necessary to consider the reactions
E. and capacity of people, and not confine oneself to machinery or abstract concepts.

(1) B, C and D
(2) C and E
(3) A, C and E
(4) B and E
(5) C and D
Solution

2. A. This is logical enough: but really life is bigger than logic.

B. If a large number of criteria are laid down for accountability,
C. every subsidiary unit can be faulted on one item or another;
D. government by exception becomes mockery,
E. and no one can ever be sure how his unit stands.

(1) B, C and E
(2) B, D and E
(3) A, C and D
(4) Only B
(5) A and C
Solution

3. A. Tempting as it may be to compare

B. the ancient oracles and the modern computer
C. a comparison by contrast only is possible.
D. The former deals exclusively with qualities,
E. the latter with quantities.

(1) C, D and E
(2) Only E
(3) A and B
(4) Only D
(5) A, D and E
Solution

DIRECTIONS for questions 4 to 6: Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions that follow it.

Immortality is the concept of living in a physical or spiritual form for an infinite or inconceivably vast length of
time. Aubrey de Grey, a leading researcher in the field, defines ageing as follows:"a collection of cumulative changes
to the molecular and cellular structure of an adult organism, which result in essential metabolic processes, but which
also, once they progress far enough, increasingly disrupt metabolism, resulting in pathology and death." As
immortality is the negation of mortality-not dying or not being subject to death-has been a subject of fascination to
mankind since at least the beginning of history. The "Epic of Gilgamesh" one of the first literary works, dating back
at least to the 22nd century BC, is primarily a quest of a hero seeking to become immortal. What form an unending
human life would take, or whether the soul exists and possesses immortality, has been a major point of focus of
religion, as well as the subject of speculation, fantasy, and debate.

Physical immortality is a state of life that allows a person to avoid death and maintain conscious thought. It can
mean the unending existence of a person by way of a source other than organic life such as technology. In the early
21st century, physical immortality remains a goal rather than a reality. Active pursuit of physical immortality can
either be based on scientific trends such as cryonics, breakthroughs in rejuvenation or predictions of an impending
technological singularity, or because of a spiritual belief, such as those held by the 'Rastafarians or Rebirthers'. By
definition, all causes of death must be overcome or avoided for physical immortality to be achieved. There are three
main causes of death: ageing, disease and trauma.

Among all these, physical trauma would remain as a threat to perpetual physical life, even if the problems of aging
and disease were overcome, as an otherwise immortal person would still be subject to unforeseen accidents or
catastrophes. Ideally, any method to achieve physical immortality would mitigate the risk of encountering trauma.
Taking preventative measures by engineering inherent resistance to injury is thus relevant in addition to reactive
measures more closely associated with the paradigm of medical treatment. The speed and quality of the paramedic
response remains a determining factor in surviving severe trauma. Without improvements to such things, very few
people would remain alive after several tens of thousands of years purely based on accident rate statistics. Being the
seat of consciousness, the brain cannot be risked to trauma if a continuous physical life is to be maintained.
Therefore, it cannot be replaced or repaired in the same way as other organs can be repaired. In physical
immortality, a method of transferring consciousness would be required and the brain has to survive this process.

Biological immortality is an absence of ageing, specifically, the absence of a sustained increase in the rate of
mortality as a function of chronological age. A cell or organism that does not experience aging, or ceases to age at
some point, is biologically immortal. Biologists have chosen the word immortal to designate cells that are not limited
by the Hayflick limit, where cells no longer divide because of DNA damage or shortened telomeres. Prior to the
work of Leonard Hayflick there was the erroneous belief fostered by Alexis Carrel that all normal somatic cells are
immortal. By preventing cells from reaching senescence one can achieve biological immortality. Telomere, a "cap"
at the end of DNA, is thought to be the cause of cell aging. Every time a cell divides the telomere becomes a bit
shorter. When it is finally worn down, the cell is unable to split and dies. Telomerase is an enzyme which rebuilds
the telomeres in stem cells and cancer cells, allowing them to replicate an infinite number of times. No definitive
work has yet demonstrated that telomerase can be used in human somatic cells to prevent healthy tissues from
aging. On the other hand, scientists hope to be able to grow organs with the help of stem cells, allowing organ
transplants without the risk of rejection, another step in extending human life expectancy. These technologies are
the subject of ongoing research, and are not yet realized.

Cryonics, the practice of preserving organisms, either intact specimens or only their brains, for possible future
revival by storing them at cryogenic temperatures where metabolism and decay are almost completely stopped, is
the answer for those who believe that life extension technologies like nanotechnology or nanorobots will not develop
sufficiently within their lifetime. Ideally, cryonics would allow clinically dead people to be brought back after cures
to the patients' diseases are discovered in the future and even this would facilitate a reverse in the aging process.
Modern cryonic procedures use a process called vitrification which creates a glass-like state rather than freezing as
the body is brought to low temperatures. This process reduces the risk of ice crystals damaging the cell-structure,
which would be especially detrimental to the cell structures in the brain, as their minute adjustment evokes the
individual's mind.

One idea that has been advanced involves uploading an individual's personality and memories via direct mind-
computer interface. Futurists like Moravec and Kurzweil have proposed that, thanks to exponentially growing
computing power, it will someday be possible to upload human consciousness onto a computer system, and live
indefinitely in a virtual environment. This could be accomplished via advanced cybernetics, where computer
hardware would initially be installed in the brain to help sort memory or accelerate thought processes. Components
would be added gradually until the person's entire brain functions were handled by artificial devices, avoiding sharp
transitions that would lead to issues of identity. After this point, the human body could be treated as an optional
accessory and the mind could be transferred to any sufficiently powerful computer. Persons in this state would then
be essentially immortal. Transforming a human into a cyborg can include brain implants or extracting a human
mind and placing it in a robotic life-support system. Even replacing biological organs with robotic ones could
increase life span (i.e., pace makers) and depending on the definition, many technological upgrades to the body, like
genetic modifications or the addition of nanobots would qualify an individual as a cyborg. Such modifications would
make one impervious to aging and disease and theoretically immortal unless killed or destroyed.

Hypothetical immortality, in other words "fame" has been described as a method to "achieve immortality", if only
semantically, so that the name or works of a famous individual would "live on" after his or her death. This view of
immortality places value on how one will be remembered by the generations to come. For example, Homer's
"Illiad". Quantum immortality on the other hand is not widely regarded by the scientific community as being a
verifiable or even necessarily as a correct offshoot of the many worlds interpretation. In the many worlds
interpretation of quantum mechanics, the wavefunction never collapses, and thus all possible outcomes of a
quantum event exist simultaneously, with each event apparently spawning an entirely new universe in which a single
possible outcome exists. In this theory, a person could hypothetically live forever as there might exist a string of
possible quantum outcomes in which that individual never dies.
It is not known whether human physical immortality is an unachievable phenomenon or not. Biological forms have
inherent limitations, for example, their fragility and slow adaptability to changing environments, which may or may
not be able to be overcome through medical interventions, engineering, etc. On the other hand, biological
immortality already exists among some simple, but multicellular life-forms. Some scientists, futurists, and
philosophers, such as scientists Aubrey de Grey and Ray Kurzweil believe that human immortality is achievable in
the next few decades. Others are somewhere in the middle of these two extreme viewpoints, thinking that
immortality is achievable in some period of time longer than 20-30 years, but not impossible. Biological immortality
is what life extension advocates feel is likely in the decades to come. Specifically this refers to the absence of ageing of
the body due to baseline biological human limitations, but acknowledgement that complete immortality in a human
form is unlikely due to the fact that even when you remain biologically young, once every few hundred years
individuals will perish due to accidents or by other means. Ultimately, a timeless existence is also not known for
certain to be achievable, or even definable, despite millennia of arguments for eternity. Wittgenstein, in a notably
non-theological interpretation of eternal life, writes in the "Tractus" that, "If we take eternity to mean not infinite
temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present."

4. Wittgenstein's view on eternity can be taken to mean that one should

(1) remain optimistic about uncertainties in life and think only about the present moment.
(2) be unaffected by the transition in life and realise the importance of living in the present.
(3) never ponder over the past but think only about the moment one is living in.
(4) realize the importance of physical immortality and live life to the fullest.
(5) care little about the significance of events and live only in the present.
Solution

5. As per the passage, what is the major difference between biological and physical immortality?

(1) Unlike in biological immortality, consciousness of thought can be maintained in physical immortality.
(2) Unlike biological immortality, physical immortality is unachievable.
(3) Unlike in biological immortality, disease and injury have no role to play in physical immortality.
(4) Unlike for physical immortality, biological immortality is about physical structure.
(5) Unlike biological immortality, physical immortality cannot be achieved in multicellular forms.
Solution

6. Which of the following statements CANNOT be understood from the passage?

(1) Cryonics is a process which is analogous to freezing.

(2) The author asserts that achievement of immortality is possible only in the decades to come.
(3) The process involving the achievement of physical immortality is subject to risk.
(4) Quantum immortality, is related to science, one way or another.
(5) The author is non-committal about the views of the scientists or futurists mentioned in the last paragraph.
Solution

DIRECTIONS for questions 7 to 9: Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which the last sentence has
been deleted. From the given options, choose the sentence that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate
way.

7. In many developing - and developed - countries, governments all too often spend too much energy doing things
they shouldn't do. This distracts them from what they should be doing. The problem is not so much that the
government is too big, but that it is not doing the right thing. Governments, by and large, have little business
running steel mills, and typically make a mess of it. In general, competing private enterprises can perform such
functions more efficiently. This is the argument for privatisation - converting state-run industries and firms into
private ones. However there are some important preconditions that have to be satisfied before privatisation can
contribute to an economy's growth. ___________

(1) And the success rate of privatisation essentially depends upon the accomplishment of these conditions
(2) But such a take over by private firms has the potential to redefine globalisation.
(3) But the future of the economy-as envisaged by the economists-largely depends upon privatisation.
(4) But the economists still remain sceptical about this radical shift.
(5) And the way privatisation is accomplished makes a great deal of difference.
Solution (Your Answer: 1)

8. Economics operates legitimately and usefully within a 'given' frame work which lies altogether outside the
economic calculus. We might say that economics does not stand on its own feet, or that it is a 'derived' body of
thought - derived from meta-economics. If the economist fails to study meta-economics, or, even worse, if he remains
unaware of the fact that there are boundaries to the applicability of the economic calculus, he is likely to fall into a
similar kind of error as that of certain medieval theologians who tried to settle questions of physics by means of
biblical quotations. ___________

(1) Every science is beneficial within its proper limits, but becomes evil as soon as it transgresses them.
(2) Hence, a proper - if not complete - study of meta-economics is critical to the economist.
(3) An economist, therefore, would require to be scrupulous enough to keep away from religious influence.
(4) Scientific insight, nevertheless, is vital for an economist.
(5) Being aware of the boundaries of economic calculus may prove to be beneficial for an economist.
Solution (Your Answer: 2)

9. Globalisation itself is neither good nor bad. It has the power to do enormous good, and for the countries of East
Asia, who have embraced globalisation under their own terms, at their own pace, it has been an enormous benefit, in
spite of the setback of the 1997 crisis. But in much of the world it has not brought comparable benefits.
_____________

(1) Despite the failure, the fact remains that globalisation has enormous potential.
(2) Globalisation, thus has been redefined, purely based on its success.
(3) The onus, therefore, to make it a success is on the people.
(4) For many, it seems closer to an unmitigated disaster.
(5) A few still believe that it harbours the power to create a sustainable global economy.
Solution (Your Answer: 1)
DIRECTIONS for questions 10 to 12: Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions that follow
it.

This relates to a concept which has recently generated interesting discussion. It is that of moral luck. We can be
lucky in all kinds of ways - in our parents, education, talents and income. But can we be morally lucky? Or is it a
necessary truth that our moral praiseworthiness or blameworthiness cannot be determined by luck?

Kant firmly denies the existence of moral luck (though he does not use the term). The seat of moral worth is in the
will; if the will is good, then the agent is good - and the goodness of a good will cannot be taken away by external
circumstances. This is connected, it is clear, with the doctrine of the noumenal self; seen as apart from the unstable
world of empirical causes and effects, it is immune to the assaults of chance. But what is moral luck? Is Kant right to
reject the notion?

Two kinds of cases suggest the existence of moral luck. One kind seems to show that actions are justified by their
actual, rather than intended results. The other kind suggests that the proper judgment of a person's moral character
is determined by factors which are significantly (though not completely) beyond his or her control.

The point of the first formulation, then is that it is the actual results that matter morally, even when these are not the
intended ones. Suppose there is an armed insurgency aimed at getting rid of a bad political system. On account of
moral luck, the justification for the insurgency depends, partly at least, upon whether it actually achieves its aim
without costs comparable to the evil it seeks to destroy. If it does, then we should judge it more favourably than if it
just increases human suffering without achieving its primary aim. In fact, whatever our theoretical positions, this is
how many of us do think of these things: many people think the nuclear bombing of Japan in 1945, involving the
deliberate killing of about 100,000 non-combatants, was morally justified because it actually caused the Japanese to
surrender. If they had not surrendered, many people's moral judgement of the deed would have been different. It
cannot be stressed too much that this is not just a psychological remark. We are not merely saying that people look
favourably upon things that happen to produce good effects, even though there was considerable risk when they
were done. Rather, such people believe that whether the deed was morally justified can only be determined later, by
seeing what actually happened. It is in this sense that the Allies in August 1945 are said to have been morally lucky:
it turned out (was a matter of luck) that they had done the morally right thing.

The other example of moral luck concerns the idea that people's moral blameworthiness or praiseworthiness can
depend upon what actually follows as a result of something they do, or omit to do. This is clearly linked with the first
example, but this time stresses the role of luck in the assessment of agents. Here it seems that moral luck is
extensively written both into popular attitudes and into the law. Thus - mistakenly, according to a Kantian - those
who murder are thought worse than those who attempt murder but fail, and those whose negligence leads to
accidents are blamed far more than those whose equivalent negligence happens not to cause an accident.

An excellent example is the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster at Zeebrugge in 1987. This passenger ferry turned on
its side shortly after leaving the port, and most people on board were drowned. When it was discovered that its bow
doors had been open when it set sail, allowing water into the car deck, scapegoats were naturally sought. Eventually,
the company that owned the ferry was found guilty of corporate manslaughter for negligently allowing the doors to
be left open. Yet this was no doubt only one of countless occasions when ships have set sail with doors left open.
Nobody would attach much moral blame to those who act with equal negligence, but whose negligence does not
cause disasters. It looks as though the ferry firm was just morally unlucky on this occasion.

However, upon reflection, this presents some mysteries. Why are you so much more to blame if your negligence
happens to cause a disaster than if it doesn't? For surely, what you have done, or omitted, is exactly the same in both
cases. It just happens, due to circumstances directly beyond your control, that in one case you casually contributed
to an accident and in the other case you didn't. Now, someone will of course retort what you did in each case was not
the same - in one case you caused a terrible disaster, and in the other you didn't. In defence, you might say that the
only thing you did was leave the bow doors open - even though this caused the disaster, you did not bring about the
causal connection between your original omission and the disaster. That is, although your omitting to close the doors
caused the ship to sink, sinking the ship is only very misleadingly described as something you actually did - at least
for the purposes of moral evaluation.

This is really the heart of the problem. How are our actions (or omissions) to be separated from what results from
them? What is this core of action for which we are responsible, and how is to be cut off non-arbitrarily from the
actual consequences? Kant's solution is radical. For him, all moral worth arises from an inner condition of the will,
which can retain its worth or corruption even if it doesn't achieve its aims. But upon reflection it is hard to separate
this inner state of will from all the contingencies surrounding it. Kant's appeal is to a rational faculty whose
deliberations (when conducted according to the moral law) is immune from the effects of causes or contingent
conditions. Are we really left with anything at all, once such contingent, empirical conditions have been removed?
Does not the good will of Kant's system turn out merely to be nothing at all?

This vexing problem can be solved only by carefully distinguishing the different forms that moral luck is supposed to
take. I suggest that there is enough truth in Kant theory to justify rejecting some forms of moral luck, but we
probably cannot eliminate the notion of moral luck altogether.

How should we determine our moral status, after we have done some particular deed? The Kantian idea is to strip
away all the attendant and subsequent conditions over which we had no direct control, and investigate the maxims,
which of course include what we intended to achieve by the act. What if the maxims themselves (or more prosaically,
our intentions and values) are determined by external factors? How then are we supposed to discover the "real"
person?

10. According to the passage, Kant

(1) considered the motive as important as the action in deciding the moral status of an individual.
(2) supported the idea of moral luck, but called it by a different name.
(3) believed that a person could not be a victim of circumstances.
(4) endorsed the idea of weighing the moral status of a person on the basis of his deeds.
(5) was of the view that thoughts determine the moral fibre of a man.
Solution (Your Answer: 1)

11. Which of the following situations is closest to the one that relates to the question posed by the author at the end
of this passage?

(1) A student, who cheats in an examination gets rusticated.

(2) A lady social worker, who has been travelling tickletless for one year to teach street children is apprehended.
(3) A transport firm is penalized in an accident case for operating poorly maintained vehicle.
(4) An unemployed youth, brain washed into becoming a terrorist, kills innocent persons.
(5) A nation's invasion of its neighbouring country to end the atrocities of an authoritarian regime.
Solution (Your Answer: 2)
12. In this passage, the author primarily

(1) weighs the value of a concept.

(2) rejects a notion with examples.
(3) proves the existence of a phenomenon.
(4) resolves a controversy.
(5) explains the working of a phenomenon.
Solution (Your Answer: 1)

DIRECTIONS for questions 13 to 15: In each question there are five sentences. Each sentence has pairs of words /
phrases that are italicised and highlighted. From the italicised and highlighted word(s) / phrase(s), select the most
appropriate word(s) / phrase(s) to form correct sentences. Then, from the options given, choose the best one.

13. The director of the film had a slight alternation (A) / altercation (B) with some people who objected to his
filming.
My friend is indeed lucky to get a pretty and complaisant (A) / complacent (B) wife.
He mopped (A) / moped (B) the perspiration from his forehead.
The invader's army was sacrificed at the alter (A) / altar (B) of folly in the disastrous campaign.
Our economists say any punitive (A) / puny (B) measure against foreign companies would hurt U.S. interests.

(1) ABABA
(2) BBBAA
(3) BAABA
(4) BAAAB
(5) AABBA
Solution (Your Answer: 3)
14. He finally decided to quit his job as he could not work anymore in that dingy (A) / dinghy (B) office.
The Prime Minister demonstrated his mastery (A) / masterly (B) of political manoeuvring.
The police rigorously (A) / vigorously (B) denied that excessive force had been used.
All but one of these letter bombs had been intercepted by vigilant (A) / vigilante (B) post office staff.
There was a reverent (A) / reverend (B) hush of rapt attention when the service was led by the Bishop.

(1) BAAAB
(2) AABAB
(3) AAABA
(4) BAABA
(5) AABAA
Solution (Your Answer: 5)

15. He began his acting career with the confidence of a seasonal (A) / seasoned (B) performer.
Shear (A) / Sheer (B) chance quite often plays an important part in sparking off an idea.
The government's promises were exposed as a hollow shame (A) / sham (B).
She was sitting at home pining (A) / pinning (B) for her lost husband.
The manufacturers have foreseen the consumers demand with their usual perspicacity (A) / perspicuity (B).

(1) BBBAA
(2) BBABA
(3) BBAAA
(4) AABBA
(5) ABBBA
Solution (Your Answer: 5)

DIRECTIONS for questions 16 to 18: Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions that follow
it.

"Quantum mechanics is very impressive," Albert Einstein wrote in 1926. "But an inner voice tells me that it is not
yet the real thing," As quantum theory matured over the years, that voice has gotten quieter-but it has not been
silenced. There is relentless murmur of confusion underneath the chorus of praise for quantum theory.

Quantum theory was born at the very end of the 19th century and soon became one of the pillars of modern physics.
It describes, with incredible precision, the bizarre and counterintuitive behaviour of the very small: atoms and
electron and other wee beasties of the submicroscopic world. But that success came with the price of discomfort. The
equations of quantum mechanics work very well: they just don't seem to make sense.

No matter how you look at the equations of quantum theory, they allow a tiny object to behave in ways that defy
intuition, For example, such an object can be in "superposition". It can have two mutually exclusive properties at
the same time. The mathematics of quantum theory says that an atom, for example, can be on the left side of a box
and the right side of the box at the very same instant, as long as the atom is undisturbed and unobserved. But as
soon as an observer opens the box and tries to spot where the atom is, the superposition collapses and the atom
instantly "chooses" whether to be on the right or the left.

This idea is almost as unsettling today as it was 80 years ago, when Erwin Schrödinger ridiculed superposition by
describing a half living, half-dead cat. That is because quantum theory changes what the meaning of "is" is. In the
classical world, an object has a solid reality: Even a cloud of gas is well described by hard little billiard ball-like
pieces, each of which has a well-defined position and velocity. Quantum theory seems to undermine that solid reality.
Indeed, the famous Uncertainty Principle, which arises directly from the mathematics of quantum theory, says that
objects' positions and momentum are smeary and ill defined and gaining knowledge about one implies losing
knowledge about the other.

The early quantum physicists dealt with this unreality by saying that the "is" - the fundamental objects handled by
the equations of quantum theory - were not actually particles that had an extrinsic reality but "probability waves"
that merely had the capability of becoming "real" when an observer makes a measurement. This so-called
Copenhagen Interpretation makes sense, if you're willing to accept that reality is probability waves and not solid
objects. Even so, it still doesn't sufficiently explain another weirdness of quantum theory: non-locality.

In 1935, Einstein came up with a scenario that still defies common sense. In his thought experiment, two particles fly
away from each other and wind up at opposite ends of the galaxy. But the two particles happen to be "entangle" -
linked in a quantum-mechanical sense-so that one particle instantly "feels" what happens to its twin. Measure one,
and the other is instantly transformed by that measurement as well; It's as if the twins mystically communicate,
instantly, over vast regions of space. This "nonlocality" is a mathematical consequence of quantum theory and has
been measured in the lab. The spooky action apparently ignores distance and the flow of time; in theory, particles
can be entangled after their entanglement has already been measured.

On one level, the weirdness of quantum theory isn't a problem at all. The mathematical framework is sound and
describes all these bizarre phenomena well. If we humans can't imagine a physical reality that corresponds to our
equation, so what? That attitude has been called the "shut up and calculate" interpretation of quantum mechanics.
But to others, our difficulties in wrapping our heads around quantum theory hit at greater truths yet to be
understood.

Some physicists in the second group are busy trying to design experiments that can get to the heart of the weirdness
of quantum theory. They are slowly testing what causes quantum superpositions to "collapse"-research that may
gain insight into the role of measurement in quantum theory as well as into why big objects behave so differently
from small ones. Others are looking for ways to test various explanations for the weirdnesses of quantum theory,
such as the "many worlds" interpretation, which explains superposition, entanglement, and other quantum
phenomena by positing the existence of parallel universes. Through such efforts, scientists might hope to get beyond
the discomfort that led Einstein to declare that "[God] does not play dice."

16. Those who adopt the "shut up and calculate" attitude

(1) are not bothered to go beyond the quantum theory.

(2) are satisfied with the answers provided by the quantum theory.
(3) feel that challenging the validity of the quantum theory is a futile exercise.
(4) opine that our incapability to comprehend the quantum theory makes us raise unwarranted questions.
(5) are of the view that critics of the quantum theory are being unduly fussy.
Solution (Your Answer: 1)

17. The discomfort that Einstein experienced when he declared that 'God does not play dice' could be due to all of
the following EXCEPT:

(1) The inability to explain some inexplicable phenomena in the universe.

(2) The uneasiness in understanding random happenings.
(3) The difficulty in making quantum theory intelligible.
(4) The struggle to theorise the principles of quantum mechanism.
(5) The failure to account for the several gaps in the principles underlying the quantum theory.
Solution (Your Answer: 5)

18. It can be inferred from the passage that Erwin Schrödinger considered the concept of superposition to be

(1) vague.
(2) incredible.
(3) absurd.
(4) spooky.
(5) funny.
Solution (Your Answer: 4)

DIRECTIONS for questions 19 to 22: In each question, there are five sentences/paragraphs. The sentence/paragraph
labelled A is in its correct place. The four that follow are labelled B, C, D and E, and need to be arranged in the
logical order to form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, choose the most appropriate option.

19. (A) Kurram is not the average tribal area on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
(B) The almost equal numbers of Shia and Sunni - each sect claims it is the majority - in a region with an estimated
population of over 500,000 never made for an entirely peaceful place.
(C) But perhaps the most important difference is that Kurram is the only tribal region in FATA with a significant
Shia population.
(D) Even a Pakistan government internet site on Kurram expresses that a "significant" number of people from the
region are employed abroad.
(E) The Pashto-speaking population has higher literacy rates than in the other six agencies of the Federally
Administered Tribal Area (FATA).
(1) CBED
(2) BCED
(3) EDBC
(4) BCDE
(5) EDCB
Solution (Your Answer: 4)

20. (A) The end of the Cold War had a triple significance for world affairs : the defeat of one powerby another, the
triumph of one political ideology over another, and the discrediting of one economic model in favour of another. All
three have now been attenuated.
(B) The struggle for power and influence between them was global, leaving no corner of the world untouched or
uncontested.
(C) The Cold War was a global and transcendental struggle centred on and led by the Soviet Union and the United
States.
(D) And it was transcendental because of competing ideologies that could not tolerate each other's existence but
were committed to eventual destruction of the other.
(E) They were able to structure the pattern of international relations because of the qualitative discrepancy between
their power capacity and influence, on the one hand, and that of everyone else, on the other.

(1) CDBE
(2) CEBD
(3) CBED
(4) CBDE
(5) CDEB
Solution (Your Answer: 4)

21. (A) India abounds in throwing up colourful personalities from the chequered pages of its history.
(B) Malik Ambar was born in Ethiopia, began his adult life as a slave, rose to be a powerful military commander
and Regent in one of the South Indian Sultanates, proved to be an unbeatable nemesis for the mighty Mughals and
finally laid the foundation of Maratha power which would rise to its zenith with Chatrapati Shivaji.
(C) Far from resembling a mummified chapter from a crumbling old book, Malik Ambar's life holds a lesson or two
for India's troubled present where the bickering of divisive voices gets shrill by the passing day.
(D) Even this caveat is woefully inadequate when one attempts to introduce the richness Malik Ambar has added to
our heritage. His origins and career were as unusual as his accomplishments and legacy are.
(E) It is not often easy to cope with the shifting pattern and kaleidoscopic images of India's rich past where people
and forces engage with structures and resources to write each chapter of its singular saga.

(1) CBDE
(2) DCBE
(3) EDBC
(4) DBCE
(5) EBDC
Solution (Your Answer: 1)

22. (A) In a democracy all institutions, including the judiciary, must be transparent and accountable.
Transparency in judicial functioning and accountability for judicial actions and inactions inspire public faith and
confidence in the institution.
(B) The Right to Information (RTI) Act is a step towards opening a closed and secret judicial system. The preamble
of the Act specifically states that India is a democratic republic and in a democracy an "informed citizenry and
transparency of information - - - - - -" are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold
governments and their instrumentalities accountable.
(C) The judiciary can only occupy the moral high ground it often claims, by setting an example, and leading from
the frontlines of transparency, not by hiding behind the veil of secrecy.
(D) The lack of stringent in-house accountability and transparency mechanisms has allowed the judiciary to keep
itself free from regular public scrutiny.
(E) The Chief Justice of India, as the high priest of the legal system, must uphold the RTI Act and realize that no
institution can be considered credible and inspire public confidence unless it is open and transparent.

(1) DBEC
(2) BECD
(3) DBCE
(4) CBDE
(5) ECDB
Solution (Your Answer: 4)

DIRECTIONS for questions 23 to 25: Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions that follow
it.

There have been heated debates in recent years over whether communism or fascism caused more deaths, and over
the role of individual and group psychology in the development of fascism. Here, we are not trying to rank the evils
of fascism and communism. Our intention is to explore the mind-set of small extremist groups that may have had
their stimulus in such political mass movements. In looking for the motives of postmodern terrorism, paranoia seems
to play a more important role than the political philosophy of various great and not-so-great thinkers of the last two
centuries. If one were to draw a map of the regions of the earth where paranoid suspicions have played a
pronounced part in political life, the Mediterranean, the Arab world, and parts of the Far East would show a greater
prominence than other places.
(E) Very little is known about the etiology of mental diseases, including paranoia. It is known that paranoia seldom
appears out of the blue, and the prodomal symptoms, or early indications, are that the person afflicted comes to
believe that his or her failures are due to the machinations of others rather than his or her own shortcomings. There
are various physiological theories that try to explain paranoia as due to elevated serotonin and dopamine levels, but
it is not known at this time whether these are causal factors or appear as a consequence of paranoid states. In the
cases of a few terrorists who were medically investigated, brain lesions were found; Ulrike Meinhof is one, and the
Pakistani Mir Aimal Kansi, who shot several CIA employees in Langley, Virginia, another. Mention has been made
of the fact that Russian terrorists of the early twentieth century made a surprisingly high number of suicide
attempts before beginning a terrorist career.
(E) But since clinical examinations were made in only a few cases, there is not sufficient evidence to establish a link
between physiological changes, mental illness, and terrorism. There is the shame- humiliation concept, and the
projection of identification theory of Melanie Klein, two psychological theories that try to explain why some people
have the propensity to hate and fear without provocation. Even if we knew much more than we do about the early
childhood of political or religious figures who come to mind in a discussion on paranoia - such as Stalin and Saddam
Hussein - it is not at all clear whether these insights would be relevant to terrorism. For instance, scientists maintain
that it is pointless to argue whether childhood violence is more genetic than environmental, for the simple reason
that the determinants of all behaviour are an inextricable tangle. While there is frequently a close relationship
between hate, rage, and paranoia, they are not the same conditions. Paranoia is a delusional disorder, and the
person afflicted frequently suffers from hallucinations. Banal daily occurrences assume a hidden significance, and
paranoiacs believe themselves persecuted by enemies in every shape and form. They live in a world of demons, their
thinking is often altogether illogical, and the world around them is interpreted in terms of persecution and of
enemies. Paranoiacs are unwilling and unable to explain why these alleged enemies should persecute them. They
simply maintain that the world has no understanding of the threats and plots against them.
(E) But such a description hardly fits Stalin or Hitler, nor, for all we know, does it fit Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, or
Idi Amin. There is no reason to believe that Stalin or Hitler ever believed that they were persecuted or that they
were in real danger from the enemies they set out to destroy. Stalin was calculating in his actions rather than
impulsive; he despised the opposition but did not fear it. Hitler hated the Jews, the democrats, and other opponents,
but he did not think for a single moment that they constituted a real danger to him. Hitler was not particularly
distrustful, whereas Stalin certainly was, but not consistently. Stalin certainly lacked vigilance in important matters,
such as in his relations with Nazi Germany, and he was taken by surprise by the invasion of Russia in 1941. There
were paranoid streaks in these as in other political leaders, but megalomania - not humiliation - was the dominant
psychological state. Anger, rage, and aggression appear in a great many mental disorders other than paranoia, and
paranoia appears often as a component of other mental diseases, such as schizophrenia.
(E) The imposition of psychiatric categories in order to understand the actions of political leaders, including those
mentioned above, is dangerous and often misleading. There may be elements of mental illness in the behaviour of
these leaders, but within the dynamics of their group they may be considered perfectly normal. One needs the
concept of evil to make sense of these individuals. And this is largely true with respect to the "terrorist personality",
if there is such a thing in the first place.
(E) Psychiatry of a bygone age had a category called folie a deux. This referred to a close relationship between two
people in which one person who suffered from persecutory delusion infected the other, weaker partner. It was said
at the time that only in rare cases folie a trios had been observed. But in principle there is no reason why group
paranoia should not exist, affecting not only two individuals but many more. The phenomenon of the "disciple mass
killer" is well known to criminologists. Charles Monson ordered Leslie van Houten, Lynette Fromme, Tex Watson,
and Bobbie Beausoleil, members of his cult, to kill whoever happened to be home at 10050 Cielo Drive, and these
previously harmless young people did so unquestioningly. They had fallen under the spell of Manson and needed his
psychological approbation. Told to kill by him, they did not need to be given any other reason for doing so.
(E) It is well known that individuals in a group will shed restraints and commit acts they would never commit alone.
It could well be that the paranoia mechanism works like the contagion of the persecution mania. There is
undoubtedly a sense of psychological importance imparted to a member of a group that claims to have come into
possession of the whole truth and who, therefore, has been singled out and persecuted by the rest of society.
23. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT TRUE of persons afflicted with paranoia?

(1) They have delusions.

(2) They feel that they are victimized.
(3) They resort to a blame game.
(4) They have high levels of serotonin and dopamine in their system.
(5) They exhibit suicidal tendencies.
Solution

24. With regard to Stalin and Hitler, all of the following have been suggested EXCEPT:

(1) Hate more than fear was a predominant trait in them.

(2) Both may have influenced terrorist groups.
(3) Both had exaggerated feelings of self importance.
(4) One was not as impulsive as the other.
(5) Both revealed streaks of paranoia.
Solution

25. In this passage, the author

(1) tries to figure out why some people take to extremist activities.
(2) explains the influence of political ideology on terrorist groups.
(3) explores the possible psychological links to extremist behaviour.
(4) establishes a link between physiological changes, mental illness and terrorism.
(5) shows what differentiates religious or political leaders from leaders of terrorist outfits.
Solution

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