The Indian government has announced an international competition to design a National War Memorial in New Delhi, to honour all of the Indian soldiers who served in the various wars and counter-insurgency campaigns from 1947 onwards. The terms of the competition also specified that the new structure would be built adjacent to the India Gate – a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died in the First World War. Between the old imperialist memorial and the proposed nationalist one, India’s contribution to the Second World War is airbrushed out of existence.

The Indian government’s conception of the war memorial was not merely absentminded. Rather, it accurately reflected the fact that both academic history and popular memory have yet to come to terms with India’s Second World War, which continues to be seen as little more than mood music in the drama of India’s advance towards independence and partition in 1947. Further, the political trajectory of the postwar subcontinent has militated against popular remembrance of the war. With partition and the onset of the India-Pakistan rivalry, both of the new nations needed fresh stories for self-legitimisation rather than focusing on shared wartime experiences.

However, the Second World War played a crucial role in both the independence and partition of India. The Indian army recruited, trained and deployed some 2.5 million men, almost 90,000 of which were killed and many more injured. Even at the time, it was recognised as the largest volunteer force in the war.

India’s material and financial contribution to the war was equally significant. India emerged as a major military-industrial and logistical base for Allied operations in south-east Asia and the Middle East. This led the United States to take considerable interest in the country’s future, and ensured that this was no longer the preserve of the British government. Other wartime developments pointed in the direction of India’s independence. In a stunning reversal of its long-standing financial relationship with Britain, India finished the war as one of the largest creditors to the imperial power.

Such extraordinary mobilization for war was achieved at great human cost, with the Bengal famine the most extreme manifestation of widespread wartime deprivation. The costs on India’s home front must be counted in millions of lives.

Indians signed up to serve on the war and home fronts for a variety of reasons. Many were convinced that their contribution would open the doors to India’s freedom. The political and social churn triggered by the war was evident in the massive waves of popular protest and unrest that washed over rural and urban India in the aftermath of the conflict. This turmoil was crucial in persuading the Attlee government to rid itself of the incubus of ruling India. Seventy years on, it is time that India engaged with the complex legacies of the Second World War. Bringing the war into the ambit of the new national memorial would be a fitting – if not overdue – recognition that this was India’s War.

951.

In the first paragraph, the author laments the fact that

• A. 

  the new war memorial will be built right next to India Gate.

   

• B. 

  there is no recognition of the Indian soldiers who served in the Second World War.

   

• C. 

  funds will be wasted on another war memorial when we already have the India Gate memorial.

   

• D. 

  India lost thousands of human lives during the Second World War

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

In the first paragraph, the author deplores the fact that ‘India’s contribution to the second world war is airbrushed out of existence.’ That is, there is no recognition of the Indian soldiers who served in the second world war.

952.

The author lists all of the following as outcomes of the Second World War EXCEPT:

• A. 

  US recognition of India's strategic location and role in the war.

   

• B. 

  Large-scale deaths in Bengal as a result of deprivation and famine.

   

• C. 

  Independence of the subcontinent and its partition into two countries.

   

• D. 

  The large financial debt India owed to Britain after the war.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Option 4 is clearly incorrect, as the passage states that ‘ India finished the war as one of the largest creditors’ to Britain in the second world war. (see paragraph 5).

Evidence to support option 1 is in paragraph 4. That the Bengal famine was one of the dreadful outcomes of the war is explained in paragraph 6. Evidence to support option 3 is in paragraph 7.

953.

The phrase “mood music” is used in the second paragraph to indicate that the Second World War is viewed as:

• A. 

  Setting the stage for the emergence of the India–Pakistan rivalry in the subcontinent.

   

• B. 

  a backdrop to the subsequent independence and partition of the region.

   

• C. 

  a part of the narrative on the ill-effects of colonial rule on India.

• D. 

  a tragic period in terms of loss of lives and national wealth.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The author says ‘India’s second world war... continues to be seen as little more than mood music in the drama of India’s advance towards independence and partition in 1947.’ That is, the war is seen as nothing more than a background score/ backdrop that sets the mood in the drama leading to independence and partition.

954.

The author suggests that a major reason why India has not so far acknowledged its role in the Second World War is that it:

• A. 

  wants to forget the human and financial toll of the War on the country

   

• B. 

  has been focused on building an independent, non-colonial political identity.

   

• C. 

  views the War as a predominantly Allied effort, with India playing only a supporting role.

   

• D. 

  blames the War for leading to the momentous partition of the country.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

See paragraph 2: The author states that ‘the political trajectory of the postwar subcontinent has militated against popular remembrance of the war...’ as both nations needed ‘fresh stories for self-legitimization rather than focusing on shared wartime experiences’. That is, rather than looking into shared wartime experiences with Pakistan, India focused on building an independent, non-colonial political identity after independence.­

There is no evidence in the paragraph to support any of the other options.

955.

The author claims that omitting mention of Indians who served in the Second World War from the new National War Memorial is:

• A. 

  a reflection of misplaced priorities of the post-independence Indian governments.

   

• B. 

  a reflection of the academic and popular view of India’s role in the War.

   

• C. 

  appropriate as their names can always be included in the India Gate memorial.

   

• D. 

  is something which can be rectified in future by constructing a separate memorial.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

In the second paragraph, the author clearly states that the reason why the new war memorial is conceived the way it is can be attributed to the fact that ‘both academic history and popular memory have yet to come to terms with India’s second world war’.

“Everybody pretty much agrees that the relationship between elephants and people has dramatically changed,” [says psychologist Gay] Bradshaw. “Where for centuries humans and elephants lived in relatively peaceful coexistence, there is now hostility and violence. Now, I use the term ‘violence’ because of the intentionality associated with it, both in the aggression of humans and, at times, the recently observed behavior of elephants.”

Typically, elephant researchers have cited, as a cause of aggression, the high levels of testosterone in newly matured male elephants or the competition for land and resources between elephants and humans. But, Bradshaw and several colleagues argue that today’s elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma. Decades of poaching and culling and habitat loss, they claim, have so disrupted the intricate web of familial and societal relations by which young elephants have traditionally been raised in the wild, and by which established elephant herds are governed, that what we are now witnessing is nothing less than a precipitous collapse of elephant culture.

Elephants, when left to their own devices, are profoundly social creatures. young elephants are raised within an extended, multi-tiered network of doting female caregivers that includes the birth mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends. These relations are maintained over a life span as long as 70 years. Studies of established herds have shown that young elephants stay within 15 feet of their mothers for nearly all of their first eight years of life, after which young females are socialized into the matriarchal network, while young males go off for a time into an all-male social group before coming back into the fold as mature adults.

This fabric of elephant society, Bradshaw and her colleagues [demonstrate], ha[s] effectively been frayed by years of habitat loss and poaching, along with systematic culling by government agencies to control elephant numbers and translocations of herds to different habitats. As a result of such social upheaval, calves are now being born to and raised by ever younger and inexperienced mothers. Young orphaned elephants, meanwhile, that have witnessed the death of a parent at the hands of poachers are coming of age in the absence of the support system that defines traditional elephant life. “The loss of elephant elders,” [says] Bradshaw "and the traumatic experience of witnessing the massacres of their family, impairs normal brain and behavior development in young elephants.”

What Bradshaw and her colleagues describe would seem to be an extreme form of anthropocentric conjecture if the evidence that they’ve compiled from various elephant researchers weren’t so compelling. The elephants of decimated herds, especially orphans who’ve watched the death of their parents and elders from poaching and culling, exhibit behavior typically associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma-related disorders in humans: abnormal startle response, unpredictable asocial behavior, inattentive mothering and hyper-aggression.

[According to Bradshaw], “Elephants are suffering and behaving in the same ways that we recognize in ourselves as a result of violence. Except perhaps for a few specific features, brain organization and early development of elephants and humans are extremely similar.”

951.

Which of the following statements best expresses the overall argument of this passage?

• A. 

  Elephants, like the humans they are in conflict with, are profoundly social creatures.

   

• B. 

  The relationship between elephants and humans has changed from one of coexistence to one of hostility

   

   

• C. 

  Recent elephant behaviour could be understood as a form of species-wide trauma-related response.

   

   

• D. 

  The brain organisation and early development of Aelephants and humans are extremely similar

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option C is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

While all given options are true statements, the overall argument of the passage is best captured by option 3.­ As against the typical explanation offered by researchers for elephant aggression (high levels of testosterone, competition for land and resources etc) Bradshaw and her colleagues argue that chronic stress is the reason for elephant behavior observed today. The passage explains the reasons for this stress in detail.

952.

In the first paragraph, Bradshaw uses the term "violence" to describe the recent change in the human-elephant relationship because, according to him:

 

 

• A. 

  Both humans and elephants have killed members of each other's species.

   

• B. 

  There is a purposefulness in human and elephant aggression towards each other.

   

• C. 

  Human-elephant interactions have changed their character over time.

   

• D. 

  Elephant herds and their habitat have been systematically destroyed by humans.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Easy one. The first paragraph clearly states ‘I use the term violence because of the intentionality associated with it...’

953.

The passage makes all of the following claims EXCEPT

• A. 

  Elephant mothers are evolving newer ways of rearing their calves to adapt to emerging threats.

   

• B. 

  The elephant response to deeply disturbing experiences is similar to that of humans.

   

• C. 

  Elephants establish e[tended and enduring familial relationships as do humans.

   

• D. 

  Human actions such as poaching and culling have created stressful conditions for elephant communities.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

While there is no evidence in the passage to support option 1, the other options can be defended by statements in the passage:

• Option 2 – See last paragraph: ‘elephants are suffering and behaving in the same ways that we recognize in ourselves as a result of violence ....’
• Option 3 – See paragraph 3: ‘young elephants are raised within an extended, multi-tiered network of doting female caregivers that includes the birth mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends. These relations are maintained over a life span as long as 70 years’
• Option 4 – See paragraph 4: ‘This fabric of elephant society, Bradshaw and her colleagues demonstrate, has effectively been frayed by years of habitat loss and poaching, along with systematic culling by government agencies’

954.

Which of the following measures is Bradshaw most likely to support to address the problem of elephant aggression?

• A. 

  The development of treatment programmes for elephants drawing on insights gained from treating post-traumatic stress disorder in humans.

• B. 

  Funding of more studies to better understand the impact of testosterone on male elephant aggression.

   

• C. 

  Studying the impact of isolating elephant calves on their early brain development, behaviour and aggression.

   

• D. 

  Increased funding for research into the similarity of humans and other animals drawing on insights gained from human-elephant similarities.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The key idea of the passage is that the chronic stress elephants experience due to human activities like poaching and culling is the reason why there is hostility and violence between humans and elephants. So, to address the problem of elephant aggression, Bradshaw is likely to support a measure that helps reduce or overcome this stress. Option 1 offers a possible solution.

Bradshaw does not believe testosterone is the reason for elephant aggression; so, option 2 is ruled out.

Neither option 3 nor 4 is compelling as they do not address the problem of elephant aggression. Besides, Bradshaw has already documented evidence to show that isolating elephant calves impacts their development and behavior and that humans and elephants are similar in brain organization and early development.

955.

In paragraph 4, the phrase, “The fabric of elephant society . . . has(s) effectively been frayed by . . .” is:

 

• A. 

  an exaggeration aimed at bolstering Bradshaw's claims.

   

• B. 

  an accurate description of the condition of elephant herds today.

   

• C. 

  an ode to the fragility of elephant society today.

   

• D. 

  a metaphor for the effect of human activity on elephant communities.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The fabric of elephant society ... has effectively been frayed...

Here, the elephant society is compared to a frayed fabric. This is a metaphor, a figure of speech used to explain an idea by equating it to something else.

The only thing worse than being lied to is not knowing you’re being lied to. It’s true that plastic pollution is a huge problem, of planetary proportions. And it’s true we could all do more to reduce our plastic footprint. The lie is that blame for the plastic problem is wasteful consumers and that changing our individual habits will fix it.

Recycling plastic is to saving the Earth what hammering a nail is to halting a falling skyscraper. You struggle to find a place to do it and feel pleased when you succeed. But your effort is wholly inadequate and distracts from the real problem of why the building is collapsing in the first place. The real problem is that single-use plastic—the very idea of producing plastic items like grocery bags, which we use for an average of 12 minutes but can persist in the environment for half a millennium—is an incredibly reckless abuse of technology. Encouraging individuals to recycle more will never solve the problem of a massive production of single-use plastic that should have been avoided in the first place.

As an ecologist and evolutionary biologist, I have had a disturbing window into the accumulating literature on the hazards of plastic pollution. Scientists have long recognized that plastics biodegrade slowly, if at all, and pose multiple threats to wildlife through entanglement and consumption. More recent reports highlight dangers posed by absorption of toxic chemicals in the water and by plastic odors that mimic some species’ natural food. Plastics also accumulate up the food chain, and studies now show that we are likely ingesting it ourselves in seafood. . . .

Beginning in the 1950s, big beverage companies like Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch, along with Phillip Morris and others, formed a non-profit called Keep America Beautiful. Its mission is/was to educate and encourage environmental stewardship in the public. . . . At face value, these efforts seem benevolent, but they obscure the real problem, which is the role that corporate polluters play in the plastic problem. This clever misdirection has led journalist and author Heather Rogers to describe Keep America Beautiful as the first corporate greenwashing front, as it has helped shift the public focus to consumer recycling behavior and actively thwarted legislation that would increase extended producer responsibility for waste management. . . . [T]he greatest success of Keep America Beautiful has been to shift the onus of environmental responsibility onto the public while simultaneously becoming a trusted name in the environmental movement. . . .

So what can we do to make responsible use of plastic a reality? First: reject the lie. Litterbugs are not responsible for the global ecological disaster of plastic. Humans can only function to the best of their abilities, given time, mental bandwidth and systemic constraints. Our huge problem with plastic is the result of a permissive legal framework that has allowed the uncontrolled rise of plastic pollution, despite clear evidence of the harm it causes to local communities and the world’s oceans. Recycling is also too hard in most parts of the U.S. and lacks the proper incentives to make it work well.

951.

Which of the following interventions would the author most strongly support:

• A. 

  recycling all plastic debris in the seabed.

• B. 

  having all consumers change their plastic consumption habits.

• C. 

  completely banning all single-use plastic bags.

• D. 

  passing regulations targeted at producers that generate plastic products.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The central idea of the passage is that individuals are not responsible for the ecological disaster of plastic; the plastic problem is the result of a permissive legal framework that has not put the onus on producers of plastic to manage waste (see paragraphs 4 and 5). So, the intervention the author is likely to support is the one mentioned in option 4.

952.

The author lists all of the following as negative effects of the use of plastics EXCEPT the:

• A. 

  slow pace of degradation or non-degradation of plastics in the environment.

• B. 

  air pollution caused during the process of recycling plastics.

• C. 

  poisonous chemicals released into the water and food we consume.

   

• D. 

  adverse impacts on the digestive systems of animals exposed to plastic.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Paragraph 3 lists options 1, 3 and 4 as the negative effects of the use of plastics. Only option 2 is not mentioned in the passage.

953.

In the first paragraph, the author uses “lie” to refer to the:

• A. 

  blame assigned to consumersfor indiscriminate use of plastics.

   

• B. 

  understatement of the enormity of the plastics pollution problem.

   

• C. 

  fact that people do not know they have been lied to.

   

• D. 

  understatement of the effects of recycling plastics.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Paragraph 1 clearly states that the lie ‘is that blame for the plastic problem is wasteful consumers and that changing our individual habits can fix it’.

954.

In the second paragraph, the phrase “what hammering a nail is to halting a falling skyscraper” means:

• A. 

  relying on emerging technologies to mitigate the ill-effects of plastic pollution.

   

• B. 

  encouraging the responsible production of plastics by firms.

   

• C. 

  focusing on consumer behaviour to tackle the problem of plastics pollution.

   

• D. 

  focusing on single-use plastic bags to reduce the plastics footprint.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option C is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

In the second paragraph, the author compares consumers recycling plastic to save the Earth to ‘hammering a nail is to halting a falling skyscraper’. Note the line ‘encouraging individuals to recycle more will never solve the problem of a massive production of single-use plastic...’

955.

It can be inferred that the author considers the Keep America Beautiful organisation:

• A. 

  a "greenwash" because it was a benevolent attempt to improve public recycling habits.

   

• B. 

  a sham as it diverted attention away from the role of corporates in plastics pollution.

   

• C. 

  an important step in sensitising producers to the need to tackle plastics pollution.

   

• D. 

  an innovative example of a collaborative corporate social responsibility initiative.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

See paragraph 4: ‘This clever misdirection .... Keep America Beautiful....the first corporate greenwashing front as it has helped shift the public focus to consumer recycling behavior and actively thwarted legislation that would increase extended producer responsibility for waste management’.

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

Vocabulary used in speech or writing organizes itself in seven parts of speech (eight, if you count interjections such as Oh! and Gosh! and Fuhgeddaboudit!). Communication composed of these parts of speech must be organized by rules of grammar upon which we agree. When these rules break down, confusion and misunderstanding result. Bad grammar produces bad sentences. My favorite example from Strunk and White is this one: “As a mother of five, with another one on the way, my ironing board is always up.”

Nouns and verbs are the two indispensable parts of writing. Without one of each, no group of words can be a sentence, since a sentence is, by definition, a group of words containing a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb); these strings of words begin with a capital letter, end with a period, and combine to make a complete thought which starts in the writer’s head and then leaps to the reader’s.

Must you write complete sentences each time, every time? Perish the thought. If your work consists only of fragments and floating clauses, the Grammar Police aren’t going to come and take you away. Even William Strunk, that Mussolini of rhetoric, recognized the delicious pliability of language. “It is an old observation,” he writes, “that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric.” Yet he goes on to add this thought, which I urge you to consider: “Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules.”

The telling clause here is Unless he is certain of doing well. If you don’t have a rudimentary grasp of how the parts of speech translate into coherent sentences, how can you be certain that you are doing well? How will you know if you’re doing ill, for that matter? The answer, of course, is that you can’t, you won’t. One who does grasp the rudiments of grammar finds a comforting simplicity at its heart, where there need be only nouns, the words that name, and verbs, the words that act.

Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence. It never fails. Rocks explode. Jane transmits. Mountains float. These are all perfect sentences. Many such thoughts make little rational sense, but even the stranger ones (Plums deify!) have a kind of poetic weight that’s nice. The simplicity of noun-verb construction is useful—at the very least it can provide a safety net for your writing. Strunk and White caution against too many simple sentences in a row, but simple sentences provide a path you can follow when you fear getting lost in the tangles of rhetoric—all those restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses, those modifying phrases, those appositives and compound-complex sentences. If you start to freak out at the sight of such unmapped territory (unmapped by you, at least), just remind yourself that rocks explode, Jane transmits, mountains float, and plums deify. Grammar is . . . the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking.

951.

Which one of the following quotes best captures the main concern of the passage?

• A. 

  “Nouns and verbs are the two indispensable parts of writing. Without one of each, no group of words can be a sentence . . .”

• B. 

  “Strunk and White caution against too many simple sentences in a row, but simple sentences provide a path you can follow when you fear getting lost in the tangles of rhetoric . . .”

• C. 

  “The telling clause here is Unless he is certain of doing well.”

• D. 

  “Bad grammar produces bad sentences.”

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

According to the passage, grammar is fundamental to language. When grammar rules break down, confusion results. So, the main concern of the passage is best expressed by the line "bad grammar produces bad sentences."

Options A and B are easily eliminated, as they are about specific aspects of grammar. Option C is close, as this is also one of the concerns of the author-- a person may not be able to judge if they are "doing well" in their use of language. But between C and D, D is more general and the better choice.

952.

Which one of the following statements, if false, could be seen as supporting the arguments in the passage?

• A. 

  An understanding of grammar helps a writer decide if she/he is writing well or not.

• B. 

  Perish the thought that complete sentences necessarily need nouns and verbs!

• C. 

  It has been observed that writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric.

• D. 

  Regarding grammar, women writers tend to be more attentive to method and accuracy.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Trickily worded question. One statement among the given ones, if false, supports the arguments of the passage. A better way to approach this question would be to find the statement, which, if true, does not support the arguments of the passage.

According to the passage, "Nouns and verbs are the two indispensable parts of writing." Option B, if true, states the exact opposite of what the passage says. So, B is the correct choice.

Note that options A, C and D, if true, support the arguments in the passage.

953.

All of the following statements can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT that:

• A. 

  the subject–predicate relation is the same as the noun–verb relation.

• B. 

  the primary purpose of grammar is to ensure that sentences remain simple.

• C. 

  sentences do not always have to be complete.

• D. 

  "Grammar Police” is a metaphor for critics who focus on linguistic rules.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Though the passage says that there is "comforting simplicity" at the heart of grammar, it does not imply that the purpose of grammar is to make sentences simple.

Statements A, C and D can be inferred from these references in passage: "...a sentence is, by definition, a group of words containing a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb)...", "Must you write complete sentences each time, every time? Perish the thought", and "If your work consists only of fragments and floating clauses, the Grammar Police aren’t going to come and take you away."

954.

“Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence. It never fails. Rocks explode. Jane transmits. Mountains float.” None of the following statements can be seen as similar EXCEPT:

• A. 

  A collection of people with the same sports equipment is a sports team.

• B. 

  Take an apple tree, plant it in a field, and you have an orchard.

• C. 

  A group of nouns arranged in a row becomes a sentence.

• D. 

  Take any vegetable, put some spices in it, and you have a dish.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

"None of the statements is similar except..." can be understood as "only one statement is similar to...".

Of the given statements, A and C can be eliminated right away. Consider B. One apple tree in a field does not make an orchard. This is an exaggeration, while the given sentence is not. D, on the other hand, is similar to the given sentence.

955.

Inferring from the passage, the author could be most supportive of which one of the following practices?

• A. 

  A Creative Writing course that focuses on how to avoid the use of rhetoric.

• B. 

  The critique of standardised rules of punctuation and capitalisation.

• C. 

  A campaign demanding that a writer’s creative license should allow the breaking of grammatical rules.

• D. 

  The availability of language software that will standardise the rules of grammar as an aid to writers.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The author urges writers to follow the rules of grammar: "...I urge you to consider: 'Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules.'”

So, the author is most likely to be supportive of a tool that helps writers with grammar rules.

Note that the author is not against the use of rhetoric or critical of grammar rules. So, options A, B and C are easily eliminated.

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

Few realise that the government of China, governing an empire of some 60 million people during the Tang dynasty (618–907), implemented a complex financial system that recognised grain, coins and textiles as money. . . . Coins did have certain advantages: they were durable, recognisable and provided a convenient medium of exchange, especially for smaller transactions. However, there were also disadvantages. A continuing shortage of copper meant that government mints could not produce enough coins for the entire empire, to the extent that for most of the dynasty’s history, coins constituted only a tenth of the money supply. One of the main objections to calls for taxes to be paid in coin was that peasant producers who could weave cloth or grow grain – the other two major currencies of the Tang – would not be able to produce coins, and therefore would not be able to pay their taxes. . . . 

As coins had advantages and disadvantages, so too did textiles. If in circulation for a long period of time, they could show signs of wear and tear. Stained, faded and torn bolts of textiles had less value than a brand new bolt. Furthermore, a full bolt had a particular value. If consumers cut textiles into smaller pieces to buy or sell something worth less than a full bolt, that, too, greatly lessened the value of the textiles. Unlike coins, textiles could not be used for small transactions; as [an official] noted, textiles could not “be exchanged by the foot and the inch” . . . 

But textiles had some advantages over coins. For a start, textile production was widespread and there were fewer problems with the supply of textiles. For large transactions, textiles weighed less than their equivalent in coins since a string of coins . . .  could weigh as much as 4 kg. Furthermore, the dimensions of a bolt of silk held remarkably steady from the third to the tenth century: 56 cm wide and 12 m long . . . The values of different textiles were also more stable than the fluctuating values of coins. . . .  

The government also required the use of textiles for large transactions. Coins, on the other hand, were better suited for smaller transactions, and possibly, given the costs of transporting coins, for a more local usage. Grain, because it rotted easily, was not used nearly as much as coins and textiles, but taxpayers were required to pay grain to the government as a share of their annual tax obligations, and official salaries were expressed in weights of grain. . . . 

In actuality, our own currency system today has some similarities even as it is changing in front of our eyes. . . . We have cash – coins for small transactions like paying for parking at a meter, and banknotes for other items; cheques and debit/credit cards for other, often larger, types of payments. At the same time, we are shifting to electronic banking and making payments online. Some young people never use cash [and] do not know how to write a cheque . . . 

951.

In the context of the passage, which one of the following can be inferred with regard to the use of currency during the Tang era?

• A. 

  Currency usage was similar to that of modern times.

• B. 

  Currency that deteriorated easily was not used for official work.

• C. 

  Copper coins were more valuable and durable than textiles.

• D. 

  Grains were the most used currency because of government requirements.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The last paragraph has the answer: “In actuality, our own currency system today has some similarities even as it is changing in front of our eyes...”

952.

According to the passage, the modern currency system shares all the following features with that of the Tang, EXCEPT that:

• A. 

  it uses different materials as currency.

• B. 

  its currencies fluctuate in value over time. 

• C. 

  it uses different currencies for different situations.

• D. 

  it is undergoing transformation.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The last paragraph states that the modern currency system “is changing in front of our eyes” and describes the transformation taking place. According to the passage, both the modern currency system and that of Tang use different materials as currency, different currencies for different situations and the currencies fluctuate in value from time to time.

953.

When discussing textiles as currency in the Tang period, the author uses the words “steady” and “stable” to indicate all of the following EXCEPT:

• A. 

  reliable supply.

• B. 

  reliable measurements.

• C. 

  reliable quality.

• D. 

  reliable transportation.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Note the context in which the author uses the given words in paragraph 3. The author touches upon the reliable supply, measurements and quality of textiles. Transportation is not mentioned.

954.

During the Tang period, which one of the following would not be an economically sound decision for a small purchase in the local market that is worth one-eighth of a bolt of cloth?

• A. 

  Cutting one-eighth of the fabric from a new bolt to pay the amount.

• B. 

  Making the payment with the appropriate weight of grain.

• C. 

  Using coins issued by the government to make the payment.

• D. 

  Paying with a faded bolt of cloth that has approximately the same value.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Note the context in which the author uses the given words in paragraph 3. The author touches upon the reliable supply, measurements and quality of textiles. Transportation is not mentioned.

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

In the late 1960s, while studying the northern-elephant-seal population along the coasts of Mexico and California, Burney Le Boeuf and his colleagues couldn’t help but notice that the threat calls of males at some sites sounded different from those of males at other sites. . . . That was the first time dialects were documented in a nonhuman mammal. . . .

All the northern elephant seals that exist today are descendants of the small herd that survived on Isla Guadalupe [after the near extinction of the species in the nineteenth century]. As that tiny population grew, northern elephant seals started to recolonize former breeding locations. It was precisely on the more recently colonized islands where Le Boeuf found that the tempos of the male vocal displays showed stronger differences to the ones from Isla Guadalupe, the founder colony. 

In order to test the reliability of these dialects over time, Le Boeuf and other researchers visited Año Nuevo Island in California—the island where males showed the slowest pulse rates in their calls—every winter from 1968 to 1972. “What we found is that the pulse rate increased, but it still remained relatively slow compared to the other colonies we had measured in the past” Le Boeuf told me.

At the individual level, the pulse of the calls stayed the same: A male would maintain his vocal signature throughout his lifetime. But the average pulse rate was changing. Immigration could have been responsible for this increase, as in the early 1970s, 43 percent of the males on Año Nuevo had come from southern rookeries that had a faster pulse rate. This led Le Boeuf and his collaborator, Lewis Petrinovich, to deduce that the dialects were, perhaps, a result of isolation over time, after the breeding sites had been recolonized. For instance, the first settlers of Año Nuevo could have had, by chance, calls with low pulse rates. At other sites, where the scientists found faster pulse rates, the opposite would have happened—seals with faster rates would have happened to arrive first.

As the population continued to expand and the islands kept on receiving immigrants from the original population, the calls in all locations would have eventually regressed to the average pulse rate of the founder colony. In the decades that followed, scientists noticed that the geographical variations reported in 1969 were not obvious anymore. . . . In the early 2010s, while studying northern elephant seals on Año Nuevo Island, [researcher Caroline] Casey noticed, too, that what Le Boeuf had heard decades ago was not what she heard now. . . . By performing more sophisticated statistical analyses on both sets of data, [Casey and Le Boeuf] confirmed that dialects existed back then but had vanished. Yet there are other differences between the males from the late 1960s and their great-great-grandsons: Modern males exhibit more individual diversity, and their calls are more complex. While 50 years ago the drumming pattern was quite simple and the dialects denoted just a change in tempo, Casey explained, the calls recorded today have more complex structures, sometimes featuring doublets or triplets. . . .

951.

Which one of the following conditions, if true, could have ensured that male northern elephant seal dialects did not disappear?

• A. 

  Besides Isla Guadalupe, there was one more surviving colony with the same average male call tempo from which no migration took place.

• B. 

  The call tempo of individual male seals in host colonies changed to match the average call tempo of immigrant male seals.

• C. 

  Besides Isla Guadalupe, there was one more founder colony with the same average male call tempo from which male seals migrated to various other colonies.

• D. 

  The call tempo of individual immigrant male seals changed to match the average tempo of resident male seals in the host colony.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

According to the passage, the possible reason for dialects disappearing is that “as the population continued to expand and the islands kept on receiving immigrants from the original population, the calls in all locations would have eventually regressed to the average pulse rate of the founder colony”. If, instead, the call tempo of the immigrant seals changed to match that of the host colony (each of which has a different dialect), then dialects would be different.

Option A is incorrect as it is the immigrant male seals that change the average call tempo. Option B states exactly what happened, resulting in the diappearance of dialects. The scenario in option C would not change the outcome in any way.

952.

All of the following can be inferred from Le Boeuf’s study as described in the passage EXCEPT that:

• A. 

  changes in population and migration had no effect on the call pulse rate of individual male northern elephant seals.

• B. 

  the influx of new northern elephant seals into Año Nuevo Island would have soon made the call pulse rate of its male seals exceed that of those at Isla Guadalupe.

• C. 

  male northern elephant seals might not have exhibited dialects had they not become nearly extinct in the nineteenth century.

• D. 

  the average call pulse rate of male northern elephant seals at Año Nuevo Island increased from the early 1970s till the disappearance of dialects.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

According to the passage, over time, with migrations, the calls regressed to the average pulse rate of the founder colony in Isla Guadalupe. The passage does not indicate that the influx of new northern elephant seals into Año Nuevo Island would have made the call pulse rate of its male seals exceed that of those at Isla Guadalupe.

All other options can be inferred:
Option A: “At the individual level, the pulse of the calls stayed the same: A male would maintain his vocal signature throughout his lifetime.”
Option C: “This led Le Boeufvand his collaborator, Lewis Petrinovich, to deduce that the dialects were, perhaps, a result of isolation over time, after the breeding sites had been recolonized.”
Option D: “In the decades that followed, scientists noticed that the geographical variations reported in 1969 were not obvious anymore.”

953.

Which one of the following best sums up the overall history of transformation of male northern elephant seal calls?

• A. 

  Owing to migrations in the aftermath of near species extinction, the calls have transformed from exhibiting complex composition, less individual variety, and great regional variety to simple composition, less individual variety, and great regional variety.

• B. 

  The calls have transformed from exhibiting simple composition, great individual variety, and less regional variety to complex composition, less individual variety, and great regional variety.

• C. 

  Owing to migrations in the aftermath of near species extinction, the average call pulse rates in the recolonised breeding locations exhibited a gradual increase until they matched the tempo at the founding colony.

• D. 

  The calls have transformed from exhibiting simple composition, less individual variety, and great regional variety to complex composition, great individual variety, and less regional variety.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The last few lines of the passage have the answer: “Modern males exhibit more individual diversity, and their calls are more complex. While 50 years ago the drumming pattern was quite simple and the dialects denoted just a change in tempo, Casey explained, the calls recorded today have more complex structures”.

954.

From the passage it can be inferred that the call pulse rate of male northern elephant seals in the southern rookeries was faster because:

• A. 

  a large number of male northern elephant seals migrated from the southern rookeries to Año Nuevo Island in the early 1970s.

• B. 

  the male northern elephant seals of Isla Guadalupe with faster call pulse rates might have been the original settlers of the southern rookeries.

• C. 

  the calls of male northern elephant seals in the southern rookeries have more sophisticated structures, containing doublets and triplets.

• D. 

  a large number of male northern elephant seals from Año Nuevo Island might have migrated to the southern rookeries to recolonise them.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Note the observation in paragraph 4: “At other sites, where the scientists found faster pulse rates, the opposite would have happened—seals with faster rates would have happened to arrive first.”

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

The word ‘anarchy’ comes from the Greek anarkhia, meaning contrary to authority or without a ruler, and was used in a derogatory sense until 1840, when it was adopted by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon to describe his political and social ideology. Proudhon argued that organization without government was both possible and desirable. In the evolution of political ideas, anarchism can be seen as an ultimate projection of both liberalism and socialism, and the differing strands of anarchist thought can be related to their emphasis on one or the other of these. 

Historically, anarchism arose not only as an explanation of the gulf between the rich and the poor in any community, and of the reason why the poor have been obliged to fight for their share of a common inheritance, but as a radical answer to the question ‘What went wrong?’ that followed the ultimate outcome of the French Revolution. It had ended not only with a reign of terror and the emergence of a newly rich ruling caste, but with a new adored emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, strutting through his conquered territories.

The anarchists and their precursors were unique on the political Left in affirming that workers and peasants, grasping the chance that arose to bring an end to centuries of exploitation and tyranny, were inevitably betrayed by the new class of politicians, whose first priority was to re-establish a centralized state power. After every revolutionary uprising, usually won at a heavy cost for ordinary populations, the new rulers had no hesitation in applying violence and terror, a secret police, and a professional army to maintain their control.

For anarchists the state itself is the enemy, and they have applied the same interpretation to the outcome of every revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries. This is not merely because every state keeps a watchful and sometimes punitive eye on its dissidents, but because every state protects the privileges of the powerful.

The mainstream of anarchist propaganda for more than a century has been anarchist-communism, which argues that property in land, natural resources, and the means of production should be held in mutual control by local communities, federating for innumerable joint purposes with other communes. It differs from state socialism in opposing the concept of any central authority. Some anarchists prefer to distinguish between anarchist-communism and collectivist anarchism in order to stress the obviously desirable freedom of an individual or family to possess the resources needed for living, while not implying the right to own the resources needed by others. . . . 

There are, unsurprisingly, several traditions of individualist anarchism, one of them deriving from the ‘conscious egoism’ of the German writer Max Stirner (1806–56), and another from a remarkable series of 19th-century American figures who argued that in protecting our own autonomy and associating with others for common advantages, we are promoting the good of all. These thinkers differed from free-market liberals in their absolute mistrust of American capitalism, and in their emphasis on mutualism. 

951.

Which one of the following best expresses the similarity between American individualist anarchists and free-market liberals as well as the difference between the former and the latter?

• A. 

  Both reject the regulatory power of the state; but the former favour a people’s state, while the latter favour state intervention in markets.

• B. 

  Both prioritise individual autonomy; but the former also emphasise mutual dependence, while the latter do not do so.

• C. 

  Both are sophisticated arguments for capitalism; but the former argue for a morally upright capitalism, while the latter argue that the market is the only morality.

• D. 

  Both are founded on the moral principles of altruism; but the latter conceive of the market as a force too mystical for the former to comprehend.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Individualist anarchism, according to the last paragraph, involves “protecting our own
autonomy and associating with others for common advantages”. The last line of the passage states that these thinkers “differed from free-market liberals in their absolute mistrust of American
capitalism, and in their emphasis on mutualism.”In other words, while both individualist anarchists and free-market thinkers agreed on the importance of individual autonomy, individualist anarchists distrusted capitalism and put emphasis on mutualism while free-market thinkers did not.

All other options mention ideas like state intervention in markets, morally upright capitalism and altrusim which are not discussed in the passage.

952.

The author makes all of the following arguments in the passage, EXCEPT:

• A. 

  Individualist anarchism is actually constituted of many streams, all of which focus on the autonomy of the individual.

• B. 

  The popular perception of anarchism as espousing lawlessness and violence comes from a mainstream mistrust of collectivism.

• C. 

  For anarchists, the state is the enemy because all states apply violence and terror to maintain their control.

• D. 

  The failure of the French Revolution was because of its betrayal by the new class of politicians who emerged from it.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The passage makes no mention of the mainstream mistrust of collectivism.

In the last paragraph, the passage states that “there are, unsurprisingly, several traditions of individualist anarchism..”. So, option A is true.

Option C is true, based on paragraphs 3 and 4: “For anarchists the state itself is the enemy....because
every state keeps a watchful and sometimes punitive eye on its dissidents..”. Paragraph 3 talks about the “violence and terror” applied by centralised state power.

Option D is also true, based on paragraphs 2 and 3: French Revolution “had ended not only with a
reign of terror and the emergence of a newly rich ruling caste” and “workers and peasants, grasping the chance that arose to bring an end to centuries of exploitation and tyranny, were inevitably betrayed by the new class of politicians...”.

953.

According to the passage, what is the one idea that is common to all forms of anarchism?

• A. 

  There is no idea common to all forms of anarchism; that is why it is anarchic.

• B. 

  They all focus on the primacy of the power of the individual.

• C. 

  They all derive from the work of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

• D. 

  They are all opposed to the centralisation of power in the state.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The passage clearly states that “for anarchists the state itself is the enemy and they have applied the same interpretation to the outcome of every revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries.”.

Note that option B is incorrect because it talks of the ‘primacy’ of the individual while anarchism puts emphasis on mutualism.

954.

The author believes that the new ruling class of politicians betrayed the principles of the French Revolution, but does not specify in what way. In the context of the passage, which statement below is the likeliest explanation of that betrayal?

• A. 

  The new ruling class rode to power on the strength of the workers’ revolutionary anger, but then turned to oppress that very class.

• B. 

  The anarchists did not want a new ruling class, but were not politically strong enough to stop them.

• C. 

  The new ruling class was constituted mainly of anarchists who were against the destructive impact of the Revolution on the market.

• D. 

  The new ruling class struck a deal with the old ruling class to share power between them.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The passage discusses the French Revolution and goes on to state in paragraph 3 that “after every revolutionary uprising, usually won at a heavy cost for ordinary populations, the new rulers had no hesitation in applying violence and terror, a secret police, and a professional army to maintain their control.”So, option A is the correct choice.

955.

Of the following sets of concepts, identify the set that is conceptually closest to the concerns of the passage.

• A. 

  Anarchism, Betrayal, Power, State.

• B. 

  Revolution, State, Strike, Egoism.

• C. 

  Revolution, State, Protection, Liberals.

• D. 

  Anarchism, State, Individual, Freedom.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Only options A and D mention anarchism, which is the main idea of the passage. Option A does not mention ‘freedom’ and individual’, which are discussed in the last two paragraphs. So, D is the best choice.

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

Nature has all along yielded her flesh to humans. First, we took nature's materials as food, fibers, and shelter. Then we learned to extract raw materials from her biosphere to create our own new synthetic materials. Now Bios is yielding us her mind-we are taking her logic.

Clockwork logic-the logic of the machines-will only build simple contraptions. Truly complex systems such as a cell, a meadow, an economy, or a brain (natural or artificial) require a rigorous nontechnological logic. We now see that no logic except bio-logic can assemble a thinking device, or even a workable system of any magnitude.

It is an astounding discovery that one can extract the logic of Bios out of biology and have something useful. Although many philosophers in the past have suspected one could abstract the laws of life and apply them elsewhere, it wasn't until the complexity of computers and human-made systems became as complicated as living things, that it was possible to prove this. It's eerie how much of life can be transferred. So far, some of the traits of the living that have successfully been transported to mechanical systems are: self-replication, self-governance, limited self-repair, mild evolution, and partial learning.

We have reason to believe yet more can be synthesized and made into something new. Yet at the same time that the logic of Bios is being imported into machines, the logic of Technos is being imported into life. The root of bioengineering is the desire to control the organic long enough to improve it. Domesticated plants and animals are examples of technos-logic applied to life. The wild aromatic root of the Queen Anne's lace weed has been fine-tuned over generations by selective herb gatherers until it has evolved into a sweet carrot of the garden; the udders of wild bovines have been selectively enlarged in a "unnatural" way to satisfy humans rather than calves. Milk cows and carrots, therefore, are human inventions as much as steam engines and gunpowder are. But milk cows and carrots are more indicative of the kind of inventions humans will make in the future: products that are grown rather than manufactured.

Genetic engineering is precisely what cattle breeders do when they select better strains of Holsteins, only bioengineers employ more precise and powerful control. While carrot and milk cow breeders had to rely on diffuse organic evolution, modern genetic engineers can use directed artificial evolution-purposeful design-which greatly accelerates improvements.

The overlap of the mechanical and the lifelike increases year by year. Part of this bionic convergence is a matter of words. The meanings of "mechanical" and "life" are both stretching until all complicated things can be perceived as machines, and all self-sustaining machines can be perceived as alive. Yet beyond semantics, two concrete trends are happening: (1) Human-made things are behaving more lifelike, and (2) Life is becoming more engineered. The apparent veil between the organic and the manufactured has crumpled to reveal that the two really are, and have always been, of one being.

951.

The author claims that, "Part of this bionic convergence is a matter of words". Which one of the following statements best expresses the point being made by the author?

 

• A. 

  "Bios" and "Technos" are both convergent forms of logic, but they generate meanings about the world that are mutually exclusive.

• B. 

  A bionic convergence indicates the meeting ground of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence.

• C. 

  "Mechanical" and "life" are words from different logical systems and are, therefore, fundamentally incompatible in meaning.

• D. 

  "Mechanical" and "life" were earlier seen as opposite in meaning, but the difference between the two is increasingly blurred.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The author says that overlap of the mechanical and the lifelike increases year by year and that part of this bionic convergence is a matter of words. The point the author makes here is that the difference between the mechanical and the lifelike is becoming more and more blurred.

952.

Which one of the following sets of words/phrases best serves as keywords to the passage?

 

• A. 

  Complex systems; Carrots; Milk cows; Convergence; Technos-logic

• B. 

  Nature; Bios; Technos; Self-repair; Holsteins

• C. 

  Nature; Computers; Carrots; Milk cows; Genetic engineering

• D. 

  Complex systems; Bio-logic; Bioengineering; Technos-logic; Convergence

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The convergence of bio-logic and technos-logic is the main idea of the passage. Option D contains all important keywords.
All other options contain words like carrots and Hosteins which are not keywords.

953.

None of the following statements is implied by the arguments of the passage, EXCEPT:

 

• A. 

  purposeful design represents the pinnacle of scientific expertise in the service of human betterment and civilisational progress.

• B. 

  the biological realm is as complex as the mechanical one; which is why the logic of Bios is being imported into machines.

• C. 

  genetic engineers and bioengineers are the same insofar as they both seek to force evolution in an artificial way.

• D. 

  historically, philosophers have known that the laws of life can be abstracted and applied elsewhere.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The question can be rephrased as only one of the given statements is implied by the passage.
Option C can be inferred from the passage based on the lines, "Genetic engineering is precisely what cattle breeders do when they select better strains of Holsteins, only bioengineers employ more precise and powerful control. While carrot and milk cow breeders had to rely on diffuse organic evolution, modern genetic engineers can use directed artificial evolution—purposeful design—which greatly accelerates improvements."
The passage says that directed artificial evolution or purposeful design is used by genetic engineers but it does not state or imply that this is "the pinnacle of scientific expertise". So, option A is out.
The passage clearly states that the logic of the Bios is more complex than the logic of machines. So, option B is incorrect.
According to the passage, many philosophers in the past have "suspected" one could abstract the laws of life and apply them elsewhere. Option D is incorrect as it says philosophers have known this.

954.

The author claims that, "The apparent veil between the organic and the manufactured has crumpled to reveal that the two really are, and have always been, of one being." Which one of the following statements best expresses the point being made by the author here?

 

• A. 

  Scientific advances are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between organic reality and manufactured reality.

• B. 

  Apparent reality and organic reality are distinguished by the fact that the former is manufactured.

• C. 

  Organic reality has crumpled under the veil of manufacturing, rendering the apparent and the real as the same being.

• D. 

  The crumpling of the organic veil between apparent and manufactured reality reveals them to have the same being.

   

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The given statement implies that the lines demarking the organic and the manufactured have blurred and the two are and have always been the same. In other words, scientific advances are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between organic reality and manufactured reality.