Reading Comprehension (Part-4) (CDS-Solved Paper)

Total Questions: 50

1. Directions (Q.Nos. 1-2) Read a passage carefully and answer the items based on it. [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Passage 35

We are tempted to assume that technological progress is real progress and that material success is the criterion of civilisation.

If the Eastern people become fascinated by machines and techniques and use them, as Western nations do, to build huge industrial organisations and large military establishments, they will get involved in power politics and drift into the danger of death.

Scientific and technological civilisation brings great opportunities and great rewards, but also great risks and temptations.

Science and technology are neither good nor bad. They are not to be tabooed but tamed and assigned their proper place. They become dangerous only if they become idols.

From the passage, one gathers that the Eastern people must

Correct Answer: (c) avoid being controlled by machines and techniques of industrial production
Solution:

Eastern people are fascinated by machines and techniques and they have build huge industrial organisations, but it is suggested with this passage that they must avoid being controlled by machines and techniques of industrial production.

2. According to the author, science and technology are [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Correct Answer: (d) useful, if they are not worshipped blindly
Solution:

According to the author, science and technology are useful, if they are not worshipped blindly, which is clearly mentioned in the last line “They become dangerous only if they become idols.”

3. Directions (Q.Nos. 3-5) Read a passage carefully and answer the items based on it. [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Passage 36

It is not luck but labour that makes men, Luck, says an American writer, is ever waiting for something to turn up; labour with keen eyes and strong will always turns up something. Luck lies in bed and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy; labour turns out at six and with busy pen and ringing hammer lays the foundation, of competence. Luck whines, labour watches. Luck relies on chance; labour on character. Luck slips downwards to self-indulgence; labour stride upwards and aspires to independence. The conviction, therefore, is extending that diligence is the mother of good luck; in other words, that a man’s success in life will be proportionate to his efforts, to his industry, to his attention to small things.

Which one of the following statements sums up the meaning of the passage?

Correct Answer: (d) Luck is self-indulgent but labour is selfless
Solution:

It can be inferred from the passage that luck is self-indulgent but labour is selfless, as labour strides upwards and aspires to independence.

4. Which one of the following statements is true about the passage? [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Correct Answer: (b) Success depends on hard work and attention to details
Solution:

Success always depends on hard work and attention to details of small things.

5. “.......... labour turns out at six and with busy pen and ringing hammer lays the foundation of competence.” This statement means [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Correct Answer: (a) hard work of all kinds makes people efficient and skilled
Solution:

The statement means hard work of all kinds makes people efficient and skilled. Other options are meaningless in their term.

6. Directions (Q.Nos. 6-9) Read a passage carefully and answer the items based on it. [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Passage 37

The avowed purpose of the exact sciences is to establish complete intellectual control over experience in terms of precise rules which can be formally set out and empirically tested.

Could that ideal be fully achieved, all truth and all error could henceforth be ascribed to an exact theory of the universe, while we who accept this theory would be relieved of any occasion for exercising our personal judgement.

We should only have to follow the rules faithfully. Classical mechanics approaches this ideal so closely that it is often thought to have achieved it.

But this leaves out of account the element of personal judgement involved in applying the formulae of mechanics to the facts of experience.

The purpose of the exact sciences is to

Correct Answer: (b) formulate principles which will help us to exercise our personal judgement
Solution:

The purpose of exact sciences is to formulate principles which will help us to exercise our personal judgement.

7. An exact theory of the universe is [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Correct Answer: (b) improbable
Solution:

An exact theory of the universe is ‘improbable’, means all truth and error are not likely to be true.

8. In exact sciences, [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Correct Answer: (a) personal judgements are set aside in favour of a mechanical theory
Solution:

In exact sciences, we would be relieved of any occasion for exercising our personal judgement. So, option (a) is correct.

9. Classical mechanics [Morning Shift-2016 (I)]

Correct Answer: (a) has formulated precise rules based on experience
Solution:

Classical mechanics has formulated precise rules based on experience as it is said in the passage that “We should only have to follow the rules faithfully and classical mechanics approaches this ideal so closely”.

10. Directions (Q.Nos. 10-14) Read a passage carefully and answer the items based on it. [Evening Shift-2015 (II)]

Passage 38

Much rhapsodical nonsense has been written about the ‘Mona Lisa’ and her enigmatic smile, and there have been endless speculations as to her character and the meaning of her expression. It is all beside the mark.

The truth is that the ‘Mona Lisa’ is a study of modeling. Leonardo da Vinci had discovered that the expression of smiling is much more a matter of modeling of the cheek and of the forms below the eye than of the change in the line of the lips.

It interested him to produce a smile wholly by these delicate changes of surface; hence the mysterious expression.

 The word ‘rhapsodical’ as used in the passage means

Correct Answer: (c) enthusiastic
Solution:

‘Rhapsodical’ means ‘enthusiastic’ in the passage. e.g. Even when she is most rhapsodical, her speech never loses its ease and gentleness of tone.