Amcat English Privious Question 3

Passage

Along with the obscurantist language, bribe-taking culture around the world often involves the avoidance of physically handing the money from one person to another. One obvious reason is to avoid detection, which is why bribes are known as “envelopes” in countries from China to Greece. But avoidance of a direct hand –over is common even where there is no chance of detection. There will always be some officials who will take money right from a bribe-player’s hands, but most seem to prefer to find some way to hide the money from view.

Rich Westerners may not think of their societies as plagued by corruption. But the definition of bribery clearly differs from person to person. A New Yorker might pity the third-world businessman who must pay bribes just to keep his shop open. But the same New Yorker would not think twice about slipping the $50 to sneak into a nice restaurant without a reservation. Poor people the world over are most infuriated by the casual corruption of the elites rather than by the underpaid, “tip”-seeking soldier or functionary. Thus there is no single cultural or social factor that inclines a society towards corruption, but economic factors play a big part. Most clearly, poverty and bribery go together

1) Which of the following the author does not identify as linguistic manifestation of corruption?

A) Asking for a favour B) Use of double meanings C) Use of quasi-official terminology D) Relate to food item.

2) In summary what does the passage primarily suggest and provide evidence for?

A) Corruption is always concealed in some way, both linguistically and in the process

B) Corruption exists only in developing economies

C) Corruption is an unethical practice

D) Corruption slows down GDP growth

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This sue-for-anything philosophy was created in the 1960’s, when judges and legislators woke up to abuses of racism and other discrimination that had gone unchecked for centuries. When the bad values of judges and legislator were finally exposed, they decided to create a neutral system in which no one in authority would assert any values. Give people the right to sue for anything, they thought, and then they can’t blame us for imposing bad values. Pretty soon, every angry person or clever lawyer learned how to demand new “rights”. But these new rights ended up taking away others’ rights.

Trial lawyers justify ruinous claims like a $78,000,000 verdict in Arkansas against a nursing home for the neglect of a 93 years old resident on the basis that it will teach the defendant a lesson not to do it next time. The money, though, comes from you and me, through rapidly rising costs and health insurance premiums. The most important accountability, which the trial lawyers never propose, is to remove the licenses of inept doctors or nursing homes so that they can’t hurt someone else. Trial lawyers, of course, don’t make much money if the focus is on better health care, rather than huge verdicts. A society needs red lights and green lights. The legal system is badly broken. Yet, few efforts at reform have gotten very far.

1) What can be a suitable title for the passage?

A) Positive outcome of law in America B) Misuse of law has shaken faith of Americans

C) Unlawful practice of lawsuits D) Society suffers with the ever-changing legal system.

The unique Iron Age Experimental Centre at Lejre, about 40km west of Copenhagen, serves as a museum, a classroom and a place to get away from it all. How did people live during the Iron Age? How did they support themselves? What did they eat and how did they cultivate the land? These and a myriad of other questions prodded the pioneers of the Lejre experiment.

Living in the open and working 10hours a day, volunteers from all over Scandinavia led by 30 experts, built the first village in the ancient encampment in a matter of months. The house walls were of clay, the roofs of hay – all based on original designs. Then came the second stage – getting back to the basics of living. Families were invited to stay in the “prehistoric village” for a week or two at a time and rough it Iron Age-Style.

Initially, this experiment proved none to easy for modern Danes accustomed to central heating, but it convinced the centre that there was something to the Lejre project. Little by Little, the modern iron Agers learnt that their huts were, after all, habitable. The problems were numerous- smoke belching out from the rough-and-ready fireplaces into the rooms and so on. These problems, however have led to some discoveries. Domed smoke ovens made of clay, for example, give out more heat and consume less fuel than an open fire, and when correctly stoked, they are practically smokeless.

By contacting other museums, the Lejre team has been able to reconstruct ancient weaving looms and pottery kilns. Iron Age dyeing techniques, using local natural vegetation, have also been revived, as have ancient baking and cooking methods.

1) What is the main purpose of building the Iron Age experimental center?

(A) Prehistoric village where people can stay for a week or two to get away from modern living.

(B) Replicate the Iron Age to get a better understanding of the time and people of that era.

(D) Revive activities of ancient women such as weaving, pottery, dyeing, cooking and baking.

2) From the passage what can be inferred to be the centre’s initial outlook towards the Lejre project?

(A) It initiated the project

(B) It eagerly supported it

(D) It was apprehensive about it

3) What is the meaning of the sentence “Initially, this experiment proved none to easy for modern Danes accustomed to central heating, but it convinced the centre that there was something to the Lejre project.”?

(A) Even though staying in the huts was not easy for the modern people, the centre saw merit in the simple living within huts compared to expensive apartments

(B) Staying in the huts was quite easy for the modern people and the centre also saw merit in the sample living within huts compared to expensive apartments.

(D) The way of living of the Iron Age proved very easy for the people of the modern age since it was hot inside the huts, and they were anyway used to heated rooms.

4) What can be the title of the passage?

(A) Modern techniques find their way into pre-historic villages

(B) Co-existence of ancient and modern times

(D) Turning back time

“leave it”

Anjali could not begin to fathom what she was hearing.

Event the contractor appeared flabbergasted. His mouth stayed in a half-open position, like a guitar waiting for its strings to be tugged.

“Yes. Leave it”, Varun said again. He was speaking to the notion that someone in the room had asked him to clarify his words.

What were the chances that an Indian burial ground would be found on the bucolic site where Varun and Anjali had chosen to build their dream home? Why in the world would Varun not want to have the remains carted away, thought Anjali. The last thing they needed were Indian poltergeists meandering around their home while the two of them were trying to renovate their marriage.

Anjali, usually deferential to her husband, knew that now was the time to make her position heard.

She tried to cajole Varun from the direction he was heading, “sweetheart, we don’t want to build on a site with human remains, it would be irreverent to the dead”.

Immediately, she saw contempt in Varun’s eyes; it was a subtle reminder of how he often viewed her as superficial and self-absorbed.

“What would be irreverent”, said Varun, his voice dripping with condescension, “would be to desecrate these native graves and move them from their final resting place. Remember the culture.”

No, Anjali did not “remember the culture”. She could care less about the culture. However, varun, the history professor, was obviously enthralled by the contractor’s findings. He had an innate way of understanding other cultures and other people that amazed Anjali. He did not have that got with her.

But something inside Anjali said this was too much. She believed wholeheartedly in ghosts and could not imagine a life of them haunting her, rattling her cupboards, and shaking her floorboards.

Anjali had an unnerving sensation that big problems were ahead.

1) Why can’t Anjali fathom what her husband says at the beginning of the passage?

(A) She could not hear what he said

(B) She could not believe what he said

(D) She could not think of a retort to his comment

2) “She tried to cajole Varun from the direction he was heading” choose the best way to rewrite the above sentence.

(A) She tried to compromise with Varun

(B) She tried to force Varun from the direction he was heading

(D) She tried to give Varun veiled threats about the direction he was heading

3) What is the term given to the comparison of the contractor to a guitar?

(A) An allusion, meaning a figure of speech making casual reference to a literary figure

(B) An analogy, meaning an extended comparison showing the similarities between two things

(D) A hyperbole, meaning a gross exaggeration

Since the late 1970s when the technology of sex determination first came into being, sex selective abortion has unleashed a saga of horror. Experts are calling it “sanitized barbarism”. Demographic trends indicate the country is fast heading towards a million female foetuses aborted each year.

Although foetal sex determination and sex selection is a criminal offence in India, the practice is rampant. Private clinics with ultrasound machines are doing brisk business. Everywhere, people are paying to know the sex of an unborn child and paying more to abort the female child. The technology has even reached remote areas through mobile clinics. Dr. Puneet Bedi, obstetrician and specialist in foetal medicine, says these days he hardly sees a family with two daughters. People are getting sex determination done even for the first child, he says.

If the 1991 Census showed that two districts had a child sex ratio (number of girls per thousand boys) less that 850; by 2001 it was 51 districts. Child rights activist Dr. Sabu George says foeticide is the most extreme form of violence against women. “Today a girl is several times more likely to be eliminated before a birth than die of various causes in the first year. Nature intended the womb to be safe space. Today, doctors have made it the most unsafe space for the female child”, he says. He believes that doctors must be held responsible- “they have aggressively promoted the misuse of technology and legitimized foeticide”.

1) Which of the following will Dr. George agree to?

(A) The girl child is as safe in the mother’s womb as after birth

(B) The girl child is safe in the mother’s womb in comparison to after birth

(D) None of these

2) What is the solution to the problem of female foeticide as envisioned by Dr. Bedi?

(A) Effective use of law

(B) Mass public outrage

(D) Contempt towards doctors

3) What is the topic of the passage?

(A) Factual

(B) Biased

(D) Sad

4) What is Akhila Sivadas’s opinion on the PCPNDT act?

The act is inconsistent

The act needs reform

The act encourages demand for foeticide

The act is sound, but needs enforcement

Sixty years ago, on the evening of August 14th ,1947,a few hours before Britain’s Indian Empire was formally divided into the nation states of India and Pakistan, Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife, Edwina , sat down in the vice regal mansion in New Delhi to watch the latest Bob Hope movie , “My Favorite Brunette.” Large parts of the subcontinent were descending into chaos , as the implication of partitioning the Indian Empire along religious line became clear to millions Hindus, Muslims , and Sikhs caught on the wrong side of the border in the next few months, Some twelve million people would be uprooted as many as million murdered. But on that night in mid-August the blood bath- and the fuller consequences of hasty imperial retreat-still lay in the future, and the Mountbatten’s probably felt they have earned their evening entertainment.

While the Mountbatten’s were sitting down to their Bob Hope movie, India’s constituent assembly was convening in New Delhi. The moment demanded grandiloquence, and Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s closest disciple and soon to be India’s Prime Minister, provided it. “Long years ago, we made tryst with destiny,” he said. “At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India will awaken to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”

1) In the view of the author, what does Nehru’s phrase “tryst with destiny “symbolize today?

(A) A celebration of Indian independence

(B) An inspiration quote

(D) A symbol of the ills of the partition

2) The author persists on talking about the “Bon Hope movie” in the article. Why?

(A) Because the movie was a classic of 1974

(B) He thinks it caused the partition of the sub-continent

(D) It was Mountbatten’s favourite movie

3) What does the author imply about the future of Pakistan?

(A) It becomes a secular country

(B) It becomes unsecular

(D) It becomes a rogue state

The Stratosphere, specifically, the lower Stratosphere has, it seems, been drying out. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and the cooling effect on the Earth's climate due to this desiccation may account for a fair bit of the slowdown in the rise of global temperatures seen over the past ten years. The stratosphere sits on top of the Troposphere, the lowest, densest layer of the atmosphere.

The boundary between the two, the Troposphere, is about 18km above your head, if you are in the tropics, and a few kilometers lower if you are at higher latitudes (or up a mountain). In the Troposphere, the air at higher altitudes is in general cooler than the air below it, an unstable situation in which warm and often moist air below is endlessly buoying up into cooler air above. The resultant commotion creates clouds, storms and much of the rest of the world's weather. In the Stratosphere, the air gets warmer at higher altitudes, which provides stability.

The Stratosphere-which extends up to about 55km, where the Mesosphere begins, is made even less weather-prone by the absence of water vapor, and thus of the clouds and precipitation to which it leads. This is because the top of the Troposphere is normally very cold, causing ascending water vapor to freeze into ice crystals that drift and fall, rather than continuing up into the Stratosphere.

1) Why is the situation in the troposphere defined as unstable?

(A) Because, unlike the Stratosphere, there is too much water vapour in the Troposphere

(B) Because the Troposphere is not directly linked to the Stratosphere, but through the Tropopause which creates much of the world's weather

(D) Because this layer of the atmosphere is very cloudy and can lead to weather related disruptions

My phone rings again, it is futile to ignore it anymore. Maneesha is persistent She will continue to bedevil me until I acquiesce

“Hello”.I answer.

“The circus, Atika?” She says in her sing –song voice.”When are we going? Only two more days left”.

I abhor the Circus. The boisterous crowds, the overwhelming smell of animal feces, the insanely long lines with waiting children and the impossibility of finding a clean restroom all combine to make this an event that I dread.

For Maneesha, my best friend since the angst of middle school, the circus is a sign that divine powers really exist.

‘Really.Atika. Where else can you pet an elephant, see a stuntman ride a horse, laugh till you are ready to cry, see the world’s smallest person and eat fried potatoes and butter soaked popcorn?”Maneesha asks gleefully.

“Hello?” I guess

1) What does it mean to acquiesce?

(A) To give in

(B) To speak kindly

(D) To answer the phone

2) Why might the author have chosen to capitalize all the letters in the word “and”when writing about the burger she ate?

(A) To make sure the reader understood it was a list

(B) To show that a greasy slice of cottage cheese was the last ingredient

(D) To emphasize how many ingredients were in the burger

3) What does the term gastronomical suggest?

(A) Enormous

(B) Health risk

(D) Resulting in gas

4) How does Maneesha seem to feel about the circus?

(A) Ambivalent

(B) Condescending

(D) Nonchalant

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