Sonakshi kulkarni

Passage: In the second week of August 1998, just a few days after the incidents of bombing the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, a highpowered, brain-storming session was held near Washington D.C., to discuss various aspects of terrorism. The meeting was attended by ten of America‘s leading experts in various fields such as germ and chemical warfare, public health, disease control and also by the doctors and the law- enforcing officers. Being asked to describe the horror of possible bio-attack, one of the experts narrated the following gloomy scenario. A culprit in a crowded business centre or in a busy shopping mall of a town empties a test tube containing some fluid, which in turn creates an unseen cloud of germ of a dreaded disease like anthrax capable of inflicting a horrible death within5 days on any one who inhales it. At first500,or so victims feel that they have mild influenza which may recede after a day or two. Then the symptoms return again and their lungs start filling with fluid. They rush to local hospitals for treatment, but the panic-stricken people may find that the medicare services run quickly out of drugs due to excessive demand. But no one would be able to realize that a terrorist attack has occurred. One cannot deny the possibility that the germ involved would be of contagious variety capable of causing an epidemic. The meeting concluded that such attacks, apart from causing immediate human tragedy, would have dire long-term effects on the political and social fabric of a country by way of ending people‘s trust on the competence of the government. The experts also said that the bombs used in Kenya and Tanzania were of the old-fashion variety and involved quantities of high explosives, but new terrorism will prove to be more deadly and probably more elusive than hijacking an aeroplane or a gelignite of previous decades. According to Bruce Hoffman, an American specialist on political violence, old terrorism generally had a specific manifesto-to overthrow a colonial power or the capitalist system and so on. These terrorists were not shy about planting a bomb or hijacking an aircraft and they set some limit to their brutality. Killing so many innocent people might turn their natural supporters off. Political terrorists want a lot of people watching but not a lot of people dead. ―Old terrorism sought to change the world while the new sort is often practised by those who believe that the world has gone beyond redemption, he added. Hoffman says, ―New terrorism has no long- term agenda but is ruthless in its shortterm intentions. It is often just a cacophonous cry of protest or an outburst of religious intolerance or a protest against the West in general and the US in particular. Its perpetrators may be religious fanatics or diehard opponent of a government and see no reason to show restraint. They are simply intent on inflicting the maximum amount of pain on the victim.

Q. In the context of the passage, the culprit‘s act of emptying a test tube containing some fluid can be classified as

Direction: Read the given passages and answer the questions that follow.
Like many Indian children, I grew up on the vast, varied, and fascinating tales of the Mahabharat.
At the core of the epic lies the fierce rivalry between two branches of the Kuru dynasty, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The lifelong struggle between the cousins for the throne of Hastinapur culminates in the bloody battle of Kurukshetra, in which most kings of that period participated and perished. But numerous other characters people the world of the Mahabharat and contribute to its magnetism and continuing relevance. These larger-than-life heroes, epitomizing inspiring virtues and deadly vices, etched many cautionary morals into my child-consciousness. Some of my favorites, who play prominent roles in The Palace of Illusions, are: Vyasa the sage; Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu and mentor to the Pandavas; Bheeshma, the patriarch ; Drona, the brahmin-warrior; Drupad, the king of Panchaal; and Karna, the great warrior.
But always, listening to the stories of the Mahabharat as a young girl in the lantern-lit evenings at my grandfather's village home, or later, poring over the thousand-page leatherbound volume in my parents' home in Kolkata, I was left unsatisfied by the portrayals of the women. It wasn't as though the epic didn't have powerful, complex women characters that affected the action in major ways. For instance, there was the widowed Kunti, mother of the Pandavas, who dedicates her life to making sure her sons became kings. There was Gandhari, wife of the sightless Kaurava king, who chooses to blindfold herself at marriage, thus relinquishing her power as queen and mother. And most of all, there was Panchaali (also known as Draupadi), King Drupad's beautiful daughter, who has the unique distinction of being married to five men at the same time-the five Pandava brothers, the greatest heroes of their time.
Panchaali who, some might argue, by her headstrong actions helps to bring about the destruction of the Third Age of Man.
But in some way, they remained shadowy figures, their thoughts and motives mysterious, their emotions portrayed only when they affected the lives of the male heroes, their roles ultimately subservient to those of their fathers or husbands, brothers or sons.
If I ever wrote a book, I remember thinking, I would place the women in the forefront of the action. I would uncover the story that lay invisible between the lines of the men's exploits.
Better still, I would have one of them tell it herself, with all her joys and doubts, her struggles and her triumphs, her
heartbreaks, her achievements, the unique female way in which she sees her world and her place in it. And who could be better suited for this than Panchaali? It is her life, her voice, her questions, and her vision that I invite you into in The Palace of Illusions.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Author's Note of her novel "The Palace of Illusion", by Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakumari, 2008]

In the novel "The Palace of Illusions", some of the male characters of Mahabarat:

Directions  Below is given a passage followed by several possible inferences which can be drawn from the facts stated in the passage? You have to examine each inference separately in the context of the passage and decide upon its degree of truth or falsity. 

Statement : India has acquired the dubious distinction of having the largest number of diabetes patients in the world. It has been estimated that the numbers in India would far surpass those in China by 2025. Number of diabetics in China was expected to double and reach an estimated 35-million mark by 2025. In contrast, India would have 57 million diabetics, three times its currently estimated number. It has also been found that diabetics are more prone to develop coronary artery disease. Women with diabetes are also seen to develop heart disease at an earlier age.

      Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, renal failure and cardiovascular diseases. The reason for predisposition of Indians to the disease may be both due to genetic factors as well as central obesity in middle-aged people. Studies have shown a three-to-four-fold difference between urban and rural areas, suggesting lifestyle factors. Central obesity in urban population is higher. In developing countries, majority of people with diabetes will be in the age group of 45 to 64. But in developed countries, diabetes will affect people who are above 65 years. Experts here have stressed the need to start preventive measures. For this, steps should be taken that encourage physical activity.

      To reduce the number of diabetes cases India has neither the required potential nor any comprehensive plan.