CLAT 2023 Official Sample Paper PDF Download

 Page 1


 
 
THIS IS THE OFFICIAL CLAT SAMPLE PAPER II RELEASED BY THE CLAT 
CONSORTIUM. 
IT IS MERELY COMPILED BY NLTI SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.       
IN NO WAY WE REPRESENT THIS CREATION TO BE OURS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Page 2


 
 
THIS IS THE OFFICIAL CLAT SAMPLE PAPER II RELEASED BY THE CLAT 
CONSORTIUM. 
IT IS MERELY COMPILED BY NLTI SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.       
IN NO WAY WE REPRESENT THIS CREATION TO BE OURS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ENGLISH 
 
Though accompanied and advised by scholars and savants, Alexander the Great had only hazy 
ideas of what he would find in India; he seems to have thought that the Indus was part of the 
Nile and that beyond it lay more of Ethiopia. A fair amount had long been known by the Greeks 
about the Indian north-west, the seat of the Persian satrapy of Gandhara. But beyond that all 
was darkness. 
Under the Seleucids more reliable information became available in the West about what lay 
beyond the Punjab. One of our informants is a Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, sent to India 
by the Seleucid king in about 300 BC. Fragments of his account of what he saw were preserved 
long enough for later writers to quote him at length. As he travelled as far as Bengal and Orissa 
and was respected both as a diplomat and as a scholar, he met and interrogated many Indians. 
Some later writers found him a credulous and unreliable reporter; they dwelt upon his tales of 
men who subsisted on odours instead of food and drink, of others who were cyclopean or whose 
feet were so large that they used them to shelter from the sun, of pygmies and men without 
mouths. 
Such tales were, of course, nonsense. But they were not necessarily without foundation. They 
may well represent only the highly developed awareness shown by Indians of the physical 
differences which marked them off from neighbours or remote acquaintances from Central 
Asia or the jungles of Burma. Some of these must have looked very strange indeed, and some 
of their behaviour was, no doubt, also very strange in Indian eyes. Others among these tales 
may dimly reflect the curious ascetic practices of Indian religion which have never ceased to 
impress outsiders and usually improve in the telling. Such tales need not discredit the teller, 
and they do not mean that other things he reports must be wholly untrue. [1] They may even 
have a positive values if they suggests something of the way in which Megasthenes’s Indian 
informants saw the outside world.[1] 
He describes the India of a great ruler, Chandragupta, founder of the Maurya line. The ancients 
believed that he had been inspired to conquest by having as a youth seen Alexander the Great 
during his invasion of India. Whether or not this story about Alexander was true, Chandragupta 
usurped the Magadha throne in 321 BC and on the ruins of that kingdom built a state which 
encompassed not only the two great valleys of the Indus and Ganges, but most of Afghanistan 
(taken from the Seleucids) and Baluchistan. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from The Penguin History of the World, by J.M. Roberts 
and O.A. Westad, 6
th
 ed., Penguin, 2012.] 
1.1 Based on the information in the passage above, which among the following best 
describes what the Greeks knew about India before Alexander arrived? 
(a) They knew about India’s people, but not much about its terrain. 
(b) They had complete knowledge of India and its people. 
(c) They had some knowledge of the area around Gandhara, but nothing else. 
(d) They had some knowledge of all of India, other than the area near Gandhara. 
Page 3


 
 
THIS IS THE OFFICIAL CLAT SAMPLE PAPER II RELEASED BY THE CLAT 
CONSORTIUM. 
IT IS MERELY COMPILED BY NLTI SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.       
IN NO WAY WE REPRESENT THIS CREATION TO BE OURS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ENGLISH 
 
Though accompanied and advised by scholars and savants, Alexander the Great had only hazy 
ideas of what he would find in India; he seems to have thought that the Indus was part of the 
Nile and that beyond it lay more of Ethiopia. A fair amount had long been known by the Greeks 
about the Indian north-west, the seat of the Persian satrapy of Gandhara. But beyond that all 
was darkness. 
Under the Seleucids more reliable information became available in the West about what lay 
beyond the Punjab. One of our informants is a Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, sent to India 
by the Seleucid king in about 300 BC. Fragments of his account of what he saw were preserved 
long enough for later writers to quote him at length. As he travelled as far as Bengal and Orissa 
and was respected both as a diplomat and as a scholar, he met and interrogated many Indians. 
Some later writers found him a credulous and unreliable reporter; they dwelt upon his tales of 
men who subsisted on odours instead of food and drink, of others who were cyclopean or whose 
feet were so large that they used them to shelter from the sun, of pygmies and men without 
mouths. 
Such tales were, of course, nonsense. But they were not necessarily without foundation. They 
may well represent only the highly developed awareness shown by Indians of the physical 
differences which marked them off from neighbours or remote acquaintances from Central 
Asia or the jungles of Burma. Some of these must have looked very strange indeed, and some 
of their behaviour was, no doubt, also very strange in Indian eyes. Others among these tales 
may dimly reflect the curious ascetic practices of Indian religion which have never ceased to 
impress outsiders and usually improve in the telling. Such tales need not discredit the teller, 
and they do not mean that other things he reports must be wholly untrue. [1] They may even 
have a positive values if they suggests something of the way in which Megasthenes’s Indian 
informants saw the outside world.[1] 
He describes the India of a great ruler, Chandragupta, founder of the Maurya line. The ancients 
believed that he had been inspired to conquest by having as a youth seen Alexander the Great 
during his invasion of India. Whether or not this story about Alexander was true, Chandragupta 
usurped the Magadha throne in 321 BC and on the ruins of that kingdom built a state which 
encompassed not only the two great valleys of the Indus and Ganges, but most of Afghanistan 
(taken from the Seleucids) and Baluchistan. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from The Penguin History of the World, by J.M. Roberts 
and O.A. Westad, 6
th
 ed., Penguin, 2012.] 
1.1 Based on the information in the passage above, which among the following best 
describes what the Greeks knew about India before Alexander arrived? 
(a) They knew about India’s people, but not much about its terrain. 
(b) They had complete knowledge of India and its people. 
(c) They had some knowledge of the area around Gandhara, but nothing else. 
(d) They had some knowledge of all of India, other than the area near Gandhara. 
 
 
1.2 Why, according to the authors, was Megasthenes able to meet and interrogate many 
Indians? 
(a) Because he had been sent to India by the Seleucid king. 
(b) Because he traveled very far into India, and was respected as a diplomat and as a 
scholar. 
(c) Because he had a very friendly disposition, and was able to put people at their ease. 
(d) Because he used torture to extract information from people, which proved a successful 
interrogation technique. 
1.3 Why did some later writers think Megasthenes was a ‘credulous and unreliable 
reporter’? 
(a) Because he told many tales that seemed unbelievable and fantastical. 
(b) Because they were jealous of him and wanted to discredit him. 
(c) Because they were unable to visit India themselves. 
(d) Because he did not keep written records. 
1.4 Which of the following best describes what a ‘credulous’ person would be like? 
(a) Having great intellect and analytical abilities. 
(b) Having too much willingness to believe things without reasonable proof. 
(c) Having great generosity of heart and a willingness to donate to charitable causes. 
(d) Having a weak and sickly physique. 
1.5 Which of the following best describes what the authors feel about the story of how 
Chandragupta was inspired by Alexander? 
(a) They are unsure about whether the story is true. 
(b) They are completely sure that the story is true. 
(c) They are completely sure that the story is false. 
(d) They are completely sure that Chandragupta and Alexander were allies. 
1.6 The sentence enclosed within ‘[1]’ in the passage above is grammatically incorrect. 
Which of the following would make it correct? 
(a) Replace ‘values’ with ‘value’. 
(b) Replace ‘suggests’ with ‘suggest’. 
(c) Neither (a) nor (b). 
(d) Both, (a) and (b). 
Page 4


 
 
THIS IS THE OFFICIAL CLAT SAMPLE PAPER II RELEASED BY THE CLAT 
CONSORTIUM. 
IT IS MERELY COMPILED BY NLTI SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.       
IN NO WAY WE REPRESENT THIS CREATION TO BE OURS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ENGLISH 
 
Though accompanied and advised by scholars and savants, Alexander the Great had only hazy 
ideas of what he would find in India; he seems to have thought that the Indus was part of the 
Nile and that beyond it lay more of Ethiopia. A fair amount had long been known by the Greeks 
about the Indian north-west, the seat of the Persian satrapy of Gandhara. But beyond that all 
was darkness. 
Under the Seleucids more reliable information became available in the West about what lay 
beyond the Punjab. One of our informants is a Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, sent to India 
by the Seleucid king in about 300 BC. Fragments of his account of what he saw were preserved 
long enough for later writers to quote him at length. As he travelled as far as Bengal and Orissa 
and was respected both as a diplomat and as a scholar, he met and interrogated many Indians. 
Some later writers found him a credulous and unreliable reporter; they dwelt upon his tales of 
men who subsisted on odours instead of food and drink, of others who were cyclopean or whose 
feet were so large that they used them to shelter from the sun, of pygmies and men without 
mouths. 
Such tales were, of course, nonsense. But they were not necessarily without foundation. They 
may well represent only the highly developed awareness shown by Indians of the physical 
differences which marked them off from neighbours or remote acquaintances from Central 
Asia or the jungles of Burma. Some of these must have looked very strange indeed, and some 
of their behaviour was, no doubt, also very strange in Indian eyes. Others among these tales 
may dimly reflect the curious ascetic practices of Indian religion which have never ceased to 
impress outsiders and usually improve in the telling. Such tales need not discredit the teller, 
and they do not mean that other things he reports must be wholly untrue. [1] They may even 
have a positive values if they suggests something of the way in which Megasthenes’s Indian 
informants saw the outside world.[1] 
He describes the India of a great ruler, Chandragupta, founder of the Maurya line. The ancients 
believed that he had been inspired to conquest by having as a youth seen Alexander the Great 
during his invasion of India. Whether or not this story about Alexander was true, Chandragupta 
usurped the Magadha throne in 321 BC and on the ruins of that kingdom built a state which 
encompassed not only the two great valleys of the Indus and Ganges, but most of Afghanistan 
(taken from the Seleucids) and Baluchistan. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from The Penguin History of the World, by J.M. Roberts 
and O.A. Westad, 6
th
 ed., Penguin, 2012.] 
1.1 Based on the information in the passage above, which among the following best 
describes what the Greeks knew about India before Alexander arrived? 
(a) They knew about India’s people, but not much about its terrain. 
(b) They had complete knowledge of India and its people. 
(c) They had some knowledge of the area around Gandhara, but nothing else. 
(d) They had some knowledge of all of India, other than the area near Gandhara. 
 
 
1.2 Why, according to the authors, was Megasthenes able to meet and interrogate many 
Indians? 
(a) Because he had been sent to India by the Seleucid king. 
(b) Because he traveled very far into India, and was respected as a diplomat and as a 
scholar. 
(c) Because he had a very friendly disposition, and was able to put people at their ease. 
(d) Because he used torture to extract information from people, which proved a successful 
interrogation technique. 
1.3 Why did some later writers think Megasthenes was a ‘credulous and unreliable 
reporter’? 
(a) Because he told many tales that seemed unbelievable and fantastical. 
(b) Because they were jealous of him and wanted to discredit him. 
(c) Because they were unable to visit India themselves. 
(d) Because he did not keep written records. 
1.4 Which of the following best describes what a ‘credulous’ person would be like? 
(a) Having great intellect and analytical abilities. 
(b) Having too much willingness to believe things without reasonable proof. 
(c) Having great generosity of heart and a willingness to donate to charitable causes. 
(d) Having a weak and sickly physique. 
1.5 Which of the following best describes what the authors feel about the story of how 
Chandragupta was inspired by Alexander? 
(a) They are unsure about whether the story is true. 
(b) They are completely sure that the story is true. 
(c) They are completely sure that the story is false. 
(d) They are completely sure that Chandragupta and Alexander were allies. 
1.6 The sentence enclosed within ‘[1]’ in the passage above is grammatically incorrect. 
Which of the following would make it correct? 
(a) Replace ‘values’ with ‘value’. 
(b) Replace ‘suggests’ with ‘suggest’. 
(c) Neither (a) nor (b). 
(d) Both, (a) and (b). 
 
 
Malay Bhanjo was happiest when he was at his sweet shop. The smell of sweets pervaded the 
air and slowly made its way to the small counter where he sat with his back to the portraits of 
Durga, Kali, Satya Sai Baba and Lok Nath Baba – all in a harmonious row. 
Malay’s shop, Bhanjo Mishtanno Bhandar, was located in a nondescript lane in Hatibagan in 
Kolkata. This was his entire world. He left home after his bath every morning. A few minutes 
of prayer in front of Ma Kali, and some of the other gods that his wife had collected on her 
various temple visits and effectively managed to push into their home, ensured that the day 
goes well. 
Malay liked to laugh off any mention of religiosity – he felt it wasn’t masculine enough. 
Secretly, though, he visited the Shani temple down the lane from his shop. One might even 
presume that Malay was slightly scared of Shani thakur (god worshipped on Saturdays under 
a tree) and hence tried his best to pacify him. At times, when he forgot to slide a ten-rupee note 
into the donation box, he has nightmares of the blue-skinned god chasing him down the streets 
of Hatibagan. 
For the past few days, rumours had been rife about a virus that had descended on the country. 
Malay was worried, and wondered whether prayers hadn’t been offered to Ma Shitala in the 
villages. Shitala was the goddess known for herprowess in curing incurable diseases, especially 
small pox. But since its eradication in India, her popularity had taken a beating. 
[1] Malay was engrossed in these thoughts as he walking down to his shop.[1] He noticed that 
a few shops were closed. Unimaginable! He shuddered at the very thought of it. Just think of 
not being able to make mishtis every day. The juicy khirer chawp, the roshomalai that his 
customers loved eating standing right there inside the shop, the whiff of shingara and 
roshogolla heralding the evenings – Malay quickened his steps at the probability. 
Suddenly he was sure that there would be more customers in the shop today. And in the 
circumstances, they might even have to make more of everything than usual, he pondered, 
while also doing some quick mental calculations about the profits. Maybe if he closed his eyes 
and prayed to Ma Kali really hard, she might even tell him the exact time when the maximum 
number of customers would drop in. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from "‘The Roshogolla Makers’: A sweet short story for 
the age of the pandemic", by Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury, Scroll.in, 
https://scroll.in/article/963404/the-roshogolla-makers-a-sweet-short-story-for-the-age-of-the-
pandemic]  
2.1 Which among the following best explains why Malay “liked to laugh off any mention 
of religiosity”? 
(a) Malay was an atheist and did not believe in gods or religion. 
(b) Malay thought the religious feelings or beliefs were for women, and not manly things. 
(c) Malay thought that the best way to worship god was to ignore organized religion. 
(d) Malay had been upset at the way things had gone in his life and was upset with god. 
2.2 What does the word ‘nondescript’ mean? 
(a) Crowded and busy. 
(b) Narrow and winding. 
Page 5


 
 
THIS IS THE OFFICIAL CLAT SAMPLE PAPER II RELEASED BY THE CLAT 
CONSORTIUM. 
IT IS MERELY COMPILED BY NLTI SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.       
IN NO WAY WE REPRESENT THIS CREATION TO BE OURS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ENGLISH 
 
Though accompanied and advised by scholars and savants, Alexander the Great had only hazy 
ideas of what he would find in India; he seems to have thought that the Indus was part of the 
Nile and that beyond it lay more of Ethiopia. A fair amount had long been known by the Greeks 
about the Indian north-west, the seat of the Persian satrapy of Gandhara. But beyond that all 
was darkness. 
Under the Seleucids more reliable information became available in the West about what lay 
beyond the Punjab. One of our informants is a Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, sent to India 
by the Seleucid king in about 300 BC. Fragments of his account of what he saw were preserved 
long enough for later writers to quote him at length. As he travelled as far as Bengal and Orissa 
and was respected both as a diplomat and as a scholar, he met and interrogated many Indians. 
Some later writers found him a credulous and unreliable reporter; they dwelt upon his tales of 
men who subsisted on odours instead of food and drink, of others who were cyclopean or whose 
feet were so large that they used them to shelter from the sun, of pygmies and men without 
mouths. 
Such tales were, of course, nonsense. But they were not necessarily without foundation. They 
may well represent only the highly developed awareness shown by Indians of the physical 
differences which marked them off from neighbours or remote acquaintances from Central 
Asia or the jungles of Burma. Some of these must have looked very strange indeed, and some 
of their behaviour was, no doubt, also very strange in Indian eyes. Others among these tales 
may dimly reflect the curious ascetic practices of Indian religion which have never ceased to 
impress outsiders and usually improve in the telling. Such tales need not discredit the teller, 
and they do not mean that other things he reports must be wholly untrue. [1] They may even 
have a positive values if they suggests something of the way in which Megasthenes’s Indian 
informants saw the outside world.[1] 
He describes the India of a great ruler, Chandragupta, founder of the Maurya line. The ancients 
believed that he had been inspired to conquest by having as a youth seen Alexander the Great 
during his invasion of India. Whether or not this story about Alexander was true, Chandragupta 
usurped the Magadha throne in 321 BC and on the ruins of that kingdom built a state which 
encompassed not only the two great valleys of the Indus and Ganges, but most of Afghanistan 
(taken from the Seleucids) and Baluchistan. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from The Penguin History of the World, by J.M. Roberts 
and O.A. Westad, 6
th
 ed., Penguin, 2012.] 
1.1 Based on the information in the passage above, which among the following best 
describes what the Greeks knew about India before Alexander arrived? 
(a) They knew about India’s people, but not much about its terrain. 
(b) They had complete knowledge of India and its people. 
(c) They had some knowledge of the area around Gandhara, but nothing else. 
(d) They had some knowledge of all of India, other than the area near Gandhara. 
 
 
1.2 Why, according to the authors, was Megasthenes able to meet and interrogate many 
Indians? 
(a) Because he had been sent to India by the Seleucid king. 
(b) Because he traveled very far into India, and was respected as a diplomat and as a 
scholar. 
(c) Because he had a very friendly disposition, and was able to put people at their ease. 
(d) Because he used torture to extract information from people, which proved a successful 
interrogation technique. 
1.3 Why did some later writers think Megasthenes was a ‘credulous and unreliable 
reporter’? 
(a) Because he told many tales that seemed unbelievable and fantastical. 
(b) Because they were jealous of him and wanted to discredit him. 
(c) Because they were unable to visit India themselves. 
(d) Because he did not keep written records. 
1.4 Which of the following best describes what a ‘credulous’ person would be like? 
(a) Having great intellect and analytical abilities. 
(b) Having too much willingness to believe things without reasonable proof. 
(c) Having great generosity of heart and a willingness to donate to charitable causes. 
(d) Having a weak and sickly physique. 
1.5 Which of the following best describes what the authors feel about the story of how 
Chandragupta was inspired by Alexander? 
(a) They are unsure about whether the story is true. 
(b) They are completely sure that the story is true. 
(c) They are completely sure that the story is false. 
(d) They are completely sure that Chandragupta and Alexander were allies. 
1.6 The sentence enclosed within ‘[1]’ in the passage above is grammatically incorrect. 
Which of the following would make it correct? 
(a) Replace ‘values’ with ‘value’. 
(b) Replace ‘suggests’ with ‘suggest’. 
(c) Neither (a) nor (b). 
(d) Both, (a) and (b). 
 
 
Malay Bhanjo was happiest when he was at his sweet shop. The smell of sweets pervaded the 
air and slowly made its way to the small counter where he sat with his back to the portraits of 
Durga, Kali, Satya Sai Baba and Lok Nath Baba – all in a harmonious row. 
Malay’s shop, Bhanjo Mishtanno Bhandar, was located in a nondescript lane in Hatibagan in 
Kolkata. This was his entire world. He left home after his bath every morning. A few minutes 
of prayer in front of Ma Kali, and some of the other gods that his wife had collected on her 
various temple visits and effectively managed to push into their home, ensured that the day 
goes well. 
Malay liked to laugh off any mention of religiosity – he felt it wasn’t masculine enough. 
Secretly, though, he visited the Shani temple down the lane from his shop. One might even 
presume that Malay was slightly scared of Shani thakur (god worshipped on Saturdays under 
a tree) and hence tried his best to pacify him. At times, when he forgot to slide a ten-rupee note 
into the donation box, he has nightmares of the blue-skinned god chasing him down the streets 
of Hatibagan. 
For the past few days, rumours had been rife about a virus that had descended on the country. 
Malay was worried, and wondered whether prayers hadn’t been offered to Ma Shitala in the 
villages. Shitala was the goddess known for herprowess in curing incurable diseases, especially 
small pox. But since its eradication in India, her popularity had taken a beating. 
[1] Malay was engrossed in these thoughts as he walking down to his shop.[1] He noticed that 
a few shops were closed. Unimaginable! He shuddered at the very thought of it. Just think of 
not being able to make mishtis every day. The juicy khirer chawp, the roshomalai that his 
customers loved eating standing right there inside the shop, the whiff of shingara and 
roshogolla heralding the evenings – Malay quickened his steps at the probability. 
Suddenly he was sure that there would be more customers in the shop today. And in the 
circumstances, they might even have to make more of everything than usual, he pondered, 
while also doing some quick mental calculations about the profits. Maybe if he closed his eyes 
and prayed to Ma Kali really hard, she might even tell him the exact time when the maximum 
number of customers would drop in. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from "‘The Roshogolla Makers’: A sweet short story for 
the age of the pandemic", by Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury, Scroll.in, 
https://scroll.in/article/963404/the-roshogolla-makers-a-sweet-short-story-for-the-age-of-the-
pandemic]  
2.1 Which among the following best explains why Malay “liked to laugh off any mention 
of religiosity”? 
(a) Malay was an atheist and did not believe in gods or religion. 
(b) Malay thought the religious feelings or beliefs were for women, and not manly things. 
(c) Malay thought that the best way to worship god was to ignore organized religion. 
(d) Malay had been upset at the way things had gone in his life and was upset with god. 
2.2 What does the word ‘nondescript’ mean? 
(a) Crowded and busy. 
(b) Narrow and winding. 
 
 
(c) Wide and tree-lined. 
(d) Lacking distinctive or interesting features or characteristics. 
2.3 Why did Malay sometimes have nightmares of Shani thakur chasing him down the 
streets of Hatibagan? 
(a) Because his wife had told him that Shani thakur would punish him if he did not return 
home on time. 
(b) Because he thought Shani thakur had gotten angry with the country and unleashed a 
virus on it. 
(c) Because he thought Shani thakur would punish him for not putting money in the 
donation box at the Shani temple. 
(d) Because he sometimes cheated, and used cheap ingredients to make the sweets he sold 
his customers. 
2.4 Why did Malay think the virus that had descended on the country was connected to 
Ma Shitala? 
(a) Since Ma Shitala was known for curing incurable diseases, and after the eradication of 
small pox, fewer people had been offering prayers to her. 
(b) Since Ma Shitala was upset with the increasing popularity of Shani thakur, and was 
trying to punish people for forgetting her. 
(c) Since the Ma Shitala template in the city had had to be shut down. 
(d) Since he had not prayed to Ma Shitala in many years. 
2.5 The sentence enclosed within ‘[1]’ in the passage above is grammatically incorrect. 
Which of the following would make it correct? 
(a) Replace “engrossed” with “engrossing”. 
(b) Replace “walking” with “walked”. 
(c) Replace “down” with “up”. 
(d) Replace “these” with “those”. 
2.6 How did Malay hope to learn the exact time when the maximum number of 
customers would come to his shop? 
(a) By examining his sales records from the past few days. 
(b) By placing an advertisement in the paper announcing discounts would be available at 
a particular time. 
(c) By paying tribute to Ma Shitala. 
(d) By praying to Ma Kali.