CLAT Sample Paper - 3 (2023)

 Page 1


 
 
SAMPLE QUESTIONS 
ENGLISH 
Writers do moan about the loneliness of their lives, but most of them seem able to cope with society. It’s rare at 
a publishing party to see anyone skulking in a corner gnawing his knuckles with fear of his fellow man, quite 
usual to see a gregarious mass tossing Buck’s Fizz down its throat and talking about money. One thing writers 
never seem to talk about is writing. 
Some people say they want to write, but in fact simply want to publish books. In the time between my two 
visits, as last winter wore on, and my novel I’m working on went nowhere in particular, I began to wonder if  
I fell into the second category. I had tried to talk in terms of my own experience to the people on the courses;  
I kept telling them that the one thing you couldn’t do with a book was to jostle it along – not if it was going to be 
any good when it was finished. You had to be relaxed about the process, and you had to let it take its own time. 
I am quite committed to demystifying, as far as I can, the business of writing fiction; to passing on tips. So, when 
anyone asks me how I work I tell them rapidly and in great detail. The trouble is that what I tell them is not 
true. It is reasonable, it is practical, it is helpful; it just isn’t true. I’m not protecting a secret, or being coy; and 
it’s not so much lies, perhaps, as confabulation. Even as I talk I know I’m making myself up as I go along. 
Unable to grasp the essence of the matter, I make a series of wild stabs at it, violent gestures to show who’s 
boss. I wonder if I can say anything meaningful about writing fiction, when I know this fact: that if when I am 
writing a paragraph the telephone rings and I answer it, what I write thereafter will be completely different 
from what I would have written if I had not been interrupted. Has the process any consistency? Any logic? I 
can’t believe it has. It is inherently ludicrous. Perhaps this is why writers don’t talk about how they achieve 
their effects. They are too embarrassed. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Making Myself Up: Demystifying the Art of Writing”, by Hilary  
Mantel, The Times Literary Supplement]  
1. How does the author describe authors’ personalities?  
 (a) Introverted  
 (b) Social on some occasions, solitary on others  
 (c) They are social butterflies  
 (d) None of the above  
 
2. Which option best describes the main point of the passage?  
 (a) The writing process is a divine gift  
 (b) The writing process is serendipitous  
 (c) The author’s writing process cannot be described through a set of rules  
 (d) All of the above  
 
3. How is the author’s tone in the passage above best described? 
 (a) Satirical (b) Humorous  
 (c) Laconic (d) None of the above  
 
4. What is the author’s profession most likely (as inferred from the passage)?  
 (a) Novelist (b) Poet  
 (c) Film director (d) Production Assistant  
 
 
Page 2


 
 
SAMPLE QUESTIONS 
ENGLISH 
Writers do moan about the loneliness of their lives, but most of them seem able to cope with society. It’s rare at 
a publishing party to see anyone skulking in a corner gnawing his knuckles with fear of his fellow man, quite 
usual to see a gregarious mass tossing Buck’s Fizz down its throat and talking about money. One thing writers 
never seem to talk about is writing. 
Some people say they want to write, but in fact simply want to publish books. In the time between my two 
visits, as last winter wore on, and my novel I’m working on went nowhere in particular, I began to wonder if  
I fell into the second category. I had tried to talk in terms of my own experience to the people on the courses;  
I kept telling them that the one thing you couldn’t do with a book was to jostle it along – not if it was going to be 
any good when it was finished. You had to be relaxed about the process, and you had to let it take its own time. 
I am quite committed to demystifying, as far as I can, the business of writing fiction; to passing on tips. So, when 
anyone asks me how I work I tell them rapidly and in great detail. The trouble is that what I tell them is not 
true. It is reasonable, it is practical, it is helpful; it just isn’t true. I’m not protecting a secret, or being coy; and 
it’s not so much lies, perhaps, as confabulation. Even as I talk I know I’m making myself up as I go along. 
Unable to grasp the essence of the matter, I make a series of wild stabs at it, violent gestures to show who’s 
boss. I wonder if I can say anything meaningful about writing fiction, when I know this fact: that if when I am 
writing a paragraph the telephone rings and I answer it, what I write thereafter will be completely different 
from what I would have written if I had not been interrupted. Has the process any consistency? Any logic? I 
can’t believe it has. It is inherently ludicrous. Perhaps this is why writers don’t talk about how they achieve 
their effects. They are too embarrassed. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Making Myself Up: Demystifying the Art of Writing”, by Hilary  
Mantel, The Times Literary Supplement]  
1. How does the author describe authors’ personalities?  
 (a) Introverted  
 (b) Social on some occasions, solitary on others  
 (c) They are social butterflies  
 (d) None of the above  
 
2. Which option best describes the main point of the passage?  
 (a) The writing process is a divine gift  
 (b) The writing process is serendipitous  
 (c) The author’s writing process cannot be described through a set of rules  
 (d) All of the above  
 
3. How is the author’s tone in the passage above best described? 
 (a) Satirical (b) Humorous  
 (c) Laconic (d) None of the above  
 
4. What is the author’s profession most likely (as inferred from the passage)?  
 (a) Novelist (b) Poet  
 (c) Film director (d) Production Assistant  
 
 
 
 
5. Who is the most likely audience for this essay by Hilary Mantel?  
 (a) Guitarists (b) Screenwriters  
 (c) Chefs (d) People aspiring to writing careers 
 
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 
 
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned that climate change will not spare other countries the 
sort of disaster that left up to one third of his country underwater and millions of its children at risk of water 
borne diseases. He told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to come together and “act now” before 
it’s too late. 
“One thing is very clear, what happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” Sharif told world leaders. In this 
ground zero of climate change, 33 million people, including women and children, are now at high risk from 
health hazards,” he said. 
The deluge has left 3.4 million children in need of “immediate, lifesaving support,” according to UNICEF, leaving 
them vulnerable to contracting water-borne diseases, including dengue fever and malaria. 
“The undeniable and inconvenient truth is that this calamity has not been triggered by anything we have done,” 
he said. 
Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, European Union data shows, yet 
it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climatea crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. The 
country’s National Disaster Management Authority says that among the 1,606 deaths recorded so far, 579 are 
children. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “What happened in Pakistan, will not stay in Pakistan’, Flood ravaged 
country warns UN” by Kathleen Magramo and Larry  
Register, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/asia/pakistan-floods-unga-shebaz-sharif-intl 
hnk/index.html]  
6. Which country produces the world’s most “planet-warming gases” today?  
 (a) Russia (b) China  
 (c) USA (d) Brazil  
 
7. Which of the following is not a ‘greenhouse gas’?  
 (a) Oxygen (b) Carbon Dioxide  
 (c) Methane  
 (d) Nitrous Oxide 
 
8. An Inconvenient Truth, the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, featured which former 
US Vice President?  
 (a) Joe Biden (b) Dick Cheney  
 (c) Mike Pence (d) Al Gore  
 
9. Which activist started the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement to raise awareness about climate change?  
 (a) Leonardo Dicaprio (b) Greta Thunberg  
 (c) Licypriya Kangujam (d) Malala Yousafzai  
 
 
Page 3


 
 
SAMPLE QUESTIONS 
ENGLISH 
Writers do moan about the loneliness of their lives, but most of them seem able to cope with society. It’s rare at 
a publishing party to see anyone skulking in a corner gnawing his knuckles with fear of his fellow man, quite 
usual to see a gregarious mass tossing Buck’s Fizz down its throat and talking about money. One thing writers 
never seem to talk about is writing. 
Some people say they want to write, but in fact simply want to publish books. In the time between my two 
visits, as last winter wore on, and my novel I’m working on went nowhere in particular, I began to wonder if  
I fell into the second category. I had tried to talk in terms of my own experience to the people on the courses;  
I kept telling them that the one thing you couldn’t do with a book was to jostle it along – not if it was going to be 
any good when it was finished. You had to be relaxed about the process, and you had to let it take its own time. 
I am quite committed to demystifying, as far as I can, the business of writing fiction; to passing on tips. So, when 
anyone asks me how I work I tell them rapidly and in great detail. The trouble is that what I tell them is not 
true. It is reasonable, it is practical, it is helpful; it just isn’t true. I’m not protecting a secret, or being coy; and 
it’s not so much lies, perhaps, as confabulation. Even as I talk I know I’m making myself up as I go along. 
Unable to grasp the essence of the matter, I make a series of wild stabs at it, violent gestures to show who’s 
boss. I wonder if I can say anything meaningful about writing fiction, when I know this fact: that if when I am 
writing a paragraph the telephone rings and I answer it, what I write thereafter will be completely different 
from what I would have written if I had not been interrupted. Has the process any consistency? Any logic? I 
can’t believe it has. It is inherently ludicrous. Perhaps this is why writers don’t talk about how they achieve 
their effects. They are too embarrassed. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Making Myself Up: Demystifying the Art of Writing”, by Hilary  
Mantel, The Times Literary Supplement]  
1. How does the author describe authors’ personalities?  
 (a) Introverted  
 (b) Social on some occasions, solitary on others  
 (c) They are social butterflies  
 (d) None of the above  
 
2. Which option best describes the main point of the passage?  
 (a) The writing process is a divine gift  
 (b) The writing process is serendipitous  
 (c) The author’s writing process cannot be described through a set of rules  
 (d) All of the above  
 
3. How is the author’s tone in the passage above best described? 
 (a) Satirical (b) Humorous  
 (c) Laconic (d) None of the above  
 
4. What is the author’s profession most likely (as inferred from the passage)?  
 (a) Novelist (b) Poet  
 (c) Film director (d) Production Assistant  
 
 
 
 
5. Who is the most likely audience for this essay by Hilary Mantel?  
 (a) Guitarists (b) Screenwriters  
 (c) Chefs (d) People aspiring to writing careers 
 
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 
 
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned that climate change will not spare other countries the 
sort of disaster that left up to one third of his country underwater and millions of its children at risk of water 
borne diseases. He told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to come together and “act now” before 
it’s too late. 
“One thing is very clear, what happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” Sharif told world leaders. In this 
ground zero of climate change, 33 million people, including women and children, are now at high risk from 
health hazards,” he said. 
The deluge has left 3.4 million children in need of “immediate, lifesaving support,” according to UNICEF, leaving 
them vulnerable to contracting water-borne diseases, including dengue fever and malaria. 
“The undeniable and inconvenient truth is that this calamity has not been triggered by anything we have done,” 
he said. 
Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, European Union data shows, yet 
it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climatea crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. The 
country’s National Disaster Management Authority says that among the 1,606 deaths recorded so far, 579 are 
children. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “What happened in Pakistan, will not stay in Pakistan’, Flood ravaged 
country warns UN” by Kathleen Magramo and Larry  
Register, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/asia/pakistan-floods-unga-shebaz-sharif-intl 
hnk/index.html]  
6. Which country produces the world’s most “planet-warming gases” today?  
 (a) Russia (b) China  
 (c) USA (d) Brazil  
 
7. Which of the following is not a ‘greenhouse gas’?  
 (a) Oxygen (b) Carbon Dioxide  
 (c) Methane  
 (d) Nitrous Oxide 
 
8. An Inconvenient Truth, the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, featured which former 
US Vice President?  
 (a) Joe Biden (b) Dick Cheney  
 (c) Mike Pence (d) Al Gore  
 
9. Which activist started the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement to raise awareness about climate change?  
 (a) Leonardo Dicaprio (b) Greta Thunberg  
 (c) Licypriya Kangujam (d) Malala Yousafzai  
 
 
 
 
10. Which Indian city’s recent flooding (September 2022) caused an estimated economic loss of $30 million?  
 (a) Kolkata (b) Mumbai  
 (c) Chennai (d) Bengaluru  
 
11. Which of the following is the full name of UNICEF?  
 (a) United Nations Imminent Crisis Elimination Forum  
 (b) United Nations Indigenous Catastrophe Estimation Firm  
 (c) United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund  
 (d) United Nations International Charity Executive Fundraiser  
 
12. According to the latest Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which country has had the best 
performance?  
 (a) Sweden (b) Australia  
 (c) Denmark (d) Norway 
 
LEGAL REASONING 
 
Twitter has laid off nearly half of its 7,500-strong workforce since Elon Musk took over, while Meta is firing 
over 11,000 employees in one of the biggest layoffs a tech firm has seen around the world. Edtech platform  
Byju’s is letting go of about 2,500 employees to focus on sustainability and capital-efficient growth. And as 
macroeconomic factors worsen worldwide, some other firms are expected to go for mass layoffs. 
While some big firms announce mass firings, some do it quietly over a period. And while many promises are 
made, sometimes they are not kept. God forbid, if you find yourself in such circumstances, what should your 
plan of action be?  
As what is being offered by the tech giants across regions remains unclear, here is what the law says about 
severance packages in India:  
A lawyer explained that labour laws would identify employees without any managerial responsibilities as 
workmen, and managers as non-workmen. 
For non-workmen, any severance payouts other than notice period pay and terminal benefits are determined 
on the basis of their employment contract; they are not entitled to retrenchment compensation. For workmen, 
that is, non-managerial personnel, the law would require the employer to pay retrenchment compensation at 
the rate of 15 days’ salary for each complete year of service if the workman has completed at least one year of 
service. 
The lawyer added that under law, employees who claim to be workmen might approach the Labour 
Commissioner’s office to raise a dispute against their discharge from employment. If there is no resolution, the 
matter may be referred to the Labour Court for adjudication. Non-workmen can only approach a civil court for 
relief of damages. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Twitter, Meta mass layoffs: What the Indian law says about 
severance package, notice period and more”, by Kanishka Sarkar, CNBCTV18]  
13. Jayasimha worked as an engineer at Critter, a social media platform that was growing rapidly when he 
joined it on 15 December 2020. He had no managerial responsibilities. Over time though, Critter’s 
popularity declined, and the company started laying off employees. On 13 December 2022, Jayasimha 
received an email from Critter’s Human Resources Department, telling him that he had been fired as a 
part of a large retrenchment. The email said that as a workman, he would be paid 15 days’ salary as 
Page 4


 
 
SAMPLE QUESTIONS 
ENGLISH 
Writers do moan about the loneliness of their lives, but most of them seem able to cope with society. It’s rare at 
a publishing party to see anyone skulking in a corner gnawing his knuckles with fear of his fellow man, quite 
usual to see a gregarious mass tossing Buck’s Fizz down its throat and talking about money. One thing writers 
never seem to talk about is writing. 
Some people say they want to write, but in fact simply want to publish books. In the time between my two 
visits, as last winter wore on, and my novel I’m working on went nowhere in particular, I began to wonder if  
I fell into the second category. I had tried to talk in terms of my own experience to the people on the courses;  
I kept telling them that the one thing you couldn’t do with a book was to jostle it along – not if it was going to be 
any good when it was finished. You had to be relaxed about the process, and you had to let it take its own time. 
I am quite committed to demystifying, as far as I can, the business of writing fiction; to passing on tips. So, when 
anyone asks me how I work I tell them rapidly and in great detail. The trouble is that what I tell them is not 
true. It is reasonable, it is practical, it is helpful; it just isn’t true. I’m not protecting a secret, or being coy; and 
it’s not so much lies, perhaps, as confabulation. Even as I talk I know I’m making myself up as I go along. 
Unable to grasp the essence of the matter, I make a series of wild stabs at it, violent gestures to show who’s 
boss. I wonder if I can say anything meaningful about writing fiction, when I know this fact: that if when I am 
writing a paragraph the telephone rings and I answer it, what I write thereafter will be completely different 
from what I would have written if I had not been interrupted. Has the process any consistency? Any logic? I 
can’t believe it has. It is inherently ludicrous. Perhaps this is why writers don’t talk about how they achieve 
their effects. They are too embarrassed. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Making Myself Up: Demystifying the Art of Writing”, by Hilary  
Mantel, The Times Literary Supplement]  
1. How does the author describe authors’ personalities?  
 (a) Introverted  
 (b) Social on some occasions, solitary on others  
 (c) They are social butterflies  
 (d) None of the above  
 
2. Which option best describes the main point of the passage?  
 (a) The writing process is a divine gift  
 (b) The writing process is serendipitous  
 (c) The author’s writing process cannot be described through a set of rules  
 (d) All of the above  
 
3. How is the author’s tone in the passage above best described? 
 (a) Satirical (b) Humorous  
 (c) Laconic (d) None of the above  
 
4. What is the author’s profession most likely (as inferred from the passage)?  
 (a) Novelist (b) Poet  
 (c) Film director (d) Production Assistant  
 
 
 
 
5. Who is the most likely audience for this essay by Hilary Mantel?  
 (a) Guitarists (b) Screenwriters  
 (c) Chefs (d) People aspiring to writing careers 
 
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 
 
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned that climate change will not spare other countries the 
sort of disaster that left up to one third of his country underwater and millions of its children at risk of water 
borne diseases. He told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to come together and “act now” before 
it’s too late. 
“One thing is very clear, what happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” Sharif told world leaders. In this 
ground zero of climate change, 33 million people, including women and children, are now at high risk from 
health hazards,” he said. 
The deluge has left 3.4 million children in need of “immediate, lifesaving support,” according to UNICEF, leaving 
them vulnerable to contracting water-borne diseases, including dengue fever and malaria. 
“The undeniable and inconvenient truth is that this calamity has not been triggered by anything we have done,” 
he said. 
Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, European Union data shows, yet 
it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climatea crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. The 
country’s National Disaster Management Authority says that among the 1,606 deaths recorded so far, 579 are 
children. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “What happened in Pakistan, will not stay in Pakistan’, Flood ravaged 
country warns UN” by Kathleen Magramo and Larry  
Register, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/asia/pakistan-floods-unga-shebaz-sharif-intl 
hnk/index.html]  
6. Which country produces the world’s most “planet-warming gases” today?  
 (a) Russia (b) China  
 (c) USA (d) Brazil  
 
7. Which of the following is not a ‘greenhouse gas’?  
 (a) Oxygen (b) Carbon Dioxide  
 (c) Methane  
 (d) Nitrous Oxide 
 
8. An Inconvenient Truth, the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, featured which former 
US Vice President?  
 (a) Joe Biden (b) Dick Cheney  
 (c) Mike Pence (d) Al Gore  
 
9. Which activist started the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement to raise awareness about climate change?  
 (a) Leonardo Dicaprio (b) Greta Thunberg  
 (c) Licypriya Kangujam (d) Malala Yousafzai  
 
 
 
 
10. Which Indian city’s recent flooding (September 2022) caused an estimated economic loss of $30 million?  
 (a) Kolkata (b) Mumbai  
 (c) Chennai (d) Bengaluru  
 
11. Which of the following is the full name of UNICEF?  
 (a) United Nations Imminent Crisis Elimination Forum  
 (b) United Nations Indigenous Catastrophe Estimation Firm  
 (c) United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund  
 (d) United Nations International Charity Executive Fundraiser  
 
12. According to the latest Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which country has had the best 
performance?  
 (a) Sweden (b) Australia  
 (c) Denmark (d) Norway 
 
LEGAL REASONING 
 
Twitter has laid off nearly half of its 7,500-strong workforce since Elon Musk took over, while Meta is firing 
over 11,000 employees in one of the biggest layoffs a tech firm has seen around the world. Edtech platform  
Byju’s is letting go of about 2,500 employees to focus on sustainability and capital-efficient growth. And as 
macroeconomic factors worsen worldwide, some other firms are expected to go for mass layoffs. 
While some big firms announce mass firings, some do it quietly over a period. And while many promises are 
made, sometimes they are not kept. God forbid, if you find yourself in such circumstances, what should your 
plan of action be?  
As what is being offered by the tech giants across regions remains unclear, here is what the law says about 
severance packages in India:  
A lawyer explained that labour laws would identify employees without any managerial responsibilities as 
workmen, and managers as non-workmen. 
For non-workmen, any severance payouts other than notice period pay and terminal benefits are determined 
on the basis of their employment contract; they are not entitled to retrenchment compensation. For workmen, 
that is, non-managerial personnel, the law would require the employer to pay retrenchment compensation at 
the rate of 15 days’ salary for each complete year of service if the workman has completed at least one year of 
service. 
The lawyer added that under law, employees who claim to be workmen might approach the Labour 
Commissioner’s office to raise a dispute against their discharge from employment. If there is no resolution, the 
matter may be referred to the Labour Court for adjudication. Non-workmen can only approach a civil court for 
relief of damages. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Twitter, Meta mass layoffs: What the Indian law says about 
severance package, notice period and more”, by Kanishka Sarkar, CNBCTV18]  
13. Jayasimha worked as an engineer at Critter, a social media platform that was growing rapidly when he 
joined it on 15 December 2020. He had no managerial responsibilities. Over time though, Critter’s 
popularity declined, and the company started laying off employees. On 13 December 2022, Jayasimha 
received an email from Critter’s Human Resources Department, telling him that he had been fired as a 
part of a large retrenchment. The email said that as a workman, he would be paid 15 days’ salary as 
 
 
retrenchment compensation. Jayasimha claims that this is insufficient, and that he should be given a 
higher amount as retrenchment compensation. Is he right?  
 (a) No, since he was a workman. 
 (b) No, since he had not completed a second year of service. 
 (c) Yes, since he had finished more than one year of service at that time. 
 (d) Yes, since he had contributed tremendously to Critter’s growth. 
 
14. Upset at the way Critter has treated him, Jayasimha decides to approach the Labour Court, and claims that 
Critter had fired him unjustly. Critter claims that the Labour Court was not the correct authority to decide 
this matter. Is Critter right?  
 (a) Yes, since Jayasimha was not a workman. 
 (b) No, since Jayasimha was a workman. 
 (c) Yes, since Jayasimha should have approached the Labour Commissioner’s office first. 
 (d) No, since Jayasimha has the right to have his grievances heard by the authorities. 
 
15. Jayasimha later comes to know that his manager Narasimha, who had not even completed a full year of 
service at Critter, had received a large amount as a severance payout, over and above the notice period 
pay and terminal benefits. This amount was much greater than 15 days’ salary. Jayasimha claims this is 
unfair. Which of the following, if true, would be the most valid argument for Critter to take to justify the 
payments to Narasimha?  
 (a) The additional payments were part of the terms of Narasimha’s employment contract. 
 (b) The additional payments were justifiable since Narasimha’s salary was greater than Jayasimha’s. 
 (c) The additional payments were justifiable since Narasimha was newer to Critter than Jayasimha. 
 (d) The additional payments were justifiable since Jayasimha had caused trouble for Critter by trying to 
approach the Labour Court after being fired. 
 
16. Since several large technology companies were retrenching large numbers of their staff, the government 
decided to change the law relating to retrenchment compensation on December 17, 2022. 
 The new rule in this regard now says that an employer would be required to pay retrenchment 
compensation at the rate of 15 days’ salary for each complete year of services if the workman has 
completed at least one year of service, and 1 day’s salary for each month, or any part of a month of service 
completed, in case the workman has not completed at least one year of service. The government also says 
that this rule would apply to any workman retrenched in the past three months. Jayasimha now claims 
additional retrenchment compensation from Critter under the revised rule. Is he entitled to any 
additional retrenchment compensation?  
 (a) No, since he was laid off before the new rule was made. 
 (b) No, since he has completed at least one year of service. 
 (c) Yes, since he had completed 11 full months and one partial month of service over the one full year he 
had served. 
 (d) Yes, since he had completed nearly two full years of service. 
 
17. Jayasimha gets a job with another technology company, Beta, on December 18, 2022, and starts work 
there. Unfortunately for him, however, Beta retrenches several hundred workmen on that day, including 
Jayasimha. Beta claims that Jayasimha is not entitled to any retrenchment compensation since he had 
Page 5


 
 
SAMPLE QUESTIONS 
ENGLISH 
Writers do moan about the loneliness of their lives, but most of them seem able to cope with society. It’s rare at 
a publishing party to see anyone skulking in a corner gnawing his knuckles with fear of his fellow man, quite 
usual to see a gregarious mass tossing Buck’s Fizz down its throat and talking about money. One thing writers 
never seem to talk about is writing. 
Some people say they want to write, but in fact simply want to publish books. In the time between my two 
visits, as last winter wore on, and my novel I’m working on went nowhere in particular, I began to wonder if  
I fell into the second category. I had tried to talk in terms of my own experience to the people on the courses;  
I kept telling them that the one thing you couldn’t do with a book was to jostle it along – not if it was going to be 
any good when it was finished. You had to be relaxed about the process, and you had to let it take its own time. 
I am quite committed to demystifying, as far as I can, the business of writing fiction; to passing on tips. So, when 
anyone asks me how I work I tell them rapidly and in great detail. The trouble is that what I tell them is not 
true. It is reasonable, it is practical, it is helpful; it just isn’t true. I’m not protecting a secret, or being coy; and 
it’s not so much lies, perhaps, as confabulation. Even as I talk I know I’m making myself up as I go along. 
Unable to grasp the essence of the matter, I make a series of wild stabs at it, violent gestures to show who’s 
boss. I wonder if I can say anything meaningful about writing fiction, when I know this fact: that if when I am 
writing a paragraph the telephone rings and I answer it, what I write thereafter will be completely different 
from what I would have written if I had not been interrupted. Has the process any consistency? Any logic? I 
can’t believe it has. It is inherently ludicrous. Perhaps this is why writers don’t talk about how they achieve 
their effects. They are too embarrassed. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Making Myself Up: Demystifying the Art of Writing”, by Hilary  
Mantel, The Times Literary Supplement]  
1. How does the author describe authors’ personalities?  
 (a) Introverted  
 (b) Social on some occasions, solitary on others  
 (c) They are social butterflies  
 (d) None of the above  
 
2. Which option best describes the main point of the passage?  
 (a) The writing process is a divine gift  
 (b) The writing process is serendipitous  
 (c) The author’s writing process cannot be described through a set of rules  
 (d) All of the above  
 
3. How is the author’s tone in the passage above best described? 
 (a) Satirical (b) Humorous  
 (c) Laconic (d) None of the above  
 
4. What is the author’s profession most likely (as inferred from the passage)?  
 (a) Novelist (b) Poet  
 (c) Film director (d) Production Assistant  
 
 
 
 
5. Who is the most likely audience for this essay by Hilary Mantel?  
 (a) Guitarists (b) Screenwriters  
 (c) Chefs (d) People aspiring to writing careers 
 
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 
 
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned that climate change will not spare other countries the 
sort of disaster that left up to one third of his country underwater and millions of its children at risk of water 
borne diseases. He told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to come together and “act now” before 
it’s too late. 
“One thing is very clear, what happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” Sharif told world leaders. In this 
ground zero of climate change, 33 million people, including women and children, are now at high risk from 
health hazards,” he said. 
The deluge has left 3.4 million children in need of “immediate, lifesaving support,” according to UNICEF, leaving 
them vulnerable to contracting water-borne diseases, including dengue fever and malaria. 
“The undeniable and inconvenient truth is that this calamity has not been triggered by anything we have done,” 
he said. 
Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, European Union data shows, yet 
it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climatea crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. The 
country’s National Disaster Management Authority says that among the 1,606 deaths recorded so far, 579 are 
children. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “What happened in Pakistan, will not stay in Pakistan’, Flood ravaged 
country warns UN” by Kathleen Magramo and Larry  
Register, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/asia/pakistan-floods-unga-shebaz-sharif-intl 
hnk/index.html]  
6. Which country produces the world’s most “planet-warming gases” today?  
 (a) Russia (b) China  
 (c) USA (d) Brazil  
 
7. Which of the following is not a ‘greenhouse gas’?  
 (a) Oxygen (b) Carbon Dioxide  
 (c) Methane  
 (d) Nitrous Oxide 
 
8. An Inconvenient Truth, the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, featured which former 
US Vice President?  
 (a) Joe Biden (b) Dick Cheney  
 (c) Mike Pence (d) Al Gore  
 
9. Which activist started the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement to raise awareness about climate change?  
 (a) Leonardo Dicaprio (b) Greta Thunberg  
 (c) Licypriya Kangujam (d) Malala Yousafzai  
 
 
 
 
10. Which Indian city’s recent flooding (September 2022) caused an estimated economic loss of $30 million?  
 (a) Kolkata (b) Mumbai  
 (c) Chennai (d) Bengaluru  
 
11. Which of the following is the full name of UNICEF?  
 (a) United Nations Imminent Crisis Elimination Forum  
 (b) United Nations Indigenous Catastrophe Estimation Firm  
 (c) United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund  
 (d) United Nations International Charity Executive Fundraiser  
 
12. According to the latest Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which country has had the best 
performance?  
 (a) Sweden (b) Australia  
 (c) Denmark (d) Norway 
 
LEGAL REASONING 
 
Twitter has laid off nearly half of its 7,500-strong workforce since Elon Musk took over, while Meta is firing 
over 11,000 employees in one of the biggest layoffs a tech firm has seen around the world. Edtech platform  
Byju’s is letting go of about 2,500 employees to focus on sustainability and capital-efficient growth. And as 
macroeconomic factors worsen worldwide, some other firms are expected to go for mass layoffs. 
While some big firms announce mass firings, some do it quietly over a period. And while many promises are 
made, sometimes they are not kept. God forbid, if you find yourself in such circumstances, what should your 
plan of action be?  
As what is being offered by the tech giants across regions remains unclear, here is what the law says about 
severance packages in India:  
A lawyer explained that labour laws would identify employees without any managerial responsibilities as 
workmen, and managers as non-workmen. 
For non-workmen, any severance payouts other than notice period pay and terminal benefits are determined 
on the basis of their employment contract; they are not entitled to retrenchment compensation. For workmen, 
that is, non-managerial personnel, the law would require the employer to pay retrenchment compensation at 
the rate of 15 days’ salary for each complete year of service if the workman has completed at least one year of 
service. 
The lawyer added that under law, employees who claim to be workmen might approach the Labour 
Commissioner’s office to raise a dispute against their discharge from employment. If there is no resolution, the 
matter may be referred to the Labour Court for adjudication. Non-workmen can only approach a civil court for 
relief of damages. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Twitter, Meta mass layoffs: What the Indian law says about 
severance package, notice period and more”, by Kanishka Sarkar, CNBCTV18]  
13. Jayasimha worked as an engineer at Critter, a social media platform that was growing rapidly when he 
joined it on 15 December 2020. He had no managerial responsibilities. Over time though, Critter’s 
popularity declined, and the company started laying off employees. On 13 December 2022, Jayasimha 
received an email from Critter’s Human Resources Department, telling him that he had been fired as a 
part of a large retrenchment. The email said that as a workman, he would be paid 15 days’ salary as 
 
 
retrenchment compensation. Jayasimha claims that this is insufficient, and that he should be given a 
higher amount as retrenchment compensation. Is he right?  
 (a) No, since he was a workman. 
 (b) No, since he had not completed a second year of service. 
 (c) Yes, since he had finished more than one year of service at that time. 
 (d) Yes, since he had contributed tremendously to Critter’s growth. 
 
14. Upset at the way Critter has treated him, Jayasimha decides to approach the Labour Court, and claims that 
Critter had fired him unjustly. Critter claims that the Labour Court was not the correct authority to decide 
this matter. Is Critter right?  
 (a) Yes, since Jayasimha was not a workman. 
 (b) No, since Jayasimha was a workman. 
 (c) Yes, since Jayasimha should have approached the Labour Commissioner’s office first. 
 (d) No, since Jayasimha has the right to have his grievances heard by the authorities. 
 
15. Jayasimha later comes to know that his manager Narasimha, who had not even completed a full year of 
service at Critter, had received a large amount as a severance payout, over and above the notice period 
pay and terminal benefits. This amount was much greater than 15 days’ salary. Jayasimha claims this is 
unfair. Which of the following, if true, would be the most valid argument for Critter to take to justify the 
payments to Narasimha?  
 (a) The additional payments were part of the terms of Narasimha’s employment contract. 
 (b) The additional payments were justifiable since Narasimha’s salary was greater than Jayasimha’s. 
 (c) The additional payments were justifiable since Narasimha was newer to Critter than Jayasimha. 
 (d) The additional payments were justifiable since Jayasimha had caused trouble for Critter by trying to 
approach the Labour Court after being fired. 
 
16. Since several large technology companies were retrenching large numbers of their staff, the government 
decided to change the law relating to retrenchment compensation on December 17, 2022. 
 The new rule in this regard now says that an employer would be required to pay retrenchment 
compensation at the rate of 15 days’ salary for each complete year of services if the workman has 
completed at least one year of service, and 1 day’s salary for each month, or any part of a month of service 
completed, in case the workman has not completed at least one year of service. The government also says 
that this rule would apply to any workman retrenched in the past three months. Jayasimha now claims 
additional retrenchment compensation from Critter under the revised rule. Is he entitled to any 
additional retrenchment compensation?  
 (a) No, since he was laid off before the new rule was made. 
 (b) No, since he has completed at least one year of service. 
 (c) Yes, since he had completed 11 full months and one partial month of service over the one full year he 
had served. 
 (d) Yes, since he had completed nearly two full years of service. 
 
17. Jayasimha gets a job with another technology company, Beta, on December 18, 2022, and starts work 
there. Unfortunately for him, however, Beta retrenches several hundred workmen on that day, including 
Jayasimha. Beta claims that Jayasimha is not entitled to any retrenchment compensation since he had 
 
 
only started work that day. Is Jayasimha entitled to any retrenchment compensation from Beta, and if so, 
how much?  
 (a) Yes, he is entitled to 1 month’s salary as retrenchment compensation from Beta. 
 (b) Yes, he is entitled to 15 days’ salary as retrenchment compensation from Beta. 
 (c) No, he is not entitled to any retrenchment compensation from Beta since he has not even completed a 
day of service. 
 (d) Yes, he is entitled to 1 day’s salary as retrenchment compensation from Beta. 
 
CRITICAL REASONING 
 
We just have to look at the stream of visuals coming in from Iran and, closer home, Chandigarh to understand 
how potent a weapon shame can become. Women are out in the open protesting against this very 
weaponization of an emotion that, according to historian Peter Stearns, “emphasizes self-abasement”. Stearns 
writes, “The shamed person tends to shrink, characteristically seeks to hide, because of the emotional dilemma 
involved”. It is no surprise that patriarchal social systems see women, especially the ones that challenge the 
imposed mores of society, as an enemy. Such women need to be defeated, thrown out of the game. So a 
foolproof trap is laid. Heighten a society or individual’s sense of ‘honour’ and then easily make a move to 
shatter it. 
Even the strongest general couldn’t survive such a move. 
Sun Tzu writes in the Art of War that “a delicacy of honour which is sensitive to shame” is one of the “five 
dangerous faults which may affect a general”. This delicacy of honour is not only insidiously imposed on 
women, but they are also held hostage to it. And what better way to make this sense of honour indelibly 
imprinted on the body of a woman! Battles are fought over and about it. Ideas of national pride and shame are 
woven around it. 
In Chandigarh, young women reacted to what they saw as an assault on their honour. They suspected that their 
uncovered bodies were up for public consumption in the form of pornographic content. Privacy issues aside, 
one needs to examine this response a bit more critically. Have we not, as a society, forced young women to 
believe that everyone’s sense of honour—including their own—resides in their body? And that sense of honour 
is worth more than everything else?  
I also want to argue that shamelessness can unleash anarchy and is not all that desirable in a civilised society. 
Here, it is important to make a distinction between the function and degree of shame. Shame may not be 
essentially dangerous, but what it aims at—subjugation, inequality, debasement—certainly is. 
Philosopher Owen Flanagan says, “If the values that shame enacts or protects are bad, the shame is bad.”  
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “India to Iran, Women Must Shun Shame and Learn to Thrive on  
Shamelessness”, by Nishtha Gautam, The Quint]  
18. If Peter Stearns’s description of shame is accurate, which of the following is most likely to be true?  
 (a) Shame is rarely ever used as a weapon against women  
 (b) The use of shame as a weapon against women is confined to nations with developing economies  
 (c) The use of shame as a weapon against them will result in more women participating in public spaces  
 (d) The use of shame as a weapon against them will result in women being forced to retreat from public 
spaces