CAT Past Year Question Paper - 2003 | Additional Study Material for CAT PDF Download

 Page 1


Directions for questions 1 to 25: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions.
Choose the best answer to each question.
PASSAGE 1
The invention of the gas turbine by Frank Whittle in England and Hans von Ohain in Germany in 1939
signalled the beginning of jet transport. Although the French engineer Lorin had visualized the concept of
jet propulsion more than 25 years earlier, it took improved materials and the genius of Whittle and von
Ohain to recognize the advantage that a gas turbine offered over a piston engine, including speeds in
excess of 350 miles per hour. The progress from the first flights of liquid propellant rocket and jet-propelled
aircraft in 1939 to the first faster-than-sound (supersonic) manned airplane (the Bell X-1) in 1947 happened
in less than a decade. This then led very rapidly to a series of supersonic fighters and bombers, the first of
which became operational in the 1950s. World War II technology foundations and emerging Cold War
imperatives then led us into space with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the placing of the first man on the
moon only 12 years later — a mere 24 years after the end of World War II.
Now a hypersonic flight can take you anywhere in the planet in less than four hours. British Royal Air Force
and Royal Navy and the air forces of several other countries are going to use a single-engine cousin to the
F/A-22, called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. These planes exhibit stealthy angles and coatings that make
it difficult for radar to detect them, among aviation’s most cutting-edge advances in design. The V-22,
known as tilt-rotor, part helicopter, part airplane, takes off vertically, then tilts its engine forward for winged
flight. It provides speed, three times the payload, five times the range of the helicopters it’s meant to
replace. The new fighter, F/A-22 Raptor, with more than a million parts, shows a perfect amalgamation of
stealth, speed, avionics and agility.
It seems conventional forms, like the Predator and Global Hawk are passé, the stealthier unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) are in. They are shaped like kites, bats and boomerang, all but invisible to the enemy radar
and able to remain over hostile territory without any fear of getting grilled if shot down. Will the UAVs take
away pilots’ jobs permanently? Can a computer-operated machine take a smarter and faster decision in a
war-like situation? The new free-flight concept will probably supplement the existing air traffic control
system by computers on each plane to map the altitude, route, weather and other planes; and a decade
from now, there will be no use of radar any more.

	


Instructions:
1. The Test Paper contains 150 questions. The duration of the test is 120 minutes.
2. The paper is divided into three sections. Section-I: 50 Q:, Section-II: 50 Q:, Section-III: 50 Q.
3. Wrong answers carry negative marks. There is only one correct answer for each question.
	
Page 2


Directions for questions 1 to 25: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions.
Choose the best answer to each question.
PASSAGE 1
The invention of the gas turbine by Frank Whittle in England and Hans von Ohain in Germany in 1939
signalled the beginning of jet transport. Although the French engineer Lorin had visualized the concept of
jet propulsion more than 25 years earlier, it took improved materials and the genius of Whittle and von
Ohain to recognize the advantage that a gas turbine offered over a piston engine, including speeds in
excess of 350 miles per hour. The progress from the first flights of liquid propellant rocket and jet-propelled
aircraft in 1939 to the first faster-than-sound (supersonic) manned airplane (the Bell X-1) in 1947 happened
in less than a decade. This then led very rapidly to a series of supersonic fighters and bombers, the first of
which became operational in the 1950s. World War II technology foundations and emerging Cold War
imperatives then led us into space with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the placing of the first man on the
moon only 12 years later — a mere 24 years after the end of World War II.
Now a hypersonic flight can take you anywhere in the planet in less than four hours. British Royal Air Force
and Royal Navy and the air forces of several other countries are going to use a single-engine cousin to the
F/A-22, called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. These planes exhibit stealthy angles and coatings that make
it difficult for radar to detect them, among aviation’s most cutting-edge advances in design. The V-22,
known as tilt-rotor, part helicopter, part airplane, takes off vertically, then tilts its engine forward for winged
flight. It provides speed, three times the payload, five times the range of the helicopters it’s meant to
replace. The new fighter, F/A-22 Raptor, with more than a million parts, shows a perfect amalgamation of
stealth, speed, avionics and agility.
It seems conventional forms, like the Predator and Global Hawk are passé, the stealthier unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) are in. They are shaped like kites, bats and boomerang, all but invisible to the enemy radar
and able to remain over hostile territory without any fear of getting grilled if shot down. Will the UAVs take
away pilots’ jobs permanently? Can a computer-operated machine take a smarter and faster decision in a
war-like situation? The new free-flight concept will probably supplement the existing air traffic control
system by computers on each plane to map the altitude, route, weather and other planes; and a decade
from now, there will be no use of radar any more.

	


Instructions:
1. The Test Paper contains 150 questions. The duration of the test is 120 minutes.
2. The paper is divided into three sections. Section-I: 50 Q:, Section-II: 50 Q:, Section-III: 50 Q.
3. Wrong answers carry negative marks. There is only one correct answer for each question.
	
How much bigger can the airplanes get? In the ‘50s they got speed, in the ‘80s they became stealthy. Now
they are getting smarter thanks to computer automation. The change is quite huge: from the four-seater to
the A380 airplane. It seems we are now trading speed for size as we build a new superjumbo jet, the 555
seater A380, which will fly at almost the same speed of the Boeing 707, introduced half a century ago, but
with an improved capacity, range, greater fuel economy. A few years down the line will come the truly larger
model, to be known as 747X. In the beginning of 2005, the A380, the world’s first fully double-decked
superjumbo passenger jet, weighing 1.2 million punds, may carry a load of about 840 passengers.
Barring the early phase, civil aviation has always lagged behind the military technologies (of jet engines,
lightweight composite materials, etc.). There are two fundamental factors behind the decline in commercial
aeronautics in comparison to military aeronautics. There is no collective vision of our future such as the
one that drove us in the past. There is also a need for a more aggressive pool of airplane design talents to
maintain an industry that continues to find a multibillion dollar-a-year market for its product.
Can the history of aviation technology tell us something about the future of aeronautics? Have we reached
a final state in our evolution to a mature technology in aeronautics? Are the challenges of coming out with
the ‘better, cheaper, faster’ designs somehow inferior to those that are suited for ‘faster, higher, further’?
Safety should improve greatly as a result of the forthcoming improvements in airframes, engines, and
avionics. Sixty years from now, aircraft will recover on their own if the pilot loses control. Satelites are the
key not only to GPS (global positioning system) navigation but also to in-flight communications, uplinked
weather, and even in-flight e-mail. Although there is some debate about what type of engines will power
future airplanes — lightweight turbines, turbocharged diesels, or both — there is little debate about how
these power plants will be controlled. Pilots of the future can look forward to more and better on-board
safety equipment.
1. Why might radars not be used a decade from now?
1. Stealth technology will advance so much that it is pointless to use radar to detect aircraft.
2. UAVs can remain over hostile territory without any danger of being detected.
3. Computers on board may enable aircraft to manage safe navigation on their own.
4. It is not feasible to increase the range of radars.
2. According to the author, commercial aeronautics, in contrast to military aeronautics, has declined
because, among other things.
1. Speed and technology barriers are more easily overcome in military aeronautics.
2. The collective vision of the past continues to drive civil and commercial aeronautics.
3. Though the industry has a huge market, it has not attracted the right kind of aircraft designers.
4. There is a shortage of materials, like light weight composites, used in commercial aeronautics.
Page 3


Directions for questions 1 to 25: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions.
Choose the best answer to each question.
PASSAGE 1
The invention of the gas turbine by Frank Whittle in England and Hans von Ohain in Germany in 1939
signalled the beginning of jet transport. Although the French engineer Lorin had visualized the concept of
jet propulsion more than 25 years earlier, it took improved materials and the genius of Whittle and von
Ohain to recognize the advantage that a gas turbine offered over a piston engine, including speeds in
excess of 350 miles per hour. The progress from the first flights of liquid propellant rocket and jet-propelled
aircraft in 1939 to the first faster-than-sound (supersonic) manned airplane (the Bell X-1) in 1947 happened
in less than a decade. This then led very rapidly to a series of supersonic fighters and bombers, the first of
which became operational in the 1950s. World War II technology foundations and emerging Cold War
imperatives then led us into space with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the placing of the first man on the
moon only 12 years later — a mere 24 years after the end of World War II.
Now a hypersonic flight can take you anywhere in the planet in less than four hours. British Royal Air Force
and Royal Navy and the air forces of several other countries are going to use a single-engine cousin to the
F/A-22, called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. These planes exhibit stealthy angles and coatings that make
it difficult for radar to detect them, among aviation’s most cutting-edge advances in design. The V-22,
known as tilt-rotor, part helicopter, part airplane, takes off vertically, then tilts its engine forward for winged
flight. It provides speed, three times the payload, five times the range of the helicopters it’s meant to
replace. The new fighter, F/A-22 Raptor, with more than a million parts, shows a perfect amalgamation of
stealth, speed, avionics and agility.
It seems conventional forms, like the Predator and Global Hawk are passé, the stealthier unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) are in. They are shaped like kites, bats and boomerang, all but invisible to the enemy radar
and able to remain over hostile territory without any fear of getting grilled if shot down. Will the UAVs take
away pilots’ jobs permanently? Can a computer-operated machine take a smarter and faster decision in a
war-like situation? The new free-flight concept will probably supplement the existing air traffic control
system by computers on each plane to map the altitude, route, weather and other planes; and a decade
from now, there will be no use of radar any more.

	


Instructions:
1. The Test Paper contains 150 questions. The duration of the test is 120 minutes.
2. The paper is divided into three sections. Section-I: 50 Q:, Section-II: 50 Q:, Section-III: 50 Q.
3. Wrong answers carry negative marks. There is only one correct answer for each question.
	
How much bigger can the airplanes get? In the ‘50s they got speed, in the ‘80s they became stealthy. Now
they are getting smarter thanks to computer automation. The change is quite huge: from the four-seater to
the A380 airplane. It seems we are now trading speed for size as we build a new superjumbo jet, the 555
seater A380, which will fly at almost the same speed of the Boeing 707, introduced half a century ago, but
with an improved capacity, range, greater fuel economy. A few years down the line will come the truly larger
model, to be known as 747X. In the beginning of 2005, the A380, the world’s first fully double-decked
superjumbo passenger jet, weighing 1.2 million punds, may carry a load of about 840 passengers.
Barring the early phase, civil aviation has always lagged behind the military technologies (of jet engines,
lightweight composite materials, etc.). There are two fundamental factors behind the decline in commercial
aeronautics in comparison to military aeronautics. There is no collective vision of our future such as the
one that drove us in the past. There is also a need for a more aggressive pool of airplane design talents to
maintain an industry that continues to find a multibillion dollar-a-year market for its product.
Can the history of aviation technology tell us something about the future of aeronautics? Have we reached
a final state in our evolution to a mature technology in aeronautics? Are the challenges of coming out with
the ‘better, cheaper, faster’ designs somehow inferior to those that are suited for ‘faster, higher, further’?
Safety should improve greatly as a result of the forthcoming improvements in airframes, engines, and
avionics. Sixty years from now, aircraft will recover on their own if the pilot loses control. Satelites are the
key not only to GPS (global positioning system) navigation but also to in-flight communications, uplinked
weather, and even in-flight e-mail. Although there is some debate about what type of engines will power
future airplanes — lightweight turbines, turbocharged diesels, or both — there is little debate about how
these power plants will be controlled. Pilots of the future can look forward to more and better on-board
safety equipment.
1. Why might radars not be used a decade from now?
1. Stealth technology will advance so much that it is pointless to use radar to detect aircraft.
2. UAVs can remain over hostile territory without any danger of being detected.
3. Computers on board may enable aircraft to manage safe navigation on their own.
4. It is not feasible to increase the range of radars.
2. According to the author, commercial aeronautics, in contrast to military aeronautics, has declined
because, among other things.
1. Speed and technology barriers are more easily overcome in military aeronautics.
2. The collective vision of the past continues to drive civil and commercial aeronautics.
3. Though the industry has a huge market, it has not attracted the right kind of aircraft designers.
4. There is a shortage of materials, like light weight composites, used in commercial aeronautics.
3. According to the first paragraph of the passage, which of the following statements is NOT false?
1. Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain were the first to conceive of jet propulsion.
2. Supersonic fighter planes were first used in  World War II.
3. No man had travelled faster than sound until the 1950s.
4. The exploitation of jet propulsion for supersonic aviation has been remarkably fast.
4. What is the fourth paragraph of the passage, starting, “How much bigger . . . ”, about?
1. Stealth, speed, avionics, and agility of new aircraft.
2. The way aircraft size has been growing.
3. Use of computer  automation in aircraft.
4. Super-jumbo jets that can take more than 500 passengers.
5. What is the most noteworthy difference between V-22 and a standard airplane?
1. It can take off vertically. 2. It has winged flight.
3. It has excellent payload. 4. Its range is very high.
PASSAGE  2
Pure love of learning, of course, was a less compelling motive for those who became educated for careers
other than teaching. Students of law in particular had a reputation for being materialistic careerists in an
age when law was becoming known as ‘the lucrative science’ and its successful practice the best means
for rapid advancement in the government of both church and state. Medicine too had its profit-making
attractions. Those who did not go on to law or medicine could, if they had been well trained in the arts, gain
positions at royal courts or rise in the clergy. Eloquent testimony to the profit motive behind much of 12th-
century education was the lament of a student of Abelard around 1150: “Christians educate their sons . . .
for gain, in order that the one brother, if he be a clerk, may help his father and mother and his other
brothers, saying that a clerk will have no heir and whatever he has will be ours and the other brothers.” With
the opening of positions in law, government and the church, education became a means for advancement
not only in income but also in status. Most who were educated were wealthy, but in the 12th century, more
often than before, many were not and were able to rise through the ranks by means of their education. The
most familiar examples are Thomas Becket, who rose from a humble background to become chancellor of
England and then archbishop of Canterbury, and John of Salisbury, who was born a ‘plebeian’ but because
of his reputation for learning died as bishop of Chartres.
The instances of Becket and John of Salisbury bring us to the most difficult question concerning 12th-
century education: T o what degree was it still a clerical preserve? Despite the fact that throughout the 12th
century the clergy had a monopoly of instruction, one of the outstanding medievalists of our day, R. W.
Southern, refers with good reason to the institutions staffed by the clergy as ‘secular schools’. How can we
make sense out of the paradox that 12th-century schools were clerical and yet ‘secular’?
Page 4


Directions for questions 1 to 25: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions.
Choose the best answer to each question.
PASSAGE 1
The invention of the gas turbine by Frank Whittle in England and Hans von Ohain in Germany in 1939
signalled the beginning of jet transport. Although the French engineer Lorin had visualized the concept of
jet propulsion more than 25 years earlier, it took improved materials and the genius of Whittle and von
Ohain to recognize the advantage that a gas turbine offered over a piston engine, including speeds in
excess of 350 miles per hour. The progress from the first flights of liquid propellant rocket and jet-propelled
aircraft in 1939 to the first faster-than-sound (supersonic) manned airplane (the Bell X-1) in 1947 happened
in less than a decade. This then led very rapidly to a series of supersonic fighters and bombers, the first of
which became operational in the 1950s. World War II technology foundations and emerging Cold War
imperatives then led us into space with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the placing of the first man on the
moon only 12 years later — a mere 24 years after the end of World War II.
Now a hypersonic flight can take you anywhere in the planet in less than four hours. British Royal Air Force
and Royal Navy and the air forces of several other countries are going to use a single-engine cousin to the
F/A-22, called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. These planes exhibit stealthy angles and coatings that make
it difficult for radar to detect them, among aviation’s most cutting-edge advances in design. The V-22,
known as tilt-rotor, part helicopter, part airplane, takes off vertically, then tilts its engine forward for winged
flight. It provides speed, three times the payload, five times the range of the helicopters it’s meant to
replace. The new fighter, F/A-22 Raptor, with more than a million parts, shows a perfect amalgamation of
stealth, speed, avionics and agility.
It seems conventional forms, like the Predator and Global Hawk are passé, the stealthier unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) are in. They are shaped like kites, bats and boomerang, all but invisible to the enemy radar
and able to remain over hostile territory without any fear of getting grilled if shot down. Will the UAVs take
away pilots’ jobs permanently? Can a computer-operated machine take a smarter and faster decision in a
war-like situation? The new free-flight concept will probably supplement the existing air traffic control
system by computers on each plane to map the altitude, route, weather and other planes; and a decade
from now, there will be no use of radar any more.

	


Instructions:
1. The Test Paper contains 150 questions. The duration of the test is 120 minutes.
2. The paper is divided into three sections. Section-I: 50 Q:, Section-II: 50 Q:, Section-III: 50 Q.
3. Wrong answers carry negative marks. There is only one correct answer for each question.
	
How much bigger can the airplanes get? In the ‘50s they got speed, in the ‘80s they became stealthy. Now
they are getting smarter thanks to computer automation. The change is quite huge: from the four-seater to
the A380 airplane. It seems we are now trading speed for size as we build a new superjumbo jet, the 555
seater A380, which will fly at almost the same speed of the Boeing 707, introduced half a century ago, but
with an improved capacity, range, greater fuel economy. A few years down the line will come the truly larger
model, to be known as 747X. In the beginning of 2005, the A380, the world’s first fully double-decked
superjumbo passenger jet, weighing 1.2 million punds, may carry a load of about 840 passengers.
Barring the early phase, civil aviation has always lagged behind the military technologies (of jet engines,
lightweight composite materials, etc.). There are two fundamental factors behind the decline in commercial
aeronautics in comparison to military aeronautics. There is no collective vision of our future such as the
one that drove us in the past. There is also a need for a more aggressive pool of airplane design talents to
maintain an industry that continues to find a multibillion dollar-a-year market for its product.
Can the history of aviation technology tell us something about the future of aeronautics? Have we reached
a final state in our evolution to a mature technology in aeronautics? Are the challenges of coming out with
the ‘better, cheaper, faster’ designs somehow inferior to those that are suited for ‘faster, higher, further’?
Safety should improve greatly as a result of the forthcoming improvements in airframes, engines, and
avionics. Sixty years from now, aircraft will recover on their own if the pilot loses control. Satelites are the
key not only to GPS (global positioning system) navigation but also to in-flight communications, uplinked
weather, and even in-flight e-mail. Although there is some debate about what type of engines will power
future airplanes — lightweight turbines, turbocharged diesels, or both — there is little debate about how
these power plants will be controlled. Pilots of the future can look forward to more and better on-board
safety equipment.
1. Why might radars not be used a decade from now?
1. Stealth technology will advance so much that it is pointless to use radar to detect aircraft.
2. UAVs can remain over hostile territory without any danger of being detected.
3. Computers on board may enable aircraft to manage safe navigation on their own.
4. It is not feasible to increase the range of radars.
2. According to the author, commercial aeronautics, in contrast to military aeronautics, has declined
because, among other things.
1. Speed and technology barriers are more easily overcome in military aeronautics.
2. The collective vision of the past continues to drive civil and commercial aeronautics.
3. Though the industry has a huge market, it has not attracted the right kind of aircraft designers.
4. There is a shortage of materials, like light weight composites, used in commercial aeronautics.
3. According to the first paragraph of the passage, which of the following statements is NOT false?
1. Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain were the first to conceive of jet propulsion.
2. Supersonic fighter planes were first used in  World War II.
3. No man had travelled faster than sound until the 1950s.
4. The exploitation of jet propulsion for supersonic aviation has been remarkably fast.
4. What is the fourth paragraph of the passage, starting, “How much bigger . . . ”, about?
1. Stealth, speed, avionics, and agility of new aircraft.
2. The way aircraft size has been growing.
3. Use of computer  automation in aircraft.
4. Super-jumbo jets that can take more than 500 passengers.
5. What is the most noteworthy difference between V-22 and a standard airplane?
1. It can take off vertically. 2. It has winged flight.
3. It has excellent payload. 4. Its range is very high.
PASSAGE  2
Pure love of learning, of course, was a less compelling motive for those who became educated for careers
other than teaching. Students of law in particular had a reputation for being materialistic careerists in an
age when law was becoming known as ‘the lucrative science’ and its successful practice the best means
for rapid advancement in the government of both church and state. Medicine too had its profit-making
attractions. Those who did not go on to law or medicine could, if they had been well trained in the arts, gain
positions at royal courts or rise in the clergy. Eloquent testimony to the profit motive behind much of 12th-
century education was the lament of a student of Abelard around 1150: “Christians educate their sons . . .
for gain, in order that the one brother, if he be a clerk, may help his father and mother and his other
brothers, saying that a clerk will have no heir and whatever he has will be ours and the other brothers.” With
the opening of positions in law, government and the church, education became a means for advancement
not only in income but also in status. Most who were educated were wealthy, but in the 12th century, more
often than before, many were not and were able to rise through the ranks by means of their education. The
most familiar examples are Thomas Becket, who rose from a humble background to become chancellor of
England and then archbishop of Canterbury, and John of Salisbury, who was born a ‘plebeian’ but because
of his reputation for learning died as bishop of Chartres.
The instances of Becket and John of Salisbury bring us to the most difficult question concerning 12th-
century education: T o what degree was it still a clerical preserve? Despite the fact that throughout the 12th
century the clergy had a monopoly of instruction, one of the outstanding medievalists of our day, R. W.
Southern, refers with good reason to the institutions staffed by the clergy as ‘secular schools’. How can we
make sense out of the paradox that 12th-century schools were clerical and yet ‘secular’?
Let us look at the clerical side first. Not only were all 12th-century teachers except professionals and
craftsmen in church order, but in northern Europe students in schools had clerical status and looked like
priests. Not that all really were priests, but by virtue of being students all were awarded the legal privileges
accorded to the clergy. Furthermore, the large majority of 12th-century students, outside of the possible
exception of Italy, if not already priests became so after their studies were finished. For these reasons, the
term ‘cleric’ was often used to denote a man who was literate and the term ‘layman’ one who was illiterate.
The English word for cleric, clerk, continued for a long time to be a synonym for student or for a man who
could write, while the French word clerc even today has the connotation of intellectual.
Despite all this, 12th-century education was taking on many secular qualities in its environment, goals,
and curriculum. Student life obviously became more secular when it moved out from the monasteries into
the bustling towns. Most students wandered from town to town in search not only of good masters but also
of worldly excitement, and as the 12th century progressed they found the best of each in Paris. More
important than environment was the fact that most students, even though they entered the clergy, had
secular goals. Theology was recognized as the ‘queen of the sciences’, but very few went on to it. Instead
they used their study of the liberal arts as a preparation for law, medicine, government service, or advancement
in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
This being so, the curriculum of the liberal arts became more sophisticated and more divorced from religion.
Teaching was still almost exclusively in Latin, and the first book most often read was the Psalter, but
further education was no longer similar to that of a choir school. In particular, the discipline of rhetoric was
transformed from a linguistic study into instruction in how to compose letters and documents; there was a
new stress on logic; and in all the liberal arts and philosophy texts more advanced than those known in the
early Middle Ages were introduced.
Along with the rise of logic came the translation of Greek and Arabic philosophical and scientific works.
Most important was the translation of almost all the writings of Aristotle, as well as his sophisticated Arabic
commentators, which helped to bring about an intellectual revolution based on Greek rationalism. On a
more prosaic level, contact with Arabs resulted in the introduction in the 12th century of the Arabic numeral
system and the concept of zero. Though most westerners first resisted this and made crude jokes about
the zero as an ambitious number ‘that counts for nothing and yet wants to be counted’, the system
steadily made its inroads first in Italy and then throughout Europe, thereby vastly simplifying the arts of
computation and record-keeping.
6. According to the passage, what led to the secularisation of the curriculum of the liberal arts in the
12th century?
1. It was divorced from religion and its influences.
2. Students used it mainly as a base for studying law and medicine.
3. Teaching could no longer be conducted exclusively in Latin.
4. Arabic was introduced into the curriculum.
Page 5


Directions for questions 1 to 25: Each of the five passages given below is followed by five questions.
Choose the best answer to each question.
PASSAGE 1
The invention of the gas turbine by Frank Whittle in England and Hans von Ohain in Germany in 1939
signalled the beginning of jet transport. Although the French engineer Lorin had visualized the concept of
jet propulsion more than 25 years earlier, it took improved materials and the genius of Whittle and von
Ohain to recognize the advantage that a gas turbine offered over a piston engine, including speeds in
excess of 350 miles per hour. The progress from the first flights of liquid propellant rocket and jet-propelled
aircraft in 1939 to the first faster-than-sound (supersonic) manned airplane (the Bell X-1) in 1947 happened
in less than a decade. This then led very rapidly to a series of supersonic fighters and bombers, the first of
which became operational in the 1950s. World War II technology foundations and emerging Cold War
imperatives then led us into space with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the placing of the first man on the
moon only 12 years later — a mere 24 years after the end of World War II.
Now a hypersonic flight can take you anywhere in the planet in less than four hours. British Royal Air Force
and Royal Navy and the air forces of several other countries are going to use a single-engine cousin to the
F/A-22, called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. These planes exhibit stealthy angles and coatings that make
it difficult for radar to detect them, among aviation’s most cutting-edge advances in design. The V-22,
known as tilt-rotor, part helicopter, part airplane, takes off vertically, then tilts its engine forward for winged
flight. It provides speed, three times the payload, five times the range of the helicopters it’s meant to
replace. The new fighter, F/A-22 Raptor, with more than a million parts, shows a perfect amalgamation of
stealth, speed, avionics and agility.
It seems conventional forms, like the Predator and Global Hawk are passé, the stealthier unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) are in. They are shaped like kites, bats and boomerang, all but invisible to the enemy radar
and able to remain over hostile territory without any fear of getting grilled if shot down. Will the UAVs take
away pilots’ jobs permanently? Can a computer-operated machine take a smarter and faster decision in a
war-like situation? The new free-flight concept will probably supplement the existing air traffic control
system by computers on each plane to map the altitude, route, weather and other planes; and a decade
from now, there will be no use of radar any more.

	


Instructions:
1. The Test Paper contains 150 questions. The duration of the test is 120 minutes.
2. The paper is divided into three sections. Section-I: 50 Q:, Section-II: 50 Q:, Section-III: 50 Q.
3. Wrong answers carry negative marks. There is only one correct answer for each question.
	
How much bigger can the airplanes get? In the ‘50s they got speed, in the ‘80s they became stealthy. Now
they are getting smarter thanks to computer automation. The change is quite huge: from the four-seater to
the A380 airplane. It seems we are now trading speed for size as we build a new superjumbo jet, the 555
seater A380, which will fly at almost the same speed of the Boeing 707, introduced half a century ago, but
with an improved capacity, range, greater fuel economy. A few years down the line will come the truly larger
model, to be known as 747X. In the beginning of 2005, the A380, the world’s first fully double-decked
superjumbo passenger jet, weighing 1.2 million punds, may carry a load of about 840 passengers.
Barring the early phase, civil aviation has always lagged behind the military technologies (of jet engines,
lightweight composite materials, etc.). There are two fundamental factors behind the decline in commercial
aeronautics in comparison to military aeronautics. There is no collective vision of our future such as the
one that drove us in the past. There is also a need for a more aggressive pool of airplane design talents to
maintain an industry that continues to find a multibillion dollar-a-year market for its product.
Can the history of aviation technology tell us something about the future of aeronautics? Have we reached
a final state in our evolution to a mature technology in aeronautics? Are the challenges of coming out with
the ‘better, cheaper, faster’ designs somehow inferior to those that are suited for ‘faster, higher, further’?
Safety should improve greatly as a result of the forthcoming improvements in airframes, engines, and
avionics. Sixty years from now, aircraft will recover on their own if the pilot loses control. Satelites are the
key not only to GPS (global positioning system) navigation but also to in-flight communications, uplinked
weather, and even in-flight e-mail. Although there is some debate about what type of engines will power
future airplanes — lightweight turbines, turbocharged diesels, or both — there is little debate about how
these power plants will be controlled. Pilots of the future can look forward to more and better on-board
safety equipment.
1. Why might radars not be used a decade from now?
1. Stealth technology will advance so much that it is pointless to use radar to detect aircraft.
2. UAVs can remain over hostile territory without any danger of being detected.
3. Computers on board may enable aircraft to manage safe navigation on their own.
4. It is not feasible to increase the range of radars.
2. According to the author, commercial aeronautics, in contrast to military aeronautics, has declined
because, among other things.
1. Speed and technology barriers are more easily overcome in military aeronautics.
2. The collective vision of the past continues to drive civil and commercial aeronautics.
3. Though the industry has a huge market, it has not attracted the right kind of aircraft designers.
4. There is a shortage of materials, like light weight composites, used in commercial aeronautics.
3. According to the first paragraph of the passage, which of the following statements is NOT false?
1. Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain were the first to conceive of jet propulsion.
2. Supersonic fighter planes were first used in  World War II.
3. No man had travelled faster than sound until the 1950s.
4. The exploitation of jet propulsion for supersonic aviation has been remarkably fast.
4. What is the fourth paragraph of the passage, starting, “How much bigger . . . ”, about?
1. Stealth, speed, avionics, and agility of new aircraft.
2. The way aircraft size has been growing.
3. Use of computer  automation in aircraft.
4. Super-jumbo jets that can take more than 500 passengers.
5. What is the most noteworthy difference between V-22 and a standard airplane?
1. It can take off vertically. 2. It has winged flight.
3. It has excellent payload. 4. Its range is very high.
PASSAGE  2
Pure love of learning, of course, was a less compelling motive for those who became educated for careers
other than teaching. Students of law in particular had a reputation for being materialistic careerists in an
age when law was becoming known as ‘the lucrative science’ and its successful practice the best means
for rapid advancement in the government of both church and state. Medicine too had its profit-making
attractions. Those who did not go on to law or medicine could, if they had been well trained in the arts, gain
positions at royal courts or rise in the clergy. Eloquent testimony to the profit motive behind much of 12th-
century education was the lament of a student of Abelard around 1150: “Christians educate their sons . . .
for gain, in order that the one brother, if he be a clerk, may help his father and mother and his other
brothers, saying that a clerk will have no heir and whatever he has will be ours and the other brothers.” With
the opening of positions in law, government and the church, education became a means for advancement
not only in income but also in status. Most who were educated were wealthy, but in the 12th century, more
often than before, many were not and were able to rise through the ranks by means of their education. The
most familiar examples are Thomas Becket, who rose from a humble background to become chancellor of
England and then archbishop of Canterbury, and John of Salisbury, who was born a ‘plebeian’ but because
of his reputation for learning died as bishop of Chartres.
The instances of Becket and John of Salisbury bring us to the most difficult question concerning 12th-
century education: T o what degree was it still a clerical preserve? Despite the fact that throughout the 12th
century the clergy had a monopoly of instruction, one of the outstanding medievalists of our day, R. W.
Southern, refers with good reason to the institutions staffed by the clergy as ‘secular schools’. How can we
make sense out of the paradox that 12th-century schools were clerical and yet ‘secular’?
Let us look at the clerical side first. Not only were all 12th-century teachers except professionals and
craftsmen in church order, but in northern Europe students in schools had clerical status and looked like
priests. Not that all really were priests, but by virtue of being students all were awarded the legal privileges
accorded to the clergy. Furthermore, the large majority of 12th-century students, outside of the possible
exception of Italy, if not already priests became so after their studies were finished. For these reasons, the
term ‘cleric’ was often used to denote a man who was literate and the term ‘layman’ one who was illiterate.
The English word for cleric, clerk, continued for a long time to be a synonym for student or for a man who
could write, while the French word clerc even today has the connotation of intellectual.
Despite all this, 12th-century education was taking on many secular qualities in its environment, goals,
and curriculum. Student life obviously became more secular when it moved out from the monasteries into
the bustling towns. Most students wandered from town to town in search not only of good masters but also
of worldly excitement, and as the 12th century progressed they found the best of each in Paris. More
important than environment was the fact that most students, even though they entered the clergy, had
secular goals. Theology was recognized as the ‘queen of the sciences’, but very few went on to it. Instead
they used their study of the liberal arts as a preparation for law, medicine, government service, or advancement
in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
This being so, the curriculum of the liberal arts became more sophisticated and more divorced from religion.
Teaching was still almost exclusively in Latin, and the first book most often read was the Psalter, but
further education was no longer similar to that of a choir school. In particular, the discipline of rhetoric was
transformed from a linguistic study into instruction in how to compose letters and documents; there was a
new stress on logic; and in all the liberal arts and philosophy texts more advanced than those known in the
early Middle Ages were introduced.
Along with the rise of logic came the translation of Greek and Arabic philosophical and scientific works.
Most important was the translation of almost all the writings of Aristotle, as well as his sophisticated Arabic
commentators, which helped to bring about an intellectual revolution based on Greek rationalism. On a
more prosaic level, contact with Arabs resulted in the introduction in the 12th century of the Arabic numeral
system and the concept of zero. Though most westerners first resisted this and made crude jokes about
the zero as an ambitious number ‘that counts for nothing and yet wants to be counted’, the system
steadily made its inroads first in Italy and then throughout Europe, thereby vastly simplifying the arts of
computation and record-keeping.
6. According to the passage, what led to the secularisation of the curriculum of the liberal arts in the
12th century?
1. It was divorced from religion and its influences.
2. Students used it mainly as a base for studying law and medicine.
3. Teaching could no longer be conducted exclusively in Latin.
4. Arabic was introduced into the curriculum.
7. According to the author, in the 12th century, individuals were motivated to get higher education
because it
1. was a means for material advancement and higher status.
2. gave people with wealth an opportunity to learn.
3. offered a coveted place for those with a love of learning.
4. directly added to the income levels of people.
8. According to the passage, 12th-century schools were clerical and yet secular because
1. many teacher were craftsmen and professionals who did not form part of the church.
2. while the students had the legal privileges accorded to the clergy and looked like priests, not all
were really priests.
3. the term ‘cleric’ denoted a literate individual rather than a strict association with the church.
4. though the clergy had a monopoly in education, the environment, objectives and curriculum in the
schools were becoming secular.
9. What does the sentence ‘Christians educate their sons . . . will be ours and the other brothers’
imply?
1. The Christian family was a close-knit unit in the 12th century.
2. Christians educated their sons not so much for the love of learning as for material gain.
3. Christians believed very strongly in educating their sons in the Church.
4. The relationship between Christian parents and their sons was exploitative in the 12th century.
10. According to the passage, which of the following is the most noteworthy trend in education in 12th-
century Europe?
1. Secularization of education.
2. Flowering of theology as the queen of the sciences.
3. Wealthy people increasingly turning to education.
4. Rise of the clergy’s influence on the curriculum.
PASSAGE 3
At first sight, it looks as though panchayati raj, the lower layer of federalism in our polity, is as firmly
entrenched in our system as is the older and higher layer comprising the Union Government and the State.
Like the democratic institutions at the higher level, those at the panchayat level, the panchayati raj institutions
(PRIs), are written into and protected by the Constitution. All the essential features, which distinguish a
unitary system from a federal one, are as much enshrined at the lower as at the upper level of our federal
system. But look closely and you will discover a fatal flaw. The letter of the Constitution as well as the spirit
of the present polity have exposed the intra-State level of our federal system to a dilemma of which the
inter-State and Union-State layers are free. The flaw has many causes. But all of them are rooted in an
historical anomaly, that while the dynamics of federalism and democracy have given added strength to the
rights given to the States in the Constitution, they have worked against the rights of panchayats.