Passage Based Question on Synonyms, Antonyms and Homonyms | English for CLAT PDF Download

Passage

Direction: Read the passage and answer the following questions:

Even in a healthy brain, time is elastic. Staring at an angry face for five seconds feels longer than staring at a neutral one. It may be no serendipity that the pulse-generating neurons are directly wired into regions of the brain that handle emotionally charged sights and sounds. And recent experiments by Amelia Hunt at Harvard University hint that we may actually backdate our mental time line every time we move our eyes. Recently, Hunt had people stare straight ahead with a ticking clock off to one side. She asked people to move their eyes over to the clock and make a note of the time when they had done so. On average, they reported seeing the clock about four hundredths of a second before their eyes actually arrived there.

Moving time backward may actually serve us well, by letting us cope with an imperfect nervous system. Each of our retinas has a small patch of densely packed, light-sensitive cells called the fovea. In order to get a detailed picture of our surroundings, we have to tweak our eyes around several times a second so that the fovea can scan them. On its own, this stream of signals from our eyes would produce a jarring series of jump cuts. Our brains manufacture the phantasm of a seamless flow of reality. In the course of that editing, we may need to fudge the time line—both in anticipation of an event and after the fact. But the most radical reworking of time may come as we incise it in our memories. We recall not just what happened but when. We can recall how much time has passed since an event occurred by tapping into our memories. Injuries and surgeries that ravage a particular part of the brain can give some hints about how the brain records time in memory. French scientists in 2007 reported their study of a group of patients who had suffered damage to a region known as the left temporal lobe. The patients watched a documentary, and a bosom object appeared on the screen, then reappeared a few minutes later. The patients had to guess how much time had passed. On average, the patients thought an 8-minute period was roughly 13. (Normal subjects were off by only about a minute.)

These experiments are helping scientists zero in on the regions of the brain that store memories of time. Exactly how those regions record time is still mysterious. It’s one thing to listen in on the brain’s music, recognizing chords that mark the passage of five minutes. But how do the brain’s memory-related neurons then archive those five minutes so that they can be recalled later?

Q1: Identify the synonyms of the words from the following options:
(i) Cope
(a) Fail
(b) Slump
(c) Wane
(d) Blanket
Ans: (d)
The word is used in ‘Moving time backward may actually serve us well, by letting us cope with an imperfect nervous system’. It indicates to cover or to deal with something thus option D is the answer.

(ii) Serendipity
(a) Plan
(b) Coincidence
(c) Scheme
(d) Asynchrony
Ans: B
Explanation: the word is used in ‘It may be no serendipity that the pulse-generating neurons are directly wired into regions of the brain that handle emotionally charged sights and sounds’. Option B only gives the best suitable meaning to sentence as other options indicate at something planned and the usage of ‘no’ before the word also makes it clear that option b is the answer.

(iii) Ravage
(a) Build
(b) Bear
(c) Destroy
(d) Improve
Ans: (c)
The word is used in ‘Injuries and surgeries that ravage a particular part of the brain can give some hints about how the brain records time in memory’. The sentence suggests that injuries and surgeries destroy a particular part of brain thus option c is the answer.

(iv) Jarring
(a) Smooth
(b) Harsh
(c) Steady
(d) Firm
Ans: (b)
The word is used in ‘On its own, this stream of signals from our eyes would produce a jarring series of jump cuts’. The usage of this word indicates something unpleasant thus option b will be the answer.

(v) Archive
(a) Record
(b) Withdraw
(c) Dislodge
(d) Unfasten
Ans: (a)
The word is used in ‘It’s one thing to listen in on the brain’s music, recognizing chords that mark the passage of five minutes. But how do the brain’s memory-related neurons then archive those five minutes so that they can be recalled later?’ The sentence clearly states that how brain memory neurons will record the time thus option a is the answer.

Q2: Fill in the blanks by choosing the correct homonym given in the brackets:
(i) The earth is not ____, it revolves. (stationary/stationery)
Ans: stationary
Stationery means a place from where you can purchase office materials and stationary means to stand still.

(ii) He refused to ____ my gift. (accept/except)
Ans: accept
accept means to agree and except means apart from the fact that.

(iii) We should not adopt _____ to achieve success. (fowl/foul)
Ans: foul
foul means using dirty tactics and fowl means a bird that is kept on a farm.

(iv) New Delhi is the _____ of India. (capitol/capital)
Ans: capital
capital means the city or town that functions as the seat of  the government and capitol means a building in which a state legislative body meets.

(v) He has _____ to be the chairman of society. (ceased/seized)
Ans: ceased
cease means to stop or end and seize means to  take hold of something suddenly and firmly.

Q3: identify the antonyms of the words from the following options:
(i) Elastic
(a) Supple
(b) Rigid
(c) Flexible
(d) Recoiling
Ans: (b)
The word is used in ‘Even in a healthy brain, time is elastic. Staring at an angry face for five seconds feels longer than staring at a neutral one’.  The sentence states that in a healthy brain also the time is flexible thus its opposite is rigid.

(ii) Phantasm
(a) Illusion
(b) Mirage
(c) verity
(d) fantasy
Ans: (c)
The word is used in ‘Our brains manufacture the phantasm of a seamless flow of reality. In the course of that editing, we may need to fudge the time line—both in anticipation of an event and after the fact’. It indicates brains manufacture illusion of reality. Verity means something true thus it is the answer.

(iii) bosom
(a) aloof
(b) familiar
(c) close
(d) inmate
Ans: (a)
The word is used in ‘. The patients watched a documentary, and a bosom object appeared on the screen, then reappeared a few minutes later’. The sentence indicates that some close object appeared thus its opposite ‘aloof’ is the answer.

(iv) Incise
(a) Inscribe
(b) Engrave
(c) Imprint
(d) Efface
Ans: (d)
The word is used in ‘In the course of that editing, we may need to fudge the time line—both in anticipation of an event and after the fact. But the most radical reworking of time may come as we incise it in our memories. We recall not just what happened but when’. The sentence indicates that the radical reworking of time can be achieved by inscribing it in our memories. The first three options carry the same meaning as that of inscribing thus option d is the answer.