Previous Year Questions 2023: English | English for CLAT PDF Download

I. I grew up in a small town not far from Kalimpong. In pre-liberalization India, everything arrived late: not just material things but also ideas. Magazines — old copies of Reader’s Digest and National Geographic — arrived late too, after the news had become stale by months or, often, years. This temporal gap turned journalism into literature, news into legend, and historical events into something akin to plotless stories. But like those who knew no other life, we accepted this as the norm. The dearth of reading material in towns and villages in socialist India is hard to imagine, and it produced two categories of people: those who stopped reading after school or college, and those — including children — who read anything they could find. I read road signs with the enthusiasm that attaches to reading thrillers. When the iterant kabadiwala, collector of papers, magazines, and rejected things, visited our neighbourhood, I rushed to the house where he was doing business. He bought things at unimaginably low prices from those who’d stopped having any use for them, and I rummaged through his sacks of old magazines. Sometimes, on days when business was good, he allowed me a couple of copies of Sportsworld magazine for free. I’d run home and, ignoring my mother’s scolding, plunge right in — consuming news about India’s victory in the Benson and Hedges Cup....
Two takeaways from these experiences have marked my understanding of the provincial reader’s life: the sense of belatedness, of everything coming late, and the desire for pleasure in language. .... Speaking of belatedness, the awareness of having been born at the wrong time in history, o f inventing things that had already been discovered elsewhere, far away, without our knowledge or cooperation, is a moment of epiphany and deep sadness. I remember a professor’s choked voice, narrating to me how all the arguments he’d made in his doctoral dissertation, written over many, many years of hard work (for there indeed was a time when PhDs were written over decades), had suddenly come to naught after he’d discovered the work of C.W.E. Bigsby. This, I realised as I grew older, was one of the characteristics of provincial life: that they (usually males) were saying trite things with the confidence of someone declaring them for the first time. I, therefore, grew up surrounded by would-be Newtons who claimed to have discovered gravity (again). There’s a deep sense of tragedy attending this sort of thing — the sad embarrassment of always arriving after the party is over. And there’s a harsh word for that sense of belatedness: “dated.” What rescues it is the unpredictability of these anachronistic “discoveries” — the randomness and haphazardness involved in mapping connections among thoughts and ideas, in a way that hasn’t yet been professionalised.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “The Provincial Reader”, by Sumana Roy, Los Angeles Review of Books]

Q1: What use was the kabadiwala (wastepicker) to the author?
(a) The kabadiwala bought up all her magazines.
(b) The kabadiwala’s stock of books and magazines were of interest to the author.
(c) The kabadiwala was about to steal the author’s magazines.
(d) The author ordered books online which the kabadiwala delivered.
Ans: (b)
Sol: Refer to the lines of the passage: "When the iterant kabadiwala, collector of papers, magazines, and rejected things, visited our neighbourhood, I rushed to the house where he was doing business. He bought things at unimaginably low prices from those who’d stopped having any use for them, and I rummaged through his sacks of old magazines. Sometimes, on days when business was good, he allowed me a couple of copies of Sportsworld magazine for free. I’d run home and, ignoring my mother’s scolding, plunge right in — consuming news about India’s victory in the Benson and Hedges Cup...."
According to the passage, the author used to borrow and sometimes get free copies of Sportsworld magazine from the kabadiwala. Hence, option (a), which states the kabadiwala bought up all her books, is incorrect. As per the passage, the kabadiwala collects from her neighborhood. According to the passage, the kabadiwala buys the books, papers, magazines, and rejected things and doesn’t steal them, so option (c) is ruled out. Her rummaging through the kabadiwala’s sack shows her interest in his stock of books and magazines. Hence, option (b) is correct.
Refer to these lines of the passage: "I grew up in a small town not far from Kalimpong. In pre-liberalisation India, everything arrived late: not just material things but also ideas. Magazines — old copies of Reader’s Digest and National Geographic — arrived late too, after the news had become stale by months or often years."
These lines clearly indicate that the era she is talking about is not technology-driven, so ordering books online is out of the question. Hence, option (d) is incorrect.

Q2: What according to the author is essential about the experience of being a ‘provincial reader’?
(a) Belatedness in the sense of coming late for everything.
(b) Over-eagerness.
(c) Accepting a temporal gap between what was current in the wider world and the time at which these arrived in the provincial location.
(d) None of the above.
Ans: (c)
Sol: Refer to the lines of the passage: “Two takeaways from these experiences have marked my understanding of the provincial reader’s life: the sense of belatedness, of everything coming late, and the desire for pleasure in language. Speaking of belatedness, the awareness of having been born at the wrong time in history of inventing things that had already been discovered elsewhere, far away, without our knowledge or cooperation, is a moment of epiphany and deep sadness.” As per option (a), a provincial reader experiences belatedness in the sense of coming late for everything, whereas the passage is describing information and news, so option (a) is incorrect.
However, option (c) emphasizes the prime two factors highlighted by the author in the passage, which mentions the time lapse between the occurrence of things in the wider world and when they eventually arrive in the provincial location. Hence, we can infer that a provincial reader accepts the temporal gap between when information occurs and when it eventually arrives in the provincial location.
Since option (c) is correct, option (d) and "none of the above" options cannot be inferred.

Q3: Why did the author feel a sense of epiphany and deep sadness?
(a) Because the things that felt special and unique to the author were already established and accepted thought in the wider world.
(b) Because the author was less well-read than others.
(c) Because the author missed being in a big city.
(d) All the above.
Ans: (a)
Sol: Refer to the lines of the passage: "Speaking of belatedness, the awareness of having been born at the wrong time in history, of inventing things that had already been discovered elsewhere, far away, without our knowledge or cooperation, is a moment of epiphany and deep sadness."
These lines from the passage clearly indicate that the author feels sad about being born in a provincial location where whatever she feels is special and unique is already common and general in the wider world.
As per the passage, the author seeks herself to be a provincial reader, but not less well-read than others, referring to the lines from the passage: "Two takeaways from these experiences have marked my understanding of the provincial reader’s life: the sense of belatedness, of everything coming late, and the desire for pleasure in language. Speaking of belatedness, the awareness of having been born at the wrong time in history of inventing things that had already been discovered elsewhere, far away, without our knowledge or cooperation, is a moment of epiphany and deep sadness."
Hence, option (b) is incorrect.
According to the passage, the author doesn’t miss being in a big city but misses getting information on time when it actually occurs in the wider world. Hence, option (c) is incorrect.

Q4: What does the word ‘anachronistic’ as used in the passage, mean?
(a) Rooted in a non-urban setting.
(b) Related to a mofussil area.
(c) Connected with another time.
(d) Opposed to prevailing sensibilities.
Ans: (c)
Sol: The author is using the word “anachronistic” with reference to the discoveries she came to know after the party was over.
Refer to the lines of the passage: "And there’s a harsh word for that sense of belatedness: 'dated.' What rescues it is the unpredictability of these anachronistic 'discoveries' — the randomness and haphazardness involved in mapping connections among thoughts and ideas, in a way that hasn’t yet been professionalized."
The word "anachronistic" is an adjective, and it comes from the Greek words ana, meaning "against," and khronos, meaning "time." It usually refers to something old-fashioned or outdated; also, it means anything that blatantly clashes with the time in which it is seen.
As per the passage, the author is referring to the outdated discoveries and time-lapsed information. Hence, option (c) is correct.
Option (b) refers to the word Mofussil, which means countryside or the provincial districts of India.
Option (a) refers to the term non-urban setting, which is synonymous with mofussil, making it incorrect.
In the passage, the author is concerned about being a provincial reader who aspires to get information as it happens in the world, whereas option (d) talks about sensibilities. Hence, it is inappropriate.

Q5: Which of the following options captures the meaning of the last sentence best?
(a) Though the author feels provincial, she pretends to be from the metropolis.
(b) Though the author feels dated in her access to intellectual ideas, her lack of metropolitan sophistication lets her engage with the ideas with some originality.
(c) Though the author is aware of the limitedness of her knowledge, she is confident and can hold her own in a crowd. She also proud of her roots in the small town.
(d) All the above.
Ans: (b)
Sol: The last sentence of the passage goes as follows: "There's a deep sense of tragedy attending this sort of thing — the sad embarrassment of always arriving after the party is over. And there’s a harsh word for that sense of belatedness: 'dated.' What rescues it is the unpredictability of these anachronistic 'discoveries' — the randomness and haphazardness involved in mapping connections among thoughts and ideas, in a way that hasn’t yet been professionalized." Going through the last few lines of the passage, it can be clearly inferred that the author knows and admits the fact of being a provincial reader. However, this detachment from intellectual ideas helps her engage with originality in her thoughts and ideas. Hence, option (a) speaks up the author’s mind. On the other hand, option (b) states that the author pretends to be from the urban area, which can’t be inferred from the passage. Option (c) states that the author is somehow content with the fact that she belongs to a provincial state where there is a belatedness of information, whereas the tone of the passage infers her discontentment toward the accessibility of information in small towns.

II. Until the Keeladi site was discovered, archaeologists by and large believed that the Gangetic plains in the north urbanised significantly earlier than Tamil Nadu. Historians have often claimed that large scale town life in India first developed in the Greater Magadha region of the Gangetic basin. This was during the ‘second urbanisation’ phase. The ‘first urbanisation phase’ refers to the rise of the Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation. Tamil Nadu was thought to have urbanised at this scale only by the third century BCE. The findings at Keeladi push that date b ack significantly. … 
Based on linguistics and continuity in cultural legacies, connections between the Indus Valley Civilisation, or IVC, and old Tamil traditions have long been suggested, but concrete archaeological evidence remained absent. Evidence indicated similarities between graffiti found in Keeladi and symbols associated with the IVC. It bolstered the arguments of dissidents from the dominant North Indian imagination, who have argued for years that their ancestors existed contemporaneously with the IVC. … 
All the archaeologists I spoke to said it was too soon to make definitive links between the Keeladi site and the IVC. There is no doubt, however, that the discovery at Keeladi has changed the paradigm. In recent years, the results of any new research on early India have invited keen political interest, because proponents of Hindu nationalism support the notion of Vedic culture as fundamental to the origins of Indian civilisation. … 
The Keeladi excavations further challenge the idea of a single fountainhead of Indian life. They indicate the possibility that the earliest identity that can recognisably be considered ‘Indian’ might not have originated in North India. That wasn’t all. In subsequent seasons of the Keeladi dig, archaeologists discovered that Tamili, a variant of the Brahmi script used for writing inscriptions in the early iterations of the Tamil language, could be dated back to the sixth century BCE, likely a hundred years before previously thought. 
So not only had urban life thrived in the Tamil lands, but people who lived there had developed their own script. ―The evolution of writing is attributed to Ashoka’s edicts, but 2600 years ago writing was prevalent in Keeladi,” Mathan Karuppiah, a proud Madurai local, told me. ―A farmer could write his own name on a pot he owned. The fight going on here is ‘You are not the one to teach me to write, I have learnt it myself.’ ” 
[Excerpted from ―The Dig”, by Sowmiya Ashok, Fifty-Two]

Q6: What was the assumption about the origin of urban life in India before the Keeladi dig?
(a) The origins lay in the northern Gangetic plains, which urbanised earlier than the south.
(b) The Indus Valley Civilization was the first urban civilization of India.
(c) The second urbanization was known to be in the Magadha empire.
(d) Both (a) and (b).
Ans: (a)
Sol: According to the author, until the Keeladi site was discovered, archaeologists believed that the Gangetic plains were urbanized first and were the area from where the civilization originated.
Hence, option (a) is correct.
Refer to these lines of the passage: "Until the Keeladi site was discovered, archaeologists by and large believed that the Gangetic plains in the north urbanized significantly earlier than Tamil Nadu."
That the IVC was probably not the first urban civilization of India implies option (b) is incorrect.
Refer to these sentences: "Historians have often claimed that large-scale town life in India first developed in the Greater Magadha region of the Gangetic basin. This was during the ‘second urbanization’ phase."
As per historians, the first developed urbanization was in Magadha, which implies option (c) to be incorrect.

Q7: The Keeladi excavations further challenge the idea of a single fountainhead of Indian life.” — in elaboration of this sentence, which of these options follows?
(a) Dominant theories of how urban and modern life came about in ancient India were proved wrong by the Keeladi archaeological dig.
(b) Neither the Indus Valley Civilization nor the ancient urban civilization of Magadha are clear explanations of how urban life emerged in the Keeladi region of southern India in the third century BCE.
(c) The Keeladi archaeological dig proved that Indian urban and modern life emerged independently in several historical periods and geographies, and no one theory is enough to explain it.
(d) None of the above.
Ans: (c)
Sol: The sentence is highlighting the point that Keeladi excavations questioned the aspect of a single theory of urbanization in India. As per option (a), Keeladi excavations proved prior theories to be wrong. Option (b) expresses that Keeladi excavations don’t support any of the civilization theories. Option (c) can be inferred from the above statement as it states that no one theory is enough to explain the Keeladi dig.

Q8: Language, including a script similar to the Brahmi script, emerged in Keeladi in the sixth century BCE. Which of the following is the most convincing conclusion from this statement?
(a) Keeladi is a centre of culture and learning far superior to any others in ancient India.
(b) People of Keeladi were illiterate and could not use language to inscribe on their pots and pans.
(c) Ancient urban history of India, as we know it today, could significantly be altered by the findings of the advances achieved by the Keeladi civilization.
(d) All the above.
Ans: (c)
Sol: As per option (b), Keeladi was illiterate; if this is correct, then exploration of the Brahmi language negates it. Hence, option (b) is incorrect. As per the above-mentioned statement, exploration related to just the script is mentioned, but nothing related to culture is mentioned. Hence, we can’t conclude that Keeladi is a center of culture too. Option (a) is incorrect. Exploration of a new script is indeed a breakthrough for any verse of history. Hence, option (c) can be concluded from the statement.

Q9: BCE is the acronym for:
(a) Before the Common Era.
(b) Before Colloquial Era.
(c) Before Chapel Eternal.
(d) Behind Christ Era.
Ans: (a)
Sol: The acronym (BCE) stands for "Before the Common Era." It is an alternative to (BC), before Christ. BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) have been used since the early 1700s by various writers and English language dictionaries. It is used to show that a year or century comes before the year 1 of the calendar used in much of the world, especially in Europe and North and South America.

Q10: “A farmer could write his own name on a pot he owned. The fight going on here is ‘You are not the one to teach me to write; I have learnt it myself.’ ” — These sentences imply:
(a) That the Keeladi civilization was an inegalitarian one.
(b) That the Keeladi civilization did not conserve the access to education and literacy only for the elite.
(c) That the farmers of the Keeladi civilization were also potters.
(d) All the above.
Ans: (b)
Sol: The word inegalitarian refers to promoting inequality among the people. The sentence refers to a farmer who can write, which implies that in the Keeladi civilization, the right to education is given even to a farmer. Hence, option (a) is incorrect. Option (b) refers to access to education and literacy not being restricted to the elite, which is an apt interpretation of the sentence presented in the question. Hence, option (b) is correct. Option (c) refers to the framers of the Keeladi civilization being potters, which can’t be inferred from the passage.

III. The call of self-expression turned the village of the internet into a city, which expanded at time-lapse speed, social connections bristling like neurons in every direction. At twelve, I was writing five hundred words a day on a public LiveJournal. By twenty-five, my job was to write things that would attract, ideally, a hundred thousand strangers per post. 
Now I’m thirty, and most of my life is inextricable from the internet, and its mazes of incessant forced connection —this feverish, electric, unliveable hell. The curdling of the social internet happened slowly and then all at once. The tipping point, I’d guess, was around 2012. People were losing excitement about the internet, starting to articulate a set of new truisms. 
Facebook had become tedious, trivial, exhausting. Instagram seemed better, but would soon reveal its underlying function as a three-ring circus of happiness and popularity and success. Twitter, for all its discursive promise, was where everyone tweeted complaints at airlines and moaned about articles that had been commissioned to make people moan. The dream of a better, truer self on the internet was slipping away. Where we had once been free to be ourselves online, we were now chained to ourselves online, and this made us self-conscious. Platforms that promised connection began inducing mass alienation. 
The freedom promised by the internet started to seem like something whose greatest potential lay in the realm of misuse. Even as we became increasingly sad and ugly on the internet, the mirage of the better online self continued to glimmer. As a medium, the internet is defined by a built-in performance incentive. In real life, you can walk around living life and be visible to other people. But on the internet—for anyone to see you, you have to act. You have to communicate in order to maintain an internet presence. And, because the internet’s central platforms are built around personal profiles, it can seem—first at a mechanical level, and later on as an encoded instinct —like the main purpose of this communication is to make yourself look good. Online reward mechanisms beg to substitute for offline ones, and then overtake them. 
This is why everyone tries to look so hot and well-travelled on Instagram; why everyone seems so smug and triumphant on Facebook; and why, on Twitter, making a righteous political statement has come to seem, for many people, like a political good in itself. The everyday madness perpetuated by the internet is the madness of this architecture, which positions personal identity as the centre of the universe. It’s as if we’ve been placed on a lookout that oversees the entire world and given a pair of binoculars that makes everything look like our own reflection. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, by Jia Tolentino, Random House, 2019.]

Q11: Which of the following statements can be inferred from the above passage?
(a) The internet expanded very slowly.
(b) The internet can be used to cause harm.
(c) The internet is addictive.
(d) The main purpose of social media platforms is to dissuade people from showing off.
Ans: (b)
Sol: Refer to this line of the passage: “But on the internet—for anyone to see you, you have to act.” From the statement, it can be inferred that the internet encourages people to act and not be their real selves; hence, option (d) is incorrect as it is expressing that the main purpose of social media platforms is to inhibit people from showing off. Option (a) says that the internet expanded very slowly, but as per the passage, the internet spread across the nation in a short period of time. Hence, option (a) is incorrect. As per option (c), the internet is addictive, but going by the author’s words, “my life is inextricable from the internet, and its mazes of incessant forced connection—this feverish, electric, unlivable hell,” the sentence represents that although the author is using the internet continuously, it’s forcefully. Throughout the passage, the author uses antipodes against the impact of the internet on our lives. The entire tone and flow of the passage are about the impact of the internet on us, and through various sentences like “Even as we became increasingly sad and ugly on the internet, the mirage of the better online self continued to glimmer,” or “The freedom promised by the internet started to seem like something whose greatest potential lay in the realm of misuse,” it infers that the internet can cause harm to the world.

Q12: All the following statements are ‘truisms’, except:
(a) The internet has changed the way the world works.
(b) A preference for cat videos can reveal a lot about your personality.
(c) Like with any tool, digital technology has both advantages and disadvantages.
(d) Only time can tell what the future holds.
Ans: (b)
Sol: The word truisms means something that is accepted and followed by many people. As per the passage, people around 2012 have started to articulate several aspects related to the internet. Going by the words of the author, “Where we had once been free to be ourselves online, we were now chained to ourselves online, and this made us self-conscious.” These lines infer that the internet has changed the way people perceive themselves. Hence, option (a) can be considered one of the "truisms." When the author says, “The freedom promised by the internet started to seem like something whose greatest potential lay in the realm of misuse,” she is emphasizing the cons of using the internet; simultaneously, in the previous paragraph, the author mentions the role of the internet in growing and strengthening social networks, implying that digital technology has both its pros and cons. After going through the details of various social media platforms described by the author, it can’t be inferred anywhere that there is a preference for cat videos to reveal the personalities of people. Hence, option (b) is not one of the truisms.

Q13: Which of the following comes closest to the underlined sentence in the passage?
(a) The way we use the internet says a lot about who we are.
(b) The internet has reduced the distance between people living across the world.
(c) The internet has the ability to customise what we access based on our identity.
(d) The internet only shows us what we don’t want to see.
Ans: (c)
Sol: Let us go through the underlined sentences first, “It’s as if we’ve been placed on a lookout that oversees the entire world and given a pair of binoculars that makes everything look like our own reflection.” The phrase “look like our own reflection” clearly denies the fact that the internet only shows us what we don’t want to see. Hence, option (d) is incorrect. The underlined sentence of the passage is depicting the two sides with respect to the virtual world and the real world. Option (b) is talking about the geographical distance of people, which is irrelevant as per the passage. It can be inferred from the underlined lines of the passage that through the internet, a person gets leverage to customize his image and portray it to the outside world. Hence, option (c) is correct. Option (a) represents that the internet says a lot about people but doesn’t extend it to the fact that it also gives people the advantage to alter their personalities and project them to the outer world.

Q14: Which of the following is a metaphor?
(a) the village of the internet
(b) this feverish, electric, unliveable hell
(c) three-ring circus of happiness and popularity and success
(d) all the above
Ans: (d)
Sol: Before digging up the options, let us first see what the word Metaphor, which is a figure of speech, exactly means. A metaphor is a word or phrase applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. In other words, it gives a rhetorical effect to the sentence by indirectly comparing a thing to something else. The introduction of the passage compares the approach and usage of the internet to be less by metaphorically comparing it to a village, hence option (a) is correct. Refer to the lines from the passage, “Now I’m thirty, and most of my life is inextricable from the internet, and its mazes of incessant forced connection—this feverish, electric, unlivable hell.” The author here is comparing the usage of the internet as an extremely discomforting and unpleasant experience by using words like feverish and electric. As per option (c), the author is comparing the situation of the internet and social media platform users to an animal stuck in a ring and thinking that their mode of happiness, popularity, and success is through it. Hence, all the above three options are metaphors in the passage.

Q15: Which of the following categories best describes this piece of writing?
(a) Non-fiction essay
(b) Fiction
(c) Academic paper
(d) Poem
Ans: (a)
Sol: The passage is rhetorically discussing the addiction and hypocrisy that sustain underneath the sheets of the world of the internet. A non-fiction essay refers to compositions based on real-life situations and events. In addition, it also includes essays based on one’s opinion and perception. Option (b) Fiction is that piece of writing in which the events or items described are not true. The above passage is based on the author’s opinion on the usage of the internet in the real world. Hence, the option is incorrect. An academic paper is a piece of writing that presents the results of research, analysis, or argument on a particular subject. The purpose of an academic paper is to contribute new knowledge or insights to a particular field of study. If the author has represented the data of the research in the form of numbers, facts, and figures, then it could be a piece of academic paper. A poem is a piece of writing in which the words are arranged in separate lines, often ending in rhyme, and are chosen for their sound and for the images and ideas they suggest.

IV. Down by the sandy banks of the Yamuna River, the men must work quickly. At a little past 12 a.m. one humid night in May, they pull back the black plastic tarp covering three boreholes sunk deep in the ground. They then drag thick hoses toward a queue of 20-odd tanker trucks idling quietly with their headlights turned off. The men work in a team: While one man fits a hose’s mouth over a borehole, another clambers atop a truck at the front of the line and shoves the tube’s opposite end into the empty steel cistern attached to the vehicle’s creaky frame. ‘On kar!’ someone shouts in Hinglish; almost instantly, his orders to ‘switch it on’ are obeyed. 
Diesel generators, housed in nearby sheds, begin to thrum. Submersible pumps, installed in the borehole’s shafts, drone as they disgorge thousands of gallons of groundwater from deep in the earth. The liquid gushes through the hoses and into the trucks’ tanks. The full trucks don’t wait around. As the hose team continues its work, drivers nose down a rutted dirt path until they reach a nearby highway. There, they turn on their lights and pick up speed, rushing to sell their bounty to factories and hospitals, malls and hotels, apartments and hutments across this city of 25 million. 
Everything about this business is illegal: the boreholes dug without permission, the trucks operating without permits, the water sold without testing or treatment. ‘Water work is night work,’ says a middle-aged neighbour who lives near the covert pumping station and requested anonymity. ‘Bosses arrange buyers, labour fills tankers, the police look the other way, and the muscle makes sure that no one says nothing to nobody.’ Teams like this one are ubiquitous in Delhi, where the official water supply falls short of the city’s needs. A quarter of Delhi’s households live without a piped-water connection; most of the rest receive water for only a few hours each day. 
So residents have come to rely on private truck owners —the most visible strands of a dispersed web of city councillors, farmers, real estate agents, and fixers who source millions of gallons of water each day from illicit boreholes, and sell the liquid for profit. The entrenched system has a local moniker: the water-tanker mafia. 
A 2013 audit found that the city loses 60 percent of its water supply to leakages, theft, and a failure to collect revenue. The mafia defends its work as a community service, but there is a much darker picture of Delhi’s subversive water industry: one of a thriving black market populated by small-time freelance agents who are exploiting a fast-depleting common resource and in turn threatening India’s long-term water security.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from: “At the Mercy of the Water Mafia”, by Aman Sethi, Foreign Policy]

Q16: Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(a) The water tanker mafia’s operations, though illegal, are justified given the vital service they provide to the people of Delhi.
(b) The water supplied by the water tanker mafia is potentially contaminated.
(c) Private truck owners play the most important role in the operations of the water tanker mafia.
(d) The water supplied by the water tank mafia is meant primarily for residential use.
Ans: (b)
Sol: As per option (a), the water mafia’s operation is justified, whereas the author seems to be criticizing the whole mafia scam operating in Delhi. Simultaneously, it is not only private truck owners but also city councilors, farmers, real estate agents, and fixers who play an active role in the mafia, hence, option (c) is incorrect. Referring to these lines of the passage, “Everything about this business is illegal: the boreholes dug without permission, the trucks operating without permits, the water sold without testing or treatment.” The latter part of the sentence infers that there is a scope for the water to be contaminated as it is being sold without testing and treatment. Hence, option (b) is correct. As per the author, the water tanker mafia supplies water to factories, hospitals, malls, hotels, apartments, and huts. Hence, restricting the supply to just residential areas is incorrect as per the passage.

Q17: Which of the following, used in the passage, suggests that the illegal supply of groundwater is not a recent phenomenon?
(a) Entrenched
(b) Ubiquitous
(c) Long-term water security
(d) Fast-depleting common resource
Ans: (a)
Sol: The phrase used in the passage is: The entrenched system has a local moniker; here, the word entrenched means a system that has been there for a long period of time and is now firmly established. The word ubiquitous means something that is found and is present everywhere. Option (c) long-term water security has not been used anywhere. The word depletion means “something that is used and utilized swiftly.”

Q18: Which of the following seems to be the author’s main concern in the passage?
(a) Delhi’s water supply infrastructure does not adequately cater to all its residents.
(b) The illegal operations of the water tank mafia do not depend on the complicity of a range of actors, including the police and city councillors.
(c) The petty profiteering of a few actors comes at the immense cost of India’s sustainable access to water.
(d) All the above.
Ans: (c)
Sol: As per the passage, it is true that Delhi’s water supply infrastructure is inadequate, but in the passage, the author’s prime concern is the water supply mafia, not the water supply infrastructure. The author concludes the passage by mentioning that it is one of a thriving black market populated by small-time freelance agents who are exploiting a fast-depleting common resource and in turn threatening India’s long-term water security. Hence, hampering sustainable access to water is the main concern in the passage.

Q19: All of the following are sounds you can hear as the water tankers are filled, except:
(a) Creaking
(b) Thrumming
(c) Droning
(d) Gushing
Ans: (d)
Sol: Going through the passage, there are several sounds mentioned while the water tankers are being filled—sounds like creaking (vehicle’s creaky frame), droning (drone as they disgorge thousands of gallons of groundwater), thrumming (housed in nearby sheds, begin to thrum)—were some of them. Option (d) gushing is not mentioned by the author.

Q20: Which of the following words from the passage means ‘hidden’?
(a) illicit
(b) idling
(c) subversive
(d) covert
Ans: (d)
Sol: Option (a) illicit is an adjective. It means illegal or otherwise forbidden. “The mafia defends its work as a community service, but there is a much darker picture of Delhi’s subversive water industry.” The word subversive means a systematic attempt to destroy or intervene in a government or political system by persons working from within. They then drag thick hoses toward a queue of 20-odd tanker trucks idling quietly with their headlights turned off. The word idling here means that the trucks were moving slowly without using much power and fuel. Referring to the lines of the passage, “Water work is night work,” says a middle-aged neighbor who lives near the covert pumping station. The word covert here means hidden pumping stations, which are not easily visible to the common man.

V.  English encodes class in India. It does so by sliding into the DNA of social division: income, caste, gender, religion or place of belonging. The threat it poses to social cohesion has worried public commentators across the political spectrum. In an address delivered as independent India’s Parliament dilly-dallied over the suggestion to replace English with regional languages as the medium of instruction for higher education, Gandhi said, This blighting imposition of a foreign medium upon the youth of the country will be counted by history as one of the greatest tragedies.
Our boys think, and rightly in the present circumstances, that without English they cannot get government service. Girls are taught English as a passport to marriage.’
A hundred years later, the language continues to be seen as a tool of exclusion. The problem now is about inequality of access. To be denied English is harmful to the individual as well as our society,’ writes Chetan Bhagat, self-appointed leader of a class war set off by unequal access to English.
Bhagat, an engineer-turned-investment banker, wrote his first college romance in English in 2004. Then only a certain kind of person—someone who grew up reading, writing and speaking the language—wrote books in English—big words, long sentences, literary pretension, heavy with orientalism. In the ten years since Bhagat put the popular in ‘popular’ English fiction, he has written six other novels and sold millions of copies all told. With every new book, all written in deliberately simple English, Bhagat has recruited thousands of new soldiers in his crusade against what he calls the ‘caste system around the language’. Bhagat even has a term for Indians who ‘have’ English: E1. ‘These people had parents who spoke English, had access to good English-medium schools—typically in big cities, and gained early proficiency, which enabled them to consume English products such as newspapers, books and films. English is so instinctive to them that even some of their thought patterns are in English. These people are much in demand.’ The people E1 presumably control, through a nexus of privilege built on ownership of English, are E2: ‘probably ten times the E1s. They are technically familiar with the language. [But] if they sit in an interview conducted by E1s, they will come across as incompetent, even though they may be equally intelligent, creative or hardworking.’ The situation may not be so comically stark. The haves and have-nots may not exactly fit into Bhagat’s stereotypes of urban, sophisticated rich people and provincial, uncultured poor. His argument does not factor in many other walls around English in India. You are more likely to learn English if you are born a man rather than a woman, high caste rather than low caste, south Indian rather than north Indian. There is more than one kind of E1 and more than one kind of E2. And there is more than one way E2s can overthrow E1s. One is to speak it like they know it. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing the World, by Snigdha Poonam, Penguin Viking, 2018.]

Q21: Which of the following can be inferred about the author’s views on English in contemporary India?
(a) The ability to speak English in India depends on place and social identity.
(b) English is not an Indian language.
(c) English language fluency does not necessarily imply competence.
(d) People’s views on English are divided along political lines.
Ans: (a)
Sol: Refer to these sentences from the passage: 
(a) “It does so by sliding into the DNA of social division: income, caste, gender, religion, or place of belonging.” 
(b) “The authors of these pieces of writing are seen as outsiders, who can offer something of value to the people at large.” 
In the context of the passage, these two statements directly talk about how wealth, caste, and religion affect the behavior of individuals. Therefore, options (b) and (c) do not make sense in this context. The correct choice is option (a).

Q22: Who among the following would defy Chetan Bhagat’s neat categorisation of Indian English-speakers into E1 and E2?
(a) Savitha, an above-average student in an English medium school in Mumbai, belongs to an upper-middle class family. Public speaking makes her extremely nervous and she fumbles through all her interviews.
(b) Moin, once a milkman in Ranchi, learns English at the age of 17. After a lot of hard work, he becomes an instructor of spoken English at a thriving institute.
(c) Both (a) and (b)
(d) Neither (a) nor (b)
Ans: (b)
Sol: As per Chetan Bhagat’s categorization of Indian English-speakers into E1 and E2, the following features are there: 
(a) E1 category speakers are those whose parents speak in English; they have access to good English-medium schools—typically in big cities—and gained early proficiency. 
(b) E1 speakers consume English products such as newspapers, books, and films. 
(c) English is so instinctive to E1 speakers that even some of their thought patterns are in English. Considering the above three features of E1 category speakers, Savitha belongs to a metropolitan city and is from an upper-middle-class family. She still fumbles and gets nervous during her interviews, but nowhere is it mentioned that she is struggling with spoken English. This hesitation can be attributed to her core subject knowledge, as she is an above-average student. Hence, options (a) and (c) are incorrect. 
Let us first discuss E2 speakers’ traits as per Chetan Bhagat’s categorization: 
(a) E2 speakers are technically familiar with English. 
(b) They may be equally intelligent, creative, or hardworking as E1 speakers but are considered incompetent when compared with E1. 
As per option (b), Moin was a milkman (not part of the privileged class) and is now a spoken English instructor, which defies Chetan Bhagat’s categorization of E2 speakers. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Q23: Which of the following best describes the author’s response to Bhagat’s views on English?
(a) The author dismisses his views as a self-appointed expert.
(b) The author completely agrees with his views.
(c) The author neither agrees nor disagrees with his views.
(d) The author considers his views and finds that they lack nuance.
Ans: (d)
Sol: Refer to the lines of the passage: 
“‘To be denied English is harmful to the individual as well as our society,’ writes Chetan Bhagat, self-appointed leader of a class war set off by unequal access to English.” The term "self-appointed leader" is used by the author himself to acknowledge Chetan Bhagat. Hence, option (a) is incorrect. The last paragraph of the passage describes the author’s response to Bhagat’s views: “His argument does not factor in many other walls around English in India. You are more likely to learn English if you are born a man rather than a woman, high caste rather than low caste, South Indian rather than North Indian. There is more than one kind of E1 and more than one kind of E2. And there is more than one way E2s can overthrow E1s. One is to speak it like they know it.” Considering the bold lines from the last paragraph, it can be implied that the author feels Bhagat is considering the issue superficially and his categorization lacks profound thought. The author doesn’t completely agree with Bhagat’s views but in a way, disagrees with it. Hence, options (b) and (c) are incorrect, and option (d) is correct.

Q24: Which of the following can be inferred from Gandhi’s views with respect to English in post-independence India?
(a) English should not be taught as a subject in Indian universities.
(b) English proficiency is vital in order to gain entry into the bureaucracy.
(c) Indian women cannot get rich if they do not know English.
(d) None of the above.
Ans: (d)
Sol: The last few lines of the first paragraph highlight Gandhi Ji's views with respect to English in post-independence India: 
"Gandhi said, ‘This blighting imposition of a foreign medium upon the youth of the country will be counted by history as one of the greatest tragedies. Our boys think, and rightly in the present circumstances, that without English they cannot get government service. Girls are taught English as a passport to marriage.’" From the above lines, it can be inferred that the youth of our country thinks that in order to grab any government service, English is important; hence, option (b) is correct. As per Gandhi’s views, girls are taught English so that they can get married to a decent boy, not necessarily rich. Also, it is not mentioned anywhere that women cannot get rich if they do not know English. Hence, option (c) is incorrect. Although Gandhi doesn’t seem convinced with the imposition of a foreign medium upon the youth of the country, still it can’t be inferred that he wanted English to not be taught as a subject. By going through the lines, it can be derived that Gandhi wanted English not to be imposed as a medium to study. Hence, option (a) is also incorrect.

Q25: All the following pairs of words are synonyms, except:
(a) stark, sharp
(b) sophisticated, spoilt
(c) crusade, campaign
(d) cohesion, unity
Ans: (b)
Sol: The word sharp, when used as an adjective, means: having a thin edge or a fine point suitable for or capable of cutting or piercing. Similarly, the word stark, when used as an adjective, means: clearly distinguished or delineated. Hence, option (a) is a synonym. Sophistication means to impair the disposition or character of by overindulgence, whereas the word spoilt means to damage severely or harm (something), especially with reference to its excellence. Hence, both words are antonyms. Crusade is a vigorous campaign for political, social, or religious change, and a series of military operations intended to achieve a particular objective, confined to a particular area, or involving a specified type of fighting. Hence, option (c) is incorrect. Cohesion and unity both refer to the state of sticking together or (of people) being in close agreement and working well together.

VI. ‘So pick a bird,’ Iff commanded. ‘Any bird.’ This was puzzling. ‘The only bird around here is a wooden peacock,’ Haroun pointed out, reasonably enough. Iff gave a snort of disgust. ‘A person may choose what he cannot see,’ he said, as if explaining something very obvious to a very foolish individual. ‘A person may mention a bird’s name even if the creature is not present and correct: crow, quail, hummingbird, bulbul, mynah, parrot, kite. 
A person may even select a flying creature of his own invention, for example winged horse, flying turtle, airborne whale, space serpent or aeromouse. To give a thing a name, a label, a handle; to rescue it from anonymity, to pluck it out of the Place of Namelessness, in short to identify it — well, that’s a way of bringing the said thing into being. Or, in this case, the said bird or Imaginary Flying Organism.’ ‘That may be true where you come from,’ Haroun argued. ‘But in these parts, stricter rules apply.’ 
‘In these parts,’ rejoined blue-bearded Iff, ‘I am having time wasted by someone who will not trust in what he can’t see. How much have you seen, eh? Africa, have you seen it? No? Then is it truly there? And submarines? Huh? Also, hailstones, baseballs, pagodas? Goldmines? Kangaroos, Mount Fujiyama, the North Pole? And the past, did it happen? And the future, will it come? Believe in your own eyes and you’ll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess.’ With that, he plunged his hand into a pocket of his auberginey pajamas, and when he brought it forth again it was bunched into a fist. 
‘So take a look, or I should say a gander, at the enclosed.’ He opened his hand, and Haroun’s eyes almost fell out of his head. Tiny birds were walking about on Iff’s palm; and pecking at it, and flapping their miniature wings to hover just above it. And as well as birds there were fabulous winged creatures out of legends: an Assyrian lion with the head of a bearded man and a pair of large hairy wings growing out of its flanks; and winged monkeys, flying saucers, tiny angels, levitating (and apparently air-breathing) fish. What’s your pleasure, select, choose,’ Iff urged. And although it seemed obvious to Haroun that these magical creatures were so small that they couldn’t possibly have carried so much as a bitten-off fingernail, he decided not to argue and pointed at a tiny crested bird that was giving him a sidelong look through one highly intelligent eye. 
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie, Granta & Penguin, 1990.]

Q26: If Iff is right, which of the following statements is true?
(a) You should only trust what you cannot see.
(b) Naming something is the only way to make it unreal.
(c) You should only trust what you can see.
(d) Naming something is one way to make it real.
Ans: (d)
Sol: In Iff's words: “To give a thing a name, a label, a handle; to rescue it from anonymity, to pluck it out of the Place of Namelessness, in short to identify it — well, that’s a way of bringing the said thing into being. Or, in this case, the said bird or Imaginary Flying Organism.” There are many ways in which something can be turned into being. By naming, labeling, handling, rescuing, and plucking it out. Even if it doesn’t exist, you can name it and make it real. Hence, option (c) which says that we should only trust what you can see is incorrect because, as per Iff, through the above-mentioned ways, you can bring fictitious things into life. At the same time, option (b) is also incorrect, as naming is one of the several ways mentioned by Iff to bring nameless things out and give them identification. Option (d) is one of the many ways mentioned above, hence is correct. According to Iff, things, animals, and places that don’t exist in the real world can be brought into existence by several means. Hence, option (a) is also incorrect. Refer to the lines from: “A person may mention a bird’s name even if the creature is not present and correct: crow, quail, hummingbird, bulbul, mynah, parrot, kite. A person may even select a flying creature of his own invention, for example winged horse, flying turtle, airborne whale, space serpent or aero mouse.”

Q27: Which of the following applies to Iff?
(a) He speaks in contradictions.
(b) He has a habit of speaking in synonyms.
(c) He uses proverbs to express ideas.
(d) He uses metaphors to describe things.
Ans: (b)
Sol: Going through the passage, it is evident that Iff has a habit of expressing and elaborating things using similar meaning words multiple times. “A person may choose what he cannot see,” he said, as if explaining something very obvious to a very foolish individual. “A person may mention a bird’s name even if the creature is not present and correct: crow, quail, hummingbird, bulbul, mynah, parrot, kite. A person may even select.” To support this, we can see that Iff has used words like: explain, mention, choose, select. Considering option (a), we can’t infer anywhere from the passage that Iff contradicts his statements or uses metaphors or proverbs or even indirect annotations to describe things.

Q28: Which of the following most accurately describes what the underlined sentence means in the context of the passage?
(a) Do not restrict your knowledge only to what you can physically see.
(b) Accept everything you see uncritically.
(c) Trusting your senses is a recipe for success.
(d) Learn not to appreciate viewpoints other than your own.
Ans: (a)
Sol: Throughout the passage, Iff is emphasizing and highlighting the fact that it is not necessary to believe in things only if they are concrete and tangible. You can also bring life to intangible and abstract things through various modes. Refer to the following underlined lines from the passage: “Believe in your own eyes and you’ll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess.” It clearly implies that Iff is conveying the message not to limit your knowledge to tangible things and to open up your senses to things that are abstract too.

Q29: All the words below are related in meaning, except:
(a) levitate
(b) fly
(c) hover
(d) gander
Ans: (d)
Sol: The word levitate means to rise or cause to rise and float in the air. Similar to levitate is fly and hover. The word gander means to look or glance at something.

Q30: What does ‘fabulous’ mean in the passage?
(a) Very good
(b) Unbelievable
(c) Mythical
(d) Enormous
Ans: (c)
Sol: Refer to the lines of the passage: “There were fabulous winged creatures out of legends: an Assyrian lion with the head of a bearded man and a pair of large hairy wings growing out of its flanks; and winged monkeys, flying saucers, tiny angels, levitating (and apparently air-breathing) fish.” As per Iff, the description seems to be of a fictitious creature with imaginary wings. Hence, option (c), mythical, is what fabulous winged creatures mean in the passage. Options (a) and (d) are synonyms and appear to be irrelevant to the word fabulous in the passage.