Previous Year Questions 2020: English | English for CLAT PDF Download

Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development, with adverse impact on the environment, human health, food security, economic activity, natural resources and physical infrastructure. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the effects of climate change have already been observed, and scientific findings indicate that precautionary and prompt action is necessary. Vulnerability to climate change is not just a function of geography or dependence on natural resources; it also has social, economic and political dimensions which influence how climate change affects different groups. Poor people rarely have insurance to cover loss of property due to natural calamines i.e. drought, floods, super cyclones etc. The poor communities are already struggling to cope with the existing challenges of poverty and climate variability and climate change could push many beyond their ability to cope or even survive. It is vital that these communities are helped to adapt to the changing dynamics of nature. Adaptation is a process through which societies make themselves better able to cope with an uncertain future. Adapting to climate change entails taking the right measures to reduce the negative effect of climate change (or exploit the positive ones) by making the appropriate adjustments and changes. These range from technological options such as increased sea defences or flood proof houses on stilts to behavioural change at the individual level, such as reducing water use in times of drought. Other strategies include early warning systems for extreme events, better water management, improved risk management, various insurance options and biodiversity conservation. Because of the speed at which climate change is happening due to global temperature rise, it is urgent that the vulnerability of developing countries to climate change is reduced and their capacity to adapt is increased and national adaptation plans are implemented.  Communities must build their resilience, including adopting appropriate technologies while making the most of traditional knowledge, and diversifying their livelihoods to cope with current and future climate stress. Local coping strategies and knowledge need to be used in synergy with government and local interventions. The need of adaptation interventions depends on national circumstances. There is a large body of knowledge and experience within local communities on coping with climatic variability and extreme weather events. Local communities have always aimed to adapt to variations in their climate. Local coping strategies are an important element of planning for adaptation. Traditional knowledge can help to provide efficient, appropriate and time tested ways of advising and enabling adaptation to climate change in communities who are feeling the effects of climate changes due to global warming.

Q1: To address the challenge of Climate Change, Developing countries urgently require:
(a) Implementation of National Adaptation Plans
(b) Adoption of short term plans
(c) Adoption of technological solutions
(d) Imposition of Climate Change tax
Ans: (a)

Q2: Given below are the factors of vulnerability of poor people to climate changes. Select the option that contains the correct answer.
(1) Their dependence on natural resources
(2) Geographical attributes
(3) Lack of financial resources
(4) Lack of Traditional knowledge
Codes:
(a) (2), (3) and (4)
(b) (1), (2), (3) and (4)
(c) (3) only
(d) (1), (2) and (3)
Ans: (d)

Q3: Which of the following is against the idea portrayed in the passage?
(a) Co-ordination between regional and national efforts is necessary.
(b) The process of Adaptation to climate change does not take into account the factor of prevailing national circumstances.
(c) Social dimensions of climate change also need to be appreciated.
(d) Combining Traditional Knowledge with appropriate technology is the need of the hour.
Ans: (b)

Q4: The Traditional Knowledge should be used through:
(a) Improvement in national circumstances
(b) Synergy between Government and local interventions
(c) Imposition of Climate Change Tax
(d) Its dissemination
Ans: (b)

Q5: What is the meaning of the word ‘Resilience’ occurring in the passage?
(a) Toughness
(b) Fragility
(c) Flexibility
(d) Vulnerability
Ans: (c)

The uncovering of a private Instagram group styling itself ‘Bois Locker Room‘ featuring students from some prominent South Delhi schools discussing their female classmates in disturbingly violent ways including plans of sexual assault is a wakeup call for parents and authorities. The group formed last month or so kicked up a social media storm when screenshots surfaced. Police have questioned a 15 year old boy to identify other members. Similar incidents involving minors discussing rape/ gang rape of classmates have been reported on other digital platforms like WhatsApp too, across cities. The exchanges in the now deleted group require precise responses from police, parents and school authorities around whom the fates of the juveniles involved now revolve. It is important to recognise where a teenager spouting objectification of his female counterparts is coming from. People of all ages, not just children, are retreating deeper into the recesses of their online avatars during this lockdown. But the heavy technological investment in children‘s education, including flooding them with personal smartphones, has not been matched by serious conversations centred on responsible internet usage and equality. Young, impressionable minds absorb the normalisation of rape from the adults around them. When what they see, read and hear is toxic masculinity, that is what they perform. That‘s what peer pressure becomes about. But if this youthful role play of macho dominance receives timely counselling, it can prevent far graver adult offences. Schools and parents have a critical role to play in educating children on gender equality. Digital platforms which claim to have zero tolerance towards content that violates community standards must also explain why such abuses go undetected, despite boasts about Artificial Intelligence-driven technologies to stop them. They should play a more proactive role in stopping the sexual harassment of real people in the guise of virtual sport.

Q6: What is the Central Idea being conveyed by the Author in the passage above?
(a) Modern Social Networking platforms must take the lead in regulating young people from using these platforms for sexual abuse.
(b) It is significant to educate children and youngsters about gender equality.
(c) Digital Platforms need to have a zero tolerance policy towards content leading to sexual abuse.
(d) None of the above.
Ans: (a)

Q7: As per the author, why is this incident a wake-up call for parents?
(a) Because even the parents are indulged heavily in social networking platforms.
(b) Because parents have failed to stop their children from committing such blunders.
(c) Because it is the primary responsibility of parents to control their children.
(d) Because the parents have failed in educating their children regarding fair internet usage and have simply invested in the technology-driven education of their children.
Ans: (d)

Q8: According to the author, in order to understand the root cause of such insensitive incidents, it is important to:
(a) Understand and examine the kind of socialisation process these children are exposed to.
(b) Adopt Artificial Intelligence driven technologies.
(c) Strengthen the environment of discipline in schools and colleges.
(d) All of the above.
Ans: (d)

Q9: On the basis of your reading of the passage, which of the following statements can be inferred?
(a) Sexual Offenses can be reduced by timely counselling from parental and quasi-parental authorities i.e., parents and teachers respectively.
(b) If digital platforms implement a Zero Tolerance Policy towards such a menace, sexual offenses can be completely stopped.
(c) Investment in education of children is enough to curb the menace.
(d) All of the above.
Ans: (a)

Q10: Which of the following words are synonymous with the word ‘Spouting’?
(a) Pouring
(b) Streaming
(c) Erupting
(d) All of the Above.
Ans: (d)

The snow was falling, and the Cat's fur was stiffly pointed with it, but he was imperturbable. He sat crouched, ready for the death-spring, as he had sat for hours. It was night but that made no difference, all times were as one to the Cat when he was in wait for prey. Then, too, he was under no constraint of human will, for he was living alone that winter. Nowhere in the world was any voice calling him; on no hearth was there a waiting dish. He was quite free except for his own desires, which tyrannized over him when unsatisfied as now. The Cat was very hungry. almost famished, in fact. For days the weather had been very bitter...and the Cat's long hunt had availed him nothing. But he waited with the inconceivable patience and persistency of his race; besides, he was certain. The Cat was a creature of absolute convictions, and his faith in his deductions never wavered. The rabbit had gone in there between those low-hung pine boughs. The Cat had seen her enter...so he sat down and waited, and he waited still in the white night, listening angrily to the north wind starting in the upper heights of the mountains with distant screams, then swelling into an awful crescendo of rage, and swooping down with furious white wings of snow like a flock of fierce eagles into the valleys and ravines. The Cat was on the side of a mountain, on a wooded terrace. Above him, a few feet away towered the rock ascent as steep as the wall of a cathedral. He had often looked with wonder at the rock, and miauled bitterly and resentfully as man does in the face of a forbidding Providence. At his left was the sheer precipice. Behind him...was the frozen perpendicular wall of a mountain stream. Before him was the way to his home. When the rabbit came out she was trapped; her little cloven feet could not scale such unbroken steeps. So the Cat waited. The tangle of trees and bushes clinging to the mountain-side with a stern clutch of roots, the prostrate trunks and branches, the vines embracing everything with strong knots and coils of growth, had a curious effect, as of things which had whirled for ages in a current of raging water, only it was not water, but wind, which had disposed everything in circling lines of yielding to its fiercest points of onset. It was as if ice needles pricked his skin through his beautiful thick fur, but he never faltered and never once cried. He had nothing to gain from crying, and everything to lose; the rabbit would hear him cry and know he was waiting.

Q11: Which of the following suggests a synonymous meaning to the words ‘Providence’ and ‘Crescendo’ respectively?
(a) Nemesis, Apex
(b) Zenith, Nadir
(c) Laxity, Prudence
(d) Short-sightedness, Upsurge
Ans: (a)

Q12: The passage has been adorned with numerous figures of speech. Which of the following combinations is correct?
(a) Irony and Sarcasm
(b) Alliteration and Pun
(c) Simile and Personification
(d) Metaphor and Onomatopoeia
Ans: (c)

Q13: The passage best demonstrates which one of the following motifs of Cat’s Life?
(a) To satisfy the pangs of hunger
(b) To survive the harsh winters
(c) A never-ending wait
(d) To hunt for Rabbit
Ans: (c)

Q14: The Author’s description of “...he was under no constraint of human will, for he was living alone...” implies:
(a) Cat’s absolute freedom from everything
(b) Cat’s no association with human beings
(c) Cat’s loneliness
(d) Cat’s tyrannical demeanour
Ans: (c)

Q15: The lines, “...but he never faltered and never once cried. He had nothing to gain from crying, and everything to lose...”, suggest that the Cat is:
(a) Reflective
(b) Apologetic
(c) Resilient
(d) Frustrated
Ans: (c)

I am losing my interest in human beings; in the significance of their lives and their actions. Someone has said it is better to study one man than ten books. I want neither books nor men; they make me suffer. Can one of them talk to me like the night – the Summer night? Like the stars or the caressing wind?
The night came slowly, softly, as I lay out there under the maple tree. It came creeping, creeping stealthily out of the valley, thinking I did not notice. And the outlines of trees and foliage nearby blended in one black mass and the night came stealing out from them, too, and from the east and west, until the only light was in the sky, filtering through the maple leaves and a star looking down through every cranny.
The night is solemn and it means mystery.
Human shapes flitted by like intangible things. Some stole up like little mice to peep at me. I did not mind. My whole being was abandoned to the soothing and penetrating charm of the night. The katydids began their slumber song: they are at it yet. How wise they are. They do not chatter like people. They tell me only: “sleep, sleep, sleep.” The wind rippled the maple leaves like little warm love thrills. Why do fools cumber the Earth! It was a man‘s voice that broke the necromancer‘s spell. A man came today with his “Bible Class.” He is detestable with his red cheeks and bold eyes and coarse manner and speech. What does he know of Christ? Shall I ask a young fool who was born yesterday and will die tomorrow to tell me things of Christ? I would rather ask the stars: they have seen him. 

Q16: Why has the author lost interest in human beings?
(a) Because they make the author suffer.
(b) Because the human beings do not bring with them the warmth and the comfort which comes naturally with the night, stars, and the wind.
(c) Because human beings are not mysterious.
(d) All of the above.
Ans: (d)

Q17: The author has compared the night with:
(a) The Katydids
(b) The Necromancer’s spell
(c) Stars
(d) All of the above.
Ans: (b)

Q18: Why has the author called the ‘katydids’ wise?
(a) Because they sing a slumber song.
(b) Because they tell the author to only ‘sleep’.
(c) Because they do not indulge in unnecessary and unimportant talks.
(d) Because they are not fools.
Ans: (c)

Q19: Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(a) Being close to nature can bring one closer to God.
(b) Nature is just a mystery.
(c) Books and Man are both detestable.
(d) None of these.
Ans: (a)

Q20: Which of the following words from the passage mean ‘rough’?
(a) Solemn
(b) Caressing
(c) Coarse
(d) Slumber
Ans: (c)

It was the strangest murder trial I ever attended, where the old woman was found battered to death. He was a heavy stout man with bulging bloodshot eyes. All his muscles seemed to be in his thighs. The clock had just struck two in the morning. Mrs Salmon in 15 Northwood Street had been unable to sleep: she heard a door click shut and thought it was her own gate. So she went to the window and saw Adams (that was his name) on the steps of Mrs Parker's house. He had just come out and he was wearing gloves. He had a hammer in his hand and she saw him drop it into the laurel bushes by the front gate. But before he moved away, he had looked up at her window. The fatal instinct that tells a man when he is watched exposed him in the light of a streetlamp to her gaze-his eyes suffused with horrifying and brutal fear, like an animal's when you raise a whip.
Mrs Salmon was called in the Court.
`And do you see the man here in court?'
[She looked straight at the big man in the dock, who stared hard at her with his Pekingese eyes without emotion.]
`Yes,' she said, `there he is.'
`You are quite certain?'
She said simply, `I couldn't be mistaken, sir.'
`Thank you, Mrs Salmon.'
[Counsel for the defence rose to cross-examine.]
`Now, Mrs Salmon, you must remember that a man's life may depend on your evidence.'
`I do remember it, sir.' `Is your eyesight good?'
`I have never had to wear spectacles, sir.'
`You are a woman of fifty-five?'
`Fifty-six, sir.'
`And the man you saw was on the other side of the road?'
`Yes, sir.'
`And it was two o'clock in the morning. You must have remarkable eyes, Mrs Salmon?'
`No, sir. There was moonlight, and when the man looked up, he had the lamplight on his face.'
`And you have no doubt whatever that the man you saw is the prisoner?'
`None whatever, sir. It isn't a face one forgets.'
Then he said, `Do you mind, Mrs Salmon, examining again the people in court?
No, not the prisoner. Stand up, please, Mr Adams!
And there at the back of the court with thick stout body and muscular legs and a pair of bulging eyes, was the exact image of the man in the dock.
`Now think very carefully, Mrs Salmon. Can you still swear that the man you saw drop the hammer in Mrs Parker's garden was the prisoner and not this man, who is his twin brother?' Of course she couldn't. 

Q21: Why do you think, has the Author called the trial, ‘strangest’ murder trial he ever attended?
(a) Because the accused had a very strange personality.
(b) Because, despite having a potential witness and evidence against the accused, his wrong could not be proved.
(c) Because, Mrs. Salmon’s evidence could not be proved before the Court.
(d) None of these.
Ans: (b)

Q22: “…his eyes suffused with horrifying and brutal fear, like an animal's when you raise a whip.” can be called as:
(a) Personification
(b) Simile
(c) Onomatopoeia
(d) None of the above
Ans: (b)

Q23: The expression ‘Pekingese eyes’ used in the passage refers to which of the following?
(a) Bulging eyes
(b) Red eyes
(c) Small eyes
(d) None of them
Ans: (a)

Q24: Why was Mrs. Salmon convinced that the man she saw had committed the crime?
(a) Because she saw the man on the steps of Mrs. Parker’s House and he was wearing gloves.
(b) Because he had a hammer in his hand and she saw him drop it into the laurel bushes by the front gate.
(c) Because when he looked up at her window, his eyes were suffused with horrifying and brutal fear.
(d) Because she had seen him clearly in the light of the street lamp.
Ans: (d)

Q25: Who was murdered in the scene described in the passage?
(a) Mrs. Wheeler
(b) Mrs. Parker
(c) Mrs. Salmon
(d) It cannot be inferred.
Ans: (d)

The world has very few devices left to fight COVID-19 with, but technology remains one of them. Whether it is employing the state-of-the-art technology in the discovery of cures or vaccines, or traditional technology services to enhance health care and consultations, or even tools that keep people at home occupied/productive, it is clear that technology will serve humanity at one of its darkest moments. The pandemic has contributed, in no small measure, to the understanding of the myriad ways in which available technologies have not been put to better use, and presented people with multiple opportunities to harness these devices, techniques and methods to get on with life in the time of lockdown. Among the primary uses is telemedicine, rendered inexorable now, by the temporary paralysis brought on by a freeze on movement. The Centre‘s recent guidelines allowing for widespread use of telemedicine services came as a shot in the arm for telehealth crusaders in the country, among them the Telemedicine Society of India that has long been battling to use the technology in its complete arc to reach remote areas in India. This move finds consonance with the rest of the world where several nations, also deeply impacted by the pandemic, have deployed telemedicine to reach people who have been unable to come to hospital, to reduce footfalls in hospitals, and to even provide medical and mental health counselling to countless people. It was way back in 2000 that telemedicine was first employed in India, but the progress has been excruciatingly slow, until the pandemic. However, it does seem as if the medical community was only held back by the lack of legislation to enable tele consultations. For no sooner was the policy announced, than hospitals and clinicians hurried to jump onto the bandwagon, advertising contact information for patients. The advantages are peculiar in the current context, when putting distance between people is paramount, as tele consultations are not barred even when health care professionals and patients may have to be quarantined. The advancement of telecommunication capabilities over the years has made the transmission of images and sound files (heart and lung sounds, coughs) faster and simpler. Pilot telemedicine experiments in ophthalmology and psychiatry have proven to be of immense benefit to the communities. Telemedicine‘s time is here, finally. While unleashing the full potential of telemedicine to help people, experts and government agencies must be mindful of the possible inadequacies of the medium, and securing sensitive medical information; such cognisance should guide the use of the technology.

Q26: Which one of the following words from the passage means ‘unavoidable’?
(a) Inexorable
(b) Myriad
(c) Excruciatingly
(d) Bandwagon
Ans: (a)

Q27: Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?
(a) It is time to unleash the full potential of Telemedicine.
(b) It is time to unleash the full potential of Telemedicine with cognisance of its possible flaws.
(c) Technology has not been utilised to its fullest to suit the current needs.
(d) People should not be skeptical about the advantages of telemedicine.
Ans: (b)

Q28: Which of the following is a significant factor contributing in slow employment of Telemedicine in India?
(a) Telemedicine was never employed in India.
(b) There was an absence of regulations regarding the use of telemedicine consultations and medication systems.
(c) Telemedicinal Society of India failed in its efforts to promote the importance of such a system in the country.
(d) All of the above.
Ans: (b)

Q29: Telecommunication-based medication has the potential for an easy outreach because:
(a) Pilot experiments in telemedicine have been proved to be successful.
(b) It helps in easier communication of medical images from one place to another.
(c) It helps in securing sensitive medical information.
(d) All of the above.
Ans: (d)

Q30: What is the meaning of the expression ‘Shot in the arm’ used in the passage?
(a) Hitting the nail on its head.
(b) Bull’s Eye
(c) Positive Impact on something
(d) All of the above.
Ans: (c)