CLAT: Mock Test (New Pattern) - 12 - CLAT MCQ

Care should be taken when submitting manuscripts to book publishers. A suitable publisher should be chosen, by a study of his list of publications or an examination in the bookshops of the type of books in which he specializes. It is a waste of time and money to send the typescript of a novel to a publisher who publishes no fiction, or poetry to one who publishes no verse, though all too often this is done. A preliminary letter is appreciated by most publishers, and this should outline the nature and extent of the typescript and enquire whether the publisher would be prepared to read it (writers have been known to send out such letters of enquiry in duplicated form, an approach not calculated to stimulate a publisher’s interest). It is desirable to enclose the cost of return postage when submitting the typescript and finally it must be understood that although every reasonable care is taken of material in the Publishers’ possession, responsibility cannot be accepted for any loss or damage thereto.

Authors are strongly advised not to pay for the publication of their work. If a MS. Is worth publishing, a reputable publisher will undertake its publication at his own expense, except possibly for works of an academic nature. In this connection attention is called to the paragraphs on Self-publishing and vanity publishing, at the end of this section.

Q. Give the suitable Central idea of the passage

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

Back in the 1950s, the modern use of the term "hacking" was coined within the walls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For many years after, a hacker was defined as someone who was an expert at programming and problem-solving with computers, who could stretch the capabilities of what computers and computer programs were originally intended to do.
Hacking is an activity, and what separates any activity from a crime is, very often, permission. Hacking isn't an inherently criminal activity. Someone who engages in the illegal use of hacking should not be called a "bad hacker" but a "cybercriminal," "threat actor" or "cyberattacker." Hackers are people like me and my team at IBM — security professionals who are searching for vulnerabilities, hoping to find weak links in our computer systems before criminals can exploit them.
Those who commit computer crimes fall into two categories: "black hat" and "gray hat." A black hat is someone who hacks with malicious intentions (espionage, data theft), seeking financial or personal gain by exploiting vulnerabilities. A gray hat is someone whose intentions may not be malicious but lacks the permission to hack into a system. Whether a particular criminal is a black hat or a gray hat is simply descriptive of the motivation behind what has already been established as illegal activity.
Somewhere along the way, the security industry also recruited ethics to help justify hacking behaviour, giving us "the ethical hacker" and adding an artificial defensiveness to a profession that has existed since the 1950s. Unfortunately, even accredited security certifications use the adjective in their very title. And while we can't and shouldn't fault the general public for referring to us as ethical hackers, I ask you this: Does it sound right to introduce someone as an ethical stockbroker? How about an ethical engineer or ethical professor?
Hackers play a critical role in keeping companies and people safe. A hacker failing to do the job right is the equivalent to letting a company believe and function as if it's wearing a bulletproof vest when in fact, it's wearing cashmere.
The misrepresentation of the term "hacker" not only undermines the offensive security community but also distorts legislators' understanding and perception of hackers overall. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, for example, relies heavily on the term and its misinterpretation. For society to have open and productive discussions about security research and penetration testing, we need to set the record straight on who and what hackers really are. Many government officials whom I've spoken with understand this. Others choose to take my license plate away.

Q. Which of the following best sums up the author's main point in the given passage?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

Back in the 1950s, the modern use of the term "hacking" was coined within the walls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For many years after, a hacker was defined as someone who was an expert at programming and problem-solving with computers, who could stretch the capabilities of what computers and computer programs were originally intended to do.
Hacking is an activity, and what separates any activity from a crime is, very often, permission. Hacking isn't an inherently criminal activity. Someone who engages in the illegal use of hacking should not be called a "bad hacker" but a "cybercriminal," "threat actor" or "cyberattacker." Hackers are people like me and my team at IBM — security professionals who are searching for vulnerabilities, hoping to find weak links in our computer systems before criminals can exploit them.
Those who commit computer crimes fall into two categories: "black hat" and "gray hat." A black hat is someone who hacks with malicious intentions (espionage, data theft), seeking financial or personal gain by exploiting vulnerabilities. A gray hat is someone whose intentions may not be malicious but lacks the permission to hack into a system. Whether a particular criminal is a black hat or a gray hat is simply descriptive of the motivation behind what has already been established as illegal activity.
Somewhere along the way, the security industry also recruited ethics to help justify hacking behaviour, giving us "the ethical hacker" and adding an artificial defensiveness to a profession that has existed since the 1950s. Unfortunately, even accredited security certifications use the adjective in their very title. And while we can't and shouldn't fault the general public for referring to us as ethical hackers, I ask you this: Does it sound right to introduce someone as an ethical stockbroker? How about an ethical engineer or ethical professor?
Hackers play a critical role in keeping companies and people safe. A hacker failing to do the job right is the equivalent to letting a company believe and function as if it's wearing a bulletproof vest when in fact, it's wearing cashmere.
The misrepresentation of the term "hacker" not only undermines the offensive security community but also distorts legislators' understanding and perception of hackers overall. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, for example, relies heavily on the term and its misinterpretation. For society to have open and productive discussions about security research and penetration testing, we need to set the record straight on who and what hackers really are. Many government officials whom I've spoken with understand this. Others choose to take my license plate away.

Q. Which of the following is consistent with the author's description of a 'gray hat'?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

Back in the 1950s, the modern use of the term "hacking" was coined within the walls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For many years after, a hacker was defined as someone who was an expert at programming and problem-solving with computers, who could stretch the capabilities of what computers and computer programs were originally intended to do.
Hacking is an activity, and what separates any activity from a crime is, very often, permission. Hacking isn't an inherently criminal activity. Someone who engages in the illegal use of hacking should not be called a "bad hacker" but a "cybercriminal," "threat actor" or "cyberattacker." Hackers are people like me and my team at IBM — security professionals who are searching for vulnerabilities, hoping to find weak links in our computer systems before criminals can exploit them.
Those who commit computer crimes fall into two categories: "black hat" and "gray hat." A black hat is someone who hacks with malicious intentions (espionage, data theft), seeking financial or personal gain by exploiting vulnerabilities. A gray hat is someone whose intentions may not be malicious but lacks the permission to hack into a system. Whether a particular criminal is a black hat or a gray hat is simply descriptive of the motivation behind what has already been established as illegal activity.
Somewhere along the way, the security industry also recruited ethics to help justify hacking behaviour, giving us "the ethical hacker" and adding an artificial defensiveness to a profession that has existed since the 1950s. Unfortunately, even accredited security certifications use the adjective in their very title. And while we can't and shouldn't fault the general public for referring to us as ethical hackers, I ask you this: Does it sound right to introduce someone as an ethical stockbroker? How about an ethical engineer or ethical professor?
Hackers play a critical role in keeping companies and people safe. A hacker failing to do the job right is the equivalent to letting a company believe and function as if it's wearing a bulletproof vest when in fact, it's wearing cashmere.
The misrepresentation of the term "hacker" not only undermines the offensive security community but also distorts legislators' understanding and perception of hackers overall. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, for example, relies heavily on the term and its misinterpretation. For society to have open and productive discussions about security research and penetration testing, we need to set the record straight on who and what hackers really are. Many government officials whom I've spoken with understand this. Others choose to take my license plate away.

Q. What can we infer as the reason why the security industry associated ethics with hacking?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

Back in the 1950s, the modern use of the term "hacking" was coined within the walls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For many years after, a hacker was defined as someone who was an expert at programming and problem-solving with computers, who could stretch the capabilities of what computers and computer programs were originally intended to do.
Hacking is an activity, and what separates any activity from a crime is, very often, permission. Hacking isn't an inherently criminal activity. Someone who engages in the illegal use of hacking should not be called a "bad hacker" but a "cybercriminal," "threat actor" or "cyberattacker." Hackers are people like me and my team at IBM — security professionals who are searching for vulnerabilities, hoping to find weak links in our computer systems before criminals can exploit them.
Those who commit computer crimes fall into two categories: "black hat" and "gray hat." A black hat is someone who hacks with malicious intentions (espionage, data theft), seeking financial or personal gain by exploiting vulnerabilities. A gray hat is someone whose intentions may not be malicious but lacks the permission to hack into a system. Whether a particular criminal is a black hat or a gray hat is simply descriptive of the motivation behind what has already been established as illegal activity.
Somewhere along the way, the security industry also recruited ethics to help justify hacking behaviour, giving us "the ethical hacker" and adding an artificial defensiveness to a profession that has existed since the 1950s. Unfortunately, even accredited security certifications use the adjective in their very title. And while we can't and shouldn't fault the general public for referring to us as ethical hackers, I ask you this: Does it sound right to introduce someone as an ethical stockbroker? How about an ethical engineer or ethical professor?
Hackers play a critical role in keeping companies and people safe. A hacker failing to do the job right is the equivalent to letting a company believe and function as if it's wearing a bulletproof vest when in fact, it's wearing cashmere.
The misrepresentation of the term "hacker" not only undermines the offensive security community but also distorts legislators' understanding and perception of hackers overall. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, for example, relies heavily on the term and its misinterpretation. For society to have open and productive discussions about security research and penetration testing, we need to set the record straight on who and what hackers really are. Many government officials whom I've spoken with understand this. Others choose to take my license plate away.

Q. What does the word 'malicious' as used in the passage mean?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

Back in the 1950s, the modern use of the term "hacking" was coined within the walls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For many years after, a hacker was defined as someone who was an expert at programming and problem-solving with computers, who could stretch the capabilities of what computers and computer programs were originally intended to do.
Hacking is an activity, and what separates any activity from a crime is, very often, permission. Hacking isn't an inherently criminal activity. Someone who engages in the illegal use of hacking should not be called a "bad hacker" but a "cybercriminal," "threat actor" or "cyberattacker." Hackers are people like me and my team at IBM — security professionals who are searching for vulnerabilities, hoping to find weak links in our computer systems before criminals can exploit them.
Those who commit computer crimes fall into two categories: "black hat" and "gray hat." A black hat is someone who hacks with malicious intentions (espionage, data theft), seeking financial or personal gain by exploiting vulnerabilities. A gray hat is someone whose intentions may not be malicious but lacks the permission to hack into a system. Whether a particular criminal is a black hat or a gray hat is simply descriptive of the motivation behind what has already been established as illegal activity.
Somewhere along the way, the security industry also recruited ethics to help justify hacking behaviour, giving us "the ethical hacker" and adding an artificial defensiveness to a profession that has existed since the 1950s. Unfortunately, even accredited security certifications use the adjective in their very title. And while we can't and shouldn't fault the general public for referring to us as ethical hackers, I ask you this: Does it sound right to introduce someone as an ethical stockbroker? How about an ethical engineer or ethical professor?
Hackers play a critical role in keeping companies and people safe. A hacker failing to do the job right is the equivalent to letting a company believe and function as if it's wearing a bulletproof vest when in fact, it's wearing cashmere.
The misrepresentation of the term "hacker" not only undermines the offensive security community but also distorts legislators' understanding and perception of hackers overall. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, for example, relies heavily on the term and its misinterpretation. For society to have open and productive discussions about security research and penetration testing, we need to set the record straight on who and what hackers really are. Many government officials whom I've spoken with understand this. Others choose to take my license plate away.

Q. Why does the author state 'we need to set the record straight on who and what hackers really are'?

The first and most important rule of legitimate or popular government, that is to say, of government whose object is the good of the people, is therefore, as I have observed, to follow in everything the general will. But to follow this will it is necessary to know it, and above all to distinguish it from the particular will, beginning with one's self: this distinction is always very difficult to make, and only the most sublime virtue can afford sufficient illumination for it. As, in order to will, it is necessary to be free, a difficulty no less great than the former arises — that of preserving at once the public liberty and the authority of government. Look into the motives which have induced men, once united by their common needs in a general society, to unite themselves still more intimately by means of civil societies: you will find no other motive than that of assuring the property, life and liberty of each member by the protection of all.

But can men be forced to defend the liberty of any one among them, without trespassing on that of others? And how can they provide for the public needs, without alienating the individual property of those who are forced to contribute to them? With whatever sophistry all this may be covered over, it is certain that if any constraint can be laid on my will, I am no longer free, and that I am no longer master of my own property, if anyone else can lay a hand on it. This difficulty, which would have seemed insurmountable, has been removed, like the first, by the most sublime of all human institutions, or rather by a divine inspiration, which teaches mankind to imitate here below the  unchangeable decrees of the Deity. By what inconceivable art has a means been found of making men free by making them subject; of using in the service of the State the properties, the persons and even the lives of all its members, without constraining and without  consulting them; of confining their will by their own admission; of  overcoming their refusal by that consent, and forcing them to punish themselves, when they act against their own will?

How can it be that  all should obey, yet nobody take upon him to command, and that all  should serve, and yet have no masters, but be the more free, as, in apparent subjection, each loses no part of his liberty but what might be hurtful to that of another? These wonders are the work of law. It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ of the will of all which establishes, in civil right, the  natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment, and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that political rulers should speak when they command; for no sooner does one man, setting aside the law, claim to subject another to his  private will, than he departs from the state of civil society, and confronts him face to face in the pure state of nature, in which obedience is prescribed solely by necessity.

Q. The paradox is resolved according to the author when an individual

The first and most important rule of legitimate or popular government, that is to say, of government whose object is the good of the people, is therefore, as I have observed, to follow in everything the general will. But to follow this will it is necessary to know it, and above all to distinguish it from the particular will, beginning with one's self: this distinction is always very difficult to make, and only the most sublime virtue can afford sufficient illumination for it. As, in order to will, it is necessary to be free, a difficulty no less great than the former arises — that of preserving at once the public liberty and the authority of government. Look into the motives which have induced men, once united by their common needs in a general society, to unite themselves still more intimately by means of civil societies: you will find no other motive than that of assuring the property, life and liberty of each member by the protection of all.

But can men be forced to defend the liberty of any one among them, without trespassing on that of others? And how can they provide for the public needs, without alienating the individual property of those who are forced to contribute to them? With whatever sophistry all this may be covered over, it is certain that if any constraint can be laid on my will, I am no longer free, and that I am no longer master of my own property, if anyone else can lay a hand on it. This difficulty, which would have seemed insurmountable, has been removed, like the first, by the most sublime of all human institutions, or rather by a divine inspiration, which teaches mankind to imitate here below the  unchangeable decrees of the Deity. By what inconceivable art has a means been found of making men free by making them subject; of using in the service of the State the properties, the persons and even the lives of all its members, without constraining and without  consulting them; of confining their will by their own admission; of  overcoming their refusal by that consent, and forcing them to punish themselves, when they act against their own will?

How can it be that  all should obey, yet nobody take upon him to command, and that all  should serve, and yet have no masters, but be the more free, as, in apparent subjection, each loses no part of his liberty but what might be hurtful to that of another? These wonders are the work of law. It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ of the will of all which establishes, in civil right, the  natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment, and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that political rulers should speak when they command; for no sooner does one man, setting aside the law, claim to subject another to his  private will, than he departs from the state of civil society, and confronts him face to face in the pure state of nature, in which obedience is prescribed solely by necessity.

Q. The Author’s attitude to Law in this passage is best conveyed as

The first and most important rule of legitimate or popular government, that is to say, of government whose object is the good of the people, is therefore, as I have observed, to follow in everything the general will. But to follow this will it is necessary to know it, and above all to distinguish it from the particular will, beginning with one's self: this distinction is always very difficult to make, and only the most sublime virtue can afford sufficient illumination for it. As, in order to will, it is necessary to be free, a difficulty no less great than the former arises — that of preserving at once the public liberty and the authority of government. Look into the motives which have induced men, once united by their common needs in a general society, to unite themselves still more intimately by means of civil societies: you will find no other motive than that of assuring the property, life and liberty of each member by the protection of all.

But can men be forced to defend the liberty of any one among them, without trespassing on that of others? And how can they provide for the public needs, without alienating the individual property of those who are forced to contribute to them? With whatever sophistry all this may be covered over, it is certain that if any constraint can be laid on my will, I am no longer free, and that I am no longer master of my own property, if anyone else can lay a hand on it. This difficulty, which would have seemed insurmountable, has been removed, like the first, by the most sublime of all human institutions, or rather by a divine inspiration, which teaches mankind to imitate here below the  unchangeable decrees of the Deity. By what inconceivable art has a means been found of making men free by making them subject; of using in the service of the State the properties, the persons and even the lives of all its members, without constraining and without  consulting them; of confining their will by their own admission; of  overcoming their refusal by that consent, and forcing them to punish themselves, when they act against their own will?

How can it be that  all should obey, yet nobody take upon him to command, and that all  should serve, and yet have no masters, but be the more free, as, in apparent subjection, each loses no part of his liberty but what might be hurtful to that of another? These wonders are the work of law. It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ of the will of all which establishes, in civil right, the  natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment, and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that political rulers should speak when they command; for no sooner does one man, setting aside the law, claim to subject another to his  private will, than he departs from the state of civil society, and confronts him face to face in the pure state of nature, in which obedience is prescribed solely by necessity.

Q. The author would agree with all of the following except

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

The late JP Naik, the doyen of Indian education during the twentieth century, titled his seminal work on Indian education Equality, Quality and Quantity: The Elusive Triangle in Indian Education. Through some of its landmark initiatives, such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), India has been able to address issues of access and retention by providing a primary school in every habitation of the country with midday meals (the largest such programme in the world).
As a result, enrolment has risen from 72 per cent in 2002 (when fifty-nine million children, of two hundred and twenty million in the age group of 6-14 years were out of school) to over 99 per cent in recent years. The attendance in schools has gone up and retention till Class VIII has risen from 42 per cent in 2002 to around 80 per cent in recent times.
But the elusiveness that JP Naik pointed to is borne out by the fact that the third vertex of this triangle, namely, quality of education has remained unattainable. Often, suggestions for improvement of the quality of government school education have harped on teacher accountability and incentives; the use of technology in schools; and other efficiency-related actions. These have taken us nowhere.
Thankfully, in recent times, the approach to this vexing problem is changing and the centrality of the teacher and the need to invest in their professional preparedness is being recognised. To those working on the ground with rural government schools for years, this acknowledgement is a welcome validation of the criticality of teacher education.
This signals that sustained improvement in school quality will not come through fixing a few specific aspects but by addressing the core issue which is to create well-equipped, well-prepared teachers. There are no shortcuts, the path to a complete revamp of teacher education in the country will be long and arduous.
How well we can reform teacher education, implement high quality four-year integrated teacher education programmes and create excellent institutions for teacher education will determine the fate of three hundred and seventy million children who will, in a few years, join India's adult population.
Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects within this that needs to be fixed is our very weak undergraduate education system that fails to equip teachers with subject-matter proficiency. For our teachers to be truly competent in their subjects, our Bachelor programmes ought to provide them with depth and breadth in their chosen disciplines. One cannot discuss quality in school education without acknowledging that the root cause is the abysmal quality of our undergraduate programmes.

Q. According to the author, what has been the most beneficial outcome of SSA?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

The late JP Naik, the doyen of Indian education during the twentieth century, titled his seminal work on Indian education Equality, Quality and Quantity: The Elusive Triangle in Indian Education. Through some of its landmark initiatives, such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), India has been able to address issues of access and retention by providing a primary school in every habitation of the country with midday meals (the largest such programme in the world).
As a result, enrolment has risen from 72 per cent in 2002 (when fifty-nine million children, of two hundred and twenty million in the age group of 6-14 years were out of school) to over 99 per cent in recent years. The attendance in schools has gone up and retention till Class VIII has risen from 42 per cent in 2002 to around 80 per cent in recent times.
But the elusiveness that JP Naik pointed to is borne out by the fact that the third vertex of this triangle, namely, quality of education has remained unattainable. Often, suggestions for improvement of the quality of government school education have harped on teacher accountability and incentives; the use of technology in schools; and other efficiency-related actions. These have taken us nowhere.
Thankfully, in recent times, the approach to this vexing problem is changing and the centrality of the teacher and the need to invest in their professional preparedness is being recognised. To those working on the ground with rural government schools for years, this acknowledgement is a welcome validation of the criticality of teacher education.
This signals that sustained improvement in school quality will not come through fixing a few specific aspects but by addressing the core issue which is to create well-equipped, well-prepared teachers. There are no shortcuts, the path to a complete revamp of teacher education in the country will be long and arduous.
How well we can reform teacher education, implement high quality four-year integrated teacher education programmes and create excellent institutions for teacher education will determine the fate of three hundred and seventy million children who will, in a few years, join India's adult population.
Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects within this that needs to be fixed is our very weak undergraduate education system that fails to equip teachers with subject-matter proficiency. For our teachers to be truly competent in their subjects, our Bachelor programmes ought to provide them with depth and breadth in their chosen disciplines. One cannot discuss quality in school education without acknowledging that the root cause is the abysmal quality of our undergraduate programmes.

Q. Which of the following would be consistent with the author's description of the JP Naik's work on the Indian education?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

The late JP Naik, the doyen of Indian education during the twentieth century, titled his seminal work on Indian education Equality, Quality and Quantity: The Elusive Triangle in Indian Education. Through some of its landmark initiatives, such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), India has been able to address issues of access and retention by providing a primary school in every habitation of the country with midday meals (the largest such programme in the world).
As a result, enrolment has risen from 72 per cent in 2002 (when fifty-nine million children, of two hundred and twenty million in the age group of 6-14 years were out of school) to over 99 per cent in recent years. The attendance in schools has gone up and retention till Class VIII has risen from 42 per cent in 2002 to around 80 per cent in recent times.
But the elusiveness that JP Naik pointed to is borne out by the fact that the third vertex of this triangle, namely, quality of education has remained unattainable. Often, suggestions for improvement of the quality of government school education have harped on teacher accountability and incentives; the use of technology in schools; and other efficiency-related actions. These have taken us nowhere.
Thankfully, in recent times, the approach to this vexing problem is changing and the centrality of the teacher and the need to invest in their professional preparedness is being recognised. To those working on the ground with rural government schools for years, this acknowledgement is a welcome validation of the criticality of teacher education.
This signals that sustained improvement in school quality will not come through fixing a few specific aspects but by addressing the core issue which is to create well-equipped, well-prepared teachers. There are no shortcuts, the path to a complete revamp of teacher education in the country will be long and arduous.
How well we can reform teacher education, implement high quality four-year integrated teacher education programmes and create excellent institutions for teacher education will determine the fate of three hundred and seventy million children who will, in a few years, join India's adult population.
Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects within this that needs to be fixed is our very weak undergraduate education system that fails to equip teachers with subject-matter proficiency. For our teachers to be truly competent in their subjects, our Bachelor programmes ought to provide them with depth and breadth in their chosen disciplines. One cannot discuss quality in school education without acknowledging that the root cause is the abysmal quality of our undergraduate programmes.

Q. What does the word 'vexing' as used in the passage mean?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

The late JP Naik, the doyen of Indian education during the twentieth century, titled his seminal work on Indian education Equality, Quality and Quantity: The Elusive Triangle in Indian Education. Through some of its landmark initiatives, such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), India has been able to address issues of access and retention by providing a primary school in every habitation of the country with midday meals (the largest such programme in the world).
As a result, enrolment has risen from 72 per cent in 2002 (when fifty-nine million children, of two hundred and twenty million in the age group of 6-14 years were out of school) to over 99 per cent in recent years. The attendance in schools has gone up and retention till Class VIII has risen from 42 per cent in 2002 to around 80 per cent in recent times.
But the elusiveness that JP Naik pointed to is borne out by the fact that the third vertex of this triangle, namely, quality of education has remained unattainable. Often, suggestions for improvement of the quality of government school education have harped on teacher accountability and incentives; the use of technology in schools; and other efficiency-related actions. These have taken us nowhere.
Thankfully, in recent times, the approach to this vexing problem is changing and the centrality of the teacher and the need to invest in their professional preparedness is being recognised. To those working on the ground with rural government schools for years, this acknowledgement is a welcome validation of the criticality of teacher education.
This signals that sustained improvement in school quality will not come through fixing a few specific aspects but by addressing the core issue which is to create well-equipped, well-prepared teachers. There are no shortcuts, the path to a complete revamp of teacher education in the country will be long and arduous.
How well we can reform teacher education, implement high quality four-year integrated teacher education programmes and create excellent institutions for teacher education will determine the fate of three hundred and seventy million children who will, in a few years, join India's adult population.
Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects within this that needs to be fixed is our very weak undergraduate education system that fails to equip teachers with subject-matter proficiency. For our teachers to be truly competent in their subjects, our Bachelor programmes ought to provide them with depth and breadth in their chosen disciplines. One cannot discuss quality in school education without acknowledging that the root cause is the abysmal quality of our undergraduate programmes.

Q. What, according to the author, is the central issue for instilling quality in Indian schools?

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.

The late JP Naik, the doyen of Indian education during the twentieth century, titled his seminal work on Indian education Equality, Quality and Quantity: The Elusive Triangle in Indian Education. Through some of its landmark initiatives, such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), India has been able to address issues of access and retention by providing a primary school in every habitation of the country with midday meals (the largest such programme in the world).
As a result, enrolment has risen from 72 per cent in 2002 (when fifty-nine million children, of two hundred and twenty million in the age group of 6-14 years were out of school) to over 99 per cent in recent years. The attendance in schools has gone up and retention till Class VIII has risen from 42 per cent in 2002 to around 80 per cent in recent times.
But the elusiveness that JP Naik pointed to is borne out by the fact that the third vertex of this triangle, namely, quality of education has remained unattainable. Often, suggestions for improvement of the quality of government school education have harped on teacher accountability and incentives; the use of technology in schools; and other efficiency-related actions. These have taken us nowhere.
Thankfully, in recent times, the approach to this vexing problem is changing and the centrality of the teacher and the need to invest in their professional preparedness is being recognised. To those working on the ground with rural government schools for years, this acknowledgement is a welcome validation of the criticality of teacher education.
This signals that sustained improvement in school quality will not come through fixing a few specific aspects but by addressing the core issue which is to create well-equipped, well-prepared teachers. There are no shortcuts, the path to a complete revamp of teacher education in the country will be long and arduous.
How well we can reform teacher education, implement high quality four-year integrated teacher education programmes and create excellent institutions for teacher education will determine the fate of three hundred and seventy million children who will, in a few years, join India's adult population.
Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects within this that needs to be fixed is our very weak undergraduate education system that fails to equip teachers with subject-matter proficiency. For our teachers to be truly competent in their subjects, our Bachelor programmes ought to provide them with depth and breadth in their chosen disciplines. One cannot discuss quality in school education without acknowledging that the root cause is the abysmal quality of our undergraduate programmes.

Q. Which of the following best sums up the author's main point in the given passage?

Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow.

A narrow Fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides—
You may have met him—did you not
His notice sudden is—
The Grass divides as with a Comb—
A spotted shaft is seen—
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on—
He likes a Boggy Acre—
A Floor too cool for Corn—
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot—
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I thought, a Whip-lash
Unbraiding in the Sun—
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone—
Several of Nature’s People
I know, and they know me—
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality—
But never met this Fellow,
Attended, or alone—
Without a tighter breathing
And zero at the bone—

Q. Who or what is the Fellow in this poem?

Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow.

A narrow Fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides—
You may have met him—did you not
His notice sudden is—
The Grass divides as with a Comb—
A spotted shaft is seen—
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on—
He likes a Boggy Acre—
A Floor too cool for Corn—
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot—
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I thought, a Whip-lash
Unbraiding in the Sun—
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone—
Several of Nature’s People
I know, and they know me—
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality—
But never met this Fellow,
Attended, or alone—
Without a tighter breathing
And zero at the bone—

Q. The phrase Without a tighter breathing / And zero at the bone most nearly indicates

Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow.

A narrow Fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides—
You may have met him—did you not
His notice sudden is—
The Grass divides as with a Comb—
A spotted shaft is seen—
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on—
He likes a Boggy Acre—
A Floor too cool for Corn—
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot—
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I thought, a Whip-lash
Unbraiding in the Sun—
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone—
Several of Nature’s People
I know, and they know me—
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality—
But never met this Fellow,
Attended, or alone—
Without a tighter breathing
And zero at the bone—

Q. The phrase Nature’s People means

Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow.

A narrow Fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides—
You may have met him—did you not
His notice sudden is—
The Grass divides as with a Comb—
A spotted shaft is seen—
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on—
He likes a Boggy Acre—
A Floor too cool for Corn—
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot—
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I thought, a Whip-lash
Unbraiding in the Sun—
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone—
Several of Nature’s People
I know, and they know me—
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality—
But never met this Fellow,
Attended, or alone—
Without a tighter breathing
And zero at the bone—

Q. The speaker of this poem is most likely

Read the following passage and answer the question.

The miserable urbanization story of Delhi resulted in a boom in the sleepy satellite town of Gurugram (earlier Gurgaon) in Haryana, at a stone's throw from Delhi. Gurugram sensed an opportunity in the paucity of real-estate supply in Delhi and rolled out development rights to developers at a pace never before seen in the history of India. They swiftly went ahead to create commercial and residential real estate that was required to bolster the brisk pace of India's economic growth at that time. But this also created a gold rush of opportunities which eventually blinkered the urban planners of Gurugram and set them up for failure in their own ways.
From the 1970s, political dividend from India's urbanism thrived on its challenges of informal living, land acquisition, and urban expansion. Instead of seeking the underlying reasons for these problems, delivering instant remedies became a more convenient form of quick wins. If a thousand families encroached upon a public land and started living on it, the political narrative was better served in "regularizing" this arrangement rather than to seek the reasons for this informal settlement to come up and create formal residential alternatives for them. The latter was a long-haul approach that demanded research, policy intervention, and a wider consensus. Even if one section of the political establishment took a principled stand, it opened an arbitrage opportunity for a counter political narrative that promised instant gains. Therefore, political sponsorship on urban issues started to get centred around quick fixes.
Until the Indian political narrative start to hold urban planning in high reverence and demand visionary standards, cities will continue to be mediocre and bad sanitation will always be a natural outcome of this mediocrity. The failure of local bodies to fumigate a locality, lift garbage from a neighbourhood, let car parking mushroom on a busy street, or remove illegal encroachments are merely failures to address symptoms of mediocre urban plans. The political sponsorship need to own up and convey to the franchise that the roads in the city are bad because the urban planning of the city was messed up few decades ago. It will need to announce that the repeated outbreaks of vector borne diseases in the city are not because of the lack of fumigation but because of mediocre design plans that need an overhaul. It will need to make a statement that the daily struggles of urban citizens regarding commute, dirty surroundings and congested neighbourhoods requires a redevelopment approach of the city that will add to the misery for the present generation but will ensure a healthy and inspired living for future generations.

Q. Which of the following best expresses the author's main idea of the passage?

Read the following passage and answer the question.

The miserable urbanization story of Delhi resulted in a boom in the sleepy satellite town of Gurugram (earlier Gurgaon) in Haryana, at a stone's throw from Delhi. Gurugram sensed an opportunity in the paucity of real-estate supply in Delhi and rolled out development rights to developers at a pace never before seen in the history of India. They swiftly went ahead to create commercial and residential real estate that was required to bolster the brisk pace of India's economic growth at that time. But this also created a gold rush of opportunities which eventually blinkered the urban planners of Gurugram and set them up for failure in their own ways.
From the 1970s, political dividend from India's urbanism thrived on its challenges of informal living, land acquisition, and urban expansion. Instead of seeking the underlying reasons for these problems, delivering instant remedies became a more convenient form of quick wins. If a thousand families encroached upon a public land and started living on it, the political narrative was better served in "regularizing" this arrangement rather than to seek the reasons for this informal settlement to come up and create formal residential alternatives for them. The latter was a long-haul approach that demanded research, policy intervention, and a wider consensus. Even if one section of the political establishment took a principled stand, it opened an arbitrage opportunity for a counter political narrative that promised instant gains. Therefore, political sponsorship on urban issues started to get centred around quick fixes.
Until the Indian political narrative start to hold urban planning in high reverence and demand visionary standards, cities will continue to be mediocre and bad sanitation will always be a natural outcome of this mediocrity. The failure of local bodies to fumigate a locality, lift garbage from a neighbourhood, let car parking mushroom on a busy street, or remove illegal encroachments are merely failures to address symptoms of mediocre urban plans. The political sponsorship need to own up and convey to the franchise that the roads in the city are bad because the urban planning of the city was messed up few decades ago. It will need to announce that the repeated outbreaks of vector borne diseases in the city are not because of the lack of fumigation but because of mediocre design plans that need an overhaul. It will need to make a statement that the daily struggles of urban citizens regarding commute, dirty surroundings and congested neighbourhoods requires a redevelopment approach of the city that will add to the misery for the present generation but will ensure a healthy and inspired living for future generations.

Q. According to the author, which of the following can be one of the instant remedies to problems associated with urbanism?

In each of the following questions, a short passage is given with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent.

Q. Too much or too little of anything is a curse, for it stands in the way of man performing his duties. (________). Therefore, they carry bare essentials to survive so that there may be no impediment in their way to compel the enemy to retreat. Rich people should also learn to make best use of money by trying to help the poor and channelise the excess in projects for the underprivileged.

In each of the following questions, a short passage is given with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent.

Q. A man whose interest in reading is confined to cheap, titillating books cannot make any tall claims to have a philosophical bent of mind, while one who reads classics is most likely to be influenced by them in the suitable manner. (________). Whereas a good person will always seek like-minded people. Books and friends provide us with companionship when we are lonely and bored. They do influence the personality to a large extent. It is therefore necessary to exercise utmost judiciousness in selecting one’s reading material and friends.

In each of the following questions, a short passage is given with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent.

Q. A minor negligence in the initial stages can lead to serious consequences later. (________). Timely action can save us from facing these troubles. Similarly, bad habits like smoking, drugs, gambling etc can be easily given up in the initial stages. It becomes very difficult to keep oneself free of such habits once they become deeply entrenched. Every evil should therefore be nipped in the bud.

In each of the following questions, a short passage is given with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent.

Q. Philosophers and prophets are seldom honoured in their day. They invariably become objects of ridicule for expounding theories and truths which people are not willing to accept for obvious reasons. Jesus Christ preached universal brotherhood but the Jews crucified him as they considered themselves the chosen one. Socrates, fellowmen served him poison in a cup to silence him forever. (________).

Read the following passage and answer the question.

If much of what ails our present can be traced to our past, it is important to ask to what extent the differences that have bedevilled us were real or imagined. Of those problems that trace their origins to the colonial period, the identity cleavage between Hindus and Muslims was, as several scholars have documented, defined, highlighted and fomented by the British as a deliberate strategy.
Religion, after all, was a useful means of divide and rule. The "Hindu-Muslim divide" started with the way the British taught us to regard our own history. Foundational to the colonial interpretation of Indian history was the British division of Indian history into 'periods' labelled in accordance with the religion of the rulers: thus the 'Hindu', 'Muslim' and 'British' periods formulated by James Mill in The History of British India (published between 1817 and 1826). Implicit in such periodisation was the assumption that India was always composed of monolithic and mutually hostile religious communities, primarily Hindu and Muslim.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the trio of Mill, Macaulay and Max Müeller had effectively established a colonial construction of the Indian past which even Indians were taught to internalise. In their reading, Indian civilisation was seen as essentially Hindu, as defined by the upper castes, and descended from the Aryan race, which invaded around 1500 BC from the Central Asian steppes in the north, displaced and merged with indigenous populations, evolved a settled agrarian civilisation, spoke Sanskrit and composed the Vedas. The Muslims came as a first wave of invaders and conquerors, in turn supplanted by the British.
By excluding Muslims from the essential national narrative, the nineteenth-century colonial interpretation of Indian history helped give birth in the twentieth to the two-nation theory that eventually divided the country. It also legitimised, with a veneer of scholarship, the British strategic policy of divide and rule in which every effort was made by the imperialists to highlight differences between Hindus and Muslims to persuade the latter that their interests were incompatible with the advancement of the former.
So, though this had no basis in pre-colonial history, the colonialists' efforts to catalogue, classify and categorise the Indians they ruled directly led to a consciousness of religious difference between Hindus and Muslims. The colonial authorities often asked representatives of the two communities to self-consciously construct an 'established' custom, such as by asking them what the prevailing beliefs and practices were around cow-slaughter, which prompted both groups to give an exaggeratedly rigid version of what they believed the beliefs and practices should be!

Q. According to the passage, which of the following did the British not use to create differences between Hindus and Muslims?

Read the following passage and answer the question.

If much of what ails our present can be traced to our past, it is important to ask to what extent the differences that have bedevilled us were real or imagined. Of those problems that trace their origins to the colonial period, the identity cleavage between Hindus and Muslims was, as several scholars have documented, defined, highlighted and fomented by the British as a deliberate strategy.
Religion, after all, was a useful means of divide and rule. The "Hindu-Muslim divide" started with the way the British taught us to regard our own history. Foundational to the colonial interpretation of Indian history was the British division of Indian history into 'periods' labelled in accordance with the religion of the rulers: thus the 'Hindu', 'Muslim' and 'British' periods formulated by James Mill in The History of British India (published between 1817 and 1826). Implicit in such periodisation was the assumption that India was always composed of monolithic and mutually hostile religious communities, primarily Hindu and Muslim.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the trio of Mill, Macaulay and Max Müeller had effectively established a colonial construction of the Indian past which even Indians were taught to internalise. In their reading, Indian civilisation was seen as essentially Hindu, as defined by the upper castes, and descended from the Aryan race, which invaded around 1500 BC from the Central Asian steppes in the north, displaced and merged with indigenous populations, evolved a settled agrarian civilisation, spoke Sanskrit and composed the Vedas. The Muslims came as a first wave of invaders and conquerors, in turn supplanted by the British.
By excluding Muslims from the essential national narrative, the nineteenth-century colonial interpretation of Indian history helped give birth in the twentieth to the two-nation theory that eventually divided the country. It also legitimised, with a veneer of scholarship, the British strategic policy of divide and rule in which every effort was made by the imperialists to highlight differences between Hindus and Muslims to persuade the latter that their interests were incompatible with the advancement of the former.
So, though this had no basis in pre-colonial history, the colonialists' efforts to catalogue, classify and categorise the Indians they ruled directly led to a consciousness of religious difference between Hindus and Muslims. The colonial authorities often asked representatives of the two communities to self-consciously construct an 'established' custom, such as by asking them what the prevailing beliefs and practices were around cow-slaughter, which prompted both groups to give an exaggeratedly rigid version of what they believed the beliefs and practices should be!

Q. According to the author, why did the British deliberately try to identify the differences between Hindus and Muslims?

Read the following passage and answer the question.

If much of what ails our present can be traced to our past, it is important to ask to what extent the differences that have bedevilled us were real or imagined. Of those problems that trace their origins to the colonial period, the identity cleavage between Hindus and Muslims was, as several scholars have documented, defined, highlighted and fomented by the British as a deliberate strategy.
Religion, after all, was a useful means of divide and rule. The "Hindu-Muslim divide" started with the way the British taught us to regard our own history. Foundational to the colonial interpretation of Indian history was the British division of Indian history into 'periods' labelled in accordance with the religion of the rulers: thus the 'Hindu', 'Muslim' and 'British' periods formulated by James Mill in The History of British India (published between 1817 and 1826). Implicit in such periodisation was the assumption that India was always composed of monolithic and mutually hostile religious communities, primarily Hindu and Muslim.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the trio of Mill, Macaulay and Max Müeller had effectively established a colonial construction of the Indian past which even Indians were taught to internalise. In their reading, Indian civilisation was seen as essentially Hindu, as defined by the upper castes, and descended from the Aryan race, which invaded around 1500 BC from the Central Asian steppes in the north, displaced and merged with indigenous populations, evolved a settled agrarian civilisation, spoke Sanskrit and composed the Vedas. The Muslims came as a first wave of invaders and conquerors, in turn supplanted by the British.
By excluding Muslims from the essential national narrative, the nineteenth-century colonial interpretation of Indian history helped give birth in the twentieth to the two-nation theory that eventually divided the country. It also legitimised, with a veneer of scholarship, the British strategic policy of divide and rule in which every effort was made by the imperialists to highlight differences between Hindus and Muslims to persuade the latter that their interests were incompatible with the advancement of the former.
So, though this had no basis in pre-colonial history, the colonialists' efforts to catalogue, classify and categorise the Indians they ruled directly led to a consciousness of religious difference between Hindus and Muslims. The colonial authorities often asked representatives of the two communities to self-consciously construct an 'established' custom, such as by asking them what the prevailing beliefs and practices were around cow-slaughter, which prompted both groups to give an exaggeratedly rigid version of what they believed the beliefs and practices should be!

Q. What does the word 'monolithic' as used in the passage mean?