EASY
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
Earn 100
Directions: Read the passages carefully then answer the following questions which are based on what is stated or implied in the passage.
In modern times, Abraham Lincoln stands as the model of a compassionate statesman. He showed this quality not only in striving for the emancipation of the American blacks but in the dignity with which he conducted the American Civil War.
Lincoln did not fancy himself as a liberator. He thought it would be better for all if emancipation was a gradual process spread over many years. He proposed compensation for slave-owners in the US, grants for the rehabilitation of blacks freed from colonisation as they called it. But fate was to deem otherwise. The haste with which the South wanted to break away from the Union with the North, compelled him to move faster than he expected, perhaps more than most men of his time he had thought through the issue of slavery. We must free the slaves, he said, or be ourselves subdued. Before reading the first draft of the proclamation of emancipation, he told his colleagues. In giving freedom to the slaves, we assure freedom to the free.
On September , , Lincoln set his hand on the Proclamation of Emancipation declaring that on the first day of January , all persons held as slaves within any state shall be then, and forever free.
Lincoln's revolution for slavery left him without any moral indignation or passion against the slave-owners. The guilt of the slave-owners, he felt, should be shared by the whole country the North and the South, for it seemed to him that everyone in the nation was an accomplice in perpetuating that system. To have whipped up any hatred against slave-owners would, to him, have been an act of malice.
I shall do nothing in malice, he wrote, 'what I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing'. As the Civil War was coming to a successful conclusion, a Northerner demanded of Lincoln: Mr. President, how are you going to treat the Southerners when the war is over? Lincoln
replied: 'As if they never went to war ?'
When the news came of the Victory of the Northern against the Confederate forces, someone suggested that the head of the confederation Administration, Jefferson Davies, really ought to be hanged. 'Judge not, that ye be not judged', Lincoln replied, as to the demand for the prosecution of rebels, Lincoln replied: We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union. This was his last recorded utterance.
What came in Lincoln'sway of carrying out emancipation as a gradual process?
Directions: Read the passages carefully then answer the following questions which are based on what is stated or implied in the passage.
In modern times, Abraham Lincoln stands as the model of a compassionate statesman. He showed this quality not only in striving for the emancipation of the American blacks but in the dignity with which he conducted the American Civil War.
Lincoln did not fancy himself as a liberator. He thought it would be better for all if emancipation was a gradual process spread over many years. He proposed compensation for slave-owners in the US, grants for the rehabilitation of blacks freed from colonisation as they called it. But fate was to deem otherwise. The haste with which the South wanted to break away from the Union with the North, compelled him to move faster than he expected, perhaps more than most men of his time he had thought through the issue of slavery. We must free the slaves, he said, or be ourselves subdued. Before reading the first draft of the proclamation of emancipation, he told his colleagues. In giving freedom to the slaves, we assure freedom to the free.
On September , , Lincoln set his hand on the Proclamation of Emancipation declaring that on the first day of January , all persons held as slaves within any state shall be then, and forever free.
Lincoln's revolution for slavery left him without any moral indignation or passion against the slave-owners. The guilt of the slave-owners, he felt, should be shared by the whole country the North and the South, for it seemed to him that everyone in the nation was an accomplice in perpetuating that system. To have whipped up any hatred against slave-owners would, to him, have been an act of malice.
I shall do nothing in malice, he wrote, 'what I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing'. As the Civil War was coming to a successful conclusion, a Northerner demanded of Lincoln: Mr. President, how are you going to treat the Southerners when the war is over? Lincoln
replied: 'As if they never went to war ?'
When the news came of the Victory of the Northern against the Confederate forces, someone suggested that the head of the confederation Administration, Jefferson Davies, really ought to be hanged. 'Judge not, that ye be not judged', Lincoln replied, as to the demand for the prosecution of rebels, Lincoln replied: We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union. This was his last recorded utterance.
What came in Lincoln'sway of carrying out emancipation as a gradual process?
50% studentsanswered this correctly
Important Questions on Reading Comprehension
EASY
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
Passage I
The World Health organisation is briefly called W.H.O. it is a specialised agency of the United Nations and was established in 1948. International health workers can be seen working in all kinds of surroundings: in deserts, jungles, mountains, coconut groves, and rice fields. They help the sick to attain health and healthy to maintain their health.
This global health team assists the local health workers in stopping the spread of what are called communicable diseases, like cholera. These diseases can spread from one country to another and so can be a threat to world health.
W.H.O. assists different national health authorities not only in controlling diseases but also in preventing them altogether. Total prevention of diseases is possible in a number of ways. Everyone knows how people particularly children, are vaccinated against one disease or another. Similarly, most people are familiar with the spraying of houses with poisonous substances which kill disease-carrying insects.
Passage II
Why don't I have a telephone? Not because I pretend to be wise or pose as unusual. There are two chief reasons, because I don't really like the telephone, and because I find I can still work and play, eat breathe, and sleep without it. Why don't I like the telephone? Because I think it is a pest and time waster. It may create unnecessary suspense and anxiety, as when you wait for an expected call, that doesn't come, or irritating delay, as when you keep ringing a number that is always engaged. As for speaking in a public telephone booth, it seems to be really horrible. You would not use it unless you were in a hurry and because you are in a hurry, you will find other people waiting before you. When you do get into the booth, you are half suffocated by the state, unventilated air, flavoured with cheap face powder and chain-smoking, and by the time you have begun your conversation your back is chilled by the cold looks of somebody who is moving about restlessly to take your place.
If you have a telephone in your house you will admit that it tends to ring when you least want it to ring when you are asleep or in the middle of a meal or conversation or when you are just going out, or when you are in your bath. Are you strong-minded enough to ignore it, to say to yourself? 'Ah well, it will be all the same in a hundred years time'.You are not. You think there may be some important news or message for you. Have you never rushed dripping from the bath of chewing from the table, or dazed from bed, only to be told that you are a wrong number? You were told the truth. In my opinion, all telephone numbers are wrong numbers. If of course your telephone rings and you decide not to answer it, then you will have to listen to an idiotic bell ringing and ringing in what is supposed to be the privacy of your own home. You might as well buy a bicycle bell and ring it yourself.
All telephone numbers are wrong numbers because_________.
MEDIUM
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
Directions: Read the given comprehension carefully and answer the question that follows.
He was a funny-looking man with a high, bald, dome-shaped head, a face very small in comparison, and a long wavy beard. His unusual features were a standing joke among his friends. He was a poor man - an idler. He didn't work at his trade - a stonecutter, more than what was necessary to keep his wife and three boys alive. He preferred to talk but since his wife was an irate complaining woman, he loved to be away from home.
The whole city he lived in was seething with argumentation. The city was Athens and the man was Socrates, the Greek philosopher. He had funny ways and notions. And to the astonishment of all, the Oracle at Delphi, the priestess when asked, "Who is the wisest man in Athens ?" mentioned Socrates, Socrates was the evangelist of clear thinking : he would present people with questions pretending he didn't know the answers and get them to make astounding admissions. Socrates would go upto a prominent statesman coming to the end of a speech on 'courage', about the glory of dying for one's country and say, "Forgive my intrusion, but just what do you mean by courage ?"
"Courage is sticking to your post in danger" would be the reply. "But supposing good strategy demands that you retire ?", Socrates would ask. "You wouldn't stay in that case" the man would be forced to admit. Socrates would persist, "Then is courage sticking to your post or retiring ?". 'I'm afraid I don't know." 'I don't either", Socrates would say "but perhaps it is not different from just doing the reasonable thing regardless of the danger."
What was Socrates style of arguing ?
EASY
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
As my train was not due to leave for another hour, I had plenty of time to spare. After buying some magazines to read on the journey, I made my way to the luggage office to collect the heavy suitcase I had left there three days before. There were only a few people waiting, and I took out my wallet to find the receipt for my case. The receipt did not seem to be where I had left it. I emptied the contents of the wallet, and the railway tickets, money, scraps of paper, and photographs tumbled out of it; but no matter how hard I searched, the receipt was nowhere to be found.
I explained the situation sorrowfully to the assistant. The man looked at me suspiciously as if to say he had heard this type of story many times and asked me to describe the case. I told him that it was an old, brown looking object no different from the many suitcases I could see on the shelves. The assistant then gave me form and told me to make a list of the contents of the case. If they were correct, he said, I could take the case away. I tried to remember all the articles I had hurriedly packed and wrote them down.
After I had done this, I went to look shelves. There were hundreds of cases there and for one dreadful moment, it occurred to me that if someone had picked the receipt up, he could easily have claimed the case already. Fortunately this had not happened, for after a time, I found the case lying on its side high up in the corner. After examining the articles inside, the assistant gave me the case. I took out my wallet to pay him. I pulled out a ten shilling note and out slipped my 'lost' receipt with it! I could not help blushing. The assistant nodded his head knowingly, as if to say that he had often seen this happen too.
In this passage 'situation' means
EASY
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
A leading cash crop in most of the countries where it is grown, the plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the US, Africa, and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton is soft, fluffy staple fibre that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants. The fibre is almost pure cellulose and the bolls tend to increase the dispersion of the seeds. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times but the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the cotton gin lowered the cost of production and led to its widespread use.
Genetically modified (GM) cotton was developed to reduce the heavy reliance on pesticides. The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally produces a chemical harmful only to a small fraction of insects and harmless to other forms of life. The gene coding of Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton, called Bt cotton, to produce this natural insecticide in its tissues. Many studies have concluded that GM cotton effectively controlled bollworm and Bt cotton halved the use of pesticides.
The cottonseed is crushed in order to separate its three products oil, meal and hulls. Cottonseed oil is used primarily for cooking oil and salad dressing. The meat and hulls that remain are used either separately or in combination as livestock, poultry and fish feed and as fertiliser. In addition to the textile industry, cotton is used in fishing nets, coffee filters, tents, explosives manufactures, cotton paper and in bookbinding.
Which of the following statements is/are TRUE in context to the above passage?
EASY
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
A leading cash crop in most of the countries where it is grown, the plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the US, Africa, and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton is soft, fluffy staple fibre that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants. The fibre is almost pure cellulose and the bolls tend to increase the dispersion of the seeds. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times but the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the cotton gin lowered the cost of production and led to its widespread use.
Genetically modified (GM) cotton was developed to reduce the heavy reliance on pesticides. The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally produces a chemical harmful only to a small fraction of insects and harmless to other forms of life. The gene coding of Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton, called Bt cotton, to produce this natural insecticide in its tissues. Many studies have concluded that GM cotton effectively controlled bollworm and Bt Cotton halved the use of pesticides.
The cottonseed is crushed in order to separate its three products oil, meal and hulls. Cottonseed oil is used primarily for cooking oil and salad dressing. The meat and hulls that remain are used either separately or in combination as livestock, poultry and fish feed and as fertiliser. In addition to the textile industry, cotton is used in fishing nets, coffee filters, tents, explosives manufactures, cotton paper and in bookbinding.
Choose the word most OPPOSITE in meaning as used in the passage.
Reliance
EASY
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
As my train was not due to leave for another hour, I had plenty of time to spare. After buying some magazines to read on the journey, I made my way to the luggage office to collect the heavy suitcase I had left there three days before. There were only a few people waiting, and I took out my wallet to find the receipt for my case. The receipt did not seem to be where I had left it. I emptied the contents of the wallet, and the railway tickets, money, scraps of paper, and photographs tumbled out of it; but no matter how hard I searched, the receipt was nowhere to be found.
I explained the situation sorrowfully to the assistant. The man looked at me suspiciously as if to say he had heard this type of story many times and asked me to describe the case. I told him that it was an old, brown-looking object no different from the many suitcases I could see on the shelves. The assistant then gave me the form and told me to make a list of the contents of the case. If they were correct, he said, I could take the case away. I tried to remember all the articles I had hurriedly packed, and I wrote them down.
After I had done this, I went to look at shelves. There were hundreds of cases there and for one dreadful moment, it occurred to me that if someone had picked the receipt up, he could easily have claimed the case already. Fortunately this had not happened, for after a time, I found the case lying on its side high up in the corner. After examining the articles inside, the assistant gave me the case. I took out my wallet to pay him. I pulled out a ten shilling note and out slipped my 'lost' receipt with it! I could not help blushing. The assistant nodded his head knowingly, as if to say that he had often seen this happen too !!
The writer was blushing because
MEDIUM
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
As my train was not due to leave for another hour, I had plenty of time to spare. After buying some magazines to read on the journey, I made my way to the luggage office to collect the heavy suitcase I had left there three days before. There were only a few people waiting, and I took out my wallet to find the receipt for my case. The receipt did not seem to be where I had left it. I emptied the contents of the wallet, and the railway tickets, money, scraps of paper, and photographs tumbled out of it; but no matter how hard I searched, the receipt was nowhere to be found.
I explained the situation sorrowfully to the assistant. The man looked at me suspiciously as if to say he had heard this type of story many times and asked me to describe the case. I told him that it was an old, brown looking object no different from the many suitcases I could see on the shelves. The assistant then gave me form and told me to make a list of the contents of the case. If they were correct, he said, I could take the case away. I tried to remember all the articles I had hurriedly packed and wrote them down.
After I had done this, I went to look shelves. There were hundreds of cases there and for one dreadful moment, it occurred to me that if someone had picked the receipt up, he could easily have claimed the case already. Fortunately this had not happened, for after a time, I found the case lying on its side high up in the corner. After examining the articles inside, the assistant gave me the case. I took out my wallet to pay him. I pulled out a ten shilling note and out slipped my 'lost' receipt with it! I could not help blushing. The assistant nodded his head knowingly, as if to say that he had often seen this happen too !!
There weren't________people waiting at the luggage office
MEDIUM
UPSC CDS
IMPORTANT
To tackle the steep increase in unclaimed money lying with insurers, the sector regulator has announced some key steps. Come May, a policyholder or his/her nominee can check online any unclaimed money pending with an insurance company. Further, for all new policies, the insured must mention bank account details in the proposal form itself to ensure faster maturity/claim settlement. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has said the rising amount of unclaimed money with insurers is a matter of concern. In fact, data with the regulator show between 2009-10 and 2012-13, there has been more than a three-fold rise in it. Delays in settlement of claims, lack of awareness and failure to intimate a change in address on the part of dependents are some of the reasons that have pushed up the amount from Rs 1,373 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 4,866 crore in 2012-13
In contrast, RBI data show that unclaimed money worth Rs 2,474 crore is lying in one crore bank savings accounts as on end-December 2012 For smooth transfer of policyholders' unclaimed money, IRDA has now advised companies to take bank account details of the insured at the time of filling out the proposal form. Insurers will also be required to collect proof of the bank account, such as a cancelled cheque, to ensure authenticity. The insured can change the bank account without any charge. In case of a death claim, the insurer will take the bank account details of the nominee. Insurers will remit claims, maturity payments and any other amount due to policyholders only through the electronic mode, such as NEFT, Real Time Gross Settlement, Interbank Mobile Payment service or any other e-mode approved by the RBI.
Insurance companies will have to display on their websites information about unclaimed amount beyond six months from the due date. IRDA, in a circular issued in 2010, had said that insurers cannot appropriate the unclaimed amount of policyholders and must disclose the amount separately as current liabilities in the balance sheet. Insurers now have to show age-wise analysis of the unclaimed amount.Analysts attribute the spurt in unclaimed amount to several sectors. First, claims settled by insurers may not have been paid to policyholders because of litigation. Second, the insurer might not have refunded, at the time of claim settlement or maturity payment, any excess premium collected from the policyholder. At times, even policyholders forget to encash cheques issued by the insurer, or these might misplace in transit. IRDA has now said that the policyholder protection committee of the board of insurance companies will have to ensure timely payouts of dues. The audit committee of the board will look into the unclaimed amount and oversee compliance. Every six months, the insurer will have to file with IRDA details of the action taken and status of the unclaimed amount. Policyholders, on their part, must notify the insurer about any change in address. Analysts say policyholders should convert all their life insurance policies into dematerialized format, which will be held with an insurance repository. At present, the facility is not available for general and health insurance. The repositories will enable policyholders to make changes in nominee or address details and also act as a single point for all policy related servicing. One of the major advantages of keeping insurance policies in the electronic form is safety, as there is no risk of loss or damage of the policy bond. As all policies can be electronically held under a single e-insurance account, the policyholder can access them from anywhere. A single change-of-address request made to the insurance repository can update policies issued by multiple insurers, thus reducing paperwork. Moreover, an e-insurance account holder will be spared the trouble of submitting know your customer (KYC) details each time a new policy is taken. Every year, the repository will send a statement of account to the e-insurance account holder with details. Single view of all policies will be made available to an authorized person in case of death of the e-insurance account holder, which will help in faster claim settlement.
Insurance firms will send an insurance information sheet with basic details of the policy when a new electronic policy is issued. Repositories will enable a platform where policyholders can get the facility of online premium payment and claim settlement. The e-insurance account holder will have an option to shift from one repository to another. IRDA has also made it clear that repositories will not sell or solicit policies and they will be authorized only to maintain policies in electronic form and provide service record. Each e-insurance account will have a unique account number and each account holder will be granted a login ID and password to access his policies online.
How would IRDA make sure that the insurers are complying to the guidelines regarding the unclaimed amount of insurance policies?
