Directions (Q. 1-10):Read the following passage very carefully and answer the questions given below appropriately.There are certain words and phrases in the passage printed in bold letters to help you find them out easily in order to answer some of the question.
The dismissal is easy. But what it overlooks is that beneath the ostensible bourgeois dilettantism and the age of abracadabra seethes a desire sometimes fuzzy and inarticulate, but a desire nonetheless. A desire to make peace with what Camus so evocatively termed “the unreasonable silence of the world”. The desire is as old as silence, but it reinvents itself across culture and chronology, And one of the remarkable features of the new Indian voyage of self-discovery is that the quantum of self-professed ‘voyagers’ is one the increase, even if the taste of the day runs to luxury liners rather than catamarans. Additionally, the arks of today are no longer peopled by geriatric Noahs.No longer does one have to defer one’s existential dilemmas to the vanaprasthashrama. It is nautically permissible today for spiritual sailors to be grihast has in their 20s and 30s. Intriguing, given Jung’s belief that the spiritual bug usually attacks in the 40s.
1.What does the author imply by “bourgeois dilettantism” and it being ostensible?
(a) The ostentatious property owned by the middle-class
(b) Claiming to understand the bourgeoisie
(c) Showing apparent interest
(d) Showing concern for material possessions rather than spiritual growth
(e) None of these
2.What makes the dismissal easy?
(a) The desire to make peace
(b) The doctrine of Camus
(c) Not yet being in the 40s
(d) Love for materialism
(e) None of these
3.‘The arks … Noahs’ means that
(a) Experience, today, does not pilot the boats.
(b) We want a leader like Noah.
(c) Boats capsize for want of direction.
(d) The Noahs are a forgotten race.
(e) None of these
4.What is true about the new Indian voyage to self-discovery?
(i) The voyage is luxury personified.
(ii) It has reiterated Jung’s theory.
(iii) It makes the belief of Camus seem innocuous
(a) Only (i)
(b) Only (ii)
(c) Only (iii)
(d) Only (ii) & (iii)
(e) None of these
5.Why is the desire omnipresent?
(a) It has survived all the hurdles.
(b) The culture of India is deep-rooted.
(c) It has not yet lost its sense of direction.
(d) Both (a) & (b)
(e) None of these
6.What is the passage all about?
(a) Philosophers of spiritualism
(b) Sceptical view of spiritualism
(c) Path of salvation
(d) A voyage to seek salvation
(e) None of these
Directions (Q. 7-8): Choose the word that is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word as used in the passage.
7.Abracadabra
(a) Trick
(b) Jargon
(c) Meaningless formula
(c) Magic
(e) Remarkable
8.Catamarans
(a) Full sails
(b) Raft
(c) Boats
(c) Schooners
(e) Flagship
Directions (Q. 9-10): Select the word which is most nearly the OPPOSITE in meaning of the word as used in the passage.
9.Evocatively
(a) Eloquently
(b) Forgetfully
(c) Ambiguous
(c) Blatantly
(e) None of these
10.Beneath
(a) Up
(b) Over
(c) Above
(c) On
(e) Out
Answers
1.d
2.e
3.a
4.i
5.e
6.d
7.c
8.c
9.b
10.b
Answers
1.d
2.e
3.a
4.i
5.e
6.d
7.c
8.c
9.b
10.b
