Thursday, 15 October 2015

VARC 01 - OCT 16

TIME – LIMIT – 30 MINUTES

 

START TIME 

 

(FOR ALL ANSWERS – MARK 2 OPTIONS  - ONE AS FINAL ANSWER – ONE AS BACKUP ANSWER - PLEASE SCAN AND PICK  THE QUESTIONS EASIEST FOR YOU FIRST )

 

 

 

31. Five sentences are given below, labeled A, B, C, D and E. They need to be arranged in a logical

order to form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, choose the most appropriate

option.

A. The species, which are most numerous in individuals, will have the best chance of producing

variations within any given period.

B. Hence any rare species will be less quickly modified or improved within any given period, and

they will be consequently beaten in the race for life by the modified descendants of the commoner

species.

C. From these considerations I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time

are formed others will become rare and finally extinct.

D. We have evidence of this in the fact that it is the more common species that afford the greatest

number of varieties, or incipient species.

E. Extinction or survival, therefore, is a function of a parameter that is totally beyond the control of

the species.

(a)   ABCDE (b) ADBCE (c) BCAED (d) EDABC

 

 

32. There are two gaps in the sentence/paragraph given below. From the pairs of words given, choose

the one that fills the gaps most appropriately.

An intelligence community ___________, as the Post shows, by a toxic mixture of secrecy,

compartmentalization, turf rivalry, and tremendous duplication of effort is further ________ by a

problem familiar to every computer addict: too much information.

(a) hobbled, bedevilled (b) aggravated, emancipated

(c) paralysed, scuttled (d) beleaguered, persecuted

 

 

Directions for questions 33 to 35: The passage given below is followed by a set of three questions.

Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.

Thomas Harris' latest novel is being hailed as the long awaited sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, but I

have never thought that novel actually needed one. It stood on its own, finished and complete. After I put

that book down I did not think to ask what Hannibal was going to do next. In my opinion he had done

enough. I've always preferred a novel that concludes with a few loose ends because, in life, not all problems

get tied up nice and neat. There was something so frightening, so giddily uncomfortable about knowing that

Hannibal "The Cannibal" was loose on an unsuspecting world. Author Harris did readers a favor by letting us

all keep a little of that fear in our hearts and minds for the past 11 years.

But we became so intrigued by Hannibal, didn't we? And we wanted to see more of him. When we first met

him in Harris's second novel Red Dragon, he was a small but important player, giving reluctant but brilliant

insights into the mind of a serial killer to FBI agent Will Graham. In The Silence of the Lambs it was FBI

cadet Clarice Starling looking for a multiple murderer and Lecter became a major and integral part of the

story. And when we saw Hannibal brought to life by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film, we became hooked.

Rarely before had we been drawn to such an evil character — one who charmed and hypnotized us with his

combination of verbal gymnastics, Old World manners and awesome intellectual abilities   But now there is Hannibal, Harris's latest novel, and this time Dr. Hannibal Lecter is the player. And like The

Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal is finished and complete and stands on its own. Quite well in fact.

In Hannibal, Harris plumbs the shadowy depths of Lecter's mind and throws us into the stinking oubliette

of his psyche, taking us through past — and possibly significant — remembrances. When we re-ascend,

it is with a startling array of knowledge about the man. We find him fascinating, sympathetic and — despite

his dietary habits and penchant for killing (and consuming) only the "rude" — a likable character. I like the

well rounded character that Harris has created, even if he's somewhat outlandish, flamboyant and deeply

disturbed. Hannibal loves the finer things in life: classical music, ancient literature, fine art, a tidy evisceration...

The novel's title works, not only because it is about Hannibal; it is Hannibal. And though the narration is in

the third person, it speaks with his voice. It's a voice of culture and intelligence; of terror and menace. In

hushed conspiratorial tones, it politely invites us to witness acts of inhuman horror and suffering. Almost —

almost — making them palatable. And if not palatable, then so fascinating we find it hard to turn away.

Harris does not write of these atrocities from the moral standpoint of someone who thinks the things

Hannibal does are wrong; we all know what he does is wrong. Even Hannibal knows very well what he does

is wrong. He also believes he has the intellectual and moral superiority to justify his actions, and this is

Harris's triumph in the narration. We are shown things in the way Hannibal would see them through his

intellectually superior and amoral eyes, and it is up to us to decide the right or wrongness of things. We

also see things with an almost clinically unprejudiced and sometimes uncomfortably uncensored eye;

unwavering, unblinking. Harris's prose is elegant and economic.

 

 

33. Why does the writer think that the title of the novel Hannibal works?

(a) The title aptly captures the most important aspect of the book.

(b) The author's writing style embodies characteristics of Hannibal's personality.

(c) The author's narrative is through the eyes of the protagonist himself and leaves moralistic(d) The novel is as if it were though a narration by Hannibal himself which enables the reader to

understand that Hannibal only attacks the rude.

 

 

34. Which of the following is admitted by the author in the passage?

(a) Hannibal's actions are morally wrong.

(b) Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Hannibal increased the popularity of the series and compelled the

author to write another book.

(c) A character with intellectual superiority and old world manners can be fascinating even if evil.

(d) Peeping into the mind of Hannibal makes the novel 'Hannibal' a much more interesting read than

'Silence of the lambs'.

 

 

35. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

(a) The fact that readers find a dangerous character like Hannibal fascinating reveals that morality is

no longer popular with people.

(b) Harris had revealed enough fascinating details about Hannibal's past in the earlier novels prior to

warrant a third book on the same character.

(c) Hannibal's love for the finer things in life makes him a fascinating character.

(d) Hannibal evokes sympathy from the readers due to his turbulent past, which has made him

engage in horrific deeds.

 

36. Given below is a sentence, part or all of which, is underlined. Beneath the sentence are four ways of

phrasing the underlined part. The first of these repeats the original; the other three are different.

Choose the option that produces the most effective sentence; this answer should be clear and

exact, without awkwardness, ambiguity, redundancy, or grammatical error. The question tests

correctness and effectiveness of expression.

Such lapses of integrity are not unique to China, but poor peer-review mechanisms, misguided

incentives and a lack of checks on academic behaviour all allow fraud to be more common.

(a) but poor peer-review mechanisms, misguided incentives and a lack of checks on academic

behaviour all allow fraud to be more common.

(b) but poor peer-review mechanisms, misguiding incentives and a lack of checks on academic

behaviour all allow fraud to be more common.

(c) but poor peer-review mechanisms, misguided incentives and a lack of checks on academic

behaviour all allows fraud to be more common.

(d) but poor peer-review mechanisms, misguided incentives and lacking checks on academic

behaviour all allow fraud to be more common.

 

37. A paragraph is given below from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options,

choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

The recent decision of the government of India to impose a moratorium on the release of Bt-Brinjal

has been hailed by civil society and scientists alike as a victory for transparency and has demonstrated

that the government is responsive to societal demands. This decision is also important since it

could set a precedent within environmental regulation with reference to technologies with significant

environmental risks.

(a) This establishes a clear case for ensuring legal certainty in environmental regulations especially

in the case of technologies with significant risks attached to it.

(b) The process of arriving at this decision had also attracted a fair share of media attention, given

its 'sensational' nature.

(c) However, the decision also reflects a clear departure from procedure and its legal basis is

tenuous and therefore the risk of it being reversed remains.

(d) The world is waiting, with fingers crossed (or pointed?), as to what this decision would mean for

farmers across the world.

 

 

46. Four sentences are given below, labelled A, B, C and D. They need to be arranged in a logical order

to form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, choose the most appropriate option.

A. It is against this background and in this context that we must begin our understanding of political

theory.

B. Students of anthropology and of animal behavior are making it increasingly clear that in man,

most of the other primates, and in many other animal species as well, social life and organization

are primary biological survival devices.

C. What we call political and social organization— the customs, practices, and procedures that

with varying degrees of firmness hold men together in interrelated groups— is perhaps the most

important form of human adaptation to environment, both external and internal.

D. Man has no leathery armor like a turtle or spines like a porcupine, but he does have social life

and the capacity to organize it effectively for survival purposes.

(a)   BCAD (b) CBDA (c) BCDA (d) DCBA.

 

 

47. There are two gaps in the sentence/paragraph given below. From the pairs of words given, choose

the one that fills the gaps most appropriately.

Britain's international development department – has occasionally been ________in the kind of

economic growth that strangulates the poor while making the richest even richer. However, with all

its flaws, it is still more ____________than most of its western peers – especially US aid agencies,

which blatantly funnel large portions of "aid" money to American "consultants".

(a) persuasive, scrupulous (b) complicit, conscientious

(c) involved, judicious (d) prudent, fastidious

 

48. A paragraph is given below from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options,

choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way

Many insulters perform small actions which make them appear pompous or 'superior' the most

obvious example is the tilting back of the head, combined with half-closed eyes, which has given

rise to the popular expressions 'look down upon', 'turn one's nose up' and 'look down one's nose'.

This is an exaggerated version of one of the basic high-status signals. In ordinary status displays

the more dominant carry their heads high, the more submissive hang their heads low.

(a) The high/low difference is usually rather slight- so slight that we are rarely aware of it consciously.

(b) Unconsciously, however, we are highly responsive even to minute difference in 'uprightness'.

(c) This behaviour is usually a symptom of some hidden insecurity in the insulter.

(d) Displays such as these have also been observed in certain animal species, which have a more

developed social structure.

 

Directions for questions 49 to 51: The passage given below is followed by a set of three questions.

Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.

"I began moving out of realism and into stylized, surreal works towards the end of my Canadian academic

training. It was about the same time that I began working with mixed media, my strong preference at this

stage of my development." Coming to Oaxaca was perhaps the catalyst she required in order to begin

more experimental work, within the context of an extremely encouraging environment.

Aside from a leaning towards the use of natural colors for backgrounds on her canvasses, one of the major

identifying features of Dunnett's work is her use of collage — cut-outs from newspapers, magazines and

comic books. Another is using photographs of her own head and face to provide the stimulus for her

portrayal of expressions and poses she seeks to capture for each subject. Almost every head in every work

is based on a self-photographic portrait:

"I started doing self-portraits when I began doing photography several years ago. Then when I moved into

painting, I had this corpus of self-photos, so I was able to draw from them for my art. Although I wanted to

shoot other people, I never felt at ease doing so. And though my boyfriend and I have been together for

close to four years, I still don't feel comfortable photographing even him. So it's all me, perhaps because of

being shy when it comes to shooting others. But that red one over there, textured with corn husks from

tamales, it's an experiment, using a face that's not my own — I think it's best if I stick to my own face."

Each face evokes different emotions, and images of self. "The faces make eye contact; viewers' eyes move

around each work and then return to the eyes and face," she explains. It's undeniable that Dunnett's own

pleasing facial features, and her comport, once transferred to canvas, play a significant role in directing the

viewer. She has masterfully photographed her head and upper body at every angle and with a plethora of

facial expressions for use in her work.

But there's another reason we return to the images of Dunnett's facial expressions: The torso and limbs of

each primary subject portrayed is far too troubling — each is a digitalized version of a photograph of a

person who has died a violent death, usually in a traffic collision or as a consequence of domestic conflict,

captured by Dunnett from both print and online versions of a Oaxacan daily, Noticias Voz e Imagen de

Oaxaca. But in the artist herself, there is a sense of calm.

 

"I started using those photographs because they just began to jump out at me. You never see anything like

it in Canada. In Oaxaca, it's on the street corners and in the newsstands. Death here seems to be an

everyday thing, and attitudes towards death are so different than from where you and I come from, not so

hidden away."

Dunnett stresses that her intention is not to invoke feelings of horror, nor reveal the gruesome. The facial

expressions she initially captures with a lens, then transposes onto canvas with brush, lead us away. In

the case of her work with a collaged iguana, it's curiosity in her face, rather than demonic imagery of death,

which draws one in.

The juxtaposition of death against the aesthetics of comic imagery is striking, almost as much as the

multiplicity of presentations of Dunnett's own self. It's that combination which maintains the viewer's awe

of and transfixation upon her work. Perhaps Fiona Dunnett never should break out of her reticence about

photographing the faces of others.

49. The author would agree with which of the following?

(a) The primary subject in each work has been digitized so that the gruesome nature of the picture

is moderated.

(b) The use of various presentations of Dunnett's own self does become a limitation in the effect that

her work creates on viewers.

(c) Dunnet's pleasing features play a role in drawing the viewer's attention towards the harshness of

death in the subject.

(d) It is the contrast in Dunnett's work resulting from death, comic imagery and the non-gruesome

self images existing simultaneously that engrosses the viewer's mind.

 

 

50. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

(a) Death in Oaxaca is more overt and visible than in other places.

(b) Dunnett has used only photographs of herself in all her works.

(c) Dunnett does not want to photograph other people as her own facial expressions provide her the

required mood for her works.

(d) The environment at Oaxaca though extremely encouraging for experimental works was

discouraging for realism.

 

 

51. Which of the following is most similar to the works of Dunnett and the effect she creates?

(a) A band of musicians blending with each other to absorb listeners.

(b) A fusion performance by musicians of different genres absorbing viewers.

(c) A 'jugalbandi ' or a musical interaction between an instrumental and a vocal musician absorbing

viewers.

(d) A dancer dancing to the song of a vocalist sitting on the same stage absorbing viewers.

 

END TIME

 

POST ATTEMPT ANALYSIS - RIGHT / WRONG   / NA

HOW MANY BACK UP ANSWERS WERE CORRECT ?

HOW MANY CASES OF NEITHER ANSWER BEING CORRECT ?

NOTE NEW WORDS FOUND  -  WITH MEANINGS

NEW IDIOMS FOUND

WHICH WAS THE TOUGHER RC?

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