RC1

The passage given below is followed by a set of three questions.
Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
I was recently shocked to read that several city councils in the UK
are getting ready to expunge everyday
Latin words from the English lexicon. Along with 'via' and 'etc' would
be banished 'viz' and 'i.e.', not to
speak of 'inter alia' and 'bona fide'. There goes away that exotic
literary advantage. It was only recently that
Amrita, my 10-year-old, fighting against a tide of domestic
protestations voted against romantic French
and prevalent Spanish and chose Latin as her second language in middle
school. I had cheered her and
actually promised to help out with the homework, given that three out
of five words in English are of Latin
origin. Blame this vicarious decision on my formative years but
growing up in Mumbai, Latin was never an
option in my school, as our national language Hindi was strictly
enforced. Shiv Sainiks had decreed that
local Marathi was de rigueur for all citizens of the city. I therefore
ended up needing to speak three
additional languages, not to forget Tamil, my mother tongue.
Languages rarely heard have always fascinated me. I always had this
burning desire to speak them,
particularly when my travel stints exposed me to the strangest of
tongues. Language CDs didn't help me
a whole lot. The thing about languages is that though you may be
gifted with the art of penmanship, spoken
word skills are mostly inherited or acquired after birth. I have
always packed my dog-eared phrasebook
along with my toothbrush and shaving cream for my travels. These
haven't helped me much either, often
eliciting that controlled giggle or even outright laughter at my
stuttered attempts. Printed words won't tell
you that Thai is a tonal language with grammatical minefields or
Mandarin and Cantonese have a lilt to
them flowing like Indian ink applied with a Chinese brush. These city
councils argue that they needed to
create a language devoid of such linguistic minefields. However, there
could be far-reaching consequences
in the professional community. Just like abstruse scientific papers
and brain-twisting mathematical theorems,
legal documents are made to sound pompous with Latin words sprinkled
generously all over those reams
of printed matter. With Latin slowly oozing out of our English
dictionary our lawyers will be hard-pressed to
retain their mystifying status quo.

31. Which of the following is a suitable title for the passage?
(a) My Fascination with Languages
(b) Languages Seldom Spoken
(c) Should English be pruned?
(d) Latin: The Legal Language

32. According to the passage, why did the author choose to help his daughter?
(a) The author felt that his daughter's choice of language was
relevant in light of its close links with
English.
(b) The author felt that his daughter's choice of language was
justified given that he had never been
allowed to study Latin.
(c) The author felt that his daughter's choice of language was
practical and much better than
romantic French and prevalent Spanish.
(d) The author felt that his daughter's choice of language was
relevant since it would give her an
exotic literary advantage

33. According to the passage, why have councils in the UK decided to
remove Latin from the English
lexicon?
(a) They feel that the linguistic hurdles in Latin make it difficult
to gain mastery over it.
(b) They want to create a language that does not have the linguistic
problems associated with the
use of Latin.
(c) They find themselves unable to overcome the linguistic hurdles
provided by Latin.
(d) They want to create a language that will help them remove the
ambiguities associated with the
use of Latin which has now become an obsolete language.