1. Sample Text 1
Many people who have come close to death from drowning, cardiac arrest or other causes have described near-death experiences–profound, subjective events that sometimes result in dramatic changes in values, beliefs, behavior, and attitudes toward life and death. These experiences often include a new clarity of thinking, a feeling of well being, a sense of being out of the body, and visions of bright light or mystical encounters. Such experiences have been reported by an estimated 30 to 40 percent of hospital patients who were revived after coming close to death and about 5 percent of adult Americans in a nationwide poll. Near-death experiences have been explained as a response to a perceived threat of death (a psychological theory); as a result of biological states that accompany the process of dying (a physiological theory); and as a foretaste of an actual state of bliss after death (a transcendental theory).
Q. The primary purpose of this passage is to:
A. to entertain
B. provide information
C. to persuade
D. express disbelief in the afterlife
Show Answer 2. Sample Text 2 One of the main reasons of corruption in elections today is the lure of power which haunts the politicians so much that they feel no qualms of conscience in adopting any underhand method to come out successful. The Watergate Scandal in the U.S.A. is an eloquent example to testify to the fact how even the top level politicians can stoop to the lowest level in order to maintain themselves in power. Who does not remember how Adolf Hitler rode roughshod overall canons of electoral pro-priety to capture power ? In India also the record of the various political parties is not clean. Corruption thrives in elections because those in the field play on the psychology of the electorate. The voters are swayed by the tall promises of the candidates to whose machinations they fall an easy prey. They are also susceptible to fall an easy prey to the adulations of the politicians due to their illiteracy. Besides, in the representative democracies today and particularly in big countries the constituencies are quite extensive obviating the possibility of corrupt practices being discovered. Anti-corruption laws are honored more in their breach than in their observance. Even the code of conduct to be observed by the parties fighting the elections becomes a dead letter in as much as it is jettisoned out of existence and thrown unscrupulously over board by the unfair politicians whose only aim is to maintain themselves in the saddle. Q. Why according to the writer, do the corrupt practices indulged in elections go unnoticed ? A. Because nobody is interested in discovering corrupt practices Show Answer 3. Sample Text 3 Economists have long recognized a persistent and unfounded belief among the population which has come to be known as the anti-foreign bias. As a result of this bias, most people systematically underestimate the economic benefits of interactions with foreign nations. Some psychologists believe that this bias is rooted in a natural distrust of the “other,” while others believe that a form of folk wisdom, seemingly in accord with common sense but nonetheless incorrect, explains the bias. This wisdom asserts that in any transaction there is a winner and a loser and any foreign nation that wants to engage in trade must be doing so because it seeks its own advantage. But nothing could be further from truth. No less an authority than Adam Smith, one of the fathers of the modern free market system, spoke glowingly of foreign trade in his influential treatise Wealth of Nations. “What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in a great kingdom,” said Smith. His point is simple. A baker trades his bread to the cobbler for shoes and both men benefit from the trade because of the value of specialization. The same principle works for nations. Even more startling, a basic economic theorem, the Law of Comparative Advantage, states that mutually beneficial trade is possible even if one nation is less productive than the other. Suppose a citizen of Country X can produce either 10 computers or five bushels of wheat and a citizen of Country Y can produce either three computers or two bushels of wheat. If one citizen from Country X switches from producing wheat to computers and three citizens from Country Y switch from producing computers to wheat, there is a net gain of one computer and one bushel of wheat. Q. The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following? A. Arguing for an increase in trade with foreign nations Show Answer CLICK HERE FOR MORE PRACTICE:
B. Because vested interests shield those who indulge in corrupt practices
C. Because constituencies are so small that the politicians take the electorate, whose number is very limited, into confidence
D. Because the constituencies are so big that it becomes difficult to discover the corrupt practices
B. Providing a historical context for a long-standing belief.
C. Demonstrating the fallacy of a particular way of thinking.
D. Illustrating an economic principle through an example.