Nationalism, of course, is a curious phenomenon which at a certain stage in a country's history gives life, growth and unity but, at the same time, it has a tendency to limit one, because one thinks of one's country as something different from the rest of world. One's perceptive changes and one is continuously thinking of one's own struggles and virtues and failing to the exclusion of other thoughts. The result is that the same nationalism which is the symbol of growth for a people becomes a symbol of the cessation of that growth in mind. Nationalism, when it becomes successful sometimes goes on spreading in an aggressive way and becomes a danger internationally. Whatever line of thought you follow, you arrive at the conclusion that some kind of balance must be found. Otherwise something that was good can turn into evil. Culture, which is essentially good become not only static but aggressive and something that breeds conflict and hatred when looked at from a wrong point of view. How you are to find a balance, I don't know. Apart from the political and economic problems of the age , perhaps, that is the greatest problem today because behind it there is tremendous search for something which it cannot find. We turn to economic theories because they have an undoubted importance. It is folly to talk of culture or even of God when human beings starve and die. Before one can talk about anything else one must provide the normal essentials of life to human beings. That is where economics comes in. Human beings today are not in a mood to tolerate this suffering and starvation and inequality when they see that the burden is not equally shared. Others profit while they only bear the burden.
'Others' in the last sentence refers to
Answer: A
Correct answer: Other people
The last sentence is others profit while they only bear the burden, and the sentence before it speaks of human beings who will not tolerate suffering and starvation and inequality when they see that the burden is not equally shared. The contrast is between people within a society, not between nations or communities.
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Aggressive nationalism
Answer: D
Correct answer: breeds threat to international relations
The passage says that successful nationalism goes on spreading in an aggressive way and becomes a danger internationally. Stunted growth is what ordinary nationalism does to the mind, and national unity is what nationalism supports rather than endangers.
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Detective stories tend to glorify crime. Murderers, gangsters and crooks of all kinds are described as tough, cunning and courageous individuals who know how to take care of themselves and how to get what they want. In James McCain's The Postman Always Rings twice, for instance the villain is much more impressive a character than his victim. He is casual, brave, smart and successful with women. It is true that he finally gets caught. But he is punished for a crime that he did not commit, so that his conviction is hardly a triumph of justice. Besides, looking back over the exciting life of the criminal, the reader might conclude that it was worth the risk.
The passage mentions James McCain
Answer: A
Correct answer: as an author of detective stories
James McCain is named as the author of The Postman Always Rings Twice, which the passage offers as an instance of the glorifying it describes. The qualities listed - casual, brave, smart, successful with women - belong to the villain of that book, not to its author.
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Murderers, gangsters and crooks referred to in the passage given above
Answer: B
Correct answer: are often glorified in detective stories
The passage's opening claim is that detective stories tend to glorify crime, and the sentence about murderers, gangsters and crooks explains how: they are described as tough, cunning and courageous. That describes how they are portrayed, not what they actually manage to do.
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According to this passage, a criminal in a detective story generally gets caught
Answer: D
Correct answer: for the crimes he has not committed
The passage says of the villain that he is punished for a crime that he did not commit, so that his conviction is hardly a triumph of justice. That last clause is the point: the capture does not undo the glorification, because it is not deserved.
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According to the passage, the life of a criminal
Answer: C
Correct answer: is seldom presented in the right perspective
The passage argues that the criminal is made more impressive than his victim, that his punishment is undeserved, and that a reader looking back might conclude that it was worth the risk. Each of those is a distortion, and the passage offers them as evidence that the portrayal is false rather than as its own view of criminal life.
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According to the passage given above, detective stories
Answer: D
Correct answer: tend to create wrong notion about crimes and punishment
The passage's complaint is that such stories glorify the criminal and then punish him for the wrong offence, so that both the crime and the justice are misrepresented. It does not say readers will imitate what they read, only that they may conclude the risk was worth taking.
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There is more than a modicum of truth in the assertion that "a working knowledge of ancient history is necessary to the intelligent interpretation of current events". But the sage who uttered these words of wisdom might well have added something on the benefits of studying, particularly, the famous battles of history for the lessons they contain for those of us who lead or aspire to leadership. Such a study will reveal certain qualities and attributes which enabled the winners to win and certain deficiencies which caused the losers to lose. And the student will see that the same pattern recurs consistently, again and again, throughout the centuries.
A person who aspires to lead could learn from the history of battles
Answer: C
Correct answer: the qualities and deficiencies of commanders of these battles
The passage says such a study reveals certain qualities and attributes which enabled the winners to win and certain deficiencies which caused the losers to lose. The answer has to carry both halves; the first two options take one each, and strategy is never mentioned.
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In this context, "intelligent interpretation of current event" means
Answer: A
Correct answer: rational explanation of events
Intelligent here describes the reasoning applied, not the reader's intellect or skill, so the phrase means explaining events by working out why they happened. The passage supports this by proposing history as the material that reasoning works on.
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The expression "more than a modicum of truth" means
Answer: C
Correct answer: more than a small amount of truth
A modicum is a small quantity, so more than a modicum is more than a little but well short of the whole. Some truth loses the comparison, much truth overstates it, and nothing but truth claims the assertion is wholly true, which the qualifier is there to avoid.
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