Laws of nature are not commands but statements of facts. The use of the word "law" in this context is rather unfortunate. It would be better to speak of uniformities in nature. This would do away with the elementary fallacy that a law implies a law giver. If a piece of matter does not obey a law of nature it is not punished. On the contrary, we say that the law has been incorrectly stated.
Laws of nature differ from man-made laws because
Answer: A
Correct answer: the former state facts of Nature
The first sentence makes the contrast the passage is built on: laws of nature are not commands but statements of facts. A man-made law tells people what to do; a law of nature only reports what happens. The other options describe consequences of that difference rather than the difference itself.
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The author is not happy with word 'law' because
Answer: A
Correct answer: it implies an agency which has made them
The author says using law for a uniformity in nature invites the elementary fallacy that a law implies a law giver. That is the whole of his objection, and it is why he would prefer the word uniformities. Rigidity and harshness are never mentioned.
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Harold a professional man who had worked in an office for many years had a fearful dream. In it, he found himself in a land where small slug-like animals with slimy tentacles lived on people's bodies. The people tolerated the loathsome creatures because after many years they grew into elephants which then became the nation's system of transport, carrying everyone wherever he wanted to go. Harold suddenly realised that he himself was covered with these things, and he woke up screaming. In a vivid sequence of pictures this dream dramatised for Harold what he had never been able to put into words; he saw himself as letting society feed on his body in his early years so that it would carry him when he retired. He later threw off the "security bug" and took up freelance work.
In his dream Harold found the loathsome creatures
Answer: C
Correct answer: In a different land
The passage says he found himself in a land where the creatures lived. Nothing places the dream in his village, his house or his office - the office belongs to his waking life, which the dream is a comment on rather than a picture of.
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Which one of the following phrases best helps to bring out the precise meaning of 'loathsome creatures'?
Answer: C
Correct answer: Slimy tentacles and slug-like animals
Loathsome means repellent to look at or touch, and the two phrases that supply that physical repulsiveness are slimy tentacles and slug-like animals. Fearful dream describes Harold's reaction, and security bug is the interpretation he reaches later, not a description of the creatures.
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The statement that 'he later threw off the security bug' means that
Answer: A
Correct answer: Harold succeeded in overcoming the need for security
The dream shows him letting society feed on his body in his early years so that it would carry him when he retired - that is, trading his working life for security. Throwing off the bug therefore means giving up that bargain, which is exactly what taking up freelance work does.
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But I did not want to shoot the elephant. I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with the preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to. (Somehow it always seems worse to kill large animal.) Besides, there was the beast's owner to be considered. But I had got to act quickly. I turned to some experienced-looking Burmans who had been there when we arrived, and asked them how the elephants had been behaving. They all said the same thing; he took no notice of you if you left him alone, but he might charge if you went too close to him.
The phrase 'Preoccupied grandmotherly air' signifies
Answer: D
Correct answer: Calm, dignified and affectionate disposition
Grandmotherly supplies the warmth and dignity, and preoccupied the unhurried absorption in what she is doing - the elephant is beating grass against its knees, entirely absorbed and entirely peaceable. That is why the narrator finds the idea of shooting it monstrous. Pretending to be busy reads a deception into the word that is not there.
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From the passage it appears that the author was
Answer: B
Correct answer: Kind and considerate
The narrator calls shooting the elephant murder, thinks of the beast's owner, and asks the Burmans how it has been behaving before deciding anything. Each of those is a consideration for someone other than himself. He is inexperienced too, but that is a fact about him rather than the disposition the passage displays.
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The author did not want to shoot the elephant because he
Answer: B
Correct answer: Did not wish to kill an animal that was not harming anybody
The Burmans tell him the elephant took no notice of you if you left him alone, and the narrator has already judged that shooting it would be murder. His inexperience is mentioned, but it is offered as a fact about him rather than as his reason; the reason is that the animal is doing no harm.
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I felt the wall of the tunnel shiver. The master alarm squealed through my earphones. Almost simultaneously, Jack yelled down to me that there was a warning light on. Fleeting but spectacular sights snapped into and out of view, the snow, the shower of debris, the moon, looming close and big, the dazzling sunshine for once unfiltered by layers of air. The last twelve hours before re-entry were particularly bone-chilling. During this period, I had to go up into the command module. Even after the fiery re-entry splashing down in 81°F water in south pacific, we could still see our frosty breath inside the command module.
The word 'Command Module' used twice in the given passage indicates perhaps that it deals with
Answer: C
Correct answer: A journey into outer space
The command module is the crew compartment of a spacecraft, and everything around it confirms the setting: re-entry, splashdown in the Pacific, the moon looming close and big, and sunshine unfiltered by layers of air, which is only possible outside the atmosphere.
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Which one of the following reasons would one consider as more as possible for the warning lights to be on?
Answer: C
Correct answer: A catastrophe was imminent.
A master alarm and a warning light are what a spacecraft uses to signal danger, and the wall of the tunnel shivering just before them points the same way. The debris and the moon are things the narrator saw, not causes of the alarm, and Jack was reporting the light rather than triggering it.
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