Antonyms Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :

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We sallied out at three o'clock in the afternoon, having finished our tiffin and coffee. The main job for the day was to mount and frame the photograph. Uncle carried it in his hand delicately, enclosed in an old envelope, as if it were fragile and likely to perish at a finger's pressure. As we went down the street, a neighbour standing at his door hailed us and demanded, "Where are you taking the young fellow?" He was an engineer who worked in some distant projects on the hills, coming home once in a while and then again disappearing from our society. He was a particular friend of my uncle as they occasionally gathered for a game of cards in my house. He asked, "I am here for a few days. Can't we have a session some time?"

"Of course, of course," said my uncle without much fervour, "I will let you know", and moved on.

"Won't aunt get angry?" I asked, remembering the arguments they had had after every card session. The card players would have been sitting around in the middle of the hall, demanding coffee and edibles, and playing far into the night. My aunt would complain after the company had dispersed, "Sitting there with your friends, you lock me up in the kitchen all day! What madness seizes you people when you touch a pack of cards, I wonder!" Worn out by her attacks, my uncle began to avoid his friends, the company gradually dwindled and disappeared. But it did not prevent them from dreaming about cards or luxuriating in visions of a grand session. Somewhere my uncle was supposed to have lost a lot of money through the card games, and my aunt was very definite that he should never go near cards again, although he kept saying, "We play only Twenty-eight, and not Rummy, after all, Twenty-eight...".

Direction for [ Question No: 2 To 2 ] :

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As science progresses, superstitions ought to grow less. On the whole, that is true. However, it is surprising how superstitions linger on. If we are tempted to look down on savage tribes for holding such ideas, we should remember that even today, among most civilised nations, a great many equally stupid superstitions exist and are believed in by a great many people. Some people will not sit down thirteen at a table; or will not like to start anything important on a Friday; or refuse to walk under a ladder. Many people buy charms and talismans because they think they will bring them luck. Even in civilised nations today, many laws are made on the basis of principles which are just as much unproved. For instance, it is often held as a principle that white people are by nature superior to people of other colours. The ancient Greeks believed that they were superior to the people of Northern and Western Europe. The only way to see if there is anything in such a principle is to make scientific studies of a number of white and black and brown people under different conditions of life and find out just what they can and cannot achieve.

It is, however, true that the increase of scientifc knowledge does reduce superstition and also baseless guessing and useless arguments and practices. Civilised people do not argue and get angry about what water is composed of. The composition of water is known, and there is no argument about it.

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Water is the core of life; hence water must be central to our spiritual thinking. Water is not only most of earth, but also most of life. Therefore water conservation must be our deepest concern.

The Himalayan mountain range is among the highest, youngest and most fragile ecosystem of the planet. The Himalayas have given us some of the great river systems of the earth including the Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Nu Salween, Yangtze and the Mekong. The Himalayas are also called the 'Third Pole', for they contain the largest mass of ice and snow outside the earth's polar region, the north and south poles. There is a permanent snowline above 5,000 metres. Some of the glaciers in the region are the longest outside the two poles. The Himalayas serve as water towers, providing water on a sustained basis to more than 1,000 million people and millions of hectares of land in South Asia. The greenery, benevolent climate, highly productive ecosystems, food production and overall happiness in South Asia are in fact, attributable to the bounty of the Himalayas. They are not only beautiful; they are life-givers. Little wonder that they are venerated as the abode of gods.

To keep the Third Pole preserved through assured conservation is one of the greatest challenges for the contemporary world. Himalayan mountains are a common but fragile natural resource. As mountain ecosystems have enormous bearing on the earth's systems, their special care, regeneration and conservation of their pristine resources would only bring more happiness, peace and prosperity to large parts of the world. In Agenda 21, Chapter 13 of the United Nations, the importance of mountains is underlined : "mountain environments are essential to the survival of global ecosystems."

The Himalayas in the state of Uttarakhand are especially rich in water resources. This area is home to dozens of perennial streams and numerous other rain-fed rivers along with innumerable rivulets, waterfalls and ponds, etc.

Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

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Freedom is one of the most important factors in life. Man has fought politically all over the world for freedom. Religions have promised freedom, not in this world but in another. In the capitalist countries, individual freedom exists to some degree, and in the communist world it has been denied. From ancient times, freedom has meant a great deal to man, and there have been its opponents, not only political but religious through Inquisition, by excommunication, tortures and banishments, and the total denial of man's search for freedom. There have been wars and counter-wars fought for freedom. This has been the pattern of man's endeavours for freedom throughout history.

Freedom of self-expression and freedom of speech and thought exist in some parts of the world, but in others it does not. Those who have been conditioned, revolt against their backgrounds. This reaction which takes different forms is called 'freedom'. The reaction to politics is often to shun the field of politics.

One economic reaction is to form small communities based on some ideology or under the leadership of one person, but these soon disintegrate. The religious reaction against established organisations of belief is to revolt, either by joining other religious organisations or by following some guru or leader or by joining some cult. Or one denies the whole religious endeavour.

One thinks of freedom only as freedom of movement, either physical or movements of thought. It appears that one always seeks freedom on the surface. Surely, this is rather a limited freedom, involving a great deal of conflict, wars and violence.

Inner freedom is something entirely different. It has its roots not in the idea of freedom but in the reality of freedom. It covers all the endeavours of man. Without inner freedom life will always be an activity within the limited circle of time and conflict.

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1. Kangri Karchok, the Kailash Purana of the Tibetans describes the sacred elephant-mouthed river or Langchen Khambab as a long and extensive river that rises from the 'lake unconquerable', the Tso Maphan or Manasarovar that flows from the mountainous regions of Tibet. According to this holy book, this cold river with its sands of gold, circles the holy Manasarovar seven times before taking its course to the west.

2. The Langchen Khambab flows down from the red coloured mountains of the Kanglung Kangri Glacier in the Trans-Himalayan region of Tibet, channelling its way through the earth forests of Tholing and Tsparang of the Gugi Kingdom. These earth forests are full of pillars formed by rocks that collectively appear like a forest from afar - an 'out of the world' landscape that was formed by geological movements of the earth and erosion by wind and water. The Khyunglung ruins also lies on the northern bank of the Sutlej river in this valley which was once known as the 'Garuda Valley".

3. This mighty river then flows north-west for about 260 km before entering Himachal Pradesh through Shipki La cutting across the formidable Himalayan ranges of Zanskar, the Greater Himalaya and the Dhauladhar. Subsequently, the waters meander through the gigantic Kinnaur Kailash-Jorkanden Range at Reckong Peo creating the terrifying Sutlej gorge. Then it streams into Shimla, Kullu, Mandi and Bilaspur and is responsible for the rich cultivation of grapes, apples and apricots all along its banks. After its confluence with the River Spiti at Khab it is known as Sutlej.

4. It is 1,448 km in length, making it the longest among the five rivers of Punjab. Extensively used for irrigation, it is topographically divided into the Upper Sutlej Basin and Lower Sutlej Basin. It leaves the Himachal boundary to enter the plains of the Punjab at the Bhakra Dam, the second highest gravity dam and a major point of water supply and electricity generation for the North of India.

Direction for [ Question No: 6 To 6 ] :

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"A principal fruit of friendship", Francis Bacon wrote in his timeless meditation on the subject, "is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce." For Thoreau, friendship was one of life's great rewards. But in today's cultural landscape of muddled relationships scattered across various platforms for connecting, amidst constant debates about whether our Facebook 'friendships' are making us more or less happy, it pays to consider what friendship actually is. That's precisely what CUNY Philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci explores in Answers for Aristotle : How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to a More Meaningful Life (public library), which also gave us this provocative read on the science of what we call 'intuition'.

Philosophers and cognitive scientists agree that friendship is an essential ingredient of human happiness. But beyond the dry academic definitions—like, say, "voluntary interdependence between two persons over time, which is intended to facilitate socio-emotional goals of the participants, and may involve varying types and degrees of companionship, intimacy, affection and mutual assistance"—lies a body of compelling research that sheds light on how, precisely, friendship augments happiness. The way friendship enhances well-being, it turns out, has nothing to do with quantity and everything to do with quality—researchers confirm that it isn't the number of friends (or, in the case of Facebook, 'friends').

Direction for [ Question No: 7 To 7 ] :

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The strength of Indian democracy lies in its tradition, in the fusion of the ideas of democracy and national independence which was characteristic of the Indian national movement long before independence. Although the British retained supreme authority over India until 1947, the provincial elections of 1937 provided real exercise in democratic practice before national independence. During the Pacific War, India was not overrun or seriously invaded by the Japanese and after the War was over, the transfer of power to a government of the Indian Congress Party was a peaceful one as far as Britain was concerned. By 1947, 'Indianization' had already gone far in the Indian Civil Service and army, so that the new government could start with effective instruments of central control.

After independence, however, India was faced with two vast problems, the first, that of ethnic diversity and the aspirations of sub-nationalities. The Congress leadership was more aware of the former problem than of the second; as a new political elite which had rebelled not only against the British Raj, but also against India's social order; they were conscious of the need to initiate economic development and undertake social reforms, but as nationalists who had led a struggle against alien rule on behalf of all parts of India, they took the cohesion of the Indian nation too much for granted and underestimated the centrifugal forces of ethnic division, which were bound to be accentuated rather than diminished as the popular masses were more and more drawn into politics. The Congress Party was originally opposed to the idea of recognizing any division of India on a linguistic basis and preferred to retain the old provinces of British India which often cut across linguistic boundaries; it was only in response to strong pressures from below that the principle of linguistic States was conceded as the basis of a federal 'Indian Union'. The rights granted to the States created new problems for the Central Government. The idea of making Hindi the national language of a united India was thwarted by the recalcitrance of the speakers of other important Indian languages, and the autonomy of the States rendered central economic planning extremely difficult.

Land reforms remained under the control of the States and many large-scale economic projects required a degree of cooperation between the Central Government and one or more of the States which it was found impossible to achieve. Coordination of policies was difficult even when the Congress Party was in power both in the States and at the Centre; when a Congress government in Delhi was confronted with non-Congress parties in office in the States, it became much harder.

Direction for [ Question No: 8 To 8 ] :

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Born out of the forces of globalization, India's IT sector is undertaking some globalization of its own. In search of new sources of rapid growth, the country's outsourcing giants are aggressively expanding beyond their usual stomping grounds into the developing world; setting up programming centres, chasing new clients and hiring local talent. Through geographic diversification, Indian companies hope to regain some momentum after the recession. This shift is being driven by a global economy in which the US is no longer the undisputed engine of growth. India's IT powers rose to prominence largely on the decisions made by American executives, who were quick to capitalize on the cost savings to be gained by outsourcing noncore operations, such as systems programming and call centres, to specialists overseas.

Revenues in India's IT sector surged from $4 billion in 1998 to $59 billion last fiscal, but with the recession NASSCOM forecasts that the growth rate of India's exports of IT and other business services to the US and Europe will drop to at most 7% in the current fiscal year, down from 16% last year and 29% in 2007-08.

Factors other than the crisis are driving India's IT firms into the emerging world. Although the US still accounts for 60% of the export revenue of India's IT sector, emerging markets are growing faster. Tapping these more dynamic economies won't be easy, however. The goal of Indian IT firms for the past 30 years has been to woo clients outside India and transfer as much of the actual work as possible back home, where lower wages for highly skilled programmers allowed them to offer significant cost savings. With costs in other emerging economies equally low, Indian firms can't compete on price alone.

To adapt, Indian companies which are relatively unknown in these emerging nations are establishing major local operations around the world, in the process hiring thousands of locals. Cultural conflicts arise at times while training new recruits. In addition, IT firms also have to work extra hard to woo business from emerging-market companies still unaccustomed to the concept of outsourcing. If successful, the future of India's outsourcing sector could prove as bright as its past.

Direction for [ Question No: 9 To 9 ] :

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Man who is believed to have evolved from apes, is a curious mixture of varied motives. He is not only the subject of needs but is also their creator. He not only seeks to satisfy his needs but also caters to his desire for beauty and grace. He is eager to satisfy his passion for more and more knowledge. Although in a general way, the maxim 'necessity is the mother of invention' is true, it is by no means the whole truth. Man is something much greater than an intelligent being using his intellect to make newer inventions from time to time. He has within him a spirit which is ever exhorting him to cut down his needs and learn to be happy with what he has. The real purpose underlying this maxim lies in its utility in the worldly sense. It tells us to be up and doing, not to be passive in our attitude to life. It asks us not to remain slaves of old habits and ways of life. We must face the new situations with a creative mind. Every new difficulty, every new problem, which confronts us in life, can be tackled successfully with the spirit of inventiveness.

Direction for [ Question No: 10 To 10 ] :

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When it comes to structures that are both majestic and well-fortified, the classic European castle is the pinnacle of design. Across the ages castles changed, developed, and eventually fell out of use, but they still command the fascination of our culture.

Castles were originally built in England by Norman invaders in 1066. As William the Conqueror advanced through England, he fortified key positions to secure the land he had taken. Castles also served as bases of operation for offensive attacks. Troops were summoned to, organized around, and deployed from castles. In this way castles served both offensive and defensive roles in military operations.

Not limited to military purposes, castles also served as offices from which the lord would administer control over his fiefdom. They would address disputes, handle business, feast, and enjoy festivities. In this way castles served as important social centres in medieval England. Castles also served as symbols of power.

The first castles constructed in England were made from earth and timber. Those who constructed them took advantage of natural features, such as hills and rivers, to increase defenses. Since these castles were constructed from wood, they were highly susceptible to attacks by fire. Wooden castles were gradually replaced by stone, which greatly increased the strength of these fortifications; however, being made from stone did not make these castles entirely fireproof. Attackers could hurl flaming objects into the castle through the windows or ignite the wooden doors.

The demise of castles can ultimately be attributed to gunpowder. During the 15th century, artillery became powerful enough to break through stone walls. This greatly undermined the military role of castles. Castles were then replaced by artillery forts that had no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. Though castles no longer serve their original purposes, remaining castles receive millions of visitors each year from those who wish to experience these majestic vestiges of a time long passed.