Synonyms Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

My home town in the mid-1970s was a laid-back place, resembling a remote rural area, except in having some amenities. Our house was almost at one end of the town. About 15 km away, there was a small village where a fair was held for a week every year during the harvest season. The village deity was worshipped by many from the places in the vicinity.

Devotees thronged the fair not only for divine blessings but also for watching street-shows and other entertainment events. Only a mud track led to the village and everyone reached there by walking or on bullock carts.

My father, an advocate by profession, was popular among the villagers. His clients from the place used to arrange bullock carts for us and a few family friends and relatives to attend the fair.

The journey would start early in the morning. We children will be in a separate cart. I used to eagerly look forward to this occasion every year as though it was a journey of a life-time and worth enjoying every minute of it. Money saved for this fair would be tucked firmly in my pockets during the journey. Whenever the cart jerked or sped away, I would hold my pockets tightly so that coins would not spill out.

The crowd at the temple in the foothill used to be highly unorganised, especially the food counter where prasadam was served. Hot and spicy puffed rice and tea made of jaggery were the delectable combination of food and beverage every devotee craved for.

Going to the temple used to be the last priority of us children. Fearing elders' wrath, we would hurriedly finish the formality of darshan.

Direction for [ Question No: 2 To 2 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

Perhaps the worst of the ordeals was to be shut in a darkened room for long, uncertain periods, in solitary confinement and complete silence. Gagarin himself described the experience.

"There was no sound, not even the slightest rustle. No movement of the air-nothing. It was uncanny, unnerving."

He would shut his eyes and imagine himself in a space-cabin in orbit, looking at the world passing beneath him; or sometimes he would recite half-remembered poetry to himself.

Then, came parachute training. Gagarin made forty parachute jumps of gradually increasing difficulty.

One of the most interesting of the training experiments was the method of providing experience of weightlessness. In the early stages the express lift of the great Moscow University building was used. From the twenty-eighth floor to the bottom allowed a drop of 500 feet. At a certain high speed the passenger would find himself suspended between the floor and ceiling of the lift without support. This was a convenient and inexpensive way of reproducing 'zero gravity'.

Special air brakes prevented the lift from crashing as it reached the bottom.

On the morning of April 12, Gagarin rose at 5.30. He was zipped into his complicated space-suit, on top of which went a pale blue fibre suit, and finally an orange one. Then an Air Force bus drove him to the launching site in company with various helpers. The gantry lift took him up 100 feet, to the nose of the rocket, and he entered the cabin (named Vostok) with a wave to those below.

Direction for [ Question No: 3 To 3 ] :

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :

'What dost thou do here ?' the Bishop he said,
'I prithee now tell to me',
'I am a bold harper', quoth Robin Hood,
'And the best in the north countree'.

'O welcome, O welcome!' the Bishop he said,
'That music best pleaseth me.'
'You shall have no music', quoth Robin Hood,
'Till the bride and the bridegroom I see'.

With that came in a wealthy knight,
Which was both grave and old,
And after him a finikin lass,
Did shine like glistening gold.

'This is no fit match', quoth bold Robin Hood,
'That you do seem to make here;
'For since we are come into the church,
The bride she shall choose her own dear'.

Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

He must have seen us coming from some distance. By the time he loomed up in front of my headlights, the arms in the snow-caked overcoat were flailing desperately like windmills.

Pat gave a little gasp and I braked at once, though gently, or I might have followed his car into the ditch. But immediately I had second thoughts; there had been one or two nasty cases of hold-up in the papers recently. I wasn't going to take any chance with Pat, my sister, there. I changed down the gear and made to drive round him.

Pat was horrified. 'Aren't you stopping, Bill ?' I shook my head. 'Too risky'.

It was then that I saw the car. It had skidded right across the road and was hanging nose down in the deep ditch. I braked again and brought the Mini-Moris gradually to a stop.

I slid back my window as he looked in and then I saw that he was bleeding from a cut in his cheek.

'Anybody else in the car ?'

'No, on my own. If you could give me a lift'.

I nodded and he got into the back and slammed the door.

'Sorry about this, folks. I was beginning to think I was stuck there for the night. Not that you would call it a busy road, is it ?'

'Not at twelve o'clock at night', Pat said, turning round to smile at him. 'We have been to a dance in Boling ford. Bill didn't want to go, but I was keen. He isn't a bad brother, really'.

Direction for [ Question No: 5 To 5 ] :

Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

With more then 3,000 languages currently spoken, English undoubtedly is amongst the richest of all languages. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about half a million words of which only 2,00,000 are frequently used. This is because, the balance 3,00,000 words are technical and not found in ordinary dictionaries. The only language that can come near English is Chinese.

Apart from being the richest language, English also boasts of being one of the most widely spoken, second only to Mandarin Chinese. This remarkable achievement is only because of the one thing that we all love to do - copy ! 'Siesta' for example is of Spanish origin. 'Sputnik' as you must be aware of, has a Russian origin. 'Restaurant' is from France and 'Super' from Germany. Even before the birth of the 'genius' of 'drama', William Shakespeare, the words 'genius' and 'drama' were adapted from Greek. Now, you must be wondering if English has anything original about it. Well, find it out ! Did you ever try to find out how many different words of English we use in our daily life ? Try to guess and then read on. A modern novelist has a vocabulary of anywhere between ten to fifteen thousand words.

William Shakespeare used thirty thousand words and the only writer to come close to him was James Joyce in 'Ulysses'. We normally have a vocabulary of about ten thousand words of which only five thousand are used in everyday conversation. This leads to a limited variety of words. This is because we repeat a lot of words. In conversation and in writing, it is 'the'. (Try counting it in this article and you will have proof of it.)

Direction for [ Question No: 6 To 7 ] :

Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

The other day I received an unusual and very gratifying gift : I was given a tree. Or rather, I was given half-a-dozen trees, which would be planted on my behalf. I had been invited to give a talk to an organisation. After such events, the speaker is usually given a token gift. Sometimes the gift is that of a pen, or something useful. Often, the gift is in the form of a plaque or similar commemorative token. However well-meant, such gifts are destined to gather dust in forgotten corners. Which is why I was agreeably surprised to be given a scroll which attested that, in a designated plantation established for the purpose, six tress would be added in my name, as part of 'green' movement being sponsored by the organization.

In an increasingly environmentally-conscious world, the gift of a living tree or plant makes for a perfect present. The tradition of giving and receiving gifts has increasingly become a highly evolved marketing exercise. Apart from festivals like Diwali, Holi, Christmas, Eid and others, a whole new calendar of celebratory events has been created to promote the giving of gifts : Mother's Day, Father's Day, Teacher's Day, Valentine's Day and so on and on.

What do you give to people - friends, relatives, spouses, children, parents, employees, clients, well-wishers who have more or less everything, or at least everything that you could afford to give them as a gift ? Another shirt or kurta ? Another bottle of scent or after-shave ? Another box of chocolates ? Another any other ?

Direction for [ Question No: 8 To 9 ] :

Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

There's an air of excitement on the platform as the train's departure time draws close. You've found your name on the passenger's list, together with the names of those in the compartment with you; so you already know your 'fellow passengers' names, ages, sex and destination. People are pushing past you to get on, as you show your coupon to the conductor and he tells you to board.

Your fellow passengers are settling in, staking out their claims to territory with too much luggage. A bell clangs but there is no slamming of carriage doors, no blowing of whistles and no shout of "All aboard !" as in the states. The train simply draws out of the station while people stroll alongside and with studied nonchalance, clamber on, one after the other through the still-open doors.

You claim your own seat, pleased to be on the move. Since you have a long journey ahead in the company of strangers, what happens next will govern your enjoyment of the trip. You can start up a conversation and make friends, allies quickly, or he anti-social and lonely for the whole of the journey. Of course, it depends on your personality but if you are travelling alone you'll need an ally, someone you feel you can trust to watch your luggage when you go to the washroom. You can't isolate yourself completely on a train so if that's your style, train travel isn't for you.

I get a thrill out of the start of every train journey. It's not just the excitement of moving on to a new place, there's the anticipation of what's going to happen during the journey; the pleasure at the new acquaintances I'm going to make; the dissolving of city skyline into lush, rural landscape beyond the windows; and the heightened emotions of everyone on board. Indians love to travel by train; they are used to it and prepare properly so it becomes a picnic on wheels. I get excited when I am part of it, you will too.

Direction for [ Question No: 10 To 10 ] :

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow.

1. Untouchable, a charming French comedy about two friends who have almost nothing in common, has been a huge international success. But before the story became a cinematic sensation, how exactly did a rich French aristocrat and an Algerian immigrant with a criminal past become good friends ? Philip and Abdul first met in Paris in 1993 when Philip was looking for a nurse. He was from a very wealthy family. At one time he had been a successful business man, living a life of great luxury. Then he had a terrible paragliding accident and lost the use of his arms and legs. Life in a wheelchair was lonely and boring. Philip was struggling to imagine the future, and he needed practical help with his day-to-day life.

2. Philip interviewed more than 80 people for the job of a nurse. But none of them seemed right. Then he met Abdul, who had quit a life of crime in Algeria and moved to France to look for work. He was lively, intelligent and quick-thinking, with a crazy sense of humour. Philip got on with Abdul immediately, and he offered him the job. The two men didn't have much in common. Abdul loved pop music, but Philip preferred classical music. Philip loved modern art, but Abdul hated it. Philip's family was sure that he had made a bad choice. They believed that Philip needed someone much more sensible. Meanwhile, Abdul wasn't planning on staying in the job for long.

3. However, their working relationship quickly developed into a close friendship. Abdul gave Philip the support he needed. More importantly, his energy and sense of humour brought fun and excitement back into Philip's life. Abdul helped Philip make trips to other countries. Both of them now live in different countries, each with a wife and family. They keep in touch regularly. All that really matters to their friendship, though, it is their shared love of laughter and adventure.