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Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 21 To 21 ] :

Directions : Answer the questions based on either the English passage or the Marathi passage :

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses which would stand up on end like ninepins. When a shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus, the rods by falling and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the direction from which it came. But, instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record with a pen on paper the movements, of the ground or of the table, as the quake passed by. While I write my pen moves but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could, in time, learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves. But when table, penholder and paper are all moving how is it possible to write legibly ? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made ? It is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.

21.

According to the passage, the meaning of the word 'slumber' is ..................... .

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: B

In the passage, 'slumber' means sleep.

The word occurs in recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him. A shock too weak to waken someone must be acting on a person who is asleep, and the earlier phrase 'instruments that neither slumbered nor slept' also pairs 'slumbered' with 'slept' as near equivalents.

A shock is what the rods record, not what 'slumber' means; 'ground' and 'suggestion' appear elsewhere in the passage in other roles and do not fit 'too weak to waken him'.

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Direction for [ Question No: 22 To 24 ] :

Directions :
Answer the questions based on either the English passage or the Marathi passage :

Political education has many connotations. It may be defined as the preparation of a citizen to take well informed, responsible and sustained action for participation in the national struggle in order to achieve the socio-economic objectives of the country. The predominant socio-economic objectives in India are the abolition of poverty and the creation of an egalitarian society that would replace the present traditional, feudal, hierarchical social setup.

Under the colonial rule, the Congress leaders argued that political education was an important part of education and refused to accept the official view that education and politics should not be mixed with one another. But when they came to power in 1947 they almost adopted the British policy and began to talk of education being defiled by politics. ‘Hands off education’ was the call to political parties. But in spite of it, political infiltration into the educational system has greatly increased in the sense that different political parties vie with each other to capture the mind of teachers and students. The wise academicians wanted political support, without political interference. What we have actually received is infinite political interference with little genuine political support. This interference with the educational system by political parties for their own ulterior motives is no political education at all and with the all round growth of elitism, it is hardly a matter for surprise that real political education within the school system (which really means the creation of a commitment to social transformation) has been even weaker than in the pre-independence period.

22.

The word that is nearly opposite in meaning of 'defile' is ..................

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: A

The nearly opposite word is sanctify.

To 'defile' is to make something impure, to spoil or desecrate it. To 'sanctify' is to make holy or pure, the opposite.

'Decry' means to criticise publicly and 'devaluate' to reduce in value, both closer to defile than opposite to it. 'Satiate' means to satisfy fully and is unrelated.

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23.

According to the passage the close meaning of 'connotation' is ...........

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The close meaning of 'connotation' is invoked meanings.

A connotation is an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal meaning. When the passage says political education has many connotations, it means the term suggests or implies several ideas.

'Different meanings' is too loose, since a connotation is an associated meaning rather than a separate definition. 'Similar meanings' describes synonyms, and 'invited meanings' is not an accepted sense of the word.

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Answer: D

The answer is that there was quite a lot of political interference without political support.

The passage says the wise academicians wanted political support without political interference, and then states: "What we have actually received is infinite political interference with little genuine political support." That is exactly option D.

Option A is wrong because the passage says interference has greatly increased. Option B is wrong because there was interference. Option C reverses the position: it says support was received at the cost of interference, but the passage says genuine support was little, so the interference did not buy any real support.

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Direction for [ Question No: 25 To 29 ] :

Directions : Answer the questions based on either English passage or Marathi passage :

It should be remembered that the Nationalist Movement in India, like all nationalist movements, was essentially a bourgeois movement. It represented the natural historical stage of development, and to consider it or to criticize it as a working class movement is wrong. Gandhi represented that movement, and the Indian masses in relation to that movement to a supreme degree, and he became the voice of Indian people to that extent. The main contribution of Gandhi to India and the Indian masses has been through the powerful movements that he launched through the National Congress. Through nation-wide action, he sought to mould the millions and largely succeeded in doing so. He changed them from a demoralized, timid, and hopeless mass, bullied and crushed by every dominant interest and incapable of resistance, to people with self-respect and self-reliance, resisting tyranny, and capable of united action and sacrifice for a larger cause. Gandhi made people think of political and economic issues, and every village and every bazaar hummed with arguments and debates on the new ideas and hopes that filled the people.

In case of very exceptional person, like Gandhi, the question of personality becomes especially important in order to understand and appraise him. To us, he represented the spirit and honour of India, the yearning of her sorrowing millions to be rid of their innumerable burdens. An insult to him by the British Government or others was an insult to India and her people.

25.

The given passage states that Mahatma Gandhi largely succeeded in .................. .

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: C

The passage says Gandhi largely succeeded in moulding the millions in India.

The wording is almost the passage's own: 'Through nation-wide action, he sought to mould the millions and largely succeeded in doing so.' It adds that he changed a timid and hopeless mass into people with self-respect, who could act together.

The passage does not claim that he ended social discrimination or economic inequality, and it says nothing about winning political representation, so the other three go beyond what it states. The question asks what the passage itself says, so the answer is the one phrase it uses for his work with the people.

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26.

What do you understand by the phrase "to be rid of " ?

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: A

'To be rid of' means released or freed from something.

The passage speaks of 'the yearning of her sorrowing millions to be rid of their innumerable burdens': people who long to be free of their burdens. To be rid of a thing is to be freed from it, never to be tied to it, to increase it or to include it. Reading the phrase in its sentence settles it: burdens are things people want to be free of, not things they want to be tied to or to have more of.

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Answer: D

The passage says that Gandhi represented the spirit and honour of India.

The writer says so directly: 'To us, he represented the spirit and honour of India', and adds that an insult to him by the British Government or others was an insult to India and her people.

Option (b) is wrong because the passage says it is wrong to treat the nationalist movement as a working class movement. Option (c) is a trap: the 'natural historical stage of development' is what the nationalist movement represented, and Gandhi represented that movement, not the stage itself. Poverty is not named as what he stood for.

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28.

The main contribution of Gandhi to India has been ................. .

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: B

The main contribution of Gandhi has been the powerful movements.

The passage states it in nearly the same words: 'The main contribution of Gandhi to India and the Indian masses has been through the powerful movements that he launched through the National Congress.'

Arguments, speeches and fasts are not named as his main contribution. The passage mentions only that people debated the new ideas, which is the effect of his movements, and it nowhere describes his fasts or speeches as his main contribution.

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29.

What, do you think, is the correct meaning of the term "bourgeois" ?

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: C

'Bourgeois' means middle class, with conventional, conservative and materialistic values.

The word describes the middle class, and in the sense used here its outlook as conventional and materialistic. The passage calls the nationalist movement essentially bourgeois to say it came from that class and was not a working class movement.

The working class, the agrarian class and a lower class with no fixed values are other social groups, and the passage sets the working class against 'bourgeois'.

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Direction for [ Question No: 30 To 30 ] :

Read the following passage and answer the questions given below it :

["Communication and persistence of poverty : The need for return to Basics" by Pradip Thomas (2008) in communication for development and social change by Jon Servaes.]

Access to information is of course, the basis for the right to information movement in India. A key issue is the need for transparency, so that ordinary people can read for themselves the details of public expenditures, and if there are anomalies, demand explanations from the concerned authorities. Admittedly right to information legislations the world over are still in their infancy. While governments and in some cases, the civil society are required to be transparent, corporations are not. Not with-standing such lacunae, access to information is an important right for it can become the basis for the enjoyment of related rights and securities : in education, shelter access to food grain and employment opportunities. Access to 'survival' resources for eg food and shelter are of course critical to human survival. For communities who have lived subsistence lives as hunter-gatherers access to forest's resources are necessary for survival. The lack of access to such traditional, life enhancing resources is one of the rallying calls for popular mobilizations in the context of the movements against the building of large dams in Thailand, China, India, Malaysia and many other parts of the world.

30.

What is the primary basis for the right to information movement in India ?

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: A

The primary basis is government transparency.

The passage opens: "Access to information is of course, the basis for the right to information movement in India. A key issue is the need for transparency". Ordinary people want to read the details of public expenditure for themselves and demand explanations where there are anomalies, and that is a demand that the authorities be transparent.

Access to survival resources appears later, as something that access to information can help secure, not as what the movement rests on. Public expenditure is the example of what people want to see, and civil society demands are not named as the basis anywhere in the passage.

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