DIRECTIONS for questions (3 to 5) : The passage given below is followed by a set of five questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question. When I was little, children were bought two kinds of ice cream, sold from those white wagons with canopies made of silvery metal: either the two-cent cone or the four-cent ice-cream pie. The two-cent cone was very small, in fact it could fit comfortably into a child's hand, and it was made by taking the ice cream from its container with a special scoop and piling it on the cone. Granny always suggested I eat only a part of the cone, then throwaway the pointed end, because it had been touched by the vendor's hand (though that was the best part, nice and crunchy, and it was regularly eaten in secret, after a pretence of discarding it).The four-cent pie was made by a special little machine, also silvery, which pressed two disks of sweet biscuit against a cylindrical section of ice cream. First you had to thrust your tongue into the gap between the biscuits until it touched the central nucleus of ice cream; then, gradually, you ate the whole thing, the biscuit surfaces softening as they became soaked in creamy nectar. Granny had no advice to give here: in theory the pies had been touched only by the machine; in practice, the vendor had held them in his hand while giving them to us, but it was impossible to isolate the contaminated area. I was fascinated, however, by some of my peers, whose parents bought them not a four-cent pie but two two-cent cones. These privileged children advanced proudly with one cone in their right hand and one in their left; and expertly moving their head from side to side, they licked first one, then the other. This liturgy seemed to me so sumptuously enviable, that many times I asked to be allowed to celebrate it. In vain. My elders were inflexible: a four-cent ice, yes; but two two-cent ones, absolutely no. As anyone can see, neither mathematics nor economy nor dietetics justified this refusal. Nor did hygiene, assuming that in due course the tips of both cones were discarded. The pathetic, and obviously mendacious, justification was that a boy concerned with turning his eyes from one cone to the other was more inclined to stumble over stones, steps, or cracks in the payement. I dimly sensed that there was another secret justification, cruelly pedagogical, but I was unable to grasp it. Today, citizen and victim of a consumer society, a civilization of excess and waste (which the society ofthe thirties was not), I realize that those dear and now departed elders were right. Two two-cent cones instead of one at four cents did not signify squandering, economically speaking, but symbolically they surely did. It was for this precise reason, that I yearned for them: because two ice creams suggested excess. And this was precisely why they were denied to me: because they looked indecent, an insult to poverty, a display of fictitious privilege, a boast of wealth. Only spoiled children ate two cones at once, those children who in fairy tales were rightly punished, as Pinocchio was when he rejected the skin and the stalk. And parents who encouraged this weakness, appropriate to little parvenus, were bringing up their children in the foolish theatre of "I'd like to but I can't." They were preparing them to turn up at tourist-class check-in with a fake Gucci bag bought from a street peddler on the beach at Rimini. Nowadays the moralist risks seeming at odds with morality, in a world where the consumer civilization now wants even adults to be spoiled, and promises them always something more, from the wristwatch in the box of detergent to the bonus bangle sheathed, with the magazine it accompanies, in a plastic envelope. Like the parents of those ambidextrous gluttons I so envied, the consumer civilization pretends to give more, but actually gives, for four cents, what is worth four cents. You will throwaway the old transistor radio to purchase the new one, that boasts an alarm clock as well, but some inexplicable defect in the mechanism will guarantee that the radio lasts only a year. The new cheap car will have leather seats, double side mirrors adjustable from inside, and a panelled dashboard, but it will not last nearly so long as the glorious old Fiat 500, which, even when it broke down, could be started again with a kick. The morality ofthe old days made Spartans of us all, while today's morality wants all of us to be Sybarites. Which of the following cannot be inferred from the passage?

Elders rightly suggested that a boy turning eyes from one cone to the other was more likely to fall.

Today's society is more extravagant than the society of the 1930s.

The act of eating two ice cream cones is akin to a ceremonial process.

Elders rightly suggested that a boy turning eyes from one cone to the other was more likely to fall.

Despite seeming to promise more, the consumer civilization gives away exactly what the thing is worth.

The consumer civilization attempts to spoil children and adults alike.

What does the author mean by "nowadays the moralist risks seeming at odds with morality"?

The concept of morality has changed over the years.

The moralists of yesterday have become immoral today.

The concept of morality has changed over the years.

The risks associated with immorality have gone up.

The purist's view of morality is fast becoming popular.

Directions—(Q. 6–7) Read each sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical error or idiomatic error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The letter of that part is the answer. If there is no error, the answer is (E) (Ignore errors of punctuation, if any.)

played among India and Australia.

Under the terms of the new deal

the next cricket tournament to be

played among India and Australia.

The company is in debt (A)/and has been unable (B)/to pay their employees’ salaries (C)/for the past six months. (D) No error (E)

to pay their employees’ salaries

DIRECTIONS (Q 8-10): Analyse the passage given and provide an appropriate answer for questions. An expert group has sounded a timely warning on what 'environmentally destructive tourism' will mean to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and the objectives they are supposed to serve. Given the unique and rare wildlife the country has been endowed with, the rationale for using the resources for attracting tourists from abroad is unassailable. This necessarily postulates that flora and fauna should be protected and conserved. As a matter of fact, much of the government's interest in wildlife preservation has to do with the tremendous prospect of tourist traffic on that account. The risk of revenue-earning motivation overrunning the conservation imperatives is genuine. The lure of the coveted foreign exchange that goes with this business only serves to enhance it several folds. Even with the tourist inflow far below the potential, visitors' pressure is said to have already been felt on the tiger reserves. With the Government of India's declared intent to boost tourism quite justified for its own reasons, the need for eliminating the risk assumes a greater sense of urgency. The study team has noted that most of the 41 national parks and 165 wi Idlife sanctuaries surveyed are open to the tourists. The less frequented among them may not require special attention immediately in this respect as much as the ones that are major' tourists attraction do. These include the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Maharashtra, Nandankanan in Orissa, and Bannerghatta in Karnataka. Over a year ago, the Indian Board for Wildlife expressed concern over the looming danger and decided that the core areas of national parks and sanctuaries should be kept totally free from biotic disturbances. The visitor is permitted to view the wildlife only from the areas marked out for the purpose. And now, the expert group has come up with the suggestion that a case by case evaluation is done of the 'capacity' as well as the 'limitations' of all the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and based on such assessment, an area-specific plan for tourist promotion within the 'safety' norms be charted. That this is the most scientific way of going about the job and that there is no time to lose can be readily conceded. Biotic disturbances in the context mean

Disturbances caused by the wild animals on seeing the tourists.

Attacks from other living things, animals, etc.

The disturbances caused by the natives on seeing the strange foreigners.

The political disturbances causing the c1osedown of the parks.

Disturbances caused by the wild animals on seeing the tourists.

By using the expression "environmentally destructive tourism" the author means:

Destroying the attractive sources of wild animals and birds.

The preservation of the wild beasts.

Destruction of the wildlife and sanctuaries.

Destroying the attractive sources of wild animals and birds.

The maintenance of the flora and fauna of the country.

To implement the most scientific ways of tourism, we should:

From a commission and plan out how to implement the suggestions.

Get industries and talented persons trained in the field.

From a commission and plan out how to implement the suggestions.

Send a group of scientists abroad to learn more about tourism.

Speed as much finance as possible to better the suggestions made.

English Comprehension Passage MCQ Quiz

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| Written by Tanmay Shankar

Tanmay Shankar

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Questions: 10 | Attempts: 1,802 | Updated: Mar 21, 2023

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