Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow:
41. Efficiency is all right in its place, in the shop, the factory, the store. The trouble with efficiency is that it wants to rule our play as well as our work; it won’t be content to reign in the shop, it follows us home.
It can be inferred from the above passage that
(a) Efficiency can become all-pervading.
(b) Efficiency does not always pay.
(c) Efficiency can be more of a torture than a blessing.
(d) None of the above.
42 In order to ease the traffic congestion, the transport planners decided to have a sophisticated system of elevated monorail travel in the city. However, it was pointed out by somebody that a metro rail system would be a more effective solution to the traffic problem. The plan was thus stalled. Moreover, since a budget had not been drawn up for the project, it was deemed fit to stall the work of the monorail for some time. In the meanwhile, the traffic planners of the city decided to build an efficient system of subways and flyovers in the city with the aim of easing the same problem. At the instant when the planners were preparing to award the contracts to the concerned parties, the transport planners came up with the contention that the subways interfered with the site of a pillar of the monorail system. The traffic planners had to give up the idea and think of other possible solutions.
We can infer which of the following from the above passage?
(a) The city authorities felt that the monorail system was essentially impractical.
(b) There is a strong contention between the two groups of planners in the city.
(c) The projects would be stalled for an indefinite period.
(d) None of the above.
43. The company encourages its managers to interact regularly, without a pre-set agenda, to discuss issues concerning the company and society. This idea has been borrowed from the ancient Indian concept of religious congregation, called satsang. Designations are forgotten during these meetings; hence, it is not uncommon in these meetings to find a sales engineer questioning the CEO on some corporate policy or his knowledge of customers.
Based on the information provided in the above passage, it can be inferred that
(a) the company is concerned about its reputation with its employees.
(b) the company believes in fostering the spirit of dialogue without degenerating it into a positioning-based debate.
(c) the company had some inter-personnel problems in the past due to which it felt the need for these corporate satsangs.
(d) All of the above.
44. From Cochin to Shimla, the new culture vultures are tearing down acres of India’s architectural treasures.
Ancestral owners are often fobbed off with a few hundred rupees for an exquisitely carved door or window, which fetches fifty times that much from foreign dealers, and yet more from the drawing room sophisticates of Europe and the US. The reason for such shameless rape of the Indian architectural wealth can perhaps, not wrongly, be attributed to the unfortunate blend of activist disunity and the local indifference.
It can be inferred from the above passage that
(a) the environment created by the meeting between activist disunity and local indifference is ideal for antique dealers to strive in India.
(b) only Indians are not proud of their cultural heritage and are hungry for the foreign currency that is easily available in return of artifacts.
(c) most Indians families have heirlooms which can be sold at high prices to Europeans and Americans.
(d) India provides a rich market for unscrupulous antique dealers.
45. Deepa Metha’s Fire is under fire from the country’s self-appointed moral police. Their contention is that the film is a violation of the Indian cultural mores and cannot be allowed to influence the Indian psyche. According to them, such films ruin the moral fabric of the nation, which must be protected and defended against such intrusions at all cost, even at the cost of cultural dictatorship.
Based on the information in the above passage, it can be inferred that
(a) the assumption underlying the moral police’s critique of Fire is that the Indian audience is vulnerable to all types of influence.
(b) the assumption underlying the moral police’s critique of Fire is that the Indian audience is impressionable and must be protected against ‘immoral’ influences.
(c) the moral police thinks it has the sole authority to pass judgement on films screened in India.
(d) None of the above.
Answers:
| 41 | (a) |
| 42 | (c) |
| 43 | (b) |
| 44 | (a) |
| 45 | (b) |
41. As the passage says that efficiency won’t be content to reign in the shop, but will follow us home, it implies that efficiency can become all pervading.
42. As each project is being stalled for some reason or the other and no consensus has been reached on any of the projects, we can infer that the projects will be stalled for an indefinite period.
43. The passage states that designations are forgotten during the meetings and even a sales engineer can question the CEO on company policies.
44. The passage states that the rape of Indian architectural wealth can be attributed to the blend of activist disunity and local indifference.
45. The moral police feel that Fire would influence the Indian psyche and ruin the moral fabric of the nation, which it should not be allowed to do.
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