English — Set 1

Context: Three-fourths of the surface of our planet is covered by the sea, which both separates and unites the various races of mankind, the sea is the great highway along which man may journey at his will, the great road that has no walls or hedges hemming it in, and that nobody has to keep it in good repair with the aid of pickaxes and barrels of tar and steamrollers. The sea appeals to man's love of the perilous and the unknown, to this love of conquest, his love of knowledge, and his love of gold. It's green, grey, blue and purple water calls to him and bid him fare fort in quest of fresh fields. Beyond their horizon he has found danger and death, glory and gain. In some great continents such as America and Australia, there are towns and villages many thousands of miles from the coast, whose children have never seen or heard - or felt - the waves of the sea. But in the British Isles it is nowhere much more than a hundred miles from the most inland spot. The love of the sea is in the very blood of the British people.

Context: Nehru was a many sided personality. He enjoyed reading and writing books as much as he enjoyed fighting political and social evils or residing tyranny. In him, the scientist and the humanist were held in perfect balance. While he kept looking at special problems from a scientific standpoint. He never forgot that we should nourish the total man. As a scientist, he refused to believe in a benevolent power interested in men's affairs. but, as a self proclaimed non-believer, he loved affirming his faith in life and the beauty of nature. Children he adored. Unlike Wordsworth, he did not see him trailing clouds of glory from the recent sojourn in heaven. He saw them as a blossoms of promise and renewal, the only hope for mankind.

Context: It is to progress in the human sciences that we must look to undo the evils which have resulted from a knowledge of physical world hastily and superficially acquired by population unconscious of the changes in themselves that the new knowledge has imperative. The road to a happier world than any known in the past lies open before us if atavistic destructive passions can be kept in leash while the necessary adaptations are made. Fears are inevitable in time, but hopes are equally rational and far more likely to bear good fruit. We must learn to think rather less of the dangers to be avoided than of the good that will lie within our grasp if we can believe in it and let it dominate our thoughts. Science, whatever unpleasant consequences it may have by the way, is in its very nature a liberator, a liberator of bondage to physical nature and in time to come, a liberator from the weight of destructive passions. We are on the threshold of utter disaster or unprecedented glorious achievement. No previous age has been fraught with problems so momentous; and it is to science that we must look for a happy future.

Context: Pick out the most effective word from the given words to fill in the blank to make the sentence meaningfully complete.

Context: In the following questions four alternatives are given for the phrase italicised and underlined in the sentence. Choose the alternative which best expresses the meaning of phrase.

Context: Three-fourths of the surface of our planet is covered by the sea, which both separates and unites the various races of mankind, the sea is the great highway along which man may journey at his will, the great road that has no walls or hedges hemming it in, and that nobody has to keep it in good repair with the aid of pickaxes and barrels of tar and steamrollers. The sea appeals to man's love of the perilous and the unknown, to this love of conquest, his love of knowledge, and his love of gold. It's green, grey, blue and purple water calls to him and bid him fare fort in quest of fresh fields. Beyond their horizon he has found danger and death, glory and gain. In some great continents such as America and Australia, there are towns and villages many thousands of miles from the coast, whose children have never seen or heard - or felt - the waves of the sea. But in the British Isles it is nowhere much more than a hundred miles from the most inland spot. The love of the sea is in the very blood of the British people.