English — Set 9

Context: The highly developed nations of the world are not only the immediate beneficiaries of the good that technology can do, that are also the first victims of environmental diseases that technology breeds. In the past, the environmental effects which accompanied technological progress were restricted to a small ans relatively short time. the new hazards neither local nor brief. Modern air pollutions covers vast areas of continents: Radioactive fallout from the nuclear explosion is worldwide. Radioactive pollutants now on the earth surface will be found there for generations, and in case of Carbon-14, for thousands of years.

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: There is modicum of truth in the assertion that "a working knowledge of ancient history is necessary to the intelligent interpretaion of current events". But the sage who uttered these words of wisdom might well have added something on the benefits of studying, particularly, the famous battles of history for the lessons they contain for those of us who lead or aspire to leadership. Such a study will reveal certain qualities and attributes which enabled the winners to win and certain deficiencies which caused the losers to lose. And the student will see that the same patterns recurs consistently, again and again, throughout the centuries.

Context: Question No. (12-16) based on the following passage: Today perhaps your only association with the word 'polio' is the Sabin Oral Vaccine that protects children from the disease. Fifty five years ago this was not so. The dreaded disease, which mainly affects the brain and spinal cord, causing stiffening and weakening of muscles, crippling and paralysis - which is Why I am in a wheelchair today. If somebody had predicted, when I was born, that this would happen to me, no one would have believed it. I was seventh child in a family of four pairs of brothers and sisters, with huge 23 year gap between the first and last. I was so fair and brown haired that I looked more look like a foreigner than a Dawood Bohri. I was also considered to be the healthiest of the brood.

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.