Direction: You have two brief passages with 5 questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
The Printing Press has made knowledge available to the vast multitude of people-Pray, what kind of knowledge is it ? Is it of any permanent character ? Books have become common and, when we say that books like the Sexton Blake series sell like hot cakes, we have an index of the nature of knowledge which a typical person in a vast multitude seeks. Let me tell you of an incident that took place in America a few years ago. An American publisher printed a million copies of the works of Charles Dickens in the hope that he could easily sell them on the name of the author. But to his disappointment, not even the widest publicity and advertisement could enable him to sell the books. Being sorely tired, he hit on a plan. He tore off the cover pages, substituted covers containing sensational love headings for the titles and again advertised the new books. In a week, all the books were sold out. We are not con
cerned here with the moral of the bookseller’s action. What we have to note is that only books of a sensational type are really sought for by the ordinary folk who have a great aversion to serious study. So, you will see that the grand argument that the Printing Press has made knowledge available even to the masses is certainly fallacious and quite misleading. To put it correctly, it has created a taste for a low order of books.

SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
multitude : an extremely large number. sorely
tired : very much tired.
aversion : a strong feeling of not liking somebody/ something.
fallacious : wrong; based on a false idea.
sell like hot cakes : to sell quickly/in great numbers
substituted : to use somebody/something instead of somebody/something else
sensational : causing great surprise, excitement or interest
misleading : giving the wrong idea/impression and making you believe something that is not true

Direction: You have two brief passages with five questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
In an effort to produce the largest, fastest and most luxurious ship afloat, the British built the S.S. Titanic. It was so superior to anything else on the seas that it was dubbed ‘unsinkable’. So sure of this were the owners that they provided only twenty life boats and rafts, less than one-half the number needed for the 2,227 passengers on board. Many passengers were aboard the night it rammed an iceberg only two days at sea and more than halfway between England and its New-York destination. Because the luxury liner was travelling so fast, it was impossible to avoid the ghostly looking iceberg. An unextinguished fire also contributed to the ship’s submersion. Panic increased the number of casualties as people jumped into the icy water or fought to be among the few to board the life boats. Four hours after the mishap, another ship, the ‘Carpathia’, rescued 705 survivors. The infamous S. S. Titanic had enjoyed only two days of sailing glory on its maiden voyage in 1912 before plunging into 12,000 feet of water near the coast of Newfoundland where it lies today.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
infamous : well-known for being bad or evil.
plunging :moving or making somebody/something more suddenly forwards and/or down wards.
afluat : floating on water
rammed : to drive into/hit another vehicle, ship, etc.
with force (vehicle, ship, etc.) destination : a place to which somebody/something is going/being sent
submersion : the state of being under water/liquid
panic :a feeling of great fear
casualities : persons killed/injured in a war/an accident
mishap :a small accident
rescued : to save somebody/something from a dangerous situation
maiden : being the first of its kind
voyage :a long journey (sea, space)