Solved Examples

Discursive Passages
Read the passages given below carefully.

Passage 1
India 2020
By Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
1. Nations are built by the imagination and untiring enthusiastic efforts of generations. One
generation transfers fruits of its toil to another, which then takes forward the mission. As the coming
generation also has its dreams and aspirations for the nation's future, it therefore adds something
from its side to the national vision; which the next generation strives hard to achieve. This process
goes on and the nation climbs steps of glory and gains higher strength.

The first vision: Freedom of India

2. Any organisation, society or even a nation without a vision is like a ship cruising on the high seas
without any aim direction. It is the clarity of national vision which constantly drives the people
towards the goal.

3. Our last generation, the glorious generation of freedom fighters, led by Mahatma Gandhi and
many others set for the nation a vision of free India. This was the first vision, set by the people for
the nation. It therefore went deep into the minds and the hearts of the masses and soon became the
great inspiring and driving force for the people to collectively plunge into the struggle for freedom
movement. The unified dedicated efforts of the people from every walk of life won freedom for the
country.

The second vision: Developed India

4.The next generation (to which I also belong) has put India strongly on the path of economic,
agricultural and technological development. But India has stood too long in the line of developing
nations. Let us, collectively, set the second national vision of Developed India. I am confident that it
is very much possible and can materialise in 15-20 years' time. Developed status.

5. What does the developed nation status mean for the common man? It means the major
transformation of our national economy to make it one of the largest economies in the world, where
the countrymen live well above the poverty line, their education and health is of high standard,
national security is reasonably assured and the core competence in certain major areas gets
enhanced significantly so that the production of quality goods, including exports, is rising and
thereby bringing all- round prosperity for the countrymen.

6. What is the common link needed to realise these sub-goals? It is the technological strength of the
nation, which is the key to reach this developed status. Build around our strength.
 7. The next question that comes to the mind is, how can it be made possible? We have to build and
strengthen our national infrastructure in an all-round manner, in a big way. Therefore, we should
build around our existing strengths including the vast pool of talented scientists and technologists
and our abundant natural resources. The manpower resource should be optimally utilised to harness
health care, services sectors and engineering goods sectors. (410 words)

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the following questions.

1. What qualities does the writer of the above passage display when he talks about the necessary
steps to build our nation's strength? Choose one option from the following .

(a) Ambitious and alertness (b) Tendency to help everyone in need.

(c) Visionary and confident (d) Leading people by trying to do everything in their own way

2. Why is a vision necessary for a nation? Answer in about 40 words.

3 .Complete the sentence appropriately.

The people continuously move towards the goal when there is a clarity of

4. The passage includes some words that are similar in meaning to each other. From the sets (a) - (e)
below, identify two sets of antonyms

(a) Transfers and strives (b) glory and gain

(c) Inspiring and driving (d) competence and goals

(e) Struggle and toil

5. The key to reaching the status of a developed nation is

6. In Paragraph 2, it is shown that the mission is taken forward. Explain how this happens.

7. Choose the option that best conveys the message in- "It therefore went deep into the minds and
the hearts of the masses and soon became the great inspiring and driving force...”

(a) A person in a coward because they think they are.

b) A person is brave because their family and friends support them.

(c) A person's happiness depends upon a healthy relationship with the society.

(d) A person's valour is determined by their contribution to the world.

8. What does technological advancement expedite?

 Passage 2

1. Every event a person sees and every noise he hears is part of a life that has been created for him
as a unit. Whether major or insignificant, no event in the universe happens by coincidence. No
flower blooms or fades by chance. No man comes into existence or dies out of pure coincidence. No
man becomes sick by mistake and neither does his sickness develop in an uncontrolled manner. In
each case these occurrences are especially predestined by God, from the very moment they were
created.

2. Destiny is something that you have been creating unconsciously. You can also create it
consciously. You can rewrite it; all that we do in the form of a spiritual process is just that. If you can
touch the core within you, if you can experience that the source of creation is within you and then
shift your whole focus on yourself, you can rewrite your own destiny. This is true as far as I know.

3. All the time your focus is scattered because what you consider as 'me' is your house, your car,
your wife, your children, your education, your position and your other identities. If I strip you of all
these things, including your body and mind, which are just accumulations, you will feel like a
nobody.

4. Once you become a true individual, your destiny is yours. Individual comes from 'indivisible' - it
cannot be divided any more. It cannot be here and there. Why people in the spiritual process, who
are in a hurry for spiritual growth, are not getting into marriage, children and relationships, is
because the moment you have a wife or a husband, you fall into a trap. ‘Me’ gets identified with the
others. The significance of Sanyasi and Brahmacharya is to just shift your focus on you. When I say
‘you', it is just ‘you', not your body or mind.

5 If you are unable to be like that, you just choose one identity. When you say 'you', make it you and
your Guru. You attach yourself to the Guru without any hesitation because you can get as entangled
as you want with him but he is not going to get entangled. The moment you are ‘ripe’ you can drop
the attachment. With other relationships, it is never so .Even if you want to get free, the others will
not let you go. So, just create a longing to grow, to dissolve, to know. What has to happen will
happen. Once you become an individual, your destiny becomes yours. Once your destiny is
happening in awareness, the next step will happen by itself, because life within you has the
intelligence to choose freedom. (444 words)

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer any ten of the following questions.

1.What is the greatest lesson being taught by the author?

(a) Destiny can be changed and re written if one focuses on one's surroundings.
(b) Destiny can never be changed by selfish people like Sanyasis and Brahmacharyas.
(c) Every person creates their own destiny
(d) Every person's destiny is already set in stone by God.
 2. Which of the following sentences from the above passage is not an example of ’happenstance’?

(a) "This is true as far as I know".

(b) "Once you become a true individual, your destiny is yours."

(c) "What has to happen will happen."

(d) "No man becomes sick by mistake and neither does his sickness develop in an uncontrolled
manner.”

3. Study the following statements.

(A) All the events in the universe happen by coincidence.

(B) Destiny is always created consciously.

(a) (A) is right (B) is wrong

(b) (B) is right (A) is wrong

(c) Both (A) and (B) are right

(d) Both (A) and (B) are wrong

4. "The moment you are ripe you can drop the attachment."

‘Ripe’ in the above expression has been used as a metaphor. Ripe stands for

(a) developed to the point of readiness for harvesting and eating.

(b) having arrived at the fitting stage or time for a particular action or purpose.

(c) having reached a stage of mental or emotional development characteristic of an adult.

(d) used euphemistically to describe someone middle-aged or old.

5 Which of the following statements is true?

(a) When one becomes a true individual, their destiny is theirs.

(b) Individual comes from’ indivisible’ - it cannot be divided any more.

(c) Both (a) and (b)

(d) None of the above

6. Select the qualities from the passage that the author wants us to imbibe.

(1) Atheist (2) Anti-social

(3) Individualistic (4) Introspective

(5) Confining

(a) 1, 3 and 4 (b) 1, 3 and 5

(c) 2, 4 and 5 (d) 3 and 4

7. Complete the following with a phrase/sentence from the passage.

Opinion Reason

Life within you has the intelligence to choose freedom.

8. What qualities do the Sanyasis and Brahmacharyas imbibe on their quest of spiritual growth?

9. According to the passage, which practice shifts your focus to yourself?

10. List two things the writer says about destiny in Paragraph 2.

11. Fill in the blank.

One will feel like a if stripped of all the things like house, family, body, etc.

12. Find the word from the passage which is opposite in meaning to the word ‘material’.
Case Based Factual Passages
Read the passages given below carefully and answer the questions that follow

Passage 1
1. India’s population is expected to grow by 25%, with reference to 2011, to 1.52 billion by 2036,
according to the final report of the technical group on population projections dated July 2020. The
group was constituted by the National Commission on Population (NCP) under the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare with the mandate to provide population projections for the period 2011 to 2036.

2. India's population growth rate is expected to decline to its lowest since the Independence in the
2011-2021 decade, with a decadal growth rate of 12.5%. It will decline further to 8.4% in the 2021-
2031 decade, as per the report, which The Wire has seen. According to these projections, India will
overtake China as the world's most populous country around 2031-almost a decade later than the
United Nations projection of 2022.
India's population is projected to increase to 1.52 billion by 2036.

Source: Report of the technical group on population projections

3. The projections have been delayed quite significantly. "Ideally, they should have come by 2016. But
there were delays in setting up the committee and then more delays at the government's end even
after we submitted the report. We had submitted our report in November 2019," said a member of
the committee wishing to remain anonymous. This was confirmed by two other members as well.

4. India's population was 1.21 billion as per the Census of 2011 and the projections now estimate that
the population will grow by 311 million by 2036.

5. The report projects that as much as 70% of this increase will be in urban areas. India's urban
population will increase from 377 million in 2011 to 594 million in 2036 - a growth of 57%. So, while
31% of Indians were living in urban India in 2011, that will grow to 39% by 2036.

6. Consequently, the proportion of the rural population will decline from 69% to 61% as the urban
population is projected to increase more than twice the projected increase in the rural population.
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the following questions.

1. Complete the sentence appropriately.

The number by which the population of India is estimated to grow by 2036 is

2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate option.

This passage contains the decadal (growth/decline) rate for the decade 2011-2021,
which is 12.5%.

3. What does the research in the above passage mention about rural population?

4. "It will decline further to 8.4% in the 2021-2031 decade...” What does this statement mean?

5. According to the passage, how much delay from the UN's projection can be seen in India becoming
the most populated country in the world?

6. Why did the projections come in July of 2020?

(a) Delay in setting up the committee (b) Delay by the government

(c) Delay by the committee (d) both (a) and (b)

7. Infer two facts about India on the basis of your reading of the passage.

8. The purpose of the above report was to give

(a) Population projections for 2036 (b) Population projections for 2011

(c) Population projections for 2011-2036 (d) Population projections for 2031
 Passage 2
1. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder affecting more than 20 million people
worldwide which is characterised by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions, language, sense of
self and behaviour. Common psychotic experiences include hallucinations and delusions which involve
having fixed, false beliefs.

2. The treatment planning of schizophrenia has three goals which are to reduce or eliminate
symptoms, to maximise quality of life and adaptive functioning and to promote and maintain recovery
from the debilitating effects of illness to the maximum extent possible. Medications are invaluable in
the management of patients with mental illnesses. Pharmacists are therefore indispensable in
improving the quality of service rendered to patients with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia
which contributes to reduction of the numerous problems associated with and faced by such patients.

3. Management of patients with such conditions is generally a collaborative effort which encompasses
incorporation of skills of a myriad of health care professionals involved in patient care. Clinical
pharmacists have been instrumental in several roles such as being educators, consultants and
providers. They are authorities in pharmaceutical care; they also apply their complementary skills and
knowledge in managing these patients together with other health care professionals in the
multidisciplinary team. They contribute to patient care by playing a vital role in the detection,
resolution and prevention of medication-related problems. In ensuring the safe and efficacious use of
medications, clinical pharmacists are also pivotal. In addition, pharmacists are available to provide
comprehensive drug information to patients, the patient's relatives and other health care
professionals involved in patient management. Pharmacists spearhead medication adherence and are
involved in education on primary prevention of mental illnesses, health promotion and lifestyle
modification.

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer any ten of the following questions.

1. Infer one reason for the following statement, based on information in Paragraph 2.

Pharmacists are integral to provide quality service to the patients of schizophrenia.

2. Study the following statements.

(A) Clinical pharmacists play several roles such as being educators, consultants and providers.

(B) Medications are optional in the management of patients with mental illnesses.

(C) Common psychotic experiences in schizophrenia include hallucinations and delusions.

(a) (B) is true (C) is false (b) (C) is true (A) is false

(c) (A) is true (B) is false (d) All are false

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE in the context of the passage?

(a) The treatment planning of schizophrenia has four goals.

(b) Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder.
(c) Neurosurgeons contribute to patient care by playing a vital role in the detection, resolution and
prevention of medication-related problems.
(d) Schizophrenia is irreversible and incurable.
4. Complete the following analogy correctly with a word/phrase from the above passage.

Perception: Awareness:: : False belief

5. Study the following statements.

(A) To reduce or eliminate symptoms is one of the three goals of treatment planning of schizophrenia.

(B) Clinical pharmacists are pivotal in patient management.

(C) Schizophrenia is characterised by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions,

(a) (A) is true (B) is false (b) (C) is true (A) is false

(c) (B) and (C) are false (A) is true (d) All are true

6. Pharmacists are available to provide comprehensive drug information to patients, the patient's
relatives and other health care professionals involved in patient management. This statement is

(a) A pleasant surprise (b) a shocking statement

(c) An important piece of information (d) satirical

7. What should be title of the report?

8. What is the purpose of this passage?

9. Select the option listing the objectives of treatment of schizophrenia.

(1) Reduce symptoms (2) To set suffering mind straight

(3) Stop hallucinations (4) to increase the quality of life

(5) To promote recovery (6) to fix a person's thinking

(a) 2, 4 and 6 (b) 1, 2 and 6

(c) 1, 4 and 5 (d) 2,3 and 5

10. What are the clinical pharmacists involved in addition to making sure that medication is strictly
followed?

11. Fill in the blank.

Patients with require a collaborative effort encompassing incorporation of skills of

multiple health care professionals

(a) Schizophrenia (b) amnesia

(c) Clinical pharmacists (d) both (a) and (b)

12. Find the word from the passage which means the same as’ malformation’.