COMPREHENSION TEST
doubly hard: very hard in their education of youth. Therefore contests in running,
jumping, discus and javelin throwing, boxing and horse
impact : the powerful effect that something has
and chariot racing were held in individual cities, and the
on somebody/something winners competed every four years at Mount Olympus. Win-
adversely : in a negative/unpleasant way ners were greatly honoured by having poems sung about
86. Which is the good news for parents, according to the their deeds. Originally these were held as games of friend-
passage? ship, and any wars in progress were halted to allow the
games to take place. The Greeks attached so much impor-
(1) School will take the responsibility of preparing
tance to these games that they calculated time in four-year
students for the board.
cycles called ‘Olympiads’ dating from 776 BC.
(2) School will provide study facilities to the poor stu-
91. Where were the First Olympic Games held?
dent.
(1) Mount Olympus (2) Mount Olympiad
(3) Schools will enforce discipline to ensure higher
attendance of students. (3) Mount Orels (4) Mount of Greeks
(4) No students can be barred from the Boards with- 92. Why were the Olympic Games held ?
out prior clearance from the CBSE. (1) To stop wars
87. What is the ruling of the CBSE ? (2) To crown the best athletes
(1) Students must pass the pre-board exam before (3) To honour Zeus
appearing for the Board exam. (4) To sing songs about athletes
(2) Schools should follow the practice of performance- 93. Approximately how many years ago did these games
linked debarment. originate ?
(3) Schools should maintain the performance record (1) 776 years (2) 2279 years
of students at high level.
(3) 1207 years (4) 2781 years
(4) Schools must motivate students to work hard.
94. Which of the following contests was not held ?
88. What is the faulty assumption of schools, according
(1) Discus throwing (2) Skating
to the passage?
(1) Students who do not do well at pre-boards will be (3) Boxing (4) Running
motivated to work hard. 95. The values connected with Olympic Games were
(2) Pre-boards are generally easy and therefore stu- (1) physical fitness, education of youth and friend-
dents take them lightly. ship.
(3) Students who fare poorly at the pre-board will fail (2) health, contests and singing.
at the boards. (3) running, jumping, throwing and boxing.
(4) Learning by note is a better method of learning. (4) four-year cycles, war-time, young age and friend-
89. Which of the following according to the passage is ship.
the problem with our school system ? PASSAGE–II
(1) Providing study facilities to the students. Faith in progress is deep within our culture. We have
(2) Linking pre-board performance of students to the been taught to believe that our lives are better than the
boards. lives of those who came before us. The ideology of modern
(3) Teacher’s lack of knowledge of child psychology. economics suggests that material progress has yielded en-
(4) Attracting talented students hanced satisfaction and well-being. But much of our confi-
90. According to the passage, parents had to live with dence about our own well-being comes from the assump-
the threat of tion that our lives are easier than those of earlier genera-
tions.
(1) falling grades of their wards.
The lives of the so-called primitive peoples are thought
(2) not getting their wards admitted in the quality
to be harsh–their existence dominated by the ‘incessant
schools.
quest for food’. In fact, primitives did very little work. By
(3) schools not treating their wards with the attitude contemporary standards we’d have to judge them very lazy.
of counsellor.
The key to understanding why these ‘stone-age people’
(4) linking performance of their wards in pre-boards failed to act like us – increasing their work effort to get
to the debarment. more things–is that they had limited desires. In the race
Directions (91-100) : You have two brief passages with between wanting and having, they had kept their wanting
5 questions following each passage. Read the passages care- low–and, in this way ensured their own kind of satisfac-
fully and choose the best answer to each question out of tion. They were materially poor by contemporary standards,
the four alternatives. but in at least one dimension– time–we have to count them
(SSC Tax Assistant (Income Tax & Central Excise) richer.
Exam. 12.11.2006)
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
PASSAGE–I
incessant : never stopping; constant.
In 776 BC the First Olympic Games were held at the
foot of Mount Olympus to honour the Greek’s chief God quest : a long search for something-knowledge/
Zeus. The Greeks emphasized, physical fitness and strength truth/happiness.
SEE–914