COMPREHENSION TEST
                                                                           (3) building a national consensus.
138. A slip of the tongue means
                                                                           (4) rebuilding and structuring a nation.
        (1) biting the tongue while speaking.
                                                                    145. What is the meaning of the word infectious in the
        (2) telling lies to defend oneself.
                                                                           passage ?
        (3) using words carelessly.
                                                                           (1) dangerous.
        (4) incurring loss of profit in hasty bargain.
                                                                           (2) spreading to everyone.
139. The passage reveals that
                                                                           (3) spreading to everyone by germs.
       (1) the use of ambiguous and unusual words brings
                                                                           (4) give disease.
            us friends.
                                                                                              PASSAGE – II
       (2) careless use of words creates enemies.
                                                                           A 23-year-old British woman was yesterday sen-
       (3) careful use of words may bring us profit but not
                                                                    tenced to six months in jail, for leaving her two-year-old
            friends.
                                                                    daughter home alone, eight-hours a-day, five days a week,
       (4) speech always reflects one’s attitudes.                  for a year while she went to work. The young mother from
140. A fool will express himself alike to all kinds and con-        the central town of Warwick initially hired a babysitter,
       ditions of the men because                                   when she landed a job in a travel agency but eventually
        (1) he wants to play with people.                           reached the point when she could no longer afford the fa-
        (2) he wants to deceive every one.                          cility, prosecutors said. The woman then started leaving
        (3) he wants to amuse every one.                            the child home by herself, providing it with food and toys
        (4) he lacks the power of discrimination in the use of      and removing all potentially dangerous objects from its
            words.                                                  reach. At first, the mother came home at lunch time but
       Directions (141–150) : You have two brief passages           had to stop because her daughter threw tantrums every
with five questions following each passage. Read the pas-           time she left to go back to work.
sages carefully and choose the best answer to each ques-                   The mother, who was not identified, told the court,
tion out of the four alternatives.                                  “If I had money I would not have done it. It was a case of
                                       (SSC Section Officer (Audit) that or not keeping my job and living on benefit”.
                                               Exam. 30.11.2008)           The judge, Mr. Harrison Hall, however said “Having
                                                                    had a child, the absolute priority is to look after it. There
                            PASSAGE – I
                                                                    must be an alternative to leaving a child alone all day, a
       For any activity, discipline is the key word. It should
                                                                    thing you would not do even to a dog”.
begin with self, then be extended to the family, neighbours,
environment, workplace, society and the nation at large.                             SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
It is from society that inspiration is drawn. Systems and             potentially : possibly
institutions should provide the inspiration to society                tantrums : angry, unreasonable behaviour, in a child,
through performance which in turn will provide leaders                                 for a sudden short period.
capable of rebuilding and restructuring the society into a
strong nation. The nationalists’ spirit then becomes infec-         146. The young mother had to work in the office
tious.                                                                     (1) 40 hours a week.
                                                                           (2) 8 hours a week.
                  SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
                                                                           (3) 48 hours a week.
  babysitter        : a person who takes care of children
                       while their parents are away from home              (4) all the seven days a week.
                                                                    147. The word Facility in sentence refers to
141. What is the key word for Activity according to the                    (1) her job in the travel agency.
       passage ?
                                                                           (2) living in a well furnished apartment.
       (1) Active Discipline.       (2) Key Discipline.
                                                                           (3) getting adequate salary.
       (3) Self Discipline.         (4) Discipline.
                                                                           (4) employing someone to look after the child.
142. According to the passage Discipline should begin
                                                                    148. The mother stopped coming home for lunch because
       (1) with self.
                                                                           (1) her house was far away from the office.
       (2) with self, family and neighbours.
                                                                           (2) she was not able to control her angry baby.
       (3) with self, family, neighbours and environment.
                                                                           (3) she had to work extra hours to earn more.
       (4) with self, family, workplace, society.
                                                                           (4) she was not interested in looking after the baby.
143. According to the passage, where do we draw inspi-
                                                                    149. The sentence If I had money, I would not have
       ration from ?
                                                                           done it means
       (1) Society.                 (2) Society and nation.
                                                                           (1) I had money and so I did not leave the baby alone.
       (3) Environment.             (4) Nothing in particular.
                                                                           (2) I had money and so I left the baby alone.
144. According to the passage, a good leader should be
                                                                           (3) I had no money and so I left the baby alone.
       capable of
                                                                           (4) I had no money and so I did not leave the baby alone.
       (1) rebuilding a nation the way he/she likes.
       (2) rebuilding and restructuring society into a strong       150. Which one of the following statements about the judge
            nation.                                                        Mr. Harrison Hall is correct ?
                                                              SEE–920