COMPREHENSION TEST
 727. In the passage the term exploiting nature suggests               (7) lest (Conj.) : in order to prevent something from
       (1) regretfulness                (2) sarcasm                        happening
       (3) destructive urge of man (4) greed of man                    (8) livelier (Adj.) : full of life and energy ; active and
728. Nehru objected to the phrase conquest of Everest since                enthusiastic
       (1) it carries a war - like connotation.                        (9) strive (V.) : to try very hard to achieve something
       (2) it sounds pompous and boastful.                           (10) cultivate (V.) : to develop an attitude, a way of
       (3) it depicts Everest as a victim.                                 talking/behaving, etc.
       (4) Everest is unconquerable.
                                                                   731. We must wish for the ______ of our fellow men.
729. Gandhi’s statement It is decreasing in the jungles
                                                                          (1) well-being              (2) pain
       but it is increasing in the towns !
       (1) ‘Refers to wild animals’ decerase in the jungle.               (3) privation               (4) riches
       (2) Refers to flora and fauna.                              732. It will make us ______ if we continue to live in the
                                                                          past.
       (3) Refers to man’s selfishness.
                                                                          (1) lonely                  (2) happy
       (4) Is a satirical comparison of man’s callousness to
           the animals.                                                   (3) unhappy                 (4) nothing
 730. The writer is of opinion that tribal people can be           733. We must _____ in the face of steep challenges.
       prevented from combing forest for food                             (1) not lose courage even if we make small progress
       (1) to provide employment                                          (2) not lose courage if we make no progress
       (2) to increase purchasing power                                   (3) not lose courage even if we make big progress
       (3) by deterring them from poaching and despoiling                 (4) lose courage if we make small progress
           vegetation                                              734. We must learn to be _______ things that comes our
       (4) to provide employment and purchasing power for                 way.
           daily necessities.                                             (1) thankful for every bad
     Directions (731–760) : In the following questions, you               (2) thankless for every good
have brief passages with 5/10 questioins following each                   (3) thankless for every bad
passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best                  (4) thankful for every good
answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
                                                                   735. We must be generous for what we _______ in time.
                               (SSC CGL Tier-II Exam.12.04.2015
                                                                          (1) give loses its value     (2) give away remain ours
                                 Kolkata Region, TF No. 315 RI 3)
                                                                          (3) keep loses its value (4) keep remains
                            Passage-I
                                                                                               Passage-II
     Let us wish nothing that will make the world poorer ;
                                                                          The term ‘tsunami’ is a Japanese word meaning har-
nothing that will bring pain or privation to our fellowmen.
                                                                  bour wave. It is a natural phenomenon consisting of a se-
     We shall not dwell upon the past unhappiness, which          ries of large waves generated when water in a lake or the
avails us nothing and begets nothing but grief.                   sea is rapidly displaced in a massive scale. Earthquakes,
     We will not compare past and present joys, to the det-       landslides, volcanic eruptions -all have the potential to gen-
riment of the present ones.                                       erate a tsunami. Early morning on December 26, 2004, a
     We will not be discouraged if the way is all uphill, and     massive earthquake of 9 on the Richter scale off the coast
travelling is slow, so long as we are rising.                     of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean triggered a series of lethal
     We will not make too heroic resolutions, beyond our          tsunamis. They struck the shores of Indian Ocean nations
strength to perform, lest they become but shameful mem-           like Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, Bang-
ories.                                                            ladesh and the Maldives and created unprecedented dev-
     We will try by words and deeds to show a livelier ap-        astation. Even the far flung countries like Somalia, Kenya
preciation of the good that comes our way.                        and Tanzania in eastern Africa were not spared. This is the
     We will strive to cultivate more intelligently the art of    deadliest tsunami in recorded history and is considered
giving, and to understand the truth that what we keep we          the worst natural calamity the earth has ever witnessed.
lose, and what we give away remains forever ours.                 The tsunami fury left trails of death and destruction all
                                                                  around, killing nearly 3,00,000 people and leaving millions
                 SOME IMPORTANT WORDS                             homeless and missing. Many people became maimed for
   (1) privation (N.) : a lack of the basic things that peo-      life. The death toll was more than 1,70,000 in Indonesia
        ple need for living                                       alone, 38,000 in Sri Lanka and nearly 5,000 in Thailand.
   (2) dwell upon (Phr.V.) : to think/talk a lot about some-      Most of the dead were locals, but hundreds of vacationing
        thing, especially something it would be better to         foreigners also perished, mostly in Phuket in Thailand. In
        forget                                                    India about 19,000 people lost their lives. In some places
   (3) avails (V.) : to be helpful/useful to somebody             the waves were as high as fifty to sixty feet. In many places
                                                                  villages were wiped out, boats and vehicles thrown up on
   (4) begets (V.) : to make something happen
                                                                  trees. An Indian Air Force base in Car Nicobar was com-
   (5) detriment (N.) : the act of causing harm/damage            pletely devastated and 100 airmen were killed. Many parts
   (6) uphill (Adj.) : a struggle that is diffiult to win/takes   of South Car Nicobar Island went fully under water. Many
        a lot of effort over a long period of time                coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala also suffered a
                                                             SEE–975