Questions

In the following question, a sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect speech. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct speech.

Father says, "Kashmir is the heaven on earth."

Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.

The Amazon basin has been continuously inhabited for at least 10, 000 years, possibly more. Its earliest inhabitants were stone-age peoples, living in hundreds of far-flung tribes, some tiny, others numbering in the tens of thousands. It was from the west that Europeans explorers first arrived. In 1541 a Spanish expedition from Quito, led by Gonzalo Pizarro, ran short of supplies while exploring east of the Andes in what is today Peru. Pizarro’s cousin Francisco de Orellana offered to take 60 men along with the boats from the expedition and forage for supplies. De Orellana floated down the Rio Napo to its confluence with the Amazon, near Iquitos (Peru), and then to the mouth of the Amazon. Along the way his expedition suffered numerous attacks by Indians; some of the Indian warriors, they reported, were female, like the Amazons of Greek mythology, and thus the world’s greatest river got its name. No one made a serious effort to claim this sweaty territory, however, until the Portuguese built a fort near the mouth of the river at Belém in 1616, and sent Pedro Teixeira up the river to Quito and back between 1637 and 1639. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Portuguese bandeirantes (groups of roaming adventurers) penetrated ever further into the rain forest in pursuit of gold and Indian slaves, exploring as far as present-day Rondônia, and the Guaporé and Madeira river valleys. Amazonian Indians had long used the sap from rubber trees to make waterproof bags and other items. European explorers recognized the potential value of natural latex, but were unable to market it because it tended to grow soft in the heat, or brittle in the cold, and thus had limited appeal outside the rain forest. However, in 1842 American Charles Goodyear developed vulcanization (made natural rubber durable) and in 1890 Ireland’s John Dunlop patented pneumatic rubber tires. Soon there was an unquenchable demand for rubber in the recently industrialized USA and Europe, and the price of rubber on international markets soared. As profits skyrocketed, so did exploitation of the seringueiros, or rubber tappers, who were lured into the Amazon, mostly from the drought-stricken northeast, by the promise of prosperity only to be locked into a cruel system of virtual slavery dominated by seringalistas (owners of rubber-bearing forests). Rigged scales, hired guns, widespread illiteracy among the rubber tappers, and monopoly of sales and purchases all combined to perpetuate the workers’ debt and misery. In addition, seringueiros had to contend with jungle fevers, Indian attacks and all manner of deprivation.

In which year did the fort was built by Portuguese near the river Belem?

A passage is given with five questions following it. Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.

Just as space permeates everything in the universe, love permeates every part, every aspect of creation. If there is one answer to the question, “How and why does this world exist?” the answer, in one word, is ‘Love’. Rather, the answer is ‘Pure Love’, since the word ‘love’ has lost its meaning.

Your very existence is an expression of pure unconditional love of the Source (you may call it Consciousness, Creator, God, Divine Self). This is the truth of your being. True love transcends both love and hatred. It is unconditional, unquestioning, boundless, unchanging love. It is overflowing love of the Source for the Source through all of creation.

True love is way beyond the personalized love that two or more individuals assert on one another. Personalized love, though apparently selfless, is rooted in desires and conditional satisfaction.

We have been brought up in a society that judges love based on conditions. We have been made to believe that we can receive love only when we fit into people’s expectations. If we are not good enough, we will be deprived of love.

These beliefs have influenced the collective psyche of families, groups, communities, and societies since generations to such an extent that love has been reduced to fear of denial.

We need to shift from the paradigm of false conditional love to the essence of pure unconditional love .

The experience of true love comes with surrender of the false ‘I’, in letting go of the feeling of separateness. Without this sacrifice, it is not possible to attain divine love. When this separate ‘I’ is discarded, you embrace everything in oneness and catch a glimpse of pure love.

True love can be experienced only through giving, not by demanding. People who exist in your life are not here to love you. They are here to remind you that you are the Source of Love.

By knowing that you are the Source of love, you can love yourself, instead of waiting to receive love from the world. Ask yourself, “Why do I need an agent to love myself?” Waiting for the world to love you, is like hiring an agent to love yourself!

It is time for you to honor yourself as the Source of love. You have undertaken this human journey to realize and express the boundless love that you truly are.

Which of the following statement(s) is/are TRUE about pure love?

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the idiom/phrase.

Zip your lip

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives and click the button corresponding to it.

Ants have been living on the earth for more than 100 million years and can be found almost anywhere on the planet. It is estimated that there are about 20000 different species of ants. For this reason ants have been called Earth's most successful species. If you watch ants for any length of time you will see that they really do communicate with each other and very effectively too. Ants communicate by touching each other with their antennae. Ants also use chemicals called pheromones to leave scent trails for other ants to follow. Ants build many different types of homes. Many ants build simple little mounds out of dirt or sand. Other ants use small sticks mixed with dirt and sand to make a stronger mound that offers protection from rain. Western Harvester ants make a small mound on top, but then tunnels up to 15 feet straight down to hibernate during winter. Ant mounds consist of many chambers connected by tunnels. Different chambers are used for nurseries, food storage, and resting places for the worker ants. Some ants live in wood like termites. Army ants don't make a home at all but travel in a large groups searching for food. Ants are social insects which means they live in large colonies or groups. Some colonies consist of millions of ants. There are three types of ants in each species, the queen, the sterile female workers and males. The male ants only serve one purpose, to mate with future queen ants and do not live very long. The queen grows to adulthood, mates, and then spends rest of her life laying eggs. A colony may have only one queen, or there may be many queens depending on the species. Ants go through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa and adult.

What does the Western Harvester do in winter ?

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the idiom/phrase.

saved by the bell

Steel is more elastic than Rubber. True or False?

Improve the bracketed part of the sentence.
Scientists (have developed) an “organ-on-a-chip” platform to study how drugs are transported across the human placental barrier.