Section 1. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 given below.
This reading passage has five paragraphs A-E. Choose the appropriate letters (A-D) from the choices given below and write them in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
Read the text below and answer questions 1-6.
The Creation Myth
A. It is a myth that creative people are born with their talents: gifts from God or nature. Creative genius is, in fact, latent within many of us, without our realising. But how far we need to travel to find the path to creativity? For many people, a long way. In our everyday lives, we have to perform many acts out of habit to survive, like opening the door, shaving, getting dressed, walking to work, and so on. If this were not the case, we would, in all probability, become mentally unhinged. So strongly ingrained are our habits, that sometimes, when a conscious effort is made to be creative, automatic response takes over. We may try, for example, to walk to work following a different route, but ends up on our usual path. By then it is too late to go back and change our minds. Another day, perhaps. The same applies to all other areas of our lives. When we are solving problems, for example, we may seek different answers. But often as not, we find ourselves walking along the same well-trodden paths.
B. So for many people, their actions and behaviour are set in immovable blocks, their minds clogged with the cholesterol of habitual actions, preventing them from operating freely, and thereby stifling creation. Unfortunately mankind's very struggle for survival has become a tyranny--- the obsessive desire to give order to the world is a case in point. Witness people's attitude to time, social customs and the panoply of rules and regulations by which the human mind is now circumscribed.
C. The groundwork for keeping creative ability in check begins at school. School, later university and then work teach us to regulate our lives, imposing a continuous process of restrictions, which is increasing exponentially with the advancement of technology. Is it surprising then that creative ability appears to be so rare? It is trapped in the prison that we have erected. Yet, even here in this hostile environment, the foundations for creativity are being laid; because setting off on the creative path is also partly about using rules and regulations . Such limitations are needed so that once they are learnt, they can be broken.
D. The truly creative mind is often seen as totally free and unfettered. But a better image is of a mind, which can be free when it wants, and one that recognises that rules and regulations are parameters, or barriers, to be raised and dropped again at will. An example of how the human is trained to be creative might help here. People's minds are just like tense muscles that need to be freed up and potential unlocked. One strategy is to erect artificial barriers or hurdles in solving a problem. As a form of stimulation, the participants in the task can be forbidden to use particular solutions to follow certain lines of thought to solve a problem. In this way they are obliged to explore unfamiliar territory, which may lead to some startling discoveries. Unfortunately, the difficulty in this exercise, and with creation itself, is convincing people that creation is possible, shrouded as it is in so much myth, and legend. There is also an element of fear involved, however subliminal, as deviating from the safely of one's own thought patterns is very much akin to madness. But, open Pandora's box and a whole new world unfolds in front of your very eyes.
E. Lifting barriers into place also plays a major part in helping the mind to control ideas rather than letting them collide at random. Parameters act as containers for ideas, and thus help the mind to fix on them. When the mind is thinking laterally, and two ideas from different areas of the brain come or are brought together, they form a new idea, just like atoms floating around and then forming a molecule. Once the idea has been formed, it needs to contained or it will fly away, so fleeting is its passage. The mind needs to hold it in place for a time so that it can recognise it or call on it again. And then the parameters can act as channels along which the ideas can flow, developing and expanding . When the mind has brought the idea to fruition by thinking it through to its final conclusion, the parameters can be brought down and the idea allowed to float off and come in contact with other ideas.
Q.1. According to the writer, creative people ...
Q.2. According to the passage, creativity is...
Q.3. According to the author the human race...
Q. 4. With respect to the passage, advancing technology...
Q.5. According to the author, creativity...
In boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet, write
True- if the statement agrees with the information provided
False- if the statement contradicts the statement provided
Not Given- if there is no information provided on this in the passage.
Section 2. Questions 14-26.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 given below.
A. The chances are that you have already drunk a cup or glass of tea today. Perhaps you are sipping one as you read this. Tea, now an everyday beverage in many parts of the world, has over the centuries been an important part of rituals of hospitality both in the home and in the wider society.
B. Tea originated in China, and in Eastern Asia tea making and drinking ceremonies have been popular for centuries. Tea was first shipped to North Western Europe by English and Dutch maritime traders in the sixteenth century. At about the same time, a land route from the Far East, via Moscow, to Europe was opened up. Tea also figured in America's bid for independence from British rule- the Boston Tea Party.
C. As, over the last four hundred years, tea-leaves became available throughout much of Asia and Europe, the ways in which tea was drunk changed. The Chinese considered the quality of the leaves and the ways in which they were cured all important. People from other cultures added new ingredients besides tea-leaves and hot water. They drank tea with milk, sugar, spices like cinnamon and cardamom, and herbs such as mint or sage. The variations are endless. For example, in Western Sudan or the edge of the Sahara Desert, sesame oil is added to milky tea on cold mornings. In England, tea, unlike coffee, acquired a reputation as a therapeutic drink that promoted health. Indeed, in European and Arab countries, as well as in Persia and Russia, tea was praised for its restorative and health giving properties. One Dutch physician, Cornelius Blankaart, advised that to maintain health a minimum eight to ten cups a day should be drunk, and that up to 50-100 cups daily could be consumed with safety.
D. While European coffee houses were frequented by men discussing politics and closing business deals, respectable middle class women stayed at home and held tea parties. When the price of tea fell in the nineteenth century poor people took up the drink with enthusiasm. Different grades and blends of tea were sold to suit every pocket. People started preferring tea to coffee, especially the gentleman middle class Europeans.
E. Throughout the world today, few religious groups object to tea drinking. In Islamic cultures, where drinking of alcohol is forbidden, tea and coffee consumption is an important part of social life. However, Seventh Day Adventists, recognising the beverage as a drug containing the stimulant caffeine, frown upon the drinking of tea. Nomadic Bedouins are well known for traditions of hospitality in the desert. According to Middle Eastern tradition, guests are served both tea and coffee from pots kept ready on the fires of guest tents where men of the family and the male visitors gather. Cups of 'bitter' cardamom coffee and glasses of sugared tea should be constantly refilled by the host.
F. For over a thousand year, Arab traders have been bringing Islamic culture, including tea drinking, to northern and Western Africa. Techniques of tea preparation and the ceremonies involved have been adapted. In West African countries, such a Senegal and the Gambia, it is fashionable for young men to gather in small groups to brew Chinese 'gunpowder' tea. The tea is boiled with large amounts of sugar for a long time.
G. Tea drinking in India remains an important part of daily life. There, tea made entirely with milk is popular. 'Chai' is made by boiling milk and adding tea, sugar and some spices. This form of tea making has crossed the Indian Ocean and is also popular in East Africa, where tea is considered best when it is either very milky or made with water only. Curiously, the 'milk or water' formula has been carried over to the preparation of instant coffee , which is served in cafes as either black, or sprinkled on a cup of hot milk.
H. In Britain, coffee drinking, particularly in the informal atmosphere of coffee shops, is currently in vogue. Yet, the convention of afternoon tea lingers. At conferences, it remains common practice to serve coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. Contemporary China too, remains true to its age old tradition. Delegates at conferences and seminars are served tea in cups with lids to keep the infusion hot. The cups are topped up throughout the proceedings. There are yet no signs of coffee at such occasions.
Reading passage 2 has 8 paragraphs A-H. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of the headings below. Write the correct number i-viii in boxes 14-21 on your answer sheet.
i. European middle class shifting to tea from coffee
ii. Limited objections to drinking tea
iii. Today's continuing tradition of tea drinking- in Britain and China
iv. Tea- a beverage of hospitality
v. An important addition to tea making- with milk
vi. The everyday beverage in all parts of the world.
vii. African tea on the go
viii. Tea drinking in Africa
ix. The value of tea drinking
Complete the sentences below. Use not more than maximum three words from the passage to complete each blank space.
Q.22. For centuries, both at home and in society, tea has had an important role in _________________.
Q.23. Failing tea prices in the nineteenth century meant that people could choose the _____________ of tea they could afford.
Q.24. Because it ____________________ Seventh- Day Adventists do not approve of the drinking of tea.
Q.25. In India, _____________ as well as tea, are added to boiling milk to make 'chai'.
Q.26. In Britain, while coffee is in fashion, afternoon tea is still a ______________.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Party labels in Mid- Eighteenth Century England.
A. Until the late 1950s the Whig interpretation of English history in the eighteenth century prevailed. This was successfully challenged by Lewis Namier, who proposed based on an analysis of the voting records of MPs from the 1760 intake following the accession to the throne of George III, that the accepted Whig /Tory division of politics did not hold. He believed that the political life of the period could be explained without these party labels, and that it was more accurate to characterise political division in terms of the Court versus Country.
B. An attempt was then made to use the same methodology to determine whether the same held for early eighteenth century politics. To Namier's chagrin this proved that at the end of the Queen Anne's reign in 1714, voting in parliament was certainly based on party interest, and that at Toryism and Whiggism were distinct and opposed political philosophies. Clearly something momentous had occurred between 1714 and 1760 to apparently wipe out party ideology. The Namierite explanation is that the end of the Stuart dynasty on the death of Queen Anne and the beginning of the Hanoverian with the accession of George I radically altered the political climate.
C. The accession of George I to the throne in 1715 was not universally popular. He was German, spoke little English, and was only accepted because he promised to maintain the Anglican religion. Furthermore, for those Tory members of Government under Anne, he was nemesis, for his enthronement finally broke the hereditary principle central to Tory philosophy, confirming the right of parliament to depose or select a monarch. Moreover, he was aware that leading Tories had been in constant communication with the Stuart court in exile, hoping to return the banished King James II. As a result, all Tories were expelled from government, some being forced to escape to France to avoid execution for treason.
D. The failure of the subsequent Jacobite rebellion of 1715, where certain Tory magnates tried to replace George with his cousin James, a Stuart, albeit a Catholic, was used by the Whig administration to identify the word 'Tory' with treason. This was compounded by the Septennial Act of 1716, limiting elections to once every seven years, which further entrenched the Whig's power base at the heart of government focussed around the crown. With the eradication of one of the fundamental tenets of philosophy , alongside the systematic replacement of all Tory positions by Whig counterparts, Tory opposition was effectively annihilated.
E. The MPs now generally referred as the ' Independent Whigs' inherently distrusted the power of the administration, dominated as it is by those called ' Court Whigs'. The independent Whig was almost invariably a country gentleman, and thus resisted the growth in power of those whose wealth was being made on the embryonic stock market. For them the permanency of land meant patriotism, a direct interest in one's nation, while shares, easily transferable, could not be trusted. They saw their role as a check on the administration, a permanent guard against political corruption, the last line of defence of the mixed constitution of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. The reaction against the growing mercantile class was shared by the Tories, also generally landed country gentlemen.
F. It must be recognised that this view is not universally espoused. Revisionist historians such as Linda Colley dispute that the Tory party was destroyed during this period, and assert the continuation of the Tories as a discreet and persistent group in opposition, allied to the independent Whigs but separate. Colley's thesis is persuasive, as it is clear that some, at least, regarded them as Tories rather than Whigs. She is not so successful in proving the persistence either of party organisation beyond family connection, or of ideology, beyond tradition. Moreover, while the terms 'Tory and Whig' were used frequently in the political press, it was device of the administration rather than the opposition. As Harris notes in the analysis of the ' Patriot' press of the 1740s, there is hardly any discernible difference between Tory and Whig opposition pamphlets, both preferring to describe themselves as the ' Country Interest' and ' Attacking the Court'.
Reading Passage 3 has six sections, A- F. Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings given below. Write the appropriate numbers ( i-ix) in boxes for Q. 27-31 on your answer sheet.
There are more headings than the paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.
i. The Whig/ Tory division discounted
ii. Maintaining the Anglican religion
iii. The fusion theory challenged and supported
iv. The consequences of George I s accession
vi. Political divisions in the early 1700s
vii. The failure of the Jacobean rebellion
viii. The Tory opposition effectively destroyed
ix. The fusion of the Independent Whigs and the Tory landowners
x. The Whig interpretation of history
Complete the fill in the blanks below. Choose no more than two words from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet.
Q.32. The Whig interpretation of the English history of the eighteenth century was successfully challenged by ____________________.
Q.33. Toryism and Whiggism were distinct and opposed ___________________.
Q.34. When all Tories were expelled from government, some were forced to escape to _________________to avoid execution for treason.
Q.35. The independent Whig was almost invariably a_____________________, and thus resisted the growth in power of those whose wealth was being made on the embryonic stock market.
Q.36. Until the late 1950s the Whig interpretation of __________________in the eighteenth century prevailed.
Look at the following statements and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct one. Write the correct letter A, B, C, D in boxes 37-40 in your answer sheet. You may use any letter more than once if required.
