Q.1-10. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some questions.
To teach is to create a space in which obedience to truth is practiced. Space may sound a vague, poetic metaphor until we realise that it describes experiences of everyday life. We know what is means to be in a green and open field; we know what it means to be on a crowded rush hour bus. These experiences of physical space have parallels in our relations with others. In our jobs we know what is to be pressed and crowded, our working space diminished by the urgency of deadlines and competitiveness of colleagues. But then there are times when deadlines disappear and colleagues co-operate, when everyone has a space to move, invent and produce, with energy and enthusiasm. With family friends, we know how it feels to have unreasonable demands placed upon us, to be boxed in by the expectations of those nearest to us. But then there are times when we feel accepted for who we are (or forgiven for who we are not), times when a spouse or a child or a friend gives us the space both to be and to be and to become.
Similar experiences of crowding and space are found in education. To sit in a class where the teacher stuffs our minds with information, organises it with finality, insists on having the answers while being utterly uninterested in our views, and focus us into a grim competition for grades-to sit in such a class is to experience a lack of space for learning. But to study with a teacher who not only speaks but also listens, who not only answers but asks questions and welcomes our insights, who provides information and theories that do not close doors but open new ones, who encourages students to help each other learn-to study with such a teacher is to know the power of a learning space.
A learning space has three essential dimensions; openness, boundaries and an air of hospitality. To create open learning space is to remove the impediments to learning that we find around and within us we often create them ourselves to evade the challenge of the truth and transformation. One source of such impediments is our fear of appearing ignorant to others or to ourselves. The openness of a space is created by the firmness of its boundaries. A learning space cannot extend indefinitely, if it did, it would not be a structure for learning but an invitation for confusion and chaos. When space boundaries are violated, the quality of space suffers. The teacher who wants to create an open learning space must define and defend its boundaries with care. Because the pursuit of truth can be painful and discomforting, the learning space needs to be hospitable not to make learning painless, but to make painful things possible, things without which no learning can occur-things like exposing ignorance, testing tentative hypotheses, challenging false or partial information, and mutual criticism of thought.
The task of creating learning space with qualities of openness, boundaries and hospitality can be approached at several levels. The most basic level is the physical arrangement of the classroom. Consider the traditional classroom setting with now upon row of chairs facing the lectern where learning space is confined to the narrow alley of attention between student and teacher. In this space, there is no commodity of truth, hospitality or room for students to relate to the thoughts of each other. Contrast it with the chairs placed in a circular arrangement creating an open space within which learners can interconnect. At another level, the teacher can create conceptual space-space with words in two ways. One is through assigned reading; the other is through lecturing. Assigned reading, not in the form of speed reading several hundred pages but contemplative reading, which opens, not fills our learning space. A teacher can also create a learning space by means of lectures. By providing critical information and a framework of interpretation, a lecturer can lay down boundaries within which learning occurs.
We also create learning space through the kind of speech we utter and the silence from which true speech emanates. Speech is a precious gift and vital too, but too often our speaking is an evasion of truth, a way of buttressing our self-serving reconstructions of reality. Silence must therefore be an integral part of learning space. In silence, more than in arguments, our mind made world falls away and we are open to the truth that seeks us. Words often divide us, but silence can unite. Finally teachers must also create emotional space in the classroom, space that allows feelings to arise and be dealt with because submerged feelings can undermine learning. In an emotionally honest learning space, one created by a teacher who does not fear dealing with feelings, the community of truth can flourish between us and we can flourish in it.
Q.1. According to the author, the habit of plundering the strangers -
(1) Is usually not found in simple tribes but civilized people
(2) Is usually found in the barbaric tribes of the uncivilized nations
(3) Is a habit limited only to English ladies of high position
(4) Is a usual habit with all white-skinned people
(5) Is usually found in both simple tribes and civilized people
Q.2. Which of the following does not come under the aegis of capital already invested?
A. Construction of factories
B. Development of a mine
C. Trade of finished products
(1) Only A (2) Only B (3) Only C (4) Both A & B (5) Both B & C
Q.3. According to the passage which of the following may be called the complaint of the author?
(1) The race of people he belongs to are looters and plunderers
(2) The capitalists are taking over the entire world
(3) It is a way of life for English ladies to loot and plunder
(4) The English taxpayer has to pay for the upkeep of territories he did not want
(5) Both 1 and 3
Q.4. As per the passage why do capitalistic traders prefer the uncivilized countries to the civilized one?
(1) Because they find it easier to rule them
(2) Because civilized countries would make them pay protection duties
(3) Because civilized countries would make their own goods.
(4) Because uncivilized countries like the cheap and gaudy goods of bad quality all capitalists produce.
(5) All except 4
Q.5. According to the author, the reason why capitalist go abroad to sell their good is -
A. That they want to civilize the underdeveloped countries of the world by giving them their goods
B. That they have to have new places to sell their surplus goods somewhere in new markets
C. That they actually want to rule new lands and selling goods in an excuse
(1) Only A (2) Only B (3) Only C (4) Both A & B (5) Both C & A
Q.6. In the context of the passage, the word ‘officious’, means -
(1) Meddling
(2) Official
(3) Rude
(4) Oafish
(5) Forward
Q.7-8. Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word printed in bold, as used in the passage.
Q.7. pursuit
(1) surrender (2) retreat (3) quest (4) druthers (5) predisposition
Q.8. buttressing
(1) supporting (2) delivering (3) dilating (4) focussing (5) condemning
Q.9-10. Choose the word which is most nearly the OPPOSITE in meaning as the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
Q.9. impediments
(1) hindrance (2) facilitation (3) manacle (4) cramp (5) boundaries
Q.10. contemplative
(1) pensive (2) superfluous (3) unnecessary (4) ruminative (5) unthoughtful
Answers
Q.1. (1) Q.2. (3) Q.3. (4) Q.4. (2) Q.5. (3) Q.6. (1)Q.7. (3) Q.8. (1) Q.9. (2) Q.10. (5)
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