Questions

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

One should consciously engage in activities that will nourish your soul. Just as we nourish the body, we need to nurture the soul to connect to the creative power of the universe and to manifest joy in our lives. Often, we forget to address the soul, lost as we are in a jungle of material and sensual pleasures. But the more you embrace what feeds your soul, the happier you become. So if you want to enjoy the abundance of life, engage in what enriches your soul. Nurturing the soul is all about finding calm amidst chaos. There are a number of practices that empower people towards this end including silent contemplation, various forms of meditation, yoga and tai chi However, the rigor and discipline involved in the pursuit of such practices often seems to discourage people. Add to this, the temptations of the material world that leave little time and motivation for anyone to pursue the spiritual path. Poet Walt Whitman declared: “Whatever satisfies the soul is truth”. The good news is that simple, everyday activities can also nutrify the soul — like spending time in the midst of nature, dancing in the rain or just putting thoughts on paper. Do whatever is calming and pleases you. Creative pursuits are particularly appealing as inside each one of us, there is an artist craving for release and awaiting an opportunity for expression. One of the ways to indulge the artist within is to get started with the practice of any one or more of the creative art forms such as music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction or essay writing.

When you engage in such soul nourishing activities, all thought and energy gets focused toward goal accomplishment. At this point, you will find that even unknown forces of the universe are conniving to assist you in your amateurish but sincere attempts. As you progress, you are motivated to do better. You touch and access a faculty, a part of you that you never knew existed. Your inner artist is unleashed, baring the beauty of your soul that has found a fond medium of expression. For instance, a sculptor’s soul is seen in his artwork; a musician’s in his compositions; an actor’s in his acting, a painter’s in his paintings and so on. It is immaterial whether your effort is an immaculate artwork or just a clumsy attempt by a layperson. The idea is to try, be inspired and to create giving free rein to the mind. As Michelangelo remarked: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”!

Why do creative pursuits appeal us?

In the following question, the sentence given with blank to be filled in with an appropriate word. Select the correct alternative out of the four and indicate it by selecting the appropriate option.

People came out on the streets and ____________ firecrackers to celebrate the victory.

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

Birds of a feather flock together

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.

According to the passage, whom to honour as the source of love?

In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.

Most __________________ of all to the rambler on avian lore intent is the fact that there are many species and genera that are peculiar to the West, and ______________ new to him, keeping him constantly on the 'qui vive'. _____________ Colorado you will look in vain for the common blue jay, so abundant in all parts of the East; but you will be more _______________ compensated by the presence of seven other species _____________ the jay household.

but you will be more _______________ compensated

In the following passage some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.

The conditions ______ which democracy can _______ are _______ to ________ ; but one thing is _______ that democracy is always a slow growth, whereas dictators may _____ to ______ and _______ a new _______ with dramatic success, under _______ conditions.

are _______ to

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

Robin said to Peg, "Are you listening? Don't be thick."

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

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without pre-established harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and has done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

According to the author, God is not looking for _____ to manifest his works.