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English Test 18

Directions for Questions from 1 to 3:

The passage given below is followed by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

PASSAGE

OVER the past half century the United States and other economically advanced countries have made the shift into what has been called an
information society, the information age, or the post-industrial era. The futurist Alvin Toffler has labeled this transition the “Third Wave,” suggesting
that it will ultimately be as consequential as the two previous waves in human history: from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies, and from
agricultural to industrial ones. A society built around information tends to produce more of the two things people value most in a modern democracy
- freedom and equality. Freedom of choice has exploded, in everything from cable channels to low-cost shopping outlets to friends met on the
Internet. Hierarchies of all sorts, political and corporate, have come under pressure and begun to crumble.

People associate the information age with the advent of the Internet, in the 1990s but the shift from the industrial era started more than a
generation earlier, with the de-industrialization of the Rust Belt in the United States and comparable movements away from manufacturing in other
industrialized countries. This period, roughly the mid-1960s to the early 1990s was also marked by seriously deteriorating social conditions in most
of the industrialized world. Crime and social disorder began to rise, making inner-city areas of the wealthiest societies on earth almost
uninhabitable. The decline of kinship as a social institution, which has been going on for more than 200 years, accelerated sharply in the second half
of the twentieth century. Marriages and births declined and divorce soared; and one out of every three children in the United States and more than
half of all children in Scandinavia were born out of wedlock. Finally, trust and confidence in institutions went into a forty-year decline. Although a
majority of people in the United States and Europe expressed confidence in their governments and fellow citizens during the late 1950s only a small
minority did so by the early 1990s. The nature of people’s involvement with one another changed as well - although there is no evidence that
people associated with one another less, their ties tended to be less permanent, looser, and with smaller groups of people.

These changes were dramatic; they occurred over a wide range of similar countries; and they all appeared at roughly the same period in history. As
such, they constituted a Great Disruption in the social values that had prevailed in the industrial-age society of the mid twentieth century. It is very
unusual for social indicators to move together so rapidly; even without knowing why they did so, we have cause to suspect that the reasons might
be related. Although William J. Bennett and other conservatives are often attacked for harping on the theme of moral decline, they are essentially
correct: the perceived breakdown of social order is not a matter of nostalgia, poor memory, or ignorance about the hypocrisies of earlier ages. The
decline is readily measurable in statistics on crime, fatherless children, broken trust, reduced opportunities for and outcomes from education, and
the like. Was it simply an accident that these negative social trends, which together reflect a weakening of social bonds and common values in
Western societies, occurred just as the economies of those societies were making the transition from the industrial to the information era? The two
were in fact intimately connected, and although many blessings have flowed from a more complex, information-based economy, certain bad things
also happened to our social and moral life. The connections were technological, economic, and cultural.

The changing nature of work tended to substitute mental for physical labor, propelling millions of women into the workplace and undermining the
traditional understandings on which the family had been based. Innovations in medical technology leading to the birth-control pill and increasing
longevity diminished the role of reproduction and family in people’s lives. And the culture of individualism, which in the laboratory and the
marketplace leads to innovation and growth, spilled over into the realm of social norms, where it corroded virtually all forms of authority and
weakened the bonds holding families, neighborhoods, and nations together. The complete story is, of course, much more complex than this, and
differs from one country to another. But broadly speaking, the technological change that brought about what the economist Joseph Schumpeter
called “creative destruction” in the marketplace caused similar disruption in the world of social relationships. Indeed, it would be surprising if this
were not true.

1. Based on the passage, which of the following cannot be inferred as a possible consequence of the
advent of the information age?

j Flat organizations with few levels between the junior employees and senior managers
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j A rise in the number of nuclear families and day-care centers for children of such families
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j Rising unemployment level for skilled and educated workers
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j Redefining of market boundaries and increased innovation by companies
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j A heightened nostalgia for earlier ages
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i Skip this question
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2. Which of the following can be a possible topic for the paragraph immediately following the last para in
the passage?

j The construction of a new social order in the information age by the decentralized individual
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j The industrial age and social organization in that age
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j ‘Creative destruction’ in the marketplace in the information age
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j Cynicism about institutions in the post-industrial age
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j The ‘Third Wave’ by Alvin Toffler
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3. With which of the following statements about the ‘Great Disruption’ is the author not likely to agree?
 

j The roots of the Great Disruption can be traced to events that occurred even before the advent of the Internet age
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j ) Even though the Great Disruption coincided with the process of economies transitioning from the industrial to the information age the two
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cannot be clearly linked
j The negative social trends like crime, divorces and lack of confidence in governments were symptoms of the Great Disruption rather than its
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causes
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j The Great Disruption was an indirect outcome of two things people valued in the information age- freedom and equality
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j The changes that characterized the Great Disruption were neither gradual nor restricted to certain parts of the world
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 j The negative social trends like crime, divorces and lack of confidence in governments were symptoms of the Great Disruption rather than its
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causes
j The Great Disruption was an indirect outcome of two things people valued in the information age- freedom and equality
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j The changes that characterized the Great Disruption were neither gradual nor restricted to certain parts of the world
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Directions for Questions from 4 to 6:

Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the sentence that
completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

4. A converging set of powerful economic, technological, demographic and national security developments
requires a workforce that is far more internationally savvy and expert in foreign languages and cultures.
But the United States’ top business leaders and future workforce are woefully unprepared to meet the
challenges of globalization. In today’s global economy, foreign language skills have become vital to
our children’s future as members of the workforce and to our nation’s future success in the
world.___________________________________________

j According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, one in five jobs is tied to international trade.
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j In 2007, U.S. exports of goods and services rose by almost 13 percent from 2006
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j ) Over the past decade, this figure has increased by more than 78 percent and far outpaces the growth of domestic profits by U.S. companies.
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j t’s time for business leaders and concerned community members to heed the importance of teaching foreign languages to our children.
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j In this current climate of globalization, new skills are needed to achieve business and professional success.
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i Skip this question
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5. The tests, apart from a few personal and anthropometric data included to make possible a comparison
between physical and mental endowment, fall naturally into (a) the senses, (b) the motor capacities, and
(c) the more complex mental processes. Certain general desiderata may, perhaps, be suggested as
applicable to each of these groups. It is well to have each test give information regarding a single or
  very limited group of powers; specific typical tests are better than general ones. _________________  
 

j It is better to select, even if in part arbitrarily, one form of a certain sense capacity and to test that sufficiently to yield a definite result.
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j It is important to arrange a test so that it is definitely clear just what the capacity tested is.
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j It is desirable that the form of capacity chosen shall be related to the activities of daily life.
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j It is often best to choose, as the basis of tests, sense-impressions which are unfamiliar to all.
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j The conditions of the tests should be simple, easily intelligible, and, if possible, interesting to induce in the subject a natural attitude and a
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desire to do the best.
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6. Surowiecki offers a multitude of examples that demonstrate how crowds have made eerily accurate
predictions. He points to the aftermath of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, for instance. The stock
market immediately began to punish one of the four main shuttle contractors more harshly than the
others. Six months later, it turned out that company was responsible for the disastrously defective
O-rings. ________________________________

j The reason it’s so hard to beat the point spread in a sports bet is because you’re playing against the hordes and the hordes know all.
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j There are certain rules for optimum crowd success.
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j The smartest crowds are diverse.
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j Ideally, individuals in the group should evaluate the question or dilemma independently.
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j A group is better at guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar than any one individual
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i Skip this question
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Directions for Questions from 7 to 7:

In each question there are five sentences or parts of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify the sentence(s) or part(s) that is/are correct in
terms of grammar and usage. Then choose the most appropriate option.

7. A. The warm January weather may have

B. melted the snow in Davos, but the growing prospect of catastrophic wars
C. over water shortages were this year’s biggest climate-change related worry.
D. Special mention: Coca-Cola, which is doing its bit for creative capitalism with an
E. extensive programme to protect water supplies to the developing world.

j A, B & D
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j B, C & D
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j B&D
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j B only
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j D only
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i Skip this question
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Directions for Questions from 8 to 9:

In each question, there are five sentences. The sentence labelled A is in its correct place. The four that follow are labelled B, C, D and E, and need
to be arranged in the logical order to form a coherent paragraph. From the given options, choose the most appropriate option.
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8. A. According to materialists, the universe was eternal, and therefore, there was no purpose or special
 Directions for Questions from 8 to 9:
In each question, there are five sentences. The sentence labelled A is in its correct place. The four that follow are labelled B, C, D and E, and need
to be arranged in the logical order to form a coherent paragraph. From the given options, choose the most appropriate option.

8. A. According to materialists, the universe was eternal, and therefore, there was no purpose or special
creation in it.
B. Claiming that everything came into being as the result of unconscious atoms assembling at random, they believed that no matter how much
complexity, balance and magnificent regularity was exhibited by the external world, these were still the result of purposeless coincidences.
C. Materialists imagined that all the balances, equilibrium, harmony and order in the universe were
solely the results of chance.
D. Since materialism rejected the concepts of purpose and creation to the universe, it also denied the existence of a Creator.
E. Materialist minds had held such preconceptions ever since the days of Ancient Greece.
 

j CBED
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j EBDC
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j DBEC
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j DCEB
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j ECBD
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i Skip this question
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9. A. It’s called My Beautiful Mommy, and it’s a children’s book published in the US next week. That all
sounds regular and above board, you think, until I tell you why mommy is so beautiful - it’s
because she has had extensive plastic surgery.
B. What do I know of the ways in which one might mess up one’s child? Nothing at all.
C. But some might say the book, by Florida plastic surgeon Dr Michael Salzhauer, and written for four
to seven year olds, is a step too far.
D. You can see why a book might be a good way to tackle the issue of plastic surgery with kids, since
how do you do it on your own?
E. Reconstructive surgery, you might call it, after the natural disaster - sorry, precious and awe-inspiring miracle - that is having a child. And the
beauty is, if you have a tummy tuck and breast implants in one hit, you get a bonanza two-for-one offer on the therapy your child might need in the
future. Please don’t try to redeem this offer, I am just being supercilious.

j BCED
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j DCBE
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j BEDC
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j DEBC
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j EBDC
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i Skip this question
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Directions for Questions from 10 to 10:

Each of the following questions has a paragraph with one italicized
word that does not make sense. Choose the most appropriate replacement for that word from the options given below the paragraph.

10. It’s a bright, clear day in Milwaukee. The downtown shoreline shimmers under the radiance of a sun
that is dazzling in intensity. Its luminous glow lights up the visually stunning structure of gleaming steel
and concrete that is the Milwaukee Art Museum. Gracing the city’s downtown lakefront area, the
Museum is a marvel of architecture and engineering that owes its existence to the imagination and
crusganity of its creator, Santiago Calatrava.

j freshness
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j cognizance
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j ingenuity
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j rationality
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j quirkiness
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i Skip this question
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