CUET English Sample Paper Set E

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.

The world is big but in a sense, it starts from me. Knowledge and awareness about my own self has to precede my knowledge of things other than me. If I want the external environment to appreciate a value, I need to do it by myself, first. In order to make the atmosphere around me green, I have to be green myself, in belief and action.
From dusk to dawn and dawn to dusk, our every activity leaves its footprint on the environment and ecology. It is a 24 × 7, eternal phenomenon. A laboured consciousness of having to go green in all possible areas is required in each one of us. It is after all, our own self interest and that of our descendants. The conscious application of change a few times is going to become a habit and one's culture in due course. Though we read and hear a lot on green initiatives, we hardly tweak our routines to suit the larger picture.
Greenery in the surroundings prevent dust and noise pollution. The way we water and manure plants also matters. Water is also a fast depleting resource. Sprinklers are one example to use and conserve it. Compost from bio —waste can be used as manure for the plants which is cost — effective and eco-friendly. We can also contribute to preservation of water bodies by not dumping our garbage in them. The use of public transport systems in the place of individual modes can reduce carbon footprint.
‘Reuse’, ‘Recyle’, ‘Re - engineer’ and ‘Renew’ are the mantras. Let us appreciate, support and contribute our might to the promotional efforts of the community in this direction. Remember, my ecology is also the community, society and the nation that I care for which in turn cares for me. In other words, all these seemingly outward initiatives done for other are going to make my life more comfortable ultimately. I have to be, therefore, concerned about what sort of environment I am responsible for, for my own sustenance, livelihood and progress.
As long as my impact is positive, my presence will be welcome. If it is otherwise, I am going to be shunned. It is either ‘Embrace’ or ‘Embarrass’.
Green initiatives are anti — scorch earth. Air, water and soil need to be conserved for the thriving of mankind in future. The increasing onslaughts on the quality of air and soil need to be reversed. The indiscriminate exploitation of water — consumable water is only 0.3% of fresh water — needs to be stopped. The earth ought not to shrink further, continue to breathe easy. Mother earth looks for only love and care from her children and nothing more in return for all the wealth she has so generously showered on us.

Question: The writer emphasises on knowing the
a) external environment
b) atmosphere
c) world
d) self

Answer: d

Question: The societal behaviour can help in maintaining the environment if we
a) plant trees
b) use bio-manure
c) realise social obligation
d) All of the above

Answer: d

Question: Our life can become more productive if we
a) focus on our environment
b) reuse, recycle and renew
c) do more promotional efforts
d) Both (a) and (b)

Answer: b

Question: Which of the following will be the most appropriate title for the passage?
a) Knowledge and Awareness
b) Green Initiatives
c) Making the Green Initiative a part of our Lives
d) Environment Conservation

Answer: c

Question: The phrase “contribute our might” refers to the contribution towards
a) saving the flora and fauna
b) reducing pollution
c) development of the nation
d) maintenance of the environment

Answer: d

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.

A youngster quit Facebook in December after spending over three years on social networking site.
With that one act, he bid a silent adieu to more than 300 contacts that he had added to his account during the period. Last week a new feature on Facebook called timeline forced him to reconsider the pros and cons of being on the networking site. “Everyone has some skeletons in their closet and I am just not comfortable with Facebook digging out and displaying all the facts of my life on a bulletin board’’, says this youngster who joined the network in July 2013.
Facebook, you see, had compressed the time, he spent on the site and arranged it in chronological order. And while he initially liked the new neatly organised scrapbook like feature, he wasn’t happy to reveal posts from the past, those that, until recently, were hidden under layers and layers of recent updates. Just clicking on a date on the timeline could transport his friends back in time and enable them to view every embarrassing comment, link or photo he had posted on his profile.
“I think it’s a recipe for disaster,” he says. “In 2013, I had some wallposts, which seemed appropriate at a time, but now after a lapse of four years, I have moved on and don’t want them to be openly displayed for all to see.’’
And he is not alone. Many users, worried about how Facebook activity could possibly effect their offline lives, are choosing to commit ‘Facebook Suicide’. While some have privacy concerns,others feel that, the site that was meant to bring them closer to their friends actually does the opposite - it reduces their friendship to something superficial.
“Poking and liking are not enough to keep a friendship going’’, says a business analyst. Having quit Facebook three years ago, he prefers meeting is ‘real’ friends face to face, instead of reading their trite posts online. “On Facebook, people hype everyday issues including what they ate and where they went on daily basis’’, says this analyst who continues to use twitter. “Facebook has become a time sink and it could not justify the time I spent on it, “he says, “I spend more time calling up friends or relatives over the phone now......I also go out and meet people whenever possible and have a good offline life. I do not regret the change.
“Today, Facebook has 800 million users of which 37 million are Indians. The site has become an online identity for most, and many of those who decided to quit cannot overcome the withdrawal symptoms and return.
Facebook, fully aware of its addictive powers, facilitates this return by allowing users to ‘deactivate’ their accounts but continues to store information on its servers so that they can return from their ‘break’, whenever they wish.

Question: Which feature of Facebook was responsible for the action of the youngster?
a) Poking
b) Liking
c) Gif’s
d) Timeline

Answer: d

Question: Why are people generally not comfortable with the new feature?
a) Facebook digging out and displaying their past
b) Facebook providing their data to other sites
c) Facebook making their data available to all
d) All of the above

Answer: a

Question: How did the timeline feature work?
a) It categorised all the data into their types
b) It put all data in chronological order
c) It put together all activity into a video
d) It set reminders for posts

Answer: b

Question: Why is Facebook called ‘A recipe for disaster’?
a) It displays the deleted matter
b) It makes every post public
c) It displays the past that was relevant then but not now
d) They use the data for further advertisement

Answer: c

Question: What are the concerns regarding Facebook?
a) Privacy
b) Disrupts communication
c) Creates superficial friendships
d) All of the above

Answer: d

Question: What did the youngster do with his Facebook account?
a) He updated it
b) He deleted it
c) He deactivated it
d) He made it private

Answer: b

Question: Which of the following characteristics can be apt for the lives of the people who had quit Facebook?
(i) Embarrassing
(ii) Peaceful
(iii) Real
(iv) Nostalgic
(v) Social
(vi) Addictive
a) (ii) and (iv)
b) (iii) and (v)
c) (iii) and (vi)
d) (i) and (v)

Answer: b

Question: For what reason did the business analyst quit Facebook?
a) It bought forward false data regarding her friends
b) Fear of leakage of private information
c) She prefers meeting friends face to face
d) She is not as tech-savvy

Answer: c

Question: Which of the following will be the most appropriate title for the passage?
a) Quitting Facebook
b) Facebook: Stay or Quit
c) Can you Quit Facebook?
d) Facebook- A Digital Drug

Answer: c

Question: What shows that Facebook is aware of its addictive powers?
a) It deactivate feature
b) It act of storing information in its servers
c) Allowing users to rejoin the app
d) All of the above

Answer: d

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organising, staffing, controlling and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organisations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances.
Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstactles. This distinction is absolutely crucial for our purposes here. Successful transformation is 70 to 90 percent leadership and only 10 to 30 percent management. Yet for historical reasons, many organisations today don’t have much leadership. And almost everyone thinks about the problem here as one of meaning change.
For most of this century, as we created thousands and thousands of large organisations for the first time in human history, we did not have enough good managers to keep all those bureaucracies functioning. So many companies and universities developed management programs and hundreds and thousands of people were encouraged to learn management on the job. And they did. But people were taught little about leadership. To some degree, management was emphasised because it’s easier to teach than leadership. But even more so, management was the main item on the twentieth centuary agenda because that’s what was needed. For every enterpreneur or business builder who was a leader, we needed hundreds of managers to run their ever-growing enterprises.
Unfortunately for us today, this emphasis on management has often been institutionalised in corporate cultures that discourage employees from learning how to lead. Ironically, past success is usually the key ingredient in producing this outcome. The syndrome, as I have observed it on many occasions, goes like this. Success creates some degree of market dominance, which in turn produces much growth. After a while keeping the ever-larger organisation under control becomes the primary challenge. So, attention turns inward and managerial competencies are nurtured. With a strong emphasis on management but not leadership, bureaucracy and an inward focus take over. But with continued success, the result mostly of market dominance, the problem often goes unaddressed and an unhealthy arrogance beings to evolve. All of these characteristics then make any transformation effort much more difficult.
Arrogant managers can over-evaluate their current performance and competitive position, listen poorly and learn slowly. Inwardly focused employees can have difficulty seeing the very forces that present threats and opportunities. Bureaucratic cultures can smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions. And the lack of leadership leaves no force inside these organisations to break out of the morass.

Question: Which of the following is not the characteristic of bureaucratic culture?
a) Manager’s listen poorly and learn slowly
b) Managerial competencies are nurtured
c) Employee clearly see the forces that present threats and opportunities
d) Prevalence of unhealthy arrogance.

Answer: c

Question: Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE in the context of the passage?
a) Bureaucratic culture smother those who want to respond to changing conditions.
b) Leadership produces change and has the potential to establish direction.
c) Pressure on managers come mostly from within.
d) Leadership centres on carrying out important functions such as planning and problem solving.

Answer: d

Question: Why did companies and universities develop programmes to prepare managers in such a large number?
a) Companies and Universities wanted to generate funds through these programmes.
b) The large number of organisations were created and they needed managers in good number.
c) Organisations did not want to spend their scarce resources in training managers.
d) Organisations wanted to create communication network through trained managers.

Answer: b

Question: Which of the following is similar in meaning of the word smother as used in the passage?
a) Suppress
b) Encourage
c) Instigate
d) Criticise

Answer: a

Question: What, according to the author, is leadership?
a) Process which keeps system of people and technology running smoothly.
b) Planning the future and budgeting resources of the organisation
c) Inspiring people to realise the vision.
d) Carrying out the crucial functions of management

Answer: c

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Human analytical abilities remain vastly superior to anything demonstrated elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Virtually in all studies of animal intelligence and language skills, performance plummets as more elements are added to a task and as an animal has to remember these elements for long periods. By contracts, humans can call on vast working memory.
Many evolutionary scholars suspect that as ancient human groups became larger, the need to keep track of every more complex social interactions was what really pushed the human brain toward superiority. Both dolphins and chimps have very complex interactions, but the intricacy of their social world pales beside the lattice of entanglements that characterised human society as early. Homosapiens bonded together to gather food and defend themselves. In Somalia today, warring clans identify friend or foe by demanding that those accosted recite their ancestry going back many generations. It is easy to see how similar challenges in antiquity might have driven the development of brainpower. It does not lessen the grandeur of the human intellect to argue that it evolved partly in response to social pressures or that these pressures also produced similar abilities in lesser creatures. Instead, the fact that nature may have broadly sown the seeds of consciousness, suggests a world enlivened by many different minds. There may even be practical applications. Studies of animal cognition and language have yielded new approaches to communicating with handicapped and autistic children. Some scientists are pondering ways to turn intelligent animals like sea lions and dolphins into research assistants in marine studies or into lifeguards who can save the drowing upon commond.
If the notion that animals might actually think poses a problem, it is an ethical one. The great philosopher, such as Descartes, used their belief that animals cannot think as a justification for arguing that they do not have moral rights. It is one thing to treat animals as mere resources if they are presumed to be little more than living robots, but it is entirely different if they are recognised as fellow sentient beings. Working out the moral implication makes a perfect puzzle for a large-brained, highly social species like our own.

Question: What could be some of the practical applications of animal intelligence?
a) To use dolphins for solving difficult mathematical problems.
b) To use some animals for guarding and superivising other animals.
c) To develop new approaches to communicate with handicapped and mentally ill children.
d) All of the above

Answer: c

Question: In many studies of animal intelligence and language skills, the performance significantly drops
a) as we move from humans to animals
b) membered for long periods
c) as we move from animals with large brains to those with small brains
d) as the time allowed to develop these skills is reduced

Answer: b

Question: What makes a perfect puzzle for a large brained highly social species like humans, according to the author?
a) Determining the moral implications of the fact that animals might actually think.
b) discovering the real reason why nature developed the ability to think in animals.
c) Deciding what should be the ideal relationship between humans and animals.
d) To answer the question if animals are different from humans.

Answer: a

Question: What really pushed the human brain towards superiority?
a) The need to keep track of ever more complex social interactions.
b) The need to develop efficient methods of gathering food.
c) The need to find better methods of defending themselves.
d) The need to evolve faster than other species.

Answer: a

Question: What is the ethical problem posed by the notion that animals might actually think?
a) It is difficult to accept that humans are also animals.
b) Animals should perhaps not be used in laboratory experiments.
c) Animals cannot perhaps be treated as mere resources.
d) It has to correctly assessed as to how much can an animal actually think.

Answer: c

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.

The Indian scenario can be described very briefly. The apparatus of the state has become an integral part of what Americans term the iron triangle : a collusion of (a) those who benefit from the subsides the industry, urban populations, rich farmers (b) those who decide on who is to be subsidised at whose cost the politicians and (c) those who administer the subsidies the bureacuracy.
Let me explain what I mean. Take the example of bamboo. Bamboo has been made available to paper mills at rates as low as one to two rupees per tonne, when the basket weavers were buying it in the market at a high price several thousand rupees per tonne. Cament factories receive power and raw materials at subsidised rates and pass on the costs of pollution to the society at large; the cement thus subsidised flow to metropolises. These metropolises also attract large quantities of bricks made from the previous topsoil of farms and baked with old banyan trees now being liquidated for kilns.
When a giant hydel project on a river in one state was concluded, the bulk of its power was given over to a single aluminium industry at a few paise per unit, well below the cost of production. Later, the State Government decided to charge only a nominal flat rate per irrigation pump, ensuring that the farmers kept the pumps running whether they needed the water or not.
Villagers who lose their lands and small homes under irrigation projects have always been inadequately compensated, thereby keeping the cost of projects low. But the beneficiaries in the command areas never have to pay for water to take care of even those artificially depressed costs.

Question: Which of the following industries have been referred to in the passage?
a) Aluminium
b) Brick
c) Paper
d) Iron

Answer: d

Question: According to the author, who decides the beneficiaries of various subsidies?
a) The bureaucrats
b) The industrialists
c) Rich farmers
d) None of these

Answer: d

Question: Which of the following describes correctly the approach of the author?
a) Positive criticism followed by suggestions for improvement
b) Prove how government has handle the situation effectively
c) One sided, negative and highly critical
d) Indifference to both government and welfare of people

Answer: c

Question: Four of the five words used in the passage form one group, the fifth one does not belong to that group. Find out the word that does to belong to the group.
a) Giant
b) Bulk
c) High
d) Small
(e) Large

Answer: d

Question: Which of the following statements is true in the context of the passage?
a) Paper mills and basket weavers both get bomboo at very low rates.
b) Wood from banyan trees is used by the cement industries.
c) The government machinery is taking a balanced view about development.
d) The cement industry is responsible for puolluting the atmosphere E. The government is influenced by American terms.

Answer: d

Question: Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the correct order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.
A. His role also includes the smooth flow of goods from farms and factories to the consumer.
B. As the final link between the producer and the consumer, he plays a key role in the economy.
C. It is he who promotes or impedes the sale of products.
D. The retailer determines the final cost of a product.
a) BACD
b) CABD
c) DCBA
d) ABCD

Answer: c

Question: Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom.
A square deal
a) A fair and honest deal
b) An advantageous deal
c) An unfruitful plan
d) A false claim

Answer: a

Question: Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the correct order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.
A. He stamped them mechanically and returned them to us.
B. They had information that large sums of money were being smuggled out of the country.
C. No sooner had he left than the custom officers entered.
D. An official entered our train compartment and asked for passports.
a) CBDA
b) DCBA
c) ACBD
d) DACB

Answer: d

Question: Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom.
To have an axe to grind
a) To have a selfish motive in doing something
b) To have an indomitable task to accomplish
c) To have adequate means of subsistence
d) To have access to top levels of authority

Answer: a

Question: Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words.
An entertainer who performs difficult physical feats
a) Archer
b) Acrobat
c) Artist
d) Artisan

Answer: b

Question: Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom.
To hit below the belt
a) To attack after warning
b) To hit someone boldly
c) To hit off the mark
d) To attack in an unfair manner

Answer: d

Question: Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word.
Thwart
a) Allow
b) Obstruct
c) Oppose
d) Appoint

Answer: a

Question: Select the incorrectly spelt word.
a) Accumulate
b) Neccessary
c) Occasion
d) Remittance

Answer: b

Question: Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words.
Study of diseases
a) Pathology
b) Anthology
c) Etymology
d) Neurology

Answer: a

Question: Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
In the absence of the Principal, the Vice-Principal ……… for him.
a) deputes
b) exchanges
c) officiates
d) replaces

Answer: c

Question: Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the correct order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.
A. In fact he began his career as a peon in a small firm.
B. Before he joined us as the accounts officer, he was a junior clerk.
C. He learnt typing, accounting and even graduated.
D. But he gradually improved his qualifications.
a) CDAB
b) BADC
c) CBAD
d) BCDA

Answer: b

Question: Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word.
Indigenous
a) Alien
b) Innate
c) Natural
d) Primitive

Answer: a

Question: Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
The workers ……… against the new labour laws.
a) remonstrated
b) dissented
c) implicated
d) opposed

Answer: a

Question: Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom.
To read between the lines
a) To criticise the writer’s style
b) To interrupt someone while reading
c) To read each line carefully
d) To understand the implied meaning

Answer: d

Question: Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word.
Remorse
a) Empathy
b) Regret
c) Sorrow
d) Satisfaction

Answer: d

Question: Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given groups of words.
One who possesses several talents
a) Versatile
b) Verbose
c) Virtuous
d) Virtual

Answer: a

Question: Arrange the sentences in the correct order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.
A. The sand is so hot that you cannot walk over it in the day time.
B. Here, there is nothing but sand and rock.
C. A great part of Arabia is a desert.
D. However, there are springs of water but these are few and far apart.
a) CBAD
b) BDCA
c) CABD
d) ACDB

Answer: a

Question: Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words.
No longer in use
a) Obscure
b) Oriental
c) Original
d) Obsolete

Answer: d

Question: Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
The more he tried to solve the mystery, the more ……… he felt.
a) perplexed
b) humbled
c) callous
d) confusing

Answer: a

Question: Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
He was ………… at his brother’s refusal to help him financially.
a) indignant
b) indicted
c) enchanted
d) enamoured

Answer: a