NAT II Oriental & Islamic Studies Verbal MCQs With Answers

Anthropologists who study orangutans, distant cousins of the human race, find in the animals behavior hints of how our earliest ancestors may have lived. It has long been accepted that primates originally dwelt in the treetops and only migrated to the ground as forests began to dwindle. While to a certain extent, all primates except humans spend at least some time dwelling in trees, the orangutans, can grow as heavy as 330 pounds and live for decades, requiring copious amounts of fruits simply to stay alive. Thus, they become very jealous of the territory where they find their food. Compounding his territoriality are the breeding habits of orangulants, since females can only breed every few years and, like humans, give birth not to litters but single off-spring.

Consequently, orangutans are solitary, territorial animals who have difficulty foraging in an part of the forest where they were not raised. Orangutans take from poachers by costums agents undergo incredible hardship on their return to the wild. Incorrectly relocating a male orangutan is especially problematic, often ending in the animal’s death at the hands of a rival who sees not only his territory but also the females of his loosely knit community under threat from an outsider. While humans, like chimpanzees, are more gregarious and resourceful then orangutans, the latter provide anthropologists with useful information about the behavior of prehominid primates and how apelike behavior influenced out ancestors search for the food and family beneath the forest canopy.

The primary purpose of this passage is to

Through the U.S. prides itself on behing a leader in the world community, a recent report shows that it lags far behind other industrialized countries in meeting the needs of its youngest and most vulnerable citizens. The U.S. has a higher infant mortality rate, a higher proportion of low birth weight babies, a smaller proportion of babies immunized against childhood diseases and a much higher rate adolescent pregnancies. These findings, described as a quiet crisis requiring immediate and far-reaching action, appeared in a report prepared by a task force of educators, doctors, politicians and business people. According to the report, a fourth of the nation’s 12 infants and toddlers live in poverty. As many as half confront risk factors that could harm their ability to develop intellectually, physically and socially. Child immunizations are too low, more children are born into poverty, more are in substandard care while their parents work and more are being raised by single parents When taken together, these and other risk factor can lead to educational and health problems that are much harder and more costly to reverse.

The crisis beings in the womb with unplanned parenthood. Women with unplanned pregnancies are less likely to seek pre-natal care. In the U.S. 80% of teenage pregnancies and 56% of all pregnancies are unplanned. The problems continue after birth where unplanned pregnancies and unstable partnerships often go hand in hand. Since 1950, the number of single parent families had nearly tripled. More than 25 percent of all births today are to unmarried mothers. As the number of single parent families grows and more women enter the work force, infants and toddlers are increasingly in the care of people other than their parents.

Most disturbingly, recent statistics show that American parents are increasingly neglecting or abusing their children. In only four years from 1987-1991, the number of children in foster care increased by over 50 percent. Babies under the age of one are the fastest growing category of children entering foster care. The crisis affects children under the age of three most severely the report says. Yet, it is this period-from infancy through preschool years- that sets the stage for a child’s future.

Children falling in which age group are most severely affected by the quite crisis?

Democratic societies from the earliest times have expected their government to protect the weak against the strong. No ‘era of good feeling’ can justify discharging the police force or giving up the idea of public control over concentrated private wealth. On the other hand, it is obvious that a sprirt of self-denial and moderation on the part of those who hold economic power will greatly soften the demand for absolute equality. Men are more interested in freedom and security than in an equal distribution of wealth. The extent to which Government must interfere with business, therefore, is not exactly measured by the extent to which economic power is concentrated into a few hands. The required degree of government inference depends mainly on whether economic powers are oppressively used, and on the necessity of keeping economic factors in a tolerable state of balance.

However, with necessity of meeting all these dangers and threats to liberty, the powers of government are unavoidably increased, regardless of the political party in power. The growth of government is a necessary result of the growth of technology and of the problems that go with the use of machines and science. Since the government must take on more powers to meet the problems of the nations, there is no way to preserve freedom except by making democracy more powerful.

Q: A spirit of moderation on the part of economically sound people would make the less privileged

The Romans – for centuries is the masters of war and polities across Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor – have often been criticized for producing few original thinker outside the realm of positive. This criticism, while in many ways true, is not without its problems. It was, after all the conquest of Greece that provided Rome with its greatest influx of educated subjects. Two of the great disasters intellectual history – the murder of Archimedes and the burning the Alexandria’s library – both occurred under Rome’s watch. Nevertheless, a city that was able to conquer so much of the known world could not have been devoid of the creativity that characterizes so many other ancient emprises.

Engineering is one endeavor in which the Romans showed themselves capable. Their aqueducts carried water hundreds of miles along the tops of vast arcades. Roman roads built for the rapid deployment of troops, criss-cross Europe and still form the basis of numerous modern highways that provide quick access prominence to Rome’s economic and political influence.

Many of these major cities lie for beyond Rome’s original province, and Latin-derived languages are spoken in most Southern European nations. Again a result of military influence the popularity of Latin and its off spring is difficult to overestimate. During the centuries of ignorance and violence that followed Rome’s decline, the Latin language was the glue that held together the identity of an entire continent. While seldom spoken today, it is still studied widely, if only so that such master or rhetoric as Cicero can be read in the original.

It is Cicero and his like who are perhaps the most overlooked legacy of Rome. While far from being a democracy, Rome did leave behind useful political tool that serve the American republic today. “Republic” itself is Latin for “the people’s business,” a notion cherished in democracies worldwide. Senators owe their name to Rome’s class of elders; Representatives owe theirs to the Tributes who seized popular prerogatives from the Senatorial class. The veto was a Roman notion adopted by the historically aware framers of the Constitution, who often assumed pen names from the lexicon of Latin life. These accomplishments, as monumental as any highway or coliseum, remain prominent features of the Western landscape.

Which of the following is Not described in the passage as a part of ancient Roman life that left a lasting legacy?

Educational planning should aim at meeting the educational needs of the entire population of all age groups. While the traditional structure of education as a three layer hierarchy from the primary stage to the university represents the core, we should not overlook the periphery which is equally important. Under modern conditions, workers need to rewind, or renew their professor. The retired and the aged have their needs as well. Educational planning, in their words, should take care of the needs of everyone.

Our structures of education have been built up on the assumption that there is a terminal point to education. This basic defect has become all the more harmful today. A UNESCO report, titled “Learning to be” prepared by Edgar Faure and others in 1973 asserts that the education of children must prepare the future adult for various forms of self-learning. A viable education system of the future should consist of modules with different kinds of functions serving a diversity of constituents. And performance, not the period of study, should be the basis for credentials. The writing is already on the wall.

In view of the fact that the significance of a commitment of lifelong learning and lifetime education is being discussed only in recent years even in educationally advanced countries, the possibility of the idea becoming an integral part of educational thinking seems to be a far cry. For, to move in that direction means much more than some simple rearrangement of the present organization of education. But a good beginning can be made by developing Open University programs for older learners of different categories and introducing extension services in the conventional colleges and schools. Also, these institutions should learn to cooperate with numerous community organizations such as libraries, museums, municipal recreational programs, health services etc.

Q: In the context of the passage, what is the meaning of the sentence "The writing is already on the wall"?