What is religion? A very complex question! We know religion and we live religion. But, how do we explain or define religion? Religion is one of the most sensitive and vulnerable aspects of human life from the very beginning. Thought it looks simple, it is not a simple reality to be easily defined or explained. There are many theories proposed regarding the origin of religion as a result of the development of speculative, intellectual and scientific mind. However, in spite of the differences in the under-standing of this important element, it is confirmed that it is purely a human activity and it has become an inevitable aspect of human life. In the West, under the influence of the inherited tradition of Judeo-Christian tradition, religion was understood more theistically while in the East, it was mostly a response to the experience of the natural powers that are beyond human control and also to the inner urge for an ethical and moral reference. Etymologically, the word 'religion' is derived from the Latin root 'religare' and it means 'to bind fast'. Then 'religion' has certainly a strong emphasis on community aspects. It is something that binds fast the members of it together. When we start thinking seriously on religion , naturally we fall upon thoughts of the definition of religion. There are numberless definitions of religion, The meaning and definition of religion differs according to the socio-cultural and psychological background of the person who reflects upon it. Even the political setting inserts its influence on the understanding of the meaning of religion. Some of the definitions are phenomenological and try to expose the common elements that we see in the acknowledged world religions. For example, the human recognition of a superhuman power entitled to obedience and worship. Some others are interpretative definitions.
The meaning and definition of religion depends upon following factors :-
A. Socio-cultural
B. Political
C. Psychological
D. Phenomenological
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :-
A. Socio-cultural
B. Political
C. Psychological
D. Phenomenological
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :-
- A and C
- B, C and D
- B and D
- A, B, C and D
The Correct Option is D
Solution and Explanation
The question asks for the factors that influence the meaning and definition of religion. To answer this, we need to understand the context provided by the passage.
The passage explains that religion is a complex aspect of human life that is shaped by various influences. It highlights the following factors:
- Socio-cultural: Religion is influenced by the socio-cultural background of individuals and communities.
- Political: The political setting can affect how religion is understood and practiced.
- Psychological: Individual psychological backgrounds contribute to how religion is perceived and defined.
- Phenomenological: Phenomenological approaches to religion focus on common elements across world religions, such as the recognition of superhuman power.
Given these points from the passage, all four options (A, B, C, and D) are relevant factors. Therefore, the correct answer is:
| A, B, C, and D |
Reasoning: The passage makes it clear that the understanding of religion is influenced by socio-cultural, political, psychological, and phenomenological factors. Therefore, the correct choice is all four options listed in the question.
In which tradition, religion is seen as a response to the experience of the natural powers?
- Western Tradition
- Eastern Tradition
- lndo-western Tradition
- Christian Tradition
The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
To solve the question, we need to comprehend the provided passage that discusses the understanding and definition of religion according to different traditions.
The passage explains that religion is a complex construct and varies in definition depending on cultural, intellectual, and experiential factors. Specifically, the passage outlines how religion is perceived differently in the West and the East due to diverse traditional influences.
- Understanding the Context: The passage mentions the influence of Judeo-Christian tradition on the Western understanding of religion, which is more theistic. In contrast, the Eastern tradition views religion largely as a response to natural phenomena and the quest for ethical and moral grounding.
- Analyzing the Question: The question asks in which tradition religion is seen as a response to the experience of natural powers. The passage specifies that this perspective is found in the Eastern tradition.
- Evaluating Each Option:
- Western Tradition: Not correct, as Western tradition is described as theistic.
- Eastern Tradition: Correct, since it aligns with the description of responding to natural powers.
- Indo-western Tradition: This is not explicitly discussed in the passage.
- Christian Tradition: Associated with the Western view, which is theistically inclined.
- Conclusion: Based on the information from the passage, the correct answer is Eastern Tradition as it explains religion as a response to the experience of natural forces beyond human control.
Which of the phrases is closest in meaning to etymology?
- Origin of ideas and thoughts
- Origin of religion
- Origin of human life
- Origin of words and their meanings
The Correct Option is D
Solution and Explanation
To determine the phrase closest in meaning to "etymology," let's first understand what the term means:
- Etymology: This refers to the study of the origin of words and how their meanings have evolved over time. It involves understanding the root words and linguistic shifts that have happened through different languages and periods.
Now, let's analyze the options provided:
- Origin of ideas and thoughts: While this phrase is related to the genesis of concepts or mental processes, it is not specific to linguistics or word history.
- Origin of religion: This phrase pertains to the background and commencement of religious beliefs and practices, not words.
- Origin of human life: This option relates to the beginnings of human existence and development, which is biological and anthropological, not linguistic.
- Origin of words and their meanings: This option directly corresponds to the definition of "etymology," as it discusses the origin and evolution of words themselves.
The correct answer is the option that precisely captures the essence of etymology, which is Origin of words and their meanings.
Thus, the answer is: Origin of words and their meanings.
Which of these statements are correct with reference to the above passage?
A. Religion is one of the most sensitive aspects of human life form.
B. Religion is purely a human activity.
C. Religion doesn't bind the members of a community together.
Choose from the options given below:
A. Religion is one of the most sensitive aspects of human life form.
B. Religion is purely a human activity.
C. Religion doesn't bind the members of a community together.
Choose from the options given below:
- A and B
- Only B
- A, B and C
- Only A
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Let's analyze the given passage and the statements to determine which are correct:
- Understanding the Passage: The passage describes religion as a complex and sensitive aspect of human life. It acknowledges religion as a purely human activity and highlights its role in binding community members together, derived from its etymological roots "religare," meaning "to bind fast."
- Statement Analysis:
- Statement A: "Religion is one of the most sensitive aspects of human life form."
- This is correct according to the passage, as it states that religion is sensitive and vulnerable.
- Statement B: "Religion is purely a human activity."
- This statement is also correct. The passage explicitly mentions that religion is a purely human activity.
- Statement C: "Religion doesn't bind the members of a community together."
- This statement is incorrect. The passage emphasizes that religion binds community members together, as indicated by its Latin root 'religare'.
- Statement A: "Religion is one of the most sensitive aspects of human life form."
- Conclusion: Statements A and B are correct. Therefore, the correct option is "A and B".
Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
- Acrucial moderating factor in how people experience comparisons is self-esteem. Individuals with high self-esteem are more likely to interpret upward comparison as informative rather than threatening. They are more resilient in the face of others’ success and more likely to believe they can reach their own goals. In contrast, people with low self-esteem are more prone to interpret comparison as judgment, reinforcing negative self-views and triggering feelings of inadequacy.
This dynamic creates a self-reinforcing loop. People with high self-esteem are less vulnerable to upward comparison, which intensifies those doubts. Those with a secure sense of self are more likely to use comparison as a learning tool. The same external stimulus—a colleague’s achievements, a friend’s popularity—can have radically different effects depending on internal stability.
Self-esteem also influences how people choose their comparison targets. Research has found that individuals often engage in “selective comparison,” seeking out those who confirm their existing beliefs about themselves. This can become a subtle form of self-sabotage. Someone who feels unworthy may subconsciously seek out targets that reinforce that sense, perpetuating a narrative of inferiority. One of the most promising antidotes to social comparison is temporal comparison—evaluating oneself not against others, but against one’s own past. This method has been shown to increase motivation and satisfaction, especially when individuals can see concrete progress. Temporal comparison activates the same reward circuits as social comparison but avoids the threat systems associated with social ranking. It also reinforces agency: individuals focus on what they can control and improve rather than what others control. In therapeutic and coaching settings, temporal comparison is used to help clients build self-efficacy and track growth over time.
Moreover, people who focus on self-improvement rather than social dominance are less likely to fall into cycles of envy or self-pity. They can still use others as inspiration, but they do so without attaching their self-worth to the outcome. This is not to say they never compare—but that they focus on learning, rather than judgment. The most skilful approach to comparison may lie in eliminating it, but in reframing it as feedback. When we interpret comparison as information rather than a verdict, we can ask, “What can I learn from this?” This shift turns comparison into a growth tool. Teachers mentor their students, not as rivals. Psychologists emphasize that the key variable here is mindset.
A fixed mindset sees comparison as a threat. If someone else is better, it means we are worse. A growth mindset sees comparison as a map. If someone else has reached a certain level, it means the path exists. This reframing is not just a cognitive trick. It changes the emotional tone of comparison, making it more likely to inspire than to wound. Reframing also requires emotional regulation—the ability to notice an initial pang of envy or shame without reacting impulsively. With practice, individuals can learn to pause, reflect, and reinterpret their emotional responses. Over time, this builds resilience and self-trust, allowing comparison to become a learning tool rather than a cage.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
When people who are talking don’t share the same culture, knowledge, values, and assumptions, mutual understanding can be especially difficult. Such understanding is possible through the negotiation of meaning. To negotiate meaning with someone, you have to become aware of and respect both the differences in your backgrounds and when these differences are important. You need enough diversity of cultural and personal experience to be aware that divergent world views exist and what they might be like. You also need the flexibility in world view, and a generous tolerance for mistakes, as well as a talent for finding the right metaphor to communicate the relevant parts of unshared experiences or to highlight the shared experiences while demphasizing the others. Metaphorical imagination is a crucial skill in creating rapport and in communicating the nature of unshared experience. This skill consists, in large measure, of the ability to bend your world view and adjust the way you categorize your experiences. Problems of mutual understanding are not exotic; they arise in all extended conversations where understanding is important.
When it really counts, meaning is almost never communicated according to the CONDUIT metaphor, that is, where one person transmits a fixed, clear proposition to another by means of expressions in a common language, where both parties have all the relevant common knowledge, assumptions, values, etc. When the chips are down, meaning is negotiated: you slowly figure out what you have in common, what it is safe to talk about, how you can communicate unshared experience or create a shared vision. With enough flexibility in bending your world view and with luck and charity, you may achieve some mutual understanding.
Communication theories based on the CONDUIT metaphor turn from the pathetic to the evil when they are applied indiscriminately on a large scale, say, in government surveillance or computerized files. There, what is most crucial for real understanding is almost never included, and it is assumed that the words in the file have meaning in themselves—disembodied, objective, understandable meaning. When a society lives by the CONDUITmetaphor on a large scale, misunderstanding, persecution, and much worse are the likely products.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Later, I realized that reviewing the history of nuclear physics served another purpose as well: It gave the lie to the naive belief that the physicists could have come together when nuclear fission was discovered (in Nazi Germany!) and agreed to keep the discovery a secret, thereby sparing humanity such a burden. No. Given the development of nuclear physics up to 1938, development that physicists throughout the world pursued in all innocence of any intention of finding the engine of a new weapon of mass destruction—only one of them, the remarkable Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, took that possibility seriously—the discovery of nuclear fission was inevitable. To stop it, you would have had to stop physics. If German scientists hadn’t made the discovery when they did, French, American, Russian, Italian, or Danish scientists would have done so, almost certainly within days or weeks. They were all working at the same cutting edge, trying to understand the strange results of a simple experiment bombarding uranium with neutrons. Here was no Faustian bargain, as movie directors and other naifs still find it intellectually challenging to imagine. Here was no evil machinery that the noble scientists might hide from the problems and the generals. To the contrary, there was a high insight into how the world works, an energetic reaction, older than the earth, that science had finally devised the instruments and arrangements to coart forth. “Make it seem inevitable,” Louis Pasteur used to advise his students when they prepared to write up their discoveries. But it was. To wish that it might have been ignored or suppressed is barbarous. “Knowledge,” Niels Bohr once noted, “is itself the basis for civilization.” You cannot have the one without the other; the one depends upon the other. Nor can you have only benevolent knowledge; the scientific method doesn’t filter for benevolence. Knowledge has consequences, not always intended, not always comfortable, but always welcome. The earth revolves around the sun, not the sun around the earth. “It is a profound and necessary truth,” Robert Oppenheimer would say, “that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them.”
...Bohr proposed once that the goal of science is not universal truth. Rather, he argued, the modest but relentless goal of science is “the gradual removal of prejudices.” The discovery that the earth revolves around the sun has gradually removed the prejudice that the earth is the center of the universe. The discovery of microbes is gradually removing the prejudice that disease is a punishment from God. The discovery of evolution is gradually removing the prejudice that Homo sapiens is a separate and special creation.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
As the post–World War II generation of liberal democratic leaders forged new, highly successful domestic and international institutions and policies throughout the West, the weaknesses of liberal democracy that dominated the two decades after World War II faded from view. But they did not go away.
First, because liberal democracy restrains majorities, it slows the achievement of goals that majorities support. This generates frustration with institutional restraints, and an unacknowledged envy of authoritarian systems that can act quickly and decisively. China can build huge cities in the time it takes the United States to review the environmental impact of small highway projects. Liberal democracy requires more patience than many possess. Second, liberal democracy requires tolerance for minority views and ways of life to which many citizens are deeply opposed. It is natural to feel that if we consider certain views or ways of life to be odious, we should use public power to suppress them. In many such cases, liberal democracy restrains this impulse, a psychological burden that some will find unbearable.
This leads directly to the third inherent problem of liberal democracy—the distinction it requires us to make between civic identity and personal or group identity. For example, although we may consider certain religious views false and even dangerous, we must, for civic purposes, accept those who hold these views as our equals. They may freely express these views; they may organize to promote them; they may vote, and their votes are given the same weight as ours. The same goes for race, ethnicity, gender, and all the particularities that distinguish us from one another.
This requirement often goes against the grain of natural sentiments. We want the public sphere to reflect what we find most valuable about our private commitments. Liberal democracy prevents us from fully translating our personal identities into our public lives as citizens. This too is not always easy to bear. The quest for wholeness—for a political community, or even a world, that reflects our most important commitments—is a deep yearning to which liberal leaders can always appeal.
Nor is the fourth inherent difficulty of liberal democracy—the necessity of compromise—easy to bear. If what I want is good and true, why should I agree that public decisions must incorporate competing views? James Madison gives us the answer: in circumstances of liberty, diversity of views is inevitable, and unless those who agree with us form a majority so large as to be irresistible, the alternative to compromise is inaction, which is often more damaging, or oppression, which always is.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Beware of the old newspapers
stacked
on that little three legged stool over there.
Don’t disturb them.
I know it for a fact
that snakes have spawned in between these sheets.
Don’t even look in that direction.
It’s not because of breeze
that their corners are fluttering.
It’s alive, that nest of newspapers.
new born snakes, coiling and uncurling,
are turning their heads to look at you.
That white corner has spread its hood.
A forked tongue
shoots out of its mouth.
Keep your eyes closed.
Get rid of the whole goddamn pile if you
want to
in the morning.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
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