“Why do they pull down and do away with crooked streets, I wonder, which are my delight, and hurt no man living? Every day the wealthier nations are pulling down one or another in their capitals and their great towns: they do not know why they do it; neither do I. It ought to be enough, surely, to drive the great broad ways which commerce needs and which are the life-channels of a modern city, without destroying all history and all the humanity in between: the islands of the past.”
(From Hilaire Belloc’s “The Crooked Streets”)
Based only on the information provided in the above passage, which one of the following statements is true?
 

“His life was divided between the books, his friends, and long walks. A solitary man, he worked at all hours without much method, and probably courted his fatal illness in this way. To his own name there is not much to show; but such was his liberality that he was continually helping others, and fruits of his erudition are widely scattered, and have gone to increase many a comparative stranger’s reputation.” (From E.V. Lucas’s “A Funeral”)
Based only on the information provided in the above passage, which one of the following statements is true?
 

Read the following passages and choose the correct answers for the questions given below: 

 

Cricket has its own peculiar merits as a training school for manhood. It is the very cumulative strain of boredom which this game imposes that constitutes its superiority. Any game, too, which by laying down fixed rules, teaches boys not to think for themselves, will be of help to them in their mature years; while should these years coincide with a period of war, the lesson will be of inestimable value. Curiously enough, though schoolmasters inculcate the doctrine that an inter-school match is a thing of vital importance to the schools taking part in it, that defeat to a team is equivalent to a loss of battle by an army, yet certain rules are laid down; and the boy, who believing these protestations of his teachers, sought genuinely to help his side by the invention and use of some ingenious mechanism, by the breaking of some old rule, or establishment of some new one, would quickly be disillusioned, called to order by the umpire, lowered in the esteem of his comrades, and perhaps afterwards disgraced publicly

Read the following passages and choose the correct answers for the questions given below: 

 

There was an interesting cartoon in an Indian language daily. A politician stocks in his house, the caps, shirts, upper cloth, and flags of all the main parties. He shifts his loyalty to the winning party, donning the appropriate gear. That is the surest way to protect all his possessions, acquired legitimately or otherwise, and cover up his acts of omission and commission. Apart from securing his own interest, it will help his kith and kin too to climb up the political and social ladder. After all, the quid pro quo system operates in all spheres. Naïve adherence to bookish principles and values is of no use in the real world. The politicians survive on power and their gymnastics are quite understandable. But even well-paid employees in all careers and professions tend to bend and mend the rules, regulations and even their conscience to please the higher-ups. Particularly those appointed to serve in high positions by the government of the day, feel beholden to the party or individual responsible for his or her elevated position. They go a step or two beyond what the boss wants them to take. When asked to bend they crawl, as one political leader said. After all, who is not interested in promotions, recognition, upward movement of family and friends, and post-retirement benefits? Most important of all, a few more bucks are always welcome