Twenty years ago, in the foothills of the Himalayas, I met a small, skinny child labourer. He asked me: “Is the world so poor that it cannot give me a toy and a book, instead of forcing me to take a gun or a tool?” I met with a Sudanese child-soldier. He was kidnapped by an extremist militia. As his first training lesson, he was forced to kill his friends and family. He asked me: “What is my fault?” Friends, all the great religions teach us to care for our children. Jesus said: “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to them.” The Holy Quran says: “Kill not your children because of poverty.” Friends! There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children. Therefore, I refuse to accept that all the temples and mosques and churches and prayer houses have no place for the dreams of our children. I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global military expenditure can bring all the children to classrooms.
Complete the web:
Twenty years ago, in the foothills of the Himalayas, I met a small, skinny child labourer. He asked me: “Is the world so poor that it cannot give me a toy and a book, instead of forcing me to take a gun or a tool?” I met with a Sudanese child-soldier. He was kidnapped by an extremist militia. As his first training lesson, he was forced to kill his friends and family. He asked me: “What is my fault?” Friends, all the great religions teach us to care for our children. Jesus said: “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to them.” The Holy Quran says: “Kill not your children because of poverty.” Friends! There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children. Therefore, I refuse to accept that all the temples and mosques and churches and prayer houses have no place for the dreams of our children. I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global military expenditure can bring all the children to classrooms.
Complete the web:
Show Hint
Solution and Explanation
Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
- ”In recent years, technological advancements in AI and machine learning have fundamentally altered how we approach daily tasks. The growing reliance on these systems brings both challenges and opportunities, especially in areas like automation, healthcare, and customer service.”
What is the primary concern regarding the increased use of AI in daily tasks as mentioned in the passage?
- NMAT - 2025
- English Language Comprehension
- Reading Comprehension
Meta is recalibrating content on its social media platforms as the political tide has turned in Washington, with Mark Zuckerberg announcing last week that his company plans to fire its US fact-checkers. Fact-checking evolved in response to allegations of misinformation and is being watered down in response to accusations of censorship. Social media does not have solutions to either. Community review — introduced by Elon Musk at X and planned by Zuckerberg for Facebook and Instagram — is not a significant improvement over fact-checking. Having Washington lean on foreign governments over content moderation does not benefit free speech. Yet, that is the nature of the social media beast, designed to amplify bias.
Information and misinformation continue to jostle on social media at the mercy of user discretion. Social media now has enough control over all other forms of media to broaden its reach. It is the connective tissue for mass consumption of entertainment, and alternative platforms are reworking their engagement with social media. Technologies are shaping up to drive this advantage further through synthetic content targeted precisely at its intended audience. Meta’s algorithm will now play up politics because it is the flavour of the season.
The Achilles’ Heel of social media is informed choice which could turn against misinformation. Its move away from content moderation is driven by the need to be more inclusive, yet unfiltered content can push users away from social media towards legacy forms that have better moderation systems in place. Lawmakers across the world are unlikely to give social media a free run, even if Donald Trump is working on their case. Protections have already been put in place across jurisdictions over misinformation. These may be difficult to dismantle, even if the Republicans pull US-owned social media companies further to the right.
Media consumption is, in essence, evidence-based judgement that mediums must adapt to. Content moderation, not free speech, is the adaptation mechanism. Musk and Zuckerberg are not exempt- IPMAT - 2025
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
According to the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, commodities available for consumption are not inherently negative things. Baudrillard tried to interpret consumption in modern societies by engaging with the ’cargo myth’ prevalent among the indigenous Melanesian people living in the South Pacific. The Melanesians did not know what aeroplanes were. However,they saw that these winged entities descended from the air for white people and appeared to make them happy. They also noted that aeroplanes never descended for the Melanesian people. The Melanesian natives noted that the white people had placed objects similar to the aeroplane on the ground. They concluded that these objects were attracting the aeroplanes in the air and bringing them to the ground. Through a magical process, the aeroplanes were bringing plenty to the white people and making them happy. The Melanesian people concluded that they would need to place objects that simulated the aeroplane on the ground and attract them from the air. Baudrillard believes that the cargo myth holds an important analogy for the ways in which consumers engage with objects of consumption.
According to Baudrillard, the modern consumer ”sets in place a whole array of sham objects, of characteristic signs of happiness, and then waits for happiness to alight”. For instance, modern consumers believe that they will get happiness if they buy the latest available version of a mobile phone or automobile. However, consumption does not usually lead to happiness. While consumers should ideally be blaming their heightened expectations for their lack of happiness, they blame the commodity instead.
They feel that they should have waited for the next version of a mobile phone or automobile before buying the one they did. The version they bought is somehow inferior and therefore cannot make them happy. Baudrillard argues that consumers have replaced ’real’ happiness with ’signs’ of happiness. This results in the endless deferment of the arrival of total happiness. In Baudrillard’s words, ”in everyday practice, the blessings of consumption are not experienced as resulting from work or from a production process; they are experienced as a miracle”. Modern consumers view consumption in the same magical way as the Melanesian people viewed the aeroplanes in the cargo myth. Television commercials also present objects of consumption as miracles. As a result, commodities appear to be distanced from the social processes which lead to their production. In effect, objects of consumption are divorced from the reality which produces them.- IPMAT - 2025
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
CONVERSATION ANALYSIS: Read the following transcript and choose the answer that is closest to each of the questions that are based on the transcript.
Lucia Rahilly (Global Editorial Director, The McKinsey Podcast): Today we’re talking about the next big arenas of competition, about the industries that will matter most in the global business landscape, which you describe as arenas of competition. What do we mean when we use this term?
Chris Bradley (Director, McKinsey Global Institute): If I go back and look at the top ten companies in 2005, they were in traditional industries such as oil and gas, retail, industrials, and pharmaceuticals. The average company was worth about $250 billion. If I advance the clock forward to 2020, nine in ten of those companies have been replaced, and by companies that are eight times bigger than the old guards.
And this new batch of companies comes from these new arenas or competitive sectors. In fact, they’re so different that we have a nickname for them. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, it’s wizards versus muggles.
Arena industries are wizardish; we found that there’s a set of industries that play by very different set of economic rules and get very different results, while the rest, the muggles (even though they run the world, finance the world, and energize the world), play by a more traditional set of economic rules.
Lucia Rahilly: Could we put a finer point on what is novel or different about the lens that you applied to determine what’s a wizard and what’s a muggle?
Chris Bradley: Wizards are defined by growth and dynamism. We looked at where value is flowing and the places where value is moving. And where is the value flowing? What we see is that this set of wizards, which represent about ten percent of industries, hog 45 percent of the growth in market cap. But there’s another dimension or axis too, which is dynamism. That is measured by a new metric we’ve come up with called the ”shuffle rate.” How much does the bottom move to the top? It turns out that in this set of wizardish industries, or arenas, the shuffle rate is much higher than it is in the traditional industry.
Lucia Rahilly: So, where are we seeing the most profit?
Chris Bradley: The economic profit, which is the profit you make minus the cost for the capital you employ is in the wizard industries. It’s where R&D happens; they’re two times more R&D intensive. They’re big stars, the nebulae, where new business is born.- IPMAT - 2025
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
- On the first day of January 2025, the Indian Meteorological Department [IMD] announced that 2024 was the hottest year on record. A study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water shows that nearly eight out of ten Indians live in districts that are at risk of either a flood, a cyclone, or a drought. Nearly twenty three States in India are heatwave-prone. In the summer of 2024, India recorded more than 44,000 cases of heatstroke and over 300 heat-related mortalities, as per the bulletin of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Water reservoirs and the energy demand that keeps India powered are impacted too. During a ten-day long heatwave in Delhi, peak power demand was 16% higher than the previous year.
- IPMAT - 2025
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Questions Asked in Maharashtra Class X Board exam
Information Transfer: Answer the following question based on the given tree-diagram.
निम्नलिखित पठित गद्यांश पढ़कर दी गई सूचनाओं के अनुसार कृतियाँ कीजिए :
आँख खुली तो मैंने अपने-आपको एक बिस्तर पर पाया। इर्द-गिर्द कुछ परिचित-अपरिचित चेहरे खड़े थे। आँख खुलते ही उनके चेहरों पर उत्सुकता की लहर दौड़ गई। मैंने कराहते हुए पूछा "मैं कहाँ हूँ ?"
"आप सार्वजनिक अस्पताल के प्राइवेट वार्ड में हैं। आपका ऐक्सिडेंट हो गया था। सिर्फ पैर का फ्रैक्चर हुआ है। अब घबराने की कोई बात नहीं।" एक चेहरा इतनी तेजी से जवाब देता है, लगता है मेरे होश आने तक वह इसलिए रुका रहा। अब मैं अपनी टाँगों की ओर देखता हूँ। मेरी एक टाँग अपनी जगह पर सही-सलामत थी और दूसरी टाँग रेत की थैली के सहारे एक स्टैंड पर लटक रही थी। मेरे दिमाग में एक नये मुहावरे का जन्म हुआ। 'टाँग का टूटना' यानी सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में कुछ दिन रहना। सार्वजनिक अस्पताल का खयाल आते ही मैं काँप उठा। अस्पताल वैसे ही एक खतरनाक शब्द होता है, फिर यदि उसके साथ सार्वजनिक शब्द चिपका हो तो समझो आत्मा से परमात्मा के मिलन होने का समय आ गया। अब मुझे यूँ लगा कि मेरी टाँग टूटना मात्र एक घटना है और सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में भरती होना दुर्घटना।(4) सार्वजनिक रुग्णालयों की स्थिति के बारे में 25 से 30 शब्दों में अपने विचार लिखिए।
- Maharashtra Class X Board - 2025
- स्वमत अभिव्यक्ति
निम्नलिखित पठित गद्यांश पढ़कर दी गई सूचनाओं के अनुसार कृतियाँ कीजिए :
आँख खुली तो मैंने अपने-आपको एक बिस्तर पर पाया। इर्द-गिर्द कुछ परिचित-अपरिचित चेहरे खड़े थे। आँख खुलते ही उनके चेहरों पर उत्सुकता की लहर दौड़ गई। मैंने कराहते हुए पूछा "मैं कहाँ हूँ ?"
"आप सार्वजनिक अस्पताल के प्राइवेट वार्ड में हैं। आपका ऐक्सिडेंट हो गया था। सिर्फ पैर का फ्रैक्चर हुआ है। अब घबराने की कोई बात नहीं।" एक चेहरा इतनी तेजी से जवाब देता है, लगता है मेरे होश आने तक वह इसलिए रुका रहा। अब मैं अपनी टाँगों की ओर देखता हूँ। मेरी एक टाँग अपनी जगह पर सही-सलामत थी और दूसरी टाँग रेत की थैली के सहारे एक स्टैंड पर लटक रही थी। मेरे दिमाग में एक नये मुहावरे का जन्म हुआ। 'टाँग का टूटना' यानी सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में कुछ दिन रहना। सार्वजनिक अस्पताल का खयाल आते ही मैं काँप उठा। अस्पताल वैसे ही एक खतरनाक शब्द होता है, फिर यदि उसके साथ सार्वजनिक शब्द चिपका हो तो समझो आत्मा से परमात्मा के मिलन होने का समय आ गया। अब मुझे यूँ लगा कि मेरी टाँग टूटना मात्र एक घटना है और सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में भरती होना दुर्घटना।(3)(ii) निम्नलिखित शब्दों के लिए गद्यांश में उल्लेखित समानार्थी शब्द लिखिए :
(1) रुग्णालय
(2) शक्ल
निम्नलिखित पठित गद्यांश पढ़कर दी गई सूचनाओं के अनुसार कृतियाँ कीजिए :
आँख खुली तो मैंने अपने-आपको एक बिस्तर पर पाया। इर्द-गिर्द कुछ परिचित-अपरिचित चेहरे खड़े थे। आँख खुलते ही उनके चेहरों पर उत्सुकता की लहर दौड़ गई। मैंने कराहते हुए पूछा "मैं कहाँ हूँ ?"
"आप सार्वजनिक अस्पताल के प्राइवेट वार्ड में हैं। आपका ऐक्सिडेंट हो गया था। सिर्फ पैर का फ्रैक्चर हुआ है। अब घबराने की कोई बात नहीं।" एक चेहरा इतनी तेजी से जवाब देता है, लगता है मेरे होश आने तक वह इसलिए रुका रहा। अब मैं अपनी टाँगों की ओर देखता हूँ। मेरी एक टाँग अपनी जगह पर सही-सलामत थी और दूसरी टाँग रेत की थैली के सहारे एक स्टैंड पर लटक रही थी। मेरे दिमाग में एक नये मुहावरे का जन्म हुआ। 'टाँग का टूटना' यानी सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में कुछ दिन रहना। सार्वजनिक अस्पताल का खयाल आते ही मैं काँप उठा। अस्पताल वैसे ही एक खतरनाक शब्द होता है, फिर यदि उसके साथ सार्वजनिक शब्द चिपका हो तो समझो आत्मा से परमात्मा के मिलन होने का समय आ गया। अब मुझे यूँ लगा कि मेरी टाँग टूटना मात्र एक घटना है और सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में भरती होना दुर्घटना।(3)(i) गद्यांश में उल्लेखित अंग्रेजी शब्द लिखिए।
(1) ...........
(2) ...........निम्नलिखित पठित गद्यांश पढ़कर दी गई सूचनाओं के अनुसार कृतियाँ कीजिए :
आँख खुली तो मैंने अपने-आपको एक बिस्तर पर पाया। इर्द-गिर्द कुछ परिचित-अपरिचित चेहरे खड़े थे। आँख खुलते ही उनके चेहरों पर उत्सुकता की लहर दौड़ गई। मैंने कराहते हुए पूछा "मैं कहाँ हूँ ?"
"आप सार्वजनिक अस्पताल के प्राइवेट वार्ड में हैं। आपका ऐक्सिडेंट हो गया था। सिर्फ पैर का फ्रैक्चर हुआ है। अब घबराने की कोई बात नहीं।" एक चेहरा इतनी तेजी से जवाब देता है, लगता है मेरे होश आने तक वह इसलिए रुका रहा। अब मैं अपनी टाँगों की ओर देखता हूँ। मेरी एक टाँग अपनी जगह पर सही-सलामत थी और दूसरी टाँग रेत की थैली के सहारे एक स्टैंड पर लटक रही थी। मेरे दिमाग में एक नये मुहावरे का जन्म हुआ। 'टाँग का टूटना' यानी सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में कुछ दिन रहना। सार्वजनिक अस्पताल का खयाल आते ही मैं काँप उठा। अस्पताल वैसे ही एक खतरनाक शब्द होता है, फिर यदि उसके साथ सार्वजनिक शब्द चिपका हो तो समझो आत्मा से परमात्मा के मिलन होने का समय आ गया। अब मुझे यूँ लगा कि मेरी टाँग टूटना मात्र एक घटना है और सार्वजनिक अस्पताल में भरती होना दुर्घटना।(2) उत्तर लिखिए :
