List of top Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) Questions

Arrange the following four sentences in a proper sequence to form a coherent paragraph:
(a) Where there is division there must be conflict, not only division between man and woman, but also division on the basis of race, religion and language.
(b) We said the present condition of racial divisions, linguistic divisions has brought out so many wars.
(c) Also we went into the question as to why does this conflict between man and man exist.
(d) May we continue with what we were discussing last evening?

Arrange the following four sentences in a proper sequence to form a coherent paragraph:
(a) No other documents give us so intimate a sense of the tone and temper of the first generation poets.
(b) Part of the interest of the journal is course historical.
(c) And the clues to Wordsworth's creative processes which the journal affords are of decisive significance.
(d) Not even in their own letters do Wordsworth and Coleridge stand so present before us than they do through the references in the journal.

Arrange the following four sentences in a proper sequence to form a coherent paragraph:
(a) These high plans died, slowly but definitively, and were replaced by the dream of a huge work on philosophy.
(b) In doing whatever little he could of the new plan, the poet managed to write speculations on theology, and political theory.
(c) The poet’s huge ambitions included writing a philosophic epic on the origin of evil.
(d) However, not much was done in this regard either, with only fragments being written.

Arrange the following four sentences in a proper sequence to form a coherent paragraph:
(a) We can never leave off wondering how that which has ever been should cease to be.
(b) As we advance in life, we acquire a keener sense of the value of time.
(c) Nothing else, indeed, seems to be of any consequence; and we become misers in this sense.
(d) We try to arrest its few last tottering steps, and to make it linger on the brink of the grave.

The Japanese want their Emperor to reign for long, very long, but their Prime Ministers to have very short tenures. During the 61 years Hirohito has been on the Chrysanthemum throne, 38 Prime Ministers have come and gone (or at least 32, if returns to power are left out of account). Eisaku Sato’s eight uninterrupted years as Prime Minister in the Sixties and early Seventies provoked fears about the possible ill-effects of one-man leadership on Japanese democracy, and led the dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to lay down the norm of a two-year for a party chief and head of Government. Mr.Yasuhiro Nakasone, now bowing out, has served for an unusual five years. His success as Prime Minister was evidenced by the ruling party re-electing him leader more than once. But his plan to push through the Diet a Bill to levy a 5% indirect tax as part of financial reforms failed, in spite of the LDP majority in both the chambers. It was time then for him to go.
The quick turnover of Primate Minister has contributed to the functioning of the LDP through factions. In the party that has ruled Japan for 32 years continuously, factionalism is not something unseemly. The leader is chosen by hard bargaining – some foreigners call it horse-trading– among the faction leaders, followed, if necessary, by a party election. For the decision in favour of Noboru Takeshita as the next President of the LDP and Primate Minister of Japan, voting was not necessary. His hopes were stronger than those of he other two candidates – Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and former Foreign Minister, Shintaro Abe – if only because he had proved himself more skillful in the game of factional politics. A one-time protégé of Mr. Kakuei Tanaka, he thrust himself forward when the leader was disgraced on a charge of accepting bribes for sale of Lockheed aircraft to Japan and debilitated by physical ailments. Mr. Takeshita took away most of Mr. Tanaka’s following and now leads the biggest faction in the LDP. Mr. Nakasone persuaded Mr. Miyazawa and Mr. Abe to accept Mr. Takeshita’s leadership. An election would most probably have led to the same result. Mr. Takeshita seemed to have forged a firm alliance with at least two other factions and put in his bag the votes necessary for a win.
How Mr. Takeshita will fare after taking over the reins of Government in 1987 is not so certain. He will be Japan’s first Prime Minister with a humble rural origin. A dichotomy in his nature shows through his record of teaching English in a junior high school and not trying to speak that language in public later. When he was the Minister of Finance, he gave the impression of an extremely cautious man with a reverence for consensus but challengingly titled a book on his ideas ‘Going My Way’. Mr. Takeshita says that continuing Mr. Nakasone’s programmes would be the basis of his policy. This is not saying enough. Japan faces two main issues, tax reforms and relations with United States. Mr. Nakasone’s plan to impose an indirect tax ran into effective opposition, and the friction with the U.S. over trade continues. Mr. Takeshita cannot be facing an easy future as Japan’s next leader and there is nothing to show yet that he will be drawing on secret reserves of dynamism.

An urgent problem is now threatening libraries throughout the world. Their collections, which are crucial for diverse purposes as economic development, educational research and recreational pursuits, are in danger of disintegrating.
The problem is mainly due to one cause – the type of paper on which books have been printed for the past one and a half centuries. Until the 1850s, paper was produced from linen or cotton rags and proved to be relatively long-lasting. In the mid-19th century, however, the popular demand for paper and the commercial need for an economic method of production led to the use of mechanically ground wood pulp. Paper manufactured for wood pulp is highly acidic and therefore inherently unstable. It contains lignin – a major factor in causing paper to discolour and disintegrate. The useful lifespan of most 20th-century book papers has been estimated to be no more than a few decades.
Libraries comprise an important part of the market for printed books and they are increasingly aware of the fragility of this material. The extent of the deterioration of library collections is alarming. Surveys conducted at various major institutions reveal that 26% to 40% of the books they hold are seriously embrittled and thus unavailable for normal use.
Programmes are now being developed with two main aims in mind – on the one hand, to improve the physical condition of library collections, especially by the process called ‘mass de-acidification’ (which is designed to eliminate acid from the paper of published books and insert a buffer compound that will provide protection against future acid attack from the environment); and on the other, to transfer the contents of existing books to another medium (such as microfilm or optical disk).
Libraries will only be able to carry out these special tasks with the assistance of other experts such as book conservators and high-technology specialists. But here is another group with whom librarians have traditionally enjoyed strong affinities and whose co-operation will be crucial if the problem of decaying collections is to be arrested – namely, the printing and publishing industries. The existing problem – that of book collections already assembled in libraries – is of vast proportions, but it is intensified by the continuing use of acid-based paper in book publishing. The key issue is how to preserve the books of the future, not simply those of the past.
If the future dimensions of the conservation problem are to be curbed, there will need to be widespread adoption of paper which is of archival quality.
This change does not relate to a narrowly perceived need because the long term preservation of library collections is important – both for the overall social benefits they bring as well as for the special advantages they bestow on the printing and publishing industries.
In the first place, libraries are of critical importance to the future well-being of citizens since they provide the knowledge base of society. They contain the record of humanity – the accumulation of ideas and insights and discoveries on which social effort and progress are possible. The destruction of libraries would represent an immense cultural loss, a form of amnesia which would affect every member of society.
In the second place, printers and publishers have an economic interest in turning to paper of archival quality. So long as the libraries are acquiring books with a short lifespan they will be forced to devote an increasing share of their budgets to conservation. These budgets are severely strained by the combined impact of inflation and currency devaluation, and there is scarcely any prospect of enlarged government funding. As a result, libraries will be compelled to balance the preservation of their collections against the expansion of those collations. In short, the choice will be between conservation and acquisition – and the funds for conservation are likely to come from acquisition budgets. This unpalatable choice will damage both libraries and the printing and publishing industries and can only be minimized in its effects by a bold decision to convert to use of permanent paper.