On December 3, 2023, the CLAT 2024 exam will be conducted. With the change in the pattern of the CLAT examination by the Consortium of 24 NLUs, there is one section of the CLAT paper that can have a significant impact on your preparation for CLAT 2024 exam, i.e., the reading comprehension passage. One of the most significant changes is the emphasis on comprehension-based questions. All sections of the CLAT exam paper will have passage based questions.
This implies that it is imperative that you strengthen your reading comprehension skills. It is one of the most crucial aspects of the CLAT exam. This portion is occasionally left out, but if you strengthen your CLAT reading comprehension skills, you can swiftly level up your probability of elevating your total marks.
With just few days to go, we have come up with “Topic Wise Reading Comprehension for CLAT.” This will help you to ace your preparation in the CLAT reading comprehension section.
CLAT Reading Comprehension Pattern
The reading comprehension passage for CLAT will consist of about 450 words, which will be extracted from a significant fiction and non-fiction writing of history or contemporary events, and will be such that a 12th standard student may be able to read in about 5-7 minutes.
As per the latest pattern of the CLAT exam, in the Reading Comprehension for CLAT, 22-26 number of questions are likely to be asked. It carries the weight of 20% of the paper. Each question is worth one (1) mark. For every correct answer, you will be given one (1), and for every incorrect answer, 0.25 marks will be deducted.
You will be asked to demonstrate your language and comprehension skills with a series of questions that will follow each paragraph.
These questions will assess your ability to:
- Read and comprehend the passage’s essential premise, as well as any arguments and opinions discussed or provided in the passage;
- Based on the passage, make assumptions and deductions.
- Summarise the text;
- Compare and contrast the numerous arguments or points of view provided in the passage.
- Recognize the meaning of various terms and expressions in relation to the context of the passage.
Significance of CLAT Reading Comprehension
With the change in the CLAT exam pattern 2024, all the sections are now based on reading comprehension. Your skill and understanding regarding reading comprehension will help you with other sections of the CLAT paper.
Answering reading comprehension questions is an art because most of the possibilities in the questions can leave you in an impasse when deciding on the proper answer.
The CLAT reading comprehension passage will be of great help to you in CLAT 2024. Expertise in reading is essential for deciphering and providing proper answers to exam questions.
Also Read: CLAT Previous Year Question Papers PDF (2019 to 2023)
CLAT Reading Comprehension – Types of Questions Asked
The following are the types of questions that you can focus on while preparing for the English language section of the CLAT 2024 exam:
- Author’s Tone
- Tone of the passage
- Meaning of the phrase
- Synonyms and Antonyms
- Idioms and phrases
- Vocabulary and word meanings
- Author’s argument
- The central theme of the passage
- Statement supporting the passage
Source for Preparing English Language
For reading comprehension passage for CLAT, you can read articles from:
- Newspapers – The Hindu, The Economic Times, Indian Express, The New York Times, the Hindustan Times
- Newspapers Editorials
- Books and Magazines – Fiction and Non-Fiction, Abstracts from books and magazines
- Websites – The Aeon, Swaddle, and American Literature
Topic Wise Reading Comprehension for CLAT
With targeted practice, you can boost you reading comprehension skill. For improving your marks in CLAT reading comprehension section, you can read articles on the following topics:
- Science, Technology and Society
- Political Science and History
- Philosophy
- Economics and History
- Arts and Literature
- Society, Culture and Human Behaviour
For your benefit, we are providing you sample passages on each topics along with answers, so that you can get an idea, the topics you need to focus on for CLAT reading comprehension.
CLAT Reading Comprehension Sample Passages
1. Science, Technology and Society
Electronic and magnetic storage technologies compliment each other in a modern computer. Electronic memory chips are quick but volatile (their contents are erased when the machine is turned off).Although magnetic tapes and hard disks are slower, they have the advantage of being non-volatile, which allows them to store software and documents even when the power is switched off.
However, researchers around the world are attempting to get the best of both worlds. They are attempting to develop magnetic memory chips that can be used in place of today’s electronic memory chips. These non-volatile magnetic memories would be faster, consume less power, and be more resistant to danger. Such chips have obvious applications in digital camera and music player storage cards; they allow handheld and laptop computers to boot up faster and run for longer periods of time; they allow desktop computers to run faster; and they almost certainly have military and space-faring applications. While the theory behind them appears to be sound, there are a number of challenging practical issues to address.
Two approaches are being pursued, each based on a different magnetic phenomenon. The first, being researched by Gary Prinz and colleagues in Washington, D.C., at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) makes use of the fact that the electrical resistance of some materials varies in the presence of a magnetic field known as magneto-resistance. This effect is particularly strong in some multi-layered materials and is thus referred to as “giant” magneto-resistance (GMR). Since 1997, the use of GMR has made low-cost multi-gigabyte hard disks mainstream. Magnetic orientations of magnetized spots on the surface of a spinning disk are determined by measuring resistance differences generated by the magnetized spots. Because this technology is so sensitive, the spots may be made smaller and packed closer together than was previously possible, increasing capacity while decreasing disk drive size and cost.
Instead of spinning disks, Dr. Prinz and his colleagues are now using the same phenomenon on the surface of memory chips. In a standard memory chip, each binary digit (bit) of data is represented by a capacitor—a reserve of electrical charge that is either full or empty —to represent a zero or a one. By contrast, each bit in the NRL’s magnetic architecture is stored in a magnetic element in the shape of a vertical pillar of magnetisable material. A matrix of wires going above and below the elements lets each to be magnetized to represent zero or one, either clockwise or anti-clockwise. Another pair of wires enables current to flow via any specific element. You can determine an element’s magnetic orientation by measuring its resistance.
The majority of interest in the field is focused on a different technology based on magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), which is being investigated by researchers at chip manufacturers such as IBM, Motorola, Siemens, and Hewlett-Packard. The IBM research team, lead by Stuart Parkin, has already developed a 500-element working prototype that performs at 20 times the speed of ordinary memory chips while consuming only 1% of the power. Each element is made up of two layers of magnetisable material separated by a four or five atom thick barrier of aluminium oxide. The bottom magnetisable layer’s polarization is fixed in one direction, but the top layer’s can be adjusted (again, by feeding a current via a matrix of control wires) to either the left or the right.
Although the aluminum-oxide barrier is electrically isolated, it is so thin that electrons can jump across it using a quantum mechanical process known as tunneling. It turns out that when the two magnetic layers are polarized in the same way, tunneling is easier than when they are polarized in different directions. So, by measuring the current that passes through the sandwich, one may determine whether the uppermost layer is aligned and thus whether it is storing a zero or a one.
Building a full-scale memory chip based on MTJs, on the other hand, is a difficult task. Magnetic memory elements, according to Paulo Freitas, a chip manufacturing expert at the Technical University of Lisbon, would have to become much smaller and more compactRegardless of these challenges, the common perception is that MTJs are the more promising ideas. Despite the fact that IBM pioneered GMR on hard drives, Dr. Parkin claims his group studied the GMR technique and opted not to pursue it. Dr. Prinz, on the other hand, believes that his strategy will eventually provide larger storage densities and reduced production costs.
Not content with shaking up the multibillion-dollar computer memory sector, some academics have even bigger aspirations for magnetic computing. Cambridge University’s Russell Cowburn and Mark Welland detailed research that could form the basis of a magnetic microprocessor—a computer capable of modifying (rather than simply storing) information magnetically in an article published last month in Science. Instead of conducting wires, a magnetic processor would feature rows of magnets. As magnetic pulses, individual bits of information would flow down the rows, changing the orientation of the dots as they went. Drs. Cowburn and Welland illustrated how a logic gate (the basic building block of a microprocessor) may function in such a design. They fed a signal into one bend of the chain of dots and used another to regulate whether it spread along the chain.
The road from a single logic gate to a complete microprocessor is very long, but this was also true when the transistor was invented. Dr. Cowburn, who is presently seeking investors to help commercialize the technology, estimates the first magnetic resonance imaging gadget will not be ready for at least ten years. According to Dr. Prinz, once magnetic memory has been sorted out, “the target is to go after the logic circuits.” It remains to be seen whether all- magnetic computers can ever be able to compete with other rivals vying to dethrone electronics, such as optical, biological, and quantum computing. Dr. Cowburn believes that hybrid devices that use multiple technologies will be the way of the future.
1. In developing magnetic memory chips to replace the electronics ones, two alternative research paths are being pursued. These are approaches based on:
(a) volatile and non-volatile memories.
(b) magneto-resistance and magnetic tunnel-junctions.
(c) radiation disruption and radiation neutrality.
(d) magnetized spot orientation on the surface of a spinning disk and magnetic dot alignment on the surface of a standard memory chip.
2. A binary digit or bit is represented in the magneto-resistance based magnetic chip using:
(a) a layer of aluminium oxide. (b) a capacitor.
(c) a vertical pillar of magnetised material. (d) a matrix of wires.
3. Tunneling is easier at magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) when: (a) two magnetic layers are polarized in the same direction.
(b) two magnetic layers that are polarized in different directions.
(c) two aluminum-oxide barriers that are polarized in the same direction.
(d) two aluminum-oxide barriers that are polarized in opposite directions.
4. A fundamental impediment to developing a full-scale memory chip based on MTJs is:
(a) the magnetic memory elements’ low sensitivity.
(b) the thickness of the aluminum oxide barriers.
(c) the requirement for more dependable and significantly smaller magnetic memory chips.
(d) all of the above.
5. In the MTJs technique, the uppermost layer of the magnetized memory element can be identified as storing a zero or a one by:
(a) identifying an element’s magnetic orientation by measuring its resistance.
(b) determining the degree of disruption produced by radiation in magnetic memory elements.
(c) rotating the elements clockwise or anticlockwise.
(d) determining the current flowing through the sandwich.
6. A line of research which is trying to build a magnetic chip that can both store and manipulate information is being pursued by:
(a) Paul Freitas. (b) Stuart Parkin.
(c) Gary Prinz. (d) none of the above.
| S.No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer |
| 1 | B | 2 | C | 3 | A |
| 4 | C | 5 | D | 6 | D |
2. Political Science and History
Since World War II, the nation-state has been embraced by every political system and ideology. It was hoped that it would ensure the satisfaction of individuals as citizens and of people as a society in the name of modernity in the West, socialism in the Eastern bloc, and development in the Third World. However, the state looks to have collapsed in many regions of the world today. It has failed to provide security or social fairness, and has failed to avert international or domestic warfare. Disturbed by the claims of communities inside it, the nation-state seeks to manage their demands while portraying itself to be the single guarantor of everyone’s security. In the sake of national unity, territorial integrity, equality of all citizens, and non-partisan secularism, the state can use its tremendous resources to reject community demands; it may even resort to genocide to maintain order.
As communities awaken in various parts of the world, it is impossible to ignore the context in which identity concerns occur. It is no more a world of closed borders and isolated areas, but of integrated global systems. In response to this globalisation trend, individuals and groups all over the world are expressing their desire to live, to exercise their creative force, and to participate actively in international and national and international life.
There are two perspectives on the recent spike in demands for identity recognition. On the plus side, certain demographic groups’ efforts to assert their identity might be viewed as “liberation movements” that challenge oppression and injustice. What these groups are doing—proclaiming their differences, rediscovering the roots of their culture, or developing group solidarity—may be viewed as justifiable attempts to leave their position of oppression and experience some amount of dignity. On the other hand, violent action for recognition tends to strengthen such groups’ attitudes and make their cultural compartments even more impenetrable. Identity assertion can subsequently devolve into self-absorption and isolation, as well as hatred of others and thoughts of “ethnic cleansing,” xenophobia, and violence.
Whereas continuous differences among peoples make it difficult to draw clear dividing lines, those fighting for recognition of the identity of group choose arbitrarily a limited number of criteria such as language, skin colour, religion, and place of origin, so that their members primarily recognize themselves in terms of the labels attached to the group whose existence is being claimed. By simplifying the trait chosen, this differentiation between the group in issue and other groups is established. Simplification also works by changing groups into essences, which are abstractions with the ability to remain unmodified over time. In some circumstances, people act as if the group has not changed and speak about the history of nations and communities as if these things have persisted for centuries with the same ways of thinking and acting, the same desires, concerns, and aspirations.
Identity, paradoxically, serves a cognitive function precisely because it is a simplifying myth that creates uniform groupings out of different people. It allows us to give names to ourselves and others based on some sense of who we are and who others are, and to determine our place in the world and society in conjunction with others. The current spike in group identity assertion can thus be explained in part by the cognitive function served by identity. However, people would not go along with the propositions put to them, often in large numbers, if there was not a strong sense of need for identity, a need to take stock of things and know “where we are going”, “where we come from” and “who we are”.
In a continuously changing environment, identity is thus necessary, but it can also be a powerful cause of violence and disruption. How can these two diametrically opposed parts of identity be reconciled? First, we must recognize the arbitrary nature of identity categories, not in order to eliminate all kinds of identification (which would be unrealistic given that identity is a cognitive necessity), but merely to remind ourselves that we all have multiple identities at the same time. Second, while nostalgia’s tears are shed over the past, we know that culture is always being produced by assembling fresh and original pieces and counter-cultures. In our own country, there are numerous syncretic cults in which modern components are merged with ancient ideals or people from other communities adore saints or divinities of certain faiths. Such cults and movements are distinguished by a constant inflow and outflow of members, which prevents them from establishing a self-sustaining existence and holding out hope for the future, possibly the only viable future. Finally, the nation-state must respond to the component groups’ identity desires as well as their reasonable desire for security and social justice. It must do it by inventing “peace through law,” as French philosopher and sociologist Raymond Aron put it. That would provide justice for both the state as a whole and its constituent pieces, while also respecting the claims of both reason and emotion. The issue is one of combining nationalist aspirations with democratic practice.
1. Individual satisfaction, according to the author, was anticipated to be secured in the name of:
(a) Third-world development.
(b) Third-World Socialism.
(c) Development in the West.
(d) The Eastern Bloc’s modernization.
2. Demands for recognition of identities can be viewed:
(a) Positively and negatively.
(b) As liberation movements and militant action.
(c) As efforts to rediscover roots which can slide towards intolerance of others.
(d) All of the above.
3. Which of the following propositions is false based on the author’s explanation of the nature of identity?
(a) Identity is the process of forming uniform groups from heterogeneous individuals.
(b) In a changing world, identity is essential.
(c) Identity is a cognitive requirement.
(d) None of the above.
4. The author believes that the nation-state
(a) has reached its full potential.
(b) is willing to go to any length to maintain order.
(c) provides security for all of its residents.
(d) has played a significant role in preventing civil and international wars.
5. Which of the following national-state perspectives cannot be attributed to the author?
(a) It has not ensured peace and security.
(b) It may even amount to genocide for self-preservation.
(c) It represents the needs of the communities that comprise it.
(d) It is incapable of averting worldwide wars.
| S.No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer |
| 1 | A | 2 | D | 3 | D |
| 4 | B | 5 | C |
3. Philosophy
The philosophical concepts of life and the world are the result of two factors: one, inherited religious and ethical conceptions, and the other, the type of research that can be called’scientific,’ in its fullest sense. Individual philosophers differed greatly in the degrees in which these two aspects entered their systems, but the presence of both, to some extent, characterizes philosophy.
‘Philosophy’ has been employed in a variety of contexts, some broader than others. I intend to use it in a broad meaning, which I will now attempt to clarify.
As I understand the phrase, philosophy is something in between theology and science. It, like theology, comprises of speculations about things about which no definitive knowledge has been ascertained; yet, like science, it appeals to human reason rather than authority, whether of tradition or revelation. All definite knowledge, I would argue, belongs to science; all dogma about what goes beyond certain knowledge belongs to theology. But there is a ‘No Man’s Land’ between faith and science that is vulnerable to criticism from both sides; this ‘No Man’s Land’ is philosophy. Almost all of the most interesting problems for speculative minds are ones that science cannot answer, and the confident replies of theologians no longer appear as persuasive as they did in previous centuries. Is the world divided into thought and matter, and if so, what exactly are mind and matter? Is the mind subject to matter, or does it have independent powers? Is there any sense of unity or purpose in the universe? Is it progressing toward a goal? Are there truly natural rules, or do we believe in them because we have an inbuilt desire for order? Is man, as the astronomer perceives him, a tiny ball of carbon and water slithering impotently on a small and insignificant planet? Is he who he appears to be to Hamlet? Is he possibly both at the same time? Is there a noble way of living and a low way of living, or are all methods of life futile? If there is a noble way of life, what does it consist of, and how will we reach it? Is it necessary for the good to be everlasting in order to be valued, or is it worthwhile to pursue even if the cosmos is inexorably moving towards death? Is wisdom a real thing, or is it just the ultimate refinement of folly? The laboratory cannot provide an answer to such questions. Theologies have promised to provide clear answers, yet their definiteness prompts modern minds to approach them with skepticism. The business of philosophy is to explore these questions, if not to answer them.
Why, you could ask, waste time on such intractable issues? One can respond to this as a historian or as a human experiencing the dread of cosmic loneliness.
The historian’s response, to the extent that I am capable of providing it, will appear in the course of this study. Men’s behaviors in many crucial ways have hinged on their conceptions about the world and human life, about what is good and what is evil, ever since they were capable of free speculation. This is true today as much as it was in the past. To comprehend an age or a nation, we must first understand its philosophy, and to understand its philosophy, we must first be philosophers ourselves.
There is a reciprocal causation here: the circumstances of men’s lives influence their philosophy, but their philosophy influences their circumstances.
However, there is a more personal solution. Science informs us what we can know, but what we can know is limited, and if we forget how much we cannot know, we may become deaf to many very important things. Theology, on the other hand, instills a dogmatic notion that we have knowledge when we actually have ignorance, resulting in a kind of impertinent arrogance toward the universe. Uncertainty is difficult in the presence of vivid hopes and concerns, yet it must be borne if we are to live without the comfort of reassuring fairy tales. It is not helpful to either neglect the philosophical questions or to convince ourselves that we have found definitive answers to them. Perhaps the most important thing philosophy can still accomplish for those who study it is to teach them how to live without certainty but without being paralyzed by doubt.
1. The purpose of Philosophy is to:
(a) minimize ambiguity and chaos.
(b) assist us in dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity.
(c) assist us in locating explanations for uncertainty.
(d) alleviate the fear of cosmic loneliness
2. What can be concluded from this statement about the relationship between philosophy and science?
(a) They are diametrically opposed.
(b) They are mutually beneficial.
(c) There is no connection between them.
(d) Science is the source of philosophy.
3. What can be concluded about the author’s profession from the passage? He is most likely not be a:
- Historian
- Philosopher
- Scientist
- Theologian
4. Which of the following statements regarding the nature of the cosmos must be definitely true, according to the author?
(a) The universe is one.
(b) The universe serves a purpose.
(c) The universe is progressing toward a goal.
(d) None of the above.
| S.No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer |
| 1 | B | 2 | B |
| 3 | D | 4 | D |
4. Economics and History
The international business system’s viability is determined by how well people endure the unevenness it creates. It is important to remember that the ‘New Imperialism,’ which began after 1870 in the spirit of Capitalism Triumphant, quickly became seriously troubled and, after 1914, was characterized by war, depression, rather than Pax Britannica, Free Trade and Material Improvement, the world economic system is collapsing and conflict is resuming. One key cause was Britain’s incapacity to deal with the byproducts of its own rapid capital accumulation: a class-conscious labor force at home, a middle class in the hinterland, and competing capital centers on the Continent and in America. Britain’s approach was more atavistic and defensive than progressive, focused with warding off new challenges rather than expanding into new sectors. Edwardian England, ironically, recreated the paraphernalia of the landed nobility it had just decimated. Rather than starting on a ‘great push’ to develop the Empire’s vast hinterland, colonial administrators frequently employed strategies to halt the emergence of either a native preletariat or a native capitalist class that could destroy them.
As time passed, the center was forced to dedicate an increasing amount of government activity to military and other wasteful expenditures; they were forced to rely on alliances with an inefficient class of landlords, politicians, and soldiers in the hinterland to maintain stability at the expense of progress. As a result, a large portion of the surplus collected from the population was locally wasted.
The Multinational Corporate System with special alliances and privileges, aid, and tariff concessions, known as the New Mercantilism, suffers comparable internal and exterior division difficulties. The center is in turmoil, excluded groups are revolting, and even some of the wealthy are uncomfortable with their responsibilities. Nationalistic rivalry between big capitalist countries is a key source of contention. Finally, there is the threat posed by the undeveloped countries’ middle classes and excluded groups. When the center crumbled, the national middle classes in the developing world rose to power, but they were unable to establish a stable platform for sustained growth through their policy of import substitution manufacturing. They are now facing a currency crisis as well as an unemployment (or population) problem, the first demonstrating their failure to function in the international economy and the second revealing their estrangement from the people they are supposed to govern. In the near future, these national middle classes will find fresh life as they seize the opportunities generated by the conflict between American and non-American oligopolists vying for global market positions.
As they bargain with global businesses, homegrown capitalists will once again become supporters of national independence. However, the battle at this level is more visible than genuine, because in the end, the intense nationalism of the middle class demands only promotion inside the corporate structure, not a split with it. In the end, their strength stems from the metropolis, and they cannot afford to oppose the international order. They lack the loyalty of their own people and are unable to compete with the enormous, powerful, aggregate capitals from the center. They are captives of the centrally established taste patterns and consumption standards.
The primary threat is posed by excluded groups. It is not uncommon in developing nations for the top 5% to receive between 30 and 40% of total national income, and the top one-third to receive between 60% and 70%. At most, one-third of the population benefits in some way from the dualistic growth that characterizes hinterland development. The remaining two-thirds, who receive only one-third of the income, are considered outsiders, not because they do not contribute to the economy, but because they do not partake in its benefits. They provide a supply of cheap labor, which helps to keep exports to the developed world at a low cost and has financed recent urban-biased expansion. In fact, it is difficult to see how most poor countries’ systems could continue without cheap labor, because eliminating it (e.g., transferring it to public works projects, as is done in communist countries) would boost consumption costs for capitalists and professional elites.
1. The author can draw parallels between New Imperialism and New Mercantilism since
(a) they both emerged in developed Western capitalist countries.
(b) New Mercantilism followed on from New Imperialism.
(c) they generate the same set of outputs—a labor force, middle classes, and competing capital centers.
(d) they both have similar uneven and polarizing impacts.
2. According to the author, British policy during the “New Imperialism” period was defensive because:
(a) it was unable to deal with the consequences of a significant growth in capital.
(b) its total capital had unfavorable side effects.
(c) its policies favored the development of the huge hinterland.
(d) it precluded the development of a potentially capitalistic setup.
3. ‘They are prisoners of the taste patterns and consumption standards set at the center’. What does the word ‘center’ mean in the fourth paragraph?
(a) The national government.
(b) Native capitalists
(c) New capitalists.
(d) None of the above.
4. The strong nationalism of the native middle classes does not produce confrontation with multinational firms under New Mercantilism since they (the middle classes)
(a) deal with multinational corporations.
(b) rely on the international system to sustain their prosperity.
(c) lack the ability to question the existing quo.
(d) do not have widespread support.
| S.No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer |
| 1 | C | 2 | D |
| 3 | D | 4 | B |
5. Arts and Literature
Each has his or her own motivation: for one, it is a method of escape; for another, it is a means of conquest. But one can escape into a hermitage, madness, or death. Arms can be used to conquer. Why must it be writing, why must one organize his escapes and conquests through writing? Because, beneath the diverse goals of authors, there is a deeper and more urgent option that we all share. We will attempt to explicate this option, and we will see if the participation of writers is not required in the name of this very choice of writing.
Each of our sensations is accompanied by the awareness that human reality is a “revealer,” that is, that it is through human reality that “there is” existence, or, to put it another way, that man is the method by which things appear. Our presence in the world multiplies relationships. We are responsible for establishing a connection between this tree and that patch of sky. Because of us, that long-dead star, that quarter moon, and that dark river have been revealed in the oneness of a landscape. The huge masses of the world are organized by the speed of our automobiles and airplanes. The planet displays a fresh face to us with each of our actions. But, while we are aware that we are directors of being, we are also aware that we are not its makers. If we turn our backs on this environment, it will revert to its gloomy permanency. At the very least, it will slip back; no one is insane enough to believe it will be eliminated. We will be annihilated, and the earth will remain dormant until another consciousness arrives to awaken it. Thus, our inner conviction of being’revealers’ is augmented by our inner certainty of being inessential in reference to the item revealed.
One of the primary motivations for artistic creativity is the need to feel important in connection to the world. If I fix a certain aspect of the fields or the sea or a look on someone’s face that I have revealed on paint or in writing, I am conscious of having generated them by condensing relationships, establishing order where there was none, forcing the unity of mind on the multiplicity of things. That is, I consider myself indispensable in respect to my creation. But this time it’s the developed product that’s eluding me; I can’t reveal and produce at the same time. In respect to the creative activity, the creation becomes secondary. To begin with, even if it appears definite to others, the created thing always appears to us in a condition of suspension; we can always change this line, that tint, that word. As a result, it never forces itself. ‘When should I consider my painting finished?’ inquired a new painter to his master. ‘When you can look at it in wonder and say to yourself, “I’m the one who did that!”‘ said the teacher.
Which translates to ‘never’. For it is essentially looking at one’s work through the perspective of someone else and disclosing what has been created. However, it is self-evident that we are proportionally less aware of the thing produced and more aware of our constructive action. When it comes to poetry or carpentry, we follow customary standards and use instruments whose usage is codified; it is Heidegger’s famous ‘they’ who work with our hands. In this situation, the outcome may appear unusual enough to us to maintain its objectivity. But if we create our own production norms, measures, and criteria, and if our creative drive comes from the depths of our soul, we will never find anything but ourselves in our work. We are the ones who created the rules by which we judge it. We realize our history, our affection, and our levity in it. Even if we only look at it without touching it, we never get that joy or love from it. We incorporated them. The outcomes we achieve on canvas or paper never appear objective to us. We are all too familiar with the mechanisms that produce them. These processes continue to be a subjective discovery; they are ourselves, our ruse, our ruse, and when we want to perceive our work, we recreate it, mentally repeating the operations that produced it; each of its features appears as a result. As a result, in the perception, the object is given as the essential item, while the subject is supplied as the inessential. The latter seeks and obtains essentiality in the production, but then the item becomes inessential.
The dialectic is most visible in the art of writing, because the literary object is a singular thing that exists only in motion. It takes a tangible act called reading to bring it into view, and it only lasts as long as this act can last.
There are simply black marks on paper after that. The writer can no longer read what he writes, whereas the shoemaker can put on the shoes he just created if they fit, and the architect can live in the house he built. When reading, one anticipates and waits. He anticipates the end of the sentence, the next sentence, and the next page. He waits for them to validate or disprove his predictions. TThe reading is made up of a slew of theories, which are followed by awakenings, hopes, and deceptions. Readers are always ahead of the sentence they are reading in a just plausible future that partially collapses and partially comes together in proportion as they move, which withdraws from one page to the next and constitutes the literary object’s changing horizon. There is no objectivity without waiting, without a future, without ignorance.
1. According to the author:
(a) there is an objective world and a subjective reality.
(b) Nature is the aggregate of several elements.
(c) Human action displays the many elements of nature.
(d) Nature’s seemingly disparate elements are fundamentally interrelated.
2. The author contends that:
(a) artistic achievements are the outcome of human consciousness.
(b) The act of artistic production itself results in the escape of the created thing.
(c) Man has the ability to produce and reveal at the same time.
(d) A creative act imposes itself on our awareness, filling us with awe.
3. The passage makes a distinction between perception and creation in terms of :
(a) Objectivity and subjectivity.
(b) Revelation and action.
(c) Objective reality and perceived reality.
(d) Essentiality and non-essentiality of objects and subjects.
4. The craft of writing exemplifies the dialectic of perception and creation because:
(a) reading reveals the writing until the act of reading is completed.
(b) In order for writing to be meaningful, the concrete act of reading is required.
(c) this art is predicted and builds on a set of hypotheses.
(d) Because of the act of creation, this literary object has a shifting horizon.
5. A writer, as an artist,
(a) reveals the essentiality of revelation.
(b) makes us feel essential vis-à-vis nature.
(c) creates reality.
(d) reveals nature in its permanence.
| S.No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer |
| 1 | A | 2 | C | 3 | D |
| 4 | B | 5 | C |
6. Society, Culture and Human Behaviour
The union government’s current stance toward the approaching United Nations conference on racial and related discrimination around the world appears to be as follows: debate race, not caste; caste is our own and not nearly as awful as you believe. Kancha Ilaiah has eloquently highlighted the position’s blatant hypocrisy. Explicitly, the international community is to be misled out of discussing the issue on the grounds that caste is not a racial category but a notion. However, we are patriotically warned that permitting the subject to be placed on the agenda of the scheduled conference will harm the country’s reputation. Virtual ideals in India seem to trump concrete realities. Inverted representations, as we know, have frequently been used as a balm for the forsaken throughout human history, with religion being the most persistent of such inversions. However, if globalizing our markets is deemed to be good for the ‘national’ pocket, then globalizing our social imbalances may not be that bad for the majority of our people. After all, racism was as distinctively institutionalized in South Africa as caste discrimination; why then can’t we allow the world community to express itself on the latter with a fraction of the enthusiasm with which we pronounced on the former throughout the years?
Concerning the technicalities of whether or not caste is admissible into the agenda of the race conference (the fact that the conference is also about’related discriminations’ is often overlooked), a renowned sociologist recently claimed that if race is a ‘biological’ category, caste is a’social’ one. Having previously strongly opposed the Mandal Commission Report’s execution, the stated sociologist should be commended for at least tangentially recognizing that caste prejudice exists, however incompatible with racial discrimination.
One might swiftly propose that biology, in fundamental ways that touch the lives of many millions, is perhaps a social fabrication in and of itself. But consider the situation in a different light.
If it is agreed—as is the current position on which anthropological and allied scientific determinations are based—that the entire race of Homo sapiens descended from an originary black African female (dubbed ‘Eve,’ then it is difficult to understand how, on some subsequent ground, ontological distinctions between races or castes are to be drawn. Let us also distinguish between the assumption that we are all God’s children and the more established claim that we are descended from ‘Eve,’ lest both perspectives be seen to be equally diversionary. It follows that all following distinctions are, in modern parlance, ‘manufactured,’ and, like other ideological constructs, are the result of shifting equations between knowledge and power among human communities as a result of contentious histories here, there, and everywhere.
The Human Genome Project’s discoveries, thankfully, provide significant support for this line of thought. Those discoveries, in contrast to earlier (mostly 19th century colonial) persuasions on the question of race, as well as the somewhat infamous Jensen presentations from America in the 20th century, reject genetic distinction between “races.” If anything, they imply that environmental influences have an impact on gene activity, as a dialectic between nature and culture appears to be unfolding. Thus, it appears that ‘biology’ as the composition of pigmentation enters the scene only as a part of that dialectic. Taken together, the original mother stipulation and the Genome findings should provide a solid foundation for human equality across the board, as well as policy initiatives toward equitable material dispensations aimed at constructing a global order in which, in Hegel’s stirring formulation, only the rational constitutes the right. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as new arbitrary reasons for discrimination are created on a daily basis in the interests of sectional dominance.
1. When the author writes ‘globalising our social inequities’, the reference is to:
- going beyond an internal deliberation on social inequity.
- dealing with internal poverty using the economic benefits of globalisation
- going beyond an internal delimitation of social inequity.
- achieving disadvantaged people’s empowerment, globally.
2. According to the author, ‘inverted representations as balm for the forsaken’:
(a) is beneficial to the forsaken and is frequently used in human histories.
(b) is beneficial to the abandoned but has not historically been used to benefit the oppressed.
(c) is frequently used to keep people oppressed.
(d) occurs frequently to upset the current quo.
3. Which major topics clearly fall under the jurisdiction of the UN conference being considered, based on the passage?
A. Prejudice based on race.
B. A sense of racial pride.
C. Racial or other discrimination.
D. Discrimination based on race.
E. Discrimination based on race.
(a) A, E (b) C, E
(c) A, C, E (d) B, C, D
4. According to the author, the sociologist who contended that race is a ‘biological’ category while caste is a’social’ category:
(a) generally shares the author’s perspective on many of the key issues mentioned.
(b) acknowledges the existence of ‘caste’ as a category in a roundabout way.
(c) recognizes the incompatibility of persons of different races and castes.
(d) implies the existence of both caste-based prejudice and racial discrimination.
5. If one accepts a dialectic between nature and culture, a significant message in the paragraph is that:
(a) the Human Genome Project results strengthen racial distinctions.
(b) race is a social construct to some extent.
(c) Discrimination is a social construct, at least in part.
(d) Caste is a social construct, at least in part.
| S.No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer | S. No. | Answer |
| 1 | A | 2 | C | 3 | A |
| 4 | D | 5 | B |
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Conclusion:
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