GRE RC Select Many Sample Questions 8

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RC Passage

Women were subsequently prohibited from working in underground mines, but now they have been sent back there because, we are told, war needs require additional labor; and yet millions of men are starving and unemployed. There is no lack of men, but the wages are so low and the conditions of work so bad that they do not attract them. World War I ended at last, and the peace, instead of bringing us relief and progress, brought us repressive legislation. We had become a derelict nation. Yet what could we do, how change this vicious process? We seemed to be helpless in the grip of some all powerful monster; our limbs were paralyzed, our minds deadened. The peasantry were servile and fear-ridden; the industrial workers were no better. The middle classes, the intelligentsia, who might have been beacon-lights in the enveloping darkness, were themselves submerged in this all-pervading gloom. In some ways their condition was even more pitiful than that of the peasantry. Large numbers of them, d’class’ intellectuals, cut off from the land and incapable of any kind of manual or technical work, joined the swelling army of the unemployed. The peasant starved, yet centuries of an unequal struggle against his environment had taught him to endure, and even in poverty and starvation he had a certain calm dignity, a feeling of submission to an all-powerful fate. What could we do? How could we pull our country out of this quagmire of poverty and defeatism which sucked her in?

Directions:

Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

1. Which of the following best describes the state of the nation after the war ended?

A. Progressive
B. Dilapidated and forsaken
C. Delirious with joy
D. Neglected and falling in ruins
E. War ravaged

Answer

The correct answers are B and D

The author clearly states that the country had become a derelict nation after the war ended. The word ‘derelict’ is used to refer to something that is in ruins or is neglected and dilapidated. The state of the country has not been described as war ravaged. In view of the above, it is evident that A, C and E are incorrect and B and D are the correct answers.

2. Wages for the workers were so low that it led to

A. disinterest in working underground
B. the employment of women as workers
C. incitement for working underground
D. poor working conditions
E. no enticement for working in underground mines

Answer

The correct answers are A, B and E

The fact that wages were very low and they were failing to attract men to work in underground mines has been highlighted in the beginning of the passage. This implies that there was nothing to lure the men into working in underground mines. Therefore, A and E are correct and C is incorrect. B is also correct as it has been clearly brought out in the beginning of the passage. D refers to a fact that was not an outcome of low wages; rather it was another major factor that made men turn away from jobs in underground mines. In view of the above, it is evident that C and D are incorrect and A, B and E are the correct answers.

3. According to the author, the middle classes

A. showed the path that had to be followed by everyone else
B. picked up subservient jobs
C. had no experience of jobs involving drudgery
D. were mostly jobless
E. were gloomy

Answer

The correct answers are C and D

The author paints the picture of the society after the World War ended by bringing out that the middle classes were in a situation that was worse than the peasantry. He attributes the reason for this to the fact that the middle classes were an uneducated lot and they had no experience of manual or technical work and so they were mostly jobless. The author initiates this discussion by stating that the middle classes were also lost in the gloom that had engulfed the entire nation. This does not mean that the middle classes were in a gloomy state of mind themselves. In view of the above, it is evident that A, B and E are incorrect and C and D are the correct answers.

4. According to the author, the country needed to be pulled outfrom a state

A. where the educated people were fighting for their rights
B. of poverty and pessimistic resignation
C. of unemployment and optimism
D. where people were jobless but opulent
E. of impoverishment and unemployment

Answer

The correct answers are B and E

The passage ends on the note that the country needed to be pulled out from the state of defeatism that it was in. The passage makes it aptly clear that the country was plagued by poverty, but it is not mentioned anywhere that the educated people were fighting for their rights. Therefore, A is incorrect. C and D are clearly incorrect as the society in the times being discussed was neither opulent and nor did the people have an optimistic attitude. B and E suitably describe the situation that the country was in and therefore, options B and E are the correct answers.

5. After reading the passage it will be justified to conclude that

A. a number of educated people were unemployed because they were incapable of physical labour
B. only the educated youth were employed
C. the farmers had resigned themselves to their fates and they were no longer trying to fight against fate
D. the farmers had survived the harsh living conditions and were slowing progressing
E. people were leaving farming and picking up jobs in the industry

Answer

The correct answers are A and C

It has been brought out in the passage that the intelligentsia were in a worse situation as compared to the peasantry because they were incapable of manual or technical work. Therefore, it can be said that A is a justified conclusion and hence it is correct, but B is incorrect. At the end of the passage, the author has highlighted the fact that the peasant now had a feeling of submission to an all-powerful fate. This implies that C is correct. The living conditions of the common man as described by the author makes it evident that D and E are incorrect. Therefore, A and C are the correct answers.