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Comprehension
Practice Questions - Part 2
a) Candidates whose names appear first in the ballot list get more votes,
defeated only by those whose names are widely recognized by the voters
b) Voters voted most for candidates whose names appeared at the top of
the ballot list
c) Voters do not vote for candidates whose names they are not familiar
with
d) Voters gave more preference to candidates listed first in the ballot list
than those whose names they were not familiar with
e) The order in which the ballot list is prepared has got no relation to the
pattern of voting, despite the popular belief that it is advantageous to be
listed at the top
Answer
a) Candidates whose names appear first in the ballot list get more votes,
defeated only by those whose names are widely recognized by the voters
2) As recently as the 1950s, possessing only middling intelligence was not likely to
severely limit your life's trajectory. IQ wasn't a big factor in whom you married, where
you lived, or what others thought of you. The qualifications for a good job, whether on
an assembly line or behind a desk, mostly revolved around integrity, work ethic, and a
knack for getting along―bosses didn't routinely expect college degrees, much less ask
to see SAT scores. As one account of the era put it, hiring decisions were "based on a
candidate having a critical skill or two and on soft factors such as eagerness,
appearance, family background, and physical characteristics."
The 2010s, in contrast, are a terrible time to not be brainy. Those who consider
themselves bright openly mock others for being less so. Even in this age of rampant
concern over microaggressions and victimization, we maintain open season on the
nonsmart. People who'd swerve off a cliff rather than use a pejorative for race, religion,
physical appearance, or disability are all too happy to chastise others: Indeed,
degrading others for being "stupid" has become nearly automatic in all forms of
disagreement.
~sSource: David H. Freedman, "The War on Stupid People," The Atlantic, Jul―Aug
2016~s
a) There has been a huge shift in the human values in the last six decades
(~sAdapted from:
http://bigthink.com/big-think-edge/4-predictions-about-2016-provided-by-digital-data-
collection~s)
It is often said that globalization and digitization explain the surge in global inequality,
but that is not a very convincing narrative. Since the 1980s, Europe and the US have
had similar exposure to global markets and new technologies. But they have differed in
policies and institutional direction. To date, Europe has shown that it is much better at
keeping inequality in check.
The important point the author wishes to make in the passage is that:
c) Europe has done well in addressing the inequality gap better than the US
a) It has the potential to stabilize oil prices and open up new markets.
Art conservators fight a constant, never-ending battle against time, an unwinnable war
against entropy to bring works of art back to nearly immaculate condition and keep
them there. Of course, things don't always go according to plan. Good intentions aside,
old, delicate objects can be damaged by overzealous cleaning or by storing them under
the wrong conditions. There have been shards of Mayan ceramics that were whittled
down to fit together when the reassembly is incorrect. Prehistoric flints in storage in
Verona, Italy, turned a pearly blue because of previously unknown molecules present in
the plastic drawer liners.
Conservators rely on science to aid their efforts. They scrutinize the tiniest details of
priceless artifacts. They conduct chemical analyses of an object to determine its
molecular makeup and decide how best to clean or repair it. They place a sculpture or
painting in storage or on display under environmental conditions that will delay its slide
into destruction. And yet, art conservation is not quite a science. Saving the past
means navigating a sea of unanswered or unanswerable questions about what the artist
intended an object to look like or how efforts to fix a piece of art could damage it. And
though the field has become much more scientific in the past few decades,
conservators still have some big questions about how to preserve the past without
destroying it. They have to take the long view of the history of the objects.
(~sSource: Alexandra Ossola, The Uncertain Future of Saving the Past, Popular
Mechanics, 28 June 2016,
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a20855/the-future-of-saving-the-past/~s)
In light of information presented in the passage, the author would agree with all of the
following, EXCEPT:
a) The moment conservation efforts are begun on something that is 2000
years old, it is being deprived it of its originality
b) If conservationists are not sure how to fix something, they should abstain
from doing anything to it
c) A good analysis of the art and the technique used prior to conservation
efforts would help sustain the originality of the piece
d) Not just the restoration process, but even the process of storing or
displaying ancient objects can be quite challenging
e) The techniques that conservators use should match the techniques used
in the original work
Answer
b) If conservationists are not sure how to fix something, they should abstain
from doing anything to it
7) More often than not, instead of standing by our decisions and the fortitude of our
contingencies, we relieve ourselves at others' expense. There's an appealing concept
following this, which implies that a number of the world's misery comes from
individuals passing on their own grief, compensating for their disparagement, just like
blaming the last runner in the relay for the incompetence of the team.
The important point the author wishes to make in the passage is that:
b) Life is a relay race, and winning it entirely depends on how good the last
runner is
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