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English Test 75

Directions for Questions from 1 to 5:

The passage given below is followed by a question. Choose the most appropriate answer to question.

Fifteen years after communism was officially pronounced dead, its spectre seems once again to be haunting Europe. Last month, the Council of
Europe‘s parliamentary assembly voted to condemn the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes,“ linking them with Nazism and complaining that
communist parties are still legal and active in some countries.“Now Goran Lindblad, the conservative Swedish MP behind the resolution, wants to go
further. Demands that European Ministers launch a continent-wide anti-communist campaign - including school textbook revisions, official memorial
days, and museums - only narrowly missed the necessary two-thirds majority. Mr. Lindblad pledged to bring the wider plans back to the Council of
Europe in the coming months.

He has chosen a good year for his ideological offensive: this is the 50th anniversary of Nikita Khrushchev‘s denunciation of Josef Stalin and the
subsequent Hungarian uprising, which will doubtless be the cue for further excoriation of the communist record. Paradoxically, given that there is no
communist government left in Europe outside Moldova, the attacks have if anything, become more extreme as time has gone on. A clue as to why
that might be can be found in the rambling report by Mr. Lindblad that led to the Council of Europe declaration. Blaming class struggle and public
ownership, he explained different elements of communist ideology such as equality or social justice still seduce many “and a sort of nostalgia for
communism is still alive.“ Perhaps the real problem for Mr. Lindblad and his right-wing allies in Eastern Europe is that communism is not dead
enough - and they will only be content when they have driven a stake through its heart.
The fashionable attempt to equate communism and Nazism is in reality a moral and historical nonsense. Despite the cruelties of the Stalin terror,
there was no Soviet Treblinka or Sorbibor, no extermination camps built to murder millions. Nor did the Soviet Union launch the most devastating
war in history at a cost of more than 50 million lives oe in fact it played the decisive role in the defeat of the German war machine. Mr. Lindblad and
the Council of Europe adopt as fact the wildest estimates of those killed by communist regimes (mostly in famines) from the fiercely contested Black
Book of Communism, which also underplays the number of deaths attributable to Hitler. But, in any case, none of this explains why anyone might be
nostalgic in former communist states, now enjoying the delights of capitalist restoration. The dominant account gives no sense of how communist
regimes renewed themselves after 1956 or why Western leaders feared they might overtake the capitalist world well into the 1960s. For all its
brutalities and failures, communism in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialization, mass education, job
security, and huge advances in social and gender equality. Its existence helped to drive up welfare standards in the West, and provided a powerful
counterweight to Western global domination.

It would be easier to take the Council of Europe‘s condemnation of communist state crimes seriously if it had also seen fit to denounce the far
bloodier record of European colonialism oe which only finally came to an end in the 1970s. This was a system of racist despotism, which dominated
the globe in Stalin‘s time. And while there is precious little connection between the ideas of fascism and communism, there is an intimate link
between colonialism and Nazism. The terms lebensraum and konzentrationslager were both first used by the German colonial regime in south-west
Africa (now Namibia), which committed genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples and bequeathed its ideas and personnel directly to the Nazi
party.

Around 10 million Congolesedied as a result of Belgian forced labour and mass murder in the early twentieth century; tens of millions perished in
avoidable or enforced famines in British-ruled India; up to a million Algerians died in their war for independence, while controversy now rages in
France about a new law requiring teacher to put a positive spin on colonial history. Comparable atrocities were carried out by all European
colonialists, but not a word of condemnation from the Council of Europe. Presumably, European lives count for more

No major twentieth century political tradition is without blood on its hands, but battles over history are more about the future than the past. Part of
the current enthusiasm in official Western circles for dancing on the grave of communism is no doubt about relations with today‘s Russia and China.
But it also reflects a determination to prove there is no alternative to the new global capitalist order - and that any attempt to find one is bound to
lead to suffering. With the new imperialism now being resisted in the Muslim world and Latin America, growing international demands for social
justice and ever greater doubts about whether the environmental crisis can be solved within the existing economic system, the pressure for
alternatives will increase.

1. Which of the following cannot be inferred as a compelling reason for the silence of the Council of Europe on colonial atrocities?

j The Council of Europe being dominated by erstwhile colonialists.

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j Generating support for condemning communist ideology.
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j Unwillingness to antagonize allies by raking up an embarrassing past.
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j Greater value seemingly placed on European lives.
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j Portraying both communism and Nazism as ideologies to be condemned.
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2. Why, according to the author, is Nazism closer to colonialism than it is to communism?

j Both colonialism and Nazism were examples of tyranny of one race over another.
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j The genocides committed by the colonial and the Nazi regimes were of similar magnitude.
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j Several ideas of the Nazi regime were directly imported from colonial regimes.
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j Both colonialism and Nazism are based on the principles of imperialism.
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j While communism was never limited to Europe, both the Nazis and the colonialists originated in Europe.
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3. The author cites examples of atrocities perpetrated by European colonial regimes in order to

j compare the atrocities committed by colonial regimes with those of communist regimes.
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j prove that the atrocities committed by colonial regimes were more than those of communist regimes.
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j prove that, ideologically, communism was much better than colonialism and Nazism.
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j neutralise the arguments of Mr.Lindblad and to point out that the atrocities committed by colonial regimes were more than those of communist
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regimes.
j neutralise the arguments of Mr. Lindblad and to argue that one needs to go beyond and look at the motives of these regimes.
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4. What, according to the author, is the real reason for a renewed attack against communism?

j Disguising the unintended consequences of the current economic order such as social injustice and environmental crisis.
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j Idealising the existing ideology of global capitalism.
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j Making communism a generic representative of all historical atrocities, especially those perpetrated by the European imperialists.
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j Communism still survives, in bits and pieces, in the minds and hearts of people.
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j Renewal of some communist regimes has led to the apprehension that communist nations might overtake the capitalists.
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5. Among all the apprehensions that Mr. Goran Lindblad expresses against communism, which one gets admitted, although indirectly, by the author?

j There is nostalgia for communist ideology even if communism has been abandoned by most European nations
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j Notions of social justice inherent in communist ideology appeal to critics of existing systems.
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j Communist regimes were totalitarian and marked by brutalities and large scale violence.
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j The existing economic order is wrongly viewed as imperialistic by proponents of communism.
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j Communist ideology is faulted because communist regimes resulted in economic failures.
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Directions for Questions from 6 to 10:

Each question is a logical sequence of statements with a missing link, the location of which is shown parenthetically. From the five choices available
you are required to choose the one which best fits the sequence logically.

6. In times past a liberal education set off a free man from a slave or a gentleman from labourers and
artisans. It now distinguishes (_______) or from the trivialities which are no training at all. Such an
education involves a combination of knowledge, skills, and standards.

j scholarly learning from the loading of abstract concepts by the hoi polloi
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j maturation of minds from conceptual enlightenment
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j whatever nourishes the mind and spirit from the training which is merely practical or professional
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j practical skills from compartmentalized learning with narrow focus
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j pursuit of knowledge per se from the dissemination of anachronistic ideas
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7. In contrast to the early discoveries of exoplanets, we now find that less than 1 in 5 exoplanets are to be found very close to their stars, a few
orbiting with a period of 5 to 50 days (______). This supports the idea that they are formed at Jupiter-like distances from their host star.
Dependent on the details of the early solar system, most giant planets probably spiral inwards towards their star until they reach a point where a
lack of frictional forces stops their further migration.

j much closer to their host star than mercury is to our sun.

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j and a few others even more distant than Jupiter is to our sun.
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j while most others are almost at the edge of the host star’s planetary system.
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j the majority having spherical orbits at Jupiter-like distances.
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j but most giant planets are orbiting at large distances from their host stars.
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8. Feynman on religion is interesting mainly because he clearly feels the need to tread very carefully for
fear of offending too many people. He divides religion up into three parts: the metaphysical (creation
myths and so on), the ethical and the inspirational .His analysis is that science undermines the
metaphysical part but has no effect at all on the ethical, because, in fact, (__________). He laments the fact that the undermining of the
metaphysical takes a lot of air out of the sails of the inspirational part, but his view is that the picture of the universe presented by science is pretty
inspirational itself.

j science has nothing to do with the ethics of religion

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j scientists have pretty much the same ethical values as everyone else
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j ethics and inspiration are irretrievably intertwined
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j scientific laws do not seek to confront ethical values
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j science does not moralise as ethics do
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9. Woolf’s focus on society has not been generally recognized because of her intense antipathy to
propaganda in art. (_______). Even when Woolf is fundamentally sympathetic to their causes, she
portrays people anxious to reform their society and possessed of a message or program as arrogant or dishonest, unaware of how their political
ideas serve their own psychological needs. (Her Writer’s Diary notes: “the only honest people are the artists.” whereas “these social reformers and
philanthropists...harbor...discreditable desires under the disguise of loving their kind...”) Woolf detested what she called “preaching” in fiction, too,

j Her detestation of the apathetic is palpable.

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j She disregards their objectives, howsoever noble they might have been.
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j She feels that they unnecessarily force their views and judgments down the peoples’ gullets.
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j The pictures of reformers in her novels are usually satiric or sharply critical.
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j There are several instances in her writings to prove the point.
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10. Recently, I had difficulty with one of my tyres so I went to the tyre store to get it replaced. Much to my
chagrin, the service attendant identified a small problem with another tyre, which indicated the front end was out of alignment. He explained that
if I did not correct the alignment, I would soon be replacing yet another tyre. Needless to say, realigning the front end of my car cost money, but
the investment actually saved me additional costs in the future. The attendant (salesperson) did not cause the problems; he simply identified the
problem and offered a solution, (______) We do not create problems; we identify them and offer solutions through our goods and services.

j which in any case was his duty to do

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j which we ought to do in the first place
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j which is exactly what the professional does
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j and saved me a lot of hassle
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j but isn’t that what all of us are bound to do if we are true professionals?
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