Directions—(Q. 1–15) Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Before my many years’ service in a restaurant, I attended a top science university. The year was 2023 and I was finishing the project that would win me my professorship.
My forty-second birthday had made a lonely visit the week before, and I was once again by myself in the flat. Like countless other mornings, I ordered a bagel from the toaster. ‘Yes, sir!’ it replied with robotic relish, and I began the day's work on the project. It was a magnificent machine, the thing I was making– capable of transferring the minds of any two beings into each other’s bodies.
As the toaster began serving my bagel on to a plate, I realized the project was in fact ready for testing. I retrieved the duck and the cat–which I had bought for this purpose from their containers, and set about calibrating the machine in their direction. Once ready, I leant against the table, holding the bagel I was too excited to eat, and initiated the transfer sequence. As expected, the machine whirred and hummed into action, my nerves tingling at its synthetic sounds. The machine hushed, extraction and injection nozzles poised, scrutinizing its targets. The cat, though, was suddenly gripped by terrible alarm. The brute leapt into the air, flinging itself onto the machine. I watched in horror as the nozzles swung towards me; and, with a terrible, psychedelic whirl of colours, felt my mind wrenched from its sockets.
When I awoke, moments later, I noticed first that I was two feet shorter. Then, I realized the lack of my limbs, and finally it occurred to me that I was a toaster. I saw immediately the solution to the situation–the machine could easily reverse the transfer–but was then struck by my utter inability to carry this out. After some consideration, using what I supposed must be the toaster’s onboard computer; I devised a strategy for rescue. I began to familiarize myself with my new body: the grill, the bread bin, the speaker and the spring mechanism. Through the device’s rudimentary eye–with which it served its creations–I could see the internal telephone on the wall. Aiming carefully, I began propelling slices of bread at it. The toaster was fed by a large stock of the stuff, yet as more and more bounced lamely off the phone, I began to fear its exhaustion. Toasting the bread before launch proved a wiser tactic. A slice of crusty wheat knocked the receiver off its cradle, and the immovable voice of the reception clerk answered. Resisting the urge to exclaim my unlikely predicament, I called from the table : ‘‘I’m having a bit of trouble up here, Room 91. Could you lend a hand ?’’ ‘‘Certainly, sir, there’s a burst water pipe on the floor above, I suppose I’ll kill two birds with one stone and sort you out on the way.”
The clerk arrived promptly, and after a detailed and horrifying explanation, finally agreed to press the button on the machine and bring me back to my original state.
1. Why did the author believe that he would earn professorship ?
(A) The author was conducting experiments on his cat and duck
(B) The author was working on making a new toaster
(C) The author was working on a project where he was inventing a new machine
(D) The author thought that he was very intelligent
(E) None of these
Ans : (C)
2. Why was the author afraid that the bread would get exhausted ?
(A) Because he thought he would remain a toaster all his life
(B) Because although he was throwing a lot of bread at the phone, the cradle was not coming off the hook
(C) Because there was limited bread in the room
(D) Because the author had forgotten to load bread in the toaster
(E) None of these
Ans : (A)
3. What does the phrase ‘kill two birds with one stone’ used in the passage mean ?
(A) Take care of two things at one time
(B) Kill two birds with one bullet
(C) Kill both the cat and the duck simultaneously
(D) Please the clerk and gain professorship at the same time
(E) None of these
Ans : (A)
4. Why did the author bring out the cat and the duck ?
(A) So that they could watch while he performed the experiment
(B) So that he could perform the experiment on them
(C) So that the cat could jump on the machine
(D) So that the author could call the clerk
(E) None of these
Ans : (B)
5. The term ‘immovable voice’ as used in the passage means……
(A) hoarse voice
(B) fixed voice
(C) steady voice
(D) loud voice
(E) shaky voice
Ans : (B)
6. Which of the following is NOT true in the context of the passage ?
(A) The clerk was part of the experiment right from the start
(B) The clerk managed to bring the author back to his original state
(C) The experiment did not go completely as planned
(D) The author’s mind was transferred into the toaster
(E) All of the above are true
Ans : (A)
7. What was the author making ?
(A) He was making a toaster which could talk
(B) He was making a machine which could control animal behaviour
(C) He was making a machine which could convert itself into a toaster
(D) He was making a machine which could exchange the minds of two entities
(E) None of these
Ans : (D)
8. Why was the author two feet shorter when he woke up ?
(A) Because he was transformed into a duck
(B) Because the cat had jumped on him
(C) Because he was transformed into a telephone
(D) Because he had not made the machine correctly
(E) None of these
Ans : (E)
9. Who does the term 'The brute' used in the passage refer to ?
(A) The author
(B) The toaster
(C) The machine
(D) The clerk
(E) None of these
Ans : (E)
10. How did the author manage to call the clerk ?
(A) By dragging the phone towards himself
(B) By hitting the button on the machine
(C) By shouting for help
(D) By flinging toast at the phone on the wall and then asking the clerk for help
(E) None of these
Ans : (D)
Directions–(Q. 11–13) Choose the word which is most similar in meaning to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
11. SYNTHETIC
(A) loud
(B) clothed
(C) real
(D) electronic
(E) soft
Ans : (B)
12. FLINGING
(A) touching
(B) holding
(C) bending
(D) feeling
(E) throwing
Ans : (E)
13. INITIATED
(A) withstand
(B) worked
(C) stopped
(D) started
(E) culminate
Ans : (D)
Directions–(Q. 14–15) Choose the word which is most opposite in meaning to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
14. TERRIBLE
(A) better
(B) wonderful
(C) extreme
(D) awful
(E) fearful
Ans : (B)
15. RUDIMENTARY
(A) advanced
(B) basic
(C) evil
(D) forward
(E) artificial
Ans : (A)
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