Chapter 2
DEVELOPING
READING SKILLS
Chapter Objectives:
After reading the chapter and doing the
exercises contained therein, students should be able to do the following:
- Remove the fear of
difficult passages that are asked in tests
- Show a marked improvement
in basic reading skills
- Apply reading
techniques for better understanding, better accuracy and also arrange
information so that it can be retained and retrieved
- Adapt your reading
styles to accommodate reading materials from different disciplines
- Learn to anticipate and
form an answer to the questions in your mind before looking at the choices
- Learn to make mind maps
of the given passages
- Get a better score
Let us start from what we said in the previous chapter: Reading
Comprehension skills can be improved. Whether you consider yourself a poor
reader or a good one, focused and aggressive reading will enhance your
understanding. You will discover an amazing world where people are doing great
things. You will discover original thinking and how frontiers of human
knowledge have been pushed in every age. You will find places that you never
knew could exist. When such things are waiting to be discovered, what is
holding you back?
In
this chapter we will learn how to be a focused reader and how to get meaning
out of a given passage quickly. Of course, the more you read, the easier will
it be to find meaning. So it is important to read extensively.
Read Extensively
Reading
is an essential skill. Much of the information that we collect comes from
reading. Our success in college and university depends on how much we are
reading. A high degree of success demands a relatively high quality of reading.
Reading is also a means of discovering facts and theories which we otherwise
cannot verify directly.
What
shall one read? Many commentators say that one should read everything under the
sun. This is equivalent to telling a person to drive aimlessly around. Students
need to do focused reading, rather than aimless reading, consisting of the
following:
1.
A Newspaper - The Times of India, or any national English newspaper.
2.
A General Magazine – such as India Today,
Outlook, or Frontline.
3.
A Business Magazine, such as Business
Today
4.
Books: The following authors may be read: Ayn Rand, Stephen Hawking, Michael
Crichton, Amitav Ghosh, biographies.
5.
Internet: Read the content on the following sites: The Economist, The Atlantic,
New Scientist.
6.
Join some good libraries and borrow books.
7. Make it a point to discuss your readings with your friends!
The
above is an indicative reading list. One can add anything else that one likes.
The important point is to make the above into a habit. A daily reading will
hold you in good stead! You can add works of great authors who have won
accolades, great theories and great thoughts in the above list.
While
reading, the following questions must be kept in mind: (i) What is the author
saying? (ii) A sense of urgency (iii) Having a dialogue with the author in
one’s mind.
These
aims are achieved by starting with the newspaper. Unguided students waste time
reading headlines or the sports and gossip pages, which do not add anything to
one’s personality. Views expressed on the editorial page must be read, whether
they are in the form of lead articles or editorials. By this focused approach,
one saves time and also one gets to know what people are writing about. A
dialogue with oneself ensures understanding.
As
you begin to read everyday, you will find that the central idea can be
understood in less and less time. Your eyes will start moving along the words
at a faster pace. Your mind will anticipate the next words without reading
them. Such a technique will undoubtedly help you in the examination.
What is being asked?
Some
questions that you are likely to face in the examination are:
(a)
Main Idea Questions.
(b)
Finding Specific details
(c)
Inference: to go beyond the statements and try to deduce the implication.
(d)
Tone/Attitude
(e)
Technique
If we keep these in mind, our reading will be more
rewarding. What we are asking you to do is not to read generally whatever
comes your way, but to have a focused approach not only in what you
read but also to keep asking questions in your mind about the given text.
Whenever you start reading an article, keep asking yourself: what is the author
saying? What is his central idea?
These questions will help your mind to concentrate.
Further, you will be able to spot what constitutes an idea and what constitutes
information. To spot ideas, much of the supporting information can be ignored.
The main idea is always a statement; it will never sound like a title. A
good statement of main idea is supported by at least most, if not all, of the
details. Keep in mind that the author may have written a main idea sentence for
you. If you can spot the author's main idea sentence, you will not have to work
so hard. But in many passages, the main idea has to be inferred from a story or
description written by the author. Questions may refer to the main idea as the
central focus, the central theme, or the central idea.
(a)
ATTEMPTING MAIN IDEA
QUESTIONS
The
main purpose of posing this kind of question is whether one can discern the
most important issue or theme of the passage.
Application: The main idea means one
general theme and only one topical theme. Don’t tick the choice that includes
everything.
Tip: Check the first few and the
last few lines of the passage. This is not a rule, however, and often one has
to read the whole passage to get the central idea.
Mistake: Students tend to pick
something that is too prevalent or too specific. This is a mistake. Try to pick
something that covers most of the text.
(b)
FINDING SPECIFIC DETAILS
These
questions are direct and text based. At times one has to bring out something
unstated but from within the text. Of course some manipulation has to be done:
if it is given directly in the passage, it is probably not the answer.
Application: Read the question carefully.
It would be one of the following types:
1. According to the author…
2. Statement supported by the
passage include…
3. The following are true
except…
4. Which of the following are
not true…
The
answer is to be picked up from the text and some manipulation done to arrive at
the answer.
Tip: Look for the key words in
the answer choices. Once you find the keyword word the solution will be in its
vicinity. Give it a thorough reading as you might pick something else irrelevant
to what is being asked in the question.
Mistake: Please do not pick an option
not supported by the text even if it appeals to your mind. Refrain from using
personal general knowledge or expertise if it does not find place in the text.
(c) INFERENCE BASED
An
inference based query means that the answer has to be reasoned out of the
various clues given in the text.
Application:
1.
The author implies…
2.
It can be inferred that…
3.
The author would support which of the following…
4.
This leads to the inference…
Tips:- Underline the hints in the passage – the words which one used
by the author would give you the direction of thought of the author. Make an analysis of all the ideas of the
author and you are sure to get what you want.
Mistake: Be wary of anything that is
directly stated in the passage. A
compulsive urge to pick something obvious would surely result in a mistake.
(d) TONE/ATTITUDE BASED
In
this question, we have to figure out what is the state of mind of the author.
Is he sarcastic, funny, serious, analytical?
Application:
1.
The authors attitude towards the problem is…
2.
The author regards the idea with…
3.
The author’s tone in the passage is…
Tip: The student has to be
sensitive enough to get to a relevant choice for a given question.
Mistake: Sometimes students do not
understand the words given to describe the attitude or tone. Increasing
vocabulary will certainly pay here.
(e)
TECHNIQUE BASED:
The
method of using stories or analogies as examples, comparisons, parallel issues,
allegories, puns and organising the paragraphs in a passage are the technique
of the author.
Application: These questions are phrased
as:
(a) Relationship between the
second paragraph and the first paragraph is…
(b) The organisation of the
passage can best be described as…
(c) The author does all of the
following except…
Tip: Read the opening sentences
carefully and see the method in which the paragraph relates to the passage as a
whole and how the author builds up the argument etc.
Mistake: A student will get confused
by the options given. In this case, form an answer is your mind before looking
at the options.
The student will appreciate what difference this
small difference in approach makes. In the first, unfocused approach, you spend
reading a newspaper or a book trying to follow the story or just gathering
information from newspapers. This information is not only useless but you are
unlikely to remember it after a day or two. So the entire reading process has
become a waste. If we keep having a dialogue with the article or keep
questioning ourselves as we read, we are not only able to understand ideas but
also are able to retain them longer.
Before we go any further, let us try to use this
technique. A number of small paragraphs are given below. As you read, keep
questioning yourself what is the central idea of the passages. Underline the
ideas as you go along. Then write out in one single sentence what the author
has written about. Then look at how the paragraphs have been attempted. You
will learn how central ideas can be located quickly.
The objective of this exercise is two-fold: (i) to
help you understand how passages are written, and (ii) to help you sum up the
idea in a small summary without concentrating on details. Both these kinds of
questions are asked in CAT.
Example
2.1:
Read
the passage given below and sum up in one sentence what you think is the
central idea of the passage.
What constitutes obscenity is hazy — by religion,
nation, culture or statute. Bertrand Russell goes a step further, arguing that
“Obscenity is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of
the Courts, it means ‘anything that shocks the magistrate.’ ”
In the England in which Russell lived, magistrates
showed various levels of shock. The British Parliament had passed the Obscene
Publications Act in 1857 a few decades before Russell was born, to control
obscene literature which was there, “for the single purpose of corrupting the
morals of youth and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of
decency in any well-regulated mind.” Such a broad generalization obviously
allowed the moral police to do as they pleased, sometimes absurdly so. For
instance, Annie Besant and co-author Charles Bradlaugh were once sentenced to
six months in jail for publishing a pamphlet on birth control!
Write out the central idea below:
Central idea: __________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
How
to attempt:
Read the passage after asking yourself: what is the author saying? Approach the
passage armed with a pencil. Each line should be read asking yourself whether
it constitutes an idea or is it a supporting example.
If
we underline the recurring words in the passage we can easily see that it is
about morality. The temptation is to think that the first line gives away the
central idea, but that would ignore what is written later.
Let
us sum up the ideas that are contained in the passage:
(i)
Definition of obscenity is hazy
(ii)
Definition according to British law of 1857
(iii)
It was used by moral police sometimes to absurd lengths
(iv)
Example of two people being jailed for talking about birth control
To
get to the central idea, we can knock out (ii) and (iv) from the above because
these statements do not constitute the idea.
In
the second paragraph, we see some names and an example. We can see that (ii) is
supporting (i) and (iv) is supporting (iii). So the central idea must combine
statements (i) and (iii). Combining both of them, we can see that the central
idea must be something like this: Obscenity is a vague concept that is used
by people to control ideas, sometimes to absurd lengths.
What we have learnt: Spotting the central idea
requires ignoring details. The central idea should encompass most of the ideas
contained in the passage.
Example
2.2:
Read
the passage given below and sum up in one sentence what you think is the
central idea of the passage.
Zheng's
seventh voyage was his last. The sea-going eunuchs fell from favour (Zheng's
missions were staggeringly costly) and by 1500 it was a capital offence to go
to sea in a two-masted ship without permission. China had embarked on a long
period of isolation like that imposed on Japan by the Tokugawa shogunate in the
17th century. With the mothballing of Zheng's ships, just as Europeans were
beginning their own voyages of discovery, came the beginning of the end of
China's centuries of superiority. Had Zheng been allowed to continue his
voyages, might the advantages of trade and discovery have come to seem more
obvious? Might China have avoided decline? Or was, instead, the recall of the
fleet a symptom of a deeper malaise in Chinese society? In competing Europe,
after all, Columbus was able to flit from court to court until he finally found
a backer for his expedition of 1492. For Zheng, it was the emperor or no one.
Write out the central idea below:
Central idea: __________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
How
to attempt: Once
again we approach the passage with a question in our mind. What is the passage
about? At first glance we see it is about a Chinese explorer, Zheng. Our
tendency is to sum up the central idea as follows: Zheng was not allowed to
continue his voyages by the Chinese emperor.
This
is partly correct, so we should ask ourselves whether the passage is merely
about stopping Zheng’s voyages. Read the passage again and we see that Zheng’s
story is illustrating an idea. What is this idea? Sifting through the story, we
come across these phrases:
(i)
long period of isolation
(ii)
end of China's centuries of superiority
(iii)
China [could] have avoided decline
From the above summing up we see that the passage is less about
Zheng but about the idea of China’s superiority or decline. So our first
attempt to find the central idea is wrong. A better way of summarizing the
central idea might be: By banning overseas voyages, China imposed isolation
on itself and this may have prevented it from becoming a world power.
We hope that students are able to understand from the above
examples that finding meaning goes beyond the given facts. In some cases, you
will have to read between the lines. Do not get bogged down by detail but start
reading for ideas. You will be faced with such questions in CAT and other
exams.
What we have learnt:
If stories are given, look for the idea that they illustrate. This usually
requires reading between the lines, or looking for meaning beyond what is
stated. This ability will help you in CAT.
By using this technique,
we are able to do inferential questions and discover hidden meanings in
passages. This will ensure that we do not get confused with the given choices
in the exam.
Avoid
the mistakes:
Students tend to make the following mistakes in the above question:
(a)
They make a long summary that contains everything stated in the passage.
(b)
They limit themselves to defining obscenity, given in the first sentence.
(c)
They get involved in the definition and example given in the second paragraph.
(d)
They get involved in the story and miss out the message.
Now
we can attempt an exercise spotting the central ideas contained in short
passages.
Exercise 2.1
Directions: Read the passages given
below and sum up in one sentence what you think is the central idea of the
given passage in the space provided. Check the answers given at the end of the
chapter to see whether you are able to spot the central idea.
1.
Narayanamurthy apparently committed a faux pas when he said that the
instrumental version of the national anthem was played during President APJ
Abdul Kalam’s visit to the Infosys campus only so that the foreign members of
the software team would not feel embarrassed about being unable to sing the
words. He subsequently apologised when the incident came in for severe
criticism from his detractors. It should have ended there, but it did not. One
of the legislators in the Karnataka assembly thundered that Narayanamurthy
should be thrown out of the state. But Narayanamurthy is not someone who needs
lessons in patriotism, given that his patriotism is embodied in Infosys, which
is synonymous with Brand India. Similar is the outburst of petty rage against
Tendulkar for having cut a cake in the shape and hue of the national tricolour.
The protestors do not realise that very few can claim to live their patriotism
as Tendulkar does — through his cricketing feats in India and abroad.
Central idea: __________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
2.
But the bloggers’ opposition is not so much to the content of the code as to
the very idea of it. Any kind of regulation by a ‘third party’ is immediately
seen as anti-democratic. Bloggers delight in their anarchy, and see themselves
as occupying a world where normal (read, boring and mundane) rules of behaviour
don’t apply. It follows therefore, that normal laws, of libel and slander — all
of which have serious consequences in the real world —should not be applicable
either. To some extent this debate is tiresome and juvenile. There are enough
examples in the ‘real world’ of nutcases and those who indulge in scurrilous
speech. We have inbuilt ways of dealing with them; at the very least we do not
take them seriously. If they get out of hand, the law steps in.
It
is the appropriation of a higher and different standard of behaviour by the
blogging “community” that begins to grate after a while. If they want to sound
off on something, so be it. But words, especially when they spread throughout
the world, can have hurtful consequences. It is such bloggers, who revel in
anonymous or careless writing that give the rest of this growing tribe a bad
name. What strategy should be adopted to regulate such behaviour? An
enforceable code of conduct? Self-policing? A soccer-like punitive system of
red cards and yellow cards? It deserves to be debated, so why not do so, in an
atmosphere of the utmost civility, maybe?
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
3.
If it’s not tigers its lions — how much more can this country take before its
political leadership wakes up? We lost all the tigers in Sariska nearly three
years ago. We still carry on regardless, as if it is a part of the project
tiger reserves of India in the hope that the tiger will be reintroduced. What
is shocking is that no one was made answerable or accountable. Let’s not forget
this national shame. Three hundred forest staff were not able to deal with 15
poachers who succeeded in wiping out an entire population of tigers in one of
India’s most prestigious reserves.
The
prime minister was forced to wake up after the Sariska crisis and ordered a
series of enquiries, including a full-fledged report by a tiger task force
constituted by him. He promised the nation that his government would implement
the main recommendations of the task force and soon at least on paper there
came to be a tiger conservation authority and a wildlife crime prevention
bureau — both of which, nearly a year later, are still on paper.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
4.
We are now approaching the age of designer funerals. No longer do you have a
few bouquets and a garland of flowers placed reverentially around the
photograph of the deceased. Expensive flowers like orchids and the kind of
flower arrangements generally seen at weddings or socialite evenings have begun
to change the ‘look’ of memorial services. The freshly blown-up photograph of
the newly-deceased, often propped up on an easel-like contraption, is now part
of a complicated flower arrangement. Designer candles and all kinds of
fragrances increasingly enhance the chic-factor of these events. For those who
belong to the ethnic, aesthetic cool brigade, beautiful textiles embellish the
backdrop of the stage.
Show
biz has also entered this sacred arena. Priests are being edged out by
professional singers, many of whom perform devotional songs for the requisite
time, following which they inform those assembled to mourn that their music is
available on CDs and cassettes. Some even offer to take orders right there and then.
Guests also bring their calling cards, just in case they may need them in the
unfortunate event of a death in the family.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
5.
After a long dry spell during which it was pilloried for tardy progress in the
implementation of various projects, the Defence Research and Development
Organisation has reason to celebrate. The spectacular launch of Agni-III, an
intermediate range ballistic missile is not only a feather in the DRDO's cap,
but also marks an important milestone in India's missile programme. With
Agni-III, India has acquired the capacity to strike as far as 3,000 km - which
includes China's major cities like Beijing and Shanghai - with both
conventional and nuclear warheads. Of course, it would be silly to suggest that
an IRBM of Agni-III's capacity has added to India's conventional might; it was
necessary to develop this missile as a deep-strike delivery system for nuclear
warheads and thus make India's nuclear deterrence that much more credible.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
6.
‘Islam is in danger’ has long been the call of Muslim charlatans and tricksters
who seek political power through communal paranoia, and there have been many
grey eminences in the sub-continent who have exploited this slogan and their
community for petty political gains. The greatest of these, of course, was the
atheist Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the architect of the sub-continent's worst
bloodbath in the name of his ludicrous 'two-nation theory' and Muslim
isolationism.
The
purported danger to Islam is once again widely proclaimed by those who practice
or set out to justify contemporary Islamist terrorism under the guise of a
'resistance' against the alleged global machinations of 'crusaders, Jews and
Hindus'. With this fragile justification, a small group of extremists has
declared a jihad against, it would appear, everything and everyone with whom
they have the slightest disagreement, and these lunatics derive an illusion of
great power from acts of wanton slaughter which can and will achieve nothing
beyond a transient sense of shock in the victim communities.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
7.
Having considered a reason for rejecting the proposition that human beings
always think in language, let us now consider whether they ever do. In fact,
the difficulty is not, as Smart and others have thought, in seeing how one can
think without language, but in seeing how one would think with it. Thinking
with or in language must consist in doing something with symbols, and so
necessarily involves doing something to them--e.g., producing, altering, or
perceiving them. If we would do something with the knife (e.g., cut the bread),
we must do something to the knife, (e.g., clasp it in our hands). But, as we
have seen, thinking occurs where nothing at all is being done to or with signs,
there not being any signs in these cases.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
8.
While corporate-driven globalisation may be down, it is not out. Though
discredited, many pro-globalisation neoliberal policies remain in place in many
economies, for lack of credible alternative policies in the eyes of
technocrats. With things not moving at the WTO, the big trading powers are
emphasising free trade agreements (FTAs) and economic partnership agreements
(EPAs) with developing countries. These agreements are in many ways more
dangerous than the multilateral negotiations at the WTO since they often
require greater concessions in terms of market access and tighter enforcement
of intellectual property rights.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
9. The interaction between the
theists and atheists -- much like that between the secularists and nationalists
in India today has always been largely a dialogue of the deaf. Each side is
hell-bent on refuting the other's arguments, rather than examining them
dispassionately. But one man who seems to have listened closely to both sides
is Stephen Unwin, whose recent book The Probability of God: A Simple
Calculation that Proves the Ultimate Truth accumulates all the
evidence about God's existence, both in favour and against, and then tries to
decide whose case is stronger. “If you asked me personally what's the
probability that God exists, I wouldn't say 67 per cent. I would give a number
far closer to 100,” says Stephen Unwin.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
10.
The interesting question which is now in the process of being answered is
precisely how, chemically, the genes exert their influence and order the
manufacture of the proteins. The idea that a code is involved arises from the
following considerations. On the one hand we have the genetic material itself,
which is composed of chain-like molecules of DNA characterized by a complicated
sequence of four chemical sub-units -- nitrogenous bases called adenine,
guanine, cytosine and thymine; and on the other hand we have chain-like
proteins composed of complicated sequences of 20 amino acids. It looks as if
some combination of bases in the DNA is needed to specify a particular amino
acid in a particular place in the protein which has to be built. In other
words, the bases are like letters writing out a sentence which describes a
protein molecule.
Central idea:
__________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Get the whole picture
Having
developed the skill to identify central idea in a small passage, we can move on
to larger passages. The idea is to extend what we have learnt in small passages
to a larger piece of text. We should not get bogged down by details, examples
and illustrations but learn to read for ideas. If we get the whole picture,
questions on details are easy to solve.
Your
mental flowchart would look something like this:
SUBJECT
 |
TOPIC
|
MAIN IDEA
|
DETAILS
The
arrows indicate that there must be a valid relationship between items connected
by the arrows. Read the details only if there are questions on specific things,
otherwise concentrate on the main idea and topic only.
Appropriate
details would give specific examples of some of those styles, allowing you to
see that your statement of main idea and topic were both correct. If the
passage discussed just one style, you would know your main idea was incorrect.
When
reading for topics and main ideas, do not "study" the details. Just
read them and notice what kinds of details appear in various locations of the
passage. Let your reading be driven by the purpose of gaining a sense of the
main idea, and purpose of the paragraph. Use the details to see if they develop,
support, or refute your guess of what each main idea is.
Different
passages will be arranged differently. You have to decide which technique to
follow and change it as per the passage. A passage on globalisation must be
read for ideas. A personal experience must be read for details of the
experience or what that experience illustrates.
Look
out for structural words that tell you the important ideas or transitions in a
passage.
Words that Continue the Idea
Similarly
Moreover
Additionally
In the same way
Likewise
Conclusion Words
Thus
Therefore
Hence
So
In summary
In conclusion
Contradiction or Contrast Words
Neverthless
Nonetheless
However
But
Although
Though
Even though
Notwithstanding
Yet
Despite
In spite of
On the one hand…on the other hand
While
Unlike
Similarly
Moreover
Additionally
In the same way
Likewise
Conclusion Words
Thus
Therefore
Hence
So
In summary
In conclusion
Contradiction or Contrast Words
Neverthless
Nonetheless
However
But
Although
Though
Even though
Notwithstanding
Yet
Despite
In spite of
On the one hand…on the other hand
While
Unlike
The examiner gives a big hint as to how
passages should be read. The hint lies in the questions. If the questions are
based on particular details then it would be important to read keeping the
details in mind. If the questions are based on larger ideas, all details and
examples can be skimmed over quickly.
We
then come to the next step in defining our strategy: read the questions first.
They will give you an idea as to how the reading should be done.
Do not concentrate on individual words
As
we have seen, we should not concentrate on individual words as we read. Our eye
span should be larger, so as to take chunks of text. Difficult words should not
be seen as speed-breakers. Instead, get the meaning by using the context.
Instead
of reading word-by-word, start taking the whole paragraph into your vision.
Underline the keywords or scribble the central idea in the margin. By doing so,
you will see how the author has arranged his ideas. This technique is very
useful while answering questions: simply go the particular paragraph that talks
of that idea and answer the question.
The comprehension section in CAT calls for a wide
reading, from passages from technology to philosophy, from social sciences to
music and the arts. Clearly, a person who has a background of the material will
be able to comprehend the passages faster than a person who has no background
of such things. The idea is to read with understanding as also to develop
speed.
Before you begin
reading the paragraph, preview it. Read key sentences that are likely to
express the most important ideas and are key in the development of the
argument. Key sentences usually are: The first sentence of every paragraph or
the last sentence of the last paragraph. The first sentence of the first para
is sometimes the outline the theme of the passage. The first sentences of other
paras will probably tell you what those paras are about. The last sentence of
the last para will hint about what the conclusion of the author is. You can
modify this to suit circumstances. If a key sentence is short, try the next
sentence. If it is too long, just read the first half.
One thing that
works for a lot of people is to read
only once, (the passage should not be skimmed and re-read,) but that it
be very slowly and carefully read. Count on answering the questions based upon
this one reading. A slow, thoughtful reading of the passage allows the mind to
form unconscious, subtle connections between parts of the material. Answers to
many of the difficult questions will depend upon picking up on these subtle
connections. Repeated re-reading, hunting for the obvious answers -- which
simply are not there -- is what wastes time.
Passages can often be stereotyped into those that
-
argue a position (often social sciences)
-
discuss something specific within a field of study
-
explain some significant new finding or research (often science)
-
explain a phenomenon
One’s job is to
actively seek out such structures as you begin to read the passage. This search
for the structure should make you think about the “big picture” that the author
is trying to show you. “How” the big picture is shown is the author’s tone.
Taking the example of a passage that is dealing with a new finding, the author
is likely to be clinical. Similarly when the passage takes a position the style
is argumentative. Or if the author is simply describing the strongly held
positions of others, the tone is factual or descriptive.
Read aggressively
Many of us read passively. Given a book or an article, we
approach it by reading casually, understanding whatever we can out of it. If it
is a story we follow it. The manner is akin to watching a movie: seeing what
the director wishes to show us. Watching movies, and reading casually, are
passive activities.
Competitive
exams require aggressive readers: students who can run in and “steal” the
information and answer questions. Reading per se, is not required. An
aggressive reader approaches each paragraph and gets the central idea out of it
and moves to the next. He does not read word-by-word. He does not get bogged
down with information that is not required to answer the questions. Remember,
your job is to answer questions, not to demonstrate how well you can comprehend
everything. An aggressive reader thus picks up bits and pieces that are required
to answer the questions.
The
way to be an aggressive reader has been described above. Instead of approaching
a text as it is given, the student should arm himself with a pencil and
approach it with a question in his head: what is the author saying? What is his
central idea? Once we approach the passages aggressively, we will find that
comprehending the ideas will be quite easy.
The
important point is that one choose the method that works best. Different
techniques work for different people. Even if speed-reading does not work for
you, remember to read aggressively as we have described in the earlier part of
this chapter.
As you read, make a mind map of the
passage. This means writing down or summarizing ideas of each paragraph as you
read. By creating a mind map, you will know what is placed where and this will
help you locate answers to the given questions.
A SEVEN POINT SURE SHOT
FORMULA
1.
Relax. Do
not psyche yourself into reading fast or to get the questions quickly. Do NOT
be in a hurry. Decide your technique as you approach the passage.
2. Read the questions first and underline keywords
mentioned in the questions. For example, if a name, data or a difficult term is
mentioned, underline it. When you read the passage, look for that keyword.
3.
Spot the keywords. Read the passage quickly and try to locate the keywords you have
identified in step 2. Mark the passage with your pencil so that it is easy to
come back to that particular space. Make notes in the margin.
4.
Theme, title or central idea. The quick reading will equip you to answer
questions that ask about the theme or title of the passage. Answer these
questions at this stage.
5.
Read the sentence containing the keywords carefully. Look for answers to
particular questions at the points where the keywords appear. Go back and forth
in the passage. Make sure you understand the sentence containing the keywords
because choices will be very close.
6.
Do not read the choices. Reading the choices might confuse you, especially if they are close.
Instead, make out the answer to the given question in your mind. Then look for
the choice that contains the words that you have formed in your mind.
7.
Anticipate the answer. If you understand the ideas contained in the passage, you will know
the thrust of the author. At the very least, you will know whether the author
supports a particular idea or is against it. The answers to some of the
questions can at least be made out on the basis of the position taken by the
author.
Let
us try our learning so far in doing two passages. Remember to:
1.
Read the questions first
2.
Underline the keywords
3.
Read normally, without bothering about speed reading
4.
Underline the keywords in the passage
5.
Read for ideas. Summarise the paragraphs as you go along.
6.
After understanding, write out your answer in the space provided.
Example 2.3
Directions: Read the passage given below and write a
one-line answer to the questions that follow. Remember to be as specific as
possible.
Passage
Do
we need planning in India today? This
question is frequently asked in different forums. The free market fundamentalists project planning as
antithetical to market reforms, by
vulgarising the concept of planning and by obfuscating the experience
of reforms. For them, it is fashionable to
say "abolish planning" and "close down the Planning Commission".
The
two are not, of course, the same and we can
have "planning" without the Planning Commission. If the
functions that the Planning Commission is supposed to perform are no longer necessary or if some other institutional arrangement can perform them better, then it could be easily wound up. But are these functions really not necessary anymore?
Do we not need any agency to intermediate
between the Centre and the states, to
monitor and provide for capital
expenditure and development finance both at the Centre and in the states, evaluate the development projects
of different Central ministries and to arbitrate
between the competing claims in terms of
long-term national interest, guided not by political pressures of different interest groups? The Planning Commission in our federal polity serves the National Development Council, where all the chief ministers besides the senior Central cabinet ministers are represented.
It prepares a 15-year perspective of
national development. It formulates against that background five year programmes of development.
For long, the Planning Commission
decided on investment allocations in the country. In a post-reform market economy, it cannot perform that job anymore in a manner it used to earlier. It has to rely on market forces and devise policies to provide appropriate incentives to stimulate, investment. But so long as we need large public investment and development expenditures spread over many years and many sectors, we would require them to be coordinated and planned.
Markets have failed in all capitalist
economies throughout their history and governments had to intervene
with policies to guide them to come out of the crises. For developing
economies, reforms for liberalising the market forces have
worked only when they have been properly guided
by the government. For example, East Asian countries grew at phenomenal
rates for several decades with all round social development
by liberalising their markets, domestically and internationally,
with active government intervention in policies and investment. But as the governments
relaxed their regulations and interventions,
in the 1990s, following the free market
policies to their logical extent from current
account to capital account convertibility, they faced unprecedented crisis.
By now almost everybody agrees with
Joseph Stiglitz that
the main cause of the East Asian crisis was
inadequate government regulation, either too little or too ineffective and that markets failed to anticipate developments or coordinate the activities. Lance Taylor, noted MIT
economist, studied Latin America's
"Southern Cone" crisis,
the Mexican "tequila" crisis, and the East Asian crisis. All
these episodes, according to him, pivoted
around the government's withdrawal from regulating the real economy and the financial sector especially the
international capital market. These
created "strong incentives for
destabilising private sector financial behaviour, on the part of both domestic and external players. Feedback of their actions to the macro-economic level upset the system".
It
is high time that the debate is shifted from whether the government has a role in the market economy to what that role should be and how
that role can be effectively played.
Planning is a way of playing that
role, identifying the areas where
the government should play a major
role and leaving other areas where markets could quite effectively coordinate private activities, and formulating policies that facilitate both the government and the private agents to play their roles effectively. [597 words]
1. What are the functions of the
Planning Commission, as can be inferred from the passage?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
2. What are the arguments for abolition of planning?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..………………
3. According to the author, what was the main cause of the East
Asian crisis?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
4. What is the author’s recommendation about government role?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
5. What could be a suitable title for the passage?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..
How to attempt: Looking at the questions,
we see that the keywords are: functions of the Planning Commission,
abolition of planning, East Asian crisis, and government role.
We go the passage now and read it,
keeping the questions in mind. The structure of the passage is that first it
asks several questions about Planning Commission and asks whether it should be
abolished. Paragraph wise idea summation is given below:
Para 1. Asks the question whether
Planning Commission is needed.
Para 2. In the second paragraph it
explains what it actually does.
Para 3. Extension of the second
para.
Para 4. Explanation of how East
Asian countries collapsed.
Para 5. Views of some noted
economists.
Para 6. Role of government.
By summing up as above, we have
created a mind map of the above article. We now know what lies where.
For answering the questions we need to go back to the particular paragraph and
get the answer!
The functions of the Planning
Commission are described in Para 2. Going back, we read what these are: to intermediate between the Centre and the states, to monitor and provide for capital expenditure and
development finance both at the Centre and
in the states, evaluate the development projects of different Central ministries and to arbitrate
between the competing claims in terms of
long-term national interest, guided not by political pressures of different interest groups. This is given in the form of a question but that should not confuse
us. From this we can arrive at the answer to the first question. It should
something like this: to provide for and monitor capital expenditure and to be
an intermediary between Centre and states.
The second question asks why the
Planning Commission should be abolished. We go back to the third paragraph and
see why the author says so: In a post-reform market economy, it cannot perform that job anymore in a manner it used to earlier. So the answer to this question is that Planning
Commission should be abolished because it has lost its relevance in a free
marker economy. Since it does not control the expenditures, it has become quite
relevant.
The
cause of the East Asian crisis is given in the next paragraph. We read: But
as the governments relaxed their regulations
and interventions, in the 1990s,
following the free market policies to their logical extent from current account to capital account
convertibility, they faced unprecedented
crisis. So the main cause of the
crisis was inadequate government regulation.
What is the author’s
recommendation about government role? For this we have to go to the last two
paragraph. We see that the author is not very clear what the government role
should be. All he recommends is that areas be identified for government role,
leaving others for the private sector. This is a typically bureaucratic answer
and it means nothing. So the author’s recommendations for role of the
government are not very clear.
The title of the passage should be
related to the question asked by the author in the beginning and the answer he
gives in the end. Since the author is of the opinion that planning does play a
role, the proper title should be: “The Importance of Planning.”
What we have learnt:
1. Making a mind map of
the passage works and answer become easier to locate.
2. We have learnt to anticipate
the answers because we have framed the answers ourselves. Locating these
answers in the given choices would not be difficult.
Example 2.4
Directions: Read the passage given below and write a
one-line answer to the questions that follow. Remember to be as specific as
possible.
Passage
The
Einstein story is an absorbing account of
how a scientific achievement caught
the popular imagination and made international headlines. It all began
with Isaac Newton, who, while propounding
his universal law of gravitation, wondered whether like all material
objects in the universe, light is subject
to gravitational attraction. Would a ray
of light skirting a massive body, bend its path? This was the question
Newton posed, but did not answer, perhaps
because he felt that the effect, if any, would be too small to measure with the techniques available
to him.
In 1801, Johann von Soldner carried out a calculation by
assuming that a light ray was made of tiny particles (Newton had called them
corpuscles) which would be attracted by the massive body. It would, therefore, bend
the ray slightly. How slightly? A ray of light from a distant
star passing by the Sun would be bent by an angle less than four thousandth
part of a degree. This conclusion was of academic interest
since astronomers of the day were not capable of
measuring the effect.
After proposing special relativity, Einstein
undertook the
more ambitious task of producing a general
theory of relativity that incorporated
in it the phenomenon of gravity. His
early attempts led him to the conclusion no different from Soldner's so far as the bending of light was concerned. By 1911, he felt confident of his new theory and urged
astronomers to verify it. The
astronomers, too, were by this time confident
of being able to make the required measurements.
This meant checking if the direction
of a star changed slightly when it was passing behind the Sun. But how does one see a star so close to the Sun? The answer
is, when the Sun is totally eclipsed.
Total solar eclipses are rare events visible from
very limited zones on the Earth. In 1912, Argentinian astronomers went to Brazil
to make the measurements, only to be thwarted by a cloudy sky. A
second attempt by
German astronomers in 1914 to observe the eclipse in Crimea was prevented by
the onset of the First World War.
Nevertheless, these aborted attempts turned out to be fortunate from
Einstein's point of view. By 1915 he
realised that he had made a mistake in his calculations and the revised theory, now called the general theory of relativity, gave an answer that was double what he had got earlier; that is, a bending angle twice that given by Soldner based on Newton's theory.
General relativity was a highly mathematical
theory, beyond the grasp of most astronomers. Very few scientists at the time fully
appreciated its notions of curved space and
time. Fortunately for Einstein, though, there was one astronomer who did: Arthur Stanley Eddington at Cambridge, England. Eddington pressed for an expedition to measure this effect during
the eclipse due in 1919. For better chance of
success, two spots were
proposed for observation, one in Sobral in Brazil and the other in the island of Principe in Spanish Guinea in Africa.
The war ended in 1918, leaving very little time for
completing the preparations. The team going to Sobral led by Greenwich astronomer Crommelin had taken large 10-inch lenses for accurate
observations. However, the two
makeshift telescopes made from them
developed technical problems and in
the end Crommelin had to fall back
on a four-inch telescope. Eddington had
opted for Principe as it had a better weather record, but it turned rainy and
cloudy on the day. Fortunately, the
cloud cover cleared at the right time for Eddington to take the necessary
photographs. He needed to take some photographs
of the star-field after the experiment for comparison but couldn't because a local strike of
steamship operators forced him to return home early. Despite all these problems,
the data were analysed and presented
on November 6, 1919 at the Royal Society in London, to a crowded hall of
scientists against the backdrop of a portrait
of Isaac Newton. Would the results show him
(and Soldner) to be right or will the new (and weird) theory of Einstein be favoured? The suspense was broken by Astronomer Royal Sir
Frank Dyson whose account, followed by
reports from Eddington and
Cromnielin, upheld Einstein's
prediction. The audience felt the thrill of history being made.
Hindsight informs us that luck intervened on several occasions
during the episode. Einstein's earlier
wrong prediction escaped detection.
Be that as it may, the 1919 meeting consecrated Einstein as the greatest scientist of the last century. [746
words]
1. Why did Newton not study the hypothesis he
had proposed?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
2. Why does the author call
the earlier failures to measure light deviance as fortunate?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………..……………………………..………………………
3. How could astronomers
measure the bending of light from a star, as can be inferred from the passage?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..
4.
Einstein can be credited with proposing which concept for the first time,
according to the article?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
5. How much does a ray of
eight bend, precisely, while passing by the sun?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..
How
to attempt:
The keywords, as located in the questions, are: Newton, fortunate, Einstein’s
concept for the first time, and quantum of the degree that light bends while
passing by the sun.
We
create the mind map of the article by summing up the ideas contained in
different paragraphs, as follows:
Para
1. Newton’s theory
Para
2. Soldner’s estimation of the angle
Para
3. Bridge paragraph to astronomers’ calculation
Para
4. Calculations made by Einstein, also he was fortunate.
Para
5. Bridge paragraph
Para
6. Upholding of Einstein’s prediction
Para
7. Conclusion
Now
we are ready to do the questions. The reason why Newton did not study his
hypothesis is given towards the end of the first paragraph: perhaps because he felt that the effect, if
any, would be too small to measure with the
techniques available to him. There is a crucial word that the
student should notice: perhaps. This implies that the reason is
not known and we can only conjecture about it. Hence the answer to the first
question should be that the reason is not stated in the passage.
The
words luck and fortunate occur in the passage in the fourth and the last
paragraph. So the second question becomes an easy one. It was fortunate for
Einstein because he got time to correct his mistake.
The
third question calls for some detective work. It is inferential, because the
technique of measuring the bending of the light is not given in the passage.
The inference has to be made from the following lines: This meant checking if the direction of a star changed slightly when it was
passing behind the Sun. But how does one
see a star so close to the Sun? The answer is, when the Sun is totally
eclipsed. By reading these lines we can get the answer. Astronomers would
compare the position of the star when the sun was eclipsed and when it wasn’t,
and calculate the difference. Tricky? Yes, but students need to develop the
ability to infer answers because the answers may sometimes not be stated
directly.
For
the fourth question, we have to do some detailed reading. The passage is about
bending of the light of a star, but that is not the answer because Newton had
proposed it earlier. Another obvious answer could be theory of relativity but
we have to find a concept, or idea that no one had thought of earlier. The
answer is hidden in the third last paragraph: Very few scientists at the
time fully appreciated its notions of curved space and time. So the correct
answer is: curved time and space. This question shows the importance of being
clear about the answers before looking at the choices, because the student can
easily make a mistake here.
The
answer to the last question is: cannot be inferred. All we can make out is that
the light bends less than 8/1000th of a degree. Since the question
wants you to be precise, it cannot be answered.
What we have learnt:
1. The importance of
reading carefully and finding the answers that may be hidden in the text.
2. Be careful of words
that might change your answers.
3. How to solve
inferential questions.
We
are now ready to do an exercise and apply the above learning. This exercise
will help you anticipate the answers since answer choices are not given and it
will also help you to expose you to some passages of different topics.
Exercise 2.2
Directions: Read the passage given below and write a
one-line answer to the questions that follow. Remember to be as specific as
possible. Then check the answers given at the end of the chapter to see whether
you are spotting answers correctly.
Passage 1 [Music]
For
much of the 20th century, contemporary
classical music was divided, like so
much else, into two camps. On one side stood
the partisans of Arnold Schoenberg, an
Austrian master of atonal and 12-tone composition, a rigorous system
which replaced familiar melody and traditional
harmony with completely novel
arrangements of pitches. Opposing
them were devotees of Igor Stravinsky, who in such masterpieces as "The Rite of Spring"
(1913) showed that radical music
could be melodically and
rhythmically gripping, and not simply
a matter of unfamiliar tone relationships. Stravinsky himself turned eventually
to a terse and cool neo-classicism that lacked the rhythmic vitality and open-hearted expression that supporters had greeted in his earlier music.
Unlike
the actual one, this musical cold war ended
not in victory for one side or the other,
but in the realisation that musical choice was not limited to a
constricting either/or between Schoenberg
and the early Stravinsky. In recent
times, listeners and critics have
grown ever readier to explore musical
third ways, and Leos Janacek is one
of the principal beneficiaries. A Czech from Moravia, he spent most of his life (1854-1928) in provincial obscurity but wrote some of the most compelling modern compositions, and not only for voice. It could even be argued that his provincialism
was the making of him. While the two giants
and their followers disputed the new orthodoxies, Janacek cultivated a style of his own, rooted in the modes and rhythms of Moravian folk music, and in the
inflections of speech and birdsong, which
he transcribed assiduously.
He was inspired less by abstract musical
systems than by human events, personal and political. Few
composers have chosen a demonstration as a subject for a piano
work, but Janacek's "Sonate, 1-X-1905" was prompted by a
street protest in his hometown of Brno, in which Austrian
troops killed a worker calling for the establishment of a Czech
university. It is an extraordinary work, beginning with an uneasy
"Presentiment" and concluding with a stark, mesmerising
movement simply entitled "Death".
Much of Janacek's music has a
similar autobiographical immediacy. Two other piano
works, "On an Overgrown Path" (1908) and "In the
Mist" (1912), reflect his melancholy but defiant state of mind on having reached
his sixth decade without the recognition he deserved.
In 1917, at the age of 63, he met and fell deeply
in love with Kamila Stosslova, a housewife 38 years his junior. Though un-consummated, the relationship lasted the rest of his life and is reflected in many compositions, especially two remarkable string quartets: "The Kreutzer Sonata",
based on Tolstoy's story of marital discontent, and "Intimate Letters", a passionate outpouring which is
still one of the most daring works
in the quartet repertoire.
Janacek's infatuation fired his talents, and new impetus
came also with the creation of Czechoslovakia at the end of the first
world war. His patriotic fervour informs his great "Sinfonietta", which
begins with an exhilarating fanfare, and his
"Glagolitic Mass", set not
in Latin but in Old Slavonic. The
heart of Janacek's achievement is his vocal
music, and above all his operas, which
have become staples of the international
repertoire. As with the rest of Janacek's career, they took a while to
arrive: British audiences, for instance,
heard their first Janacek opera only
in 1951. His works were considered difficult because they were in Czech (though Janacek authorised translations)
and because their dramatic intensity often taxed the range and technique of singers and musicians. And Janacek's subject matter could seem daunting:
"The Cunning Little Vixen", for instance, requires most of the cast to appear as animals, and the heroine of "The Makropoulos Case" is a 300-year-old woman.
But
the popularity and stature of Janacek's
music has risen steadily, thanks to the
irresistible force of the composer's musical
and dramatic imagination, and to his unfailing
capacity to make characters live. His first operatic success,
"Jenufa", concerns a young woman
whose illegitimate child is secretly killed by her overbearing stepmother. Its second act consists largely of
two unforgettable soliloquies, the first by the mother girding herself to her
terrible deed, then the daughter, moving from fear to desolation. Yet somehow the opera ends in an uplifting spirit of acceptance, forgiveness and new strength. Indeed, a sense of renewal and continuity gives Janacek's operas their particular stamp. [713 words]
1. What were the two extremes of the
musical cold war as described in the passage?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
2. What does the author imply when he says
“his provincialism was the making of him”?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
3. What was so different in Janacek’s
music?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
4. What could be a reason that Janacek’s
music took time to arrive in Britain?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
5. What is the hallmark of Janacek’s music?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
Passage 2
[Management]
Nobody is quite sure when company man was born. Mr Sampson
speculates that the first real company was
the British East India Company, which
was founded in 1600 and ended up ruling India, aided by its own private army. By 1900 company man was a fixture. King Gillette, William
Wrigley, H.J. Heinz, John D. Rockefeller,
W.K. Kellogg and others hired armies
of black-coated managers to bring
order into their chaotic empires. In 1908 the Singer Company built the world's
tallest building in New York to house some of these managers, only to be outbuilt 18 months later by Metropolitan Life.
Two
men, above all, made sure that many more
towers would have to be built as the
century wore on: Frederick Taylor, the inventor of scientific
management, and Henry Ford, the father of
mass production. Mr Sampson usefully
reminds us that both men worried that
their ideas would be misused by
bores and bureaucrats. Taylor argued
that managers should see themselves as
the workers' servants, not their masters. Confronted with the news that his son, Edsel, had commissioned a new building for the firm's accountants
and salesmen, Henry Ford fired all the accountants and ripped up their offices. But, as is their way, the bores triumphed in the end. Ford's rival, General Motors, employed layers of managers to prevent the company from "getting lost in the subjectivity of personalities".
Europe was less enthusiastic than America in
celebrating company man. Europe's reply to Harvard Business
School, Insead, was not set up until 1959, and Europeans went
out of their way to refashion their company man according to their native traditions. The French filled senior company positions with bureaucrats from the grandes ecoles. The British built head offices modelled on aristocratic mansions. By the 1960s, however, European as well as American companies
seemed to be converging on a standard multinational model, with professional managers, rigorous control mechanisms and global ambitions.
From the first, company man had his critics.
"Your individuality is swallowed up in the individuality and purpose
of a great organisation," Woodrow Wilson opined in 1912.
Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" depicted a totalitarian
dictatorship in which bloodless managers make the sign of "T"
and swear "Oh, Ford". Franz Kafka, who worked as an
insurance clerk before retiring a broken man, lamented that "the only
true hell is there in the office, I no longer fear any other."
By the 1950s, denouncing company man was
something of an industry. Bestsellers such as David Riesman's "The Lonely Crowd",
William Whyte's "Organisation Man" and Vance Packard's
"The Status Seekers" pointed out that company men are dreadful
conformists, more interested in office politics than product
innovation.
But company man had rather more to fear than the sneers
of the intelligentsia. From the 1950s onwards, the Japanese inundated
western markets with better, cheaper, more reliable goods. Western
managers, who travelled east to find out why they were being
thrashed, soon discovered that the Japanese had developed a
method of "lean" production, based on team-work, which avoided
both the alienation and the waste of Henry Ford's system. To make
matters worse, Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and other corporate raiders set about breaking
up under-performing companies. Arguing that
companies had been hijacked by managers more interested in their pay and perks than shareholder value, the raiders
earned the enthusiastic support of
the ascendant new right.
Finally, the computer nerds of Silicon Valley
demonstrated that you can succeed in business without donning a
suit and marrying
the company. Hairy and sneakered, the nerds
thrived on chaos, working all hours
and none, according to their mood. "If
I want to change jobs," one of them told Mr Sampson, "I just turn my car into a different driveway." For all that, the nerds
were much closer to the real spirit
of capitalism, red in tooth and claw, than corporate men, becoming millionaires
or bankrupts before their 30th birthdays. [648 words]
6. What is the idea conveyed
when the author says that Taylor and Ford worried that their ideas would be
misused by bores and bureaucrats?
……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
7.
What were the criticisms of the company man by his detractors? List three
points.
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………..……………………………..……
8. What was the difference between American and
European approach to business management?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..
9. Why does the author say
that company man had more to fear than the sneers
of intelligentsia and what is the meaning of this phrase?
……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
10. Why are the nerds closer to the spirit of Capitalism,
according to the passage?
……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
Passage 3 [Genetics]
Some
pairs of names are inseparable. Rolls and
Royce. Alcock and Brown. Rogers and Hammerstein. So it is with Crick and Watson. Unless you are American,
in which case the inseparable pair is Watson
and Crick. In the past, scientists have
often operated alone. Today, they are as
likely to be part of a large team. But a genuine partnership of equals, working without assistance, is a scientific rarity. For a couple of years in the Cambridge of the early
1950s, though, that is exactly what Francis
Crick and James Watson were. The result
was the most important finding in the history of biology apart from the
discovery of evolution by natural selection: the
elucidation of the structure of dna.
They
were an odd couple. Jim Watson was an
American, a young graduate, and a biologist
through and through. Francis Crick was an Englishman in his 30s, still without a doctorate, and a physicist by background. The second world war had interrupted his academic career, and, like many
physicists after that war, he had decided
to switch to biology.
It was a propitious choice. X-ray crystallography, a hard-physics
discipline if ever there was one, was
opening up biology. X-rays could be
used to probe the structure of molecules,
and Linus Pauling, an American
scientist, had already used them to work
out some of the key features of the structure of proteins. Indeed, it
was fear that Pauling would trump them that
drove the pair on.
They
themselves did no experimental work on dna's structure. Indeed, for Dr Crick, it was officially a secondary matter. He was supposed to be at Cambridge to work on the structure of proteins. But the two
of them clearly felt that they could think
their way to the correct answer in their spare time, frequently over a
pint or two of beer -- a methodology that
would be the envy of most
researchers.
Ultimately, however, as Sherlock Holmes
observed, you need data to test a hypothesis. You cannot make
bricks without
straw. And in the case of dna, that
straw was x-ray photographs. Unfortunately,
the best x-ray photographs of dna were in the hands of another researcher, Rosalind Franklin, who worked in London. It was not until — in what proved to be one
of the more controversial episodes in 20th-century
science — one of Franklin's collaborators
showed the photographs to Jim Watson
that the pair were able to make their
critical breakthrough.
Franklin
had had the photos for months without being able to work out what Drs Crick and
Watson saw in them immediately
— that dna is a double-stranded helix. By building models
with bits of cardboard and scavenged equipment,
they showed that its component parts,
called nucleotides, link together in a rigid
system of pairs which allows the whole
thing to be reconstructed from a single
one of those strands. It can thus duplicate itself when a cell divides. They published the result in 1953. Shortly afterwards they went their separate ways.
The
usual honours rolled in, of course, including
a share, with Jim Watson and Rosalind
Franklin's "generous" collaborator, Maurice Wilkins, of the
1962 Nobel prize for physiology. And once
you are a Nobel laureate, you have a
certain licence to do things that others dare not. Dr Crick used his to tackle what is one of the few truly mysterious (as opposed to merely not-yet-understood) phenomena in science - human consciousness.
By now he had moved from the windy fens
of Cambridge to the sunny beaches of California. He ended his days at
the Salk Institute in La Jolla. He never did crack consciousness,
but he did live long enough to see the human genome decoded completely, even if
the story written there is not yet fully told. [625 words]
11.
What can be inferred about the nationality of the writer of this article?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………………………..……………………………..…………………………
12. What could be the reason
that many physicists had decided to switch to biology after the war? (second
paragraph)
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..……………………………………..……………………………..……………
13. Why does
the author say that it was a propitious choice?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………
14. What could be the reason
that Franklin could not see in her photographs what Crick & Watson could
see?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..
15. Dr. Crick got his
doctorate not for discovering the structure of the DNA but something else. What
can be inferred about academic research from this fact?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………
Passage 4 [Medicine]
“Cancer”
is one of those words that send shivers down the spine. The phrase “battle with
cancer” is a headline writer’s cliché. And the military metaphor was widened in
1971, when Richard Nixon – then president of the United States – announced an
initiative that later became known as the “war on cancer”. Cancer, however, has
not been beaten.
If
the past three decades of effort have seemed a disappointment, the next decade
could prove to be one of rapid progress. The battle against cancer is at a
turning-point. Because of recent advances, it is becoming possible to imagine a
time in the not-too-distant future when new medical treatment will be able to
tame the disease, transforming it from a potent killer into something akin to a
chronic complaint. The day when cancer no longer strikes terror in the heart of
those diagnosed with it may not be far away.
Researches have unravelled much of the basic
molecular biology of cancer and, aided by the outpouring of knowledge that the
Human Genome Project has yielded over the past ten years, they have come to
understand how the disease progresses. Indeed, they have come to understand far
more clearly than before that the term “cancer” properly refers not to a single
disease, but rather to a whole range of diseases that have in common only the
fact that they are caused by cells that do not know when to stop dividing. That
understanding has now reached the point where it can be turned into action. The
next few years should see an array of new treatments that will add up to a big
change in the way that cancer is viewed and dealt with by society.
This
is obviously good news. It does not stop there. This new approach may very well
herald a more general change in the way that many diseases are treated. For
much of what distinguishes the new cancer treatments from the old is the
precision with which they are aimed at the disease they are intended to treat.
However, achieving the great promise of this new approach will not be easy.
Doctors will have to change the way they diagnose and treat many diseases. Even
more wrenching will be the changes needed in how the drug industry operates.
At
the moment, most drug firms concentrate on so-called “blockbuster” drugs,
one-size-fits-all treatments for common conditions. These sell in huge quantities
and are wonderful for profits. But in fact many such drugs work on only some of
the patients they are given to, even though all those patients appear to have
the same symptoms. Worse, some patients suffer serious side effects while
others have few, or none. In the worst cases, this can lead to the withdrawal
of a drug that clearly works, in order to protect that minority. Worries of
this kind about Vioxx, a pain-reliever given to people with arthritis, caused
Merck, its manufacturer, to withdraw it from sale.
The
new approach will change this – paradoxically, by multiplying the number of
diseases. In the case of cancer, tumours that look identical under the
microscope are turning out to be very diverse when examined at the molecular
and genetic levels. Often, this means they require completely different
treatments, which explains why existing therapies work only for a proportion of
those afflicted. The hope is that this knowledge will lead to the development
of treatments for these individual “molecular-level” diseases, which will mean
both that more people can be treated successfully, and that treatment can be
confined to those individuals for whom it will actually work. Similarly,
molecular and genetic knowledge will reveal who is most likely to suffer side
effects, and that information will be reflected in which treatments are
prescribed.
From
the patient’s point of view this move to personalized medicine should bring
huge benefits. But today’s drug industry is ill-equipped to deliver them. One
obvious temptation for drug firms will be simply to focus on treatments for the
most common molecular subtypes of a disease, ignoring rarer subtypes and even
excluding people with these from clinical trials, and thus from being
prescribed the drugs themselves.
Another
risk is that the new drugs will be significantly more expensive than the old.
Although, in the long run, they should be cheaper to develop – because
companies will be able to hand-pick participants with the right genetic
subtypes for their clinical trials, and thus conduct those trials more
efficiently and cheaply – most drugs also will have smaller markets than their
predecessors, and so initially may have to be priced higher.
Whether
those footing the bill in the rich world – ultimately, taxpayers and patients –
will accept this argument, and pay more for individual treatments is uncertain.
And this still leaves the problem of patients in poorer parts of the world.
Countries wealthy enough to see their populations survive infectious diseases,
such as malaria, and go on to develop cancer and other disease of affluence,
are not necessarily rich enough to afford new and improved drugs. [833
words]
16. “The new approach will
change this – paradoxically, by multiplying the number of diseases”. Explain the
paradox mentioned in this line.
……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
17. Why does the author say that today’s drug
industry is ill-equipped to deliver personalized medicine?
……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………………………..……………………………..……………………
18. The article talks of
changes needed in how the drug industry operates. List two such changes
mentioned in the article.
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..
19. What
makes the author optimistic about an array of new treatments that are expected
to add up to a big change?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..…………………………………………..……………………………..………
20. Why does the author give the example of Vioxx?
……………………………..……………………………..……………………………..………………………………………..……………………………..…………
The man who does not read good books has no
advantage over the man who can’t read them. – Mark Twain
Answers
Exercise
2.1
1.
Politicians create controversies about patriotism and charge people like
Narayanmurthy and Tendulkar without realizing that they are the most patriotic
people we can ever have.
2.
Malicious people exist in the real world and also indulge in blogging, and
methods to control irresponsible bloggers need to be found.
3.
All tigers in Sariska have been poached but there has been only a bureaucratic
response by the government.
4.
Designer funerals enhance the chic factor and funerals have become looking like
marriages these days.
5.
The successful launch of Agni-III by DRDO has given India a deep delivery
system for nuclear warheads.
6.
The purported danger to Islam has been used by extremists to launch a jihad
against everyone with whom they have a slight disagreement.
7.
We can think without using signs, and hence we can say that we can think
without using language.
8.
The idea of globalisation is under threat, but it still lives because of lack
of alternative policies; the big trading powers are forcing agreements more
harmful than those done under WTO.
9. Peter Unwin, after listening to arguments on both sides of
the religion debate, has concluded in his recent book that the probability of
God existing is 67%.
10.
Genes order the manufacture of proteins through bases, which are like letters
writing out a sentence describing a protein molecule.
Exercise
2.2
1.
Schoenberg’s 12-tone composition with novel arrangements as opposed to
Stravinsky’s melodically gripping music [Paragraph 1]
2.
He was able to invent a new style without being influenced by either of the two
masters [Inferential question]
3.
His autobiographical immediacy, use of events and inflection of speech and
birdsong.
4.
They were difficult and beyond the technique of singers [send last paragraph].
5.
Cheerfulness, Uplifting spirit, a sense of upliftment.
6.
The bores and bureaucrats would use their exciting ideas to build large,
impersonal and boring organisations, as illustrated by GM’s example.
7.
(a) lack of individuality, (b) it was a dictatorship (c) it was boring.
8.
The Americans followed bureaucracy but the Europeans stuck to their native
traditions.
9.
Because alternate systems, such as the Japanese management system, were
becoming more successful.
10.
Because they could take risks and become were aggressive enough to become
entrepreneurs.
11.
Since the writer uses Crick and Watson, he is most probably British.
12.
They were horrified of the destructive power of physics (inferential question).
13.
It was propitious because physics was opening up biology.
14.
Crick & Watson were already thinking along the lines and had a hypothesis,
while Franklin was not.
15. That academic work is not oriented towards discoveries and
inventions.
16.
By identifying diverse causes and their cures.
17.
Because the drug industry focuses on most common diseases, ignoring rarer
sub-types. Further they sell bulk drugs from which profits are derived.
18.
(a) by changing from mass produced goods, (b) by looking at molecular level
diseases.
19.
It will change the way that cancer is viewed and dealt with by society.
20.
The example is given to show that drugs may be withdrawn because of side effects
to some people.
No comments:
Post a Comment