Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
Vasco Da Gama was the first European to find an ocean trading route to India. He accomplished what many explorers before him could not do. His discovery of this sea route helped the Portuguese establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia and Africa. The new ocean route around Africa allowed Portuguese sailors to avoid the Arab trading hold in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Vasco da Gama opened a new world of riches by opening up an Indian Ocean route. His voyage and explorations helped change the world for Europeans. Vasco da Gama’s maritime career was during the period when Portugal was searching for a trade route around Africa to India. The Ottoman Empire controlled almost all European trade routes to Asia. This meant they could, and did, charge high prices for ships passing through ports. When Manuel I became King of Portugal in 1495, he continued efforts to open a trade route to India by going around Africa. Although other people were considered for the job, Manuel I finally chose 37-year-old Vasco da Gama for this task.
On 8 July 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon with a fleet of four ships and a crew of 170 men. Da Gama commanded the Sao Gabriel. Paulo da Gama – brother to Vasco – commanded the São Rafael, a three mast ship. They sailed past the Canary Islands, and reached the Cape Verde islands and then continued sailing, though storms still delayed them for a while. They rounded the cape of Good Hope on 22 November and anchored at Mossel Bay, South Africa. They began sailing again and continued until they reached the Rio dos Bons Sinais (River of Good Omens). Here they erected a statue in the name of Portugal. They stayed here for a month because much of the crew were sick from scurvy – a disease caused by lack of Vitamin C. Da Gama’s fleet eventually began sailing again. Finally, on 20 May 1498 they reached India. They headed for Kappad, near the large city of Calicut. In Calicut, da Gama met with the king. But the king of Calicut was not impressed with da Gama, and the gifts he brought as offering. They spent several months trading in India, and studying their customs. They left India at the end of August.
SSC CPO 2021311)Why did Vasco da Gama’s crew stay at Rio dos Bons Sinais for a month?
Several crew members were suffering from scurvy.
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
My grandmother and I were good friends. My parents left me with her when they went to live in the city and we were constantly together. She used to wake me up in the morning and get me ready for school. She said her morning prayer in a monotonous sing-song while she bathed and dressed me in the hope that I would listen and get to know it by heart; I listened because I loved her voice but never bothered to learn it. Then she would fetch my wooden slate which she had already washed and plastered with yellow chalk, a tiny earthen ink-pot and a red pen, tie them all in a bundle and hand it to me. After a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and sugar spread on it, we went to school. She carried several stale chapattis with her for the village dogs.
My grandmother always went to school with me because the school was attached to the temple. The priest taught us the alphabet and the morning prayer. While the children sat in rows on either side of the verandah singing the alphabet or the prayer in a chorus, my grandmother sat inside reading the scriptures. When we had both finished, we would walk back together. This time the village dogs would meet us at the temple door. They followed us to our home growling and fighting with each other for the chapattis we threw to them. When my parents were comfortably settled in the city, they sent for us. That was a turning-point in our friendship. Although we shared the same room, my grandmother no longer came to school with me. I used to go to an English school in a motor bus. There were no dogs in the streets and she took to feeding sparrows in the courtyard of our city house. As the years rolled by we saw less of each other. For some time she continued to wake me up and get me ready for school. When I came back she would ask me what the teacher had taught me. I would tell her English words and little things of western science and learning, the law of gravity, Archimedes’ Principle, the world being round, etc. This made her unhappy. She could not help me with my lessons. She did not believe in the things they taught at the English school and was distressed that there was no teaching about God and the scriptures.
SSC CPO 2021312)Why did grandmother carry stale chapattis with her?
To feed the stray dogs
SSC CPO 2021313)Grandmother sang the morning prayer in a monotonous tone so that:
her grandson would learn it too
SSC CPO 2021314)Why did the grandmother accompany her grandson to school every day?
To read scriptures in the temple while he studied
SSC CPO 2021315)What kind of woman was the grandmother?
Religious
SSC CPO 2021316)What does the narrator refer to as the ‘turning point’?
He and his grandmother shifting to the city
Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.
A book by the Indian ambassador in the Netherlands highlights the historical and current exchanges that define the relationship between the two countries. The first book in which Malayalam appears in print is the ‘Hortus Malabaricus’ (Garden of Malabar), a 12-volume treatise, written in Latin and published in Amsterdam from 1678 to1693. Compiled over a period of 30 years, under directions from Hendrik van Rheede, a naturalist and colonial administrator, who was at the time the governor of Dutch Malabar, the Hortus Malabaricus gives a comprehensive account of the flora of the Malabar region, along with their properties and detailed sketches. Malayalam appears in this multilingual book, along with other languages that were common currency at the time, including Arabic and Konkani.
The Hortus Malabaricus was an important document of its time, as Venu Rajamony writes in his new book ‘India and the Netherlands: Past, Present and Future’, “the product of a multinational and multicultural team of botanical experts.” Yet, it remained lost to the public until a botany scholar from Calicut, KS Manilal, learned Latin and translated it first into English in 2003 and into Malayalam in 2008. Highlighting such instances of the Indo-Dutch artistic and cultural exchange through the last 400 years was the prime reason why Rajamony, who has been the Ambassador of India to the Netherlands, thought of writing this book. The book was released on 30 September 2019.
The connection between India and the Netherlands begins with the Dutch Golden Age, when the latter was a flourishing centre for commercial and artistic endeavours. Following Spain, Portugal and Great Britain, it also emerged as one of the great maritime nations of the world, establishing a far-flung empire thanks to the ventures of the Dutch East India Company. Over the course of his research for the book, Rajamony says, one of the things that surprised him was how taken the great Dutch master Rembrandt was with Indian miniature paintings, collecting them and even making drawings inspired by them. “I was pleasantly surprised to discover this as Rembrandt is considered an absolute master, who would only have made originals. It is very rare that a master like him would copy other artworks,” says Rajamony. According to him, this fact is indicative of the high esteem in which Indian art was held in Europe.
SSC CPO 2021317)Which statement is NOT true about ‘Hortus Malabaricus’?
It gives a comprehensive account of the life in the Malabar region.
SSC CPO 2021318)Which of the following about Rembrant greatly surprised Rajamony and also made him happy?
That Rembrandt, considered as the master, copied the Indian miniature paintings
SSC CPO 2021319)What inspired Rajamony to write his new book ‘India and the Netherlands: Past, Present and Future’?
Instances of the Indo-Dutch artistic and cultural exchange through the last 400 years.
SSC CPO 2021320)The passage is mainly about:
the historical relationship between India and the Netherlands