Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.
Love of power is, perhaps, an even stronger motive than fear in enticing nations to pursue irrational policies. Although individual boastfulness is considered to be bad manners, national boastfulness is admired at any rate, by the compatriots of those who practise it. Throughout history, great nations have been led to disaster by unwillingness to admit that their power had limits. World conquest has been a will-o’-the-wisp by which one nation after another has been led to its downfall. Hitler’s Germany is the most recent example. Going backwards in time, we find many other examples, of which Napoleon, Genghis Khan, and Attila are the most noteworthy. When Khrushchev threatens to obliterate the West, I am reminded of past examples of a similar folly.
To spread ruin, misery and death throughout one’s own country as well as that of the enemy is the act of madmen. If East and West could cease their enmity, they could devote their scientific skill to their own welfare, to living without the burden of fear that only their own folly has caused. For it is in the hearts of men that the evil lies. The trouble lies in the minds often, and it is in enlightening the minds of men that the cure must be sought.
There are those who say: ‘War is part of human nature, and human nature cannot be changed. If war means the end of man, we must sigh and submit.’ This is always said by those whose sigh is hypocritical. It is undeniable that there are men and nations to whom violence is attractive, but it is not the case that anything in human nature makes it impossible to restrain such men and nations. Individuals who have a taste for homicide are restrained by the criminal law, and most of us do not find life intolerable because we are not allowed to commit murders. The same is true of nations. Sweden has never been at war since 1814.
None of the Swedes that I have known has shown any sign of suffering from thwarted instinct for lack of war. Political contests in a civilized country often raise just the kind of issues that would lead to war if they were between different nations. Not long ago, private disputes were often settled by duels, and those who upheld duelling maintained that its abolition would be contrary to human nature. They forgot, as present upholders of war forget, that what is called ‘human nature’ is, in the main, the result of custom and tradition and education, and, in civilized men, only a very tiny fraction is due to primitive instinct. If the world could live for a few generations without war, war would come to seem as absurd as duelling has come to seem to us.
SSC CPO 202131)Match the words with their closest meanings.
a. obliterate 1. fraudulent
b. entice 2.eradicate
c. hypocritical 3. lure
a - 2, b - 3, c - 1
SSC CPO 202132)According to the passage, war would seem absurd to us if:
we could live without fighting wars for a few years
SSC CPO 202133)In this passage the author:
doesn’t think that there is any element in human nature that cannot be curbed
SSC CPO 202134)Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
War cannot be eradicated from the world because it is in human nature.
SSC CPO 202135)Many countries have been led to their downfall because their leaders:
have not accepted that their powers have limits
Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.
Panchen Lama was just six years old when he was allegedly abducted by the Chinese government on 17 May 1995, along with his family members, after he was recognised by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama.
On the 25th anniversary of his disappearance, the Tibetan government-in-exile on Sunday demanded China to release the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, considered to be a reincarnation of Bodhisattva Amitabha.
In a statement issue here, the President of the exiled government, Lobsang Sangay, said China’s abduction of the Panchen Lama and forcible denial of his religious identity and the right to practice in his monastery is not only a violation of religious freedom but also a gross violation of human rights.
After orchestrating the disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama, Sangay alleged that China, a self-declared atheist government and infamous for its persecution of religious groups, placed a young boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as their own 11th Panchen Lama.
“This politically-motivated action failed, however, to displace the position of the true Panchen Lama from the hearts and minds of the Tibetan people. For Tibetans and Buddhists around the world, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima will always be the true Panchen Lama,” he added.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the 11th Panchen Lama’s disappearance, said Sangay, adding that 25 years is a significant time in an individual’s life.
He said the communist government must honour its claim of ethnic harmony in China by fulfilling the aspirations of the Tibetan people.
“It must right the wrong and release the 11th Panchen Lama along with his family, Chadrel Rinpoche, and all Tibetans unjustly imprisoned,” he said while appealing to the international community to make a concerted effort to press China to release Nyima and resolve the critical human rights situation in Tibet.
SSC CPO 202136)What is the real name of the Panchen Lama imprisoned by China?
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima
SSC CPO 202137)After reading this passage, it can be inferred that it is:
a news item
SSC CPO 202138)“This politically-motivated action failed.” Which action is being referred to here?
Placing of Gyaltsen Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama by China
SSC CPO 202139)Select the option which is NOT true:
The abduction of Panchen Lama and his family by China is an act of:
establishing ethnic harmony
SSC CPO 202140)What is the demand of the Tibetan Government-in-exile?
China should release the 11th Panchen Lama along with his family.