Direction (Qs.1 to 7): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.
It's hard to imagine a time in which it's been tougher to live in the countryside. It's not just a question of the usual complaints: that access to services – transport, hospitals, schools, even mobile phone coverage or broadband – is patchy. It's not just the fact that the countryside is suddenly vulnerable to all sorts of diseases: to ash dieback, to bovine TB and the Schmallenberg virus. It's that there's acute poverty in rural areas and it's a poverty that is seemingly invisible.
At least one-quarter of all farming families live on or below the official poverty line and, as the Observer reports today, many endured a rough 2012. The levels of borrowing that farmers require in order to run their businesses are mind-boggling; it's not uncommon for farmers to have debts well into six figures. The cost of animal feed seems to rise exponentially each year (an almost 40% increase in the two years I've been breeding pigs). The weather means many of us grew nothing other than a bumper crop of slugs last year, while the paperwork required for livestock is byzantine.
Farming used to be a communal activity, involving dozens of people sharing the highs and lows. Now, it can often be a lonely, isolated career. Farmers are often proud, private and practical people; their instinct is that an animal in distress should be put out of its misery. Little wonder that suicide rates among them are some of the highest in the country.
There are many reasons for the invisibility of the rural poor. The most obvious is that agricultural workers (and this is, sadly, a self-portrait) have a similar appearance to the stereotype of the homeless or needy: muddy boots, ripped jumper, unshaven, possibly smelling of dung or dirt. A wayfarer or tramp is, simply, well camouflaged out here. But the invisibility is also down to the old chestnut of class: the British countryside is still identified, in the national psyche, with the nobility, with the landed gentry and with well-spoken squires. People persist in idealising (or demonising) it as a place of horsey types and manor houses. The reality is that it's a place of yeomen who've left the land and who often can't make ends meet as decorators or plumbers.Question No : 1
What is the author’s view on the transition seen in farming as an occupation?
(1) As compared to the past, the people involved in community farming no more share the highs and lows.
(2) The countryside is vulnerable to all sorts of diseases.
(3) The current farming techniques have demoralised the farmers who once used to be proud, private and practical people.
(4) Earlier, farming used to be a group activity but now it has become an isolated career.
(5) None of theseQuestion No : 2
With reference to the passage, which of the following is the major reason which makes life in the countryside tough?
I. The insufficient transportation facilities and lack of healthcare facilities.
II. Acute poverty which is seemingly invisible.
III. Inaccessibility to mobile networks and internet.
(1) Only I
(2) Only II
(3) Only III
(4) Both I and II
(5) Both I and III
Question No : 3
Which of the following is opposite in meaning to “patchy” as used in the passage?
(1) Insufficient
(2) Adequate
(3) Magnate
(4) Distressed
(5) Cut
Question No : 4
What does the author mean by the statement, “The weather means many of us grew nothing other than a bumper crop of slugs last year.”?
(1) The weather conditions were so harsh the last year that only slugs could breed.
(2) Though the weather last year was very favourable, the crop yield was not massive.
(3) There was not enough rain last year to produce good crop yield.
(4) There was a bumper crop yield the last year owing to favourable weather conditions.
(5) None of theseQuestion No : 5
With reference to the passage, which of the following is the reason behind the invisibility of the rural poor?
I. The occasional suicides of the farmers pose them as weak and uncompromising members of the society.
II. The agricultural workers are often mistaken for tramps owing to their unkempt and needy appearances.
III. The countryside as a space of the distressed farmers is overshadowed by the perception that it normally comprises the nobility and the landed gentry.
(1) Only II
(2) Only III
(3) Both II and III
(4) Both I and II
(5) All of these
Question No : 6
Which of the following is opposite in meaning to “bumper” as used in the passage?
(1) Extraordinary
(2) Irrelevant
(3) Mean
(4) Seeping
(5) Meagre
Question No : 7
Which of the following statements is not true with reference to the farming families in the rural areas?
I. A quarter and half of them live on or below the official poverty line.
II. Most of them are under immense debts.
III. Owning livestock requires extensive documentation process which is not very feasible for farmers.
(1) Only I
(2) Only II
(3) Both II and III
(4) Both I and II
(5) None of these