1. When learners can act from their most vital selves, their curiosity emerges. They want to make sense of things and seek out challenges that are in their range of capacities and values. This leads to what human beings experience as interest, the emotional nutrient for a continuing positive attitude toward learning. When we feel interested, we have to make choices about what to do to follow that interest. Such choosing or self-determination involves a sense of feeling free in doing what one has chosen to do (Deci and Ryan, 1991). For the process of learning—thinking, practicing, reading, revising, studying, and other similar activities—to be desirable and genuinely enjoyable, adults must see themselves as personally endorsing their own learning.

Ques. According to the passage, which of the following is true?

2. Birds have long played a central role in superstitions. However, the role birds have played varies greatly. While crows were thought to be in league with the devil, blue birds were usually considered signs of good fortune. Blue Jays, in contrast, were seldom assigned a positive role in superstition and legend. Most of the time, they were considered companions to the devil. According to one ancient superstition, blue jays were never seen on Fridays. Friday was their day to meet with the devil and pass on any useful gossip about souls who might be ready to go astray. Owls, in contrast, have played a number of different roles, some good, some bad. In several superstitions they are portrayed as wise counselors; in others, they are a sign that death is near.

Ques. Which of the following choices best identifies the main idea of this passage?

3. Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in full force—both online and on foot—searching frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other occasions throughout the year, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers.

The authors most likely use the examples in the passage to highlight the

4. The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups. To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which can be of four different types. Two of the possible bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines. So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide. The first feature of our structure which is of biological interest is that it consists not of one chain, but of two. These two chains are both coiled around a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that since there was only one chain in the chemical formula there would only be one in the structural unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.

In the paragraph , what do the authors claim to be a feature of biological interest?

5. The Western alphabet, which is used in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand as well as in other countries, originated in the Middle East. The people who gave the world this alphabet were the Phoenicians, a people who established colonies all over the Mediterranean, including Carthage in Africa and Gades in Spain. In their alphabet, the letters were represented by little pictures which represented sounds. The Phoenician A was Aleph, which means “bull”. and it
was made from a little picture of a bull’s head. The letter B was Beth which meant “house”, and showed the round-roofed buildings which you can still see today in Syria.

The Phoenicians had contact with another nation of sailors, the Greeks, with whom they fought and traded. The Greeks also started to use the Phoenician alphabet. They changed the names so aleph and beth became alpha and beta. The shapes of the letters are the same but they have been turned sideways. Of course, the first two letters of the alphabet give it its name. Over the years there have been changes. Latin developed an alphabet with some different letters to the Greeks, and other letters have been added since. But really westerners are using the same system of writing which has served them so well for thousands of years.

Ques. Which of the following are true statements in accordance with the information given in the above passage?