Passage 2
Anger has become the national habit. You see it on the sullen faces of fashion models who have obviously been told that anger sells. It pours out of the radio all day. Mumbai journalism hams snarl and shout at each other on television. Generations exchange sneers on TV and printed page. Ordinary people abuse leaders, administrators and the politicians with shockingly personal insults. Rudeness is a justifiable way of showing you can no longer control the fury within. Vile speech, justified on the same ground, is inescapable.
India is angry at New Delhi, angry at the press, angry at immigrants, angry at television, angry at traffic, angry at people who are well off and angry at people who are poor, angry at the conservative and angry at the modern.
The old are angry at the young, young angry at the old. Suburbs are angry at cities, cities are angry at suburbs, and rustic India is angry at both whenever urban and suburban intruders threaten the peaceful rustic sense of having escaped from God’s Angry Land.
Enough: A complete catalog of the varieties of bile spoiling the Indian day would fill a library. The question is why. Why has anger become a reflexive response to the inevitable vagaries of national life?
Living perpetually at the boiling point seems to leave the country depressed and pessimistic. Study those scowling models wearing the latest clothes in the Sunday papers and glossy magazines. Those are faces that expect only the IJ-worst. What a pity to waste such lovely new ill clothes on people so incapable of happiness.
The popularity of anger is doubly puzzling, not only because the Indian habit even in the worst of times has traditionally been one of mindless optimism, but also because there is relatively little nowadays for the nation to be angry about.
The country happily elected Prime Minister Nehru in 1947 because it believed his campaign boast about giving it peace and prosperity. The “peace,” of course, was life under the endless threat of poverty and inequality, as viewed under Fabian Socialism.
By contrast, the country now, at last, really does enjoy peace, and if the prosperity is not so solid as it was in the 1950s, Indian resources is still the world’s vastest. So, with real peace and prosperity, what’s to be furious about?
The explanation, I suspect, is that the country got itself addicted to anger and can’t shake the habit. It was hooked long ago when there was very good reason for anger.
Massive, irritating and even scary expressions of it were vital in shaking an obdurate government, contemptuous of public opinion, from its determination to pursue policies damaging to the Indian fabric of living.
Massive, irritating and even scary expressions of anger-from Indians of all communities were needed for the triumph of democracy and the people’s rights movement.
These were monumental victories. If the nation had been unwilling to get mad to shout, “We’re not going to take it anymore!” -they might not have been won.
But what monumental struggle confronts us now ? Giving a young citizen a stake in India is our most pressing problem, but nobody shouts much about that. Most other problems are so unmonumental that we might think the time is ripe for greatness: an era of civility conducive to good feeling among neighbors of all races and persuasions, a golden age of progress in learning and the arts and science.
Is this making you angry ? It’s easy to imagine the cries of rage from a people habituated to crying rage: Are women not still oppressed by glass ceilings ? Do members of the Backward Class no longer have to suffer the disrespect of the casteist world ? Who dares talk of prosperity when the wealth is distributed so unfairly?
True, all true. There is far too much poverty, casteism remains an affliction, women still don’t have economic equality with men. These present economists, philosophers and statesmen with exceedingly complex problems not amenable to solution by red-hot anger.
Politically minded people concerned with these issues have always known that low-grade anger must be maintained, that political feet must be kept to the fire, that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and so on. The high-intensity fury now seething through the land on these and a hundred other issues, however, doesn’t seem focused on any social or economic goal. It’s as though the nation got mad as hell a long time ago, got good results, and now can’t shake the anger habit.
1. Which of the following, if true, best strengthens the author’s contention, as expressed in the passage ?
(1) The citizens of the nation were a happy and a satisfied lot.
(2) The leaders had put in dedicated and devoted hardwork to make the nation prosperous.
(3) Mere anger is no solution to the economic and social problems, a pragmatic and a cool-headed approach is the need of the hour.
(4) Leaders are responsible for the path and the destiny of the nation.
2. According to the passage, anger is the result of :
(1) mindless optimism of people and things not shaping as per their expectations.
(2) frustration and disillusionment at the state of economic inequality and poverty prevailing in the nation.
(3) it being the national habit, a reflexive response to the inevitable vagaries of national life.
(4) discrimination on grounds of caste, religion and language.
3. Which of the following, if true, goes against the views endorsed by the author, as brought out in the passage ?
(1) There is no reason for the gush of anger.
(2) Vile speech and rudeness is the justifiable way of showing that the fury within is uncontrollable.
(3) The nation has every reason to be angry for there is a wide gap between promises and fulfilments.
(4) Problems do not get solved through the emotion of anger.
4. The logic, around which the contents of the passage hover, is best represented by which of the following ?
(1) Anger pushes nations and individuals forward in the path of progress and prosperity.
(2) Anger of the leaders would bring in an element of discipline and restraint in the citizens.
(3) Citizens’ anger result in the leaders becoming accountable for the lapses committed in policy framing and their administration.
(4) Complex economic and social problems do not run away, only through of the anger expressed by one and all, a serious application of mind, for arriving at their solutions, is called for.
5.A suitable title for the passage could be :
(1) National Problems Are Complex.
(2) Anger Has To Be Balanced.
(3) Discipline Is The Key To A Nation’s Prosperity.
(4) Leaders Are Responsible For The Nation’s Ills.
6.The author’s reaction on ‘anger’, as brought out in the passage is :
(1) angry
(2) balanced
(3) advocating
(4) make-believe
7. The ‘angry wave’, according to the passage, was because :
(1) it was unanticipated and unexpected.
(2) the citizens were mindlessly optimistic.
(3) there was very little reason for the citizens to be angry.
(4) All except (1).
8. The passage comes out with the viewpoint of the politically wise people that :
(1) low-grade anger is to be discarded in preference to high-grade one.
(2) low-grade anger is to preferred to high grade one.
(3) anger is harmful, so there is no question of preferring one to the other.
(4) None of the above.
9. The passage is at best an extract from:
(1) a free lance writeup on the lop-sided thinking prevailing in the country.
(2) a description of the desperate position in which the country is pushed into, resulting in the outcry of the citizens.
(3) an analysis tracing the successes and failures of the various policies pursued by the country.
(4) a lecture on the outcome of a false and an incorrect decision which seals the fate of the country.
Note :
Reading Comprehension asked under English section in CLAT can be assumed to be an easy and ‘ not to be left ‘ section (Easy because all the answers are contained in the passage itself). It all depends on your ability to read a particular passage in a given time ( usually 5-7 minutes ) and then answer the questions based on the passage.Those who have been scoring low in Reading Comprehension, it’s never too late. Become a voracious reader. Read anything (particularly standard newspapers ) that your hands can lay on and then see the difference in your performance (Time management is also a must in this case. )
All The Best !
The above write-up has been contributed by The Knowledge Tree, Patna’s premier coaching institute for CLAT and other law entrance exams like AILET, SET, LSAT etc.