RC Passage tones

One often sees a question like, "What term would you use to describe the author's tone in this passage?". This answer options for this question can be sometimes puzzling. Given below is a table of possible tones an author can adopt while writing a passage. Try and understand all the of them to be able to effectively answer that type of question.

Guidelines for RC Tones

Possible tone	Meaning of the word
Acerbic	Harsh/ severe; bitter
Aggressive	Forceful; tending towards unprovoked offensiveness
Angry/indignant
Apathetic	Emotionless; not interested/ concerned; indifferent; unresponsive
Apologetic	Expressing remorse, regret, sorrow for having failed, injured, insulted or wronged another
Belligerent	Aggressively hostile; bellicose
Biased	Favouring one thing/person/group over another for personal reasons.
Caustic	Biting; acerbic
Commiserating	Feeling/ expressing sorrow for; empathizing with; pity
Condescending	Patronizing; showing/implying patronising descent from dignity/ superiority
Contemptuous	Expressing contempt/ disdain
Cynical	displaying a belief that people are always self-seeking and never altruistic in their actions
Derisive	Unkind and displaying contempt
Disparaging	Speak slightingly; depreciating; belittling
Dogmatic	Asserting opinions in an arrogant manner; imperious; dictatorial
Emotional	Easily affected by feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear and the like
Ethical	Dealing with principles of morality; honest; righteous
Euphemistic	Substitution of mild, indirect or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt
Grandiose	More complicated/ elaborated than necessary; pompous
Humanistic	Evincing keen interest in human affairs, nature, welfare, values
Humourous	Funny and amusing
Introspective	Consider one's own internal state of feelings
Incendiary	Causing strong feelings
Laudatory	Praising; extolling; applauding
Motivating	Impelling; inciting
Obsequious	Fawning; showing servile complaisance; flattering; deferent
Pedestrian	Lacking vitality, imagination, distinction
Populist	Egalitarian; pertaining to the characteristics of common people/ working class
Provocative	Inciting; stimulating; irritating; vexing
Romantic	Fanciful; impractical; unrealistic; extravagant; exaggerated
Sarcastic	Harsh, bitter derision; taunting; sneering; cutting remarks
Satirical	Ironical; taunting; human folly held up to scorn/ derision/ ridicule
Speculative	Theoretical rather than practical; thoughtful; reflective; hypothetical
Technical	Using terminology or treating subject matter in a manner peculiar to a particular field, as a writer or a book
Vitriolic	Full of anger and hatred
Vituperative	Cruel and angry criticism

RC Passage #2

PASSAGE II

The viability of the multinational corporate system depends upon the degree to which people will tolerate the unevenness it creates. It is well to remember that the ‘New Imperialism’ which began after 1870 in a spirit of Capitalism Triumphant, soon became seriously troubled and after 1914 was characterized by war, depression, breakdown of the international economic system and war again, rather than Free Trade, Pax Britannica and Material Improvement. A major reason was Britain’s inability to cope with the by-products of its own rapid accumulation of capital: i.e., a class-conscious labour force at home; a middle class in the hinterland; and rival centres of capital on the Continent and in America. Britain’s policy tended to be atavistic and defensive rather than progressive—more concerned with warding off new threats than creating new areas of expansion. Ironically, Edwardian England revived the paraphernalia of the landed aristocracy it had just destroyed. Instead of embarking on a ‘big push’ to develop the vast hinterland of the Empire, colonial administrators often adopted policies to arrest the development of either a native capitalist class or a native proletariat which could overthrow them.

As time went on, the centre had to devote an increasing share of government activity to military and the other unproductive expenditures; they had to rely on alliances with an inefficient class of landlords, officials and soldiers in the hinterland to maintain stability at the cost of development. A great part of the surplus extracted from the population was thus wasted locally.

The New Mercantilism (as the Multinational Corporate System of special alliances and privileges, aid and tariff concessions is sometimes called) faces similar problems of internal and external division. The centre is troubled, excluded groups revolt and even some of the affluent are dissatisfied with the roles. Nationalistic rivalry between major capitalist countries remains an important divisive factor. Finally, there is the threat presented by the middle classes and the excluded groups of the underdeveloped countries. The national middle classes in the underdeveloped countries came to power when the centre weakened but could not, through their policy of import substitution manufacturing, establish a viable basis for sustained growth. They now face a foreign exchange crisis and an unemployment (or population) crisis—the first indicating their inability to function in the international economy and the second indicating their alienation from the people they are supposed to lead. In the immediate future, these national middle classes will gain a new lease of life as they take advantage of the spaces created by the rivalry between American and non-American oligopolists striving to establish global market positions.

The native capitalists will again become the champions of national independence as they bargain with multinational corporations. But the conflict at this level is more apparent than real, for in the end the fervent nationalism of the middle class asks only for promotion within the corporate structure and not for a break with that structure. In the last analysis their power derives from the metropolis and they cannot easily afford to challenge the international system. They do not command the loyalty of their own population and cannot really compete with the large, powerful, aggregate capitals from the centre. They are prisoners of the taste patterns and consumption standards set at the centre.

The main threat comes from the excluded groups. It is not unusual in underdeveloped countries for the top 5 per cent to obtain between 30 to 40 per cent of the total national income, and for the top one-third to obtain anywhere from 60 to 70 per cent. At most, one-third of the population can be said to benefit in some sense from the dualistic growth that characterizes development in the hinterland. The remaining two-thirds, who together get only one-third of the income, are outsiders, not because they do not contribute to the economy, but because they do not share in the benefits. They provide a source of cheap labour which helps keep exports to the developed world at a low price and which has financed the urban-biased growth of recent years. In fact, it is difficult to see how the system in most underdeveloped countries could survive without cheap labour since removing it (e.g. diverting it to public works projects as is done in socialist countries) would raise consumption costs to capitalists and professional elites.

1. The author is in a position to draw parallels between New Imperialism and New Mercantilism because
1) both originated in the developed Western capitalist countries.
2) New Mercantilism was a logical sequel to New Imperialism.
3) they create the same set of outputs—a labour force, middle classes and rival centres of capital
4) both have comparable uneven and divisive effects.

2. According to the author, the British policy during the ‘New Imperialism” period tended to be defensive because
1) it was unable to deal with the fallouts of a sharp increase in capital.
2) its cumulative capital had undesirable side-effects.
3) its policies favoured developing the vast hinterland.
4) it prevented the growth of a set-up which could have been capitalistic in nature.

3. In the sentence, ‘They are prisoners of the taste patterns and consumption standards set at the centre.’(fourth paragraph), what is the meaning of ‘centre’?
1) National government.
2) Native capitalists.
3) New capitalists.
4) None of the above.

4. Under New Mercantilism, the fervent nationalism of the native middle classes does not create conflict with the multinational corporations because they (the middle classes)
1) negotiate with the multinational corporations.
2) are dependent on the international system for their continued prosperity.
3) are not in a position to challenge the status quo.
4) do not enjoy popular support.

RC Passage #1

PASSAGE I

The union government’s present position vis-à-vis the upcoming United Nations conference on racial and related discrimination world-wide seems to be the following: discuss race please, not caste; caste is our very own and not at all as bad as you think. The gross hypocrisy of that position has been lucidly underscored by Kancha Ilaiah. Explicitly, the world community is to be cheated out of considering the matter on the technicality that caste is not, as a concept, tantamount to a racial category. Internally, however, allowing the issue to be put on agenda at the said conference would, we are patriotically admonished, damage the country’s image. Somehow, India’s virtual beliefs elbow out concrete actualities. Inverted representations, as we know, have often been deployed in human histories as balm for the forsaken—religion being the most persistent of such inversions. Yet, we would humbly submit that if globalising our markets are thought good for the ‘national’ pocket, globalising our social inequities might not be so bad for the mass of our people. After all, racism was as uniquely institutionalised in South Africa as caste discrimination has been within our society; why then can’t we permit the world community to express itself on the latter with a fraction of the zeal with which, through the years, we pronounced on the former?

As to the technicality about whether or not caste is admissible into the agenda about race (that the conference is also about ‘related discriminations’ tends to be forgotten), a reputed sociologist has recently argued that where race is a ‘biological’ category caste is a ‘social’ one. Having earlier fiercely opposed implementation of the Mandal Commission Report, the said sociologist is at least to be complimented now for admitting, however tangentially, that caste discrimination is a reality, although, in his view, incompatible with racial discrimination. One would like quickly to offer the hypothesis that biology, in important ways that affect the lives of many millions, is in itself perhaps a social construction. But let us look at the matter in another way.

If it is agreed—as per the position today at which anthropological and allied scientific determinations rest—that the entire race of homo sapiens derived from an originary black African female (called ‘Eve’) then one is hard put to understand how, on some subsequent ground, ontological distinctions are to be drawn either between races or castes. Let us also underline the distinction between the supposition that we are all god’s children and the rather more substantiated argument about our descent from ‘Eve’, lest both positions are thought to be equally diversionary. It then stands to reason that all subsequent distinctions are, in modern parlance, ‘constructed’ ones, and, like all ideological constructions, attributable to changing equations between knowledge and power among human communities through contested histories here, there, and elsewhere.

This line of thought receives, thankfully, extremely consequential buttress from the findings of the Human Genome project. Contrary to earlier (chiefly 19th century colonial) persuasions on the subject of race, as well as, one might add, the somewhat infamous Jensen offerings in the 20th century from America, those findings deny genetic difference between ‘races’. If anything, they suggest that environmental factors impinge on gene-function, as a dialectic seems to unfold between nature and culture. It would thus seem that ’biology’ as the constitution of pigmentation enters the picture first only as a part of that dialectic. Taken together, the originary mother stipulation and the Genome findings ought indeed to furnish ground for human equality across the board, as well as yield policy initiatives towards equitable material dispensations aimed at building a global order where, in Hegel’s stirring formulation, only the rational constitutes the right. Such, sadly, is not the case as everyday fresh arbitrary grounds for discrimination are constructed in the interests of sectional dominance.

1. When the author writes ‘globalising our social inequities’, the reference is to:
1) going beyond an internal deliberation on social inequity.
2) dealing with internal poverty through the economic benefits of globalisation.
3) going beyond an internal delimitation of social inequity.
4) achieving disadvantaged people’s empowerment, globally.

2. According to the author, ‘inverted representations as balm for the forsaken’:
1) is good for the forsaken and often deployed in human histories.
2) is good for the forsaken, but not often deployed historically for the oppressed.
3) occurs often as a means of keeping people oppressed.
4) occurs often to invert the status quo.

3. Based on the passage, which broad areas unambiguously fall under the purview of the UN conference being discussed?
A Racial prejudice.
B Racial pride.
C Discrimination, racial or otherwise.
D Caste-related discrimination.
E Race-related discrimination.
1) A, E
2) C, E
3) A, C, E
4) B, C, D

4. According to the author, the sociologist who argued that race is a ‘biological’ category and caste is a ‘social’ one:
1) generally shares the same orientation as the author’s on many of the central issues discussed.
2) tangentially admits to the existence of ‘caste’ as a category.
3) admits the incompatibility between the people of different race and caste.
4) admits indirectly that both caste-based prejudice and racial discrimination exist.

5. An important message in the passage, if one accepts a dialectic between nature and culture, is that:
1) the results of the Human Genome Project reinforces racial differences.
2) race is at least partially a social construct.
3) discrimination is at least partially a social construct.
4) caste is at least partially a social construct.

PG Word Game thread

I found an interesting thread on PG

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/english-resources/14478-a-word-game.html

Please subscribe to this thread and participate in it as often as you can. It will very beneficial to your vocabulary.

RC Passages

Hello all,

In the interest of improving the group's performance in RC, I intend to start the practice of posting two RC passages per week on the blog. I will require all of you to answer the questions following the passage and mail the options to me (on my email ID not on the group's ID). I will post the answers at the end week with explanations for any doubts.

I hope everyone enthusiastically takes part in this exercise

Cheers

Welcome!

Welcome, Bangalore Puys to the study group VA Blog! This is the place to post verbal ability q's, RC passages, ask questions, add links to good VA-related sites and just about anything related to VA section of CAT.

So let us hope that this endeavour helps us ameliorate our discernment of the English language and aids us in fracturing the feline (or to put it simply Crack the CAT ;))

Cheers :)