 |  |  |  |  |  |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Click here to learn
about the
Common GRE
pitfalls and how to
avoid them.
Learn how GRE
Winners Improve
their Reading skills
here.
Get some practice
solving typical 99
percentile tough
Math questions
here.
Click here to read
how Keith got a
1560 Score.
Of course, you
cannot forget the
all important
'Vocabulary'
section.
This section does NOT
give you thousands of
'dry' words with
meaning.
It provides you with the
1100 Most Important
SAT Words, and clear
illustrates their usage in
sentences.
GRE Verbal Practice
The following 50 Questions covering ALL sections of GRE Verbal are taken from the
Analogies & Verbal Practice for GRE Winners
The following 50 Questions covering ALL sections of GRE Verbal are taken from the
Analogies & Verbal Practice for GRE Winners
Analogies Practice Question Set (20 Questions)
(Need a quick brush up on Analogy theory? Have a look at our Top Tips for GRE Analogy section)
1. BEAR : HIBERNATE ::
(A) parrot : imitate
(B) curator : conserve
(C) bird : migrate
(D) prosecutor : accuse
(E) traveler : locate
2. HARP : PLUCK ::
(A) drum : tune
(B) piano : key
(C) banjo : strum
(D) rhythm: dance
(E) violin : fiddle
3 RAUCOUS : SOUND ::
(A) pale : light
(B) boisterous : uproar
(C) tanned : leather
(D) rough : texture
(E) solid : granite
4. ESSAY : OUTLINE ::
(A) experiment : apparatus
(B) play : set
(C) report : graph
(D) debate : rebuttal
(E) painting : sketch
5. REFLECTION : LIGHT ::
(A) movie : scene
(B) echo : sound
(C) sentiment : feeling
(D) iris : sight
(E) microphone : audibility
6. CAST : FRACTURE ::
(A) oxygen : trauma
(B) ambulance : conveyance
(C) dressing : laceration
(D) transfusion : blood
(E) detergent : antiseptic
7. SLICE : CAKE ::
(A) carve : turkey
(B) peel : peach
(C) mash : onion
(D) core : orange
(E) simmer : prune
8. MILK : EXTRACT ::
(A) expend : relish
(B) exploit : utilize
(C) explore : peruse
(D) rent : contrive
(E) plead : flatter
9. STORY : ANECDOTE ::
(A) newspaper : report
(B) joke : giggle
(C) commentary : quotation
(D) tune : euphony
(E) poem : limerick
10. LETTER : SALUTATION ::
(A) emotion : friendliness
(B) residence : address
(C) debate : consensus
(D) conversation : greeting
(E) telegram : information
11. ORDEAL : DIFFICULT ::
(A) idyll : carefree
(B) caprice : unfortunate
(C) intellectual : nostalgic
(D) explosion : tragic
(E) recess : natural
12. DRILL : BORING ::
(A) glue : attaching
(B) anchor : sailing
(C) die : shaping
(D) pedal : propelling
(E) ink : printing
13. DERIDE : MOCKERY::
(A) annoy : hostility
(B) patronize : condescension
(C) compensate : regret
(D) hasten : decision
(E) trespass : fortitude
14 MODIFY : INVARIABLE ::
(A) abscond : unhindered
(B) adjudicate : punishing
(C) defend : untenable
(D) flourish : lively
(E) protect : hazardous
15. PARSIMONIOUS : SPEND ::
(A) slavish : labor
(B) timid : invent
(C) irate : commend
(D) fearless : excel
(E) reticent : speak
16. REALITY : ILLUSORY::
(A) genuineness : specious
(B) purposefulness : impulsive
(C) speed : precipitate
(D) duplicity : cunning
(E) mind : imaginary
17. SPICE : FLAVOR ::
(A) sizing : cloth
(B) pigment : color
(C) aluminum : alloy
(D) manure : soil
(E) rock : power
18. TIMID : BOLDNESS ::
(A) sensitive : callousness
(B) perfect : blemishlessness
(C) nervous : melodrama
(D) concise : discrimination
(E) competent : disadvantage
19. DIVERSION : BOREDOM ::
(A) assurance : uncertainty
(B) aversion : hatred
(C) mystery : curiosity
(D) compensation : action
(E) sluggishness : tiredness
20. BUTTERFLY : CATERPILLAR ::
(A) beetle : worm
(B) frog : tadpole
(C) vulture : carrion
(D) horse : calf
(E) honeybee : drone
Analogies - Answers
1. (DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC) The habit of bears is to hibernate in winter; the habit of birds is to migrate in
winter. (C) {If you had formed your sentence merely as 'A bear hibernates', then (B) and (D) would also be possible
answers. You have to refine your sentence as shown above to eliminate these two choices.}
2. (CAUSE AND EFFECT) Music is produced from a harp by plucking the strings; music is produced from a banjo by
strumming the strings. (C)
3. (DEFINITION) A coarse sound is described as being raucous; a coarse texture is described as being rough. (D)
4. (THING AND PURPOSE) An essay is based on an outline; a painting is based on a sketch. (E) (An apparatus is
designed for an experiment, and not vice-versa. A set is designed for a play and not vice-versa. A graph is
sometimes used to illustrate a report, but a report need not always be preceded by a graph) (A)
5. (DEFINITION) A reflection is the return of light to its source; an echo is the return of sound to its source. (B)
6. (THING AND PURPOSE) A cast (meaning a rigid dressing made of plaster of Paris) is used for treating a fracture;
a bandage is used for treating a laceration. (C)
7. (ACTION AND PURPOSE) One slices a cake before eating; one carves a turkey before cooking. (A)
8. (SYNONYMS) (A reference to the first words in the answer choices shows that milk is used as a verb in this
question.) To milk and to extract are synonyms; to exploit and to utilize are synonyms. (B)
9. (DEFINITION) An anecdote is a short story; a limerick is a short poem. (E)
10. (DEFINITION) A letter starts with a salutation (such as 'Dear Sir'); a conversation starts with a greeting (such as
'Good Morning'). (D)
11. (DEGREE OF INTENSITY) An ordeal (meaning a painful experience) represents a heightened form. of a difficult
experience; an idyll represents a heightened form of carefree experience. (A)
12. (THING AND PURPOSE) A drill is a tool used for boring; a die is a tool used for shaping. (C) {If you had merely
formed the sentence "A drill is used for boring", then (A), (D) and (E) would also be possible answers. While glue is
used for attaching, and ink is used for printing, both of them get consumed in the process, unlike a drill or a die,
which can be used again and again for boring and shaping respectively. Pedal is an integral part of a bicycle, and is
not an independent tool. An anchor is used for preventing sailing, and not for sailing.}
13. (SYNONYM VARIANT) When one derides (meaning treats with contemptuous mirth) another, one indulges in
mockery; when one patronizes (meaning supports) another, one indulges in condescension. (B) {The related
synonym relationship is derision : mockery :: patronizing : condescension}
14. (ANTONYM VARIANT) Anything that is invariable (meaning unchangeable) cannot be modified; anything that is
untenable cannot be defended. (C) {The related antonym relationship is modifiable : invariable :: defensible :
untenable}
15. (DEFINITION) A parsimonious (meaning excessively frugal) person does not spend much; a reticent (meaning
reserved in nature) person does not speak much. (E)
16. (ANTONYM VARIANT) Anything that is illusory lacks reality; anything that is specious lacks genuineness. (A)
{The related antonym relationship is real : illusory:: genuine : specious I
17. (THING AND PURPOSE) The purpose of spice (meaning aromatic substance) is to add flavor; the purpose of
pigment is to add color. (B)
18. (ANTONYM VARIANT) A timid person does not show boldness; a sensitive person does not show callousness
(meaning emotional hardness) (A) {The relative antonym relationship is timid : bold:: sensitive: callous}
19. (ANTONYMS) Diversion (when it means amusement or entertainment) and boredom are antonyms; assurance
and uncertainty are antonyms. (A)
20. (YOUNG AND THE GROWN-UP) A butterfly is a metamorphosed form of a caterpillar; a frog is a metamorphosed
form of a tadpole. (B) {Even if (D) had been 'cow: calf', you could eliminate that choice, because a cow is a grown-up
calf, but both of them have the same form, unlike 'butterfly and caterpillar' or 'frog and tadpole'.
Sentence Completion - Two Blanks (10 Questions)
1. Although it is unusual to denounce museum not painting, it is quite common, even for those unenthusiastic about
sports, to criticize -- for their----.
(A) team… coach
(B) spectators .... inactivity
(C) athletes… snobbery
(D) scholars… apathy
(E) commentators .... partiality
2. Because the order in which the parts of speech appear in the sentences of a given language is decided merely
by custom, it is -- to maintain that every departure from that order constitutes a -- of a natural law.
(A) traditional transformation
(B) conventional transgression
(C) necessary .... prototype
(D) unjustifiable… violation
(E) unreasonable… formulation
3. Ultimately, the book's credibility is strained, the slender, though far from --, web of evidence presented on one
salient point is expected to support a vast -- of implications.
(A) unconvincing cacophony
(B) nonexistent superstructure
(C) indispensable array
(D) intricate… network
(E) imposing…. compendium
4. One reason why pertinent fossils are -- is that crucial stages of evolution occurred in the tropics where it is difficult
to explore for fossils, and so their discovery has --.
(A) unique .... resulted
(B) unconcealable .... declined
(C) uncommon .... logged
(D) recent .... resumed
(E) prominent .... failed
5. It is an error to regard the imagination as a mainly ¬- force; if it destroys and alters, it also -- hitherto isolated
beliefs, insights, and mental habits into strongly unified systems.
(A) visionary…. conjures
(B) beneficial… converts
(C) revolutionary .... fuses
(D) negative… shunts
(E) synthetic… integrates
6. Every novel invites us to enter a world that is initially strange; our gradual and selective orientation to its manners
-- infants' -- to their environment.
(A) imitates welcome
(B) completes introduction
(C) resembles adjustment
(D) alters .... blindness
(E) reinforces .... resistance
7. As the creation of new knowledge through science has become --, resistance to innovation has become less --,
taking the form of inertia rather than direct attack.
(A) controversial .... sporadic
(B) institutionalized .... aggressive
(C) essential .... effective
(D) public circumspect
(E) suspect lively
8. Rousseau's short discourse, a work that was generally -- the cautious, unadorned prose of the day, deviated from
that prose style in its -- discussion of the physical sciences.
(A) critical of .... lengthy
B) superior to ….austere
(C) bolder than …..intelligent
(D) consistent with .... unrestrained
(E) influenced .... uninspired
9. A truly -- historian of science, Meyer neither -¬the abilities of the scientists she presents nor condescends to them.
(A) unbiased scrutinizes
(B) objective inflates
(C) impressionable .... patronizes
(D) reverent admires
(E) analytic evaluates
10. The losing animal in a struggle saves itself from destruction by an act of --, an act usually recognized and -- by
the winner.
(A) submission .... accepted
(B) hostility avoided
(C) bluffing reaffirmed
(D) anger condoned
(E) hatred duplicated
Sentence Completion - Answers
l.B 2.D 3.B 4.C 5.C 6.C 7.B 8.D 9.B 10.A
Analysis
1. (B) The first missing word must have the same relationship to athletic events as museum goers have to paintings.
Why do people go to the museum? To see paintings, obviously. So, the first missing word must mean a class of ,
people : connected with athletics as watchers. Among the choices, It IS only spectators which has this meaning. So,
even from the point of view of the first missing word, we can choose (B) as the only possible answer. (You may be
tempted to choose commentators as a possible answer, but commentators can only be considered to be analogous
to critics of painting and not to all museum goers, most of whom are laymen.) Its pair word inactivity completes a
logical sentence which now means that whereas nobody criticizes a museum goer or not being a painter himself,
many have a tendency to criticize a spectator of athletic events for not being an athlete himself. So, (B) is the
answer.
2. (D) All the five choices for the first missing word can meaningfully fill the blank in the phrase 'It is ..... to maintain'.
So, we should look for a clue to the correct answer in the last part of the sentence. The phrase 'every departure
from that order constitutes a .... of a natural law' implies that the missing word here must be a synonym of departure.
Among the given choices, it is only transgression and violation which have this meaning. Now, if the order in which
the parts of speech (such as the subject, the predicate and the object) appear in sentences of a given language is
decided merely by custom, and there is no natural law governing it, it cannot be conventional to maintain that every
departure from that order constitutes a transgression of a natural law. So, (B) is not the answer. In this case, it would
certainly be unjustifiable to maintain that every departure from that order constitutes a violation of a natural law. So,
the pair of words in (D).gives a logical meaning to the given sentence, and is the answer.
3. (B) The first part of the sentence implies that the book's credibility (meaning believability; trustworthiness) is being
stretched beyond limit, "with a slender web of evidence on one salient point having to support .... of implications".
Among the choices for the second missing word, 'a vast superstructure of implications', 'a vast array of implications'
and 'a vast network of implications' all make sense in this context. So, (B), (C) and (D) are all possible answers from
the point of view of the second missing word.
Among the corresponding phrases that result from the choice of their pair words for the first missing word . 'the
slender, though far from nonexistent, web of evidence', 'the consistent with, we get, "Rousseau's short discourse, a
work slender, though far from indispensable, web of evidence' and that was generally consistent with the cautious,
unadorned 'the slender, though far from intricate, web of evidence', it is prose of the day, deviated from that prose
style in its the first that makes logical sense. So, (B) is the answer.
4. (C) The use of the phrase 'and so' as the conjunction means that the second part of the sentence must
corroborate the first. The first part of the sentence says that important stages of evolution occurred in tropical
countries where it is difficult to explore for fossils. Therefore the discovery of fossils pertinent to evolution must be
rare. Among the choices, only unique and uncommon are the suitable words for the first missing word.
The pair word of unique is resulted, but the phrase 'and so their discovery has resulted' does not make sense in the
sentence.
On the contrary, the phrase 'and so their discovery has lagged (meaning has slowed down)' makes eminent sense
in the context. So, (C) is the answer.
5. (C) The second part of the sentence means that imagination not only destroys and alters, but also '- isolated
beliefs, insights and mental habits into strongly unified systems'. Among the choices for the second missing word,
those that mean the conversion of isolated beliefs into strongly unified systems are fuses and integrates. So, our
search for the answer gets limited to (C) and (E).
Now, if imagination integrates isolated beliefs into strongly unified systems, it is certainly not an error to regard it as
a mainly synthetic force. So, (E) contradicts the first part of the sentence, and is not the answer.
If imagination fuses isolated beliefs into strongly unified systems, it will be an error to regard it as a mainly
revolutionary force. So, the pair of words in (C) completes a meaningful sentence, and is the answer.
6. (C) What the sentence apparently implies is that our gradual introduction to the world of a novel (which is initially
strange to us) is similar to the gradual orientation (meaning adjustment) of an infant to the physical world. So,
introduction and adjustment are the only possible choices for the second missing word, limiting our further
examination to (B) or (C).
The phrase "our gradual and selective orientation to its manners completes infants' introduction to their
environment" does not make any sense. So, (B) can be discarded.
With the pair of words in (C), we get the sentence, "our gradual and selective orientation to its manners resembles
infants' introduction to their environment" which makes eminent sense. So, (C) is the answer.
7. (B) The second missing word in the phrase 'has become less …….’should substantiate the phrase that follows it:
'taking the form of inertia rather than direct attack'. Aggressive is the only word among the choices for the second
word that fits in here. Its pair word, institutionalized, which means formally established completes a meaningful
sentence. So, (B) is the answer.
B. (D) The second part of the sentence means that the style adopted by Rousseau in his discussion of the physical
sciences deviated from the cautious and unadorned prose of the day. So, the second missing word must mean the
opposite of cautious and unadorned. Among the choices, it is only unrestrained that has this meaning when we re-
read the sentence along with its pair phrase unrestrained discussion of the physical sciences', which is an
eminently logical sentence. So (D) is the answer
9. (B) The use of the phrase neither - nor implies that the first missing word must imply the opposite of the phrase
condescends to them (meaning patronizes them from a superior position). Among the given choices for the second
missing word, inflates and admires are the only two which are the opposites of condescends.
Choosing (D) first, we get the sentence as, "A truly reverent historian of science, Meyer neither admires the abilities
of the scientists she presents .... ", which is self-contradictory.
The pair of words in (B) give the sentence, "A truly objective (meaning dispassionate) historian of science, Meyer
neither inflates the abilities of the scientists she presents nor condescends to them", which forms a logical
statement. So, (B) is the answer.
10. (A) An animal which is losing in a struggle cannot save itself from destruction by an act of hostility (because the
struggle implies that there is already hostility and it is losing in it), or by an act of bluffing, or by an act of anger, or
by an act of hatred. It can sometimes save itself by an act of submission, especially when such submission is
recognized and accepted by the winner.
Thus, the pair of words in (A) completes a meaningful sentence, and is the answer.
Antonyms (30 Questions)
Set 1
1. ABATE:
(A) attach (B) alter
(C) absent (D) assist
(E) augment
2. ABBREVIATE:
(A) extend (B) advance
(C) reach (D) diffuse
(E) deter
3. ABDICATE:
(A) condone (B) affiliate
(C) promote (D) attack
(E) usurp
4. ABERRANT:
(A) attractive (B) predictive
(C) blissful (D) normal
(E) precise
5. ABEYANCE:
(A) fulfillment (B) activity
(C) renascence (D) resistance
(E) continuance
6. ABHOR:
(A) inspire (B) credit
(C) improve (D) greatly admire
(E) promise absolutely
7. ABJURE:
(A) commingle (B) arbitrate
(C) espouse (D) appease
(E) pardon
8. ABOMINATE:
(A) gratify (B) esteem
(C) console (D) support
(E) foster
9. ABRIDGMENT:
(A) elaboration (B) enjoyment
(C) critical appraisal (D) irreversible change
(E)interpretation
10.ABROGATE:
(A) uphold (B) defer
(C) discuss secretly (D) admit willingly
(E) read thoroughly
SET 2
1. ABSCISSION:
(A) process of grafting (B)process of transforming
(C)state of fluctuation (D)lack of coordination
(E)absence of contamination
2. ABSOLUTE:
(A) inferior (B) tolerant
(C) qualified (D) preliminary
(E) immeasurable
3. ABSOLVE:
(A) create (B) bind
(C) devise (D) reveal
(E) launch
4. ACCELERATE
(A) swerve (B) arouse
(C) dispel (D) reject
(E) retard
5. ACCOLADE:
(A) disappearance (B) absurdity
(C) disapprobation (D) exclusion
(E) reconstruction
6. ACCOLADE:
(A) guarded emotion (B) scarce resource
(C) temporization (D) repercussion
(E) criticism
7. ACCREDIT:
(A) withhold approval (B) surpass expectations
(C) falsify records (D) make preparations
(E) foresee trouble
8. ACCRETION:
(A) disinterest (B) disagreement
(C) exactitude (D) adhesion
(E) attrition
9. ACCRETION:
(A) ingestion of a nutrient (B) loss of the security on a loan
(C) discernment of subtle merit (D) reduction in substance caused by erosion
(E) repulsion from an entity
10. ACERBIC:
(A) massive (B) grateful
(C) tiring (D) cooing
(E) sweet
SET 3
1. ACQUIT:
(A) sentence (B) perjure
(C) arrest (D) disclose
(E) convict
2. ADHERE:
(A) detach (B) cleanse
(C) engulf (D) incise
(E) contain
3. ADROIT;
(A) characterized by clumsiness (B) characterized by grandeur
(C) imperfectly executed (D) inadequately prepared
(E) partially completed
4. ADULTERATE:
(A) purify (B) contain
(C) stabilize (D) compress
(E) lubricate
5. ADULTERATION:
(A) consternation (B) purification
(C) normalization (D) approximation
(E) rejuvenation
6. ADVOCATE:
(A) rectify (B) enforce
(C) observe (D) denounce
(E) reimburse
7. AERATE:
(A) generate (B) create
(C) elevate (D) combine water with
(E) remove air from
8. AFFABLE:
(A) sentimental (B) disobedient
(C) irascible (D) equivocal
(E) underhanded
9. AFFILIATION:
(A) mismanagement (B) predisposition
(C) dissociation (D) disagreement
(E) acquaintance
10. AGGRANDIZE:
(A) misrepresent (B) disparage
(C) render helpless (D) take advantage of
(E) shun the company of
Antonyms - Answers
SET 1
Ans: 1. E 2. A 3. E 4. D 5. E 6. D 7. C 8. B 9. A 10.A
1. To abate means to make less. Its opposite is to augment, meaning to increase.
2. To abbreviate means to shorten. Its opposite is to extend, meaning to lengthen.
3. To abdicate means to voluntarily give up a position of power or legal title. Its opposite is to usurp, meaning to
forcibly or dishonestly assume a legal title.
4. To aberrant means to be abnormal; unusual; odd. Its opposite is normal
5. Abeyance means temporary suspension. Its opposite is continuance.
6. To abhor means to hate or to detest. Its opposite is to greatly admire.
7. To abjure means to give up; to renounce. Its opposite is to espouse, meaning to adopt; to embrace; to take up.
8. To abominate means to abhor; to hate; to detest. Its opposite is to esteem, meaning to respect; to revere; to
admire.
9. An abridgment is an abbreviation or shortening. Its opposite is elaboration, meaning expansion.
10. To abrogate means to abolish; to cancel; to repeal. Its opposite is to uphold, meaning to retain, to maintain.
SET 2
Ans: 1. A 2. C 3. B 4. E 5. C 6. E 7. A 8. E 9. D 10.E
1. Abscission means the process of cutting off Its opposite is the process of grafting.
2. Absolute means complete; whole; unconditional. Its opposite is qualified, meaning conditional; limited.
3. To absolve means to liberate; to set free. Its opposite is to bind, meaning to constrain; to shackle.
4. To accelerate means to increase the speed. Its opposite is to retard, meaning to reduce the speed.
5. Accolade means praise; esteem, honour. Its opposite is disapprobation, meaning condemnation; censure.
6. Accolade means praise. Its opposite among the choices is criticism.
7. To accredit means to accept; to approve as true .Its opposite is to withhold approval.
8. Accretion means gradual accrual; accumulation; increase. Its opposite is attrition, meaning gradual reduction.
9. Among the choices for this question, the antonym of accretion is reduction in substance caused by erosion.
10. Acerbic means bitter; harsh. Its opposite is sweet
SET 3
Ans: 1. E 2. A 3. A 4. A 5. B 6. D 7. E 8. C 9. C 10. C
1. To acquit means to exonerate; to find a person not guilty. Its opposite is to convict, meaning to find a person
guilty.
2. To adhere means to stick; to attach; to fasten. Its opposite is to detach, meaning to separate; to divide; to
disconnect.
3. Adroit means skillful; dexterous. Its opposite, among the choices, is characterized by clumsiness.
4. To adulterate means to contaminate; to mix with a spurious substance. Its opposite is to purify.
5. Adulteration means contamination; pollution. Its opposite is purification.
6. To advocate means to support; to defend; to champion. Among the choices, its opposite is to denounce, meaning
to blame; to censure; to condemn.
7. To aerate means to mix with air; to fill with gas. Its opposite is to remove air from.
8. Affable means pleasant; congenial; good-natured. Its opposite is irascible, meaning bad-tempered; irritable; testy.
9. Affiliation means alliance; association; connection; federation. Its opposite is dissociation, meaning separation;
division; isolation.
10. To aggrandize means to increase; to enlarge. No word among the choices appears to be an exact antonym of
this word, and the closest is to render helpless, which is also the official correct answer.
Sample Reading Comprehension Questions
There are 36 Passages in the Reading Comprehension Part of the Verbal Question Bank for GMAT
Winners. Here is are two sample Passages with answers.
PASSAGE-1
I want to stress this personal helplessness we are all stricken with in the face of a system that has passed beyond
our knowledge and control, to bring it nearer home, I propose that we switch off from the big things like empires and
their wars to more familiar little things. Take pins for example! I do not know why it is that I so seldom use a pin when
my wife cannot get on without boxes of them at hand; but it is so; and I will therefore take pins as being for some
reason especially important to women.
There was a time when pin makers would buy the material; shape it; make the head and the point; ornament
it; and take it to the market, and sell it. The making required skill in several operations. They not only knew how the
thing was done from beginning to end, but could do it all by themselves. But they could not afford to sell you a
paper of pins for a farthing. Pins cost so much that a woman’s dress allowance was called pin money.
By the end of the 18th century Adam Smith boasted that it took 18 men to make a pin, each man doing a little
bit of the job and passing the pin on the next, and none of the them being able to make a whole pin or to buy the
materials or to sell it when it was made. The most you could say for them was that at least they had some idea
of how it was made, though they could not make it. Now as this meant that they were clearly less capable and
knowledgeable men than the old pin-makers, you may ask why Adam Smith boasted of it as a triumph of
civilization when its effect had so clearly a degrading effect. The reason was that by setting each man to do just one
little bit of the work and nothing but that, over and over again, he became very quick at it. The men, it is said, could
turn out nearly 5000 pins a day each; and thus pins became plentiful and cheap. The country was supposed to be
richer because it had more pins, though it had turned capable men into mere machines doing their work without
intelligence and being fed by the spare food of the capitalist just as an engine is fed with coal and oil. That
was why the poet Goldsmith, who was a farsighted economist as well as a poet, complained that ‘wealth
accumulates, and men decay’.
Now-a-days Adam Smith’s 18 men are as extinct as the diplodocus. The 18 flesh-and-blood men have been
replaced by machines of steel which spout out pins by the hundred million. Even sticking them into pink
papers is done by machinery. The result is that with the exception of a few people who design the machines, nobody
knows how to make a pin or how a pin is made: that is to say, the modern worker in pin manufacture need not be
one-tenth so intelligent, skilful and accomplished as the old pin maker; and the only compensation we have for this
deterioration is that pins are so cheap that a single pin has no expressible value at all. Even with a big profit
stuck on the cost-price you can buy dozens for a farthing; and pins are so recklessly thrown away and wasted that
verses have to be written to persuade children ( though without success) that it is a sin to steal, if even it’s a pin.
Many serious thinkers, like John Ruskin and William Morris, have been greatly troubled by this, just as
Goldsmith was, and have asked whether we really believe that it is an advance in wealth to lose our skill and
degrade our workers for the sake of being able to waste pins by the ton. We shall see later on, when we come to
consider the Distribution Leisure, that the cure for this is not to go back to the old free for higher work than pin-
making or the like. But in the meantime the fact remains that the workers are now not able to make anything
themselves even in little bits. They are ignorant and helpless, and cannot lift their finger to begin their day’s work
until it has all been arranged for them by their employers who themselves do not understand the machines they buy,
and simply pay other people to set them going by carrying out the machine maker’s directions.
The same is true for clothes. Earlier the whole work of making clothes, from the shearing of the sheep to the
turning out of the finished and washed garment ready to put on, had to be done in the country by the men and
women of the household, especially the women; so that to this day an unmarried woman is called a spinster. Now-a-
days nothing is left of all these but the sheep shearing; and even that, like the milking of cows, is being done by
machinery as the sewing is. Give a woman a sheep today and ask her to produce a woolen dress for you; and
not only will she be quite unable to do it, but you are likely to find that she is not even aware of any connection
between sheep and clothes. When she gets her clothes, which she does by buying them at the shop, she knows
that there is a difference between wool and cotton and silk, between flannel and merino, perhaps even between
stockinet and other wefts; but as to how they are made, or what they are made of, or how the came to be in the shop
ready for her to buy, she knows hardly anything. And the shop assistant from whom she buys is no wiser. The people
engaged in the making of them know even less; for many of them are too poor to have much choice of
materials when they buy their own clothes.
Thus, the capitalist system has produced an almost universal ignorance of how things are made and done
whilst at the same time it has caused them to be made and done on a gigantic scale. We have to buy books and
encyclopedias to find out what it is we are doing all day; and as the books are written by people who are not
doing it, and who get their information from other books, what they tell us is twenty to fifty years out-of-date
knowledge and almost impractical today. Of course most of us are too tired of our work when we come home to want
to read about it; what we need is cinema to take our minds off it and feel our imagination.
It is a funny place, this word of capitalism, with its astonishing spread of education and enlightenment. There
stand the thousands of property owners and the millions of wage workers, none of them able to make anything,
none of them knowing what to do until somebody tells them, none of them having the least notion of how it is made
that they find people paying them money, and things in the shops to buy with it. And when they travel they are
surprised to find that savages and Eskimo villagers who have to make everything for themselves are more intelligent
and resourceful! The wonder would be if they were anything else. We should die of idiocy through disuse of our
mental faculties if we did not fill our heads with romantic nonsense out of illustrated newspapers and novels and play
and films. Such stuff keeps us alive, but it falsifies everything for us so absurdly that it leaves us more or less
dangerous lunatics in the real world.
Excuse my going on like this; but as I am a writer of books and play myself, I know the folly and peril of it better
then you do. And when I see that this moment of our utmost ignorance and helplessness, delusion and folly, has
been stumbled on by the blind forces of capitalism as the moment for giving votes to everybody, so that the few wise
women are hopelessly overruled by the thousands whose political minds, as far as they can be said to have
any political minds at all, have been formed in the cinema, I realize that I had better stop writing plays for a while to
discuss political and social realities in this book with those who are intelligent enough to listen to me.
1. A suitable title to the passage would be:
(a) you can’t hear a pin-drop now-a-days.
(b) capitalism and labor disintegration: Pinning the Blame.
(c) the Saga of the Non Safety Pins.
(d) reaching the Pinnacle of Capitalistic Success.
(e) the making of a pin
2. Why do you think that the author gives the example of Adam Smith?
(a) Because he thinks that Adam Smith was a boaster without any facts to back his utterance.
(b) Because he wants to give us an example of something undesirable that Adam Smith was proud of.
(c) Because he is proud to be a believer in a tenet of production that even a great man like Adam Smith
boasted about.
(d) Because he feels that Adam Smith was right when he said that it took 18 men to make a
pin.
(e) Because Adam Smith was a great economist.
3. Which of the following is true as far as pins are concerned?
(a) The cost of pins is more now-a-days to produce.
(b) Earlier, workmen made pin with a lot of love and care.
(c) Pinball machines are the standard pin producing gadgets now-a-days.
(d) The pins produced no-a-days are cheaper but useless.
(e) It took much longer to make a pin earlier.
4. The reason that children have to be taught that stealing a pin is wrong is that
(a) they have an amazing proclivity to steal them right from childhood.
(b) stealing a pin will lead to the cops being called.
(c) stealing a pin would lead to stealing bigger and bigger things in the future.
(d) stealing an insignificant thing like a pin smacks of kleptomania.
(e) pins are so common and cheap that one would not even be considered stealing by them.
5. It may be inferred from the passage that the author:
(a) is a supporter of the craftsmanship over bulk mechanized production.
(b) is a supporter of assembly line production.
(c) is a supporter of all women learning how to shear a sheep.
(d) is a supporter of men learning how to milk a cow.
(e) None of the above.
6. Which of the following is not against the modern capitalistic system of mass production?
(a) John Ruskin. (b) Goldsmith.
(c) Adam Smith. (d) William Morris (e) Silverman
7. Goldsmith’s dictum, “wealth accumulates, and men decay, “in the context of the passage, probably
means
(a) the more wealthy people get, they become more and more corrupt.
(b) the more rich people get, the more they forget the nuances of individual ability.
(c) people may have a lot of money, but they have to die and decay someday.
(d) the more a company gets wealthy, the less they take care of people.
(e) money brings in decay and disease.
8. When the author says that a woman now is likely to not know about any connection between sheep
and clothes, he is probably being:
(a) vindictive. (b) chauvinistic. (c) satirical. (d) demeaning
(e) extremely critical
9. Which of the following can be a suitable first line to introduce the hypothetical next paragraph at the
end of passage?
(a) The distribution of leisure is not a term that can be explained in a few words.
(b) If people wear clothes they hardly seem to think about the method of production.
(c) Machines are the gods of our age and there seems to be no atheists.
(d) Machines are the demigods of our age.
(e) None of the above.
PASSAGE-2
Now let us turn back to inquire whether sending our capital abroad, and consenting to be taxed to pay
emigration fares to get rid of the women and men who are left without employment in consequence, is all that
capitalism can do
when our employers, who act for our capitalists in industrial affairs, and are more or less capitalists
themselves in the earlier stages of capitalistic development, find that they can sell no more of their goods at a profit,
or indeed at all, in their own country. Clearly they cannot send abroad the capital they have already invested,
because it has all been eaten up by the workers leaving in its place factories and railways and mines and the like;
and these cannot be packed into a ship’s hold and sent to Africa. It is only the freshly saved capital that can be sent
out of the country. This, as we have seen, does go abroad in heaps of finished products. But the British land held by
him on long lease, must, when once he has sold all the goods at home that his British customers can afford to buy,
either shut up his works until the customers have worn out their stock of what they have bought, which would
bankrupt him (for the landlord will not wait), or else sell his superfluous goods somewhere else; that is, he must send
them abroad. Now it is not easy to send them to civilized countries, because they practice protection, which means
that they impose heavy taxes on foreign goods. Uncivilized countries, without protection, and inhabited by natives
to whom gaudy calicoes and cheap showy brassware are dazzling and delightful novelties, are the best places to
make for at first.
But a trader requires a settled government to put down the habit of plundering strangers. This is not a habit of
simple tribes, who are often friendly and honest. It is what civilized men do where there is no law to restrain
them.
Until quite recent times it was extremely dangerous to he wrecked on our coasts, as wrecking, which meant
plundering wrecked ships and refraining from any officious efforts to save the lives of their crews was a well-
established business in many places on our shores. The Chinese still remember some astonishing outbursts of
looting perpetrated by English ladies of high position, at moments when laws were suspended and priceless
works of art were to be had for the grabbing. When trading with aborigines begins with the visit of a single ship, the
cannons and cutlasses carried may be quite sufficient to overawe the natives if they are troublesome. The real
difficulty begins when so many ships come that a little trading station of white men grows up and attracts the
white never-do-wells and violent roughs who are always being squeezed out of civilization by the pressure of law and
order. It is these riff–raff who turn the place into a sort of hell in which sooner or later missionaries are
murdered and traders plundered. Their home governments are appealed to put a stop to this. A gunboat is sent out
and inquiry made. The report after the inquiry is that their is nothing to be done but set up a civilized government,
with a post office, police, troops and the navy in the offing. In short, the place is added to some civilized empire. And
the civilized taxpayer pays the bill without getting a farthing of the profits. Of course the business does not stop
there.
The riff-raff who have created the emergency move out just beyond the boundary of the annexed territory,
and are as great a nuisance as ever to the traders when they have exhausted the purchasing power of the included
natives and push on after fresh customers. Again they call on their home government to civilize a further area; and
so bit by bit the civilized empire grows at the expense of the home taxpayers, without any intention or approval on
their part, until at last although all their real patriotism is centered on their own people and confined to their own
country, their own rulers, and their own religious faith; they find that the centre of their beloved realm has shifted to
the other hemisphere. That is how we in the British Islands have found our centre moved from London to the Suez
Canal, and are now in the position that out of every hundred of our fellow – subjects, in whose defense we are
expected to shed the last drop of our blood, only 11 are whites or even Christians, In our bewilderment some
of us declare that the Empire is a burden and a blunder, whilst others glory in it as triumph. You and I need not
argue with them just now, our point for the moment being that, whether blunder or glory the British Empire was quite
unintentional. What should have been undertaken only as a most carefully considered political effort has been
a series of commercial adventures thrust on us by capitalists forced by their own system to cater to foreign
customers before their own country’s need were one-tenth satisfied.
10. It may be inferred that the passage was written
(a) when Britain was still a colonial power.
(b) when the author was in a bad mood.
(c) when the author was working in the foreign service of Britain.
(d) when the author’s country was overrun by the British.
(e) after Britain no longer remained a colonial power.
11. According to the author, the habit of plundering the strangers
(a) is usually found in tribes of civilized nations.
(b) is usually found in the barbaric tribes of the uncivilized nations.
(c) is a habit limited only to English ladies of high position.
(d) is a usual habit with all white-skinned people.
(e) is usually not found in simple tribes but civilized people.
12. Which of the following does not come under the aegis of capital already invested?
(a) Construction of factories. (b) Development of a mine.
(c) Trade of finished products. (d) All of the above.
(e) None of the above
13. Which of the following may be called the main complaint of the author?
(a) The race of people he belongs to is looters and plunderers.
(b) The capitalists are taking over the entire world.
(c) It is a way of life for English ladies to loot and plunder.
(d) The English taxpayer has to pay for the upkeep of territories he did not want.
(e) Build post offices in colonies
14. Why do capitalistic traders prefer the uncivilized countries to the civilized ones?
(a) Because they find it easier to rule them.
(b) Because civilized countries would make them pay protection duties.
(c) Because civilized countries would make their own goods.
(d) Because uncivilized countries like the cheap and gaudy goods of bad quality all capitalists produce.
(e) Because uncivilized countries welcome them.
15. The word ‘officious’, in the context of the passage, means
(a) officialdom (b) official (c) rude (d) oafish
(e) self-important
16. According to the author, the main reason why capitalist go abroad to sell their goods is
(a) that they want to civilize the underdeveloped countries of the world by giving them their goods.
(b) that they have to have new places to sell their surplus goods some where in new markets.
(c) that they actually want to rule new lands and selling goods is an excuse.
(d) none of the above.
(e) they want huge profits.
Answers PASSAGE -1
1. (b) The passage explains that how capitalism has led to disintegration of
Labor. Other options are not relevant.
2. (b) The passage describes that author feels that Adam Smith boasted about
something that was undesirable. Options A and C are not supported by the passage. Option D is not
supported by the tone of the passage.
3. (e) The passage describes that there was a time when pin makers would buy the material ; shape it;
make the head and the point ; ornament it ; and take it to the market ; sell it .They knew each and every
process from beginning to end but they couldn’t afford to sell anybody a piper of pins for the farthing .
Option A and C are not true and Option C only partially true.
4. (e) It can be understood that pins are so cheap that it a child steals it, it would not be considered as
stealing .Option A and D are not true and Option C is not supported by passage.
5. (a) The author is clearly against machines taking the place of men.
Option B, C and E not supported by the passage.
6. (c) The passage explains that Adam smith was the supporter of mass
production. Options A, B and D are not supported by the passage.
7. (b) The passage explains that as people become richer they lose out on
individual abilities .This option fully explains the statement. Other options
are not relevant or only partially true.
8. (c) He is attacking the fact by making fun of it. Other options are not true .
9. (e) None of the given statements continue with what the author has said in
the last paragraph.
Answers PASSAGE -2
10. (a) The passage refers to the British Government as the Empire and talks about the way it takes over
the foreign territories.
11. (e) The passage stipulates that habit of plundering strangers is not the habit of simple tribes who are
friendly and honest instead, it is the habit of civilized men where there is no law to restrain their activities.
Options B, C and D are not supported by the passage.
12. (c) The passage explains that capital invested can’t be sent abroad as it has been eaten up by the
workers. Moreover, it is the freshly saved capital that can be sent out of the country and it goes abroad in the
heaps of finished products. Option A, B are examples of capital already invested and thus not correct.
13. (d) It can be understood from the passage that civilized empire grows at the expenses of home tax
payers, without any intention or approval on their part until real patriotism is centered on their own people and
confined on their own country , rulers and their religious faith.
Options A, B, C and E are not supported by the passage.
14. (b) End of first paragraph of the passage says that civilized countries practice protection which means
they impose heavy taxes on foreign goods. This makes the goods costlier. Options A, C, D and E are only
partially true.
15. (e) The passage states officious means self important according to the passage
16. (c) The passage explains that though the capital seem to come with intention of trade , but soon the
gun boats follows to make inquiry and the result after inquiry is that the government is set up in the new land .
Option A is not supported by the passage. Option B and E deal with making profits and are therefore only
partially true.
Need more practice?
Have a look at Analogies & Verbal Practice for GRE Winners containing over ONE THOUSAND Verbal Questions,
Comprehensive Analogy Theory and more....