Based on your understanding of the passages given below, answer the questions that follow.

Reading Comprehension:

Woodrow Wilson was referring to the liberal idea of the economic market when he said that the free enterprise system is the most efficient economic system. Maximum freedom means maximum productiveness; our ‘openness’ is to be the measure of our stability. Fascination with this ideal has made Americans defy the “Old world “categories of settled possessiveness versus unsettling deprivation, the cupidity of retention versus the cupidity of seizure, a “status quo “defended or attacked. The United States, it was believed, had no status quo ante.

Our only “station” was the turning of a stationary wheel, spinning faster and faster. We did not base our system on property, but opportunity – which meant we based it not on stability but on mobility. The more things changed, that is, the more rapidly the wheel turned, the steadier we would be. The conventional picture of class politics is composed of the Haves, who want a stability to keep what they have and the Have-nots, who want a touch of instability and change in which to scramble for the things they have not. But Americans imagined a condition in which speculators, self-makers, runners are always using the new opportunities given by our land. These economic leaders (front-runners) what thus be mainly agents of change. The non-starters were considered the ones who wanted stability, a strong referee to give them some position in the race, regulative hand to calm manic speculation; and authority that can call things to a halt, begin things again from compensatorily staggered “starting lines”.

“Reform” in America has been sterile because it can imagine no change except through the extension of this metaphor of a race, wider inclusion of competitors, “a piece of the action”, as it were, for the disenfranchised. There is no attempt to call off the race. Since our only stability is change, America seems not to honour the quiet work that achieves social interdependence and stability. There is, in our legends, no heroism of the office clerk, no stable industrial workforce of the people who actually “make the system work “. There is no pride in being an employee (Wilson asked for a return to the time when everyone was an employer). There has been no boasting about our social workers – they are merely signs of the system’s failure, of opportunity denied or not taken, of things to be eliminated. We have no pride in our growing interdependence, in the fact that our system can serve others, that we are able to help those in need; empty boasts from the past make us ashamed of our present achievements, make us try to forget or deny them, move away from them. There is no honour, but in the wonderland race we must all run, all trying to win, none winning in the end (for there is no end).

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to: Easy
A. contrast ‘Old World’ and ‘New World’ economic ideologies
B. criticize the inflexibility of American economic mythology
C. challenge the integrity of traditional political leaders
D. champion those Americans who whom the author deems to be neglected

View Answer

Answer: Option B

Explanation:

The author’s primary purpose of writing this passage is to criticise the inflexible attitudes of Americans towards economic mythology.

Refer to: ““Reform” in America has been sterile because it can imagine no change except through the extension of this metaphor of a race, wider inclusion of competitors, “a piece of the action”, as it were, for the disenfranchised.” and,

“There is no honour, but in the wonderland race we must all run, all trying to win, none winning in the end (for there is no end).”

2. The author sets the word “Reform” (3rd para) with quotation marks in order to: Difficult
A. Emphasise its departure from the concept of settled possessiveness
B. Show his support for a systematic program of change
C. Assert that reform in the United States has not been fundamental
D. Assert that reform in the United States has not been fundamental

View Answer

Answer: Option C

Explanation:

The author wants to assert that reform in the United States has not been fundamental. The word ‘sterile’ tells us that.

Refer to: ““Reform” in America has been sterile because it can imagine no change except through the extension of this metaphor of a race, wider inclusion of competitors, “a piece of the action”, as it were, for the disenfranchised. There is no attempt to call off the race.”

 

3. The passage contains information that would answer which of the following questions?

1. What techniques have industrialists used to manipulate a free market?
2. In what ways are “new world” and “old world” economic policies similar?
3. Has economic policy in the United States tended to reward independent action?

Select the correct answer using the codes given above.

 Difficult
A. Only 1
B. Only 2
C. Only 3
D. Both 1 and 2

View Answer

Answer: Option C

Explanation:

The passage contains information that would answer whether economic policy in the United States tended to reward independent action. The answer is NO because there was no intention ‘call off the race’ and encourage independent action.

Refer to: ““Reform” in America has been sterile because it can imagine no change except through the extension of this metaphor of a race, wider inclusion of competitors, “a piece of the action”, as it were, for the disenfranchised. There is no attempt to call off the race. Since our only stability is change, America seems not to honour the quiet work that achieves social interdependence and stability. There is, in our legends, no heroism of the office clerk, no stable industrial workforce of the people who actually “make the system work “.

4. Which of the following best expresses the authors main point? Difficult
A. The myth of the American free enterprise system is seriously flawed
B. The absence of a status quo ante has undermined United States economic structure
C. The free enterprise system has been only a useless concept in the United States
D. Americans’ pride in their jobs continues to give them stamina today

View Answer

Answer: Option A

Explanation:

The American Enterprise System, is a doctrine of politics and economics that enables individuals to regulate their economic decisions in a free, competitive market based on supply and demand. Through this passage, the author has highlighted this is not true in reality because of so many flaws in it.