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Instruction for questions 5 to 8:
Direction for Reading Comprehension: The passages given here are followed by some
questions that have four answer choices; read the passage carefully and pick the option
whose answer best aligns with the passage.
It's easy to forget that most of the world's languages are still transmitted orally with no
widely established written form. While speech communities are increasingly involved in
projects to protect their languages-in print, on air and online-orality is fragile and
contributes to linguistic vulnerability. But indigenous languages are about much more than
unusual words and intriguing grammar: They function as vehicles for the transmission of
cultural traditions, environmental understandings and knowledge about medicinal plants, all
at risk when elders die and livelihoods are disrupted.
Both push and pull factors lead to the decline of languages. Through war, famine and
natural disasters, whole communities can be destroyed, taking their language with them to
the grave, such as the indigenous populations of Tasmania who were wiped out by colonists.
More commonly, speakers live on but abandon their language in favor of another
vernacular, a widespread process that linguists refer to as "language shift" from which few
languages are immune. Such trading up and out of a speech form occurs for complex
political, cultural and economic reasons-sometimes voluntary for economic and
educational reasons, although often amplified by state coercion or neglect. Welsh, long
stigmatized and disparaged by the British state, has rebounded with vigor.
Many speakers of endangered, poorly documented languages have embraced new digital.
media with excitement. Speakers of previously exclusively oral tongues are turning to the
web as a virtual space for languages to live on. Internet technology offers powerful ways for
oral traditions and cultural practices to survive, even thrive, among increasingly mobile
communities. I have watched as videos of traditional wedding ceremonies and songs are
recorded on smartphones in London by Nepali migrants, then uploaded to YouTube and
watched an hour later by relatives in remote Himalayan villages...Globalization is regularly,
and often uncritically, pilloried as a major threat to linguistic diversity. But in fact,
globalization is as much process as it is ideology, certainly when it comes to language. The
real forces behind cultural homogenization are unbending beliefs, exchanged through a
globalized delivery system, reinforced by the historical monolingualism prevalent in much of
the West.
Monolingualism - the condition of being able to speak only one language-is regularly
accompanied by a deep-seated conviction in the value of that language over all others.
Across the largest economies that make up the G8, being monolingual is still often the
norm, with multilingualism appearing unusual and even somewhat exotic. The monolingual
mindset stands in sharp contrast to the lived reality of most the world, which throughout its
history has been more multilingual than unilingual. Monolingualism, then, not globalization,
should be our primary concern.
Multilingualism can help us live in a more connected and more interdependent world. By
widening access to technology, globalization can support indigenous and scholarly
communities engaged in documenting and protecting our shared linguistic heritage. For the
last 5,000 years, the rise and fall of languages was intimately tied to the plow, sword and
book. In our digital age, the keyboard, screen and web will play a decisive role in shaping the
future linguistic diversity of our species.
Q. 6)
The author mentions the Welsh language to show that:
[1] efforts to integrate Welsh speakers in the English-speaking fold have been fruitless.
[2] languages can revive even after their speakers have gone through a "language shift".
[3] vulnerable languages can rebound with state effort.
[4] while often pilloried, globalisation can, in fact, support linguistic revival.

English

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Verbal Ability and RC

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