Passage1

Readthe passagegivenbelowandanswerthe questionsthat follow:

Brian G Dyson, former President and CEO, Coca-Cola Enterprises, once said, Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air namely work, family, health, friends and spirit. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drops it, it will bounce back. But the other four ballsfamily, health, friends and spiritare made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. Industries have realised the importance of his words. Organisations are setting up policies for maintaining a work life balance. They are going in for innovative methods to keep their employees happy and satisfied, as it makes office a better place to work and also positively impact productivity. The Concept of Work-life balance (WLB) is not a new one, but with the changing pace of but with changing pace of life and increase in stress levels, negatively affecting the quality of work, has made many organisations think about the strategies for maintaining a work-life balance. Experts say that there is a strong link between work-life balance policies and reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and job satisfaction. Other benefits include improved recruitment and retention rates with associated cost savings, a reduction in employee stress, greater levels of job satisfaction. And loyalty and an improved corporate image. The work-life balance strategy offers a variety of ways to reduce stress levels and increase job satisfaction of the employees. The fundamental principle of designing activities around the topic of work-life. Companies are ready to do everything possible to keep their employees happy and are pampering them like never before with new policies like flexitimings, day care centers for kids, extended maternity leave, health care centers, medical insurance, fun and games at work, team outing, spas and gyms at office etc. Employees tend to feel motivated when they feel that the organisation is putting extra effort in providing a healthy, balance between work and life. Motivated employees not only enhance the productivity but also help creating a positive work environment at office.

Work life balance is a choice that an individual has to make. However, it is the organisation that needs to take an initiative to help the employees. Industry experts add that today, an employee is not looking at their employer just for job; they want the company to care for their work-life balance and their well being. If a company can address these needs, in addition to providing great career opportunities, they can be very successful in providing job satisfaction to the employee. Companies are adopting new means to ensure that their employees get enough time to enjoy their personal life and Spend time with family. Certain companies also support the policy of adopting a child by their employees. For this they have adoption leave policy, which allows the employees to avail eight weeks of paid leaves to spend some quality time with their newly adopted children. Another recent trend is the sabbatical. Certain companies encourage employees on completion of certain period at work to take a sabbatical for a year to rethink and re-plan his/her career or just to take a break, relax and rejuvenate. Firms are going for innovative practices to keep their employees happy. e4e, a business solution providing company, promotes ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) culture within the organisation, negating the age-old dogma that equates physical presence with productivity and encouraging people to focus on working smarter rather than longer. Another attempt by the company to manage work-life balance is to encourage all employees to take a minimum of seven days annual leave in a year. It is the responsibility of the reporting managers or supervisors to ensure that the employees reporting to them take this leave. Some organisations have initiatives to provide timely assistance to the employees in a crisis situation rising out of financial or personal problems. HEAL (Honeywell Employee Assistance for Life issues) is the counselling service of honeywell Technology Labs. HEAL has tied up with PPC World wide and provides round the clock advice and counselling on all issues ranging from financial, legal or emotional to all our employees. This service is totally confidential where the consultant respects the privacy of the employee and treats all details and issues as highly confidential. At Accenture, they believe that telecommuting is one of the key tools for attracting and retaining employees especially Women employees. Our employees have the flexibility to exercise a need based work from home

option as if helps them more in maintaining balance between work and home. The benefits of telecommuting include increased productivity, lower attrition, less number of leaves taken, cost savings on infrastructure and of course an extremely happy workforce. Firms are not leaving it at this point. They are also evaluating the results of these initiatives to ensure that all these initiatives have the desired impact. Company heads talk informally with the staff to understand how they are balancing their personal and professional lives.

Passage 2
Indias economy is doing well and we are right to celebrate that. But what we do not like to acknowledge, let alone address, is another fact; our economy, and society, is still extremely biased against women. Perhaps paying attention to such inconvenient truths would distract us as we march towards superpower status. In the latest gender gap index report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), India keeps company with the worst in the world. Among the 128 countries that have been evaluated by the WEF, India is ranked 114, followed among others by Yemen, Chad, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Even China, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Botswana fare much better than us. The survey considers the proportion of resources and opportunities made available to women on educational, economic, political and health. Parities it is only in the realm of political empowerment that we seem to have done somewhat OK, ranking 21st. Thats also thanks to a long spell of prime ministership by Indira Gandhi. It begs the question why women are so badly off in our country if they are politically empowered. To begin with, we are still largely a feudal and patriarchal society. In many parts of our countryespecially in UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab women are often treated as if they were a piece of property. In these parts, the sex ratio is most skewed because families often snuff out the lives of girl children before, or immediately after, they are born, in many parts of India women are viewed as an economic liability despite contributing in several ways to our society and economy. The state has not covered itself with glory either in bridging the gender divide. Its policies and projects for women are woefully inadequate. For

instance, the literacy rate for females is a mere 48 per cent against 73 per cent for males. Unless we put more of our girl children in schools and equip them with quality educationas opposed to making them merely literatewe can forget about sustainable progress. Public health is another area of failure. Hundreds of women in rural India die every year during childbirth for want of medical attention. There are thousands more who do not even have access to a primary health centre. Importantly, reforming property laws more rigorously so that gender parity becomes a reality must rank among the governments priorities. While these changes are necessary, they will amount to nothing if we, as a society, continue to deny our women the dignity, liberty and opportunities that are rightfully theirs. No society will ever prosper as a whole as long as half of it is constantly created as somehow less than the other half.

There is nothing more frustrating than when you sit down at your table to study with the most sincere of intentions and instead of being able to finish the task at hand, you find your thoughts wandering. However, there are certain techniques that you can use to enhance your concentration. Your concentration level depends on a number of factors, says Samuel Ghosh, a social counsellor. In order to develop your concentration span, it is necessary to examine various facets of your physical and internal environment, she adds. To begin with one should attempt to create the physical environment that is conducive to focussed thought. Whether it is the radio, TV or your noisy neighbours, identify the factors that make it difficult for you to focus. For Instance, if you live in a very noisy neighbourhood, you could try to plan your study hours in a nearby library. She disagrees with the notion that people can concentrate or study in an environment with distractions like a loud television, blaring music etc. If you are distracted when you are attempting to focus, your attention and retention powers do not work at optimum levels, cautions Ghosh. Not more than two of your senses should be activated at the same time, she adds. What that means is that music that sets your feet tapping is not the ideal accompaniment to your books. Also do not place your study table or desk in front of a window. While there is no cure for a mind that wants to wander, one should try and provide as

Passage 3

little stimulus as possible. Looking out of a window when you are trying to concentrate will invariably send your mind on a tangent, says Ghosh. The second important thing, she says, is to establish goals for oneself instead of setting a general target and then trying to accomplish what you can in a haphazard fashion. It is very important to decide what you have to finish in a given span of time. The human mind recognizes fixed goals and targets and appreciates schedules more than random thoughts. Once your thoughts and goals are in line, a focussed system will follow. She recommends that you divide your schedule into study and recreation hours. When you study, choose a mix of subjects that you enjoy and dislike and save the former for the last so that you have something to look forward to. For instance, if you enjoy verbal skill tests more than mathematical problems, then finish Maths first. Not only will you find yourself working harder, you will have a sense of achievement when you wind up. Try not to sit for more than 40 minutes at a stretch. Take a very short break to make a cup of tea or listen to a song and sit down again. Under no circumstances, should one sit for more than one and a half hours. Short breaks build your concentration and refresh your mind. However, be careful not to overdo the relaxation. It may have undesired effects. More than anything else, do not get disheartened. Concentration is merely a matter of disciplining the mind. It comes with practice and patience and does not take very long to become a habit for life.

Passage 4
Effective speaking depends on effective listening. It takes energy to concentrate on hearing and to concentrate on understanding what has been heard. Incompetent listeners fail in a number of ways. First, they may drift. Their attention drifts from what the speaker is saying. Second, they may counter. They find counter arguments to whatever a speaker may be saying. Third, they compete. Then, they filter. They exclude from their understanding those parts of the message which do not readily fit with their own frame of reference. Finally they react. They let personal feelings about speaker or subject override the significance of the message which is being sent. What can a listener do to be more effective? The first key to effective listening is the art of concentration. If a listener positively wishes to concentrate on receiving a message them his chances of success are high. It may need determination. Some speakers are difficult to follow, either because of voice problems, or because of the form in which they send a message. There is then a particular need for the determination of a listener to concentrate on what is being said.

Concentration is helped by alertness. Mental alertness is helped by physical alertness. It is not simply physical fitness, but positioning of the body, the limbs and the head. Some people also find it helpful to concentrate if they hold the head slightly to one side. One useful way for achieving concentration is intensive note-taking, by trying to capture the important points the speaker is referring to. Note-taking has been recommended as an aid to the listener. It helps the speaker too. It gives him confidence when he sees that listeners are sufficiently interested to take notes; the patterns of eye-contact with the listener can be very positive. The speaker also make effective use of pauses. Posture too is important. Consider the impact made by a less competent listener who pushes his chair backwards and slouches. An upright posture helps a listener's concentration. At the same time it is seen by the speaker to be a positive feature amongst his listeners. Effective listening skills have an impact on both the listener and the speaker.

Passage 5
The tests of life are its plus factors. Overcoming illness and suffering is a plus factor for it moulds character. Steel is iron plus fire, soil is rock plus heat. So lets include the plus factor in our lives. Sometimes the plus factor is more readily seen by the simple-hearted. Myers tells the story of a mother who brought into her home - as a companion to her own son - a little boy who happened to have a hunchback. She had warned her son to be careful not to refer to his disability, and to go right on playing with him as if he were like any other boy. The boys were playing and after a few minutes she overheard her son say to his companion : Do you know what you have got on your back ? The little boy was embarrassed, but before he could reply, his playmate continued: It is the box in which your wings are and some day God is going to cut it open and then you will fly away and be an angel. Often it takes a third eye, or a change in focus, to see the plus factor. Walking along the corridors of a hospital recently where patients were struggling with fear of pain and tests, I was perturbed. What gave me fresh perspective were the sayings put up everywhere, intended to uplift. One saying made me conscious

of the beauty of the universe in the midst of pain, suffering and struggle. The other saying assured me that God was with me when I was in deep water and that no troubles would overwhelm me. The import of those sayings also made me aware of the nether springs that flow into peoples lives when they touch rock-bottom or lonely, or even deserted. The nether springs make recovery possible, and they bring peace and patience in the midst of pain and distress. The forces of death and destruction are not so much physical as they are psychic and psychological. When malice, hate and hard-heartedness prevail, they get channelled as forces of destruction. Where openness, peace and good-heartedness prevail, the forces of life gush forth to regenerate hope and joy. The life force is triumphant when love overcomes fear. Both fear and love are deep mysteries, but the effect of love is to build whereas fear tends to destroy. Love is often the plus factor that helps build character. It helps us to accept and to overcome suffering. It creates lasting bonds and its reach is infinite. It is true that there is no shortage of destructive elements - forces and people who seek to destroy others and in the process, destroy themselves - but at the same time there are signs of love and life everywhere that are constantly enabling us to overcome setbacks. So lets not look only at gloom and doom - lets seek out positivity and happiness. For it is when you seek that you will find what is waiting to be discovered.

Passage 6
There are two problems which cause great worry to our educationists the problem of religious and moral instruction in a land of many faiths and the problem arising out of a large variety of languages. Taking up the education of children, we see that they should be trained to love one another, to be kind and helpful to all, to be tender to the lower animals and to observe and think right. The task of teaching them how to read and write and to count and calculate is important, but it should not make us lose sight of the primary aim of moulding personality in the right way. For this, it is necessary to call into aid, culture, tradition and religion. But in our country we have, in the same school, to look after boys and girls born in different faiths and belonging to families that live diverse ways of life and follow different forms of worship associated with different denominations of religion. It will not do to tread the easy path of evading the difficulty by attending solely to physical culture and intellectual education. We have to evolve a suitable technique and method for serving the spiritual needs of school children professing different faiths. We would thereby promote an atmosphere of mutual respect, a fuller understanding and helpful co-operation among the different communities in our society. Again we must remain one people and we have therefore to give basic training in our schools to speak

and understand more languages than one and to appreciate and respect the different religions prevailing in India. It is not right for us in India to be dissuaded from this by considerations as to overtaking the young mind. What is necessary must be done. And it is not in fact too great a burden. Any attempt to do away with or steamroll the differences through governmental coercion and indirect pressure would be as futile as it would be unwise. Any imposition of a single way of life and form of worship on all children or neglect of a section of the pupils in this respect or barren secularization will lead to a conflict between school and home life which is harmful. On the other hand, if we give due recognition to the different prevailing faiths in the educational institutions by organising suitable facilities for religious teaching for boys and girls of all communities, this may itself serve as a broadening influence of great national values.

Passage 7
A vast blanket of pollution stretching across South Asia is cutting down sunlight by 10 per cent over India, damaging agriculture, modifying rainfall patterns and putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk, according to a new study. The startling findings of scientists working with the United Nations Environment Programme indicate that the spectacular economic growth seen in this part of the world in the past decade may soon falter as a result of this pollution. Research carried out in India indicates that the haze caused by pollution might be reducing winter rice harvests by as much as 10 per cent, the report said. Acids in the haze may, by falling as acid rain, have the potential to damages crops and trees. Ash falling on leaves can aggravate the impacts of reduced sunlight on earths surface. The pollution that is forming the haze could be leading to several hundreds of thousands of premature deaths as a result of higher levels of respiratory diseases, it said . Results from seven cities in India alone, including Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, estimate that air pollution was annually responsible for 24, 000 premature deaths in the early 1990s. By the mind 1990s they resulted in an estimated 37,000 premature fatalities.

The haze has cut down sunlight over India by 10 per cent (so far) a huge amount! As a repercussion, the North West of India is drying up, Prof. V. Ramanathan said when asked specifically about the impact of the haze over India. Stating that sunlight was going down every year, he said. We are still in an early stage of understanding of the impact of the haze. Asked whether the current drought in most parts of India after over a decade of good monsoon was owing to the haze, he said, it was too early to reach a conclusion. If the drought persists for about four to five years, then we should start suspecting that it may be because of the haze. India, China and Indonesia are the worst affected owing to their population density, economic growth and depleting forest cover. The preliminary results indicate, that the build up of haze, a mass of ash, acids, aerosols and other particles is disrupting weather systems, including rainfall and wind patterns and triggering droughts in western parts of the Asian Continent. The concern is that the regional and global impacts of the haze are set to intensify over the next 30 years as the population of the Asian region rises to an estimated five billion people