NMAT REVIEW well as certain connected bodies of truth, should be

embedded in one's memory as deeply as securely as a

Verbal Ability Module 9 bullet that has lodged in the heart of a growing tree. And one
should master certain processes of thought and grip a few
Section 1: Analogies great underlying and changing principles of life and conduct.
DIRECTIONS: Each item below consists of a series of Yet the value of study does not lie in storing away
words. The first word is related to the second in the same of facts and principles. You study for a discipline. You study
way as the third word is related to a fourth one which is in order that you may become a student, just as you
missing. Select this missing word from the given choices. exercise, not for recreation but that you may become an
Example: athlete. In making yourself a student, you are making
MAN : WOMAN :: BOY : yourself fit for the fierce intellectual encounters of middle life.
(A) child (C) baby No other time for training then! And woe to him whose brain
(B) friend (D) girl fiber and hazy and uncertain! Your mind must work with the
In the example, MAN is to WOMAN as BOY is to girl. force and steadiness of a piston-rod! Must be more like a
Therefore, the correct answer is D. vise. You will be pitted against antagonists worthy of your
mettle. It may be that knife or drug, you may be set suddenly
1. PARABLE : FABLE :: IDYLL : in the lonely night to hold death at bay in some terrified
(A) rhyme (C) interlude home or in some tragic highway or byway. You are winning
(B) ode (D) octet these crucial contests now with the precision and the
promptness and the thoroughness that you are working in
2. DISTANCE : MILE :: WORK : your higher nerve centers; by the severe training that you
(A) force (C) erg are giving yourself in attention, decision, mental alertness,
(B) power (D) inertia and moral control.

3. FATIGUE : WORK :: CIRRHOSIS : 11. According to the selection, one studies for discipline in
(A) disease (C) drunkard order to:
(B) liver (D) alcohol (A) achieve thoroughness and accuracy or certainty in
whatever one studies
4. SPIDER : WEB : : BEE : (B) accept without question what the teacher or the
(A) flower (C) honey book says
(B) comb (D) sting (C) develop regular study habits
(D) cope with the hardships of student life
5. MISER : PARSIMONIOUS :: PHILANTHROPIST :
(A) patient (C) magnificent 12. Which of the following is(are)true, based on the
(B) intelligent (D) munificent selection?
(A) The possession of knowledge is an assurance of
6. EVANGELIST : PREACH :: MENDICANT : good judgment in adult life.
(A) beg (C) pray (B) The acquisition of facts is a prerequisite for all higher
(B) heal (D) wander learning.
(C) Life's problems are solved not only by quick thinking
7. GENOCIDE : RACE :: PATRICIDE : but by timely decisions.
(A) father (C) family (D) All of these
(B) mother (D) sibling
13. The central message conveyed by the author is that one
8. TORR : PRESSURE :: ANGSTROM : should:
(A) weight (C) mass (A) study to get fast and firm possession of facts
(B) force (D) length (B) exercise not for recreation but to become an athlete
(C) study to prepare oneself for intellectual encounters
9. KING : CROWN :: BISHOP : of middle life
(A) scepter (C) miter (D) master certain processes of thought
(B) tonsure (D) stole
Selection 2
10. ATLAS : MAPS :: ANTHOLOGY :
(A) poems (C) laws The moment that it had all finally ended
(B) charts (D) cultures Churchbells rang, and I awoke
From an unsettling dream.
I had drifted back many years'
Section 2: Reading Comprehension To a time and place still familiar to me.
DIRECTIONS: Read each selection carefully. Then choose I was a schoolgirl, waving a paper flag
the correct answer to each of the questions asked after the On the Boulevard, as limousines sped by.
selection.
That evening, after having left the dream,
Selection 1 I managed to find the paper flag.
What are the aims of study? In the first place, the It had been wedged between bundles
object of study is to get fast and firm possession of facts of Of flyers in a box that sat
spelling, reading, mathematics, composition, history, On my closet shelf.
language, geography, and the like. Many minute facts, as The flag had yellowed
But otherwise intact.
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 The years had been kind. The sound of a rising tide is heard most clearly on
shores far from the swell of the open ocean. On such a
I held the flag in my hands shore, the tides shape the nature and behavior of life. Their
And turned the radio up. rise and fall give every creature that lives between the high-
As I listened, a subtle chaos tide and low-tide lines, a twice-daily experience of land life.
Filtered through. Mostly it was noise. For those that live near the low-tide line, the exposure to sun
Some called it jubilation, and air is brief; for those higher on the shore, the interval in
Others call it liberation. an alien environment is more prolonged and demands
Everyone called it winning. greater powers of endurance. But in all the intertidal area,
Everyone called it victory. the pulse of life is adjusted to the rhythm of the tides.
In a world that belongs alternately to sea and land,
Mostly it was noise, so I turned it off. marine animals that breathe oxygen dissolved in sea water
Sadly, perhaps, angrily, must find ways of keeping moist. The few air-breathers who
I prayed for more honest days. have crossed the high-tide line from the land must protect
I sought refuge in sleep. themselves from drowning in the flood tide by bringing with
I returned to my dream. them their own supply of oxygen. When the tide is low, there
is little or no food for most intertidal animals, and indeed the
In my dream, it was many years from now, essential processes of life usually have to be carried on
And I, no longer a schoolgirl, while water covers the shore. The tidal rhythm is therefore
Waved my paper flag. reflected in a biological rhythm of activity and quiescence.
There was no boulevard.
There were only people, 19. The high tide recurs:
(A) hourly (C) thrice a day
Free people, waving flags. (B) twice a day (D) once every two days
It had all finally begun.
It was dawn, and it burned 20. The activity phase of intertidal animals living near the
So fiercely orange I swore it was red. low-tide line is:
(A) shorter than those living near the high-tide line
14. The flag in the second stanza best represents: (B) longer than those living near the high-tide lines
(A) the symbol of a country (C) just as long as the activity of those living near the
(B) a treasure loved and kept high-tide lines
(C) the spirit of freedom long subdued but still alive (D) not mentioned in the selection
(D) a people silenced by an oppressive rule

15. In the sixth stanza "...free people, waving flags", refers

to:
(A) people celebrating their freedom
(B) a crowd waving at an arriving state dignitary
(C) people who are returning from war
(D) a group of people rallying for peace

16. Which of the following does the poet experience in the

last stanza?
(A) confusion
(B) amazement
(C) jubilation
(D) contentment

17. The actual event in this poem is:

(A) the arrival of a political liberator
(B) a girl's spiritual transformation
(C) a people's awakening
(D) the celebration of Independence Day

18. In the dream narration, the poet uses the figure of

speech known as:
(A) simile
(B) metaphor
(C) hyperbole
(D) personification

Selection 3
On a shore where tidal action is strong and the
range of the tide is great, one has a daily, hourly awareness
of the ebb and flow of water. Each recurrent high tide is a
dramatic enactment of the advance of the sea against the
continents, pressing up to the very threshold of the land,
while the ebbs expose a strange and unfamiliar world.
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