Instructions: –
1. Attempt all the questions.
2. Once you have completed all the questions of a particular section click on the submit button for scores and explanations then move to the next sections.
3. For each correct answer, you receive 1 mark. For this mock, there is no negative marking.
English Language
When her grandmother learned of Ashima’s pregnancy, she was particularly thrilled at the prospect of naming the family’s first sahib. And so Ashima and Ashoke have agreed to put off the decision of what to name the baby until a letter comes, ignoring the forms from the hospital about filing for a birth certificate. Ashima’s grandmother has mailed the letter herself, walking with her cane to the post office, her first trip out of the house in a decade. The letter contains one name for a girl, one for a boy. Ashima’s grandmother has revealed them to no one.
Though the letter was sent a month ago, in July, it has yet to arrive. Ashima and Ashoke are not terribly concerned. After all, they both know, an infant doesn’t really need a name. He needs to be fed and blessed, to be given some gold and silver, to be patted on the back after feedings and held carefully behind the neck. Names can wait. In India parents take their time. It wasn’t unusual for years to pass before the right name, the best possible name, was determined. Ashima and Ashoke can both cite examples of cousins who were not officially named until they were registered, at six or seven, in school. The Nandis and Dr. Gupta understand perfectly. Of course you must wait, they agree, wait for the name in his great-grandmother’s letter. Besides, there are always pet names to tide one over: a practice of Bengali nomenclature grants, to every single person, two names. In Bengali the word for pet name is daknam, meaning, literally, the name by which one is called, by friends, family, and other intimates, at home and in other private, unguarded moments. Pet names are a persistent remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated. They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people. They all have pet names. Ashima’s pet name is Monu, Ashoke’s is Mithu, and even as adults, these are the names by which they are known in their respective families, the names by which they are adored and scolded and missed and loved.
Every pet name is paired with a good name, a bhalonam, for identification in the outside world. Consequently, good names appear on envelopes, on diplomas, in telephone directories, and in all other public places. (For this reason, letters from Ashima’s mother say “Ashima” on the outside, “Monu” on the inside.) Good names tend to represent dignified and enlightened qualities. Ashima means “she who is limitless, without borders.” Ashoke, the name of an emperor, means “he who transcends grief.” Pet names have no such aspirations. Pet names are never recorded officially, only uttered and remembered. Unlike good names, pet names are frequently meaningless, deliberately silly, ironic, even onomatopoetic. Often in one’s infancy, one answers unwittingly to dozens of pet names, until one eventually sticks.
Legal Reasoning
Appearing before a Bench, at the outset Senior Advocate, Mr. Arvind Datar elucidated on the concept of Living Will. Living Will is a written document that allows a patient to give explicit instructions in advance about the medical treatment to be administered when he or she is terminally ill or no longer able to express informed consent.
Mr. Datar informed the Bench that the guidelines issued by the Court on 09.03.2021 have become unworkable. He explained the impediments in implementing the same. The Living Will has to be signed by the executor in the presence of exactly two attesting witnesses, and countersigned by jurisdictional Judicial Magistrate of First Class (JMFC). He submitted that suppose subsequently after 10 years, the executor of the Will is admitted in a hospital and the team of doctors certify that there is no hope for recovery, as per the guidelines, the matter has to be, then, sent to the Collector, who would constitute another board of doctors who will give second opinion. Thereafter, the jurisdictional JMFC has to personally go to the hospital and authenticate the document. Mr. Datar argued that this cumbersome process is not workable and therefore some suggestions have been made in the present application to modify the guidelines. Justice Rastogi suggested if there can be only one committee of doctors and the first kin to the executor of the will can be included in the decision-making process.
Active euthanasia, including the administration of lethal compounds for the purpose of ending life, is still illegal in India, and in most countries. While we are talking about a person taking their own life, we should look into a person being instigated to take their own life (abetment to suicide). With regard to matters of instigation, it has been reiterated in several Supreme Court judgements that there should be a live or proximate link between the act of abetment and actual commission of suicide. In the absence of such a link, the element of intention or aiding cannot be attributed to the accused. The burden of proof, as laid down in the Supreme Court judgement of Gurbachan Singh v. Satpal Singh, heavily lies on the prosecution. It is necessary that clear evidences including circumstantial or direct, if available, to support the prosecution story should be produced before the court.
Logical Reasoning
The Supreme Court has delivered a seminal judgment that could have a significant impact in enlarging and expanding women’s reproductive rights in the country. The apex court bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna said that all women — whether married or in consensual relationships, and including “persons other than cis-gender women” — are entitled to seek an abortion within 20-24 weeks of the pregnancy. The bench was hearing the case of a 25-year-old unmarried woman, whose plea for termination of her pregnancy in the 24th week was turned down by a division bench of the Delhi High Court on the ground that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003, did not extend to unmarried women in consensual relationships.
In a country where the woman’s body has, more often than not, been a site of the patriarchy index, the Supreme Court’s recognition of her right to equality and, equally significantly, to her agency and choice, is momentous. In recent times, in comparison to many other countries, including the US — where the landmark Roe vs Wade judgment granting constitutional validity to the right to abort was recently overturned — abortion laws in India have moved in a more progressive direction, but much more needs to be done. Under Section 312 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, abortion remains a criminal offence, to which the MTP Act provides exceptions, and, even within the wider ambit of the much-needed recent amendments to the law, it continues to adhere to hetero-patriarchal structures that make the approval of others integral to abortion-related services and do not recognise a broader gender spectrum.
Quantitative Techniques
On Friday, 1500 people visited an ice cream parlor, out of which certain numbers of people like one or more than one ice cream out of the three types of ice creams: Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry while rest people didn’t like any of the three ice creams. Number of people who like only Vanilla, only Chocolate and only Strawberry are in the ratio 14:11:13, respectively. Numbers of people who like only Vanilla are seven times the number of people who like all the three types of ice creams. Numbers of people who like both Vanilla and Chocolate ice creams but not Strawberry are 50% more than the number of people who like all the three types of ice creams. Number of people who like both Strawberry and Vanilla ice creams is 165 less than the number of people who like only Chocolate ice cream. Number of people who like both Strawberry and Chocolate ice creams, but not Vanilla ice cream are five more than the number of people who like both Strawberry and Vanilla ice creams, but not Chocolate ice cream. Numbers of people who didn’t like any of the three ice creams are 50% more than the number of people who like exactly two types of ice creams.
General Knowledge
On October 10, NASA sent the Europa Clipper mission-a historic expedition-to take a look into one of Jupiter’s mysterious moons in search of extraterrestrial life. It is an exemplary evolution in astro biological exploration-through the use of an unprecedentedly highly sophisticated spacecraft designed for the perfect examination of the icy layer of Europa and the ocean underneath, which experts believe contains all the requirements for life as we know it. This effort marks a significant watershed in our endeavour to discern the possibility of life beyond our world, particularly in regions, although vastly different from those on Earth, which may still host sufficient elements for biotic activity. Europa’s crust is primarily water ice; under this icy crust, however, there is a global, liquid saltwater ocean. This subglacial aquatic environment is considered to be in thermodynamic equilibrium with the rocky mantle of the moon. Such an environment would be expected to allow for geochemical interactions that should produce biologically relevant compounds. The idea of subsurface ocean has snowballed within the scientific community, catalysed largely by the observations made by the Galileo spacecraft at the moment that the potential habitability of the moon was finally revealed. Therefore, the Europa Clipper mission will make use of state-of-the-art remote sensing technology to further appreciate the geophysics of the moon. Thus, while determining the thickness and dynamics of its ice shell, it will determine salinity and chemical ocean composition.
Europa Clipper will carry a complex suite of 10 scientific instruments designed to provide for the comprehensive analyses of both the surface and subsurface of the moon. Of the groundbreaking technologies, the ice-penetrating radar will likely play a central role in discriminating the stratigraphy of the ice shell and determining whether any water plumes arise from the deep ocean below. High- resolution cameras and spectral imagers will also obtain very detailed observations of the surface of the asteroid that will allow discriminations of materials that may result in biogenic processes, some of which are organics or microbial life. The implications of the Europa Clipper mission are rather broader than the mission’s immediate objectives in astro biological research. It is, in fact, a paradigm shift that has led to greater, critical debates about the nature of life in extreme environments. Europa’s ocean is a tantalizing analog for the conditions that may exist on exoplanets orbiting distant stars, particularly those that might lie within their individual habitable zones. Such discovery by the mission may rehabilitate our astro biological models, opening vistas to possible life flourishing even in environments that appear less hospitable.
At the same time, the mission serves as a proof of cooperative scientific effort, involving many actors-from academic institutions and international partners to commercial companies. This multi- aspect approach demonstrates that in the context of current space exploration, these efforts are complicated in terms of synthesis with regard to knowledge and technology drawn into the scientific orbit. As the Europa Clipper embarks on its long journey, estimated to be about six years, before commencing orbital operations around Jupiter, the scientific community has been waiting with bated breath.