Helpful magical beings are creatures or entities that possess magical powers and use them for benevolent purposes. They are often depicted in folklore and mythology as assisting humans in various ways, providing guidance, protection, and granting wishes. These magical beings can take on different forms and come from different cultural backgrounds, each with their own unique characteristics and abilities. One well-known helpful magical being is the fairy. Fairies are often depicted as small, winged creatures with magical abilities. They are said to be mischievous, yet benevolent, and are known to help humans in times of need.
They are said to be mischievous, yet benevolent, and are known to help humans in times of need. Fairies are often associated with nature and are believed to have the power to heal wounds, bless crops, and bring good fortune. Another popular magical being is the genie.
CAT Questions | CAT Reading Comprehension
T he following questions are from Reading Comprehension for Verbal Ability for CAT. Practice RC Passages for CAT. Please scroll the page to see them all. Reading Comprehension questions are an integral part of the CAT Exam. RC Passages and the accompanying questions account for around 24 questions out of 34 questions in CAT Verbal Section. If you would like to take these questions as a Quiz, head on here to take these questions in a test format, absolutely free.
Passage 1 : CAT Reading Comprehension: Power in language
The first systems of writing developed and used by the Germanic peoples were runic alphabets. The runes functioned as letters, but they were much more than just letters in the sense in which we today understand the term. Each rune was an ideographic or pictographic symbol of some cosmological principle or power, and to write a rune was to invoke and direct the force for which it stood. Indeed, in every Germanic language, the word “rune” (from Proto-Germanic *runo) means both “letter” and “secret” or “mystery,” and its original meaning, which likely predated the adoption of the runic alphabet, may have been simply “(hushed) message.”
Each rune had a name that hinted at the philosophical and magical significance of its visual form and the sound for which it stands, which was almost always the first sound of the rune’s name. For example, the T-rune, called *Tiwaz in the Proto-Germanic language, is named after the god Tiwaz (known as Tyr in the Viking Age). Tiwaz was perceived to dwell within the daytime sky, and, accordingly, the visual form of the T-rune is an arrow pointed upward (which surely also hints at the god’s martial role). The T-rune was often carved as a standalone ideograph, apart from the writing of any particular word, as part of spells cast to ensure victory in battle.
The runic alphabets are called “futharks” after the first six runes (Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kaunan), in much the same way that the word “alphabet” comes from the names of the first two Hebrew letters (Aleph, Beth). There are three principal futharks: the 24-character Elder Futhark, the first fully-formed runic alphabet, whose development had begun by the first century CE and had been completed before the year 400; the 16-character Younger Futhark, which began to diverge from the Elder Futhark around the beginning of the Viking Age (c. 750 CE) and eventually replaced that older alphabet in Scandinavia; and the 33-character Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, which gradually altered and added to the Elder Futhark in England. On some inscriptions, the twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark were divided into three ættir (Old Norse, “families”) of eight runes each, but the significance of this division is unfortunately unknown.
Runes were traditionally carved onto stone, wood, bone, metal, or some similarly hard surface rather than drawn with ink and pen on parchment. This explains their sharp, angular form, which was well-suited to the medium.
Much of our current knowledge of the meanings the ancient Germanic peoples attributed to the runes comes from the three “Rune Poems,” documents from Iceland, Norway, and England that provide a short stanza about each rune in their respective futharks (the Younger Futhark is treated in the Icelandic and Norwegian Rune Poems, while the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc is discussed in the Old English Rune Poem).
While runologists argue over many of the details of the historical origins of runic writing, there is widespread agreement on a general outline. The runes are presumed to have been derived from one of the many Old Italic alphabets in use among the Mediterranean peoples of the first century CE, who lived to the south of the Germanic tribes. Earlier Germanic sacred symbols, such as those preserved in northern European petroglyphs, were also likely influential in the development of the script.
The earliest possibly runic inscription is found on the Meldorf brooch, which was manufactured in the north of modern-day Germany around 50 CE. The inscription is highly ambiguous, however, and scholars are divided over whether its letters are runic or Roman. The earliest unambiguous runic inscriptions are found on the Vimose comb from Vimose, Denmark and the Øvre Stabu spearhead from southern Norway, both of which date to approximately 160 CE. The earliest known carving of the entire futhark, in order, is that on the Kylver stone from Gotland, Sweden, which dates to roughly 400 CE.
The transmission of writing from southern Europe to northern Europe likely took place via Germanic warbands, the dominant northern European military institution of the period, who would have encountered Italic writing firsthand during campaigns amongst their southerly neighbors. This hypothesis is supported by the association that runes have always had with the god Odin, who, in the Proto-Germanic period, under his original name *Woðanaz, was the divine model of the human warband leader and the invisible patron of the warband’s activities. The Roman historian Tacitus tells us that Odin (“Mercury” in the interpretatio romana) was already established as the dominant god in the pantheons of many of the Germanic tribes by the first century.
From the perspective of the ancient Germanic peoples themselves, however, the runes came from no source as mundane as an Old Italic alphabet. The runes were never “invented,” but are instead eternal, pre-existent forces that Odin himself discovered by undergoing a tremendous ordeal.
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The word “pantheon” in the passage refers to
- A temple of all the gods
- All the gods collectively of a religion
- A monument or building commemorating a nation's dead heroes
- A domed circular temple at Rome, erected a.d. 120–124 by Hadrian
- Unlike the Latin alphabet, which is an essentially utilitarian script, the runes are symbols of some of the most powerful forces in the cosmos
- Runic writing was probably first used in southern Europe and was carried north by Germanic tribes.
- The word “rune” and its meaning was derived from the runic alphabet.
- The first runic alphabets date back to the 1st century CE.
- All the above
- ii and iv
- i, ii and iv
- i and iii
- Odin came upon the runes after going through a lot of torment.
- The name of a rune was almost always the first sound of a God’s name
- The cosmological power represented by a rune was invoked by writing it.
- Proto-German Gods were modeled on humans.
Passage 2 : CAT Reading Comprehension: Upholding the Law
Hard cases, it is said, make bad law. The adage is widely considered true for the Supreme Court of India which held in the height of the Emergency, in ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla that detenus under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) could not approach the judiciary if their fundamental rights were violated. Not only was the law laid down unconscionable, but it also smacked of a Court more “executive-minded than the executive”, complicit in its own independence being shattered by an all-powerful government. So deep has been the impact of this judgment that the Supreme Court’s current activist avatar is widely viewed as having its genesis in a continuing need to atone. Expressions of such atonement have created another Court made to measure — this time not to the measure of the government but rather the aggrandised self-image of some of its judges.
Let us look back to the ADM Jabalpur case. As a court of law, the Supreme Court was called upon in the case to balance the interest of public order in an Emergency with the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed to every person. Nine High Courts called upon to perform the same function had found a nuanced answer by which they had held that the right to life cannot be absolutely subservient to public order merely because the government declared so — the legality of detentions could be judicially reviewed, though the intention of the government would not be second-guessed by the Court. This was a delicate balance. The Supreme Court however reversed this view and made the right to life and personal liberty literally a bounty of the government. Given that the consequences of their error were entirely to the government’s advantage, it was widely viewed as the death of an independent judiciary. The excessively deferential, almost apologetic language used by the judges confirmed this impression.
Today, however, while public interest litigation has restored the independent image of the Supreme Court, it has achieved this at the cost of quality, discipline and the constitutional role judges are expected to perform. The Court monitors criminal trials, protects the environment, regulates political advertising, lays down norms for sexual harassment in the workplace, sets guidelines for adoption, supervises police reform among a range of other tasks of government. That all these tasks are crucial but tardily undertaken by government can scarcely be questioned. But for an unelected and largely unaccountable institution such as the Supreme Court to be at the forefront of matters relating to governance is equally dangerous — the choice of issues it takes up is arbitrary, their remit is not legal, their results often counterproductive, requiring a degree of technical competence and institutional capacity in ensuring compliance that the Court simply does not possess. This sets an unhealthy precedent for other courts and tribunals in the country, particularly the latter whose chairpersons are usually retired Supreme Court Justices. To take a particularly egregious example, the National Green Tribunal has banned diesel vehicles more than 10 years old in Delhi and if reports are to be believed, is considering imposing a congestion charge for cars as well. That neither of these are judicial functions and are being unjustly being usurped by a tribunal that has far exceeded its mandate, is evidence of the chain reaction that the Supreme Court’s activist avatar has set off across the judicial spectrum.
Finally, the Court’s activism adds to a massive backlog of regular cases that makes the Indian justice delivery mechanism, slow, unreliable and inefficient for the ordinary litigant. As on March 1, 2015, there were over 61,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court alone. It might be worthwhile for the Court to set its own house in order, concomitantly with telling other wings of government how to do so.
As we mark 40 years of the Emergency and the darkest period in the Supreme Court’s history, it might be time to not single-mindedly harp on the significance of an independent judiciary. Judicial independence, is and must remain a cherished virtue. However, it would be blinkered to not confront newer challenges that damage the credibility of our independent judiciary today — unpardonable delays and overweening judges taking on the mantle of national government by proxy. The Supreme Court 40 years on is a different institution — it must be cognizant of its history but not at the cost of being blind to its present.
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Which of the following is a suitable title for the passage?
- An Atonement Gone Too Far
- Sanctimony from a Ruined Pedestal
- The ADM Jabalpur's Case: The Supreme Court's Darkest Hour
- Overcompensating for Past Mistakes
The runic alphabets are called “futharks” after the first six runes (Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kaunan), in much the same way that the word “alphabet” comes from the names of the first two Hebrew letters (Aleph, Beth). There are three principal futharks: the 24-character Elder Futhark, the first fully-formed runic alphabet, whose development had begun by the first century CE and had been completed before the year 400; the 16-character Younger Futhark, which began to diverge from the Elder Futhark around the beginning of the Viking Age (c. 750 CE) and eventually replaced that older alphabet in Scandinavia; and the 33-character Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, which gradually altered and added to the Elder Futhark in England. On some inscriptions, the twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark were divided into three ættir (Old Norse, “families”) of eight runes each, but the significance of this division is unfortunately unknown.
Genies are believed to reside in magical lamps or bottles and possess the ability to grant wishes to those who release them. In folklore, genies are often depicted as powerful beings who can manipulate reality and fulfill any desire. However, they are also known for their trickery, so one must be careful when making a wish. The leprechaun is a mischievous and helpful magical being from Irish folklore. Leprechauns are depicted as small, bearded men wearing green clothing and are believed to guard a hidden pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. While they are known to play tricks on humans, they can also be helpful by granting luck and wealth to those who are kind to them. In Norse mythology, the Valkyries are depicted as divine maidens who choose brave warriors to bring to Valhalla. These powerful female beings are associated with battle and were believed to aid warriors in their victories. Valkyries are often described as beautiful, winged creatures who ride on horseback and possess the power of prophecy. The benevolent magical beings mentioned above are just a few examples of the diverse range of helpful entities found in folklore and mythology. Across different cultures and traditions, these magical beings serve as symbols of hope, protection, and guidance for humans. While their specific characteristics and abilities may vary, they all share the common purpose of using their magical powers to assist and benefit humanity..
Reviews for "The Enigma of Magical Beings: Do They Really Exist or Are They Just Myths?"
1. John - 2 stars - I was really excited to read "Helpful magical beings" but I was left disappointed. The story felt too predictable and formulaic, with the same old tropes and clichés that we've seen a hundred times before. The characters lacked depth and development, and the plot was unoriginal and uninspiring. Overall, I found the book to be quite boring and it failed to engage me as a reader.
2. Sarah - 1 star - I absolutely hated "Helpful magical beings". The writing was juvenile and lacked any sort of sophistication. The dialogue was cringe-worthy, filled with forced humor and cheesy one-liners. The world-building was weak and inconsistent, and the magical beings felt like mere caricatures rather than fully fleshed out characters. The storyline was disjointed and confusing, with major plot holes that were never properly addressed. I found myself counting down the pages until I could finally be done with this disappointment of a book.
3. Emily - 2 stars - "Helpful magical beings" had all the potential to be a great book, but it fell short. The pacing was uneven, with slow and dragging parts interspersed with rushed and hurried moments. The descriptions were lackluster and failed to transport me into the fantastical world the author was trying to create. The protagonist was unlikeable and made illogical decisions, which made it hard for me to root for them. Overall, the book had a lot of potential, but it failed to deliver on its promises and left me feeling underwhelmed.