Practice Reading comprehension - general english mcq Online Quiz (set-1) For All Competitive Exams

DIRECTIONS:

A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

PASSAGE

Genetic variation is the cornerstone of evolution, without which there can be no natural selection, and so a low genetic diversity decreases the ability of a species to survive and reproduce, explains lead author Yoshan Moodley, Professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Venda in South Africa.

Two centuries ago, the black rhinoceros – which roamed much of sub Saharan Africa – had 64 different genetic lineages; but today only 20 of these lineages remain, says the paper. The species is now restricted to five countries, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Genetically unique populations that once existed in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi and Angola have disappeared. The origins of the 'genetic erosion' coincided with colonial rule in Africa and the popularity of big game hunting. From the second half of the 20th century, however, poaching for horns has dramatically depleted their population and genetic diversity, especially in Kenya and Tanzania.

Q-1)   Sub Sharan Africa has lost how many black rhino genetic lineages in 200 years?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)


DIRECTIONS:

A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

PASSAGE

Prebiotics are the lesser-known gut-health promoters which serve as food for good bacteria inside the gut. "We found that dietary prebiotics can improve nonREM (random eye movement) sleep, as well as REM sleep after a stressful event," said Robert Thompson, a PhD researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder in the U.S. Prebiotics are dietary fibres found naturally in foods like artichokes, raw garlic, leeks and onions.

When beneficial bacteria digest prebiotic fibre, they not only multiply, improving overall gut health, but they also release metabolic byproducts. Researchers fed three-week-old male rats a diet of either standard chow or chow that included prebiotics. They then monitored the rats' body temperature, gut bacteria and sleep-wake cycles — using electroencephalogram (EEG), or brain activity testing over time. Findings revealed that the rats on the prebiotic diet spent more time in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which is restful and restorative, than those on the non-prebiotic diet.

Q-2)   What type of sleep is restorative?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)


DIRECTIONS:

A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

PASSAGE

The flora and fauna of Cubbon Park captures our attention more than anything else. But when you take time to look closely at the statue, you will marvel at its sheer grandeur. Sculpted by Sir Thomas Brock, the 11 feet high marble statue is larger than life. It brings out the personality of Queen Victoria, who had been the Monarch of Great Britain from 1837 till 1901, depicting a rather proud, stern person with pronounced features.

In 1906, the statue was unveiled in the city by George Frederick Ernest Albert, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and York, making it stand in all its glory in its 111th year. Even though there is a wealth of history to the statue, and it was made to appear imposing, the busy Bengalureans would probably refer to it as just another landmark. As the workers are busy in discussion on the instructions given to them, life continues as usual in the Park.

Q-3)   How many people unveiled the Queen Victoria statue at Cubbon Park?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)


DIRECTIONS:

Read the fol lowing passages carefully and answer the questions given below them. Certain words are given in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

The development of nationalism in the third world countries, as is well known, followed a very different trajectory from that in the advanced capitalist countries. In the latter it was a part of the process of the emergence of the bourgeois order in opposition to feudalism, while in the former it was a part of the anti-colonial struggle. The impact of colonialism, though it differed across countries, had on the whole been in the direction of transcending localism and unifying supra-local economic structures through the introduction of market relations. The struggle against colonialism, consequently, took the form of a national struggle in each instance in which people belonging to different tribes or linguistic communities participated. And the colonial power in each instance attempted to break this emerging national unity by splitting people.

The modus operandi of this splitting was not just through political manipulation as happened for instance in Angola, South Africa and a host of other countries; an important part of this modus operandi was through the nurturing of a historiograpy that just denied the existence of any overarching national consciousness. The national struggle, the national movement were given a tribal or religious character, they were portrayed as being no more than the movement of the dominant tribe or the dominant religious group for the achievement of narrow sectional ends. But the important point in this colonialism, while, on the one hand, it objectively created the condition for the coming into being of a national consciousness at a supra-tribal, supra-local and suprareligious level, on the other hand it sought deliberately to subvert this very consciousness by using the same forces which it had objectively undermined.

Q-4)   Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning to the word given in bold as used in the passage.

TRAJECTORY

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Explanation:

The meaning of the word ‘trajectory’ as mentioned in the passage is ‘the curved path of something that has been fired, hit, thrown into the air, eg a missile’. Hence the words ‘trajectory’ and ‘path’ are synonymous.


DIRECTIONS:

Read the fol lowing passages carefully and answer the questions given below them. Certain words are given in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

Agriculture dominates change in India through its causal links with factor and product markets. It employs 60 per cent of the labour force and contributes 26 per cent of the gross domestic product. In the poorer states, its contribution to the domestic product is close to 40 per cent. Low productivity in agriculture has led to the concentration of the poor in this sector. Due to the sheer size of the agricultural economy and the importance of its major products (cereals) in the diets of the poor, gains in agricultural productivity have significant potential impact on poverty. Theoretically, it is possible to reduce poverty as well as expand the domestic market for industry by raising labour productivity in agriculture and spreading its gains among the low-income groups. Modelling of the linkages between agricultural and industrial growth has shown that a 10 per cent increase in agricultural output would increase industrial output by 5 per cent and urban workers would benefit by both increased industrial employment and price deflation. However, there is an asymmetry of adjustments in the demand and supply of agricultural goods. An increase in nonagricultural production would lead to an immediate increase in demand for intermediate and final agricultural goods, whereas supply-side adjustments involving reallocation of resources and net additional investment for capacity expansion take a much longer period. There is a widely held view that in a large country like India, the demand stimulus for industrialisation would come mainly from agriculture with less social and economic costs.

Interdependencies in food and labour market are important for the development process. An upward shift in the food supply curve would simultaneously result in an upward shift in the labour demand curve.

The magnitude of the interdependence depends on the technique of production causing the shifts in the food supply curve. Similarly, an upward shift in the labour supply curve shifts up the food demand curve. The extent of interdependence between the forces of labour supply and food demand depends on the employment-output elasticity and the income elasticity of demand for food. The recent estimate of the employment output elasticity in agriculture is around 0.5, income elasticity of food is in the range of 0.55-0.50 and that for cereals is 0.25-0.30. The other important interdependency which plays a crucial role in inducing indirect employment, is that between food and other sectors through demand linkages. Since food accounts for a major share in the budget of the poor and any reduction in the food price leaves a significant proportion of income for other items, a lower food price stimulates employment in industrial and service sectors. On the other hand, an increase in the food price would increase the wage costs of industrial products and hence the prices of industrial products. In the absence of adjustments through exports, it would result in demand deficiency. Clearly, the most favourable situation in India is one in which labour demand outpaces its supply and food supply outpaces its demand.

Wage rates cannot fall below a certain minimum determined by the costs of subsistence living and the labour supply curve turns elastic at the subsistence wage rate. Demographic pressure cannot push the wage rate below the subsistence level. People would be willing to starve rather than work unless the energy expended in physical work is compensated by the energy provided by food. Foodgrain price usually determines the subsistence wage rate in agricultural as well as in the urban informal sector since foodgrains account for about four-fifths of the calorie intake of the poor.

Q-5)   Which of the following has the same meaning as the word ‘sheer’ as used in the passage?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)


DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

We have inherited the tradition of secrecy about the budget from Britain where also the system has been strongly attacked by eminent economists and political scientists including Peter Jay. Sir Richard Clarke, who was the originating genius of nearly every important development in the British budgeting techniques during the last two decades, has spoken out about the abuse of budget secrecy: "The problems of long-term tax policy should surely be debated openly with the facts on the table. In my opinion, all governments should have just the same duty to publish their expenditure policy. Indeed, this obligation to publish taxation policy is really essential for the control of public expenditure in order to get realistic taxation implications." Realising that democracy flourishes best on the principles of open government, more and more democracies are having an open public debate on budget proposals before introducing the appropriate Bill in the legislature. In the United States the budget is conveyed in a message by the President to the Congress, which comes well in advance of the date when the Bill is introduced in the Congress. In Finland the Parliament and the people are already discussing in June the tentative budget proposals which are to be introduced in the Finnish Parliament in September. Every budget contains a cartload of figures in black and white - but the dark figures represent the myriad lights and shades of India's life, the contrasting tones of poverty and wealth, and of bread so dear and flesh and blood so cheap, the deep tints of adventure and enterprise and man's ageless struggle for a brighter morning. The Union budget should not be an annual scourge but a part of presentation of annual accounts of a partnership between the Government and the people. That partnership would work much better when the nonsensical secrecy is replaced by openness and public consultations, resulting in fair laws and the people's acceptance of their moral duty to pay.

Q-6)   Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning to the word printed in capital as used in the passage.

SCOURGE

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)


DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words in the passage are printed in bold to help you to locate them easily while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

Capitalism is a great slave, but a pathetic master. This truth, unfortunately, gets lost in our chase for the elusive dream especially in the West, the land that has been marketed as the land of dreams the great Western dream. Its the dream of being independent masters of our lives, of making big bucks and of being happy even if that happiness is being bought by money which all of them chase out there. No doubt, the West, on its part, has been fairly successful in creating material comforts aplenty. It has improved the living standard of its average citizen.

However, it has been achieved as a result of more than 200 years of unbridled growth and exploitation. And that is what has made the rest of the world mindlessly chase Westernism, not necessarily happiness or an ideal form of society. All because the shop window looks very impressive and it has been marketed very well. But a deep look inside the shop tells a different tale. A different world lies behind, a world that is not quite visible to the starry-eyed millions for whom the Western way of life seems to be the ultimate dream. Thus, we have Indians dreaming to become or to get married to an NRI and Indian middle-class fathers dreaming of their sons reaching the Bay area and landing tech jobs, unmindful of the second class life they end up leading in the West. What goes unseen and almost unheard is that the West also happens to be the land that is rich amongst the top in terms of the number of divorces per thousand, the number of single parent families per thousand, the number of old people in old age homes, the number of suicides, homicides, and of course, the number of colleges school shortcuts. And why not After all, such societies are constantly driven towards higher profits and materialism. Expectedly, this materialism comes at a cost that the world is paying today.

This is the reason why we have Milionis dying of curable diseases in Africa and other underdeveloped countries, while the rich grow richer. Their growth will be reduced if they were to start thinking of the poor. So what do they do to justify their greed for more? They most shrewdly propagate and market a ridiculously primitive law of the jungle for our 21st-century civilian, the Law of Survival of the Fittest The interesting thing about material things is that they only give an illusion of happiness however such happiness is always momentary in nature. Ergo, at this juncture, you feel you are the happiest person in the world, after buying your new car or flat-screen TV, and just a few days later, these are the very possessions that cease to make you happy. While you chase the bigger car and spend that extra bit of the wealth, you intercept someones share of the daily bread and also sacrifice those who have the maximum power to make you happy family, emotions and love. Prolonged abstinence in feeling emotions finally destroys bliss and you don't even realize when you have become a dry-eyed cripple.., and then you land up in a sermon workshop to find out the real meaning of life or whatever these workshops are capable of explaining. The truth is that such workshops are also driven by merchants who cash in on the dejected state of the people, a state created by their own fictional dreams.

But by then its really too late. By then, you have made profits out of arms, and engineered wars to keep that industry alive. You've sold guns across counters at supermarkets and made more profits. You've lobbied that guns should be made accessible to the common man, and all for the sake of profits. This makes you realize one day that they are your own children who are in the line of fire against the school goes who opens fire at his schoolmates. This is the society that finally creates an emotionless monster, who gets satisfaction in killing innocent adults and children alike for no cause, no reason and for none, for himself It is the utter destruction of spiritualism and the total focus on endless self-gratification. Where so many single parent families and divorces exist, it is impossible to bring up children or influence dies killers, any better.

Q-7)   According to the passage, which of the following is a reason for poverty and hunger in underdeveloped countries?
  1. Mindlessly chasing the West way of living.
  2. They have fallen prey to the j idea of happiness through material comforts rather than love and emotional bond.
  3. They do not have marketing techniques as good as western countries.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Explanation:


DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words in the passage are printed in bold to help you to locate them easily while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

Capitalism is a great slave, but a pathetic master. This truth, unfortunately, gets lost in our chase for the elusive dream especially in the West, the land that has been marketed as the land of dreams the great Western dream. Its the dream of being independent masters of our lives, of making big bucks and of being happy even if that happiness is being bought by money which all of them chase out there. No doubt, the West, on its part, has been fairly successful in creating material comforts aplenty. It has improved the living standard of its average citizen.

However, it has been achieved as a result of more than 200 years of unbridled growth and exploitation. And that is what has made the rest of the world mindlessly chase Westernism, not necessarily happiness or an ideal form of society. All because the shop window looks very impressive and it has been marketed very well. But a deep look inside the shop tells a different tale. A different world lies behind, a world that is not quite visible to the starry-eyed millions for whom the Western way of life seems to be the ultimate dream. Thus, we have Indians dreaming to become or to get married to an NRI and Indian middle-class fathers dreaming of their sons reaching the Bay area and landing tech jobs, unmindful of the second class life they end up leading in the West. What goes unseen and almost unheard is that the West also happens to be the land that is rich amongst the top in terms of the number of divorces per thousand, the number of single parent families per thousand, the number of old people in old age homes, the number of suicides, homicides, and of course, the number of colleges school shortcuts. And why not After all, such societies are constantly driven towards higher profits and materialism. Expectedly, this materialism comes at a cost that the world is paying today.

This is the reason why we have Milionis dying of curable diseases in Africa and other underdeveloped countries, while the rich grow richer. Their growth will be reduced if they were to start thinking of the poor. So what do they do to justify their greed for more? They most shrewdly propagate and market a ridiculously primitive law of the jungle for our 21st-century civilian, the Law of Survival of the Fittest The interesting thing about material things is that they only give an illusion of happiness however such happiness is always momentary in nature. Ergo, at this juncture, you feel you are the happiest person in the world, after buying your new car or flat-screen TV, and just a few days later, these are the very possessions that cease to make you happy. While you chase the bigger car and spend that extra bit of the wealth, you intercept someones share of the daily bread and also sacrifice those who have the maximum power to make you happy family, emotions and love. Prolonged abstinence in feeling emotions finally destroys bliss and you don't even realize when you have become a dry-eyed cripple.., and then you land up in a sermon workshop to find out the real meaning of life or whatever these workshops are capable of explaining. The truth is that such workshops are also driven by merchants who cash in on the dejected state of the people, a state created by their own fictional dreams.

But by then its really too late. By then, you have made profits out of arms, and engineered wars to keep that industry alive. You've sold guns across counters at supermarkets and made more profits. You've lobbied that guns should be made accessible to the common man, and all for the sake of profits. This makes you realize one day that they are your own children who are in the line of fire against the school goes who opens fire at his schoolmates. This is the society that finally creates an emotionless monster, who gets satisfaction in killing innocent adults and children alike for no cause, no reason and for none, for himself It is the utter destruction of spiritualism and the total focus on endless self-gratification. Where so many single parent families and divorces exist, it is impossible to bring up children or influence dies killers, any better.

Q-8)   Why do the starry-eyed millions harbour a wish to become an NRI?
  1. They are driven towards higher profits and materialism.
  2. They appreciate the western way of life as it appears to them.
  3. They have become emotionless and have lost any attachment to the motherland.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Explanation:


DIRECTIONS:

Read the fol lowing passages carefully and answer the questions given below them. Certain words are given in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organising, staffing, controlling, and problem-solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles. This distinction is absolutely crucial for our purposes here: Successful transformation is 70 to 90 per cent leadership and only 10 to 30 per cent management. Yet for historical reasons, many organizations today don't have much leadership. And almost everyone thinks about the problems here as one of managing change.

For most of this century, as we created thousands and thousands of large organizations for the first time in human history, we didn't have enough good managers to keep all those bureaucracies functioning. So many companies and universities developed management programmes, and hundreds and thousands of people were encouraged to learn management on the job. And they did. But, people were taught little about leadership. To some degree, management was emphasized because it's easier to teach than leadership. But even more so, management was the main item on the twentieth-century agenda because that's what was needed. For every entrepreneur or business builder who was a leader, we needed hundreds of managers to run their ever growing enterprises.

Unfortunately for us today, this emphasis on management has often been institutionalized in corporate cultures that discourage employees from learning how to lead. Ironically, past success is usually the key ingredient in producing this outcome. The syndrome, as I have observed it on many occasions, goes like this: success creates some degree of market dominance, which in turn produces much growth. After a while keeping the ever larger organization under control becomes the primary challenge. So attention turns inward, and managerial competencies are nurtured. With a strong emphasis on management but not on leadership, bureaucracy and an inward focus take over. But with continued success, the result mostly of market dominance, the problem often goes unaddressed and an unhealthy arrogance begins to evolve. All of these characteristics then make any transformation effort much more difficult.

Arrogant managers can over-evaluate their current performance and competitive position, listen poorly, and learn slowly. Inwardly focused employees can have difficulty seeing the very forces that present threats and opportunities. Bureaucratic cultures can smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions. And the lack of leadership leaves no force inside these organisations to break out of the morass.

Q-9)   Which of the following is SIMILAR in the meaning of the word NURTURED as used in the passage?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Explanation:

The meaning of the word ‘nurtured’ as mentioned in the passage is ‘to help the development of something’.

Hence the words ‘nurtured’ and ‘developed’ are synonymous.


Directions:

In the following questions, you have one brief passage with 5 questions following the passage. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

PASSAGE

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking, as you do. If someone maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the Equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction.

Q-10)   Conviction means

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)


DIRECTIONS:

Read the fol lowing passages carefully and answer the questions given below them. Certain words are given in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

India is a country of villages. Rural population still dominates the urban population as far as the number is considered. This is despite the fact that there is rampant migration of rural families to urban centres. Generally, the gains of being a unit of the urban population are less than the disadvantages and risks that are in-built in the urban life. Crime, riots, etc are some of the examples of such risks of urban life. The forces that generate conditions conducive to crime and riots are stronger in urban communities than in rural areas. Urban living is more anonymous living. It often releases the individual from community restraints more common in tradition-oriented societies. But more freedom from constraints and controls also provides greater freedom to deviate. And living in the more impersonalized, formally controlled urban society means that regulatory orders of conduct are often directed by distant bureaucrats. The police are strangers executing these prescriptions on an anonymous set of subjects. Minor offences in small town or village are often handled without resort to official police action. As disputable as such action may seem to be, it results in fewer recorded violations of the law compared to those in the big cities. Although perhaps causing some decision difficulties for the police in small town, formal and objective law enforcement is not always acceptable to the villagers. Urban area with mass population, greater wealth, more commercial establishments and more products of our technology also provide more frequent opportunities for theft. Victims are impersonalized, property is insured, consumer goods in more abundance are vividly displayed and are more portable. The crime rate increases despite formal moral education given in schools.

Q-11)   Which of the following would be the best title for the above passage?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Explanation:

The passage presents a comparative sketch of rural and urban life focussing on the risks associated with the urban life.


DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words in the passage are printed in bold to help you to locate them easily while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

The University Grants Commissions directive to college and university lecturers to spend a minimum of 22 hours a week in direct teaching is the product Of budgetary cutbacks rather than pedagogic wisdom. It may seem odd, at first blush, that teachers should protest about teaching a mere 22 hours. However, If one considers the amount of time academics require to prepare lectures of good qualify as well as the time they need to spend doing research, It is clear that most conscientious teacher's work more than 40 hours a week. In university systems around the world, lecturers rarely spend more than 12 to 15 hours In direct teaching activities a week. The average college lecturer in India does not have any office space.

If computers are available, internet connectivity is unlikely. Libraries are poorly stocked. Now the UGC says universities must implement a complete freeze on all permanent recruitment, abolish all posts which have been vacant for more than a year, and cut staff strength by 10 percent. And it is in order to ensure that these cutbacks do not affect the quantum of teaching that existing lecturers are being asked to work longer. Obviously, the quality of teaching and academic work in general will decline. While it is true that some college teachers do not take their classes regularly, the UGC and the Institutions concerned must find a proper way to hold them accountable. An absentee teacher will continue to play truant even if the number of hours he is required to teach goes up.

All of us are well aware of the unsound state that the Indian higher education system is in today. Thanks to years of sustained financial neglect most Indian universities and colleges do no research worth the name. Even as the number of students entering colleges has increased dramatically, public investment in higher education has actually declined in relative terms. Between 1985 and 1997, when public expenditure on higher education as a percentage of outlays on all levels of education grew by more than 60 percent in Malaysia and 20 percent in Thailand, India showed a decline of more than 10 percent. Throughout the world, the number of teachers in higher education per million population grew by more than 10 percent In the same period in India it fell by one percent. Instead of transferring the burden of government apathy on to the backs of the teachers, the UGC should insist that the needs of the country's university system are adequately catered for.

Q-12)   Which of the following statements/s/are TRUE in the context of the passage?
  1. Most colleges do not carry out research worth the name.
  2. UGC wants lecturers to spend a minimum of 22 hours a week in direct teaching.
  3. Indian higher education system is in an unsound state.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Explanation:


DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

We have inherited the tradition of secrecy about the budget from Britain where also the system has been strongly attacked by eminent economists and political scientists including Peter Jay. Sir Richard Clarke, who was the originating genius of nearly every important development in the British budgeting techniques during the last two decades, has spoken out about the abuse of budget secrecy: "The problems of long-term tax policy should surely be debated openly with the facts on the table. In my opinion, all governments should have just the same duty to publish their expenditure policy. Indeed, this obligation to publish taxation policy is really essential for the control of public expenditure in order to get realistic taxation implications." Realising that democracy flourishes best on the principles of open government, more and more democracies are having an open public debate on budget proposals before introducing the appropriate Bill in the legislature. In the United States the budget is conveyed in a message by the President to the Congress, which comes well in advance of the date when the Bill is introduced in the Congress. In Finland the Parliament and the people are already discussing in June the tentative budget proposals which are to be introduced in the Finnish Parliament in September. Every budget contains a cartload of figures in black and white - but the dark figures represent the myriad lights and shades of India's life, the contrasting tones of poverty and wealth, and of bread so dear and flesh and blood so cheap, the deep tints of adventure and enterprise and man's ageless struggle for a brighter morning. The Union budget should not be an annual scourge but a part of presentation of annual accounts of a partnership between the Government and the people. That partnership would work much better when the nonsensical secrecy is replaced by openness and public consultations, resulting in fair laws and the people's acceptance of their moral duty to pay.

Q-13)   From the contents of the passage, it can be inferred that the author is:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)


DIRECTIONS:

Read the fol lowing passages carefully and answer the questions given below them. Certain words are given in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

We have inherited the tradition of secrecy about the budget from Britain where also the system has been strongly attacked by eminent economists and political scientists including Peter Jay. Sir Richard Clarke, who was the originating genius of nearly every important development in the British budgeting techniques during the last two decades, has spoken out about the abuse of budget secrecy: "The problems of long-term tax policy should surely be debated openly with the facts on the table. In my opinion, all governments should have just the same duty to publish their expenditure policy. Indeed, this obligation to publish taxation policy is really essential for the control of public expenditure in order to get realistic taxation implications." Realising that democracy flourishes best on the principles of open government, more and more democracies are having an open public debate on budget proposals before introducing the appropriate Bill in the legislature. In the United States the budget is conveyed in a message by the President to the Congress, which comes well in advance of the date when the Bill is introduced in the Congress. In Finland the Parliament and the people are already discussing in June the tentative budget proposals which are to be introduced in the Finnish Parliament in September. Every budget contains a cartload of figures in black and white - but the dark figures represent the myriad lights and shades of India's life, the contrasting tones of poverty and wealth, and of bread so dear and flesh and blood so cheap, the deep tints of adventure and enterprise and man's ageless struggle for a brighter morning. The Union budget should not be an annual scourge but a part of presentation of annual accounts of a partnership between the Government and the people. That partnership would work much better when the nonsensical secrecy is replaced by openness and public consultations, resulting in fair laws and the people's acceptance of their moral duty to pay.

Q-14)   Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.

DEBATED

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)


DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

The stunning Baltimore Oriole is a common summer visitor to eastern and mid western deciduous woodlands, neighbourhoods, and gardens. Baltimore Orioles winter in the tropics. About 7 inches in length, the male Baltimore Oriole has a black head, throat, back and wings. Its breast, stomach, and rump are bright orange. It also has an orange patch on the top of each wing and white wing bars. The tail is mostly black with orange fringes. The female is dull orange throughout.

Baltimore Orioles range throughout the eastern and mid western United States, and can be found as far west as the Dakotas. At the western edge of their range, Baltimore Orioles may breed with the Bullock's Oriole (They were once considered the same species under the name Northern Oriole).

Baltimore Orioles build unusual pouch like nests that hang down from branches. They usually nest high in the trees, but often come down to lower heights, flashing bright orange and black feathers to delighted observers Active and acrobatic by nature, Baltimore Orioles may even feed upside down at time.

Baltimore Orioles eat insects and berries. They can easily be attracted to gardens by nailing orange wedges to tree branches. Baltirmore Orioles are also known to feed at hummingbird feeders and sapsucker wells.

Q-15)   According to the Japanese Ambassador, which of the following motivates the foreign investors to invest in Indian manufacturing industry?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Explanation:

The Japanese ambassador acknowledges that the vastness of the Indian market is a great inducement for investment in the manufacturing industry.


DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words in the passage are printed in bold to help you to locate them easily while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

Despite the global slowdown, the online shopping In India has increased. The growing pace of online buying is because of the attractive discounted prices offered and the ability of the customers to research and compare the prices across several outlets. The average frequency of online purchases in India grew up to 2.9 in the fourth quarter of 2008 from 2.6 during the same quarter in 2007, as reported by the survey of Master Card Worldwide The economic meltdown has not affected our business, Said the CEO of an ecommerce portal which specializes in personalized gifting and merchandise space in India.

He said Our business has increased up to five times this year despite the economic recession. Currently, we possess a database of 25,000 designs posted by a thousand designers so that the users can create their own merchandise by selecting the designs sitting at home. The CEO also said that with the rise in bandwidth penetration in India and the Increasing awareness of internet among people, the online shoppers sense the convenience to click on the products they want to purchase. Holding onto a similar conviction, the CEO of another Company said, With the convenience of online buying, customers can save their time and money to move across multiple outlets for a product. The online shoppers also plan their shopping in advance and conduct research on their planned purchases.

It becomes easier for the customers to decide the price at which they want the products. Sharing views on this point, the Manager of the ecommerce portal says, Through the online shopping, customers can attain the objective of value for money during these tough times. Today, India is the only country where the 18 to 29 years age group has the highest average spend on online shopping. In India, the popular online purchases include the home appliances and the electronic gadgets like cell phones, camera, laptops and so on. According to the survey, the repurchasing of electronic products has gone up by 51 percent. So to drive these online shoppers, ecommerce portals are adopting a networking culture by Incorporating social networking feature in their websites, so that people can discuss with their friends and relatives before buying the particular product. There are more startups, who are Innovating their products to combat slowdown.

Q-16)   Which of the following statements is TRUE in the context of the passage?

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(b)

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(e)

Explanation:


DIRECTIONS:

A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

PASSAGE

Genetic variation is the cornerstone of evolution, without which there can be no natural selection, and so a low genetic diversity decreases the ability of a species to survive and reproduce, explains lead author Yoshan Moodley, Professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Venda in South Africa.

Two centuries ago, the black rhinoceros – which roamed much of sub Saharan Africa – had 64 different genetic lineages; but today only 20 of these lineages remain, says the paper. The species is now restricted to five countries, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Genetically unique populations that once existed in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi and Angola have disappeared. The origins of the 'genetic erosion' coincided with colonial rule in Africa and the popularity of big game hunting. From the second half of the 20th century, however, poaching for horns has dramatically depleted their population and genetic diversity, especially in Kenya and Tanzania.

Q-17)   Genetic diversity is proportional to _____________________.

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DIRECTIONS:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words in the passage are printed in bold to help you to locate them easily while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

John Maynard Keynes, the trendiest dead economist of this apocalyptic moment was the godfather of government stimulus. Keynes had the radical idea that throwing money at recessions through aggressive deficit spending would resuscitate flat-lined economies and he wasn't too particular about where the money was thrown. In the depths of the Depression, he suggested that the Treasury could fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coal mines then sit back and watch a money mining boom create jobs and it above would be better Barrack Obama throw money at the cur item a stimulus package it about $800 billion, plus the 350 billion chunk of the bailout we all really do see may Nissans now.

Just about expert agrees that pumping $ 1 into a moribund economy will p the ethereal goods and services re that Keynes called aggregate and stimulate at least some rattan activity, even if it is all tendon money pits. But Keynes was right that there would be more able ways to spend it. A trillion it's worth of bad ideas sprawl rig highways and bridges to no e, ethanol plants and pipelines accelerate global warming, tax for overleveraged McMahsidrters and burdensome new long federal entitlements would be than mere waste.

It would beer to buy every American an iPod,) Ginsu knives and 600 Subv$yngs would be smarter still to the money at things we need to which .is the goal of Obartias sing Arnericah Recovery and Recent Plan. It will include a mix of cuts, aid to beleaguered state a governments and spending rest needs ranging from food to computerized health records repairs to broadband net D energy efficiency retrofits, all d to save or create 3 million to in jobs by the end of 2010. has said speed is his top cause the faster Washington ash into the financial blood the better it stands to help multiyear slump with double employment and deflation. But v ants to use the stimulus to his long-term priorities reduce the use and carbon emissions, middle-class taxes, upgrading infrastructure, reining in e costs and eventually reduced get deficits that exploded large W. Bush. Obamas goal this crisis in the best sensed, to start pursuing his veneer, fairer, more compete sustainable economy was a megaton has demonstrated an impressive ability to spend money quickly, it has yet to prove that it can spend money wisely.

And the chum of a 1 with 12 zeros is already creating a feeding frenzy, for the ages. Lobbyists for shoe companies, zoos, catfish fanners, mall owners, airlines, public broadcasters, car dealers and everyone else who can afford their retainers are lining up for a piece of the stimulus. States that embarked on raucous spending and tax-cutting sprees when they were flush are begging for bailouts now that they're broke. And politicians are dusting off their unfunded mobster museums, watersides and other pet projects for rebranding as shovel ready infrastructure investments. As Obamas aides scramble to assemble something effective and transformative as well as politically achievable, they acknowledge the ten between his desires for speed and reform.

Q-18)   What does the author mean by Dustbinisation of the customer?

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(e)


DIRECTIONS:

Read the fol lowing passages carefully and answer the questions given below them. Certain words are given in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

After the "Liberal" a new catch-phrase is being coined: `A New Health Order'. Talking about setting it up is the theme of the WHO-sponsored international conference on primary health and medical care, currently being held at Milan in Italy. While much has been said and written on establishing "new order", little has actually been done. Will the conference at Milan too swear by the "new health order", go home and then forget about it, while the present medical and healthcare set-up in poor countries further entrenches itself? This does not have to be the fate of the radical resolutions that will undoubtedly be passed at Milan. Unlike creating a new world economic or information order, establishing a new health setup is essentially a matter for individual countries to accomplish. No conflict of international interests is involved. But this advantage is, at least until it begins to take concrete shape, only theoretical. The milliondollar question is whether individual third-world governments are able and willing to muster the will, the resources, the administrative and other infrastructure to carry out what it is entirely within their power to attain and implement.

The dimensions of the problem are known and the solutions broadly agreed on. The present medical and health-care system is urban-based, closely geared to drugs, hospitals and expensively trained apathetic doctors. The bulk of the population in poor countries, who live in rural areas, are left untouched by all this and must rely on traditional healers. The answer is to turn out medical/health personnel sufficiently, but not expensively, trained to handle routine complaints and to get villagers to pay adequate attention to cleanliness, hygienic sanitation, garbage disposal and other elementary but crucial matters. More complicated ailments can be referred to properly equipped centres in district towns, cities and metropolises. Traditional healers, whom villagers trust, can be among these intermediate personnel. Some third-world countries, including India, have launched or are preparing elaborate schemes of this nature. But the experience is not quite happy. There is resistance from the medical establishment which sees them as little more than licensed quackery but is not prepared either to offer condensed medical courses such as the former licentiate course available in this country and unwisely scrapped. There is the question of how much importance to give to indigenous system of medicine. And there is the difficult matter of striking the right balance between preventive healthcare and curative medical attention. These are complex issues and the Milan conference would perhaps be more fruitful if it were to discuss such specific subjects.

Q-19)   What does the author suggest for the cure of the cases involving complications?

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Explanation:

More complicated ailments can be referred to properly equipped centres in district towns, cities etc.


DIRECTIONS:

A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

PASSAGE

But before I could be inspired by these amazing people, I had to cleanse my feed. I know my weaknesses: just last week, Facebook memories reminded me of a pizza party I'd had two years ago and I ended up ordering a chicken dominator, with garlic breadsticks and an jalapeno cheese dip. So much for Day One of Couch to 5K training. I stayed right on that couch. So far I've unfollowed Buzzfeed Tasty, TasteMade (even their adorable Tiny Kitchen) and several people who have the enviable advantage of being able to eat as much as they want and not put on weight. By my calculations, dark chocolate is healthy, so I'm still following Earth Loaf, Pascati and Mason & Co.

When I finally found a gym I liked, with the best trainers I have had, I unabashedly shared my workouts every day. From shying away from full-length pictures, I reached a point where I could share videos of myself deadlifting and doing back squats with a barbell across my shoulders. It gave me accountability: I challenged myself to go to the gym for 30 classes straight, and I did it. Which reminds me, it's time to start a new challenge.

Q-20)   What gave the writer accountability?

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