Direction (1-5). Five statements are
given below, labelled a, b, c, d and e. Among these, four statements are in
logical order and form a coherent paragraph. From the given options, choose the
option that does not fit into the theme of the paragraph.
Q1. (a)Unfortunately, it is not just the
airline that is in a mess, but also the banks (including the venerable State
Bank of India) that have lent to it.
(b)So they restructure debt, offer
better terms, extend repayment periods, and provide more credit to keep the
unit afloat.
(c)If they withdraw they invite default
of the large volume of debt they have already provided.
(d) The dangers associated with
restructuring was brought to public attention in the Kingfisher Airlines case,
which is now facing the prospect of liquidation as a result of a combination of
bad strategy, bad acquisitions, profligacy and obvious mismanagement.
(e) The largest chunk of bank debt to
infrastructure (estimated at Rs. 269196 crore as of March 2011) is to the power
sector.
Q2. (a)In the rural areas, male usual
(principal and subsidiary) status employment increased by only 13.4 million
between 2004-05 and 2009-10, as compared with 20.2 million between 1999-2000
and 2004-05.
(b) This points to a structural shift in employment generation since
most of the additional male employment generated in this age group during the
1999-2000 to 2004-05 period was in the self-employment category.
(c)The corresponding figures for the
urban areas were 9.8 million and 15 million respectively.
(d)Thus there is clear evidence of
deceleration here as well.
(e)To deal with the criticism that the
figures on female employment are gross underestimates, and get on with the task
at hand, we can restrict the analysis to movements in male employment.
Q3. (a) The Survey sees the services sector, which recorded a marginal
deceleration of growth in 2013-14, as poised for revival and as being an
important contributor to growth in the future as well.
(b)Though India ranks low in terms of
per capita income, its share of services in GDP is approaching the global
average.
(c)This would imply that the relative
per worker value added in services vis-à-vis the commodity producing sectors
and construction, was higher in India than elsewhere.
(d)Interestingly, however, the
contribution of services to employment was significantly lower than the world
average.
(e)As the Economic Survey noted, while
at the global level services accounted for 65.9 per cent of GDP and as much as
44 per cent of employment in 2012, in India’s case the sector, with 56.3 per
cent of GDP, accounted for just 28.1 per cent of employment.
Q4. (a) It may appear counter-intuitive,
but research shows that imposing stricter penalties tends to reduce the level
of enforcement of road rules.
(b) As the IIT Delhi’s Road Safety in
India report of 2015 points out, the deterrent effect of law depends on the
severity and swiftness of penalties, but also the perception that the
possibility of being caught for violations is high.
(c) The amendments to the MV Act set
enhanced penalties for several offences, notably drunken driving, speeding,
jumping red lights and so on, but periodic and ineffective enforcement, which
is the norm, makes it less likely that these will be uniformly applied.
(d) The bottleneck created by their lack
of capacity has stifled regulatory reform in the transport sector and only
encouraged corruption.
(e) Without an accountable and
professional police force, the ghastly record of traffic fatalities, which
stood at 1,46,133 in 2015, is unlikely to change.
Q5. (a) Without such oversight,
unethical commercial entities would have easy backdoor access to public funds
in the form of state-backed insurance.
(b) But this requires accountability,
both on the quality and cost of care.
(c) Against such a laggardly record, the
policy now offers an opportunity to systematically rectify well-known
deficiencies through a stronger National Health Mission.
(d)No more time should be lost in
forming regulatory and accreditation agencies for healthcare providers at the
national and State levels as suggested by the expert group on universal health
coverage of the Planning Commission more than five years ago.
(e) Contracting of health services from
the private sector may be inevitable in the short term, given that about 70% of
all outpatient care and 60% of inpatient treatments are provided by it.
Directions (6-10): Each of the following
questions has a paragraph from which one sentence has been deleted. From the
given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most
appropriate way.
Q6. Physical violence is addictive and
infectious. Like some deadly drug, once you partake of it you want a second
(forgive the terrible pun) hit, and once you start doing it regularly you want
more and more. With ingested substances your interaction is only with yourself,
but violence always needs a target, or — if you must be libtardish about it — a
victim. Now, as your blow transfers from your brain to the hand that pulls off
your slipper to the recipient, you transfer not only the pain but also the infection
from which you are suffering. Perhaps not immediately, especially if they’re
reeling from serious bodily damage, but sooner or later, the person who’s hit
will want to hit back. ________________________
(a) If your target is dead, the infection will spread to their loved
ones and comrades.
(b) Despite limited experience I would suggest that a human being has
two contradictory reactions when he visits physical harm on someone.
(c) These violent ideologies tend to get hungrier for sanctioned
targets; the definitions of the enemy get wider, consciously and
subconsciously.
(d) How can someone who hits you tell you not to do it to others?
(e) With parents it is difficult to hit back, especially when you’re
very small.
Q7. In a recent and fascinating book
called The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle between Faith and Reason: 1798
to Modern Times by Christopher de Bellaigue, there is an interesting
counterfactual that is posed. Could the most advanced societies of the Islamic
world in the early 19th century — the Ottoman empire — have understood Jane
Eyre? _______________________________. To “get” Jane Eyre, not just as a
cultural product but also as a viable, believable story, the Ottomans would
have had to “get” the social infrastructure in which the novel unfolds. This
would mean recognising a post-feudal society, understanding institutions like
the postal services or newspapers, and the idea that a “respectable” single
woman could make life choices on her own.
(a)The answer is not clear.
(b) Even within the democratic context
of India, we find elaborately architected visions of linguistic chauvinism,
imaginary sanctities, textual literalism, and genetic ‘purity’.
(c) Jane Eyre is a novel by Charlotte
Brontë, published in 1847, about a young woman’s journey through life and love
at the cusp of modernity.
(d) One can try to keep in mind that the ideas we hold to be
self-evident and eternal were born out of contingent circumstances.
(e) At best, we can only point to a set of responses that shows how our
present culture is born out of a complex set of exchanges and reactions.
Q8. The question is what defines
headline inflation? For long, point-to-point changes in the wholesale price
index (WPI) were considered the headline inflation rate. The WPI is a weighted
average of the prices of most goods produced in the economy, with the weights
being their shares in domestic output and their prices those prevailing in
wholesale markets. _______________________________. Internationally consumer
price indices rather than producer price indices are the standard for measuring
inflation, since they reflect the prices that ordinary citizens face and pay.
(a) The release was supposed to mark the transition to the use by the
government and the central bank of this new index rather than the wholesale
price index (WPI) to compute the headline inflation rate.
(b) The reason for this significant difference partly lies in the
substantial difference in rates of inflation across commodity groups as
measured by the WPI.
(c) This does indeed make a difference.
(d) It is closer to a producer price
index, reflecting more what producers charge their immediate buyers, rather
than the prices that prevail at the end of the trading chain, in retail
markets.
(e) Since many of these primary goods are likely to be consumed by the
ordinary citizen and, therefore, feature in the CPI with a large weight, that
index shows inflation to be much higher.
Q9. Is this China story true? And if so
would India be among the countries that benefit? International comparisons of
unit labour costs are difficult to come by, but some numbers are available from
a few sources. This discussion is based on estimates made by the Bureau of
Labour Statistics (BLS) of the US government. Despite the difficulty involved
in generating comparable numbers the BLS has (till recently) routinely put out
figures on unit labour costs in different countries as part of its
International Labour Comparison programme. ___________________________
(a)However, what matters from the point
of view of competitiveness is not just compensation but unit labour costs in a
common currency, which depends on compensation, productivity and the exchange
rate.
(b) China and India were not part of the
regular programme, but the BLS conducted special studies of labour compensation
in these countries, being careful to underscore the dangers of comparing data
that are different in terms of method, coverage and reliability across
countries.
(c) There are several aspects of the Chinese experience that need to be
taken note of.
(d) Given the evidence on labour compensation costs, conventionally
seen as an important determinant of competitiveness, this differential in
performance calls for an explanation.
(e) While China was recording a lower level of compensation costs when
compared with India (though the two were close to each other), matters had
changed significantly by 2009 with Chinese compensation costs racing ahead.
Q10. The International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) also estimates that around 18 per cent of
individuals in India were using the Internet in 2014, as compared with 49.3 per
cent in China, 90 per cent in Japan and 87.4 per cent in the US.
_______________________________. Since services provided by the government are
likely to be accessed by households, this improves the initial condition from
which the government is working. But still, a quarter of households is a long
way from the near universal access to cloud-based services that the government
is hoping to ensure.
(a) One problem is, of course, that of providing access to the hardware
through which individuals get access to the Internet.
(b) Almost a decade back it announced a policy initiative to bridge
India’s widening digital divide by increasing physical access to computers
connected to the Internet.
(c) The NSS survey quoted earlier suggests that there is an unusual
relationship between internet access, computer access and literacy.
(d) If we go by figures from Internet World Stats, Internet penetration
within the population in India amounted to 19.7 per cent at the end of June
2014, as compared with 86.9 per cent in the U. S., 86.2 per cent in Japan, and
47.4 per cent in China.
(e) But, as noted earlier, the NSS
figures suggest that the proportion of households with Internet access is much
higher than the “non-official” numbers on the proportion of individuals who are
Internet users.
Directions (11-15): In each of the following
questions, five options are given and you have to choose the one which has some
or any grammatical error in it. In the questions where the fifth option is “all
are correct” and all the given four options are correct choose option (e) as
your choice.
Q11.
(a) He was probably a Greek, but he did
not accord with anything of his time.
(b) Their husbands are not likely ever
to be rich men, and will probably be poor for some years to come.
(c) Had there been, he probably would
have invited the visitor to walk to the fire and partake.
(d) The individual whom I address is
probably the most popular beggar in the town.
(e) Between you and I, he probably won’t
come at all.
Q12. (a) Let no one remain with doubt
that India is getting stronger and stronger.
(b) Only I made it stronger and more
explicit than that, and knew they would comply if such a thing were humanly
possible.
(c) The comfort she enjoyed and could always look forward to was making
her stronger.
(d) It seems to me that the breeze is stronger here than it was out at
sea.
(e) All are correct.
Q13. (a) It was late in the afternoon
when I set foot on solid earth, but I did not stay in the town.
(b) Almost as soon as he set foot in his home he was informed of the
news by Trim.
(c)After many an adventure the explorer
finally set foot on the English soil.
(d) She was resolved to leave Atlamalco on the first opportunity and
never to set foot within the Republic again.
(e) All are correct.
Q14. (a) They are at the same time modest and impudent, attack and careful
retreat.
(b) The child was then careful to avoid what had been pronounced
“wrong” in others.
(c) There are many a slips between the
cup and the lip and so one has to be careful.
(d) Now lower the fire and be careful not to allow the compound to be
overdone.
(e) Be careful not to overcook it, and it will not be pasty, but firm
and tender.
Q15. (a) They discussed their chances of
contacting Space Academy with the communications set they had left hidden in
the storeroom.
(b) He wondered how they’d go about contacting the commissioner.
(c) I will appreciate your contacting any of the girls who might be
interested in joining our air line as stewardesses.
(d) No sooner I received the telegram
from Avinash than I started contacting my friends on phone.
(e) All are correct.
SOLUTIONS:
S1. Ans. (e)
Sol. Among the given options, DACB makes
a coherent paragraph which depicts the bad debts story associated with the
lending, liquidation and their restructure process, citing the Kingfisher
Airlines as the perfect example. Option (e) can be easily eliminated from the
given options as it talks about the bank debt to the power sector which fails
to connect with any other sentences.
S2. Ans. (b)
Sol. EACD forms a coherent paragraph as
it talks about the statistical figure of comparison between the male and female
employment. Option (b), which points to structural shift in male employment in
a particular age group which is missing in other given options, does not make
any connection with other sentences. Hence option (b) is the correct choice.
S3. Ans. (a)
Sol. The paragraph is about India’s
performance in terms of per capita income in service sector. In this regard
BDEC forms a coherent paragraph. Option (a) does not fit anywhere in the
paragraph as it depicts the deceleration of growth in 2013-14. Hence option (a)
is the correct choice.
S4. Ans. (d)
Sol. ABCE forms a coherent paragraph as
it talks about the amendments in Motor Vehicles Bill. Among the given options,
only sentence (d) fails to connect with any other options as it points out
certain obstacle due to their lack of capacity and corruption in this field.
Hence option (d) is the correct choice.
S5. Ans. (c)
Sol. Sentences in the sequence of EBDA
forms a coherent paragraph that talks about the existing health policies in the
country and the requirement of their reforms. All options except (c) are inter
connected in some or other way. However, option (c) is about certain sluggish
record in this field and the reformed policy which doesn’t get connection with
other given sentences of the paragraph. Hence option (c) is the correct choice.
S6. Ans. (a)
Sol. The paragraph talks about the
process and subsequent consequences of physical violence. Read the last and
second last sentences of the paragraph carefully, it can be inferred from there
that any kind of physical violence may act as an infection to the recipient.
Among the given options, only sentence (a) makes a valid and appropriate
connection with these two sentences. Other options can be easily eliminated as
they do not make perfect conclusion to the paragraph.
S7. Ans. (c)
Sol. Read the paragraph carefully, it is
about the different culture and faith that exist in the present society. It
takes the examples of different books which talk about the practical existence
of cultural autonomy. The sentences on either side of the blank space makes it
clear that only option (c) suits appropriately to fill the gap. Other options
are irrelevant as they fail to match the theme of the paragraph.
S8. Ans. (d)
Sol. The given paragraph explains the
meaning of headline inflation. Read the sentences of either side of the blank
space, there is a comparison of wholesale price index with consumer price
index. Hence among the given options, only option (d) makes the correct
substitution to the blank space. Other options offer different meanings which
do not connect with the theme of the paragraph.
S9. Ans. (b)
Sol. The paragraph talks about the
International Labour Comparison Programme by the Bureau of Labour Statistics
(BLS) of the US government, specifically highlighting the different modes of
comparison between the two countries – India and China. After going through all
the given options, option (b) makes the most appropriate conclusion to this
paragraph as it clearly mentions that both the countries were not the part of
this programme which can be connected well with its former sentence. Other
options are irrelevant as they add different meanings to the conclusion.
S10. Ans. (e)
Sol. The paragraph is about the
proportion of Indians who has got the access to internet connection. Read the
sentence just after the blank space, it talks about the services provided by
the government to the households which can be easily connected with the option
(e) among the given options. Other options, though related to the topic, are
irrelevant in the context of adding meaning to this particular paragraph.
S11. Ans. (e)
Sol. Replace ‘I’ by ‘me’ as ‘between’ is
always followed by Objective Case.
e.g. Between you (Objective Case) and
me (Objective Case).
Between him (Objective Case) and
her (Objective Case).
S12. Ans. (a)
Sol. Replace ‘with’ by ‘in’ as the use
of “in doubt, in confusion” are idiomatic.
S13. Ans. (e)
Sol. All the given sentences are
grammatically correct.
S14. Ans. (c)
Sol. Use ‘many a slip’ or ‘many slips’
in place of ‘many a slips’ as the correct syntax is “Many + a/an + Singular Noun + Singular Verb” or “Many + Plural Noun + Plural Verb”.
e.g. Many a man (Noun – Singular)
has come.
Many men (Noun – Plural) have
come.
S15. Ans. (d)
Sol. Use ‘had’ after ‘No sooner’ as the
sentence starting with “No sooner,
Hardly, Scarcely, Rarely, Seldom” requires Inversion i.e. helping verb is used before Subject. However ‘did’
can also be used after ‘No sooner’ but then ‘received’ would be replaced by
‘receive’.
e.g. No sooner had I received…
No sooner did I receive…
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