Directions (1-5): 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.
Q1. The new scheme of electoral bonds has reignited the debate on political funding in India. A large number of commentators have argued that this scheme is opaque because it allows donors to be anonymous. It is true that electoral bonds compromise on transparency. In fact, electoral bonds, by their very design and purpose, are meant to preclude public disclosure of donations. If judged by the singular prism of transparency, the electoral bonds scheme is clearly an undesirable policy. ____________________________________________
(a)However, transparency does not capture the entirety of the debate.
(b)Even the institution of electoral trusts, which received legal sanction in 2009, was aimed at addressing this conflict by providing a certain level of anonymity.
(c)A good example in this regard is the utter failure in the monitoring of campaign expenditure limits imposed by the law.
(d)A short-term reform, however, is unlikely to achieve all three objectives.
(e)India has seen what happens when the legal regime prevents corporate donations.
Q2. Concluding his forceful defence of the bill to outlaw instant triple talaq on December 28, Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar admitted in the Lok Sabha that “criminality” is an issue. He was referring to Section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, which states: “Whoever pronounces triple talaq upon his wife shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and a fine”. _______________________________________________ With the Opposition failing to close ranks, the Bill sailed through the Lower House. The only point on which there was a semblance of unity among the Opposition was in the demand for sending the Bill to a select committee for wider consultation.
(a)For example, fears that the criminality provision could be misused are not unfounded in a milieu where Muslims have become targets of violence.
(b) Thorough legislative scrutiny is the first step towards building safeguards against such misuse.
(c) In the Lok Sabha, however, the debate over the problematic provision was muted.
(d) The government should use the more than three-week-long interregnum to rethink its approach towards the crucial legislation on a fraught issue.
(e) The discriminatory nature of triple talaq is undeniable but the government’s approach flattens out a complex issue that has more than one dimension.
Q3. For many contemporary Indians, religious ritual is simply a part of daily life. On the other hand, many won’t want to be caught performing a ritual; they feel uneasy. An impression that rituals are entirely redundant, optional extras at best, is a pervasive feature of modernist consciousness that treats them as vestiges of a premodern, archaic past, to be left behind as we become more educated and rational. _______________________________________________. They sprout superstition, involve nonsensical mumbo jumbo. Moreover, they seem to reinforce a collectivist mentality that gives little room for individual freedom and innovation. This critique of ritual is not without precedents. Indeed, it has a long history.
(a) This is partly because of the association of rituals with religion, but also because of the belief that they can’t survive the test of reason — they are meaningless, empty of content, needlessly repetitive and time-consuming.
(b) We are not satisfied with receiving our university degree certificates by post or by simply an SMS.
(c) All these formal acts and utterances are reiterated and performed publicly, theatrically, so that all relevant people can participate in them.
(d) So rituals and ceremonies, involving skills and modes of action learnt painstakingly by our ancestors and transmitted inter-generationally to become part of collective memory and cultural repertoire, are necessary.
(e) So, reason must question wedding rituals that reinforce hierarchies between men and women but will never succeed if it questions the very idea of ritual.
Q4. It had been more than 20 years in the making, and finally Tamil cinema superstar Rajinikanth delivered on innumerable past overtures when he plunged into the troubled waters of Tamil Nadu politics. The big question on everyone’s mind is this: will he be a force to reckon with after he cobbles together a party apparatus with aspirations of political mobilisation, or will his democratic dream simply fade away after this foray comes a cropper against the jagged edges of the Dravidian parties’ electoral juggernauts? ______________________________________________
(a) If it is the former, it would be most welcome at this nadir of democratic politics in Tamil Nadu, a dark period of grand larceny and covert institutional looting of the public coffers.
(b) Like many heroes of the silver screen, Mr. Rajinikanth’s entry into politics is a test of fire.
(c) Hard to tell with any certainty, but an analysis of his entry in the context of Tamil Nadu’s colourful political past, its frustrating, dysfunctional present, or its ominously cloudy future yields some clues.
(d) In the context of this power vacuum, the State may be Mr. Rajinikanth’s to lose.
(e) It is true that he will not be building it from scratch, the way Periyar and Annadurai did, in the mid-20th century.
Q5. It is remarkable that the Indian Police Service (IPS), despite the constraints under which it functions, has played a stellar role in the past. Andhra Pradesh was able to clear the Naxals in the state thanks to its Greyhounds. The terrorist movement in Punjab was comprehensively defeated in spite of the support it was getting all along from across the borders. The Tripura insurgency was squashed. Terrorism in the Terai area of Uttar Pradesh (geographically larger than Punjab) was stamped out in just about one year. And yet, the IPS was never given its due place of honour in the government hierarchy. ___________________________________________
(a) The failure to reinvent the police is to be attributed largely to the constitutional arrangement which places the police and law and order in the “state list”.
(b) More than a decade has passed but the states continue to drag their feet in implementing the judicial directions.
(c) The stakes are too high.
(d) The police must get its due and must be enabled to perform its mandated functions.
(e) This has severely constrained the initiative of its officers and affected their performance.
Directions (6-7): Select the phrase/connector (STARTERS) from the given three options which can be used to form a single sentence from the two sentences given below, implying the same meaning as expressed in the statement sentences.
Q6. (1) News of detente, talks with South Korea and potential Olympic medals have clearly focused attention on the Korean peninsula.
(2) The children of North Korean women in China, most of whom have been trafficked out of the sealed state into illegal marriages, prostitution and slavery, live stateless on the fringes of society, unrecognized as citizens or even refugees.
(I)Although news of détente, talks…
(II)Notwithstanding that news of détente…
(III)As the children of North Korean women…
(a)Only (I) is correct
(b)Only (III) is correct
(c)Both (I) and (II) are correct
(d)Both (II) and (III) are correct
(e)All are correct
Q7. (1) We hope that the Indian family continues to be stronger than in most countries and provides a caring environment for the elderly.
(2) It can’t be the basis for our ability to support the elderly.
(I)While we hope that Indian family…
(II)Hoping that the Indian family can’t be the basis…
(III)To support the elderly, we hope that…
(a)Only (I) is correct
(b)Only (II) is correct
(c)Only (III) is correct
(d)Both (I) and (III) are correct
(e)All are correct
Directions (8-10): Five statements are given below, labeled (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.
Q8. (a)Prospects appear, if anything, bleaker than was the case in 2017.
(b)More disorder, coming with increasing signs of a breakdown in inter and intra-state relations, is perhaps on the horizon.
(c)The Asian region is nowhere near achieving the kind of equilibrium that the Concert of Europe brought to 19th century Europe.
(d)What awaits the Asia-Pacific in 2018?
(e)Both the IS and al-Qaeda seem to have acquired a new salience lately.
Q9. (a)History seems to bear this out.
(b) It will not have a better opportunity to do so.
(c)But this did nothing to clean up electoral funding.
(d)Faced with the prospect of losing anonymity by having to account for the donations in their annual reports, companies elected to persist with the black money system.
(e)In 1985, the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi rolled back Indira Gandhi’s 1968 ban on corporate donations which had entrenched black money networks in politics.
Q10. (a)Or, it could be that they were worried about China.
(b)That did not happen because economic growth was slower than they expected.
(c)At the beginning of 2015 and 2016, the Fed anticipated making three rate hikes each.
(d) So, the oil price impact is asymmetric.
(e)After six years of zero rates and quantitative easing up to 2014, economic growth was still disappointing until 2016.
Directions (11-15): In each of the following sentence there are three blank spaces. Below each sentence there are five options and each option consists of three words which can be filled up in the provided blanks in the sentence respectively to make the sentence grammatically correct. Choose the most appropriate set of words that makes the sentence contextually and grammatically correct.
Q11. An assessment by the Wildlife Institute of India _______________ that tigers in at least 26 reserves _____________ the destructive _____________ of roads and traffic.
(a) reports, seem, concussion
(b) says, address, collision
(c) forms, accost, rupture
(d) proclaims, greet, waves
(e) states, face, impact
Q12. The ______________ death of Bajirao, one of India’s breeding tigers from the Bor reserve in Maharashtra, on a highway is a reminder that building _____________ roads through wildlife habitats has a terrible ______________.
(a) futile, wrong, gain
(b) depressed, unfit, extent
(c) tragic, unsuitable, cost
(d) rotten, imperfect, expense
(e) harmless, unfavourable, amount
Q13. The recent protests which _____________ around Iran in the ______________ days of 2017 and early 2018 represented the largest public display of _______________ in Iran since the 2009 Green Movement.
(a) increased, weakening, empathy
(b) exhibits, sagging, disappointment
(c) occur, tiring, irritation
(d) spread, waning, discontent
(e) applied, dwindling, antipathy
Q14. ______________ rural economic anxieties _______________ a political voice, the expectation is that the Budget will ______________ on agriculture.
(a) With, acquiring, focus
(b) Although, accepts, dissuade
(c) Since, obtaining, endeavor
(d) Besides, undertaking, regulate
(e) As, approving, propose
Q15. The high MSP ____________ that the increase in food grain production in the four-year ____________, 42 million metric tonnes, was more than double of what had been ______________.
(a) clinched, completion, contemplating
(b) ensured, period, targeted
(c) secured, episode, covet
(d) settle, phase, caused
(e) confirmed, units, strived
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Solutions:
S1. Ans. (a)
Sol. The given paragraph is about electoral bond scheme on political funding in India. Read the last few sentences of the paragraph, it is mentioned that transparency is one of the major issues related to the scheme, which should continue to be the case in the concluding sentence of the paragraph. Among the given options, the sentence (a) gives the perfect ending to the paragraph following the similar theme. Other statements are out of the context of the paragraph. Hence option (a) is the correct choice.
S2. Ans. (c)
Sol. The given paragraph is about the debate on the bill to outlaw instant triple talaq in the Rajya Sabha. Read the sentences on either side of the blank space, there is a talk about the debate happened in the Lok Sabha stating the punishment that one has to go through for such crimes. Thus, among the given options, the sentence (c) fits perfectly into the space providing a better continuity to the sentences. Other options are irrelevant in the context of the paragraph. Hence (c) is the correct choice.
S3. Ans. (a)
Sol. The given paragraph is about the importance of rituals in contemporary India and the different aspects and roles that they play in our social life. Read the sentences on either side of the blank space, the most logical and appropriate sentence that complements both these sentences is option (a). It gives the required reason for why rituals are entirely redundant. Other options are completely out of the context depicting different meanings which do not fit into the provided blank. Thus option (a) is the correct choice.
S4. Ans. (c)
Sol. The given paragraph is about the grand entry of Tamil cinema superstar Rajinikanth into the politics. It is quite easy to pick the correct option if we go by the provided options. The sentence prior to the blank space raises a question which is nicely answered in the form of statement (c). Other options do not provide the answer of the question that is raised in the former statement and thus they do not conclude the paragraph contextually. Hence option (c) is the correct choice.
S5. Ans. (e)
Sol. The given paragraph is about the Indian Police Service (IPS) and their stellar performance in eradicating social evils from the society. Read the penultimate sentence of the paragraph, it is giving an indication that contrasts the above statements given in the paragraph. It states that IPS was never given its due place of honour despite their brave efforts in different states, which is highly complemented by the statement (e). The statement concludes the paragraph giving it the impression of completeness. Other options are irrelevant when it comes to their inclusion in the given blank. Hence (e) is the correct choice.
S6. Ans. (c)
Sol. Both the starters (I) and (II) can be used to form the meaningful sentence without altering the intended meaning of the two statements. It is to be noted that both the conjunctions “Although” and “Notwithstanding”, mean the same i.e. in spite of the fact that; even though. In the given case, both these conjunctions give a contextual meaning to the given sentences. Hence (c) is the correct choice.
(I) Although news of detente, talks with South Korea and potential Olympic medals have clearly focused attention on the Korean peninsula, the children of North Korean women in China, most of whom have been trafficked out of the sealed state into illegal marriages, prostitution and slavery, live stateless on the fringes of society, unrecognized as citizens or even refugees.
(II) Notwithstanding that news of detente, talks with South Korea and potential Olympic medals have clearly focused attention on the Korean peninsula, the children of North Korean women in China, most of whom have been trafficked out of the sealed state into illegal marriages, prostitution and slavery, live stateless on the fringes of society, unrecognized as citizens or even refugees.
S7. Ans. (a)
Sol. Only the first starter can be used to form a meaningful sentence connecting both the given statements without altering their intended meanings.
(I) While we hope that the Indian family continues to be stronger than in most countries and provides a caring environment for the elderly, it can’t be the basis for our ability to support the elderly.
S8. Ans. (e)
Sol. Sentences in the sequence of dabc form a coherent paragraph. The paragraph is about the prospects of the Asia-Pacific in 2018 as compared to 2017. However, the sentence (e) finds no attachment with any of the other given sentences. It is about the terrorist organizations like IS and al-Qaeda which have no relevance with the given paragraph. Hence the option (e) is the correct choice of elimination.
S9. Ans. (b)
Sol. Sentences in the sequence of aecd form a coherent paragraph. The paragraph is about the historical evidences that suggested the decisions taken in history to clean up the electoral funding. However, the sentence (b) is out of the context as it doesn’t make any connection with the other sentences. The subject “It” in the sentence finds no proper relevance in the paragraph. Hence option (b) is the correct choice of elimination.
S10. Ans. (d)
Sol. Sentences in the sequence of cbea form a coherent paragraph which is about the comparisons of economic growth by the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC). However, the statement (d) seems to be irrelevant owing to its subject on the oil price impact. Hence option (d) is the correct choice of elimination.
S11. Ans. (e)
Sol. ‘states, face, impact’ is the correct set of words making the sentence meaningful.
Accost means approach and address (someone) boldly or aggressively.
Concussion means a violent shock as from a heavy blow.
S12. Ans. (c)
Sol. ‘tragic, unsuitable, cost’ is the correct choice among the given options.
Futile means incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.
Tragic means causing or characterized by extreme distress or sorrow.
S13. Ans. (d)
Sol. ‘spread, waning, discontent’ is the correct set of words making the sentence meaningful.
Empathy means the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Sagging means decline to a lower level, usually temporarily.
Waning means (of a state or feeling) decrease in vigour or extent; become weaker.
S14. Ans. (a)
Sol. ‘with, acquiring, focus’ is the correct choice.
Dissuade means persuade (someone) not to take a particular course of action.
Endeavor means try hard to do or achieve something.
S15. Ans. (b)
Sol. ‘ensured, period, targeted’ is the correct choice among others making the sentence meaningful.
Coveted means yearn to possess.
Clinch means confirm or settle (a contract or bargain).
Strive means struggle or fight vigorously.
Contemplate means look thoughtfully for a long time at.
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