English Quizzes, for IBPS PO Prelims 2021 – 28th November – Reading Comprehension

TOPIC: Reading Comprehension

Directions (1-10): Read the following passage, divided into number of paragraphs, carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

Paragraph 01: IT’S LIKE READING Dostoevsky on a bad summer day. There are so many tormented souls out there caught in a morality play. Its emotional intensity is only matched by the inevitability of the questions it raises about country, religion, power, and retribution. It’s big, shapeless, chaotic, and in the end, a rewarding experience of the imagination. But then, you’re not reading the Great Russian. You’re living in, dare I say, a creative phase of politics. Rich in ideas and arguments, intense in its interplay of passions, nuanced in its undertones of morality and ethics, and ambitious in its pursuit of freedom, politics today, as a genre in creativity, is as good as the original works in other realms of the human mind, be it fiction or philosophy.

Paragraph 02: A sign of the times could be the profusion of political titles in publishing. They are mostly built on the themes of populism, outsiderhood, globalisation and resentment. Hardly a week passes without a full-length review in the Books pages on yet another tome on a world gone astray, a world that’s being led to an incendiary denouement by revolutionaries and revisionists. The moment deserves such interventions because, by common intellectual consensus, in the evolution of post-World War II politics, we are at the next history-shifting stage after 1989, Europe’s annus mirabilis.

Paragraph 03: Then, the stage was an extension of literature: what was imagined in a controlled society sought freedom as the Lie unravelled. In the Russia once imagined by Gogol, and lately reclaimed by Solzhenitsyn, the sight of the last general secretary of the Soviet Union letting the empire crack and go away needed another prophet, another novelist. Elsewhere, in a vassal state, revolution earned an adjective as romantic as ‘velvet’, and in the vanguard of its freedom struggle were writers and singers. In the end, the philosopher would be king. It was a time when an idea that promised man an alternative more liberating than religion proved to be history’s biggest ghost story.

Paragraph 04: Today, it’s the idea of freedom, as it has always been, that propels politics. It’s a different cast. No figures larger than their historical size. No one is pretending to be the last arbiter of our destiny. And no one is talking in a language that would be taught to generation after generation. The disappearance of grandeur from the arena even prompted some pundits a while ago to wail over the death of politics. This moment in politics has an overwhelming sense of ordinariness about it. The new salvation theologians are all ordinary guys, tapping into the fears of people who have lost their balance in a world moving at a pace they cannot cope with. They can easily be categorised into types.

Paragraph 05: ‘Outsider’ has already become a worn-out word, and most totemic outsiders are today insiders. That’s what power does to usurpers. Still, the angry legions in affluent societies can still afford messiahs, and there’s no sign that the people are getting less angry. The outsider, the undisputed protagonist of the political drama, is born from the rotten remains of politics as usual. He is a rejoinder to the three big ‘E’s that cause resentment: Establishment, Entrenchment and Entitlement. Where career politicians embody the status quo, the outsider sells tomorrow, as revolutionaries had done before. There is a difference. In the earlier revolutionary texts, the past is a country without glory, and invariably a horror story. In contrast, the outsider romances nostalgia, the future is the past restored in glory. ‘Make America Great Again’ is the slogan that took Donald Trump to the White House, and it is a sentiment in which the longing for a golden yesterday strengthens the struggle for a fantastic tomorrow.

Q1. What does the author mean by the phrase “a creative phase of politics”?
(I) Politics today, as a genre in creativity, is as good as the original works in other realms of the human mind, be it fiction or philosophy.
(II) Politics today, as on moral and creative ground, is big, shapeless, chaotic, and in the end, a rewarding experience of the imagination.
(III) Politics today is rich in ideas and arguments, fervent in its interplay of passions and nuanced in its undertones of morality and ethics.

(a)Only (I) is correct
(b)Only (II) is correct
(c)Both (I) and (II) are correct
(d)Both (I) and (III) are correct
(e)All are correct

Q2. Which of the following statements describe(s) the concept of “Outsider” in modern politics?
(I)The outsider in modern politics is considered to be the unequivocal protagonist of the political drama.
(II)The outsider is considered to be born from the rotten remnants of politics as most totemic outsiders are today insiders.
(III) The outsider believes in cultural purity, and dreads cross- pollination.

(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

Q3. Which of the following themes determine the establishment of modern political titles?
(I)Populism and Resentment.
(II)Outsiderhood, Globalisation and Antagonism
(III)Contentment, Hostility and Communism

(a)Only (I) is correct
(b)Only (II) is correct
(c)Both (I) and (II) are correct
(d)Both (I) and (III) are correct
(e)All are correct

Q4. Which of the following statements summarizes the Paragraph 04 in the best possible manner?
(a)Modern politics has evolved after the death of primeval politics and it finds no relevance from its classical glory as the idea of freedom and the sense of ordinariness have substituted the core ideologies.
(b)In an unequal world the old bipolarity of politics has ceased to work, for the Left and the Right have not only lost the social space, they have lost the argument to a new set of liberators for whom it is not ideology that matters but ideas that feed on resentment.
(c)The importance and culture of politics has diminished since the arrival of ordinary people on the arena that witnessed the death of ancient political ideologies.
(d)As history choreographs a heady piece of politics, a certain amount of pessimism has taken over the fears of people who have lost their balance in a world moving at a pace they cannot cope with.
(e)None of the above.

Q5. What according to the author is/are the major cause(s) of indignation to the modern politics?
(I)The failure of modern politics to recover old ideologies from the system which used to be the defining stature of historical glory.
(II)The three big ‘E’s that describe the existence of pillars on which modern politics is built – Establishment, Entrenchment and Entitlement.
(III)The revolution that saw the advancement of new philosophers and salvation theologians who form the arrival of new ideologies and dogmas in the system.

(a)Only (I) is correct
(b)Only (II) is correct
(c)Only (III) is correct
(d)Both (I) and (II) are correct
(e)All are correct

Q6. What does the author mean by the ghost story as mentioned in the passage?
(a) It’s not traditions, or even ‘lessons from history’, that matter but the man who dares to defy them, the ruler who refuses to be restrained by office.
(b) The revolution that brought writers, singers and philosophers together in pursuit of attaining the idea that promised man an alternative more liberating than religion.
(c) The empire that was built and imagined by Gogol and Solzhenitsyn to pursue the idea of freedom.
(d)Both (b) and (c) are correct
(e)All are correct

Directions (7-8): Choose the word/group of words which is most similar in meaning to the word/group of words printed in bold as used in passage.

Q7. Legion
(a)Partisan
(b)Conclave
(c)Segmentation
(d)Corps
(e)Throng

Q8. Vanguard
(a)Pattern
(b)Avant-garde
(c)Criterion
(d)Inspiration
(e)Standard

Directions (9-10): Choose the word/group of words which is most opposite in meaning to the word/group of words printed in bold as used in passage.

Q9. Denouement
(a)Misfortune
(b)Adjournment
(c)Genesis
(d)Epilogue
(e)Transpiration

Q10. Grandeur
(a)Inclusiveness
(b)Sophistication
(c)Magnification
(d)Indifference
(e)Classicalism

Direction (11-15): Which of the following phrases (a), (b), (c) and (d) given below each sentence should replace the phrase printed in bold letters to make the sentence grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is, mark (e) i.e. “No correction required” as the answer.

Q11. Every Open House we held since 2013 reaffirmed our belief that there is a need for human intervention to retain its trust and credibility over the age of anonymous communication.
(a)retaining trust and credibility in the age of
(b)to retaining trust and credibility ageing
(c)for retention of trust and credible age of
(d)to retain trust and credibility in this age of
(e)No correction required

Q12. How it is possible for a multi-edition newspaper to produce completely different newspapers for various cities?
(a)Is it possible for
(b)Does it possible to
(c)Has it been possible for
(d)How does it possible to
(e)No correction required

Q13. It is a process where continuity and change are in consonance with each other, where the introduction of a new segment does not subsume the importance of the existing segments.
(a)is in consonance with one another
(b)have consonance with one other
(c)are in consonant to one another
(d)is in consonance at each other
(e)No correction required

Q14. With cyberspace giving an opportunity to many to express themselves, the question that remains unanswered is whether their voices are heard?
(a)As cyberspace might be giving
(b)While cyberspace may have given
(c)The cyberspace may give
(d)Since cyberspace has given
(e)No correction required

Q15. The “Hermit Kingdom” is increasingly isolating itself because of its nuclear ambition that threatens its neighbourhood and the world at large.
(a)isolated because of
(b)isolating themselves because of
(c)isolated themselves because of their
(d)isolating owing to
(e)No correction required

ALSO CHECK:

Solutions:

S1. Ans. (d)
Sol. Refer the first paragraph of the passage, “You’re living in, dare I say, a creative phase of politics. Rich in ideas and arguments, intense in its interplay of passions, nuanced in its undertones of morality and ethics, and ambitious in its pursuit of freedom, politics today, as a genre in creativity, is as good as the original works in other realms of the human mind, be it fiction or philosophy.” So only statements (I) and (III) explain what author meant to convey with the help of the given phrase. Hence (d) is the correct option.

S2. Ans. (c)
Sol. Refer the last paragraph of the passage, “‘Outsider’ has already become a worn-out word, and most totemic outsiders are today insiders…….. The outsider, the undisputed protagonist of the political drama, is born from the rotten remains of politics as usual.” Statements (I) and (II) can be easily inferred from these sentences while statement (III) is vague as there is no mention of beliefs in cultural purity by the outsider in any part of the passage. Hence only statements (I) and (II) describe the concept of “outsider” in modern politics in context of the passage.

S3. Ans. (c)
Sol. Refer the first sentence of the second paragraph, “A sign of the times could be the profusion of political titles in publishing. They are mostly built on the themes of populism, outsiderhood, globalisation and resentment.” Thus the establishment of modern political titles is based on themes mention in statements (I) and (II). It is to be noted that both the themes “Resentment” and “Antagonism” almost mean the same. Hence (c) is the correct choice.

S4. Ans. (a)
Sol. Read the fourth paragraph carefully, it is clearly mentioned that how politics has evolved over time, the modern politics has no significance in comparison to the old and historical one. Today politics has its own ideologies which are marked as ordinary by the author. Hence only option (a) summarizes the paragraph appropriately and explains its context briefly and precisely.

S5. Ans. (b)
Sol. Refer the last paragraph of the passage, “He is a rejoinder to the three big ‘E’s that cause resentment: Establishment, Entrenchment and Entitlement.” Thus only statement (II) is correct in context of the passage which can be considered to be the cause of the resentment to the modern politics. Hence (b) is the correct option.

S6. Ans. (b)
Sol. Refer the third paragraph of the passage, “Elsewhere, in a vassal state, revolution earned an adjective as romantic as ‘velvet’, and in the vanguard of its freedom struggle were writers and singers. In the end, the philosopher would be king. It was a time when an idea that promised man an alternative more liberating than religion proved to be history’s biggest ghost story.” Hence only option (b) explains the meaning of the ghost story as mentioned in the passage.

S7. Ans. (e)
Sol. Legion means a vast number of people or things. Throng means a large, densely packed crowd of people or animals. Hence both are similar in meanings.
Conclave means a private meeting.

S8. Ans. (b)
Sol. Vanguard means a position at the forefront of new developments or ideas. Avant-garde means a group of artists, musicians, or writers working with new and experimental ideas and methods. Hence both are similar in meanings.
Criterion means a principle or standard by which something may be judged or decided.

S9. Ans. (c)
Sol. Denouement means the outcome of a situation, when something is decided or made clear. Genesis means the origin or mode of formation of something. Hence both are opposite in meanings.
Adjournment means an act or period of adjourning or being adjourned.
Epilogue means a section or speech at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what has happened.

S10. Ans. (d)
Sol. Grandeur means splendour and impressiveness, especially of appearance or style. Indifference means unimportance. Hence both are opposite in meanings.
Inclusiveness means the quality of including all sections of society.
Sophistication means the quality of being sophisticated.
Classicalism means the classical style in literature and art, or adherence to its principles (contrasted with romanticism).

S11. Ans. (d)
Sol. “to retain trust and credibility in this age of” is the correct phrase to make the sentence grammatically correct. If we go by the options considering their grammar syntax, option (d) fits into the sentence perfectly adding the required meaning to the sentence. Moreover, “in this age of anonymous communication” is the correct phrase usage which means “in this distinct period of anonymous communication”. Hence (d) is the correct option.

S12. Ans. (a)
Sol. “Is it possible for” is the correct phrase to make the sentence grammatically correct. In the given sentence, the phrase “How it is” is incorrect as the sentence is Interrogative. When we go by options, all options except (a) have either wrong syntax or they are not in accordance with the meaning of the sentence. It is to be noticed that the sentence is in Simple Present Tense. Hence (a) is the most appropriate phrase.

S13. Ans. (e)
Sol. The given sentence is grammatically correct as the plural verb “are” is used in accordance to its plural subjects “continuity and change”. Moreover, the phrase “with each other” is used to frame a relation with the two. Hence the sentence doesn’t require any correction.

S14. Ans. (b)
Sol. “While cyberspace may have given” is the correct phrase to make the sentence grammatically correct. First of all, it is to be noted that the sentence is conditional as the second part of the sentence is dependent on the first part. When we consider options provided, options (a) and (d) can be easily eliminated as the use of “As” or “Since” is incorrect in this case (“As/Since” is generally used to express the cause of its dependent clause). Moreover, “while” is the correct usage as it means “in spite of the fact that; although”. Hence only option (b) gives the appropriate and most convincing meaning to the sentence.

S15. Ans. (e)
Sol. The given sentence is grammatically correct as the sentence is not in Passive form. It clearly follows the syntax of Present Continuous Tense and the use of reflexive pronoun “itself” is correct as it is used for the subject “The Hermit Kingdom”. Hence (e) is the correct option