Directions (1-5): The sentences given in each of the following questions, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. From among the five choices given below each question, choose the most logical order of sentences that construct a coherent paragraph.
Q1. (A)Whether the retinal data currently stored, or the entire human genomes that may eventually be stored there, a breach in the Aadhaar data store will disperse information crucially identifying each Indian and that cannot be modified in response to the loss.
(B)The Yahoo! breach made news around the world primarily because of its scale: it’s really hard to lose the data on 500 million people.
(C)If (or when) the database is compromised, it will not be possible for people to change their passwords.
(D)Biometric data is essentially unchangeable.
(E)When completed, Aadhaar’s database will cover the world’s second largest population.
(F)But not for Aadhaar.
(a)ABDCFE
(b)BFECDA
(c)DBAFEC
(d)ADCBFE
(e)BCDAEF
Q2. (A)According to a study by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, curiosity is one of the twenty-four significant character strengths and virtues common to humankind.
(B)But curiosity works in two ways.
(C)It is also associated with positivity, subjective well-being, better long-term health, longevity, and positive interpersonal relationships.
(D)Their list defines curiosity as taking an interest in all of ongoing experience; finding all subjects and topics fascinating; exploring and discovering.
(E)It is positively correlated with creativity, intelligence, problem-solving ability, autonomy, a sense of personal control, and a willingness to challenge the status quo.
(F)Still, according to social psychologists, the enrichment that curious people experience generally outweighs the negative effects of the risks they take.
(G)The same adventurous impulses that drive curious people to pursue multiple interests, to persist at what they do, to risk failure, may also lead them to disregard danger or get involved in hazardous activities.
(a)ACDGEBF
(b)AEBCFDG
(c)ABCEGFD
(d)ACBEFGD
(e)ADECBGF
Q3. (A)This would take many days.
(B)The whole monastery was involved.
(C)It is created out of so much of care and wiping it off within few moments is a practice which symbolically represents that one should not be attached to anything.
(D)There was a complex calculation that went in to create this yantra.
(E)In ancient Tibet a festival was celebrated by creating a Yantra, a mystical symbol in a temple.
(F)Everything undergoes a change, so have the attitude of letting go.
(G)After creating the yantra and offering prayers, immediately the yantra would be wiped off.
(a)EBDAGCF
(b)ECDBGAF
(c)EBACDGF
(d)EADCGBF
(e)EDBCEGF
Q4. (A)You have to experience your presence and know that you are the master of your mind, senses and body.
(B)Once you begin to separate from your false identities like your body, thoughts, desires and external happenings, you realise that bliss is the result of the suspension of mental activities.
(C)Anxiety results from desires and expectations.
(D)The journey begins from the place where you are to the place where you have always been.
(E)Awareness has to be created so that the mind does not slip back to its old habits.
(F)In Gurdjieff’s words, “Life is real, only then, when I am.”
(G) Ultimately, the mind has to merge into its source, which is pure consciousness.
(a)CBDEFAG
(b)FGBCADE
(c)DAFGBCE
(d)BFDAECG
(e)EBGDCAF
Q5. (A)But when we finally reach that platitude or goal, the same factor that was driving us, motivating us or that which we thought without which we cannot survive, does not hold any significance for us anymore.
(B)That is why we tend to constantly feel miserable about events going on in our lives.
(C)The paradox is we so completely dedicate ourselves with tenacity and determination to reach the space that we are in at the moment.
(D)We are back at base camp, the Crib Spot.
(E)As human beings, we have the tendency to complain about the state of things or about someone – essentially, we just crib a lot.
(a)EDABC
(b)ECDAB
(c)EDBCA
(d)EABDC
(e)EBCAD
Directions (6-10): In each of the following questions a short passage is given with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent (coherent means logically complete and sound).
Q6. The Supreme Court has, over the years, created milestones in judicial pronouncements resulting in historic shifts, positively impacting the nation in its onward march for justice. The genesis of Public Interest Litigation in listening to the voice of the voiceless and giving access to the poor, the marginalised and the weak is a unique experiment to be lauded. ____________________________
(a) But in some areas, the Supreme Court is ill-equipped to make judicial pronouncements.
(b) The greater the power, the greater the responsibility in its exercise.
(c) The Supreme Court, when issuing this directive, was perhaps not fully equipped with all the facts.
(d) It has also effectively, on occasion, dealt with the corroding effect of corruption.
(e) The telecom sector is, till today, reeling under the after-effects of the Supreme Court judgment.
Q7. Russia’s pursuit of “great power” status and its growing concern over terrorism and narcotic drugs have pushed it to re-enter the Afghan conflict, as demonstrated by the April 15 regional conference on Afghanistan in Moscow. Kabul and Moscow have had complicated relations during the last two centuries: Russia was the first country to recognise Afghanistan’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1919. _________________________. Afghanistan was also a major contested zone during Moscow’s imperial expansion during the Cold War.
(a) Moscow’s clarity helped develop conciliatory sentiments among Afghans towards Russia.
(b) It became its main developmental partner during the last century.
(c) The destruction of the Afghan state and the emergence of militant Islamism.
(d) The US and Russia’s mutual understanding on Afghanistan was caught in Moscow’s new assertive policy against the West.
(e) The Afghan conflict is a tri-dimensional crisis, involving Afghan, regional and global actors.
Q8. If an equal society is India’s declared objective, politicians and administrators should travel like ordinary people. A number of small privileges will have to be stripped to bring equity to a deeply classist society. Terrorism had provided the excuse for gifting VIPs with massive security details, whose size and armaments had become expressions of personal status and power, rather like expensive jewellery. _____________________. Now, the abolition of car beacons takes us another step closer to egalitarianism. And yet, a long road lies ahead.
(a) The red beacon is a distant descendant of the same colonial policy, and has no place in a democracy.
(b) The move is belated but wholly welcome in a country where the VIP beacon had become a status symbol, a bauble for politicians and administrators to aspire to.
(c) It took a public outcry for that aberration to be rationalised.
(d) The prime minister has stood India’s infamous VIP culture on its head by declaring that every Indian is a VIP.
(e) Will they and their henchmen be allowed special access to railway bookings?
Q9. Useful money, of course, is an oxymoron. The sheer abstraction of currency is what makes it worth its salt — or apples or Ferraris or the purchased nostalgia of sepia-tinted photographs taken on the latest iPhone. The value of money lies in being a medium of exchange. _______¬¬¬¬¬¬_____________. Gold, for example, is hoarded; salaries are spent. But there is hope for NID’s endeavours yet, and while the defunct currency cannot be tangibly useful, it can be profitable in a way that a crisp new, valid note cannot.
(a) And a cell phone may be a necessity for many, but a cover of currency notes will give customers some serious swag.
(b) Forget chrome wheels for your second-hand car — just have it upholstered in currency notes.
(c) They could be used to fill up the craters in India’s roads, or recycled as a fuel alternative.
(d) If it attains value, it ceases to flow.
(e) Without the “promise to pay the bearer”, currency is barely worth the paper it’s printed on.
Q10. The mandate and role of the Niti Aayog should be redefined and enhanced to evolve models aimed at balanced regional development. It is axiomatic that the reticence of private investment in backward states can be somewhat overcome through enhanced public outlays. Given the constraints of fiscal space, seeking greater engagement of multilateral agencies, both traditional and non-traditional, like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the New Development Bank as well as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank would be helpful. Special infrastructure programmes designed for the more backward states will have multiplier benefits. _______________________________
(a) The growing divergence of states, with the exception of health parameters, needs policy-induced reversal.
(b) This could also catalyse private investment and innovative public-private partnerships.
(c) This persistent stagnation needs rigorous action.
(d) Export sectors attract capital, technology and improved managerial practices which could greatly improve their competitive efficiency.
(e) Placing the Inter-State Council under the aegis of the NITI Aayog would augur well as the prime minister is the chairman of both these institutions.
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) Raleigh—The Book was written by a man of your profession, Mr. Attorney.
(b) The book you have in your hand is different than that on the table.
(c) The author has a copy of his first book before him as he writes.
(d) It was not only in his book, but in his mind, that orthodoxy was united with charity.
(e) Looking eagerly into a book did not betray one who could not read.
Q12. (a) He has always been fond of intriguing; we must let him do it.
(b) I’m as fond of the lad as if he was a bit of my own flesh and blood.
(c) Dmitri was too fond of the customs of the west to satisfy the Muscovites.
(d) We are quite fond of this house because we are living in it for the last five years.
(e) All are correct.
Q13. (a) How is it that you did not tell us even about your address and phone number?
(b) A married woman may not address her husband or male relatives by their names.
(c) She gave me his address and a florid account of her sufferings at his non-appearance.
(d) The parcel should have the words “By Parcel Post,” plainly written on the address.
(e) All are correct.
Q14. (a) These recently upgraded branch offices have been fully computerized and are connected to headquarters to ensure proper monitoring.
(b) This will ensure a good head of water, and make the douche a formidable affair.
(c) She cared not to intercede too much, or enough to ensure success.
(d) To ensure a fair measure of comfort, therefore, I took with me some tinned provisions, to be broached as necessity demanded.
(e) To share the destiny of such a man was to ensure a life that could not pass unrecorded.
Q15. (a) They were hill natives, and shorter in stature than the river tribes.
(b) In fact, stature is usually one of the characteristics of the variety.
(c) Our country’s performance in the last few national and international games was fairly ordinary and below our stature.
(d) Low of stature, he came to be known as “Shorty,” the only name we ever had for him.
(e) All are correct.
Solutions
S1. Ans. (b)
Sol. E-C makes a combination. B should be the first sentence as it mentions the example of Yahoo which lost the data on 500 million people. F should follow B and A should be the concluding sentence. Hence the correct sequence to form a meaningful paragraph is BFECDA.
S2. Ans. (e)
Sol. D-E makes a combination and E should be followed by C. G-F makes another combination and F must be the concluding sentence. Hence the correct sequence to form a meaningful paragraph is ADECBGF.
S3. Ans. (a)
Sol. D-A makes a combination and G should follow A. C-F makes another combination, giving a lovely message of “letting go”. Hence the correct sequence to form a meaningful paragraph is EBDAGCF.
S4. Ans. (c)
Sol. F-G makes a combination. D must be the first sentence and C-E makes another combination. Hence the correct sequence to form a meaningful paragraph is DAFGBCE.
S5. Ans. (e)
Sol. B should follow E and C-A makes a combination. D must be the concluding sentence. Hence the correct sequence to form a meaningful paragraph is EBCAD.
S6. Ans. (d)
Sol. The paragraph is about the Supreme Court and its judgment that results into historic shifts and giving access to the poor. Going through the given sentences, we find that sentence (d) completes the paragraph by adding more functionality of the Supreme Court. Other options are irrelevant to the paragraph.
S7. Ans. (b)
Sol. The paragraph revolves around the theme of Russia as a developmental partner to recognize Afghanistan’s Independence from the United Kingdom. After reading all sentences we can conclude that only sentence (b) fits to the paragraph. All other sentences are out of the theme of the paragraph. Hence sentence (b) is the right option.
S8. Ans. (c)
Sol. The paragraph talks about the need to bring equity in deeply classist society where VIP culture has taken the most prominent seat. Read the sentences on either side of the blank space, from there it can be inferred that only option (c) makes the perfect replacement. Other options do not make sense to the meaning of the paragraph.
S9. Ans. (d)
Sol. The paragraph talks about the sheer abstraction of money and its value that lies in medium of exchange. Hence only sentence (d) fits to the paragraph as it talks about attaining its value which can be well connected with the previous sentence. All other sentences are irrelevant.
S10. Ans. (a)
Sol. Going through the paragraph, we conclude that the paragraph is about role of the Niti Aayog that needs to be enhanced and need of engagements of multilateral agencies for regional development. Hence sentence (a) completes the paragraph as it talks about the need of policy induction. Other sentences are not going with the idea of the paragraph and hence are irrelevant.
S11. Ans. (b)
Sol. Use ‘from’ or ‘to’ in place of ‘than’ after ‘different’ as ‘different’ is just followed by either ‘from’ or ‘to’. However, if ‘different’ is not immediately followed by its preposition or it is immediately followed by Noun, ‘than’ would be used.
e.g. This book is different from that.
This is a different book than what you have bought.
S12. Ans. (d)
Sol. Replace ‘are living’ by ‘have been living’ as the last part of the sentence states “for the last four years” which shows that the sentence is in Present Perfect Continuous Tense.
S13. Ans. (e)
Sol. All the given sentences are grammatically correct.
S14. Ans. (a)
Sol. Remove ‘are’ from the sentence as in this sentence ‘have been’ is used with two verbs which are connected by ‘and’. For reference, look at these sentences –
She has won the match and got the first prize.
He was arrested and sent to jail.
S15. Ans. (c)
Sol. Use ‘very’ or ‘rather’ in place of ‘fairly’ as ‘fairly’ is used only before Pleasant Adjectives, meaning ‘moderately’. Whereas ‘very’ is used as the meaning “to a great extent”, before Pleasant or Unpleasant Adjectives and ‘rather’ is used as the meaning “moderately”, generally before Unpleasant Adjectives.
e.g. His performance in the last match was fairly good.
This article is very/rather good.
Her performance in the competition was very/rather ordinary.
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