Directions (1-5): 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).
ideological as they are intergenerational. A number of Ms. Park’s party supporters continue to harbour sympathies for the daughter of South Korea’s
moderniser, the military dictator Park Chung-hee. But younger generations see
the severing of all links with this authoritarian past as a necessary guarantee
for the consolidation of democracy,
three decades after return to civilian rule. The chaebols — South Korea’s highly
influential family-owned conglomerates — may have had economic motivations to
lean heavily on political patronage during the country’s industrial ascendency
and integration into the global market. But such cosy arrangements are proving
to be untenable when exceptions of the
past are sought to be institutionalised. The task of public cleansing in South
Korea is far from over, as is evident from the ongoing criminal proceedings
involving tycoons from its best-known corporations. (…………………………………………………) . It would
be no surprise, therefore, if South Korea’s example becomes a model worthy of
emulation elsewhere in the region.
(a) The removal of a sitting President in
South Korea brings to a close one phase in the months-long popular mobilisation
to enforce accountability among the high
and mighty.
(b) The chief accusation is that they
solicited contributions to promote dodgy non-profit organisations in return for
clearing questionable corporate deals.
(c) They are seeking to strengthen the country’s democratic
institutions.
(d) The recent assertion of the independence of the judiciary from
political interference and the capacity of legislators to uphold their
authority are notable.
(e) It has escalated regional tensions and China has retaliated
with calls for the boycott of South Korean imports.
Q2.
Ruling on a petition filed by the Congress, the Supreme Court asked
the BJP government in Goa to prove its majority within 48 hours, instead of the
15 days’ leeway given by Governor Sinha. (…………………………………………………………………………).The
court’s reluctance to uphold the principle of inviting the single largest party
first and therefore, to stay Parrikar’s swearing-in on Tuesday, is
controversial.
(a) In Goa the Governor ignored the established principle of
inviting the single largest party in the wake of a fractured mandate
(b) The Justice laid down some guidelines to
be followed in the appointment of a chief minister by a governor
(c) The premise of the decision is
questionable.
(d) The gubernatorial decision in Goa reek
of partisanship.
(e) But it was a half-measure.
Q3.
Certain issues that required the government’s urgent attention
continue to be neglected. (……………………………………………………………………………………………….) . For
instance, the strategic sale of public sector undertakings, which Modi
reintroduced in the reform lexicon by getting the Union cabinet to approve its
broad modalities in October last, is yet to move ahead substantively. The bad
loan problem has its origins in the UPA’s term when the private sector added
huge capacities, built large infrastructure projects and borrowed a lot, hoping
the economy would continue to grow rapidly.
(a) But this affirmation comes with enormous
expectations, particularly of the youth
(b) The private sector continues to be
saddled with excess capacity, and is unlikely to consider fresh investments.
(c) Much remains mired in bureaucracy even after the prime
minister’s promises.
(d) Huge debt on the large non-performing
assets in the balance sheets of state-owned banks have jammed the wheels of the
economy
(e) The government cannot over-spend, given its responsibility
towards the fisc.
Q4. Pakistani atheists – a broad term encompassing agnostics, the
irreligious, deists, and humanists alike – have been lazily painted by the
Islamists as “liberals and seculars,” despite the fact that many believing and
practicing Muslims identify as such as well. Muslims openly identifying as
atheist in Pakistan would be an open invitation to violence,
(…………………………………………………………………..), coupled with the National Database and
Registration Authority’s (NADRA) refusal to let citizens officially change
Islam as their religion. Hence, the aforementioned “secular liberal” label also
provides refuge to the atheists.
(a) Considering the state’s blasphemy laws are interpreted to
outlaw apostasy
(b) as action against jihadist groups becoming
inevitable.
(c) with the well-coordinated maneuver
accused of being a state-backed operation by many quarters.
(d) Delineating the ideological divide
(e) The Islamists at the helm of state institutions have found the
filter to sift atheists
Q5. India is not a signatory of the United Nation Refugee
Convention; therefore it is not required to provide safe haven to people
seeking asylum from persecution in other countries. No attempts have been made
by the government to debate the issue of joining the United Nation Refugee
Convention. That would have been the natural step to take if the government was
indeed interested in formulating a humanitarian refugee policy. Further, the
provisions of refugee protection cater to all minorities fleeing countries due
to a humanitarian crisis but, in this bill, India is offering citizenship based
on religious predilections. The bill, if passed in its current form, seeks to
give preference to Hindu refugees over Muslim refugees migrating to India,
which is unconstitutional as, the preamble of the Constitution confirms India
as a secular state. The refugees who will actually benefit from this policy are
living in abject poverty with no sanitation and infrastructure facilities.
(……………………………………………………………)
(a) A closer look at the provisions indicates that the current
government is attempting to increase its Hindu voter count.
(b) The government, instead of using a blanket policy, has made
this a communal issue with a veiled political agenda, which would be
counterproductive to the seemingly humanitarian goal of the bill.
(c) The bill at first glance seems like a
humanitarian effort to help persecuted minorities but it only seeks to help
Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from the neighboring
Muslim countries.
(d) This policy in the Indian context would
be contrary to the ideals of secularism and pluralism and thus
unconstitutional.
(e) If the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is passed, in its current
form, then the border regions would face an influx of Hindu migrants, which
would change the voter demographics in the region.
Direction (6-7): Each statement has a part missing.
Choose the best option from the four options given below the statement to make
up the missing part:
Q6. Archaeologists believe that the pieces of red-ware
pottery excavated recently near Bhavnagar ___________ shed light on a hitherto
dark 600-year period in the Harappan history of Gujarat.
(a) estimated with a reasonable certainty as being about
3400 years old.
(b)are estimated reasonably certain to be about 3400
years old
(c) estimated at about 3400 years old with reasonable
certainty.
(d) estimated with a reasonable certainty to be about
3400 years old.
(e) None of these.
Q7. The ancient Egyptians
believed _____________ so that when these objects were magically reanimated
through the correct rituals, they would be able to function effectively.
(a)that it was essential that
things they portrayed must have every relevant feature shown as clearly as
possible,
(b) it was essential for
things they portray to have had every relevant feature shown as clearly as
possible,
(c) it was essential that the
things they portrayed had every relevant feature shown as clearly as possible,
(d)that when they portrayed
things , it should have every relevant feature shown as clearly as possible.
(e)None of these
Direction (8-9):
After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question. Answer all
questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that
passage.
A Marxist sociologist has argued that racism stems from the class struggle that
is unique to the capitalist system – that racial prejudice is generated by
capitalists as a means of controlling workers. His thesis works relatively well
when applied to discrimination against Blacks in the United States, but his
definition of racial prejudice as “radically-based negative prejudgments
against a group generally accepted as a race in any given region of ethnic
competition,” can be interpreted as also including hostility toward such ethnic
groups as the Chinese in California and the Jews in medieval Europe. However,
since prejudice against these latter people was not inspired by capitalists, he
has no reason that such antagonisms were not really based on race. He disposes
thusly (albeit unconvincingly) of both the intolerance faced by Jews before the
rise of capitalism and the early twentieth-century discrimination against
Oriental people in California, which, inconveniently, was instigated by workers
Q8. According to the passage, the Marxist sociologist’s
chain of reasoning him to assert that prejudice toward Oriental people in
California was
(a)Non racial in character
(b)Similar in origin to prejudice against the Jews.
(c) Understood by oriental people as ethnic competition
(d)Provoked by workers.
(e)None of these.
Q9. The passage supplies information that would answer
which of the following questions.
(a) What accounts for the prejudice against the Jews in
Medieval Europe?
(b) What conditions caused the discrimination against the
oriental people in California in the early twentieth century?
(c) Which groups are not in ethnic competition with each
other in USA.
(d) What explanation did the Marxist sociologist give for
the existence of the racial prejudice?
(e) None of these.
Directions (10–11) : Which of the words/phrases (a), (b), (c) and
(d) given below should replace the words/phrases given in bold in the following
sentences to make it meaningful and grammatically correct. If the sentence is
correct as it is and ‘No correction is required’, mark (e) as the answer.
Q10.
India has rarely witnessed a campaign conformation
of the order witnessed in the last two phases of the poll. Mr.Modi spent three
days in and around Varanasi alone, endeavoring
to both retain the votes that amassed to
him in his Lok Sabha constituency in 2014, and throw his voice longer in the
election’s home empire.
(a) Onslaught, opting, emanated, demesne
(b) Endeavour, eschewing, implored, territory
(c) exertion, aspiring, beseeched, domain
(d) blitz, seeking, accrued, stretch
(e)No improvement
Q11. A reassuring
explanation could be that with rising incomes, women have the opportunity to
escape harsh labour in farms and on construction sites, and focus on their
families. But a more pessimistic and comprehensible
realistic explanation might be that with declining farm sizes, rising
mechanisation, and consequently inflating
labour demands in agriculture, women are being forced out of the venture.
(a) invigorating, conceivable, aggravating, industries
(b) pragmatic, perhaps,
diminishing, camaraderie
(c)heartening,possibly,dwindling,workforce
(d) rational, plausible, plummeting, profession
(e) No improvement
Direction (12): In the
following questions, a related pair of words or phrases is followed by the five
lettered pair of words or phrases. Select the lettered pair that best expresses
a relationship similar to that expressed in the original pair.
(a) OBSCURE: INGENIOUS
(b) INCOMPETENCE: CREDULITY
(c) PERSECUTION: IMBECILE
(d) INANE: LUDICROUS
(e) RENDEZVOUS : ASSIDUOUS
Directions (13-15): 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.
Q13.
(a) A 25 basis points rate hike by the US
Federal Reserve, which was already priced-in, plus a dovish stance augurs well
for risk assets and for emerging markets.
(b) Since the beginning of
this year, as the dollar has weakened against the rupee, the benchmark Sensex
has soared.
(c) With Fed chair Janet
Yellen being her usual dovish self, the market is now convinced it has the best
of both worlds
(d) The key to risk appetite
for emerging market assets such as Indian equities, therefore, lies in the
strength of the dollar.
(e) Rameshwaram
informed me that he had gone to one of the Minister’s residences and stayed
there all night.
Q14.
(a) The instances of theft and
destruction of distributed renewable energy appliances has been very prevalent
in programs especially run by aid agencies as part of corporate social
responsibility or where the government provides a subsidy
(b) When the first solar units
were installed in Bhamana in 2010, most houses got a small photovoltaic panel
connected to a battery that could power a light for five to six hours.
(c) If any proof was needed to show that the United Nations have lately
become a policy tool in the hands of the U.S.A. and that the world’s sole might
has a subservient international body, it was provided by President Bush’s angry
comment.
(d) Before the floor test
began, Rane told reporters that the delay caused by the Congress leadership in
staking claim to form the government had demoralized the people of Goa.
(e)
Interestingly, while cricket still accounts for much of this, other sports are
beginning to make their presence felt.
Q15.
(a) The asset management firm
was keen on investing in Sohan Lal because of its fully integrated and
process-driven business model.
(b) If we had Mohan in our
team, we would have won the match against your team.
(c) These products are
expected to help cash-strapped developers get easier access to funds while also
creating new investment avenues for institutional investors and high-net-worth
individuals.
(d) A broken solar panel is
all that the 35-year-old farmer has to remind him of the government’s promise
to bring electricity to all of India’s villages.
(e) Many of the young people
studying abroad agreed that returning home was always an attractive option.
SOLUTIONS:
S1. Ans.(d)
Sol. Option (d) is correct as it is making the argument in the
previous sentence even more stronger by giving an evidence of how public
cleansing is far from over and the action against the prominent figures is just
one of the phase as the sentence talks about the capacity of the judicial
authority.
S2. Ans.(e)
Sol. Option (e) is correct and is in harmony with the theme of the
passage as in the passage/ paragraph we are talking about the court’s decision
and why it is controversial. Option (e) points out how the decision is only a
half- measure and the incompetence of the court in taking a full measure is
what that makes it controversial.
S3. Ans.(c)
Sol. Option (c) is giving emphasis upon the stagnancy of many
issues even after Modi’s promises and the sentence after the blank completely
justifies it by giving one more examples of one such issue.
S4. Ans.(a)
Sol. Option (a) fits the
paragraph/passage most appropriately and is in complete harmony with the theme
of the passage. Other options are out of context and are irrelevant.
S5. Ans.(b)
Sol. The passage/ paragraph is talking about how ignorant our
government has been in catering to the needs of the refugees and how the
proposed bill is not secular as it is giving preference to the hindu refugees.
The last line of the question which is not the concluding line is talking about
the pathetic condition of the poor and option (b) is continuing with the theme
of the passage as it is criticizing the government’s effort in making this
issue a communal one.
S6. Ans.(d)
Sol.
Option (d) fits into the blank. In option (a) the usage
of the indefinite article is erroneous. Options (b) and (c) are erroneous due
to the incorrect ordering of words.
Sol.
The tense in options (a) and (b) is not consistent.
Moreover, option (a) uses both ‘essential’ and ‘must’, thus rendering either
one of these words redundant. In option (d) ‘things’ the plural form cannot
take ‘it’. Hence option (d) is the answer.
S8. Ans.(a)
Sol. In last line of the passage, the tone of author is
such that this theory is not able to explain the occurrence of racial
discrimination in other communities such as Jews and Chinese, therefore options
(b), (c) and (d) are out of the question. Hence the answer is option (a).
S9. Ans.(d)
Sol. The answer is option (d), which would answer the
information in the passage as the explanation of racism is given in the 1st
line of the passage. All other options are sub-parts of the passage which the
author has talked about. Hence the answer is option (d).
S10. Ans.(d)
Sol.
Blitz means a
sudden concerted effort to deal with something.
Seeking means
attempt or desire to obtain or achieve (something).
Accrued means
(of a benefit or sum of money) be received by someone in regular or increasing
amounts over time.
Stretch means
to extend or spread over an area or period of time.
S11. Ans.(c)
Sol. Workforce
means the people engaged in or available for work, either in a country or area
or in a particular firm or industry.
Dwindling means
to diminish gradually in size, amount, or strength.
heartening means to make more cheerful or confident.
venture means to undertake a risky or daring journey
or course of action.
S12. Ans.(d)
Sol. Pertinent means relevant
or applicable to a particular matter; apposite hence is the synonym of relevance.
Only Inane and ludicrous are the synonyms and have the same relationship hence
option (d) is the correct choice for the given question.
S13. Ans.(e)
Sol. Use “the residence of one of the ministers”
in place of “one of the Minister’s residences”.
S14. Ans.(c)
Sol. Use ‘has’ in
place of ‘have’.
S15. Ans.(b)
Sol. Use ‘we had had mohan’
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