English Quiz IBPS PO/Clerk RRB Mains 2019: 11th October 2019

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).

Q1. In a recent study about criminal politicians in north India, the anthropologists Anastasia Piliavsky and Tommaso Sbriccoli document that these figures are often seen as ‘doers’. In fact, they are often not necessarily seen as ‘criminals’ but as ‘toughs’ who protect society and provide public goods, stepping in when the state machinery creaks to a halt. In a way, this motif of a local hero who steps out of convention to cater to immediate social needs reminds one of localized divinities who abound across India. These ‘small’ divinities — from Aiyyanaar in Tamil Nadu, Jhunjharji Maharaj in Rajasthan, Kail Bisht in Uttarakhand, Jasma Odan in Gujarat — who are often removed from the ‘high’ philosophical traditions also accrue their worth in the social imagination as prolific ‘doers’ who defend the social order. ___________________________________

(a) This is in contrast to the practice of politics that maximizes ‘goods of effectiveness’, such as money, prestige, power — goods whose possession may allow for greater efficacy of action but are not ends in themselves.
(b) This compartmentalisation of ethical frameworks is neither uniquely Indian nor modern.
(c) These localized divinities stand often in contrast to the larger, homogenizing, and transcendental categories of belief that the state calls ‘religion’.
(d) Our tolerance for goondas in politics is directly tied to our collective imaginary that thinks efficacy of action — of getting things done — is a virtue in itself.
(e) Our intellectual class views politics as a collective practice to produce citizens who value goods of internal excellence.

S1. Ans. (c)
Sol. The paragraph is about the existence of criminal figures in politics and its subsequent prospects. Read the last two sentences of the paragraph carefully, it can be easily inferred from there that option (c) makes the most appropriate conclusion to the paragraph as it talks about those localized divinities whose names are mentioned in the penultimate sentence of the paragraph. Other options are irrelevant in context of the paragraph

Q2. First of all, given that all corrupt politicians are humans and cows are incorruptible, it would, in one stroke, reduce corruption by 33%. Second, ______________________________. Third, it would lower the human capital costs of keeping the democratic machinery running. The cost to the country (CTC) of one bovine Member of Parliament is estimated to be one-thousandth the CTC of a human MP. Multiply that by 180 (33% of 545) and you get an idea of the astronomical savings that would accrue to the exchequer from the Lok Sabha alone. Do this calculation for the Rajya Sabha and all the State Assemblies, and you’re looking at thousands of crores in savings.

(a) since cows are typically female, it is a big step towards gender equality.
(b) all cows are vegetarian by birth.
(c) no cow would ever try to make a point by rushing to the Well of the House — not unless you fill it with water and add hay.
(d) cows, by contrast, are known for simple living and high thinking.
(e) India is on the verge of reclaiming its rightful global status as the mother of human civilization and the gau mata of any advanced alien civilization that inter-galactic probes may discover in times to come.

S2. Ans. (a)
Sol. The paragraph is about the issue of cow which is politically motivated in India. The author has nicely combined the probable facts with sarcasm. He has pointed three important advantages, each being unique and in the positive interest of the socio-political environment. Among the given options, all the options look seemingly possible to fill the gap. However, if one goes by either of the other two points, it can be inferred from there that option (a) is the most apt choice as it provides the social advantage along with it. Other options fail to connect to a suitable reason required with the point mentioned in the paragraph.

Q3. Offers of admission are the product of much careful thought and hard work — both by the students who apply and by the universities that review the applications. Families also play an important, supportive role. At this time last year, our daughter, after many hours of working on her application essays and preparing for standardized admissions exams, was deciding which university to attend. It’s a big decision, but there are really no bad choices. __________________________

(a) The United States values diversity and actively supports students from varied backgrounds.
(b) Even a school that might not have been one’s first choice has a way of turning out to be the perfect fit.
(c) Sometimes, we don’t know what we should want.
(d) Thankfully, US universities pay careful attention to the safety and welfare of their students.
(e) In early autumn, the Education USA university tour will stop in all seven cities with advising centers.

S3. Ans. (b)
Sol. Read the paragraph, it emphasizes on the hard work of the students to attain a good university for admissions. Only sentence (b) fits into the paragraph and conclude the paragraph saying about the school that turn out to be a perfect fit despite of not having one’s first choice. All other sentences are telling us about US universities which are irrelevant to the paragraph. Hence sentence (b) is the right choice.

Q4. Indigo was a celebrated product of India, down the centuries, raised and processed locally by peasants. But in the 17th century, European-owned slave plantations in the West Indies also began to produce it, the extraction process they used being improved immensely by the use of boilers. ________________.Obtaining zamindaris, they coerced peasants into raising indigo, for the dye to be processed out of the plants in their “factories”. The coercion exercised by European planters on peasants to raise indigo and sell it cheaply to them — under methods portrayed in Bandhu Mitra’s famous Neel Darpan (1860) — led to peasant “disturbances” in Nadia in Bengal in 1859 and 1860.

(a) When the English conquered Bengal, European indigo planters appeared soon enough.
(b) Indigo plantations extended into Bihar where European planters used the zamindari system to force their peasant tenants to bow to their will.
(c) A crisis occurred when a synthetic dye was developed in Germany in the late 1880s.
(d) Since natural indigo dye could not compete, indigo exports from India declined in value from Rs 4.75 crore in 1894-95 to Rs 2.96 crore five years later.
(e) The planters tried to throw the entire burden of the crisis caused by competition from synthetic indigo onto the shoulders of the peasants.

S4. Ans. (a)
Sol. After reading the paragraph, we conclude that the paragraph before gap talks about Indigo which was raised and produced in India also began to be produced by Europeans in the 17th century in West Indies. Hence the gap must be filled by the sentence given in option (a) which talks about European Indigo planters that had appeared soon enough when English had conquered Bengal. All other sentences are irrelevant.

Q5. For Mahatma Gandhi, the idea of radical truth-telling was a totalizing pre-condition to political life. __________________________________________. It is a private action, a public policy, and an intellectual framework that allows him to draw out causal relationships between India’s ills — from lack of toilets for women to river pollution — and India’s future. His thesis is that if we can get cleanliness right, much else will follow. A nation, per this view, can’t be modern and powerful unless it is clean.

(a) An elaborate infrastructure of cleanliness, physical and cultural, was produced thanks to what Roland Barthes describes as “a great hunger for cleanliness”.
(b) If Gandhi’s life has any lesson, it is that symbolism can only be transformative if it is sustained.
(c) Actions that became an inseparable part of Gandhi’s being, like spinning a charkha, became the physical manifestation of his personal opposition to the British Empire and his idea of living truth.
(d) To this end, Mr. Modi seems to have reposed his faith in celebrities to awaken popular consciousness and a top-down state machinery to fulfill targets.
(e) Arguably, in Mr. Modi’s political vocabulary, cleanliness occupies a similar analytical and emotional perch.

S5. Ans. (e)
Sol. The whole paragraph talks about the need of cleanliness and moral values related to it, citing the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Narendra Modi. Read the sentences on either side of the blank space, it can be inferred from there that only option (e) is apt to fill the gap. Other options, though forming the part of the same article do not fit into this particular paragraph. Hence (e) is the correct choice.

Directions (6-12): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/ phrases have been given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

A major feature of the global food security scenario is that marked imbalances exist across regions. For instance, in 1985-86 there was a global surplus in cereal production of 92 million metric tonnes. Developed nations had a surplus of 182 million tonnes, while the developing countries and the socialist block had a deficit of 90 million tonnes. The estimated incidence of chronic malnutrition for 1985 was anywhere between 500 and 720 million people. This figure excludes China, for want of data. South Asia with about two-thirds of the undernourished and sub-Saharan Africa with one-fifth account for nearly 80 percent of the world’s total. This highly skewed profile of food insecurity across the major regions of the world shows little change over recent years. Any worthwhile contemporary discussion on food security must, therefore, have as its major focus the situation in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Alongside the regional differences in levels of food insecurity, within the vulnerable regions, the causes of this condition also vary considerably. In certain countries, of which India is an example, the poor are largely net buyers of food. What is needed in this context are steps to increase domestic supplies and stabilize prices at reasonable levels. Policies are needed to promote food production to serve the public distribution system. On the other hand, in countries like Bangladesh, the majority of the poor are in fact net sellers of food. Security for them can be achieved by raising the prices of food grains and expanding markets mainly through increased export.An improved marketing system is relevant here. Another source of problems regarding food security lies in structural factors like lack of infrastructure for transporting food grains and their storage. The transport problem is acute in landlocked countries like Chad, Mali, Niger, and Zimbabwe. This has led to considerable damage and wastage, and this includes imported food grains.
The problem of food insecurity over the globe has a distributing long-term aspect, namely the growing import needs of the developing countries. In over just six years following 1972, their imports rose from around 50 to over 70 million tonnes. There is also evidence that the annual growth rates for food production are negative for most low-income countries. Given that food grain prices are likely to increase following the Uruguay Round (UR) of GAIT. This growing dependence on non-domestic sources points only to a worsening situation. A short-term aspect of food insecurity lies in inter-year fluctuations in the availability of food supplies. Many factors operate together. A fall in production cannot be offset readily by imports because of foreign exchange restrictions, and a reduction in food exports is disallowed by existing contracts. The option of curtailing non-food imports while logically sound is problematic because these imports usually cover items needed for sustaining ongoing development. Thus, there is a trade-off between current food security and growth. Food aid becomes an important mechanism under these circumstances.Indeed, figures show increased food aid over the decade after 1978. A limitation of this mechanism is that aid made available by donors generally does not respond to the specific needs of the individual countries targeted.

Q6. The writer cites the large cereal surplus in developed countries in order to
(a) illustrate the extent of exploration in the present world order.
(b) show how efficient modern agricultural practices can be.
(c) show that there will be a world-level surplus even after meeting the deficits of poorer countries.
(d) highlight the marked imbalances across regions of the world in food security.
(e) argue that this quantum is actually small compared with the massive figures for malnutrition.

S6. Ans.(d)
Sol. Refer to the first sentence of the passage, “A major feature of the global food security scenario is that marked imbalances exist across regions. For instance, in 1985-86 there was a global surplus in cereal production of 92 million metric tonnes. Developed nations had a surplus of 182 million tonnes, while the developing countries and the socialist block had a deficit of 90 million tonnes.” Hence option (d) is correct.

Q7. The important observation made in relation to South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa is that
(a) these regions have the highest levels of individual malnutrition and child mortality.
(b) a direct comparison between these regions and China would not be valid without more data.
(c) an effective solution to global food insecurity must be linked to their needs.
(d) they must be given priority assistance to reduce their dependence on costly food imports.
(e) their position on the ‘map’ of malnutrition across major regions remain unusually stable.

S7. Ans.(e)
Sol. Refer to the last three sentences of the first paragraph of the passage, “South Asia with about two-thirds of the undernourished and sub-Saharan Africa with one-fifth, account for nearly 80 percent of the world’s total. This highly skewed profile of food insecurity across the major regions of the world shows little change over recent years. Any worthwhile contemporary discussion on food security must, therefore, have as its major focus the situation in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.” Hence option (e) is true.

Q8. The significant difference between the group of countries represented by India and Bangladesh lies in
(a) the urban-rural population ratio.
(b) the level of dependence on imports for maintaining buffer stocks.
(c) the vulnerability of the rural population to the effects of high food prices.
(d) the importance of the functions of trading communities and castes to the rural economy.
(e) the proportion of small and marginal farmers who produce some surplus food.

S8. Ans. (c)
Sol. Refer to the first few lines of the second paragraph of the passage, “Alongside the regional differences in levels of food insecurity, within the vulnerable regions the causes of this condition also vary considerably. In certain countries, of which India is an example, the poor are largely net buyers of food. What is needed in this context are steps to increase domestic supplies and stabilize prices at reasonable levels. Policies are needed to promote food production to serve the public distribution system. In the other hand, in countries like Bangladesh, the majority of the poor are in fact net sellers of food.” Hence option (c) is true.

Q9. Chad and Mali are examples of countries where
(a) transportation facilities can be maintained only with heavy technical and financial outlays.
(b) lack of infrastructure leads to a deadlock in the food distribution system.
(c) inadequate transport and storage facilities lead to wastage of food supplies.
(d)the costs of transport and storage effectively neutralize the value of the significant food aid.
(e) infrastructure deficiencies rather than low domestic production is at the base of food insecurity.

S9. Ans. (c)
Sol. Refer to the eighth sentence of the second paragraph of the passage, “Another source of problems regarding food security lies in structural factors like lack of infrastructure for transporting food grains and their storage. The transport problem is acute in landlocked countries like Chad, Mali, Niger, and Zimbabwe. This has led to considerable damage and wastage, and this includes imported food grains.” Hence option (c) is true.

Q10. The long term dimension of the food insecurity problem of the poor countries is
(a) the tendency to rely on cheap imports and aid rather than invest in infrastructure.
(b) the likely increase ingrain prices following the UR of GATT.
(c) the negative growth rate for food supplies that shows signs of stabilizing.
(d) the need to maintain exports at high levels even when earnings are falling.
(e) the increasing dependence on food imports of many developing countries.

S10. Ans. (e)
Sol. Refer to the eleventh sentence of the second paragraph, “The problem of food insecurity over the globe has a distributing long-term aspect, namely the growing import needs of the developing countries.” Hence option (e) is true.

Q11. The option of reducing non-food imports when short term food shortages arise is often not practical because
(a) there is a trade-off between food security and growth of GNP.
(b) the conventional methods of containing insecurity are too expensive.
(c) such imports are necessary to sustain ongoing development efforts.
(d) curtailing imports arbitrarily goes against the UR agreements.
(e) dumping of surplus supply by the exporting nations so affected can cause even more difficulties.

S11. Ans. (c)
Sol. Refer to the fifth last sentence of the passage, “The option of curtailing non-food imports while logically sound, is problematic because these imports usually cover items needed for sustaining ongoing development.” Hence option (c) is true.

Q12. While food aid has increased over the 1980s,
(a) it remains a mechanism that can be misused by wealthy nations.
(b) it has not been effective in controlling price rise after the UR.
(c) it is not usually sensitive to the specific needs of the countries being targeted.
(d) its potentially key role in mediating between food security and growth has yet to be activated.
(e)under certain circumstances, it cannot sustain ongoing development.

S12. Ans.(c)
Sol. Refer to the last three sentences of the passage, “Food aid becomes an important mechanism under these circumstances. Indeed, figures show increased food aid over the decade after 1978. A limitation of this mechanism is that aid made available by donors generally does not respond to the specific needs of the individual countries targeted.” Hence option (c) is true.

Directions (13-15): In the following question a part of the sentence is given in bold, it is then followed by four sentences which try to explain the meaning of the idiom/phrase given in bold. Choose the alternative from the four given below each question which explains the meaning of the phrase correctly without altering the meaning of the sentence given as question. If none of the sentence explains the meaning of the highlighted phrase, choose option (e) i.e., “none of these” as your answer choice.

Q13. In December 1999, like a bolt from the blue came the hijacking of the Indian airliner from Kathmandu to Kandahar which lasted for a week.
(a) In December 1999, the fatal incident of hijacking of the Indian airliner from Kathmandu to Kandahar happened which lasted for a week
(b) In December 1999, the formidable episode of hijacking of the Indian airliner from Kathmandu to Kandahar occurred which lasted for a week.
(c) In December 1999, a frightening event occurred, of hijacking the Indian airliner from Kathmandu to Kandahar which lasted for a week.
(d) In December 1999, a sudden shocking event occurred of hijacking the Indian airliner from Kathmandu to Kandahar which lasted for a week.
(e) None of these

S13. Ans. (d)
Sol. The most appropriate option that reflects the meaning of the given sentence is option (d) as the idiom “a bolt from the blue” means something important or unusual that happens suddenly or unexpectedly. However, the words “fatal”, “frightening” and “formidable” do not indicate the suddenness of the event. Hence, option (d) is the most suitable answer choice.

Q14. It’s been a long journey for this dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur who holds her mother in high regard for being a pillar of support.
(a) It’s been a long journey for this pretentious entrepreneur who holds her mother in high regard for being a pillar of support.
(b) It’s been a long journey for this conspicuous entrepreneur who holds her mother in high regard for being a pillar of support.
(c) It’s been a long journey for this inveterate entrepreneur who holds her mother in high regard for being a pillar of support.
(d) It’s been a long journey for this revolutionary entrepreneur who holds her mother in high regard for being a pillar of support.
(e) None of these

S14. Ans. (c)
Sol. The most appropriate option that reflects the meaning of the given sentence is option (c) as the idiom “dyed-in-the-wool” means unchanging in a particular belief or opinion; inveterate. However, the words “pretentious”, “conspicuous” and “revolutionary” do not express the similar meaning. Hence, option (c) is the most suitable answer choice.
Pretentious means attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed.
Conspicuous means attracting notice or attention.
Inveterate means having a particular habit, activity, or interest that is long-established and unlikely to change.
Revolutionary means involving or causing a complete or dramatic change.

Q15. Some pundits are advising European politicians to keep a stiff upper lip and take on Trump’s challenge to take more responsibility for their own defense.
(a) Some pundits are advising European politicians to be aghast and take on Trump’s challenge to take more responsibility for their own defense.
(b) Some pundits are advising European politicians to be valiant and take on Trump’s challenge to take more responsibility for their own defense.
(c) Some pundits are advising European politicians to be restrained and take on Trump’s challenge to take more responsibility for their own defense.
(d) Some pundits are advising European politicians to remain hushed and take on Trump’s challenge to take more responsibility for their own defense.
(e) None of these

S15. Ans. (b)
Sol. The most appropriate option that reflects the meaning of the given sentence is option(b) as the idiom “keep a stiff upper lip” means to be courageous or stoic in the face of adversity. However, the words “aghast”, “restrained” and “hushed” do not express the similar meaning. Hence, option (b) is the most suitable answer choice.
Aghast means filled with horror or shock.
Valiant means possessing or showing courage or determination.
Restrained means characterized by reserve or moderation; unemotional or dispassionate.
Hushed means (of a voice or conversation) quiet and serious.

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