Reading Comprehension for SBI PO 2017

Directions (1-15): Read the passage and answer the following questions:

Unemployment is the problem of every modern nation. The government is not able to ensure a job for everyone. Following the conventional strategy of creating employment, governments of many developing countries try to attract employers (business houses/industrialists) by offering tax rebates and many other facilities so that they locate their upcoming plants on their soil, and thereby create industrial employment. But there is a limit to what industry can bring. Also, industrial plants often create toxic waste which results in air and water pollution and environmental problems which can outweigh whatever implement benefit industrial employment may bring as substantial relief to the dwindling economy of the host country and the profits of such foreign investments are carried back to the parent company and foreign shareholders aboard.


Self-employment has none of these drawbacks. The problem is that self-employment is not as obviously glamorous is not as a shiny new factory. But profits from self-employment remain in the country where they are produced. It is too small to create environmental hazards. It also puts the poor person in charge of his or her own working hours and conditions. The hours are flexible and can be adapted to fit any family situation. It allows people to choose between running a business full time and part time when they face a crisis, or to put their business on hold and work full time for a salary. Self-employment is tailor-made for anyone who is street-smart and has many acquired and inherited traditional skills, rather than learning acquired from books and technical schools. This means the illiterate and the poor can exploit their strengths, rather than be held back by their weaknesses. It allows a person to turn their hobbies into gainful employment. It allows individuals who cannot work well in a rigid hierarchy to run their own show.

Financing the poor to start their own little ventures elevates their sense of pride and self-respect. It offers a way out of welfare dependency, not just to become wage slaves, but to open a store or start a manufacturing business. It can help those who have found a job and are still nonetheless poor. It gives the victims of prejudice who would not be hired because of their colour or national origin a chance to earn a living. The average cost of creating self-employment is ten, twenty or hundred times lesser than creating industry-based employment. It helps isolated poor people gain self-confidence, step by step.

Obviously, self-employment has limits, but in many cases, it is the only solution to help those whom economies refuse to hire and taxpayers do not want to carry on their shoulders. The policy needed for the eradication of poverty must be much wider and deeper than the policy for the provision of mere employment. Real eradication of poverty begins when people are able to control their own fate. Poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a flower pot, you get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted; only the soil base that is too inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Simply society never gave them the base to grow. All it takes to get the poor people out of poverty is for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor are able to unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly. 

Direction(1-3): Choose the word/group of words which is MOST OPPOSITE in MEANING to The word/group of words printed in bold us used in the passage.

Q1. RIGID
(a) Unstructured
(b) Flexible
(c) Soft
(d) Gentle
(e) Calm

Q2. STEP BY STEP
(a) All at once
(b) In quick succession
(c) In slow motion
(d) In a nutshell
(e) Once and for all

Q3. OFFERING
(a) Stealing
(b) Permitting
(c) Refusing
(d) Pretesting
(e) Questioning

Direction(4-6): Choose the word/group of words is MOST SIMILAR in MEANING to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.

Q4. REMAIN
(a) Left-over
(b) Endure
(c) Stagnate
(d) Continue
(e) Linger

Q5. HIRED
(a) Allowed
(b) Rented
(c) Authorized
(d) Employed
(e) Delegated

Q6. LIMIT
(a) Maximum
(b) Finish
(c) Cap
(d) Decrease
(e) Barrier

Q7. Which of the following is a reason foreign investments do not strengthen the economies of host nations?
(a) The parent company all the profit as tax to its nation.
(b) The profit of such enterprise does not remain in the host notion; rather it goes back to the share-holders and owners of the parent company.
(c) The employees of the parent company demand extra pay from profits that the companies earn from factories in another nation.
(d) The profit earned by such enterprises for anything beyond the salaries of employees.
(e) None of these

Q8. What is the tone of the passage?
(a) Offensive
(b) Satirical
(c) Analytical
(d) Humorous
(e) Speculative

Q9. Which of the following is an advantage that self-employment has over industry based employment?
(A) The work timings are highly flexible.
(B) Starting one’s own venture is an easy task and needs no investment as financers are readily available.
(C) Self-employment makes one a master of other people and thus satisfies their need to control others.

(a) Only (C)
(b) Only (A)
(c) Only (B)
(d) Only (A) and (B)
(e) Only (A), (B) and (C)

Q10. Which of the following may be inferred about self-employment?
(A) Self-employed slowly but steadily strengthens the economy of the country.
(B) Self-employed checks unemployment.
(C) Self-employment is slow and unprogressive, foreign investment is the only effective tool to boost economy.  

(a) Only (B)
(b) Only (B) and (C)
(c) Only (A)
(d) Only (A) and (B)
(e) Only (A) and (C)

Q11. What does the author indicate by the example of a bonsai tree?
(A) When provided the right kind of financial help, poor people can flourish.
(B) Poor people are as capable as the well-to-do class.
(C) Poor people are intolerant and incapable while adopting change.

(a) Only (A)
(b) Only (B)
(c) Only (A) and (B)
(d) Only (A) and (C)
(e) Only (B) and (C)

Q12. The author claims that self-employment is ‘tailor-made’ for people with certain qualities. Which of the following are the qualities of such people?
(A) They have an unconventional approach to all things.
(B) They are street smart.
(C) They possess many acquired and traditional skills.

(a) Only (C)
(b) Only (A)
(c) Only (B)
(d) Only (A) and (C)
(e) Only (A), (B) and (C)

Q13. Which of the following outweighs the employment benefits that foreign industrialists bring?
(a) Huge industries set up by them cause environmental pollution.
(b) They employ more people belonging to their native nations, than the host nations’ unemployed.
(c) They evade many taxes that could be a source of revenue for the host nation.
(d) They manufacture products that have no market in the host nation.
(e) They practice discrimination on grounds of gender when providing employment to host nations’ residents.

Q14. Which of the following may be an appropriate title for the passage?
(a) Addressing conventional employment in developed nations.
(b) Varied strategies and approaches to eradicating poverty
(c) Limitations of industrial employment.
(d) How is poverty linked to conventional (industrial) employment?
(e) Role of self-employment in battling unemployment and eradication of poverty.

Q15. Which of the following is TRUE as per the passage?
(a) Self-employment is beneficial only as per the passage?
(b) Self-employment is not as glamorous as conventional (industrial) employment.
(c) Finance for poor is readily available in the developed nations of the world.
(d) Small-scale industries produce as much toxic waste as big industries.
(e) None is true