Directions (1-10): Read the following passage and answer the questions following it. Several alphabets are given to help you assist in answering those questions.
With US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela coming into effect on 2 May and Saudi Arabia restraining crude oil output, Indian refiners have started looking for sources of new crude oil supply to feed their _______(A)_______ with heavy sweet crude, in addition to importing from Iraq.
Refiners prefer the heavy sweet crude supplied by Iran and Venezuela, which helps them produce low-sulphur fuel oil ahead of new shipping emissions norms that kick in January 2020. In 2018-19, India imported close to 10% of its domestic oil requirement from Iran. (B)Though refiners said Iran offered commercially(1) attractive oil import terms to India, including a 60-day credit period and revenue(2) on oil and insurance, it will not have a major impact on discounts(3), since for India, it is only 10% of its total oil import(4).
However, Despite US sanctions on Iran, the country’s crude oil supply to India increased 6.24% to 24 million tonnes (MT) in 2018-19, as India managed to import a sizeable volume largely due to sanction waivers provided by the US. (C)Imports from sanction-hit Venezuela dropped 5.56% to 17.32 MT last fiscal year, against 18.34 MT imported in the previous year. Earlier in 2012, sanctions imposed on Tehran by the Obama administration had forced India to reduce its Iranian oil imports by half.
“We have put in place alternatives to replace oil imports from Iran and Venezuela. It was only imperative to look for other options,” according to a senior executive of an oil marketing company, who spoke on the condition of _______(D)_______.
India imports over 80% of its oil needs. Iran was also the third-largest supplier of crude oil to India after Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The cost of oil import went up from $87.4 billion in 2017-18 to $107 billion in 2018-19 as average annual crude oil price went up from $57.85 per barrel to $70.86 per barrel.
Last fiscal year, Iraq maintained its position as the largest crude oil supplier to India in 2018-19, (E)____________________________________________, or a 2% increase in the previous fiscal year, according to data from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS).
Crude oil supply by Saudi Arabia, leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), increased 12% to 40.33 MT last fiscal year. Currently, India’s ______(F)______ suppliers are Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Thanks to the Impose (G), oil exports from the US to India shot up 328% to 6 MT in 2018-19, from 1.4 MT in 2017-18, pushing the US to the ninth position among the top 10 oil exporters to India. US was ranked 18th in 2017-18.
“Availability of crude is not an issue. There are many suppliers in the market. However, for Indian refiners, distance is an important factor as this adds to the freight cost. (H)If an available crude(1) trades at a discount to Brent crude with option (2) of $3-4 a barrel, we can overcome the freight(3) cost, making the crude an attractive difference(4),” according to an official from an oil marketing company. For oil marketing companies (OMCs), 60-70% of crude oil supply is term contract since it ensures a steady supply. Around 30-40% of the crude requirement is imported on a spot basis
(I)Indias’ overall domestic crude oil production declined 7 per cent to 2,713 thousand metric tonne (TMT) in April 2019 due to decline in production from fields operated by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India and those under production sharing contracts (PSC).The decline in production in the month coupled with a 14 per cent increase in crude oil imports (J) as compared to 83.8 per cent recorded in the corresponding month a year ago. The country had produced 2,914 TMT of crude oil in April 2018.
Q1. Which of the following words given in the options should come at the place marked as (A) in the above passage to make it grammatically correct and meaningful? Also, the word should fill in the two sentences given below to make them contextually correct and meaningful.
(i) Indian OMCs have informed the ministry of petroleum and natural gas about their ______________ production during the month of April 2019
(ii) Though the country is short in producing crude oil, which is turned into fuel at ___________, it manufactures surplus petroleum products.
(a) Supplies
(b) Requirements
(c) Refineries
(d) Ambitions
(e) None of these
Q2. The sentence given in (B) has four words given in bold. Amongst the given bold words which of the followings must interchange to make the sentence grammatically and contextually correct and meaningful?
(a) 1-4
(b) 2-3
(c) 2-4
(d) 3-4
(e) None of these.
Q3. In the above passage, a sentence (C) is given in Italics. There may or may not be an error in one part of the sentence. Choose the part which has an error in it as your answer. If there is no error, then choose option (e) as your answer.
(a) Imports from sanction-hit Venezuela
(b) No Error
(c) against 18.34 MT import
(d) in the previous year
(e) dropped 5.56% to 17.32 MT last fiscal year
Q4. Which of the following words should fill the blank given in (D) to make it contextually correct and meaningful?
(a) Intricacy
(b) Fidelity
(c) Obscurity
(d) Levity
(e) None of the above
Q5. Which of the following phrases should fill the blank (E) to make it contextually and grammatically meaningful and correct respectively?
(a) 90 per cent of government revenue and 60 per cent of gross domestic product.
(b) which is currently produced around 2.7 million b/d in line with its quota
(c) movement which led to bans worldwide on shopping bags, straws and other single-use items
(d) supplying more than 46.61 MT of crude oil
(e) None of these.
Q6. Which of the following words given in the options should come at the place marked as (F) in the above paragraph to make it grammatically and contextually meaningful and correct? Also, the word should fill the two sentences given below to make them contextually correct and meaningful?
(i) Most parts of the State are already facing the problem of water shortage and availability of water for agriculture could be a _____________ cause for worry in future.
(ii) India’s possible role in developing the terminal had become a _______________ flash point within the government.
(a) Significant
(b) Serious
(c) Subordinate
(d) Collateral
(e) None of the above.
Q7. A word is given in bold in (G). Choose the word which should replace the word given in bold to make the sentence correct and meaningful. If no change is required, choose option (e) as your answer.
(a) Ratification
(b) Embargo
(c) Accreditation
(d) Derelict
(e) No change required
Q8. The sentence given in (H) has four words given in bold. Amongst the given bold words, which of the followings must replace each other to make the sentence contextually correct and meaningful?
(a) 1-4
(b) 2-3
(c) 2-4
(d) 3-4
(e) No replacement required
Q9. In the passage given, a sentence (I) is given in Italics. There may or may not be an error in one part of the sentence. Choose the part which has an error in it as your answer.
(a) Indias’ overall domestic crude oil production declined 7 per cent to 2,713 thousand metric tonne
(b) in April 2019 due to decline in production from fields
(c) operated by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India
(d) and those under production sharing contracts (PSC).
(e) No error
Q10. Two sentences are given in italics on both sides of (J). Which of the following statements can come in between the two sentences in place of (J) and maintain the continuity of the paragraph?
(a) Pushed the country’s crude oil import dependence to 86.8 per cent
(b) The country’s second largest state-owned oil and gas explorer’s crude oil production fell by 3.32 per cent to 265 TMT.
(c) making up 6.8% of India’s machinery imports in the same period
(d) with foreign capital in hi-tech industry increasing by 41%
(e) None of the above
Directions (11-15): In the following passage, some phrases have been left out, each of which is indicated by a number. Find the suitable phrase from the options given against each number and fill up the blanks with appropriate phrases to make the paragraph meaningfully complete.
The hurried exit of foreign investors from Indian equity and debt markets seems to be reversing what has been a ___(11)___. On 7 May, the BSE Sensex closed at 26,599. Though high relative to where the Sensex stood even at the beginning of January 2014 (for example), this multi-day fall of the Sensex troubled investors used to easy profits for many reasons. First, _____(12)______, that even the relatively high May 7th figure reflected a more than 10 per cent decline from a peak of close to 30,000 realised just three months ago. That would have caught even traders with relatively short trading horizons by surprise. Secondly, there is little disagreement that the bull run, ________(13)_______ 16,000 in May 2012, was driven by the appetite of foreign institutional investors for emerging market paper induced by access to cheap liquidity. So the market analysts who were predicting that the climb of the Sensex will never end because it was driven by India-specific factors, especially the reformist agenda of the new government, were clearly in denial.
Such views have been encouraged by the fact that, in the recent period, even when fears of a change in the investment environment arose, _____(14)______.Thus, in the summer of 2013 when the likely taper of the Fed’s bond purchase policy was first announced, the ‘tantrum’ that followed in the form of FII exit and a market downturn did not last long. Once it was clear that the taper would neither lead to higher interest rates immediately nor squeeze liquidity too much, foreign investors returned and Indian markets resumed their climb. However, those who concluded ______(15)________ and resilient were refusing to recognise that both the short term downturn and the subsequent recovery was the result dominantly of the direction of foreign institutional investor movement.
Q11.
(a) prolonged downturn is inherent
(b) market slump and rupee depreciation can aggravate the downturn.
(c) long bull run in India’s stock markets over the last three years or more
(d) remarkable rise of close to 50 per cent
(e) period when growth was by all accounts slowing
Q12.
(a) the one that would be prolonged and severe
(b) the climb in the Sensex has been so rapid in recent times
(c) the investor exuberance that delivered this second boom occurred
(d) the second boom stretched from the beginning of 2014 till about the beginning of 2015
(e) the result of two separate booms spliced together
Q13.
(a) current slump in the Sensex has also seen the rupee depreciate
(b) which investors may chose to move investments out of India is real
(c) which the Sensex rose from around 16,000 in May 2012
(d) which began three years back when the Sensex was hovering just above
(e) breach the Rs. 64-to the dollar ‘psychological benchmark’
Q14.
(a) the boom will be robust and resilient
(b) the boom it triggered must end
(c) downturn induced by the taper tantrum
(d) the impact on the market was muted
(e) result of two separate booms spliced together
Q15.
(a) from a place of entitlement
(b) from many in the legal fraternity
(c) from these market trends that the boom was robust
(d) from the jury which were not disclosed to counsel
(e) from the basic issues of people
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Solutions
S1. Ans. (c)
Sol. Among the given words, “Refineries” fits aptly in the context of the passage as it means the action of improving or being improved. All the other words are either contextually incoherent to the passage or they fail to fit in either of the sentences. Hence, option (c) becomes the most suitable answer choice.
Ambitions mean a strong desire to do or achieve something.
S2. Ans. (b)
Sol. The position of the words ‘Revenue’ and ‘Discounts’ may seem grammatically correct but the given sentence is talking about the merits of Iranian Oil supply and is talking about the effects of US sanctions on Indian Economy. Hence, option (b) is the correct replacement.
S3. Ans. (e)
Sol. There is no error in the sentence.
S4. Ans. (c)
Intricacy means the quality of being very complicated or detailed.
Fidelity means faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief
Obscurity means the state of being unknown, inconspicuous
Levity means the treatment of a serious matter with humour or lack of due respect
Hence, from the given options only option (c) makes the sentence both grammatically and contextually correct.
S5. Ans. (d)
Sol. The answer to the given question can be inferred from the sentence following the blank, ‘or a 2% increase in the previous fiscal year’ The use of conjunction ‘or’ is showing that the blank should be in line with the following sentence. So, from the given options only option (d) fits the above criteria. Also, there is a grammatical error in option (b) whereas option (c) is out of the context of the passage. Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.
S6. Ans. (a)
Sol. Significant means sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention
Subordinate means lower in rank or position.
Collateral means connected but less important
Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.
S7. Ans. (b)
Sol. Impose means force on someone
Ratification means the action of signing or giving formal consent to a treaty
Embargo means an official ban on trade or other commercial activity
Accreditation means an acknowledgment of a person’s responsibility for an achievement of something
Derelict means in a very poor condition as a result of disuse and neglect
The use of Impose in the sentence is incorrect instead it should be replaced with Embargo. Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.
S8. Ans. (c)
Sol. The use of ‘difference’ in ‘making the crude an attractive difference’ doesn’t make a logical sense as per the context of the sentence. But after the replacement of word ‘difference’ with ‘option’ the sentence become more meaningful and contextually correct. Hence, option (c) is the correct answer choice.
S9. Ans. (a)
Sol. There is grammatical error in part (a) of the sentence. The use of Indias’ is incorrect instead it should be India’s because the latter one is showing the possession which the former one failed to do because of the incorrect structure. Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.
S10. Ans. (a)
Sol. The correct answer to the given question can be inferred from the preceding sentence of the blank which is talking about crude oil imports and the following sentence is comparing those crude imports. So, the intermediate sentence should be the one which discuss about the crude imports in India, so that it can make a coherent sense. Hence, from the given options only option (a) is satisfying the above said criteria.
S11. Ans. (c)
Sol. Here, we can omit options (b) and (e) as they form grammatically incorrect statements. Also, option (a) cannot fit in the given blank as the former part of the sentence “hurried exit” states that the earlier scenario had been positive. Therefore, option (c). “ long bull run in India’s stock markets over the last three years or more” perfectly fits in the given blank. Hence, option (c) is the most suitable answer choice.
S12. Ans. (b)
Sol. Here, options (c) and (d) being grammatically incorrect can be omitted. Also, phrase given in option (e) does not make a coherently meaningful statement. Here, only option (b), “the climb in the Sensex has been so rapid in recent times” forms a meaningful statement. As option (c) perfectly fits in the given blank, it is the most suitable answer choice.
S13. Ans. (d)
Sol. Here, apart from the phrase given in option (d), no other option makes a contextually meaningful statement. As “which began three years back when the Sensex was hovering just above” perfectly fits in the given blank, option (d) is the most suitable answer choice.
S14. Ans. (d)
Sol. Here, we can clearly omit options (a)as it is grammatically incorrect. Also, option (c) makes an incomplete statement. Therefore, only the phrase given in option (d), “the impact on the market was muted”, fits perfectly in the given blank. Hence, option (d) is the most suitable answer choice.
S15. Ans. (c)
Sol.Here, the passage discusses the market trends and therefore, the inference can be made on the basis of these trends only. Therefore, the statement given in option (c), “from these market trends that the boom was robust” fits perfectly in the given blank. Hence, option (c) is the most suitable answer choice.
