Twisted Ones: IBPS PO 2017 परीक्षा के लिए अंग्रेजी की प्रश्नोत्तरी

Directions (1-3): 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 four answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent (coherent means logically complete and sound). If none of the options fits correctly, then choose option E as your answer. 

Q1. India’s telecom sector is in the midst of a painful reconfiguration that isn’t likely to end anytime soon. The launch of Reliance Jio in September 2016 started a winter of discontent for telecom companies that has stretched well into this summer. The consequent jockeying for market position and appeals to industry regulators were predictable. But those regulators must bear this in mind: ————————.

(a) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a consultation paper in February on assessing predatory pricing; earlier this week, it said that it would reveal predatory pricing rules in the next six weeks or so. 

(b) when the regulatory measure will define Indian economy and the word economy respectively

(c) On the hardware front, International Data Corporation predicts that India will overtake the US as the world’s second-largest smartphone market this year, with high growth rate to be maintained over the next few years thanks to the low—and falling—average price of 4G-enabled handsets.

(d) While the financial strain on telcos and churn in the market may make regulatory intervention tempting, a heavy-handed approach would be counterproductive.

(e) None of these

Q2. The South African regime contended, like the PCB, that sports and politics should not be mixed. ————————- This argument resonated worldwide, including in international forums ranging from the UN to the Non-Aligned Movement.

(a) If the dispute is not resolved, there would be uncertainty over what team Australia could field after 30 June, with a two-Test series scheduled in August in Bangladesh before a home Ashes showdown with England, which runs from 23 November 2017 to 8 January 2018.

(b) The anti-apartheid activists countered: there can be “no normal sports in an abnormal country”.

(c) Apartheid was a political and social system in South Africa while it was under white minority rule. This was in use in the 20th century, from 1948 to 1994. 

(d) Amla’s first mistake in a sublime innings lead to his dismissal shortly after breaking the record – a desperate attempt for a second run saw him caught short after a bullet throw by Kusal Mendis. He departed for 23, having become the fourth centurion in three matches in this tournament. 

(e) None of these 

Q3. The brouhaha over the recent deal between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd and US aircraft major Lockheed Martin for the manufacture of the F-16 fighter jet in India is really just much ado about nothing.————————–shows that even if this deal if ever realized, it would at best improve the metallurgy standards of the Tatas, but add little in terms of serious technology transfer, market penetration, or denial of strategic space to Pakistan.

(a) if you look at the deal among east Asian countries about nuclear distribution, you will find substantial evidence of misuse of uranium and thorium. 

(b) The Lockheed Martin F-16V configuration provides relevant combat capabilities in a scalable and affordable package. The core of the F-16V configuration is an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, a modern commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)-based avionics subsystem, a large-format, high-resolution display; and a high-volume, high-speed data bus.

(c) A closer examination of the production system of the F-16, which is one of the most globalized fighters ever made,

(d) Indian Space Research Organisation, formed in 1969, superseded the erstwhile INCOSPAR. Headquartered in Bangalore, its vision is to “harness space technology for national development”, while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration. It is managed by the Department of Space, which reports to the Prime Minister.

(e) None of these 

Directions (4-15): Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.  

Q4. There is a lot of debate within the discipline of public administration whether the bureaucracy should be heavy or thin. According to the neoliberal school of thought, the state should withdraw itself from the responsibility of development and leave it to private forces. Welfare state advocates feel that the state should be actively involved in developing the country. However, both schools cannot deny the importance of the bureaucracy in executing legislative decisions.

(a) Civil servants are selected through an exhaustive system of examinations so that the best brains are chosen to run the country efficiently.

(b) There has also been a lot of debate on the process of selecting the administrators of the country, with many commissions having recommended various methods.

(c) There have been many complaints against the scaling system of evaluation of civil servants.

(d) Civil servants, being the most important policymakers of the country, are given many privileges and accorded a high status in the Constitution.

(e) None of these 

Q5. Ubiquitous and clamorous media are transforming foreign policy into a subdivision of public entertainment. The intense competition for ratings produces an obsession with the crisis of the moment, generally presented as a morality play between good and evil having a specific outcome and rarely in terms of the long-range challenge of history. As soon as the flurry of excitement has subsided, the media move on to new sensations. At their peak, the political crises or the scams are covered twenty-four hours a day by print and television media.

(a) Then, they receive very little attention, even though the underlying trends continue, and become more unmanageable with time.

(b) The situation in India is no different; it is far worse.

(c) Then they run amok as they are unaccountable because there is no audit of the media in the media itself.

(d) And their loud expression of opinion as fact which purports to express public opinion brings in volatility in perceptions.

(e) None of these 

Q6. A sigh of relief settles over the United States news media as the Marjah campaign winds down to a temporary close. The plan was simple—make it clear that the US-led force would enter the town in strength and force the Taliban insurgents to quit the field. Indeed, the Taliban, as they did in 2001, hastened out of Marjah. But in 2001, they slowly reorganized and began guerrilla strikes against the US-led forces. One reason for the Taliban returning with such ease was that the US-backed government of Afghanistan failed to earn the people’s trust. Its failure to provide basic services despite the vast amount of donor aid, and the corruption scandals fattened by that very aid, turned ordinary people towards the Taliban once more. The latest strategy was designed to prevent such a lapse.

(a) Under the US military cover, India can build Marjah’s civilian projects and China can improve its economic relations.

(b) More than half the US population now supports military operations in Afghanistan. 

(c) It seeks to avoid a direct confrontation with the Taliban and is geared toward breaking the Taliban’s logistics, namely its control over the opium trade.

(d) Once the US-led forces chased the Taliban out of town, the US-backed government would quickly set to work earning the people’s trust.

(e) The US’ counter-insurgency in Marjah will soon spread to other opium towns nearby.

Q7. The passage of the Constitution—108th Amendment Bill, 2008, popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill, in the Rajya Sabha on March 9 came as a belated spring-breaker. The events of the previous day, which marked 100 years of the decision to celebrate March 8 as women’s day, in fact, had served as a crude reminder of the long struggle that lay ahead for women on the road to equality. The irony of how much more brutal and intense the opposition and intolerance is to assertion by women in the public sphere as well as within the precincts of individual homes, would have escaped only those who wished not to see it.

(a) Why does policymaking on behalf of women meet with such severe resistance?

(b) Why is the passing of the Bill in The Rajya Sabha even referred to as “bulldozing”? 

(c) Do we not need to stop and wonder why this is the case?

(d) Have these leaders opposed to the bill intervened to check the skewed growth paradigm?

(e) Has this led to a serious questioning of their right to be there?

Q8. One can quite understand that the cow was a sacred animal for the ancient ones: it worked in the fields, gave milk, and even its excreta had the enormous importance of replacing natural fuel, which does not exist here; this explains why their religious precepts prohibited the farmer from killing this precious animal and, for that, the only way out was to consider it sacred;

(a) to have the force of religion impose respect for the most efficient element of production.

(b) to venerate it with the same fervor even in the age of mechanical plough and liquid fuels

(c) to allow it to multiply freely with hardly anyone committing the sacrilege of eating its meat.

(d) to have it ensconced in temples of the land and to have it worshipped.

(e) None of these

Q9. Given the widespread opposition from State governments, civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations, the moratorium on the environmental release of Bt brinjal would seem justified. Bt brinjal is a genetically modified form of brinjal where a foreign gene Cry 1 Ac from a soil bacterium has been inserted to confer on the brinjal plant resistance against insects. But the decision is being seen in scientific quarters as one aimed at appeasing the hardened stands of activist groups and NGOs.

(a) In fact, the decision appears to be setting a new trend of overruling scientific studies and rational scientific arguments.

(b) Unfortunately, however, the decision seem have sent a signal to the scientific community, especially the members of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee.

(c) The decision, according to them, overruled scientific studies and rational scientific arguments and undermined the credibility of the scientific community.

(d) If fact, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee had conducted large-scale field trails before the environmental release of bt. Brinjal.

(e) The decision seems to devalue the credibility and authority of the scientists of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee.

Q10. Once more a WTO ministerial has gone by in New Delhi and, if media reports are anything to go by, there is now a “consensus.” All the members agree that WTO negotiations must continue particularly in the context of the current world recession which has been on for about two years. And rightly so. The memories of the last recession of the 1930’s informs us that unilateral actions on tariffs led to a decline of world trade by as much as 30% in those days. From all reports, the decline today is no longer of that magnitude.

(a) While developed countries are bound to have some protectionism, the mere existence of the WTO has put some limits to obvious methods.

(b) It is now clear that ministerial are no longer going to take talks forward.

(c) The fact that a multilateral organization for trade negotiations exists today is surely a contributing factor.

(d) Ministerials are mainly meant to clear the political air about forward movement in negotiations.

(e) So, ‘waiting for someone who will never arrive’ is a correct description of the current ministerial.

Q11. The rise in carbon dioxide emissions is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world’s oceans. More than 30% of the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels, cement production, deforestation and other human activities goes straight into the oceans, turning them gradually more acidic. Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years.

(a) Ocean acidification is caused when the CO_2 emitted by human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels, dissolves into the oceans.

(b) Ocean acidification could represent a greater threat to the biology of our planet than global warming.

(c) There is now persuasive evidence that mass extinctions in past Earth history were accompanied by ocean acidification.

(d) This emphasizes the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

(e) Ocean acidification can create conditions not seen on Earth for at least 40 million years.

Q12. When people talk about the digital divide, they usually mean the gap between people who are benefiting from the information revolution, and those who through lack of education or money are missing out. But if there is one thing on which almost everybody agrees, it is that criminals are mastering computer technology much faster than most governments are learning to foil them. Rich countries say they are beset by fraudsters, pornographers and hackers operating from poor places where they will never be caught—because their “host” governments can’t or won’t stop them.

(a) Consequently, international efforts to police the net remain deadlocked.

(b) Consequently, the only winners are the criminals.

(c) An accord launched at the Council of Europe aims to let authorities in one country give chase, at least electronically, to criminals in another.

(d) Many countries like the idea of policing the net but not enough to push it through. 

(e) Policing the net, however, seems contrary to the essential philosophy of the internet.

Q13. The book focuses on people that came from a place called “Chonglin”, N. Korea’s third–largest city and one of the places that were hardest hit by the terrible famine of the mid- 1990s. It is also almost entirely closed to foreigners. Funnily enough, North Korea hasn’t always been this hopeless. In its early history, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was actually considered a success case in economic development. In the 1960s, the “Korean economic miracle” referred to the steel plants and electrified transport networks of the DPRK, but as South Korea embraced market reforms the chasm between North Korea and its neighbour grew wider.

(a) For the most part North Korea remained a dark, inscrutable place.

(b) South Korea grew richer while its neighbour to the North kept getting poorer.

(c) By 1996, North Korea was in the grip of one of the deadliest famines in modern times.

(d) South Korea became one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world while people in North Korea didn’t even have access to the internet.

(e) One can only hope that one day North Korea will be open and we will be able to judge for ourselves what really happened there.

Q14. She had had one of those boots. Ones that were so ugly they made you stand out. She had always hated her boots, but was one of those people who didn’t do much about things they hated. He on the other hand had found those boots unique, strange as they were. They suited her somehow, because just like her boots, she was ugly…

(a) …yes, definitely the boots; they were an ugly colour actually.

(b) … he remembered exactly how she looked like.

(c) … that’s how she usually was weird and emotionally unavailable.

(d) … in a more endearing way though.

(e) … she appeared so intriguing, and of course, she was intriguing.

Q15. In reality, scientists do not deal in certainty but in probabilities, and the way they calculate these probabilities is complex. For example; when testifying in court, a fingerprint expert may say that there is a 90% chance of obtaining a match if the defendant left the mark and a one in several billion chance of a match if someone else left it. In general DNA provides information of a higher quality or “individualizing potential” than other kinds of evidence, so that experts may be more confident of linking it to a specific individual.

(a) However, jurors hold unrealistic expectations of forensic evidence and investigation techniques.

(b) However, jurors today expect more categorical proof than forensic science is capable of delivering.

(c) However, DNA experts still deal in probabilities and not certainties.

(d) However, an unequivocal match of DNA is indeed generally just fiction.

(e) However, jurors think they have a thorough understanding of science.

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