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. A project proposal and a draft model concessionaire agreement (MCA), drawn up by NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in June this year advocates adopting the PPP model in healthcare and health delivery services. The framework for such a partnership is outlined in a project which goes out of its way to accommodate and facilitate private players in the healthcare system in the name of augmenting select healthcare services for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, which, as is commonly known, already have better infrastructure compared with smaller mofussil towns and cities. ______________________.
(a)The processes by which these formulations have been arrived at are equally revealing.
(b) The concessionaire agreement is to be drawn between State governments and selected private partners in the form of a PPP for the treatment of NCDs.
(c)The district hospitals to be short-listed for the project in tier 2 and tier 3 cities are expected to have not less than 250 functional beds.
(d)In order to give a direction to enhanced private sector engagement through PPPs to address the “growing burden of NCDs”, NITI Aayog’s project aims to “improve access to quality screening”.
(e) For the first time in independent India, it has been openly admitted in a national health policy document that critical gaps in healthcare would be filled by the private sector.
Q2. The Indian Army chief, Gen. BipinRawat, in a speech delivered in the first week of September, once again talked of a “two front war”, pitting India simultaneously against China and Pakistan. “We have to be prepared. In our context, therefore, warfare lies within the realms of reality,” he said in the speech just a day after Modi and Xi had a cordial meeting. _______________________________. But the Army chief again painted China as an “adversary” who was busy nibbling away at Indian territory.
(a)China had notified the Indian side about its road-building project in Doklam in the month of May but India preferred to send its troops to the part of the Doklam plateau to which the claimant is Bhutan.
(b)Indian diplomats more conversant with China and its politics were roped in to salvage the situation.
(c)Xi was busy making preparations to host the BRICS summit.
(d) The two leaders had agreed to establish a “forward looking” approach to bilateral ties.
(e)The Chinese side would have put forward their other complaints during the meeting between Xi and Modi.
Q3. 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 localised 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 maximises ‘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 localised divinities stand often in contrast to the larger, homogenising, 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.
Q4. 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 standardised 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 centres.
Q5. In October 2017, the results of a field study on Arctic sea ice, often considered a drab subject, received worldwide attention, especially in the media and among international ice scientists. The study by the Cryosphere Climate Research Group at the University of Calgary, Canada, found that satellite measurements of seasonal sea ice that formed over the Arctic every year were likely to be incorrect by a substantial degree. In a paper published in the academic journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said the estimates so far failed to take into account the amount of salt in the layers of snow over the ice. _________________________________________________________.
(a) This is because as the ice cover melts quickly, the ocean gets exposed to sunlight for a longer period.
(b) There is no sun in the Arctic during the winter season and so, because of the cold atmosphere, the ocean freezes and forms what we call “sea ice”.
(c) When snow falls on top of sea ice, it will absorb some amount of salt and the snow cover also becomes partially or completely salty.
(d) As spring arrives, the sun comes out and the snow on top of the sea ice starts melting.
(e) The presence of salt distorted satellite readings and, as a result, scientists overestimated the thickness of Arctic sea ice.
Solutions
S1. Ans. (b)
Sol. The paragraph here talks about the project highlighting adoption of the Public private partnership (PPP) in healthcare services for non- communicable diseases. Hence the blank must be filled by the sentence talking about the agreement between the two ( public and private partnership). Hence we find that only sentence (b) is going in harmony with the paragraph as it talks about the concessionaire agreement between State governments and selected private partners. Hence option (b) is the right choice.
S2. Ans. (d)
Sol. The paragraph is giving the statement of Indian Army chief, Gen. BipinRawat, which was given a day after Modi and Xi cordial meet. The sentence before the blank talks about the meeting of Modi and Xi while sentence after the blank talks about China as rival by Army chief. Hence the blank must be filled by the sentence which states the relation between India and China. Going through all the sentences, we find that sentence (d) goes in agreement with the paragraph talking about the establishment of bilateral ties between the two nations by the two leaders. Hence option (d) is the correct choice.
S3. 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
S4. 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.
S5. Ans. (e)
Sol. Here the paragraph is all about the incorrect satellite measurement regarding thickness of ice in the Arctic sea, which is due to not considering the amount of salt over the ice. The sentences above the blank talk about the statement of researchers regarding reason behind the cause, hence the next sentence should be related to this. Sentence (e) which is giving further reasons behind the cause, is making the paragraph appropriately complete and meaningful. Hence option (e) is the correct choice
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