Directions (1-5): Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which one sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate/coherent way.
Q1. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the farthest individual star ever seen — an enormous blue stellar body nicknamed Icarus located over halfway across the universe. The star, harboured in a very distant spiral galaxy, is so far away that its light has taken nine billion years to reach Earth. It appears to us as it did when the universe was about 30% of its current age. Normally, the star would be too faint to view, even with the world’s largest telescopes. _________________________________ “This is the first time we’re seeing a magnified, individual star,” said Patrick Kelly, who led the study as a postdoctoral fellow in University of California at Berkeley.
(a) However, through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing that tremendously amplifies the star’s feeble glow, astronomers were able to pinpoint this faraway star and set a new distance record.
(b) The discovery of Icarus through gravitational lensing has initiated a new way for astronomers to study individual stars in distant galaxies.
(c) Located about 5 billion light-years from Earth, this massive cluster of galaxies sits between the Earth and the galaxy that contains the distant star.
(d) Setting a new distance record, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an enormous blue star nicknamed “Icarus”, the farthest individual star ever seen.
(e) “You can see individual galaxies out there, but this star is at least 100 times farther away than the next individual star we can study, except for supernova explosions,” said Kelly, who is now at the University of Minnesota in the US.
Q2. Mahatma Gandhi came from a poor family, and he had dropped out of the cheapest college he could afford. Mavji Dave Joshiji, a Brahmin priest and family friend, advised Gandhi and his family that he should consider law studies in London. In July 1888, his wife Kasturba gave birth to their first surviving son, Harilal. His mother was not comfortable about Gandhi leaving his wife and family, and going so far from home. Gandhi’s uncle Tulsidas also tried to dissuade his nephew. Gandhi wanted to go. To persuade his mother Putlibai, Gandhi made a vow in front of his mother that he would abstain from meat, alcohol and women. Gandhi’s brother Laxmidas, who was already a lawyer, cheered Gandhi’s London studies plan and offered to support him. ____________________________________________________.
(a) They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original.
(b) In London, Gandhi studied law and jurisprudence and enrolled at the Inner Temple with the intention of becoming a priest.
(c) Gandhi, at age 22, was called to the bar in June 1891 and then left London for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept the news from him.
(d) Putlibai gave Gandhi her permission and blessing.
(e) None of these
Q3. _____________________________________________________________________ In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called plantains, in contrast to dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic (seedless) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata × M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name Musa sapientum is no longer used.
(a) The banana fruits develop from the banana heart, in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers.
(b) A banana is an edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa.
(c) There are fuzzy bananas whose skins are bubblegum pink; green-and-white striped bananas with pulp the color of orange sherbet; bananas that, when cooked, taste like strawberries.
(d) All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a “corm”.
(e) Farmers in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea first domesticated bananas.
Q4. _____________________, protein from nuts and seeds could be beneficial for the human heart, suggests a study including more than 80,000 participants. The study, appearing in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that people who consumed large amounts of meat protein experienced a 60 per cent increase in cardiovascular disease (CVD), while people who consumed large amounts of protein from nuts and seeds experienced a 40-per cent reduction in CVD.
(a) It can help you lose weight (especially belly fat), and increase your muscle mass and strength, to name a few
(b) many health and fitness experts believe that we need much more protein than what we get
(c) While eating red meat that is rich in protein is linked with increased risk of heart disease
(d) Almonds are loaded with high protein including other important nutrients, fiber, vitamin E manganese and magnesium
(e) none of these
Q5. LED lamps are often promoted as energy-efficient lighting for both inside the home and outside.
However, experts say that LED lighting — if not installed in moderation — could affect our health. Blue light exposure disrupts our body’s ability to produce melatonin, a hormone that helps us fall asleep. _________________________________________________________________ Many studies have suggested that blue light emitted by our mobile phones and laptops is disruptive because its short wavelength tells our brain to stay alert.
(a) The United States Department of Energy has claimed that LED lights are no more harmful than any other lighting.
(b) We should ensure that lighting products meet photobiological safety standards, says Lighting Designer and Educator Anil Valia.
(c) When this process is disrupted, our body’s clock goes off rhythm.
(d) Modern LED street lights which are cheaper to run and have lower emissions ‘damage people’s eyesight and dazzle motorists’.
(e) none of these
Solutions:
S1. Ans. (a)
Sol. The statement just before the blank says that the star could not be identified even with the best of the telescopes so it is obvious that the next sentence would be how come they found the star which has been explained in (a).
(b) cannot be the answer as it talks about newer discoveries through gravitational lensing but not anything about ‘gravitational lensing’ itself.
(d) cannot be the answer as the statement just before the blank says that the star could not be identified even with the best of the telescopes but (d) does not explain that if the best telescopes cannot identify the star then how come Hubble telescope identified it but (a) explains it.
S2. Ans. (d)
Sol. The paragraph talks about Mahatma Gandhi urging his mother and wife to allow him to go to London. Therefore, the blank must be filled with something related to that hence (d) fills the blank appropriately as he was asking permission to leave from his wife and mother and his wife allowed him in (d).
S3. Ans. (b)
Sol. Here choosing the correct answer between (b) and (c) can get very difficult. We have to first read the passage very carefully and here one can see that it is describing us what a banana is. It tells us that it is an edible fruit, its colour, size, shape, starch content, where the fruit grows in the plant, main species etc. therefore some sentence which gives a proper starter for an introduction would fit in the blank which is (b) as it gives the proper starter “what a banana is”.
(c) cannot be our answer as it does not represent a proper starter instead it describes few types of bananas.
S4. Ans. (c)
Sol. Upon reading the passage it can be concluded that it is comparing between 2 protein diets i.e. red meat and nuts and seeds and their benefits of risks to CVD therefore the blank should be filled with a sentence which compares the two diets (‘while’ is used for comparing). The sentence after blank talks about good effects of protein from nuts and seeds. Therefore, the sentence which talks bad effects of red meat will fit the blank appropriately.
S5. Ans. (c)
Sol. The sentence before blank says that blue light exposure disrupts our body’s ability to produce melatonin, a hormone that helps us fall asleep, (c) is just the continuity of that statement that this disruption affects our body’s clock which is the reason for affecting our sleep hence (c) will fill the blank appropriately.