Table of Contents
Directions (1-5): Five statements are given below, labelled a, b, c, d and e. Among these, four statements are in logical order and form a coherent paragraph. From the given options, choose the option that does not fit into the theme of the paragraph.
Q1. (a) One of the areas where we have fared poorly is in wages and participation of women in the economy where our rank is an abysmal 139.
(b) According to the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report 2017”, India’s ranking has fallen by 21 places from last year.
(c) However, research has shown that when women have access to more work opportunities, they gladly take them.
(d) Not only are we currently far below the global average but also behind our neighbours China and Bangladesh.
(e) This is not the first report to highlight the plight of our women.In fact, as per the World Bank report, we have one of the lowest workforce female participation rates, ranking 120th among 131.
Q2. (a) Their to-do list is virtually gospel by now: free up trade and investment, unshackle the exchange rate and ease capital controls.
(b) Such reforms are held not only to be worthy in themselves, but critical to solving China’s biggest problem: its debt, which has skyrocketed to well over 260% of GDP (gross domestic product) from 162% in 2008.
(c) China’s financial sector is dominated by speculative investing and capital flight.
(d) China needs reform.
(e) This has long been the consensus advice from economists and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, whose recent “China 2030” report argues that Chinese leaders should strengthen the role of markets and liberalize legal, financial and other institutions governing the economy.
Q3. (a) The former showed that India’s ranking improved by 30 places and the latter upgraded India’s sovereign credit rating.
(b) The short point is that there is a long way to go for business conditions to become genuinely easier in India.
(c) The World Bank’s ranking was based on surveys of business conditions in Delhi and Mumbai for a typical medium-sized firm.
(d) It is good in a way that the survey was done before Delhi’s air quality deteriorated.
(e) In recent weeks, the government of India has received external vindication from the World Bank’s “Doing Business” survey and from Moody’s Investors Service.
Q4. (a) Affordable drugs are indeed necessary.
(b) What happens when new drugs are not created to treat existing diseases more effectively due to increasing resistance to antibiotics?
(c) But what happens when there are no drugs to treat the new diseases that continue to confound pathologists?
(d) A debate on drug policy is vital in light of growing concerns about access to medicines and apprehensions about the financial sustainability of healthcare systems around the world.
(e) India’s health sector, until last year, was allocated only a little over 1% of our nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the world average of 6%.
Q5. (a) Recognizing the problem is the first step towards corrective action and there is progress in this area.
(b) Given the massive expansion we expect in the urban population over the next 20 years, and the need to attract investment to create quality jobs, we need to make our cities liveable and attractive to tourists.
(c) Eleven of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India.
(d) The problem is especially urgent because Delhi is not the only polluted city in the country.
(e) Air pollution in Delhi has dominated the headlines over the past few weeks and rightly so.
Directions (6-15): In the passage given below there are blanks which are to be filled with the options given below. Find out the appropriate pair of words in each case which can most suitably complete the sentence without altering the meaning of the statement. Both the pairs must fill the blank.
Americans and much of the west in particular are ____________(6) uncomfortable with the idea of real production. The latest __________(7) coming into political and social influence, the millenials, is a perfect example. _________(8) show American millenials more than any other generation lack basic workplace ______________(9) and skills, including ______(10) low on arithmetic and reading comprehension. Often portrayed as “tech savvy” in popular culture and the media, millenials are quite _________(11) when it comes to core skills that fuel strong business and _________(12), which is part of the reason why the U.S. is falling into the shadow of foreign ________(13).
Millenials in the West also exhibit ___________(14) technical skills in international testing and lag far behind foreign_________(15). This has come as a surprise to many mainstream economists and social analysts, primarily because millenials are also considered the “most educated” generation ever.
Q6.
(a) increasingly / highly
(b) surprisingly / gradually
(c) raising / deliberately
(d) popularly / very
(e) decreasingly / shockingly
Q7.
(a) youth / members
(b) peers / contestants
(c) friends / families
(d) generation / breed
(e) foes / characters
Q8.
(a) Figures / census
(b) sample / Statistic
(c) Surveys / Researches
(d) Study / overview
(e) Data / inspection
Q9.
(a) competencies / capabilities
(b) ability / aptitude
(c) skillset / talents
(d) intelligence / actions
(e) potentials / challenges
Q10.
(a) gaining / cutting
(b) procuring / tallying
(c) arriving / acquiring
(d) enumerating / counting
(e) scoring / securing
Q11.
(a) inept / maladroit
(b) bungling / interesting
(c) insipid/ rich
(d) insensitive / arduous
(e) munificent / voluble
Q12.
(a) merchandise / saving
(b) trade / commerce
(c) marketing / shopping
(d) expense / haggle
(e) deals / retails
Q13.
(a) department / resources
(b) labours / farmers
(c) crew / classes
(d) workforces / manpower
(e) institution / organisation
Q14.
(a) abysmal / absurd
(b) shameful / perfect
(c) thorough / expertise
(d) quintessential / arrant
(e) partial / superficial
Q15.
(a) peers / companions
(b) associates / labours
(c) mates / protagonists
(d) comrades / critics
(e) partners / opponents
Practice More Questions of English for Competitive Exams:
Solutions
S1. Ans. (c)
Sol. Sentences bdae form a coherent paragraph talking about the analysis of report by World economic forum in which India lags behind many neighbouring countries like China and Bangladesh in poor wages and participation of women in economy. Sentence (c) that talks about work opportunities for women and therefore fails to connect with the other sentences. Hence option (c) is the right choice.
S2. Ans. (c)
Sol. Sentences deab discuss about the need of reforms, that are previously advised by economists, to strengthen the role of markets in China and to solve the China’s debt problem. Sentence (c) discusses about China’s financial sector which is influenced or controlled by speculative investing and capital flight making it unrelated to other sentences. Hence sentence (c) is the correct choice.
S3. Ans. (b)
Sol. Here the discussion is on the surveys of World Bank and Moody’s Investors Service on ‘Doing Business’ in which one showed the improvement of India and the other upgraded the credit rating of India, making sentences eacd interconnected while sentence (b) talks about making business conditions easier in India which fails to connect with other sentences. Hence option (b) is the correct choice.
S4. Ans. (e)
Sol. Sentences dacb form a coherent paragraph as it revolves around the theme of the need of affordable drugs while sentence (e) gives statistics of the allotment of India’s GDP to its health sector and hence is not related to the other sentences. Hence option (e) is the correct choice.
S5. Ans. (a)
Sol. Sentences edcb focus on the need to improve the air quality in the urban states besides the need to attract investment for creating quality jobs whereas sentence (a) talks about the corrective action, which fails to connect with the other sentences. Hence option (a) is the correct choice.
S6. Ans (a)
Sol. Option (a) is the correct choice. The latter part of the passage is clearly mentioning about the lack of skills for real production among the new generation.
S7. Ans. (d)
Sol. Option (d) is the correct choice.
S8. Ans. (c)
Sol. Option (c) is the correct choice as both the words fits aptly in the given blank.
S9. Ans. (a)
Sol. Option (a) is the correct choice.
‘Competencies’ means possession of required skill, knowledge, qualification, or capacity.
S10. Ans. (e)
Sol. Option (e) is the correct choice.
‘Enumerating’ means mentioning (a number of things) one by one.
‘Tallying’ means to calculate the total number of.
S11. Ans. (a)
Sol. Option (a) is the correct choice.
‘inept’ means without skill or aptitude for a particular task or assignment.
‘maladroit’ means unskillful.
S12. Ans. (b)
Sol. Option (b) is the correct choice.
‘merchandise’ means goods to be bought and sold.
‘Haggle’ means dispute or bargain persistently, especially over the cost of something.
S13. Ans. (d)
Sol. Option (d) is the right choice as based on the given theme of the passage both the words fit right in the blank.
S14. Ans. (a)
Sol. Option (a) is the correct choice.
‘Abysmal’ means extremely bad; appalling.
S15. Ans. (a)
Sol. Option (a) is the correct choice.
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