Directions (1-5): In each of the following questions, five options are given and you have to choose the one which has some or any grammatical error in it. In the questions where the fifth option is “all are correct” and all the given four options are correct choose option (e) as your choice.
Q1. (a) Because of his innocence, he cannot distinguish a cheat for an honest person.
(b) Innocence and modesty are twin sisters, which cannot be separated.
(c) The bloated aspect of his face was gone, and even a greater beauty than the beauty of his youth and innocence was apparent.
(d) She turned away from her husband with a soft superiority of innocence and true feeling which struck him dumb.
(e) All are correct.
Q2. (a) I appreciate your sympathy, but what I need is action and information and answers.
(b) We have failed to appreciate that the Indian, in being driven from his lands, has retaliated from motives of patriotism.
(c) You can understand the necessity, and appreciate the importance of reform.
(d) I was a girl then, and I did not appreciate all the love that was lavished upon me.
(e) All are correct.
Q3. (a) He concluded to go to Florida, and visit the various resorts.
(b) You are about to visit our country to seek revenge for this crime.
(c) A large number of human beings visit zoos and makes it difficult to maintain them.
(d) There was a friend of mine who went to visit a famous asylum for the insane.
(e) The sins of the ancestors were visited on their descendants.
Q4. (a) The last letter that he opened was from the Director of the Service.
(b) His services to the masses in general and women in particular will always be remembered.
(c) Mrs. Lincoln attempted to attend the service but was chased away.
(d) You will have an English-speaking guide at your service.
(e) All are correct.
Q5. (a) The flooded river, shadowed by the mountains around, now looks dark and still under the cloud laden sky.
(b) Locals believe that supernatural spirits dwell in Mount Tiyi which is popular fro rhododendrons.
(c) The best interpretation of a beautiful home is a fragrant garden full of colourful flowers.
(d) Bringing a few plants indoors can increase productivity by lifting up the spirits.
(e) All are correct.
Directions (6-10): Five statements are given below, labeled 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.
Q6. (a) Bengali poetry, Urdu poetry, Punjabi and Sindhi poetry do not recognise Partition.
(b) In India, poetry was free before political freedom.
(c) It refuses to accept or offer generalised, simplified, totalised versions of life, reality, the world.
(d) Poetry is a form of dynamic resistance.
(e) Poets and poetry might today be the last ramparts of conscience.
Q7. (a) As long as there has been an IPL, there has been IPL-baiting.
(b) Then there are those who’ve undermined the world’s most popular T20 tournament by calling it kitsch entertainment.
(c) For all the cult following that the glitzy T20 league has won in India over the last decade, there’s also never been a dearth of IPL sceptics.
(d) T20 is a truly Indian format accidentally discovered by the English.
(e) While some have questioned the veracity and integrity of the matches, dismissing it as cricket’s WWE, others have scoffed at the big sums of money doled out to the undeserving.
Q8. (a) But a better approach would be to accept the dissenting opinion of Justice Ruma Pal in the TMA Pai case under which minority status should be determined in relation to the source and territorial application of the particular legislation against which protection is claimed.
(b) If it is a parliamentary law, minorities must be defined nationally.
(c) Thus, Hindus are certainly minority in J&K and no one should deny them this status.
(d) Since the linguistic basis of state creation is no longer valid after the creation of Telangana, the apex court may re-examine the issue in the context of religious minorities.
(e) One approach can be to define religious minorities nationally and linguistic minorities on the basis of the state.
Q9. (a) Middle class Indians complain loudly when Europeans and Americans do not give them the respect and honour they think they deserve.
(b) Indian patriots and anti-racists were a source of inspiration for freedom fighters in many other parts of Africa as well.
(c) Yet these same Indians act in a contemptible manner towards Africans, making racist remarks about their food, culture, and form of dress.
(d) Indian attitudes to racism and xenophobia are also marked by a notable hypocrisy.
(e) They feel insulted when their food, culture and form of dress insufficiently appreciated overseas.
Q10. (a) With the party on a high after it swept the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the ruling BJD is now worried.
(b) Pradhan’s success in the Ujjwala scheme has only bolstered his claim as a possible alternative to Naveen.
(c) The TINA factor that has so far worked for Naveen is now gone as BJP’s young Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan is increasingly being seen as a credible alternative.
(d) Though the BJD finished no 1, it’s the stupendous rise of the BJP that is the talking point in Odisha.
(e) For the BJP the path to power in 2019 is not as easy as it seems after the panchayat victories as it has still to have people at the grassroots level who match the formidable organisation of the BJD.
Directions (11-15): 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 way.
Q11. Successive governments have relied on two strategies to maintain the Aadhaar project’s benign façade. _________________. Whenever Aadhaar has been used in welfare programmes (pensions, MGNREGA, PDS, scholarships), it has led to exclusion, increased hardship and hassles and in some cases, even corruption (for example, through its cadre of middlemen). Yet, the list of programmes for which Aadhaar is compulsory gets longer by the day, as the government brazenly violates the Supreme Court’s orders. Somehow, the court does not seem to mind these violations.
(a) But perhaps their affordability and good performance are inconvenient evidence.
(b) First, ignore or deny unfavourable evidence.
(c) The Survey, however, ends up discussing skimpy and targeted cash transfers.
(d) Favourable evidence from international peer-reviewed journals on these programmes is largely ignored by the Survey.
(e) The belated announcement on maternity entitlements in the budget is reportedly being limited to just the first child.
Q12. It is plausible to conclude that in the age of Trumpisation of politics the only way to respond to the blows of fate is not to lose the appetite for dissent and critical thinking and not cease to ask embarrassing questions. As Jean-Paul Sartre says: “The intellectual is someone who meddles with what does not concern him.” That is why, to practice dissent in an age of Trump is to have dirty hands, because thinking must position in relation to politics. For thinking and questioning are neither public agreements nor business contracts.______________________
(a) It is only such public consciousness which shapes a republic of gadflies.
(b) The thing to do is to get rid of the system and thereby create a moral balance within society.
(c) They are constitutive for all public action and political organisation of the society.
(d) In such an unexamined political life, the dynamic of living together turns into an aimless and meaningless activity.
(e) The moral capital of a public gadfly is to grapple with the ethical problem of the use of violence in the face of the political evil.
Q13. We talk about the “rhythm of life” and sometimes lament that our age has lost it. It is that same rhythm of life that roots poetry in the world. Without the rhythm, there would be no poetry. In poetry, all too often, this rhythm of life also shapes the rhythm of language — a unique human invention. No language is possible without life; nor is life, at least human life, possible without language. Poetry is created in language and with life. Poetry has a multi-layered, complex but passionate relationship with the world:_______________________
(a) Poetry exceeds, supersedes, sometimes dares to violate limits of time and space, moral boundaries, enclosures created by convention.
(b) Rabindranath Tagore said that even a small candle illumines the world
(c) Against such a gruesome scenario, poetry continues, maintaining a “difficult grace”, to celebrate, adore, evoke, explore the world in its many temporal and timeless aspects.
(d) Poetry is born out of love and lure for the world.
(e) Against the tyranny of truth, poetry remains a partisan of democratic reality.
Q14. Loan waivers, at best, provide temporary relief and liquidity to farmers. ___________________________________. In this respect, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a good start, even though it has been riddled with implementation glitches. The government has not pressed modern technology into service — satellite imagery, GPS devices, drones — to assess farmers’ damages and settle insurance claims speedily. Instead, there is now a going back to the 20th century formula of loan waivers that could have a cascading effect and open a fiscal Pandora’s Box.
(a) Truth usually does not admit any contradictions or imperfections.
(b) A number of studies have pointed to the real problems that the loan waiver will not address
(c) But that liquidity is better provided through an efficient crop insurance system.
(d) Governments also give short shrift to the fact that loan waiver schemes are not good for the health of banks.
(e) But all this now stands to be subsumed by the focus on loan waiver that makes for short-term populism, as opposed to investments that help boost productivity and incomes in the long term.
Q15. Over a decade after it was first proposed, India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India, has managed to merge five of its associate banks, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore, besides the newly formed Bharatiya Mahila Bank. The banking behemoth will have a customer base of 37 crore, a branch network of close to 24,000 and 59,000 ATMs besides a deposit base of over Rs 26 lakh crore and a loan portfolio of Rs 18.5 lakh crore — one-fourth of the local market — reflecting the size and influence it can wield with its pan-India footprint.____________________
(a) Contrast that with China, which has at least three of its banks in the list of top 10 banks led by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of India.
(b) This is where the government’s resolve is likely to be tested as it sets about the process of consolidation in the Indian banking sector leading towards fewer but stronger banks rather than a proliferation of banks which are not competitive and efficient.
(c) The merger is expected to yield benefits in the form of improved operational synergies, higher productivity, mitigating of geographical risks and rationalisation of cost of operations.
(d) This is something that, in the past, has weighed down other banks which had gone in for mergers with other lenders.
(e) That is the scale of the challenge ahead.
Solutions
S1. Ans. (a)
Sol. Use ‘from’ in place of ‘for’ as the word ‘distinguish’ is used as – (i) distinguish somebody/something from somebody/something. (ii) distinguish between two things or persons.
e.g. Distinguish a teacher from an orator.
Distinguish a pen from a pencil.
S2. Ans. (e)
Sol. All the given sentences are grammatically correct.
S3. Ans. (c)
Sol. Replace ‘makes’ by ‘make’ as “A number of, A large number of, Large numbers of” are always followed by a Plural Noun and a Plural Verb. e.g. A large number of human beings visit zoos.
Similarly when they are followed by two verbs connected with a Conjunction, then both the verbs should be in Plural form. e.g. A large number of human beings come and sit here.
S4. Ans. (b)
Sol. Use ‘to the’ before ‘women’ as “His services” is connected to the masses and particularly to the women. Hence specifying the women in particular, it will take ‘to the’ before it as well.
e.g. His services to the masses and to the women… is the correct usage.
S5. Ans. (e)
Sol. All the given sentences are grammatically correct.
S6. Ans. (c)
Sol. Read the sentences, we can infer that sentences BAED form a coherent paragraph while sentence (c) is not a part of the paragraph. As we go through the sentences, we find that the paragraph is about Indian poetry which is free from any politics, while sentence (c) connects poetry with versions of life, the world,which is different from other sentences. Hence sentence (c) is the right choice.
S7.Ans. (d)
Sol. ACEB forms a coherent paragraph. The paragraph talks about the questioning of the authenticity and integrity of the IPL matches while sentence (d) is about the format of IPL. From here we can conclude that sentence (d) is not a part of the paragraph and hence is the right choice.
S8. Ans. (c)
Sol. DEAB form a coherent paragraph. The paragraph revolves around the theme of designation of minority which is well settled in a law. While sentence (c) is about Hindus who were minority in J&K, which fails to connect with the paragraph. Hence sentence (c) is not a part of the paragraph.
S9. Ans. (b)
Sol. After reading the sentences, we find that sentences DAEC form coherent paragraph while sentence (b) is not a part of the paragraph. The paragraph talks about racism in India, complaining of disrespect
Shown by Europeans and Americans, while sentence (b) talks about loyal and anti-racist Indians who were source of inspiration. Therefore sentence (b) fails to connect with the paragraph. Hence sentence (b) is the right choice.
S10. Ans. (e)
Sol. Reading the sentences, we can conclude that sentences DACB form a coherent paragraph that tells about rising popularity and winning of BJP which is the main concern for the Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik. Sentence (e) is not a part of the paragraph as it tells about the BJP’s chance of winning the elections in 2019, which does not match with the theme. Hence Sentence (e) is the right choice.
S11. Ans. (b)
Sol. After reading the paragraph, we conclude that paragraph is about government dependence on the strategy to maintain the Aadhaar project and its use in welfare programmes. It is also about violation of Supreme court’s orders by government for the programmes that makes Aadhaar compulsory. Sentence (b) completes the paragraph as it tells one of the strategies to maintain Aadhaar project. Hence sentence (b) fits into the paragraph while others are irrelevant to it.
S12. Ans. (c)
Sol. Reading the paragraph, it is about the practice of disagreement in an age of Trump’s politics. It’s about critical thinking and questioning against any decision. Sentence (c) goes in continuation with the paragraph that tells about public action and political organization of the society. All other statements are irrelevant to the paragraph. Hence sentence (c) is the correct choice.
S13. Ans. (d)
Sol. Read the above paragraph, it talks about that poetry and its relationship with the world. In a world of violence, tyranny and bigotry, Poetry is a form of dynamic resistance. Poetry is synonym to life and language. Now read the options, we find that sentence (d) goes with the theme of the paragraph and hence is the right choice. Other sentences are irrelevant in context of the paragraph.
S14. Ans. (c)
Sol. The paragraph talks about the Loan waiver schemes that do not address the fundamental causes of agrarian distress and the government that did not implement the modern technology into service. Going through the sentences, we find that only sentence (c) completes the paragraph saying liquidity is better provided through a crop insurance system. Hence sentence (c) is the correct choice in context of the paragraph.
S15. Ans. (c)
Sol. The Paragraph talks about the merging of five associate banks with SBI. Sentence (c) fits to the paragraph as it tells how merging benefits the bank. Hence sentence (c) is the correct choice. All other sentences are irrelevant in context of the paragraph.
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