English Language Quiz for IBPS 2020 Mains Exams- 29th December

Table of Contents

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. The menacing spread, starting last Friday, of the malicious software WannaCry, which has since infected thousands of computer systems in 150 countries, is a frightening reminder of the vulnerabilities of a connected world. The cyber-attackers who unleashed it, as yet unknown, have essentially used chinks in Microsoft’s outdated software to remotely gain access to computers of unsuspecting users so as to lock them out of their files. These attacks have been in the nature of what are called ‘ransomware,’ wherein attackers demand a ransom to decrypt the files they have force-encrypted. (__________________________)

(a)While the state of preparedness is a cause for worry, the likely origin of WannaCry forces stakeholders to revisit a long-standing and uneasy question regarding the actions of governments.
(b)Cyberthreats are only likely to grow, and the world needs to push for global rules on such issues.
(c)Cyber risk modelling firm Cyence estimates the economic damage to be $4 billion, a figure that may not seem daunting for a global-scale disruption such as this one.
(d)It is more than obvious now that cyber vulnerabilities have massive global implications.
(e)The U.S. assesses the balance between cybersecurity and national interest through what is called the Vulnerabilities Equities Process.

Q2. Prime Minister NarendraModi’s long-drawn-out effort to tackle the desire for gold does not seem to be bearing fruit. India’s gold imports witnessed a huge jump in April, increasing threefold to $3.85 billion from $1.23 billion in April 2016. In March, the jump driven by jewellery demand was even higher as gold imports stood at $4.17 billion, compared to $974 million a year earlier. This suggests that Indian demand for gold is robust and that policymakers will have to continue worrying about its impact on the country’s trade deficit for a long time to come. (_________________________)

(a)It is no secret that Indians tend to favour gold over other income-generating financial assets.
(b) The trade deficit in April was $13.2 billion, the highest since November 2014, compared to $4.8 billion in the year-earlier period.
(c)Access to better and more formal financial market instruments remains a pipe dream for the majority in a country where talk of financial inclusion remains at the level of opening a basic bank account.
(d)While such concerns may be valid, policymakers would do well by first tackling the issues that have explained the average Indian’s preference for gold.
(e)Capital conservation is an important reason for investment in gold by Indian households.

Q3. IT engineers who have lost jobs are not exactly the wretched of the earth. They can find new jobs or, better still, create new ones. India’s ongoing mobile broadband revolution will create new opportunities aplenty: in financial services, healthcare, eduction and entertainment. (_______________). But that is the new normal of globalised growth. If IT veterans cannot be counted upon to adapt, who can?

(a)Should the government intervene to protect laid-off employees?
(b)Digital transformation, enabled by cloud computing, data analytics and the Internet of Things, offer huge opportunities for the industry.
(c)Bloomberg Intelligence analysts see digital products as the growth drivers of the IT services industry.
(d)Of course, they might need to learn new skills and unlearn old ones, to grab those opportunities.
(e)Such concerns are not misplaced, and must drive the industry to move swiftly to shift to high productivity labour in new areas.

Q4. It is not possible to completely separate politics and science on matters such as food. The point is to decide on the basis of evidence, and through processes that are transparent and have integrity. (____________). At the same time, the government needs to put in place robust science-based institutions that will determine and certify the efficacy and safety of taking these innovations beyond the laboratory. There are concerns about the regulatory process and oversight.

(a)The expert group recommended putting on hold all field trials and commercialisation till the regulatory mechanism was put in place.
(b)The question regarding genetically modified food should not be about ideology or politics but about science and evidence.
(c)Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave will take the final call, making the decision inherently political.
(d)India must promote, not suppress, genetic research and its commercial deployment.
(e)Sound regulation alone can ensure this.

Q5. Microsoft had released a patch on March 14, so the attack was restricted to machines running pirated systems and outdated versions of Windows, which are no longer updated. Microsoft is mighty upset because the chaos was unavoidable. Computer security has depended on vulnerabilities being publicised as soon as they are found, so that software companies can patch their products immediately. In this case, the tool used for the hack, EternalBlue, was innovated by the US National Security Agency as a cyberweapon. It remained under wraps until the Shadow Brokers stole it. (_________________)

(a) This is because Indians are price sensitive and the cost of software contributes significantly to overheads.
(b)The success which the WannaCry worm enjoyed in India exposes our continued use of superannuated and pirated Windows operating systems.
(c)A hacker’s tutorial to gain a command prompt on a target machine was released four days later.
(d)Of all the world’s nations, India has been worst affected by the WannaCryransomware exploit, which uses a weakness in the Windows SMB, which shares files, services and devices like printers over a network.
(e)This is bound to recur since the objectives of the computer security community and national security agencies diverge.

Directions (6-9): There are three sentences given in each question. Find the sentence(s) which is/are grammatically correct and mark your answer choosing the best possible alternative among the five options given below each question. If all the sentences are correct, choose (e) as your answer.

Q6. (i) A hugely destructive bomb known as the mother of all bombs (MOAB) was dropped in Afghanistan on 13 April.
(2) It was described as the first combat use of the biggest nonnuclear explosive.

(i)Describing a hugely…
(ii)When a hugely destructive…
(iii)As the bomb was described…

(a)Only (i) is correct
(b)Only (ii) is correct
(c)Both (i) and (ii) are correct
(d)Both (ii) and (iii) are correct
(e)All are correct

Q7. (1) There has been a large increase in cases of leukemia and childhood cancers in several parts of Iraq in particular.
(2) It is due to the longer-term impacts of depleted uranium weapons on innocent civilian populations.

(i)Owing to the longer-term…
(ii)In the wake of the longer-term…
(iii)Following the longer-term…

(a)Only (i) is correct
(b)Only (iii) is correct
(c)Both (i) and (iii) are correct
(d)Both (ii) and (iii) are correct
(e)All are correct

Q8. (1) All those who value human life and other forms of life have been getting nervous and restless whenever the threat of nuclear weapons appears as happened recently when the Korean crisis accentuated.
(2) It is due to all the possible dangers of nuclear or depleted uranium weapons.

(i)Owing to all the possible…
(ii)As all those who value…
(iii)Given all the possible…

(a)Only (i) is correct
(b)Only (ii) is correct
(c)Only (iii) is correct
(d)Both (i) and (iii) are correct
(e)All are correct

Q9. (1) Tighter immigration and visa requirements in the United States and the United Kingdom are set to come into force.
(2) Netherlands certainly has great potential in challenging these two countries as the preferred higher educational destination for Indian students.

(i)Considering that tighter…
(ii)As tighter immigration…
(iii)In view of the fact that tighter…

(a)Only (i) is correct
(b)Only (ii) is correct
(c)Both (i) and (ii) are correct
(d)Both (ii) and (iii) are correct
(e)All are correct

Directions (10-12): Five statements are given below among these, four statements are in logical order and form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, choose the option that does not fit into the theme of the passage/paragraph.

Q10. (a) India has a Computer Emergency Response Team — in theory.
(b)The attack serves to highlight a grossly neglected dimension of Digital India: security.
(c)If America’s National Security Agency could be hacked, presumably, India’s Registrar of Companies and the demat account database are vulnerable, too.
(d)If WannaCry, the ransomware that struck countries around the world and got defeated by a serendipitous discovery of a kill-switch in the malware, sends a chill down your spine, the response to that attack makes you want to cry.
(e)In practice, it is yet to make a public response to the attack. But this is only a quibble.

Q11. (a)A new elite was being created, without any discrimination, as it were.
(b)Around the admission range there is a struggle.
(c) It is ironic, but perfectly understandable, that senior intelligence officers monitoring the present JNU story were JNU-trained.
(d)In JNU, in the beginning, the preference to children from backward regions and poor families was absolute.
(e)You can make out a JNU-trained SP, collector or joint secretary a mile off.

Q12. (a) Gender segmentation is larger for small plants. Segmentation is larger for an average male employee vis-à-vis an average female employee across all size bands.
(b)Women entrepreneurs in India are mostly concentrated in low-paying industries.
(c)Among services, it is the education, sewage, refuse disposal, sanitation and financial intermediation services that attract the largest share of female proprietors.
(d)In the manufacturing sector, tobacco products, apparel and textiles attract the largest count and share of women entrepreneurs, perhaps because these industries are known to have lower physical labour requirements.
(e) This gender concentration in low-wage industries has increased over time.

Directions (13-15): In each question, there are four or five sentences, Each sentence has pairs of words/phrases that are highlighted. From the highlighted word(s) phrase(s), select the most appropriate word(s)/phrase(s) to form correct sentences. Then, from the options given, choose the best one.

Q13. The further [A]/ farther [B] he pushed himself, the more disillusioned he grew.

For the crowds it was more of a historical [A]/ historic [B] event; for their leader, it was just another day.

The old man has a healthy distrust [A]/ mistrust [B] for all new technology.

This film is based on a real [A]/ true [B] story.

One suspects that the compliment [A]/ complement[B] was backhanded.

(a) BABAB

(b) ABBBA

(d) BBAAB

(e) ABABA

Q14. Regrettably [A]/ Regretfully [B] I have to decline your invitation.

I am drawn to the poetic, sensual [A] / sensuous [B] quality of her paintings.

He was besides [A] / beside [B] himself with rage when I told him what I had done.

After brushing against a stationary [A] / stationery [B] truck my car turned turtle.

As the water began to rise over [A] / above [B] the danger mark, the signs of an imminent flood were clear.

(a) BAABA

(b) AAABA

(d) BBAAB

(e) BABAB

Q15. The police are working in allusion (A)/ collusion (B) with drug traffickers.

An international convention on ‘Spreading Peace across the Globe’ will be held in Tibet under the auspices (A)/ auspicious (B) of the Dalai Lama.

I have avid (A)/ vivid (B) memories of my childhood and I wish to pen them down.

You proceed (A)/ precede (B) on your way, I will join you later.

The street urchin had frequent delusions (A)/ allusions (B) of a grand and luxurious life.

(a) ABAAA
(b) BBAAA
(c) BBABA
(d) BABBA
(e) BABBB

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Solutions

S1. Ans. (c)
Sol. The paragraph here talks about the issue of malicious software gaining access to the computers of unsuspecting users. Going through the sentences, we find that sentence (c) goes in harmony with the paragraph as it talks about the damage due to this threat whereas other sentences talks about the US assessing the balance, the global implications of cyber vulnerabilities, state preparedness which are irrelevant to the paragraph. Hence sentence (c) is the right option.

S2. Ans. (b)
Sol. The paragraph is about India’s witnessing a jump in gold imports and jewellery demands. The last sentence is talking about the country’s trade deficit. Hence the paragraph must be completed by the sentence related to it. Going through the sentences, we find thatsentence (b) is talking about the estimation of trade deficit while other sentences are about Indians favouring gold, financial market, capital conservation. Hence sentence (b) fits to the paragraph and is the right option.

S3. Ans. (d)
Sol. The paragraph is about opportunities for IT engineers who have lost jobs. They can find new jobs or can create new jobs. Only sentence (d) fit to the paragraph as it says that IT engineers should learn new skills to grab the opportunities therefore fits perfectly in the theme of the paragraph. Hence sentence (d) is the right option.

S4. Ans. (d)
Sol. The paragraph talks about what needs to be done by the government as well as from research in India’s Biotech industry. The sentences before blank are about that how science and politics are related on the matters such as food. The sentences after blank tells about that what government should do to determine the efficiency on these matters and sentence (d) seems to continue this trend, hence sentence (d) fits to the paragraph most appropriately as it talks about that what India should do on these matters. Other sentences are irrelevant to the paragraph. Hence sentence (d) is the right option.

S5. Ans. (e)
Sol. The paragraph talks about the efforts by software companies to avoid the threat of computer security and the tool innovated by national security agency. Sentence (e) completes the paragraph as it talks about the objectives of both the agencies i.e. the computer security community and national security, which are mentioned above in the paragraph, hence sentence (e) is the right option.

S6. Ans. (b)
Sol. (ii) When a hugely destructive bomb known as the mother of all bombs (MOAB) was dropped in Afghanistan on 13 April, it was described as the first combat use of the biggest nonnuclear explosive.

S7. Ans. (e)
Sol. (i) Owing to the longer-term impacts of depleted uranium weapons on innocent civilian populations, there has been a large increase in cases of leukemia and childhood cancers in several parts of Iraq in particular.
(ii) In the wake of the longer-term impacts of depleted uranium weapons on innocent civilian populations, there has been a large increase in cases of leukemia and childhood cancers in several parts of Iraq in particular.
(iii) Following the longer-term impacts of depleted uranium weapons on innocent civilian populations, there has been a large increase in cases of leukemia and childhood cancers in several parts of Iraq in particular.

S8. Ans. (d)
Sol. (i) Owing to all the possible dangers of nuclear or depleted uranium weapons, all those who value human life and other forms of life have been getting nervous and restless whenever the threat of such weapons appears as happened recently when the Korean crisis accentuated.
(iii) Given all the possible dangers of nuclear or depleted uranium weapons, all those who value human life and other forms of life have been getting nervous and restless whenever the threat of such weapons appears as happened recently when the Korean crisis accentuated.

S9. Ans. (e)
Sol. (i) Considering that tighter immigration and visa requirements in the United States and the United Kingdom are set to come into force, Netherlands certainly has great potential in challenging these two countries as the preferred higher educational destination for Indian students.
(ii) As tighter immigration and visa requirements in the United States and the United Kingdom are set to come into force, Netherlands certainly has great potential in challenging these two countries as the preferred higher educational destination for Indian students.
(iii) In view of the fact that tighter immigration and visa requirements in the United States and the United Kingdom are set to come into force, Netherlands certainly has great potential in challenging these two countries as the preferred higher educational destination for Indian students.

S10. Ans. (c)
Sol. Sentences DAEB forms a coherent paragraph while sentence (c) is not a part of the paragraph. The paragraph is about India to make a response against WannaCry, the ransomeware. Here we find that sentence (c) only talks about the America’s National Security Agency while other sentences are about India’s security Agency. Hence sentence (c) is not a part of the paragraph and is the right option.

S11. Ans. (b)
Sol. Sentences with logical order DAEC form a coherent paragraph while sentence (b) is not a part of the paragraph. The paragraph is about the preference in JNU in the beginning but it is out of context if we are considering the theme of the paragraph.

S12.Ans.(a)
Sol. After going through the sentences, we find that the sentences BEDC form a coherent paragraph while sentence (a) is not a part of the paragraph. As we see here that the paragraph is about the women entrepreneurs who are concentrated mostly in low paying industries and it has increased over time whereas the sentence (a) is talking about gender segmentation. Hence sentence (a) is the right option.

S13. Ans.(e)

S14. Ans.(c)

S15. Ans.(d)
Sol. Collusion-secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy in order to deceive others.
Auspices-a divine or prophetic token.
Precede-go in front or ahead of.
Delusions-an idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.

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