English Language Quiz for IBPS 2021 Mains Exams- 4th January

Directions (1-8): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

US President Donald Trump made abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal a key part of his election campaign and on his first day in office, he has proved as good as his word. Twelve countries that border the Pacific Ocean signed up to the TPP in February 2016, representing roughly 40% of the world’s economic output. The pact aimed to deepen economic ties between these nations, slashing tariffs and fostering trade to boost growth. Members had also hoped to foster a closer relationship on economic policies and regulation. The agreement was designed so that it could eventually create a new single market, something like that of the EU. But all 12 nations needed to ratify it, before it could come into effect. Member states include: Japan – the only country to have already ratified the pact – Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru.

 The 12 countries involved have a collective population of about 800 million – almost double that of the European Union’s single market. The 12-nation would-be bloc is already responsible for 40% of world trade. The deal was seen as a remarkable achievement given the very different approaches and standards within the member countries, including environmental safeguard, workers’ rights and regulatory consistency – not to mention the special protections that some countries have for certain industries. The US pulling out will be seen as big blow for other nations that signed up. Most goods and services traded between the countries are named in the TPP, but not all tariffs – which are taxes on imports – were going to be removed and some would take longer than others. In all, some 18,000 tariffs were included. For example, the signatories said they would either eliminate or reduce tariffs and other restrictive policies from agricultural products and industrial goods. Under the agreement, tariffs on US manufactured goods and almost all US farm products would have gone almost immediately. But some “sensitive” products would have been exempt until a later agreed date.

To take effect, the deal would have had to be ratified by February 2018 by at least six countries that account for 85% of the group’s economic output. The US would need to be on board to meet that last condition. Some countries, including New Zealand, have suggested some sort of alternative deal may be possible without the US. But Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said a TPP without the US – and its market of 250 million consumers – would be “meaningless”. Those in favour say this trade deal will unleash new economic growth among countries involved. It is being said that the TPP has high potential to promote economic growth and improve people’s living standards by facilitating the free cross-border movement of key factors of economic activity, such as goods, people, money, and information. Failure to bring the TPP into force would be a great loss to not only the TPP countries such as Japan and the US but also the global economy they argue. According to Trump such deals will affect American workers in a negative way and undermine US companies. His stance on trade is protectionist: he has vowed to shield Americans from the effects of globalized trade by imposing hefty tariffs on cheap Chinese imports of up to 45%. Trump says, “The TPP creates a new international commission that makes decisions the American people can’t veto, making it easier for our trading competitors to ship cheap subsidized goods into US markets – while other countries restricts their exports.”

 TPP, unlike regular bilateral FTAs, has “open architecture,” which means Washington would have been able to entice new members over time and generate a race to the top in terms of trade pacts regionally and even globally. Strategically, TPP’s failure will reinforce doubts about American credibility in the region amid a rising China, as several Asian leaders including Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong have warned. It will also undermine Washington’s efforts to strengthen the capabilities of its Asian allies and partners, who desire both diversification in their foreign relations as well as reforms domestically that TPP would have induced. It will also make U.S. Asia policy seem unbalanced, since TPP was the major plank in the economic realm of the Obama administration’s so-called rebalance, even though there were less significant initiatives as well that did not get as much attention.

Walking out from TPP threatens the US strategy of rebalancing Asia, which amounted to India-Japan-US security cooperation. This will force India — where US anchored its Asia-Pacific policy — to rethink its Look East Initiative. India was not part of the TPP, but it has been an important instrument of realpolitik for Washington and New Delhi as they sought to counter the rise of an assertive China without hurting their economic equations with the country. In the rebalancing of its resources in Asia-Pacific, the US saw India’s role as the “lynchpin” of the strategy. The US’ “Pivot to Asia” and India’s “Act East” policies conflate. Washington sees India as having a greater role in providing security and stability in the region. The two strategies have been shaping the security order in the region as India was reinvigorating its ties with Asian powers like Japan and Australia that has rattled China greatly. Now, India should not be complacent because of the current uncertainty surrounding TPP. We must fully understand the implications of the various TPP disciplines and how we should strategize ourselves in response to the very many ways they can impact us.

Q1. Why according to the author Donald Trump is against the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
(i) He thinks that this deal will have adverse impact on American workers and undercut U.S. companies.
(ii) He wants to protect Americans from effects of globalized trade by slapping huge tariffs on cheap Chinese imports.
(iii) According to him, it will allow foreign countries to continue putting barriers in front of their exports.

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

Q2. What could be the outcome of the move in which Trump decides to waive TPP?
(a) It would affect the global economy of not only the TPP countries but also the countries like India.
(b) It will make U.S. Asia policy unbalanced.
(c) It will hinder the trade among the countries that boost growth.
(d) There will be imposition of tariffs against all goods and services.
(e) Both (a) and (c) are correct.

Q3. According to the passage, what is/are the advantage(s) of TPP?
(i) Regulation coherence is major a procurement.
(ii) Creating a new single market and fostering economic ties.
(iii) Environment protection and worker’s right.

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

Q4. What does author mean by “TPP has open architecture”?

(i) That it would help Washington in attracting new members.
(ii) That the member countries could deepen ties and slash tariffs.
(iii) Increase in trade agreements both regionally and globally.

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

Q5. Which of the following is not true in context of the passage?

(a) India was not the part of TPP, but it has been an important instrument of realpolitik for Washington.
(b) Failure to bring the TPP into force would be a great gain to the TPP countries.
(c) The agreement was designed so that it could eventually create a new single market, something like that of the EU.
(d) TPP will undermine Washington’s efforts to strengthen the capabilities of its Asian allies and partners.
(e) India should not be complacent because of the current uncertainty surrounding TPP.

Directions (6–7): Choose the word/group of words which is most similar in meaning to the work/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.

Q6. Unleash

(a) Emancipate
(b) Redeem
(c) Wreak
(d) Inflict
(e) Recover

Q7. Entice
(a) Tantalize
(b) Beguile
(c) Summon
(d) Dissuade
(e) Benign

Directions (8): Choose the word/group of words which is most opposite in meaning to the work/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.

Q8. Complacent

(a) Congenial
(b) Docile
(c) Brazen
(d) Hasty
(e) Querulous

Directions (9-15): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Alexander Pope was born an only child to Alexander and Edith Pope in the spring of 1688. The elder Pope, a linen-draper and recent convert to Catholicism, soon moved his family from London to Binfield, Berkshire in the face of repressive, anti-Catholic legislation from Parliament. Described by his biographer, John Spence, as “a child of a particularly sweet temper,” and with a voice so melodious as to be nicknamed the “Little Nightingale,” the child Pope bears little resemblance to the irascible and outspoken moralist of the later poems. Though barred from attending public school or university because of his religion, Pope was eager to achieve and hence, largely self-educated. He taught himself French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and read widely, discovering Homer at the precocious age of six.
At twelve, Pope composed his earliest extant work, Ode to Solitude; the same year saw the onset of the debilitating bone deformity that plagued Pope until the end of his life. Originally attributed to the severity of his studies, the illness is now commonly accepted as Pott’s disease, a form of tuberculosis affecting the spine that stunted his growth—Pope’s height never exceeded four and a half feet—and rendered him hunchbacked, asthmatic, frail, and prone to violent headaches. His physical appearance made him an easy target for his many literary enemies in later years, who referred to the poet as a “hump-backed toad.” Pope’s Pastorals, which he claimed to have written at sixteen, were published in Jacob Tonson’s Poetical Miscellanies of 1710 and brought him swift recognition. An Essay on Criticism, published anonymously the year after, established the heroic couplet as Pope’s principal measure. It included the famous line “a little learning is a dangerous thing.” The poem was said to be a response to an on-going debate on the question of whether poetry should be natural, or written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the classical past. It attracted the attention of Jonathan Swift and John Gay, who became Pope’s lifelong friends and collaborators. Together they formed the Scriblerus Club, a congregation of writers endeavouring to satirize ignorance and poor taste through the invented figure of MartinusScriblerus, who served as a precursor to the dunces in Pope’s late masterpiece, the Dunciad.
1712 saw the first appearance of the The Rape of the Lock, Pope’s best-known work and the one that secured his fame. Its mundane subject—the true account of a squabble between two prominent Catholic families over the theft of a lock of hair—is transformed by Pope into a mock-heroic send-up of classical epic poetry. It originated from a quarrel between two families with whom Pope was acquainted. The cause was not very small − the 7th Lord Petre cut off a lock of Miss ArabellaFermor’s hair, and kept it as a trophy. Although Pope did not admit it, the title of the work was most likely influenced by Alessandro Tassoni’s mock-epic The Rape of the Bucket, from 1622.
Turning from satire to scholarship, Pope in 1713 began work on his six-volume translation of Homer’s Iliad. He arranged for the work to be available by subscription, with a single volume being released each year for six years, a model that garnered Pope enough money to be able to live off his work alone, one of the few English poets in history to have been able to do so.
In 1719, following the death of his father, Pope moved to an estate at Twickenham, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Here he constructed his famous grotto. The celebrated grotto was, in fact, an imaginative method of linking the riverside gardens with the gardens which lay on the other side of the road leading from Twickenham to Teddington. Encouraged by the success of the Iliad, Pope went on to translate the Odyssey— which he brought out under the same subscription model as the Iliad—and to compile a heavily-criticized edition of Shakespeare, in which Pope “corrected” the Bard’s meter and made several alterations to the text, while leaving corruptions in earlier editions intact.
In addition to his translation of the “Odyssey,” which he completed with Broome and Fenton in 1726, Pope published “Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady” and the “Epistle of Eloïsa to Abelard” in 1717. Also, in 1725, he published an annotated edition of William Shakespeare.Other works include: “Essay on Man” (1715),”Epistles” (1732- 34), four “Moral Essays,” and other epistles, all of which explore the philosophy and metaphysics. Pope’s uprightness had everything to do with his artistic merit. He wrote satire in the service of virtue – not simply self-defence.

Q9. As per passage, which of the following can be said true about Pott’s disease?
(a) The 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope died as a result of Pott’s disease.
(b) It is tuberculosis of spine and causes abnormal backward curvature of the same resulting in a hunchback.
(c) It is an abnormal backward curvature of the spine and causes weight loss resulting in a hunchback.
(d) Individuals suffering from Pott’s disease typically experience back pain, night sweats, fever, weight loss, and anorexia.
(e) None of these.

Q10. As per passage, which of the following lists all the works by Alexander Pope?
(a) Ode to Solitude, Pope’s Pastorals, An Essay on Criticism, Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, translation of Iliad, translation of Odyssey, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Epistle of Eloïsa to Abelard, Essay on Man, Epistles, and Moral Essays.
(b) Ode to Solitude, Poetical Miscellanies, An Essay on Criticism, Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, translation of Homers Iliad and the Odyssey, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Epistle of Eloïsa to Abelard, Essay on Man, Epistles, and Moral Essays.
(c) Ode to Solitude, Pope’s Pastorals, An Essay on Criticism, Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, The Rape of the Bucket, translation of Iliad, translation of Odyssey, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Epistle of Eloïsa to Abelard, Essay on Man, Epistles, and Moral Essays.
(d) Ode to Solitude, Pope’s Pastorals, An Essay on Criticism, Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, The Rape of the Bucket, translation of Iliad, translation of Odyssey, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Essay on Man, Epistles, and Moral Essays.
(e) None of these.

Q11. Which of the following can be assumed as a valid reason for Pope to write the poem – “The Rape of the Lock”?
(a) He wished to patch up a bitter public feud which had broken out between two well-known families.
(b) He wished to present a true account of a squabble between two prominent Catholic families over the theft of a lock of hair.
(c) He wished to present a neat paradox: to persuade us that he’s an independent thinker and a man of moral integrity.
(d) None of the above
(e) Cannot be determined from the passage.

Q12. According to the passage, “An Essay on Criticism” was:
(a) An attempt to identify and refine Pope’s own positions as a poet and critic.
(b) An essay which established the heroic couplet as Pope’s principal measure.
(c) An essay which included the famous line “a little learning is a dangerous thing.”
(d) A poem written in a type of rhyming verse called heroic couplets.
(e) None of the above

Q13. The word ‘grotto’ in the passage means:
(a) A secret place
(b) Recess of the mind
(c) An artificial cave, esp. as in landscaped gardens during the 18th century.
(d) A fanciful building.
(e) None of these.

Q14. In the passage, which of the following is not a mentioned fact about Pope?
(a) Pope grew up as a Catholic at a time when many Catholics were barred from attending public school or university.
(b) Although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he wrote witty letters.
(c) From the age of twelve, he suffered numerous health problems, such as Pott’s disease which deformed his body and stunted his growth, leaving him with a severe hunchback.
(d)A precocious child, Pope began to study French, Italian, Latin, and Greek at the age of six.
(e) None of these.

Q15. Pope’s late masterpiece is:
(a)Essay on Man
(b)The Dunciad
(c)Translation of Homer’s Iliad
(d)The Rape of The Lock
(e) None of these.

Practice More Questions of English for Competitive Exams:

Solutions

S1. Ans. (e)
Sol. Refer to the last few lines of third paragraph, “According to Trump ……….. their exports”.
Hence all (i), (ii) and (iii) are correct options in the context of the passage.

S2. Ans. (b)
Sol. Refer to the last lines of fourth paragraph, “It will also make…..much attention”. Hence option (b) is true.

S3. Ans. (c)
Sol. Refer to the third sentence of second paragraph, “The deal was seen ………… certain industries”.
Hence sentences (i) and (iii) are true in the context of the passage.

S4. Ans. (c)
Sol. Refer to first few lines of the fourth paragraph, “TPP unlike regular……………………. even Globally”.
Hence sentences (i) and (iii) are true in the context of the passage.

S5. Ans. (b)
Sol. Refer to third last sentence of the third paragraph, “Failure to ………..TPP countries”. Hence Sentence (b) is not true in context of the passage.

S6. Ans. (a)
Sol. ‘Unleash’ means cause to be released or become restrained. Hence emancipate which means set free, especially from legal, social, or political restrictions is the correct choice for the given question.

S7. Ans. (b)
Sol. ‘Entice’ means attract. ‘Dissuade’ means discourage. Hence ‘Beguile’ which means to charm or enchant (someone), often in a deceptive way is the word most similar in meaning.
‘Benign’ means gentle and kind. ‘Tantalize’ means torture or tease.

S8. Ans. (e)
Sol. ‘Complacent’ means self -satisfied. Hence ‘querulous’ has meaning opposite to ‘complacent’. ‘Brazen’ means bold and without shame. ‘Docile’ means ready to accept control or submissive.

S9. Ans.(b)
Sol. Option (b) is correct and derivable from the second paragraph of the passage.
Option (a) cannot be chosen as an answer as the passage does not inform us about how Alexander died.
Option (c) is incorrect in saying that Pott’s disease causes weight loss.
Options (d) may be true but cannot be supported by the information given in the passage.

S10. Ans.(a)
Sol. Only option (a) is correct as it lists all the work of the Alexander Pope

S11.Ans. (e)
Sol. From the given information about “The Rape of the Lock”, it cannot be determined what was the reason (or inspiration) behind writing it.

S12.Ans.(d)
Sol. Refer to the fifth sentence of second paragraph. “An essay on criticism………………….principle measure.” Hence option (d) is true.

S13.Ans.(c)
Sol. In the given context ‘grotto’ refers to a construction in the form of a cave, esp. as in landscaped gardens during the 18th century.

S14. Ans.(b)
Sol. All except option (b) find a mention in the passage.

S15.Ans.(b)
Sol. Refer to the last line of second paragraph. “Who served as a precursor to the dunces in Pope’s late masterpiece, the Dunciad”. Hence option (b) is true.

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