English Language Quiz For SBI PO, Clerk Prelims 2021- 24th April

Directions (1-5): Pick out the most effective word from the given words to fill in the blanks to make the sentence meaningfully complete.
Q1. It is the _________ of selfishness for men, who fully________ in their own case the great advantages of good education, to deny these advantages to women.
(a) parody – demand
(b) height – appreciate
(c) height-assimilate
(d) degree – appreciate
(e) level – advance

Q2. The learner should be ________ to take a small first step-one that will provide immediate success and ________ the learning.
(a) encouraged – reinforce
(b) forced – organise
(c) directed – reorganise
(d) cautioned – reinforce
(e) encouraged – acknowledge

Q3. His death _________ more tributes than have been paid at the ________ of any other human being in history.
(a) brought – passing
(b) directed – helm
(c) delivered – description
(d) invited-living
(e) acknowledged – perpetuation

Q4. Only with executive _________ can the organization concentrate its energies on ___________ competitive advantage over time.
(a) position – embarking
(b) deployment – directing
(c) contingent -fabricating
(d) commitment – sustaining
(e) satisfaction – moulding

Q5. All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are ________ of the restless _______ of perseverance.
(a) manifestations – pronouncement
(b) projections – component
(c) instances – force
(d) proofs – humanity
(e) visions – future

Directions (6-15): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain , words are given in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organising, staffing, controlling, and problem-solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles. This distinction is absolutely crucial for our purposes here: Successful transformation is 70 to 90 per cent leadership and only 10 to 30 per cent management. Yet for historical reasons, many organizations today don’t have much leadership. And almost everyone thinks about the problems here as one of managing change.
For most of this century, as we created thousands and thousands of large organizations for the first time in human history, we didn’t have enough good managers to keep all those bureaucracies functioning. So many companies and universities developed management programmes, and hundreds and thousands of people were encouraged to learn management on the job. And they did. But, people were taught little about leadership. To some degree, management was emphasized because it’s easier to teach than leadership. But even more so, management was the main item on the twentieth- century agenda because that’s what was needed. For every entrepreneur or business builder who was a leader, we needed hundreds of managers to run their ever growing enterprises.
Unfortunately for us today, this emphasis on management has often been institutionalized in corporate cultures that discourage employees from learning how to lead. Ironically, past success is usually the key ingredient in producing this outcome. The syndrome, as I have observed it on many occasions, goes like this: success creates some degree of market dominance, which in turn produces much growth. After a while keeping the ever larger organization under control becomes the primary challenge. So attention turns inward, and managerial competencies are nurtured. With a strong emphasis on management but not on leadership, bureaucracy and an inward focus take over. But with continued success, the result mostly of market dominance, the problem often goes unaddressed and an unhealthy arrogance begins to evolve. All of these characteristics then make any transformation effort much more difficult.
Arrogant managers can over-evaluate their current performance and competitive position, listen poorly, and learn slowly. Inwardly focused employees can have difficulty seeing the very forces that present threats and opportunities. Bureaucratic cultures can smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions. And the lack of leadership leaves no force inside these organisations to break out of the morass.

Q6. Why, according to the author, is a distinction between management and leadership crucial?
(a) Leaders are reactive whereas managers are proactive.
(b) Organisations are facing problems of not getting good managers.
(c) Organisations are pursuing the strategy of status- quo.
(d) In today’s context, organisations need leaders much more than managers in transforming them.
(e) None of these

Q7. Why did companies and universities develop programmes to prepare managers in such a large number?
(a) Companies and universities wanted to generate funds through these programmes.
(b) A large number of organisations were created and they needed managers in good number.
(c) Organisations did not wants spend their scarce resources in training managers.
(d) Organisations wanted to create communication network through trained managers.
(e) None of these

Q8. Which of the following is SIMILAR in meaning to the word SMOTHER as used in the passage?
(a) suppress
(b) encourage
(c) instigate
(d) criticise
(e) attack

Q9. Management education was emphasized in the management programmes because
(a) establishing direction was the main focus of organisations
(b) motivating employees was thought to be done by managers
(c) strategies for producing change was the main focus of organisations
(d) organisations wanted to create powerful guiding coalition
(e) management was the main item of agenda in organisations

Q10. In the passage, management is equated with
(a) Organisation
(b) Leadership
(c) Organisational vision
(d) Bureaucracy
(e) Managerial training

Q11. Why does the attention of large organisations turn inward?
(a) Their managers become arrogant.
(b) They have to keep themselves under control.
(c) Their success creates market dominance.
(d) They want to project their predictability.
(e) None of these

Q12. Which of the following is SIMILAR in meaning of the word NURTURED as used in the passage?
(a) created
(b) developed
(c) thwarted
(d) surfaced
(e) halted

Q13. What, according to the author, is leadership?
(a) Process which keeps the system of people and technology running smoothly
(b) Planning the future and budgeting resources of the organisation
(c) Inspiring people to realise the vision
(d) Carrying out the crucial functions of management
(e) None of these

Q14. Which of the following characteristics helps organisations in their transformation efforts?
(a) Emphasis on leadership but not on management
(b) A strong and dogmatic culture
(c) Bureaucratic and inward-looking approach
(d) Failing to acknowledge the value of customers and shareholders
(e) None of these

Q15. Why were people taught little about leadership in management programmes?
(a) Teachers were busy in understanding the phenomenon of leadership.
(b) Enough study material was not available to facilitate teaching of leadership.
(c) Focus of these programmes was on developing managers.
(d) Leadership was considered only a political phenomenon.
(e) None of these

Practice More Questions of English for Competitive Exams:

Solutions

S1. Ans. (b)
Sol. height – appreciate

S2. Ans. (a)
Sol. encouraged – reinforce

S3. Ans. (a)
Sol. brought – passing

S4. Ans. (d)
Sol. commitment – sustaining

S5. Ans. (c)
Sol. instances – force

S6. Ans. (d)

S7. Ans. (b)

S8. Ans. (d)

S9. Ans. (e)

S10. Ans. (d)

S11. Ans. (b)

S12. Ans. (b)

S13. Ans. (b)

S14. Ans. (e)

S15. Ans. (c)

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