IBPS had released the calendar for the Recruitment in 2019-20. Now the next step is to start practicing for the exams from now itself. Thus, the English Language can be an impetus for your success as it helps you save crucial time and score good points in lesser time and effort. So, instead of boiling the ocean, try building up a strong vocabulary, an effective knowledge of grammar, and efficient comprehension skills so as to be on the ball to face this particular section. Here is a quiz on English Language being provided by Adda247 to let you practice the best of latest pattern English Questions for IBPS PO and Clerk Examinations 2019-20.
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Directions (1-8): Read the following passage and answer the following questions given below. Some words are given in bold to help you answer some of the questions given below.
Paragraph 1: Thousands of school children demonstrated on the streets of Australian cities at the end of November. They were protesting against their government’s lacklustre response to climate change. Their protest march coincided with the G20 summit in Argentina. The summit showed no consensus on climate change, proving the point the children in Australia had made — that political leaders are not serious about the environmental crisis. Over the recent years, Australia has experienced dire consequences of global warming. By dropping their school routine on a working day, the children were making an additional point. They were conveying the feeling that natural catastrophe would make academic attainment meaningless. Their collective anger was neither politically engineered nor unruly. That is why it elicited a quick, though disapproving, response from the Australian Prime Minister. On his way to the G20 summit, he said students should focus on learning and avoid activism.
Paragraph 2: How important such projects are to Australia’s continued economic prosperity is clear from the sharp reaction that children’s mass protest received from the Minister.Resources Minister Matt Canavan’s response was sharper. He said students should be learning about geology and mining rather than protesting on streets. He was referring to the coal mining projects some of the children specifically mentioned. Mr. Canavan is in a vast company of popular politicians of different countries. American President Donald Trump is one of them. Leaders like him see climate change as an irritating discourse. They think it has no substance or truth. Moreover, they feel it confuses and distracts the public. These leaders believe that no goal should override high industrial and economic growth. As for the threat of climate change, these leaders deny it and blame activist scientists for creating and spreading a myth.
Paragraph 3: Why people think that climate change is a myth is easy to explain. A basic lesson in geography in elementary schools across the world concerns the distinction between ‘climate’ and ‘weather’. The two concepts are typically explained as being different in terms of changeability. Weather changes from day to day and season to season, according to standard geography texts. Climate, on the other hand, refers to a permanent frame within we study change in weather conditions. So, the term ‘climate’ is used for classifying the world and each country in zones. These zones constitute the permanent lore of learning. In India, for example, an educated person is expected to know that there are six climate zones. Many of us recall the different colours we used to fill up the Indian map to show these zones in an exam. Concepts formed in childhood become stable frames of mind. It is intellectually challenging for many people to reconcile this notion of climate with the idea of climate change that the UN is using to warn people against terrible environmental disasters. Another idea that the UN is doing its best to promote is that of ‘sustainable development’.
Paragraph 4: Interestingly, the UN’s promotion of these ideas is based on a global consensus which gave birth to these concerns in the first place. I recently participated in a study mooted by UNESCO’s Delhi-based Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. Its report, “Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century”, presents an analysis of curriculum policy documents from over 20 Asian countries. The analysis shows that the sustainable development goals promoted by UNESCO have been included in the school syllabus across Asia, but their presence is merely nominal in most countries. Policy documents include environmental concerns, but prioritize economic growth. In the context of globalisation, most countries propagate competitive nationalism. It is used as a major ground for regimentation of children’s bodies and minds in order to ensure that they become proud, loyal citizens.
Paragraph 5: These messages are hardly unique to Asian countries. The Australian children who registered their protest on city streets receive similar lessons at school. Yet, they feel more sensitive than Australia’s political leaders to the threat of climate change. The reason perhaps lies in the nexusbetween politics and economic interests. As SunitaNarain demonstrates in her book, Conflicts of Interest, all environmental struggles are caught in sharply divided goals of popular politics and people’s right to live in a safe and sustainable environment. Those who espouse environmental causes are often seen as romantics while people who support fast economic growth based on rapid industrialisation are perceived as practical realists. Australian children have rejected this view. They have figured out that the term ‘climate change’ means little to their political leaders. A new UN report, released just when the G20 summit was starting, says that the window of opportunity for taking meaningful steps to avert climate change will close within a decade or so. Who can understand the implications of this better than children? They have no financial investments to be redeemed by deeper mining for coal or building taller apartment blocks.
Q1. How the children in Australia realized about the fact that political leaders are not serious about the environmental crisis?
They found their government’s lacklustre response to climate change.
The G20 summit coinciding with their protest march showed no consensus among nations on climate change.
The scheme that the officials had launched for the ‘sustainable development’ last year was not carried out as decided
Both (a) and (c)
None of these
Solution:
The answer to the question can be traced from the very first paragraph where it is given as “The summit showed no consensus on climate change, proving the point the children in Australia had made — that political leaders are not serious about the environmental crisis.” Hence option (b) is the correct answer choice.
Q2. What did the children in Australia want to convey through their protest march?
They wanted to promote the other ruling party so as to made them win in elections
They wanted the world to know that unsustainable development would not affect climate.
They wanted to convey the feeling that natural catastrophe would make academic attainment meaningless.
Both (a) and (b)
None of these
Solution:
The answer to the question can be traced from the last lines of the very first paragraph where it is given as “They were conveying the feeling that natural catastrophe would make academic attainment meaningless.” Option (a) can be easily omitted as it is nowhere stated about the elections in the country. Hence option (c) is the correct answer choice.
Q3. Which of the numbered paragraphs conveys that the children carrying out the protest march have figured out that the term ‘climate change’ means little to their political leaders.
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Both Paragraphs 1 and 2
Paragraph 5
Solution:
The answer to the question can be traced from the lines given in paragraph 2, where it is given as “Resources Minister Matt Canavan’s response was sharper. He said students should be learning about geology and mining rather than protesting on streets. He was referring to the coal mining projects some of the children specifically mentioned.” Hence option (b) is the correct answer choice.
Q4. What is the point of view of popular politicians like Mr. Canavan and Donald Trump regarding the climate change?
Leaders like him see climate change as an irritating discourse.
They think that the climate change has no substance or truth
They feel the climate change confuses and distracts the public
Such leaders believe that the goals for climate change would override high industrial and economic growth.
All of these
Solution:
All the given options are true. The answer to the question can be traced from the lines of 2nd paragraph where it is given as “Leaders like him see climate change as an irritating discourse. They think it has no substance or truth. Moreover, they feel it confuses and distracts the public. These leaders believe that no goal should override high industrial and economic growth.” Hence option (e), i.e. “All of these” is the correct answer choice.
Q5. Why is it intellectually challenging for many of the people to harmonize the notion of climate with the idea of climate change?
People think that climate change is a myth because climate is a permanent term unlike weather which keeps on changing, but not the climate
People are stubborn about their attitude they don’t want to accept the climate change as the existing term
People in their childhood read climate as permanent frame within which we study change in weather conditions, totally different from climate change
Both (a) and (c)
None of these
Solution:
The answer to the question can be traced from the 3rd paragraph where it is given as “The two concepts are typically explained as being different in terms of changeability. Weather changes from day to day and season to season, according to standard geography texts. Climate, on the other hand, refers to a permanent frame within we study change in weather conditions” and “an educated person is expected to know that there are six climate zones. Many of us recall the different colours we used to fill up the Indian map to show these zones in an exam. Concepts formed in childhood become stable frames of mind.” Both the options (a) and (c) are correct. Hence option (d) is the correct answer choice.
Q6. What can be inferred from the line “Policy documents include environmental concerns, but prioritise economic growth” as mentioned in the 4th paragraph?
The sustainable development goals promoted by UNESCO have been included in the school syllabus across Asia, but their presence is merely nominal in most countries
The policies made by the officials definitely talk about environmental concerns but their deeds are much inclined towards the economic growth
The concerns of the government about economic growth override the environmental concerns.
Both (b) and (c)
None of these
Solution:
The answer to the question can be traced from the whole of the paragraph as the whole of the paragraph is conveying government’s lacklustre response to climate change. Option (a) can be easily omitted as it is the stating that though the sustainable development goals have been included in the school syllabus across Asia, but they are not given due respect when it comes to inculcating them in the students. Hence option (d) is the correct answer choice.
Q7. Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning with the highlighted word UNRULY as given in the passage?
Disorderly
Unmanageable
Wild
Rowdy
Disciplined
Solution:
Unruly- disorderly and disruptive and not amenable to discipline or control
All the other given options are synonym to the given word except option (e)
Hence option (e) is the correct answer choice.
Q8. Choose the word which is most SIMILAR in meaning with the highlighted word RECONCILE as given in the passage?
Estrange
Alienate
Harmonize
Caucus
Cabal
Solution:
Reconcile- make or show to be compatible
Estrange-cause (someone) to be no longer on friendly terms with someone
Alienate- make (someone) feel isolated or estranged
Caucus- a conference of members of a legislative body who belong to a particular party or faction
Harmonize- make consistent or compatible
Hence option (c) is the correct answer choice.
Directions (9-15): Read the following passage and answer the following questions given below. Some words are given in bold to help you answer some of the questions given below.
Much of today’s software product and hardware infrastructure is delivered through “as-a-service" model. “As-a-service" just means the ability to rent and pay for software and hardware as and when it is used, rather than buying an expensive licence or powerful computers. Software (A) such as Oracle and SAP have been pivoting to this model, as have cloud computing infrastructure platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure.
The rent-versus-own decision ebbs and flows over time. Not so long ago, before India’s mobile phone revolution, the country was dotted with ISD/STD call booths in a classic example of “as-a-service" delivery. You didn’t need to own a landline phone when you could simply walk up to a booth and, for a fee, use someone else’s phone for a short while. Once it became cheap enough to acquire and use a mobile phone to make calls on one’s own, (C)………………………………………………………...
Classical economic thinking would predict that this sort of “rental" model will not work for cutting-edge software application development, which fundamentally (B)alters the workings of a firm. Firms in the quest for digital disruption will be looking to keep their competition out, and so would prefer to have their own in-house development rather than renting it. This is especially true of startup firms in the technology space.
Classical thinking has its limitations, however. Silicon Valley and cutting edge technology are strange beasts, and the extraordinary push into the digital space has meant that top-notch software engineers are in short supply. This has pushed up the average wage of “Google-quality engineers" to the point where their average wage tops $350,000 per year—at least so say Jonathan Siddharth and Vijay Krishnan, the founders of Turing (turing.com). Turing is itself a startup that is trying to fix this demand-supply mismatch using a “rental" or “pay as you go" model.
While talent is global, opportunity is not. Hiring top engineers locally in Silicon Valley is costly, and not scalable. In addition, says Siddharth, employee retention data paints a bleak picture. The average Silicon Valley engineer retains for 13 months. When time to hire, on-board, and handoff are accounted for, employers only get about nine months of productive work from each engineer. According to the duo, this is a contributing factor to one in every 10 startups failing within the first 12 months.
Q9. Which of the following explains the "as-a-service" model explained in the passage above?
It means the ability to purchase and pay for software and hardware.
It means the ability to rent and pay for software and hardware as and when it is used, rather than buying an expensive licence or powerful computers.
It means to buy expensive licence or powerful computers for the expansion of a business.
Both (b) and (c)
All of the Above
Solution:
Refer first paragraph.
Q10. Which of the following words should fill in the blank in (A) to make a contextually correct and meaningful sentence?
calamity
behemoths
abdicate
paradigms
Both (a) and (b)
Solution:
Behemoths: something enormous, especially a large and powerful organization.
Q11. A phrase is given in BOLD in the passage "ebbs and flows". What is the meaning of this phrase?
a phase where one is caught in a dilemma.
depreciation of a machine or computer over long time use.
a profit and a loss together.
a recurrent pattern of coming and going or decline and regrowth.
None of the Above
Solution:
Ebb and flow: a recurrent pattern of coming and going or decline and regrowth.
Q12. According to the passage, which is the most contributing factor to one in every 10 startups failing within the first 12 months?
Demand-supply mismatch using a “rental" or “pay as you go" model.
When time to hire, on-board, and handoff are accounted for, employers only get about nine months of productive work from each engineer.
Quality of programmers is not good and training is costly.
Top-notch software engineers are in short supply.
Both (a) and (b)
Solution:
Refer last paragraph.
Q13. Which of the following phrases can fill in the blank given in C in the passage above?
these booths disappeared
these booths disappear
these booths disappearING
these booths are disappeared
these booths is disappeared
Solution:
"these booths disappeared" is grammatically and contextually correct.
Q14. Which of the following words can replace the word given in bold in (B) without changing the meaning of the sentence?
remains
stagnates
continues
amends
ruins
Solution:
Alter: change in character or composition, typically in a comparatively small but significant way.
Amend: make minor changes to (a text, piece of legislation, etc.) in order to make it fairer or more accurate, or to reflect changing circumstances.
Q15. Which of the following statement(s) is /are true in context to the passage above?
ISD/STD call booths in a classic example of “as-a-service" delivery
Hiring top engineers locally in Silicon Valley is costly, and not scalable.
Firms in the quest for digital disruption will be looking to keep their competition in, and so would prefer renting than purchasing.