English Quizzes, for IBPS PO Mains 2022

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. A scientific approach too leads to the conclusion that it is not possible to accumulate such an enormous amount of wealth in a single lifetime. According to research studies, the size of the human brain is about 1,600 cc. Another study suggests that a normal human being is capable of using around 8 per cent of her brain and a genius can use up to 12 per cent. The question is: How did the wealthiest 1 per cent of the population get their brain and from where did they acquire the high-functioning biology which the other 99 per cent does not own? If intelligence is the source behind wealth accumulation, then the wealthiest group ought to have a higher functioning brain.___________________.

(a)With the level of inequality, poverty and hunger prevailing in India, it is hard to believe how that privileged class enjoy their wealth and prosperity.
(b)Clearly, the level of inequality can’t be justified even in scientific terms.
(c)It is only a matter of time till this myth is busted.
(d)A person building a Rs 10,000-crore bungalow and another gifting his son an aeroplane worth Rs 500 crore are a result of such an ethos.
(e)Now a wealthy person is idealised as a smart, intelligent person capable of making money.

Q2. A good example is the role played by the government of Maharashtra in water reforms across its cities and towns. Maharashtrian cities have been way ahead of other Indian cities in addressing the challenge of providing drinking water to their residents. ____________________________. The committee recommended water audits for all cities and offered to fund 75 per cent of the cost of determining the gap between the water supplied and the water billed to consumers for water ostensibly consumed.

(a)As early as the year 2000, the government of Maharashtra had set up the Sukhtankar Committee to review the efficiency of supplying water in its cities and towns.
(b)A significant feature of Maharashtra’s planning for water has been their recognition of the importance of economic pricing of water.
(c)The Maharashtra Water Resource Regulatory Authority, established in 2005, has been conducting exercises to price water, setting water charges based on the volume of water consumed by different user categories.
(d)The canals that brought raw water from Pench, 48 km outside of the city, provided ample opportunities for stealing water along the way.
(e)It is possible that the successive drought conditions diverted the government’s attention to the urgent task at hand, that is, a basic provision of water, and the focus on reforms was lost.

Q3. Comparisons are, of course, silly and dicey, but one can hazard that Arrow’s achievements were in some ways arguably greater than Samuelson’s. Samuelson’s many contributions helped us think through the first principles of many issues in economics — public goods, taxation, savings, trade, consumer preference, pensions, and finance. Arrow’s two stunning contributions (both theoretical) in some ways both built and undermined all of politics and all of (market) economics. Samuelson made mega-contributions, Arrow made meta-contributions. ____________________________.

(a)The Arrow-Samuelson comparison is interesting for another reason: Family connections.
(b)The work of Arrow and many others showed how such self-interested individual behaviour could produce outcomes that had broadly desirable social virtues.
(c)If you start with individual preferences, it is very difficult (or impossible) to come up with a rule (say majority voting) that aggregates these preferences and produces a societal preference that can satisfy some basic conditions.
(d)But this work showed how demanding were the conditions for the market system.
(e)Samuelson’s related to one discipline, Arrow’s transcended two.

Q4. Monetary policy makers concentrate on core inflation because it is a good yardstick for measuring “sustainable inflation”: Which means that core inflation has to be correctly measured. Unfortunately, core inflation is mis-measured in India because the CPI for Fuel and Light includes kerosene and electricity, but excludes petrol. True core would exclude food, fuel and petrol. The reason monetary policy should be concerned with true core is because the excluded items are broadly outside the influence of monetary policy. _______________________.

(a)A true core price index can easily be constructed by excluding the effects of petrol consumption from the transport and communication (TC) basket (TC has a weight of 8.59 per cent in the CPI and petrol consumption weight is 2.4 per cent), and adding it to the basket of Fuel.
(b)The correct and incorrect core inflation series, along with petrol price inflation, are reported in the chart.
(c)These facts counter the post-truth core inflation scenario painted by the RBI.
(d)For example, it is a bit difficult to argue that the RBI’s repo rate policy can affect OPEC’s pricing policy for oil!
(e)The RBI is well aware of the problem of wrongly measured core inflation in India.

Q5. The analogy of theatre commands of the US/China is misleading as it would only address the “under command” syndrome of the ground-based forces in India. The truism that “air power is indivisible” and works best under an airman should not be violated. Since India has a status quoist stance on boundary matters, the blocking of air assets by splitting them under theatre commanders would be sub-optimal. _______________________. Both would be unwieldy considering the diverse requirements of equipment and training for troops (desert, plains and hills) — so more (smaller) commands would be required, bifurcating air assets further, reducing their potency.

(a)Joint procurement, commanding future commands like cyber, space and special forces and a role in budgeting could be the starting point.
(b)If one were to follow the US/China model, then there would be just two “theatres” — the Northern and Western.
(c)At the operational level, war is directed by regional command headquarters which, in the case of the army and navy, are terrestrial/surface combatants.
(d)A Su-30 from Pune can address maritime threats down south as well as those across the Thar desert.
(e)Decisive political decision-making is the need of the hour if we want to move forward.

Directions (6-10): Five statements are given below, labelled a, b, c, d and e. 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.

Q6.
(a) It was primarily designed to export Indian products and raw material, cotton for instance, cheaply and quickly to Manchester.
(b)The introduction of the Railway system was part of an evolutionary process and did not depend on one’s mercy.
(c)The objective of introducing the Railways in India had nothing to do with people’s welfare or the country’s development.
(d)Because of the American Civil War (1861-65) its supply from the US had become uncertain.
(e)Its military use was underscored by the blood-thirsty Col. James George Smith Neill of 1st Madras Fusiliers, who was on a mission to suppress the Benares uprising (June 1857).

Q7.
(a) While there have been some important achievements, Aung San Suu Kyi and her party have struggled with economic policy, the peace process, and political violence.
(b) As a result, the government has often appeared ineffectual.
(c) The National League for Democracy (NLD) government’s first year in power has not been easy.
(d) The NLD lacks governance experience, and the executive branch does not have control over the armed forces.
(e) Finding qualified people to serve in senior positions in the government is another challenge.

Q8.
(a) In return, China has not commented on the Moroccan position regarding the Western Sahara.
(b) China sees in Morocco an opportunity to develop factories for export to the European Union.
(c) At the political level Morocco and China see eye-to-eye on some issues, most notably in the policy of non-intervention in state affairs.
(d) While the Moroccan press has occasionally reported on the oppression of faith in China,
(e) The government of Morocco has largely abstained from commenting on issues relating to China’s “core interests”: Xinjiang, Taiwan, or Tibet.

Q9.
(a) With the steady disappearance of indigenous seeds, genetic diversity is eroding and food culture is steadily moving towards what is available in Delhi, Paris and Shanghai.
(b) They lack confidence in bringing their traditional knowledge and intellectual resources to the public domain, and also fear pilferage and tampering by agencies for commercial use.
(c) The people in the mountainous regions have now started feeling the adverse effects of globalization.
(d)As the agents of globalisation infiltrate mountainous areas, the availability of natural resources and practices of sustainability that have prevailed for generations are being sidelined.
(e)Additionally, traditional dialects and folk languages are being used less and less.

Q10.
(a) From China’s perspective, Japanese actions were a flagrant and arrogant violation of Chinese sovereignty necessitating sustained Chinese military expressions of jurisdiction and power.
(b) a new and potentially more destabilizing “normal” has set in around the East China Sea between China and Japan.
(c) While attention over the past year in the Asia-Pacific has been focused on developments in the South China Sea
(d) in particular China’s ongoing island-building efforts and expansion of coast guard activities
(e) This “normal” sees China’s air and coast guard forces penetrating Japanese airspace and territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands with increasing and sustained frequency.

Solutions

S1. Ans. (b)
Sol. The paragraph talks about the results of certain studies and researches that try to assess the reasons behind the brain of earning enormously. Now read the last few sentences of the paragraph, they try to compare the brains of wealthiest 1 percent and the rest 99 percent and hence directing to the level of inequality. Hence the concluding sentence should tally its meaning with the paragraph’s theme. Among the given options, only option (b) makes a relevant conclusion to this paragraph. Other options define some different issues related to the subject.

S2. Ans. (a)
Sol. Read the paragraph carefully, it talks about the role played by the government of Maharashtra in water reforms. Refer the concluding sentence of the paragraph, from here it can be inferred that the preceding sentence should connect to the committee that it is talking about. Hence only option (a) makes the perfect filling to the given space as it refers to the Sukhtankar Committee.

S3. Ans. (e)
Sol. The paragraph compares the contributions of Arrow and Samuelson in the field of economics. Read the last sentence of the paragraph, there is a clear comparison between the two. Hence the conclusive sentence should also be in the same form. Among the given options, only option (e) makes the perfect conclusion and thus adding meaning to the paragraph.

S4. Ans. (d)
Sol. Read the paragraph carefully, it talks about the core inflation and its mis-measurement in India. The last sentence of the paragraph should match its theme. Hence the correct option is (d) as it cites an appropriate example in reference to its preceding sentence. Other options don’t make a valid conclusion in the context of the paragraph.

S5. Ans. (b)
Sol. Refer the sentence just after the blank space. The word “Both” clearly indicates that among the given options, option (b) fits the blank most appropriately thus adding meaning to the paragraph which talks about the defence mechanisms of the US/China model. Other options are irrelevant in the context of the passage.

S6. Ans. (b)
Sol. cade forms a coherent paragraph and sentence (b) is not a part of it. Coherent paragraph is all about the purpose of introducing the railways in India while Option (b) tells that railway system was part of a revolutionary process which fails to connect with other options. Hence option (b) is true.

S7. Ans.(e)
Sol. Option (e) is the correct choice as the idea it conveys is what challenge that further lies in NLD’s reign while other options which are forming a coherent paragraph are imparting information about the journey they had till now.

S8. Ans.(b)
Sol. Option (b) is the correct choice as it is talking about the opportunities China see in Morocco while other options which are forming a coherent paragraph with their logical order being cdea talks about the reason for the enmity between the two countries.

S9. Ans. (b)
Sol. caed forms a coherent paragraph. The paragraph is all about the effects of globalization in mountainous areas. Sentence (b) is not a part of this paragraph although it is part of the same article. Sentence (b) is not in harmony with the theme of the passage as it is talking about harnessing bio -diversity.

S10. Ans. (a)
Sol. Option (a) is the correct choice as it is giving only one’s prospective which is fine in terms of article but is disturbing the theme of the paragraph and is not coherent with the other sentences.