Directions (1-10): 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 given answer choices, to make the passage complete and coherent (coherent means logically complete and sound).
Q1. The information on the South African leader came days after the United States confirmed that President Donald Trump will not be the Chief Guest of Republic Day in India due to his pressing schedule in January. _________________________, and succeeded Jacob Zuma who had to leave following allegations of corruption. Mr Ramaphosa is also the current head of the African National Congress (ANC).
(a)The chemical companies are also letting out untreated effluents into the waters
(b) Mr. Ramaphosa had hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the BRICS
(c)Strict environmental regulations should be imposed and salt pan and other aquaculture practices
(d) Mr Ramaphosa became President of South Africa in February this year
(e) None of these
Q2. Fake news and rumours continue to dominate cyberspace in Malaysia. Early this year an elderly Chinese lady was falsely accused of being part of a syndicate to kidnap children. After investigation and verification by the print media, the lady was identified as a regular at a shopping mall who was close to some of the staff in the shops. As newspapers reported the truth, the lady’s name was cleared. _______________________________. The elderly lady was afraid of going out. She shied away from people, remaining at home throughout the entire Chinese New Year.
(a) Fanned by emotional posting, the incident almost turned into a racial conflict.
(b) Many were unable to defend themselves in such situations.
(c) However, the damage was done.
(d) The root cause of widespread of fake news is due to lack of understanding of media.
(e) The public is unable to identify fake news, or do not know how to verify or boycott it.
Q3. Lord Curzon ruled India in the early 20th century, and he took the first concrete step to preserve and protect our ‘civilisational heritage’. He promulgated the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1903 to protect and safeguard our past. Prior to the promulgation of the landmark legislation, no one in particular was in charge of the priceless, and countless art treasures of Bharat. It was common unclaimed property, and belonged to whoever could expropriate the same. The ‘native’ rulers, by and large had little or no use for history, the more enlightened ones being ‘schooled’, to use a pun, mostly in martial arts, religion and philosophy. _________________________________________
(a)After centuries of apathy, began the true discovery of the ancient land of Bharat.
(b)The sword was always considered mightier than the pen.
(c)Ages of neglect or, more appropriately, indifference were over at long last, figuratively and literally.
(d)The first-ever Ancient Geography of India was published.
(e)Therefore, nothing was gained.
Q4. Offers of admission are the product of much careful thought and hard work — both by the students who apply and by the universities that review the applications. Families also play an important, supportive role. At this time last year, our daughter, after many hours of working on her application essays and preparing for standardised admissions exams, was deciding which university to attend. It’s a big decision, but there are really no bad choices. __________________________
(a) The United States values diversity and actively supports students from varied backgrounds.
(b) Even a school that might not have been one’s first choice has a way of turning out to be the perfect fit.
(c) Sometimes, we don’t know what we should want.
(d) Thankfully, US universities pay careful attention to the safety and welfare of their students.
(e) In early autumn, the Education USA university tour will stop in all seven cities with advising centres.
Q5. _____________________________________________________________, the political party has taken to social media in a big way — it has an official YouTube channel, Facebook pages for the party’s state unit and one for each district apart from scores of WhatsApp groups and Twitter handles to take the party’s message and TV’s speeches to the masses.
(a) While senior local leaders were appointed
(b) With television coverage being limited,
(c) It undertook a meticulous door-to-door enrolment drive in
(d) He has also been in the news of
(e) None of these
Q6. The BJP government came to power mainly on an anti-corruption plank. _____________________________________________________________, Narendra Modi relentlessly campaigned against the incumbent UPA government raking up core issues such as fuel prices, jobs, infrastructure, growth, development and so on.
(a) For about a year leading up to the 2014 general election,
(b) Corruption is the cancer in the nation’s body
(c) There has not been any progress in the anti-corruption drive as promised by
(d) It is puzzling why the Modi government failed to take action
(e) None of these
Q7. The leader of the Islamic State Khorasan in Afghanistan, Abu Saad Erhabi, along with 10 of his fighters, _____________________________________________________________ conducted by Afghan forces and US-led coalition forces. His predecessor, Abu Sayed, too was killed in a US strike on the group’s headquarters in Kunar province in July last year.
(a) gradually and further delegitimize the Afghan government
(b) from Kabul that Russia decided to postpone the peace conference
(c) pushed the situation in Afghanistan on a positive trajectory
(d) was killed in an air strike a few days back in a joint air and ground operation
(e) None of these
Q8. The debate between the Centre and the Kerala government on the _____________________________________________________________ from the core question at stake—one of fiscal federalism. The goods and services tax (GST) has increased the centralization of fiscal powers, limiting the autonomy of states to raise their own revenue for public expenditure.
(a) ground that a natural disaster (he cited the example of a flood) may necessitate additional tax
(b) 60% of all indirect taxes, while the Centre received 40%
(c) offer and acceptance of foreign aid following the floods has drawn attention away
(d) role and responsibilities of the Centre and states under the Disaster Management Act, 2005,
(e) None of these
Q9. The Central Pollution Control Board settled for 12 million tonnes in 2011, but its Guidelines Document of 2017 has upped the estimate to 25-30 million tonnes, ____________________________
(a) based on information from the ministry of urban development
(b) waste in Indian cities is 165-175 million tonnes
(c) this waste has consequences for public health
(d) to the other extreme and estimated C&D waste
(e) None of these
Q10. Till 1969, India’s major banks, other than the State Bank of India and its subsidiaries, were directly or indirectly controlled by big business, resulting in the capture of a dominant share of the nation’s savings by large firms to the exclusion of small borrowers and the agricultural sector. Seizing the ownership of these banks and bringing them into the public sector established social control. ______________
(a) But public ownership stalls innovation and adversely affects customer service.
(b) Public ownership of the State Bank of India subordinates the profit principle to other development goals.
(c) The result is a more stable banking sector.
(d) In the two decades that followed, India’s banking sector, judged by behaviour or social performance indicators, went through a dramatic transformation.
(e) None of these.
Directions (11-15): For each question, five options are given out of which four options can be rearranged to form a coherent paragraph. Choose among the options, the option which fails to become a part of the coherent paragraph and is the odd-one-out.
Q11.
(a) The Congress, which is meant to be a premier forum for scientists to present and discuss their research, has in recent years become the stage for a series of blissfully evidence-free claims about Indian achievements in science through the ages.
(b) They were also made in the context of a time when Indian engineers were fighting to be recognised as competent members of a profession hitherto dominated by expatriate Britons.
(c) Another edition of the Indian Science Congress, another gift to the news cycle.
(d) Added to the list in this year’s edition (January 3-7, in Jalandhar, Punjab), were claims about the existence of stem cell technology, test-tube babies, and fleets of aircraft in ancient India and Sri Lanka.
(e) The reaction was reassuringly swift—the organisers distanced themselves from the claims, prominent scientists denounced them, and protest marches were taken out.
Q12.
(a) The registration of the case has caused much public outrage in Assam.
(b) The FIR against Mr. Gohain, peasant rights activist Akhil Gogoi and journalist Manjit Mahanta relates to speeches at a recent rally that alluded to the possibility of a demand for independence and sovereignty if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was pushed through Parliament.
(c) Mr. Gohain and others have obtained interim bail from the Gauhati High Court.
(d) While the provision, which is couched in broad terms, needs a much narrower definition, the right course is to scrap Section 124A, a relic of the colonial era, altogether
(e) The slapping of sedition charges against noted Assamese scholar Hiren Gohain and two others for remarks made against the proposed citizenship law is a textbook case of misuse of the law relating to sedition.
Q13.
(a) He sells two kinds of tea: liquor cha, or lukewarm black tea without sugar, and salted lemon tea, in case you are a fan of that odd taste.
(b) The tea, though, is nothing to boast about; don’t believe the stories about the Parliament canteen being a part of some culinary wonderland.
(c) The weak tea powder and watered-down milk barely mix, both adamant in maintaining their individual identities like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana do.
(d) For, this is where, everyday, politicians of myriad ideologies and journalists from various publications and TV channels gather to discuss political news or simply gossip.
(e) Whenever he is asked, the tea-seller throws in some sugar and slams down the white cup with its golden rim on the table with a smile that doesn’t quite reflect the seriousness of the affairs in Parliament.
Q14.
(a) Additionally, the MRP of the channels needs to be displayed on the TV screen through the Electronic Program Guide.
(b) Along with giving customers à la carte choice, broadcasters and distributors can offer bouquets of channels.
(c) The new framework makes it mandatory for the service provider to offer every channel on an à la carte basis.
(d) This pack includes 23 paid channels, 52 free-to-air channels and 25 Doordarshan channels.
(e) However, the price of the bouquet is also to be published transparently.
Q15.
(a) Distributors cannot make any changes that may lead to a disadvantage to the subscriber in such cases, the regulator has said.
(b) These are: Where such marriage would be permissible under the personal law applicable to the employee concerned or where there were “other grounds” for doing so.
(c) Bigamous marriages by employees of the Central Government men or women, have been prohibited under the latest Service Conduct Rules, except on special grounds.
(d) Even under the original conduct rules, it was the Government’s intention that the ban on bigamous marriages should apply both to men and women employees.
(e) But this was not brought out by the actual wording of the rules.
Solutions
S1. Ans. (d)
Sol. The options (a) and (c) are completely irrelevant. The option (b) doesn’t gel with the later part of the sentence where the blank is appearing from the contextual point of view, only option (d) does so. Hence, the option (d) is the most suitable answer choice.
S2. Ans. (c)
Sol. The given paragraph is about the consequence of fake news and rumors that are revolving around the world. Read the sentences on either sides of the gap, from there it can be easily picked that only option (c) fills the space adding meaning to the paragraph. Other options are irrelevant in context of theme of the paragraph. Hence (c) is the correct choice.
S3. Ans. (b)
Sol. Read the paragraph carefully. It talks about the first concrete step taken by somebody who ruled India to protect our ‘civilisational heritage’. The penultimate sentence of the paragraph which explains the areas of importance highlighted by the earlier rulers, it directs that the only sentence that concludes the paragraph appropriately is option (b). Other options fail to add meaning to the paragraph. Hence (b) is the correct choice.
S4. Ans. (b)
Sol. Read the paragraph, it emphasizes on the hard work of the students to attain a good university for admissions. Only sentence (b) fits into the paragraph and conclude the paragraph saying about the school that turn out to be a perfect fit despite of not having one’s first choice. All other sentences are telling us about US universities which are irrelevant to the paragraph. Hence sentence (b) is the right choice.
S5. Ans. (b)
Sol. The most suitable phrase that will fill the blank is “With television coverage being limited” as the latter part of the paragraph is describing how the political party is now using the social media to spread its messages to the masses. All the other clauses are either grammatically incorrect or contextually meaningless. Hence, option (b) is the most appropriate answer choice.
S6. Ans. (a)
Sol. The most appropriate phrase that fills the blank is “For about a year leading up to the 2014 general election”, as it perfectly fits as a starter for the sentence that describes about the general election campaigned by Narendra Modi. All the other clauses are either grammatically incorrect or contextually meaningless. Hence, option (a) is the most appropriate answer choice.
S7. Ans. (d)
Sol. The most suitable phrase that will fill the blank to form a coherent paragraph is “was killed in an air strike a few days back in a joint air and ground operation”. It is to be noted that the latter part of the paragraph […Abu Sayed, too was killed in a US strike…] hints for the mentioned phrase (or option (d)) to fill the blank. The usage of “too” indicates that something similar has happened previously. However, all the other clauses are either grammatically incorrect or contextually meaningless. Hence, option (d) is the most appropriate answer choice.
S8. Ans. (c)
Sol. The most appropriate phrase that fills the blank to form a coherent paragraph is “offer and acceptance of foreign aid following the floods has drawn attention away”. However, all the other clauses are either grammatically incorrect or contextually meaningless. Hence, option (c) is the most appropriate answer choice.
S9 Ans. (a)
Sol. The most appropriate phrase that fills the blank to form a coherent paragraph is “based on information from the ministry of urban development”. The sentence is describing the changes in the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board. Therefore, the option (a) becomes the most suitable phrase to complete the sentence as it mentions the criteria for the changes brought in the guidelines. All the other phrases are either contextually irrelevant or grammatically incorrect. Hence, the option (a) is the most suitable answer choice.
S10. Ans. (d)
Sol. The reference here is to nationalisation of banks. The penultimate sentence says that bringing the banks into the public sector established social control. Option D gives the passage continuity, mentioning social indicators and concludes by saying these banks went through a dramatic transformation. Option A mentions another point and has no connection to the penultimate sentence. (B) is too specific and related only to S.B.I. ‘Stability’ in C is not mentioned in the paragraph.
S11. Ans. (b)
Sol. The sequence ‘cade’ makes a coherent paragraph which talks about evidence-free claims about Indian achievements in science were made in the recent edition of the Indian Science Congress. Though sentences given in all of the options seems to have a relevance to the topic but the option (b) doesn’t well with the rest of the sentences and is the odd-one-out.
Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.
S12. Ans. (d)
Sol. The sequence ‘ebca’ makes a coherent paragraph which informs about registration of sedition charges against noted Assamese scholar and two others. Information given in option (d) doesn’t gel well with the other options which makes a coherent paragraph and is the odd-one-out.
Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.
S13. Ans. (d)
Sol. The sequence ‘bcea’ makes a coherent paragraph which talks about tea sold in the Parliament. The information provided in the option (d) doesn’t gel well with the other options which are successful in making a coherent paragraph.
Hence, option (d) is the odd-one-out and is the correct answer.
S14. Ans. (d)
Sol. The sequence ‘cabe’ makes a coherent paragraph which informs about how does the new framework benefit TV viewers. Though four of the options are successful in making a coherent paragraph, information provided in the option (d) is unrelated to the other options.
Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.
S15. Ans. (a)
Sol. The sequence ‘cbde’ makes a coherent paragraph which talks about a recent rule introduced by the Government prohibiting employees of the Central Government to enter into bigamous marriages for any invalid reasons. Option (a) talking about distributors is unrelated and doesn’t gel well with the other options.
Hence, option (a) is the odd-one-out and is the correct answer.
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