English Quizzes, for SBI/IBPS PO Mains 2021

Directions (1-10): Read the following passage and answer the questions as directed. There are some blanks given in the passage based on which some questions are framed, and some words are highlighted as well to help you answer some of the questions.

Just over a month after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won an absolute majority in the 17th Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now urged parties to fall behind his ‘One Nation – One Election’ (ONOE) proposition: that State and national elections be held at a single point. The idea exposes the subversion of democracy. The ONOE puts the nationally incumbent party at an advantage in State elections, a position that the BJP now enjoys. The incumbent can deploy government machinery for State campaigns, a mega persona birthed for a national campaign can be fed into State ones, and a last-ditch sleight-of-hand that wins the Centre may land victories in the States. Perhaps the BJP sees the ONOE as the remedy to the ______(A)______ of its losses in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in the 18 months before a national win. Perhaps the party would have won in those States in the currents of an exploitative military nationalism launched in February 2019.

The ONOE catchphrase harks back to a moniker from Mr. Modi’s rule in Gujarat, where he introduced the idea of samras village panchayats — sarpanches selected ‘unanimously’ or by ‘consensus’. First floated in 2002, the idea was repeated in 2006. Sarpanches command significant resources, wield power, and deliver development largely through clientelism, echoing the workings of elected leaders at the highest level. Elections give voters the same chance to oust a sarpanch who has skewed the distribution of development, as to expel a ruling party at the State or Centre. Samras gave incumbents an advantage in being reappointed as sarpanch (they were already panchayat leaders, had financial and tactical resources, and were networked with government officials and party actors).

In Dahod, a predominantly Adivasi district bordering Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where I was doing fieldwork on how panchayats delivered rural development, bureaucrats confided that samras sprang partly from the Gujarat government’s failure to respond to the floods in Surat in 2006. The government’s incompetence was on display across national TV. Surat could have been the tipping point in a series of anti-people policies, including programmes of purported ‘greening’ and beautification that had displaced the urban poor, and rural schemes such as Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana remaining largely unimplemented, with funds later found to be ‘unavailable’ and the scheme quietly withdrawn.

Panchayat elections were due in December 2006, and Assembly elections in 2007. Political parties mobilise votes for Assembly elections through sarpanches, and as the ruling party, the BJP had close ties with incumbents. Perhaps Mr. Modi feared that new sarpanches would be more equivocal about supporting the party in 2007. Perhaps the act of ousting a panchayat incumbent would make people feel more adventurous about ousting the State’s incumbent. The germs of many of Mr. Modi’s ideas lie in Gujarat, and their finessed forms have been deployed on a national scale since he emerged as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in 2014. The ONOE is the next point in the Prime Minister’s attempt to quash the Opposition that a democratic exercise may throw up.

Multiple disenchanted constituencies (rural voters, the poor, Other Backward Classes, Adivasis, Dalits, religious minorities, and others) voicing their verdict in State election after another and the domino effect this may have on the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. Assembly polls are due in Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra in 2019, Bihar and Delhi in 2020, and West Bengal in 2021. Assembly elections are related to myriad pressing issues, the result of complex interactions of State and national government policies.

As the BJP enters a second term at the Centre, several crises loom larger than before such as a banking crisis, unemployment, an economic slowdown, agrarian distress, a water crisis, and privatised health care and education systems. Mr. Modi appears to count on the din of a national campaign that the ONOE would invariably produce to carry both State and national elections for the incumbent at the Centre.

Q1. Which of the following question/s can be answered from the information given in the passage?

(i) Why the second term of the Modi government is going to be more challenging than before?
(ii) Why doesn’t Mr. Modi implement samras for his own seat?
(iii) Why does the party that has equated punctuated electoral wins with the legitimacy of governance seek to discard punctuated elections?

(a) I only
(b) III only
(c) I and II only
(d) II and III only
(e) I, II, and III

Q2. As per the passage, the roots of the idea of ONOE originated from

(a) series of anti-people policies, including programmes of trivial importance
(b) people feeling more adventurous about ousting the State’s incumbent
(c) the idea of samras village panchayats
(d) Both (a) and (b)
(e) None of these.

Q3. As per the passage, from the given statements, which of the following points support the implementation of ONOE (as per the view of a political party)?

(a) reduction in extreme spending by contestants and a drain on the exchequer
(b) supports a party in thwarting its adversaries
(c) provides catbird seat to the regional party in process of fair election
(d) Both (a) and (c)
(e) None of these.

Q4. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the given passage?

(a) ONOE provides the essence of freedom that an election promises
(b) Samras act as a backdoor entrance for the incumbent in the political system
(c) ONOE seeks to undermine the institution of a federated government by giving a tailwind to the national incumbent
(d) Both (b) and (c)
(e) None of these.

Q5. Which of the following represent the most similar meaning of the phrase ‘the germ of many’, as highlighted in the passage?

(a) The soul of Mr. Modi’s ideas lie in Gujarat
(b) The detailed analysis of Mr. Modi’s ideas lie in Gujarat
(c) The outcome of Mr. Modi’s ideas lie in Gujarat
(d) The early stage of Mr. Modi’s ideas lie in Gujarat
(e) None of these.

Q6. Which of the following should fill the blank marked (A) in the given passage?

(a) Nettle
(b) Spectre
(c) Foist
(d) Gentry
(e) None of these.

Directions (7-8): Which of the following is most similar in meaning to the words as used in the passage?

Q7. Incumbent

(a) Cower
(b) Desolate
(c) Crone
(d) Official
(e) None of these.

Q8. Disenchanted

(a) Laconic
(b) Disillusioned
(c) Labyrinth
(d) Lofty
(e) None of these.

Q9. Which of the following is most opposite to the word ‘Floated’ as used in the passage?

(a) Moot
(b) Posit
(c) Revoke
(d) Waft
(e) None of these.

Q10. Which of the following is most opposite to the word ‘Myriad’ as used in the passage?

(a) Paltry
(b) Swarm
(c) Throng
(d) Legion
(e) None of these.

Solutions

S1. Ans. (a)
Sol. From the given questions, only question (i) can be answered. The answer to the given question can be inferred from the last paragraph of the passage in which it is mentioned, ‘As the BJP enters a second term at the Centre, several crises loom larger than before such as a banking crisis, unemployment, an economic slowdown, agrarian distress, a water crisis, and privatised health care and education systems.’ From this statement it can inferred that second term is going to be more challenging. Also, there is no sufficient information to answer the remaining two questions.

S2. Ans. (c)
Sol. The correct answer to the given question can be inferred from the second paragraph of the passage in which it is stated that, ‘The ONOE catchphrase harks back to a moniker from Mr. Modi’s rule in Gujarat, where he introduced the idea of samras village panchayats’. Hence, the correct answer to the given question is option (c)

S3. Ans. (b)
Sol. The correct answer to the given question can be inferred from the last line of the fourth paragraph which states that, ‘The ONOE is the next point in the Prime Minister’s attempt to quash the Opposition that a democratic exercise may throw up.’ So from this it can be inferred that it can be used as a tool to demolish the opposition that may arise in a democratic country.

S4. Ans. (d)
Sol. The correct answer to the given question can be inferred from the first and second paragraph of the passage. Looking at the first paragraph, which states, ‘The ONOE puts the nationally incumbent party at an advantage in State elections’ and going through the second paragraph, which states that, ‘Samras gave incumbents an advantage in being reappointed as sarpanch’ both the options can be inferred. Hence, the correct answer choice is option (d)

S5. Ans. (d)
Sol. ‘the germ of an idea’ means ‘the early stage of an idea that may develop into something bigger and more important’. Hence, the correct answer choice is option (d).

S6. Ans. (b)
Sol. “Spectre” which means “a ghost or something widely feared as a possible unpleasant or dangerous occurrence” can be used in the given sentence. All other doesn’t fit in the given sentence. Hence, the correct answer choice to make the sentence contextually meaningful would be option (b).
Nettle means irritate or annoy
Foist means impose an unwelcome or unnecessary person or thing on.
Genry means people of good social position

S7. Ans. (d)
Sol. Cower means crouch down in fear.
Desolate means uninhabited and giving an impression of bleak emptiness.
Crone means an ugly old woman
Incumbent means (of an official or regime) currently holding office.
Hence, the correct answer choice would be option (d)

S8. Ans. (b)
Sol. Disenchanted means disappointed by someone or something previously respected or admired
Laconic means using very few words.
Disillusioned means disappointed in someone or something
Labyrinth means a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one’s way
Lofty means of imposing height.
Hence, the correct answer choice would be option (b)

S9. Ans. (c)
Sol. Floated means put forward (an idea) as a suggestion or test of reactions.
From the given options, all are synonym of the given word except ‘Revoke’ which means officially cancel. Hence, the correct answer choice would be option (c).

S10. Ans. (a)
Sol. Myriad means a countless or extremely great number of people or things
So from the given options all the words are synonym of the given word except option (a) which means very small or meager. Hence, the correct answer choice would be option (a).