Directions (1-15): In each of the following sentences a part of a sentence is underlined Beneath each sentence, five different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative and mark its number as your answer.
Q1. A nation is built not by legislation but by the stirrings in the hearts of the people.
(a) more by the passions in the hearts of the people than by laws
(b) not by laws but by the excitement of the people
(c) by law and by inciting the people
(d) by legislation and by inspiration
(e) is not by law but by the lawmakers
Q2. Like the pudding whose credentials are established by the eating, the new luxury hotel’s ethos is best absorbed by experiencing it.
(a) Like the achievement of eating pudding
(b) As the proof of the pudding is in the eating
(c) Like the achievements of the pudding
(d) Like the qualifications of a pudding
(e) Like the pudding being too sweet
Q3. Compared to the property market of Hong Kong, Singapore and many other East Asian tigers, little concrete has happened in the Indian real estate market thus far.
(a) few buildings have been constructed
(b) concrete is not used
(c) there is very little definite achievement
(d) few buildings are made of concrete
(e) a little concrete jungle
Q4. While their ostrich like attitude is aggravating, what is very serious is the loss of life and other losses to the economy.
(a) their looking likes ostriches
(b) their heavy-handedness
(c) their annoying behaviour
(d) their refusal to face facts
(e) their insincere attitude
Q5. Many people have lost their lives in the cold wave sweeping the north – for a less harsh winter authorities need to pull up their socks now.
(a) to make an effort to improve
(b) to wear socks
(c) to keep warm
(d) to spread cheer
(e) to reach all
Q6. Having failed to deter their entry, the only viable solution may be to grant at least some of the illegal immigrants citizenship.
(a) Since we failed
(b) Since their entry could not be prevented
(c) Because we prevented their entry
(d) As they were discouraged
(e) Since preventing is not possible
Q7. Contrary to their usual tendency, Indians are queuing up at jewelers to sell off old gold as the price of gold is at an all time high.
(a) Against their wishes
(b) Opposing all rules
(c) Inclined to be different
(d) Differing from their normal behaviour
(e) Contradicting all expectations
Q8. The party has made a virtue of necessity by declaring that they depend on spontaneous response from the public rather than try to enforce a shut down.
(a) become virtuous
(b) made others virtuous
(c) to face all obligations
(d) no option but to act
(e) derived some credit from an unwelcome obligation
Q9. In our regressive tax regime it is only the mega-rich who manage to keep the government’s hands off their money.
(a) to prevent the government from robbing
(b) to evade tax
(c) to hoard money
(d) to amass government’s money
(e) to prevent privatization
Q10. The second-hand car market is booming – owning an old car is no longer considered infra dig.
(a) not considered to be demeaning
(b) not thought of any more
(c) below one’s dignity
(d) like digging one’s own grave
(e) not above one’s thinking
Q11. Even as the IT industry is getting kudos being low in cost and high in quality, the big Indian players are trying to figure out ways to sustain growth rates.
(a) As the IT industry is a criticized
(b) While the IT industry is being glorified
(c) During the IT industry’s debut
(d) As the IT industry is buying kudos (African antelopes)
(e) If the IT industry gets its due share
Q12. Those of us who live in India must remember that our democracy, our secularism and our tolerance of minorities, are all that we have – if we lose this, we’ll become barbarians and destroy the great culture of his country.
(a) are our possessions
(b) are useless things
(c) are immaterial and hence without value
(d) are our draw backs
(e) are the greatest of our possessions
Q13. In the unipolar world of today, America is the self appointed moral police who decides who is a threat to world peace.
(a) America has become the watchdog
(b) America has appointed police
(c) America has been made the police
(d) America has risen to the pinnacle of morality
(e) America is morally upright.
Q14. Unless sentimentality is waived and hardball diplomacy, business and interweaving IT applied to ASEAN, India will have only itself to blame when it looks east sees a setting sun.
(a) sees revolutionary changes
(b) finds that it has missed all opportunities
(c) sees the sun setting in the east
(d) finds the world gone upside down
(e) sees the doomsday
Q15. Hundreds of unsold effigies of Ravana are dismantled and recycled after Dussehra each year, their cane frames becoming skeletons for lesser evils like stools, book racks, plant holders and other utility items.
(a) their cane works become bones
(b) their cane works become evils
(c) their framework is used for making items
(d) skeletons of Ravana become canes
(e) their canes become like skeletons
Solutions
S1. Ans.(a)
Sol. ‘more by the passions in the hearts of the people than by laws’ express the idea in better way.
S2. Ans.(b)
Sol. ‘As the proof of the pudding is in the eating’ express the idea more succinctly and clearly.
S3. Ans.(c)
Sol. ‘there is very little definite achievement’ is better way of expressing the idea.
S4. Ans.(d)
Sol. ‘their refusal to face facts’ this expression define the meaning in better way.
S5. Ans.(a)
Sol. ‘to make an effort to improve’ this expression is another alternative way of defining the idea.
S6. Ans.(b)
Sol. ‘Since their entry could not be prevented’ is better expression.
S7. Ans.(d)
Sol. ‘Differing from their normal behaviour’ is better expression.
S8. Ans.(e)
Sol. ‘derived some credit from an unwelcome obligation’ is better expression.
S9. Ans.(b)
Sol. ‘to evade tax’ is better expression.
S10. Ans.(a)
Sol. ‘not considered to be demeaning’ is better expression.
S11. Ans.(b)
Sol. ‘While the IT industry is being glorified’ is more apt expression.
S12. Ans.(e)
Sol. are the greatest of our possessions -is more apt expression.
S13. Ans.(a)
Sol. ‘America has become the watchdog’ is more apt expression.
S14. Ans.(b)
Sol. ‘finds that it has missed all opportunities’ is more apt expression.
S15. Ans.(c)
Sol. ‘their framework is used for making items’ is more apt expression.