English Practice Quiz: Sentence Fillers
1. Indian officialdom has
all but acknowledged what many suspected all along - that there is something
amiss about the growth narrative. _________________. The finance ministry
expects a 50,000-crore shortfall in revenue collections, against the budgeted
estimate of 14.5 lakh crore. It has promised that the fiscal deficit target of
3.9 per cent of GDP will be adhered to, without serious cutbacks in
expenditure.
a) But that may not be enough to spur investment, given the poor
demand impulses, borne out by flat tractor and auto sales, and the stock of
unsold homes.
b) Indeed, while the Budget rightly prioritizes capital
spending in infrastructure, setting aside some Rs. 70,000 crore, it is worth
considering whether a larger sum is needed to get the investment cycle going —
even if this entails a small deviation from the fiscal deficit target.
c) There can be no better time than now to impart an
intelligent, rather than populist, fiscal stimulus — with inflation under
control and oil prices not posing pressures on the subsidy front.
d) A lowering of the projections made in the Economic Survey,
from 8.1-8.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent, hardly comes as a surprise, given a 14
per cent deficient monsoon, persistently negative exports and indifferent
industrial growth.
e) The RBI has “frontloaded” its rate cuts and is helping
banks deal with stressed assets so that they can lend freely.
2. For many years, the
continent Africa remained unexplored and unknown. The main reason was the
inaccessibility to its interior region due to dense forests, wildlife, savage
tribal, deserts and barren solid hills. ____________. While others explored
with the idea of expanding their respective empires, Livingstone did so to
explore its vast and mysterious hinterland, rivers and lakes.
a) He was primarily religious man and a medical practitioner
who tried to help mankind with it.
b) Livingstone was born in Scotland and was educated to
become a doctor and priest.
c) He explored an unknown river in Western Luanda. However,
he was reduced to a skeleton during four years of travelling.
d) He discovered the origin of the River Nile in 1866. He
again suffered many discomforts. He became too sick and could not even walk.
e) Many people tried to explore the could not survive the
dangers, David Livingstone is among those brave few who not only explored part
of Africa but also lived among the tribals bringing them near to social milieu.
3.
_______________________. Even the human body is a form of energy. Call it prana
or jivatma or simply vayu energy sustains the gross body and expresses it through
sensory perceptions and the basic physical elements. The three fundamental
gunas- satvik, nijasik and tamasik which characterize the nature of the human
being, very often in a combination, are further sub divided into many basic
qualities commonly known as human values.
a) Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is only
recycled and recast in different forms.
b) Love, affection, integrity and truth, for instance, are
values that are as important to life as breathing or eating.
c) Energy values are positive but in the course of practice
and because they emanate from a mind that is susceptible to negative thoughts,
they get corrupted.
d) Energy generates negativity and manifest in the form of
tying cheating or causing others harm.
e) The very fact that human civilization has survived over
centuries shows that despite all the negativity, the force of positive energy
within all of us continues to expand and enrich.
4. Over the next five
years, India faces one of the world’s biggest financing challenges: bringing
clean, affordable, reliable, water and energy to all, building the
infrastructure for smart cities to thrive and investing in enterprises that
will provide livelihoods for an extra 10 million jobseekers each year. Through
all of this and beyond, a sustainable financial system is both a necessity and
an opportunity. _____________________. Actual practice suggests the reverse.
a) At IDFC, the business case for sustainable finance is real
and multifaceted: reduced risk, increased market share, access to international
finance, reduced reputational risks and enhanced brand value.
b) For too long, a myth has been allowed to take root in
India that sustainability and finance are at odds – that taking account of
environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors raises costs, reduces
returns and impedes development.
c) The fivefold increase in the country’s solar target to 100
GW of installed capacity by 2022 will require unprecedented volumes of
investment, perhaps as much as $ 100 billion as per some estimates.
d) The Small Industries Development Bank of India has found,
for example, that loans to energy – efficient companies have a much better loan
recovery rate than the norm.
e) Sustainable finance is fundamentally about channeling
capital to India’s real economy needs. Take renewable.
5. Central to the
financial sector reforms would be the restructuring and financing of public
sector banks (PSBs. ___________________. Accordingly, it recommended that the
minimum government holding in PSBs should be reduced from 51 per cent to 33 per
cent. It was argued that reducing the government holding to 33 per cent would
not mean a loss of control over the social objectives of PSBs, but it would
give a breather to these banks to meet minimum capital requirements.
a) The UPA government I and II swore by the 51 per cent
minimum government holding and hence there was an impasse.
b) The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (2013)
recommended a single Indian Financial Sector Code.
c) The Narasimham Committee II on Banking Sector Reforms
(1998) concluded that the fisc just could not meet the capital requirements of
PSBs.
d) The pronouncements of the present BJP government, however,
indicate that they would not deviate from the 51 per cent government holding in
PSBs.
e) Under the NDA regime, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha made
a valiant effort to get this recommendation accepted, but parliamentarians from
his own party blocked the move.
6. _______________. But
the number of insured people is only around 20% which is very less compared to
other countries. There could be many reasons for this shortfall such as lack of
awareness or the inability of companies to reach the masses. But the government
of India on its part has taken many steps to increase insurance penetration.
a) India with a population of over 1 billion is the 2nd most
populous country in the world.
b) The government has brought many reforms in the insurance
sector, the above steps have helped more people to take up insurance policies.
c) In the coming years, we can be confident of seeing higher
growth in insurance penetration among Indians.
d) The biggest step taken by the government in recent years
was raising the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to 49% from the earlier 26%.
e) The amendment paved way for foreign insurance companies to
start operations in India by partnering with existing entities & offer more
products suited for Indian public.
7. Capitalism is a great
slave, but a pathetic master. This truth unfortunately gets lost in our chase
for that elusive dream. Especially in the west, the land that has been marketed
as the land of dreams - the great Western dream. It’s the dream of being
independent masters of our lives, of making big bucks and of being happy - even
if that happiness is being bought by money, which all of them chase out there.
____________.
a) That is what has made the rest of the world mindlessly
chase Westernism, not necessarily happiness or an ideal form of society.
b) All because the shop window looks very impressive and it
has been marketed very well.
c) Thus, the shop window of Westernism looks lucidly attractive.
d) However, this has been achieved as a result of more than
200 years of unbridled growth and exploitation.
e) No doubt, the West, on its part, has been fairly
successful in creating material comforts aplenty.
8. A long-standing
perspective on modernity - that a march toward it would lead progressively to
lessening of religious and related affiliations – has been discredited over a
period of time. ____________. For example, even a product of the information
revolution, the Internet, is used to hunt for marriage partners of a given
caste. Modern electoral politics is all about utilizing identities that predate
this modernity for political gain.
a) We have assumed erroneously that we know what modernity
is, thereby confusing its present character with what we wish it to be.
b) Confusing a wish with the reality on the ground might well
be called the Great Nehruvian Conceit — we are all part of this.
c) It frequently goes back to the past and incorporates
elements from long-forgotten eras into its unfolding present.
d) Modern technologies - such as television - feed growing
religious appetites.
e) We have too easily assumed a linear narrative for
modernity, even more so if we clearly observe that it consists of bits and
pieces from different historical periods, and that it unfolds in a circular
rather than linear manner.
9. _______________. The
vast majority of those who backed him, those who gave the BJP he led a clear
mandate in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, bought his words of hope in to, and
believed he could bring in much-needed change and put the country back on a
trajectory of growth and development. On the first anniversary, some of the
promises remain as proposals and many others appear too remote with little or
no chance of coming to fruition in the next four years.
a) As the previous Congress-led government ended its term
entwined in scams and scandals, Mr. Modi marketed himself as everything his
predecessor Manmohan Singh was not, and sought to represent the varied
aspirations of whole classes of people.
b) Having come to power on the strength of mega-promises
centered on the prospect of ache din for all, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
cannot but feel the weight of popular expectations on his government after an
uneventful first year.
c) To the government’s credit, inflation is down.
d) PM Modi wanted to offer much more than a concrete
programme of action; he wanted to present a vision of the future, a vision of
India taking its place as an economic superpower in the first world.
e) Falling international oil prices might have had a role as
also the resoluteness of the Reserve Bank of India in not lowering interest
rates, but the government kept a close watch on food prices.
10. We today revel in the
idea that we are living in a world of science and science can work wonders for
us. It is evident that science has revolutionized modern life. What our
forefathers, half a century ago, could not even dream of, we have that on our
beck and call. _______________. A button is pressed, the room gets flooded with
light; the fan moves, the A.C. Cools or warms the room, water is boiled or
cooled even is frozen, eatables can be preserved for days.
a) Artificial limbs can be fitted into the disabled bodies,
even kidneys, and hearts are being performed.
b) Means of communication- The fax, The E-mail, The mobile
smart phones are really wonderful means given to us by science.
c) Electricity is a wonder and what it is doing would have
appeared to be a fairy tale for our forefathers.
d) Human labor has been minimized but that has led to a more
luxurious living and lens of physical activity.
e) The worlds is getting exposed to the situations of great
alarms and dangers. GMOs are good for some crops and not so for others. Wild
varieties cannot be allowed to go extinct.
Answers:
1. Answer: d)
Option d) is correct answer since in
the beginning of the passage it is explaining about the worst case of the
economic situation. So, option d) is explaining about negative growth of
economic condition while others are explaining the ways to improve the economic
state.
2. Answer: e)
Option e) is correct answer since in
the beginning of the passage it is explaining about the Africa and its region.
So, option e) will give a coherent passage since others are describing about
Livingstone.
3. Answer: a)
Option a) is correct answer since in
the paragraph is explaining about the Energy. So, option a) will be perfect
choice for starting the passage.
4. Answer: b)
Option b) is correct answer since in
the paragraph is describing about the financial status. So, option b) is opt
for the blank since it explains the myth of the financial situation and makes
the paragraph complete.
5. Answer: c)
Option c) is correct answer since in
the paragraph is giving details about the reformation of PSBs. So, option c) is
fit to the blank and makes the paragraph coherent.
6. Answer: a)
Option a) is correct answer since the
paragraph gives details insurance scheme among people. So, option a) will be a
perfect sentence for starting the passage since it describe about the people
which is followed in next sentence.
7. Answer: e)
Option e) is correct answer since the
passage gives some facts about capitalism. So, option e) will be a correct
option for that blank since it makes the paragraph meaningful.
8. Answer: d)
Option d) is correct answer since the
passage explains about the modernity. So, option d) will be correct answer
since it makes the paragraph coherent which gives the continuation of previous
sentence.
9. Answer: b)
Option b) is correct answer since in
the paragraph is describing about the development that was done during the past
year by PM Narendra Modi. So, option b) is a correct sentence which gives
correct starting for the paragraph.
10. Answer: c)
Option c) is correct answer since in
the paragraph is giving details about technology improvement in science. So,
option c) is exact sentence which makes the paragraph meaningful.
