English Language Practice Questions for IBPS Clerk/RBI Asst.
Mains – Set 1
Directions (1 – 5): Sentence given in each
question, when properly sequenced, from a coherent paragraph. The first and
last sentences are 1 and 6, and the four in between are labelled A, B, C and D.
Choose the most logical order of these four sentences for among the four given
choices to construct a coherent paragraph from sentences 1 to 6.
1. In the sciences, even questionable examples of
research fraud are harshly punished.
A. But
no such mechanism exists in the humanities — much of what humanities
researchers call research does not lead to results that are replicable by other
scholars.
B. Given
the importance of interpretation in historical and literary scholarship,
humanities researchers are in a position where they can explain away deliberate
and even systematic distortion.
C. Mere
suspicion is enough for funding to be cut off; publicity guarantees that
careers can be effectively ended.
D. Forgeries
which take the form of pastiches in which the forger intersperses fake and real
parts can be defended as mere mistakes or aberrant misreading.
6) Scientists fudging data have no such defences.
a) BDCA
b) ABDC
c) CABD
d) CDBA
e) DBAC
2. 1) Security inks exploit the same principle
that causes the vivid and constantly changing colours of a film of oil on
water.
A. When
two rays of light meet each other after being refelected from these dierent surfaces, they have each travelled slightly different
distances.
B. The
key is that the light is bouncing off two surfaces, that of the oil and that of
the water layer below it.
C. The
distance the two rays travel determines which wavelengths, and hence colours,
interfere constructively and look bright.
D. Because
light is an electromagnetic wave, the peaks and troughs of each ray then
interfere either constructively, to appear bright, or destructively, to appear
dim.
6) Since the distance the rays travel changes with
the angle as you look at the surface, different colours look bright from different
viewing angles.
a) ABCD
b) BADC
c) BDAC
d) DCAB
e) CBAD
3. 1) Commercially reared chicken can be unusually
aggressive, and are often kept in darkened sheds to prevent them pecking at
each other.
A. The
birds spent far more of their time—up to a third — pecking at the inanimate
objects in the pens, in contrast to birds in other pens which spend a lot of
time attacking others.
B. In
low light conditions, they behave less belligerently, but are more prone to
ophthalmic disorders and respiratory problem.
C. In
an experiment, aggressive head-pecking was all but eliminated among birds in
the enriched environment
D. Altering
the birds’ environment, by adding bales of wood-shavings to their pens, can
work wonders.
6) Bales could diminish aggressiveness and reduce
injuries; they might even improve productivity, since a happy chicken is a
productive chicken.
A. DCAB
B. CDBA
C. DBAC
D. BDCA
E. ABDC
4. 1) The concept of a ‘nation-state’ assumes a
complete correspondence between the boundaries of the nation and the boundaries
of those who live in a specific state.
A. Then
there are members of national collectivities who live in other countries,
making a mockery of the concept.
B. There
are always people living in particular states who are not considered to be (and
often do not consider themselves to be) members of the hegemonic nation.
C. Even
worse, there are nations which never had a state for which are divided across
several states.
D. This,
of course, has been subject to severe criticism and is virtually everywhere a fiction.
6) However, the fiction has been, and continues to
be, at the basis of nationalist ideologies.
a) DBAC
b) ABCD
c) BACD
d) DACB
e) CABD
5. 1) The reconstruction of history by
post-revolutionary science texts involves more than a multiplication of
historical misconstructions.
A. Because
they aim quickly to acquaint the student with what the contemporary scientific community
thinks it knows, textbooks treat the various experiments, concepts, laws and theories
of the current normal science as separately and as nearly seriatim as possible.
B. Those
misconstructions render revolutions invisible; the arrangement of the still
visible material in science texts implies a process that, if it existed, would
deny revolutions a function.
C. But
when combined with the generally unhistorical air of science writing and with
the occasional systematic misconstruction, one impression is likely to follow.
D. As
pedagogy this technique of presentation is unexceptionable.
6) Science has reached its present state by a
series of individual discoveries and inventions that, when gathered together,
constitute the modem body of technical knowledge.
a) BADC
b) ADCB
c) DACB
d) CBDA
e) CADB
Directions
(6 – 15): In the passage given below there are 10 blanks, each followed by a
word given in bolD. Each blank has four alternative words given in options A,
B, C and D. You have to tell which word will best suit the respective blank.
Mark E as your answer if the word given in bold after the blank is your answer
i.e “No change required”.
A (6) everlasting challenge
facing all of the world's countries, regardless of their level of economic
development, is achieving financial stability, economic growth, and higher
living standards. There are many different paths that can be taken to achieve these
objectives, and every country's path will be different given the distinctive
nature of national economies and political systems. The (7) ingredient contributing
to China's high growth rate over the past two decades have, for example, been
very different from those that have contributed to high growth in countries as (8)
varied as Malaysia and Malta.
Yet, based on experiences
throughout the world, several basic principles seem to (9) downgrade greater
prosperity. These include investment (particularly foreign direct investment),
the spread of technology, strong institutions, sound macroeconomic policies, an
educated workforce, and the existence of a market economy. Furthermore, a
common (10) denominator which appears to link nearly all
high-growth countries together is their participation in, and integration with,
the global economy.
There is (11)
primary evidence, from countries of different sizes and different
regions, that as countries "globalize" their citizens benefit, in the
form of access to a wider variety of goods and services, lower prices, more and
better-paying jobs, improved health, and higher overall living standards. It is
probably no mere (12) obvious that over the past 20 years, as
a number of countries have become more open to global economic forces, the
percentage of the developing world living in extreme poverty —defined as living
on less than $1 per day—has been cut in half.
As much as has been
achieved in connection with globalization, there is much more to be done.
Regional disparities (13) pursue: while poverty fell in East and
South Asia, it actually rose in sub-Saharan AfricA. The UN's Human Development Report notes there are still around 1
billion people (14) living on less than $1 per
day—with 2.6 billion living on less than $2 per day. Proponents of
globalization argue that this is not because of too much globalization, but
rather too little. And the biggest (15) security to continuing
to raise living standards throughout the world is not that globalization will
succeed but that it will fail. It is the people of developing economies who
have the greatest need for globalization, as it provides them with the
opportunities that come with being part of the world economy.
6.
a) inevitable
b) yearning
c) perennial
d) underlying
e) No change required
7.
a) ramifications
b) aftermath
c) surroundings
d) elements
e) No change required
8.
a) downtrodden
b) terse
c) haphazard
d) different
e) No change required
9.
a) upgrade
b) underpin
c) satisfy
d) predicted
e) No change required
10.
a) scenario
b) registered
c) drive
d) goal
e) No change required
11.
a) substantial
b) distorted
c) various
d) phenomenal
e) No change required
12.
a) incumbency
b) coincidence
c) judgement
d) situation
e) No change required
13.
a) provide
b) states
c) contemplate
d) persist
e) No change required
14.
a) surviving
b) flourishing
c) proliferating
d) thriving
e) No change required
15.
a) growth
b) threat
c) zenith
d) lull
e) No change required
Answers with Explanations:
1. C) The sentence following 1 should be C
as it continues the idea started in 1. A follows C and describes that lack of
punishment in Humanities. B follows A as it describes how humanities researchers
can get away with distortions. This is followed by sentence D.
2. B) BA
make combination (two surfaces- these different surfaces)
The statement in sentence
1 talks about how security inks use the same concept as that of oil on water.
The idea is continued in sentence B and then in A, by talking about how the
light is coming from two different surfaces and travelling two different
distances. The light coming from the two different surfaces then interferes
because it is an electromagnetic wave and produces the effect - bright colours.
So, the correct order of sentences is 1-B-A-D-C-2.
3. D) Only
B should follow (1)- darkened sheds, low light conditions.
The first sentence talks about how
commercially reared chicken are usually aggressive and hence are kept in
darkened sheds to prevent them from pecking at each other. This is because, in
low-light conditions, they behave less aggressively - this idea is mentioned in
sentence B.
However, altering the
environment in which the birds live, like adding bales of wood-shavings can
work wonders and prevent the birds from pecking each other. This is proved with
the help of an experiment in which birds in the enriched environment spent far
less time pecking each other, instead preferring to peck inanimate objects in
their pens. So, the correct order of sentences is 1-B-D-C-A-2.
4. A) The
opening sentence talks about the concept of "nation-state" assuming a
complete correspondence between the boundaries of nation and the boundaries of
those who live in a specific state. This has been the subject of severe
criticism and a fiction
everywhere. So, D follows 1. A-C is a link because, C continues the idea being
talked about in A by stating an even worse case. B precedes A because it starts
talking about people who live in particular states but are not considered to be
members of the hegemonic nation and A continues this ideA. The correct order of sentences is 1-D-B-A-C-2.
5. A)
6. C) 7. D) 8. E)
9. B) 10. E) 11. A)
12. B) 13. D) 14. A)
15. B)
