English
Language Practice Questions for IBPS Clerk Mains – Set 5
Directions (1 – 10): Read the following passage
carefully and answer the questions given below
About one billion people,
or 15 percent of the global population, practice open defecation and a large
portion of them are in India. Much of the poor hygiene practiced in India is
deeply influenced by the country's discriminatory caste system. Due to
the lack of proper drainage systems, manual scavenging (cleaning human waste by
hand) was designated to the lowest caste Dalits, earning them the name “the
untouchables”. After decades of campaigning and improving sanitation systems,
in 2013 Indian lawmakers passed the Prohibition of Employment of Manual
Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, criminalising the practice of
employing individuals to clean manually, carry, dispose of, or handle human
excreta from dry latrines, open drains, or pits and sewers.
According to a report by
the Asian Human Rights Commission in 2015, however, many rural households in
India continue to engage in manual scavenging, finding that the continued
practice has less to do with poverty than with enduring caste-based
discrimination.
Sanjay Kumar Chaudhary
writes at Countercurrents: “Manual scavengers are among the most excluded and exploited
communities among the Dalits. They are considered to be the lowest in Hindu
caste hierarchy and, therefore, suffer multiple forms of discrimination and
social exclusion at the hand of caste Hindus and the state's functionaries.
They are found in almost all cities of India—where they sweep the streets and
manually engage in carrying night-soil. Women from these communities are the
worst victims as they constitute more than eighty percent of the workforce of
manual scavengers. Apart from the social stigma that they suffer, their work is
low-paid. Further, it causes various health problems, those who engage in this
work being exposed to the most virulent forms of viral and bacterial infections
that affect their skin, eyes, limbs, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems.”
A ground report produced
by the international media and human rights organisation Video Volunteers
reveals that the practice continues unabated in Gujarat, which earlier declared
itself free from manual scavenging. In the video uploaded by Video Volunteers,
three young manual scavengers on Surendranagar Street in Dhangadra town, in
Gujarat, can be seen entering chest-deep into a sewer without any protective
gear: no gloves, no masks, and no machines. They are unaware that the Dhangadra
Municipality, their employer, is legally bound to provide them with safety
gear.
As per the Video
Volunteers report: “When visual evidence was presented to Charuben Mori, the
Chief Executive Officer of the Dhangadra Municipality, she refused to take cognizance
of it and said, “We don’t endorse or promote illegal practices such as manual
scavenging.” On being asked why safai karmacharis weren’t provided safety gear,
Mori refused to take responsibility and instead, shifted the blame onto the
contractors saying, “These are not our employees so we do not know about their
working conditions. They are employed by the contractors”. The law is clear
that a person cannot be directly or indirectly (under contract) employed for
unprotected cleaning of sewers.
Activists have launched a
petition urging the government of Gujarat to take punitive action against the
officials responsible.
1. According
to the passage, why do many rural households still engage in manual scavenging?
a) Due to lack of a proper drainage
system
b) Due to poverty preventing rural
households from upgrading their drainage system
c) Due to high unemployment levels in
the backward castes in rural areas
d) Due to caste-based discrimination
e) None of the above
2. Which of
the following is NOT a negative effect of scavenging?
a) Respiratory infections
b) Cancer
c) Skin infections
d) Gastrointestinal viral diseases
e) None of the above
3. Which of
the following is true according to the information given in the passage?
a) If a municipality hires a
contractor to clean the sewers and the contractor hires workers to do manual
scavenging, then the municipality is not personally liable
b) Gujarat is free from incidents of
manual scavenging
c) Twenty percent of manual
scavengers are men belonging to upper castes
d) More than one of the above
e) None of the above
4. Why did
the author include the example of manual scavenging in Dhangadra?
a) To show how officials are
complicit in encouraging manual scavenging
b) To show how manual scavenging
persists even in areas which claim to be free from it
c) To show how the people responsible
for cleaning sewers are unaware of their rights
d) To show how manual scavenging is
done
e) None of the above
5. Why does
the author say that women suffer the most from manual scavenging?
a) The author does not say that women
suffer the most from manual scavenging
b) Women are subjected to greater
social restrictions if they are employed as manual scavengers
c) They are more susceptible to the
infectious conditions that commonly accompany manual scavenging as compared to
men
d) They form a majority of workers
performing the job of manual scavenging
e) None of the above
6. Which of
the following courses of action does the author recommend to address enduring
manual scavenging?
a) The author does not recommend any
course of action
b) The author recommends taking
action against officials who don’t put a stop to manual scavenging in their
area
c) The author recommends stricter
provisions in the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their
Rehabilitation Act
d) The author recommends banning open
defecation
e) None of the above
7. Which of
the following words is most similar in meaning to the word “discriminatory” as
used in the passage?
a) open-minded
b) impartial
c) invidious
d) platitudinous
e) volition
8. Which of
the following words is most opposite in meaning to the word “enduring” as used
in the passage?
a) evanescent
b) durable
c) persistent
d) likeable
e) abhorrent
9. Which of
the following words is most similar in meaning to the word “exploited” as used
in the passage?
a) loathed
b) victimised
c) advantaged
d) segregated
e) parasites
10. Which
of the following words is most opposite in meaning to the word “cognizance” as
used in the passage?
a) accepting
b) ignorance
c) defining
d) remark
e) charge
Directions (11 – 15): A paragraph comprising of six
sentences is jumbled. Re-arrange the sentences in the correct order and answer
the questions that follow:
1) This group of islands
is composed of small coral islands.
2) You have already seen
that India has a vast main land.
3) Earlier they were
known as Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindive.
4) Can you identify these
island groups?
5) Besides this, the
country has also two groups of islands.
6) Locate the Lakshadweep
Islands group lying close to the Malabar coast of Kerala.
11. Which
of the following would be the SECOND SENTENCE after the rearrangement?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
12. Which
of the following would be the THIRD SENTENCE after the rearrangement?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
13. Which
of the following would be the FIRST SENTENCE after the rearrangement?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
14. Which
of the following would be the FIFTH SENTENCE after the rearrangement?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
15. Which
of the following would be the SIXTH SENTENCE after the rearrangement?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
Answers with Explanations:
1. D) In the second paragraph it is given
that “finding that the continued practice has less to do with poverty than with
enduring caste-based discrimination.” Hence, option D.
2. B) The
passage states that “it causes various health problems, those who engage in
this work being exposed to the most virulent forms of viral and bacterial
infections that affect their skin, eyes, limbs, respiratory and
gastrointestinal systems.” Hence, options a, c and d are given in the passage.
Option B is not given in the passage and hence is the right answer.
3. E) None
of the statements is true according to the passage. Options a and b are untrue
according to the information given in the passage. Option C is not stated in
the passage and contradicts the information given in the passage. Hence, option
E.
4. B) Though
the officials did not take action to stop manual scavenging, we cannot say that
they encouraged manual scavenging. Hence, we can rule out option A. The point
of the passage is to stop manual scavenging and not show how it is done. Hence,
we can eliminate option D. The author gives the example of Dhangadra because
its states Gujarat claims to be free from manual scavenging even though that is
not true. Hence, the most appropriate option is option B.
5. D) The
author states that “Women from these communities are the worst victims as they
constitute more than eighty percent of the workforce of manual scavengers”.
Hence, option D.
6. A) The
author does not recommend any course of action. The passage restricts itself to
describing the current state of manual scavenging in India without going into
how to stop it. Hence, option A.
7. C) Discriminatory
means biased, unfair or unjust. The word closest in meaning is invidious which
means unfair and unjust. Hence, option C.
8. A) Enduring,
as used in the passage means something that persists. The word most opposite in
meaning is evanescent that means something that is fleeting or temporary.
Hence, option A.
9. B) Exploited,
as used in the passage, means ill-treated or victimised. Hence, option B.
10. B) Cognizance,
as used in the passage, means knowledge or awareness of something. Hence, the
word most opposite in meaning would be “ignorance”.
(11 – 15): The correct order of sentences in the
rearranged paragraph is as follows:
1) You have already seen
that India has a vast main land. (closes the previous topic)
2) Besides this, the
country has also two groups of islands. (introductory line to the paragraph)
3) Can you identify these
island groups? (The previous line refers to "island groups")
4) Locate the Lakshadweep
Islands group lying close to the Malabar coast of Kerala.(Activities of
identifying and locating the islands is being done)
5) This group of islands
is composed of small coral islands. (Refers to Lakshadweep Islands)
6) Earlier they were
known as Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindive. (Continuation of Lakshadweep Islands'
description)
There is no specific
closing line to the paragraph. So, the sequence has to be determined from the
flow of ideas from one sentence to the next.
11. E) 12. D) 13. B)
14. A) 15. C)
