English
Language Practice Questions for Bank/Insurance Exams (01 – 03 – 2018)
Directions (1 – 5): Which
of the words/phrases (a), (b), (c) and (d) given below should replace the
words/phrases given in bold in the following sentences to make it meaningful
and grammatically correct. If the sentence is correct as it is and ‘No
correction is required’, mark (e) as the answer.
1.
Many little white flowers in each cluster make up a large
umbel; and many umbels to a plant attract great numbers of
flies, small bees, and wasps, which sip the freely exposed nectar apparently
with only the happiest consequences, as they transfer pollen from
the male to the proterandrous hermaphrodite flowers.
a) crowd, pistils, penalties
b) Disperse, stamens, issues
c) collection, pollens, reasons
d) bunch, bushes, answers
e) No correction required
2.
Has Nature’s garden a more stylish ornament than the flowering dogwood,
whose spreading flattened branches whiten the Woodland margins in May as
if an untimely snowstorm had come down upon them, and in autumn paint the
landscape with glorious crimson, scarlet, and gold, dulled by judgement
only with the clusters of vivid red berries among the foliage?
a) decorative, borders, comparison
b) ugly, limits, evaluation
c) ornamental, restrictions,
association
d) delicate, precincts, involvement
e) No correction required
3. The
NGT ban has come basically on three grounds: One, Jantar Mantar is not
an authorized site for protests — there is no executive order that isolates
it as such; two, Jantar Mantar Road is marked as a residential area in the
Delhi Master Plan and hence cannot be allowed to be used for other purposes;
three, the protestors and agitators cause pollution, particularly noise
pollution, because of loose use of loudspeakers and amplifiers, public
address systems, drums etc.
a) Mostly, separates, intolerant
b) Primarily, demarcates, unregulated
c) In addition, discriminates, huge
d) Likely, limits, stereotypical
e) No correction required
4.
Interest rates can be deemed excessive high only in comparison
to some abstractly accepted benchmark of which are only two
in real life- the social rate of time preference; and the long-run
neutral real rate of interest.
a) Inflated, practically, survival
b) Cheap, in reality, nature
c) Exorbitantly, conceptually,
existence
d) Extreme, normally, subsistence
e) No correction required
5.
Ghoulish parasites, uncanny saprophytes, for their dishevelled roots
prey either on the juices of living plants or on the moldy matter
of dead ones, how weirdly beautiful and decorative, they are! The strange plant
grows also in Japan, and one can readily imagine how fascinated the native
artists must be by its corrupt charms.
a) Knotted, festering, blemished
b) Free, perishing, spotted
c) Open, stale, virtuous
d) Matted, decaying, chaste
e) No correction required
Directions (6 – 15): In
the following passage, certain words are bold. Some of the bold words are
incorrectly used either contextually or grammatically. From the options, choose
the word which can replace the word in bold in order to make the sentence
coherent and meaningful:
Where economic agenda is
concerned, Xi has (A) visualized many a
“first.” China’s economic growth slowed from 6.9% in 2015 to 6.7% in 2016,
which Xi has (B) hold as the “new normal.” Indeed,
China’s 13th Five Year Plan, with its (C) compulsion on
“rebalancing and restructuring” has set the target of 6.5% annual growth in
2017. This is a conscious move to slower but higher quality growth that will (D) ostensibly “trickle
down” to the poor.
Economists (E) diminish us
saying that China’s slowdown was “slow” only in China’s own growth context (in
2014, China was “regionally and globally the highest among major economies”)
and that with a “managed slowdown,” world-class infrastructure, whopping forex
reserves ($4 trillion), China is still far from Gordon Chang’s apocalypse, “the
coming collapse of China.”
Xi’s five-year term
(2012–17) has been action-packed with new (F) incentives and
ambitious plans running on parallel tracks along with the 13th Five Year Plan’s
ambitious National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014–20). Its goal was
urbanising “100 million people” boosting demand and co-opting a
280-million-strong migrant population into urban life. There is the ambitious
“Make in China 2025” intensive manufacturing plan, ambition to make China
innovation power by 2050 and a firm (G) commitment to
eliminate poverty, targeting the remaining 56 million rural poor (9.2% of the
population) by 2020.
Globally too, Xi’s One
Belt, One Road (OBOR) is footprinting the map, charting new land-based and
maritime routes through the central Asian backyard, all the way to Europe to
the shores of Africa. Under Xi, China has (H) leading the
first multilateral institution, the Asian Infrastucture Investment Bank (AIIB)
set up with an initial capital of $50 billion in 2015, with 57 countries,
including the United Kingdom (UK), France and Germany signing up as founding
members. The AIIB is seen as a possible (I) Countered to
Japanese-backed Asian Development Bank (ADB). A Silk Road Fund (state-owned
investment fund) had also been established at the end of 2014.
Indeed, overwhelmed by
these (J) breakneck developments, the China Daily
called Xi the “Chairman of Globalization.”
6.
a) Charted
b) Planned
c) Aided
d) Unabated
e) No correction required
7.
a) Apprehended
b) Embraced
c) Declared
d) Squeezed
e) No correction required
8.
a) Shove
b) Push
c) Thrust
d) Plunge
e) No correction required
9.
a) Hardly
b) Sadly
c) Superficially
d) Obviously
e) No correction required
10.
a) Sympathize
b) Assuage
c) Stress
d) Look down
e) No correction required
11.
a) Enterprises
b) Requiem
c) Plan
d) Initiatives
e) No correction required
12.
a) Vow
b) Promise
c) Dedication
d) Loyalty
e) No correction required
13.
a) Spearheaded
b) Enjoying
c) Organized
d) Followed
e) No correction required
14.
a) Ballast
b) Pose
c) Counterweight
d) Capriciousness
e) No correction required
15.
a) Hurried
b) Breakneck
c) Delayed
d) Exaggerated
e) No correction required
Answers with Explanations:
1. E) Option A: crowd is an incorrect way to talk about a ‘group’ of flowers.
Also, penalties cannot be described as ‘happiest’. Hence, Option A is
incorrect.
Option B: Blank 1
disperse is meaningless and this option can be eliminated.
Option C: Collection may
just fit in here so next we check the third blank. Reasons does not make any
sense and this option is incorrect.
Option D: Bunch looks
like an apt choice. However, answers does not make any sense in the third
blank. Hence this too can be eliminated.
This leaves us with the
original words as the answer. The sentences make sense only with the original
words.
2. A) Here, the lines preceding and succeeding the first blank indicate that
we are looking for a positive word. This eliminates Option B as ugly does not
fit the context.
Blank C needs a word
which enables the author to establish some sort of relation between the Dogwood
flowers and red berries. Involvement of option D can be eliminated as it is
absurd to suggest two types of flowers are involved. Association of option C
may be correct.
Blank B: Now out of
options A and C, C does not make any sense for this blank. 'Whiten the woodland
restrictions' is contextually meaningless. Hence, option C can be eliminated.
Option A: All blanks fit
in well and are contextually correct.
3. B) The original sentence is incorrect as blanks 2 and 3 do not make sense.
Option A: Blanks 2 and 3
are false
Option C: In addition is
followed by to. This is grammatically incorrect and can be eliminated.
Option D: Blanks 1 and 2
fit in. However, blank 3, stereotypical does not fit in and thus this option
can be eliminated.
Option B makes perfect
sense.
4. C) The original words are incorrect as blank 1 is grammatically incorrect.
Option A: Blanks 1 and 3
render the statement meaningless.
Option B: All blanks are
absurd and can be easily eliminated.
Option D: Blanks 1 and 3 are irrelevant.
Option C: All the 3
blanks make sense.
5. D) Option A: Blanks 1 and 2 seem suitable but blank 3 does not make sense.
Hence, this option can be eliminated.
Option B: Blanks 1 and 3
render the statement absurd and thus, this option is incorrect.
Option C: Blanks 2 and 3
seem a good fit but blank 1 does not make sense.
Option D: All the three
blanks make sense and this is the correct answer.
6. A) To chart something means to arrange for something/ to
come up with/ to concoct/ invent. This suits the blank and conveys the
meaning.
7. B) Embraced is the correct answer. To embrace is to willingly
welcome something and goes with the tone that China needs to acknowledge the
new reality and deal with it.
8. C) Here, the sentence wants to convey that 13th FYP will
have its focus on rebalancing and restructuring. Compulsion does
not go with the context of the sentence. Thrust conveys the meaning
well.
9. E) Ostensibly means apparently/supposedly. The author here
sounds skeptic of the benefits trickling down to the poor. Here,
the original word itself conveys the message while the other options do not
make sense.
10. B) The sentence conveys that some Economists try to console us/ put us at
ease by saying the current slowdown is “slow” only in China’s own growth
context. Assuage means to tone down something and make it look less
important. This fits in well here.
11. D) The original word incentives brings in a new
element. Nowhere in the sentence preceding or succeeding it has any special
incentive been mentioned. Thus, logically, incentives does not
seem correct. Initiatives looks apt here and conveys the meaning
correctly.
12. E) Target, whenever mentioned, is usually elaborated with some
figures. Here, we see no explanation. Commitment seems a perfect
fit. It is firmer than both vow and promise and
also does not have the need to specify a concrete target.
13. A) The sentence elaborates on steps taken by China under Mr Xi on the global
front. Spearheaded is the right fit. To spearhead something means
to lead/ initiate something.
14. C) The word counter in terms of meaning is correct. To
counter means to balance/ offset something. The sentence also conveys the same. However,
the usage is incorrect- ‘As a possible countered’ is incorrect
grammatically. We need to find a word which has the same meaning along
with correct usage. The perfect fit is counterweight which
means something giving balance.
15. B) The sentence conveys speed and is in a positive context. Breakneck means
rapid/ high speed and fits in well with the tone of the sentence.
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