Q1. (1) The MOEF projects itself as a professional ministry where executive decision making with regard to environmental clearances is exercised.
(2) The Ministry of Environment and Forests has brought back the quota licensing regime.
(3) Projects have to be cleared or refused on the basis of an objective criteria and not ministerial discretions.
(4) It is time heads of government took it upon themselves to establish in effective grievances redressal system.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q2. (1) Even London’s latest pet project – proving that Russia cannot host an Olympics as successfully as Beijing or London – could easily backfire.
(2) For more than two decades, August has been the most cruel month for Russian leaders.
(3) The August 1991 coup led to the departure of President Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of the Soviet Union.
(4) The August 1998 debt default and ruble collapse laid waste to President Boris Yeltsin’s free-market reforms and resulted in the sacking of his prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q3. (1) Commercial use of drones is banned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), although it makes some exceptions such as for hobbyists’ flights in unpopulated areas where the aircraft stays in sight of a human operator.
(2) These sites will help the FAA understand how to integrate UAS into American airspace, which Congress has told it to do by September 2015.
(3) It is believed that Amazon’s new project will pose a new challenge to the FAA operations.
(4) But the skies are opening up: by the end of December the FAA will select six UAS testing sites from a list of 25 applicants in 24 states.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q4. (1) The Assad regime depends on its patrons in Iran and the Iranian-backed Hezbollahmilitia in neighbouring Lebanon.
(2) The Sunni-led oppositions is similarly turning to its regional patrons.
(3) These regional players, with their own agendas, will keep pulling Syria apart until a functioning national government can be re-established.
(4) Syrian society is considered fractured and dissonant.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q5. (1) It has become something of a cliché to predict that Asia will dominate the twenty-first century.
(2) It is a safe prediction, given that Asia is already home to nearly 60% of the world’s population and accounts for roughly 25% of global economic output.
(3) Asia is also the region where many of this century’s most influential countries – including China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, and the United States – interact.
(4) These developments both reflect and reinforce heightened nationalism throughout the region.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q6. (1) This indicates a deep lack of concern for citizens on the part of the administrators.
(2) Before this year will have ended, the French parliament will have enacted a comprehensive pension overhaul, which is essential not only to putting France’s public finances on a sound and sustainable footing, but also to shoring up confidence in the Eurozone in 2014 and beyond.
(3) This effort has gained broad public acceptance because it was fair: both retirees and working people will contribute, as will companies and households.
(4) For the first time, pension reform has been carried out in France in continuous consultation with employers’ associations and trade unions.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q7. (1) The concept of “sustainable harmony” can be promoted by publishing indices of personal well-being and environmental preservation, alongside standard GDP data.
(2) The desire to help others without consideration for ourselves is not just a noble ideal.
(3) Selflessness raises the quality and elevates the meaning of our lives, and that of our descendants; in fact, our very survival may even depend on it.
(4) Studies have shown that individuals and societies can learn to be more altruistic.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q8. (1) The problem with charities is that they have little incentive to become more efficient.
(2) Yet the real value is in training people to deliver for themselves, at a local scale – empowered rather than controlled, creative rather than rehearsed, and working by choice rather than in desperation.
(3) There is no simple way to monitor the quality and efficiency of a charity – especially one devoted to long-term changes (that is, investments) rather than daily delivery of services.
(4) Since starting my own non-profit organization, I look at other nonprofits with new eyes.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Q9. (1) Nowadays, many people seem to be more relaxed than ever about nationality, with the Internet enabling them to forge close connections with distant cultures and people.
(2) But states remain extremely sensitive about their borders’ inviolability.
(3) A great game is beginning among Asia’s great powers, and there are scant rules in place to manage how it will be played.
(4) After all, territory – including land, oceans, air space, rivers, and seabeds – is central to a country’s identity, and shapes its security and foreign policy.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) All sentences are relevant.
Directions (10): In each question, there are five sentences or parts of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify the sentence(s) or part(s) of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms of grammar and usage (including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency). Then, choose the most appropriate option.
Q10. A. Maragadavalli was running her father’s household ever since her mother had died when she was 13.
B. It took a long time for her family to settle down after that, and she was 26 by the time she had got married.
C. With 13 years of running a household under her belt, she married into a family meticulously run by mother-in-law.
D. She liked the fact that there were servant maids to help with the housework.
E. She had very less to do around the house except cut vegetable and wait for her husband to come back from work.
(a) A only
(b) A and D
(c) A and E
(d) D only
(e) A, C and E
Directions (11-15): In the following, there are sentences or parts of sentence labelled A, B, C, D and E. Choose for your answer the fragment that carries an Error. Ignore punctuation error, if any.
Q11. A. And its equally important to spread the news about companies that treat working parents
B. with fairness and respect, so that we all can try to work at these companies,
C. and send a message to others treating working parents
D. justly is a valuable employee recruitment and retention advantage.
E. No error
(a) A
(b) B
(c) C
(d) D
(e) E
Q12. A. I’ve been in Delhi for four days now
B. and so far the stay had been uneventful,
C. barring a stray incident
D. where I walked into a lamppost and then walked around Connaught Place
E. with a bloody nose.
(a) A
(b) B
(c) C
(d) D
(e) E
Q13. A. To be a citizen is to possess the rights
B. enshrined in our constitution,
C. and equally, the obligation of duty.
D. When one citizen upholds an individual right for another,
E. he enacts his duty to himself.
(a) A
(b) B
(c) C
(d) D
(e) E
Q14. A. This study takes its place alongside earlier research showing
B. that kids who are allowed to serve their own food
C. take smaller portions that they would typically be served
D. and ate 25 percentage less, and that kids tend to eat more
E. when the portions on their plates have been double.
(a) A
(b) B
(c) C
(d) D
(e) E
Q15. A. Sixty years is too small a period to acquire new civilizational traits.
B. and to mould our DNA. When that happens, we will automatically
C. realize the importance of the rule of law, the true meaning of freedom and democracy
D. and then we will behave like citizens who will not allow anyone
E. to sell their votes, and MPs will not be on sold.
(a) A
(b) B
(c) C
(d) D
(e) E
Solutions
S1. Ans.(d)
Sol. The fourth sentence talks of grievance redressal mechanisms, whereas the rest of the sentences refer to the decision-making process of the government, with special reference to quota licensing. Thus option (d) is the irrelevant sentence.
S2. Ans.(a)
Sol. Sentence-A addresses London’s attempt at proving that Russia cannot host the Olympics. This is unlike the other three sentences that make direct references to the bad luck that the month of August brings to Russia in particular. Thus sentence (a) is irrelevant to the rest of the passage.
S3. Ans.(c)
Sol. Option (c) is the answer as it speaks of Amazon, which is unaddressed in the other three sentences that deal with the operations of the FAA in the American airspace. Thus (c) is the irrelevant sentence.
S4. Ans.(d)
Sol. While options (a), (b) and (c) describe the political regime in Syria, option (d) makes a remark about Syrian society, which is not in line with the theme followed by the rest of the sentences. Thus, it is the irrelevant sentence.
S5. Ans.(d)
Sol. First, option (d) is unspecific in the region it speaks of. Second, it brings up nationalism which has no continuity with the rest of the sentences’ ideas. Thus, it is the irrelevant sentence.
S6. Ans.(a)
Sol. Option (a) directly contrasts what has been said in the other options, which is appreciative and laudatory of the French parliament’s efforts at implementing a comprehensive pension overhaul. Thus, it is irrelevant in the given context.
S7. Ans.(a)
Sol. While option (a) does seem connected to the rest of the sentences, it is still the most irrelevant from among the options present. It is an extension of the concept of altruism in discussion in the question, in that it discusses ‘sustainable harmony’. Options (b), (c) and (d) hover around the same premise and thus constitute a consistent thought.
S8. Ans.(b)
Sol. Option (b) is the answer because it diverges into a different direction from the one author takes in the other three sentences in his/her assessment of charities. It does not express an idea similar to these other sentences. It is thus the irrelevant sentence.
S9. Ans.(c)
Sol. Option (a), (b) and (d) talk of interconnectedness and territorial concerns of countries across the world, in a broad way. There is no specific mention of any particular region or country. The mention of Asia’s power games and focus on it is what makes option C the irrelevant sentence.
S10. Ans.(d)
Sol. D only. A has a tense error – when since is used as conjunction to show the time the perfect tense is a must. The sentence should read “Maragadavalli had been running her father’s household ever since …”. Also there is ambiguity in “ … mother had died when she was 13.” B also has a tense error. “By the time she got married” rather than “she had got married” – the unnecessary shift in tense makes the sentence meaningless. E is incorrect. The intensifier ‘very’ is used incorrectly with the comparative less, it should read very little rather than very less.
S11. Ans.(a)
Sol. It’s should be used instead of its in the first part of the sentence.
S12. Ans.(d)
Sol. D should read as ‘in which I walked into …’ or ‘when I walked into …’
S13. Ans.(d)
Sol. the preposition ‘for’ should be corrected to ‘of’ – ‘right of another’, rather than ‘right for another’
S14. Ans.(d)
Sol. 25 percentage less is erroneous – 25 percent less is correct usage. Use the word “percent” with number; use “percentage” without using a number.
For example: 50 percent children, and a considerable percentage of children.
S15. Ans.(e)
Sol. We will not allow anyone to sell their votes has a problem in pronoun agreement, anyone is singular hence he or she should be used rather than the plural their. Sixty years as period is singular, hence the singular verb is correct.
