Directions: In the passage given below there are 10 blanks, each followed by a word given in bold. Every 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 work given in bold after the blank is your answer i.e “No change required”.
The latest chapter in the “Star Wars” saga, “The Force Awakens”, was due to open in cinemas worldwide on December 16th, after The Economist went to press. Most fans will _1_ (stand) to watch nail-biting lightsaber duels and catch up on the lives of beloved characters. Economists, who can _2_ (pervert)the most exciting of material dull, will be more interested in the state of the galactic economy. Did the destruction of the Death Star at the end of the sixth film in the series trigger a massive financial crisis, as a recent paper* by Zachary Feinstein, a professor of financial engineering at Washington University in St Louis, speculates? What sort of structural reforms might the new _3_ (mend)government adopt?
While awaiting answers to these and other important questions, The Economist undertook an exhaustive, popcorn-fuelled examination of the first six episodes of the_4_(caption), in search of broad economic lessons. The “Star Wars” galaxy is both technologically advanced and economically stagnant, plagued by inequality and _5_ (docile) political institutions. It is not entirely alien, in other words. Though far, far away, it offers three important lessons for residents of the Milky Way.
The first is the value of trade: the freer the better. Fans moaned in dismay when the opening _6_ (disapprove) of the first _7_ (sequel) dwelt on the details of a trade dispute. Yet in the distant galaxy, as in this one, trade conflicts are a rich source of dramatic tension. Among the most important technologies in the “Star Wars” universe is the hyperdrive, which allows travellers to evade the constraints of relativity and travel fantastic distances in a_8_(colossal). Without the hyperdrive, moving between even the closest star systems would take years or decades, even assuming travel at near-luminal speeds—making trade difficult and costly.
Hyperdriven trade, in turn, enables a higher level of income per person than would be possible in a galaxy of planetary autarky. Some planets—those with a diversity of species and resources—would do well enough in a tradeless galaxy. But those like the desert planet Tatooine or the ice planet Hoth would be barren without the possibility of imports from other worlds.
Trade allows _9_ (buoyant) planets to specialise in the production of valuable commodities—minerals in Tatooine’s case. Others can turn their entire surface over to farming, or to urbanisation (the imperial capital, Coruscant, is a planet-sized city). Richly endowed planets gain by specialising in industries in which they enjoy the biggest comparative advantage, using some of the proceeds to obtain goods or services they are not quite as good at producing themselves. At the same time, trade allows bleaker planets to export what resources they have in exchange for the imports needed to make them habitable—food, most obviously.
The gains from galactic trade are reduced, however, by the monopolies granted to powerful industry groups, such as the Trade Federation, which invades the peaceful planet Naboo in Episode I. Trade franchises are troubling for a number of reasons. They allow the monopolist to charge a premium, capturing benefits that would otherwise flow to producers or consumers. They encourage criminality by those seeking to _10_ (accept) the monopoly (like the smuggling of spice, a narcotic, by Han Solo, on behalf of the gangster Jabba the Hutt). And they encourage monopolists to devote valuable resources to rent-seeking. The Republic’s bureaucrats, we learn from Naboo’s then-senator, Sheev Palpatine, are “on the payroll of the Trade Federation”.
- A) find
B) dress
C) queue up
D) align
E) No Change Required
- A) remove
B) render
C) cipher
D) confuse
E) No Change Required
- A) encode
B) distort
C) galactic
D) whip
E) No Change Required
- A) saga
B) yarn
C) anecdote
D) parable
E) No Change Required
- A) placable
B) hard
C) relent
D) ossified
E) No Change Required
- A) assent
B) blurb
C) consent
D) support
E) No Change Required
- A) remake
B) franchise
C) prequel
D) series
E) No Change Required
- A) annal
B) jiffy
C) erasion
D) massive
E) No Change Required
- A) green
B) mirthful
C) desolate
D) consoled
E) No Change Required
- A) assist
B) accede
C) endure
D) circumvent
E) No Change Required
5/10
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