English Questions: Fill in the Blanks (NEW PATTERN) Set-117

Direction (1-10): In each question below a sentence is given with three blanks in each. Each question is followed by four options with two words in each. You have to select that option as your answer which can fill the blanks of the sentence.

1. A week is a long time in politics. In business, especially one as rapidly evolving as mobile telecommunications, a year can be an ________________ . So for the Vodafone Group’s Indian unit and Idea Cellular Ltd., which had in March 2017 announced an agreement to merge, last week’s approval of the ________________ union by the Department of Telecommunications came not a day too soon. The changes in the industry landscape over the intervening 16 months have been dramatic. The market has ________________ marginally in terms of overall subscriber numbers — from 1.17 billion on March 31, 2017, to 1.13 billion at the end of May this year.
   perpetuity, opposed, congenital
   eternity, proposed, contracted
   aeon, improvised, amplified
   infinitude, dissuaded, extended
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

2. Good sense seems to have ________________ at last. The Centre has cleared the elevation of Justice K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court, seven months after the five-member ________________ first recommended his appointment. The Centre had no option but to elevate the Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice once the collegium reiterated its original recommendation after the Law Ministry returned his name. The collegium had combined its reiteration of his name with two other names so that three Chief Justices could be ________________ in one go. The Centre’s objections to Justice Joseph’s candidature were unconvincing from the very beginning.
   triumphed, bench, outrageous
   endured, chamber, descendant
   prevailed, collegium, elevated
   surmounted, panel, ignoble
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

3. The process of putting together a regulatory framework for electronic commerce in the country is finally ________________ . A task force of the Union Commerce Ministry has submitted the draft National Policy on Electronic Commerce, which will now be studied by a 70-member think tank chaired by Suresh Prabhu, the Union Commerce, Industry and Civil Aviation Minister. India’s e-tail business, estimated to be worth around $25 billion, is still a ________________ of the overall retail sector in the country, but it has been witness to some ________________ activity of late, including the merger between home-grown, but Singapore-based, Flipkart and global giant Walmart.
   slowing up, fraction, tranquil
   dragging out, fraction, serene
   slowing down, fraction, rational
   speeding up, fraction, frenetic
   All are Correct
   Option D
   

    

4. If we accept that politics is about pragmatism, about managing ________________ , about defusing difficult situations, and keeping a sharp eye out on the prevailing political winds, then the Union Cabinet’s decision to amend the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act appears both reasonable and unavoidable. It is arguable that no ________________ at the Centre could have ignored the massive Scheduled Caste protests against the Supreme Court verdict that was perceived as diluting the provisions of the 1989 law. With the call for a nationwide shutdown on August 9, one that an NDA constituent, the Lok Janshakti Party led by Ram Vilas Paswan, had threatened to join, the Centre was ________________ into acting quickly.
   perceptions, dispensation, goaded
   notions, limitation, discouraged
   visions, combination, prevented
   conceptions, interdiction, promiscuous
   All are Correct
   Option A
   

    

5. The Union Health Ministry’s ban on the retail sale and private manufacture of oxytocin, ________________ to kick off on September 1, is an extremely ill-thought-out one. The drug, a synthetic version of a human hormone, is a life-saver for women. Doctors use it to induce labour in pregnant women and to stem postpartum bleeding. So critical is its role in maternal health that the World Health Organization recommends it as the drug of choice in ________________ haemorrhage. The government’s ban ignores this, and is motivated instead by the misuse of the hormone in the dairy industry. Because oxytocin ________________ lactation in cattle, dairy farmers inject the drug indiscriminately to increase milk production.
   anticipated, prenatal, dampens
   expected, postpartum, stimulates
   presumed, antepartum, quenches
   predictable, perinatal, daunts
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

6. The decision by the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee to raise benchmark interest rates again by 25 basis points is a ________________ one. This is the second successive rate increase in as many months, a response to mounting uncertainties on the inflation front. Continuing volatility in crude oil prices, the recent softening notwithstanding, and its vulnerability to geopolitical tensions and supply disruptions is one of the main risks to the inflation outlook. Among the RBI’s other concerns are ________________ global financial markets, possibilities of fiscal slippage at the Central and State levels, the likely impact of the increase in the minimum support price for kharif crops, and the ________________ impact of upward revisions to house rent allowance paid by State governments.
   sagacious, firm, steady
   judicious, reliable, persistent
   prudent, volatile, staggered
   cautious, placid, consistent
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

7. Talks between ________________ of Syria’s Kurdish rebels and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus bring a ray of hope to hundreds of thousands living in the country’s north and east. After the talks last week, leaders of the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said they were ready to work with the ________________ towards creating “a democratic, decentralised Syria with a new system and a new form”. This was the first time since the outbreak of war that a ________________ was sent by Kurdish rebels to Damascus.
   delegates, government, acquisition
   deputies, administration, detention
   proxies, regimen, retention
   representatives, regime, delegation
   All are Correct
   Option D
   

    

8. At ________________ of four million, the number of those excluded from the second draft of the National Register of Citizens published on Monday has ________________ great anxiety about the legal status of so many individuals. As with the first list published on December 31, 2017, the publication of the final draft before the Supreme Court-mandated and monitored exercise moves to the next phase of claims and objections wasn’t accompanied by major turbulence. And this despite ________________ doubts over whether the process was indeed foolproof, or even warranted.
   above, wakened, hasty
   upwards, sparked, lingering
   upstream, flashed, snappy
   more, aroused, fleeting
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

9. The outcome had been ________________ long before Cambodia went to the polls on Sunday, with Prime Minister Hun Sen ensuring his return by keeping key Opposition leaders out of the fray and ________________ the media. The next morning, a spokesperson for his Cambodian People’s Party was smugly claiming it had won all 125 parliamentary seats, renewing its mandate for another five years. Despite official estimates of turnout in excess of 80%, the CPP’s victory is hollow. Mr. Hun Sen, who has been at the helm since 1985, left nothing to chance to see that his party was effectively uncontested. Voters were threatened with punishment if they responded to calls for an election boycott. A number of dummy parties joined what international observers called a ________________ election.
   guaranteed, gagging, pure
   certified, snouting, legitimate
   ensured, muzzling, sham
   affirmed, mawing, genuine
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

10. Given the ________________ amounts of personal data being collected by private companies and state agencies, and their flow across national jurisdictions, the absence of a data protection legal framework in India has been a cause for deep ________________ . This is even more so because in many cases individuals whose data have been used and processed by agencies, both private firms and state entities, are oblivious to the purpose for which they are being harnessed. The need for legislation was also ________________ last year with the landmark judgment in Justice K.S Puttaswamy v. Union of India that held the right to privacy to be a fundamental right.
    tremendous, solicitude, despised
    immense, anxiety, excluded
    enormous, regard, unheeded
    vast, concern, underlined
    All are Correct
    Option D