English Sectional Test 3 for SBI PO 2019 Prelim Exam

Directions(1-10): Read the following passage and answer the questions that follows.

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways, our social statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930‘s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mitigated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies. Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected. As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate—that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.

1. Which of the following is the principal topic of the passage?
   What causes labor market pathologies that result in suffering
   Why income measures are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty
   Which of the currently used statistical procedures are the best for estimating the incidence of hardship that is due to unemployment
   Where the areas of agreement are among poverty, employment, and earnings figures
   How social statistics give an unclear picture of the degree of hardship caused by low wages and insufficient employment opportunities
   Option E
   

    

2. The author uses “labor market problems” to refer to which of the following?
   The overall causes of poverty
   Deficiencies in the training of the work force
   Trade relationships among producers of goods
   Shortages of jobs providing adequate income
   Strikes and inadequate supplies of labor
   Option D
   

    

3. The author contrasts the 1930‟s with the present in order to show that
   more people were unemployed in the 1930‟s
   unemployment now has less severe effects
   social programs are more needed now
   there now is a greater proportion of elderly and handicapped people among those in poverty
   poverty has increased since the 1930‟s
   Option B
   

    

4. Which of the following proposals best responds to the issues raised by the author?
   Innovative programs using multiple approaches should be set up to reduce the level of unemployment.
   A compromise should be found between the positions of those who view joblessness as an evil greater than economic control and those who hold the opposite view.
   New statistical indices should be developed to measure the degree to which unemployment and inadequately paid employment cause suffering.
   Consideration should be given to the ways in which statistics can act as partial causes of the phenomena that they purport to measure.
   The labor force should be restructured so that it corresponds to the range of job vacancies.
   Option C
   

    

5. The author‟s purpose in citing those who are repeatedly unemployed during a twelve-month period is most probably to show that
   there are several factors that cause the payment of low wages to some members of the labor force
   unemployment statistics can underestimate the hardship resulting from joblessness
   recurrent inadequacies in the labor market can exist and can cause hardships for individual workers
   a majority of those who are jobless at any one time to not suffer severe hardship
   there are fewer individuals who are without jobs at some time during a year than would be expected on the basis of monthly unemployment figures
   Option B
   

    

6. The author states that the mitigating effect of social programs involving income transfers on the income level of low-income people is often not felt by
   the employed poor
   dependent children in single-earner families
   workers who become disabled
   retired workers
   full-time workers who become unemployed
   Option A
   

    

7. According to the passage, one factor that causes unemployment and earnings figures to overpredict the amount of economic hardship is the
   recurrence of periods of unemployment for a group of low-wage workers
   possibility that earnings may be received from more than one job per worker
   fact that unemployment counts do not include those who work for low wages and remain poor
   establishment of a system of record-keeping that makes it possible to compile poverty statistics
   prevalence, among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of families in which others are employed
   Option E
   

    

8. The conclusion stated about the number of people who suffer as a result of forced idleness depends primarily on the point that
   in times of high unemployment, there are some people who do not remain unemployed for long
   the capacity for self-support depends on receiving moderate-to-high wages
   those in forced idleness include, besides the unemployed, both underemployed part-time workers and those not actively seeking work
   at different times during the year, different people are unemployed
   many of those who are affected by unemployment are dependents of unemployed workers
   Option D
   

    

9. Which of the following, if true, is the best criticism of the author‟s argument concerning why poverty statistics cannot properly be used to show the effects of problems in the labor market?
   A short-term increase in the number of those in poverty can indicate a shortage of jobs because the basic number of those unable to accept employment remains approximately constant.
   For those who are in poverty as a result of joblessness, there are social programs available that provide a minimum standard of living.
   Poverty statistics do not consistently agree with earnings statistics, when each is taken as a measure of hardship resulting from unemployment.
   The elderly and handicapped categories include many who previously were employed in the labor market.
   Since the labor market is global in nature, poor workers in one country are competing with poor workers in another with respect to the level of wages and the existence of jobs.
   Option A
   

    

10. What, according to the passage, is the most suitable antonym of “countered”:
    thwarted
    retorted
    abetted
    barred
    rebutted
    Option C
    

     

Directions(11-15): In the passage given below there are 5 blanks. Every blank has four alternative words given in options (A),(B),(C), and (D). You have to tell which word is APPROPRIATE according to the context. If all are appropriate then mark your answer as “E”.

Cyclone Fani has left a trail of destruction across a large part of coastal Odisha, but its management has ___11___ as a global example of how timely weather alerts, preparedness and informed public participation can dramatically reduce loss of life. The toll from the extremely severe cyclonic storm on May 3 stood, at last count, at 34 deaths. In terms of material losses, several districts were ___12___, houses flattened and electricity and telecommunications infrastructure destroyed, but the relatively low mortality shows a dramatic transformation from the loss of over 10,000 lives in 1999 when super cyclone 05B struck. Odisha then worked to upgrade its preparedness, which was tested when very severe cyclonic storm Phailin struck in 2013. It was able to bring down the number of deaths to 44 then, in spite of a wide ___13___ of destruction: 13 million people were hit and half a million houses destroyed. The Odisha government and the Centre now have the task of rebuilding infrastructure. They should use the opportunity to upgrade technology, achieve cost efficiencies and build ___14___ to extreme weather, all of which can minimise future losses. Given the vulnerability of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to cyclones, the frequency and intensity of which may be influenced by a changing climate, the Centre should press for global environmental funding under the UN framework to help in the rebuilding. Both States have received funding from the World Bank in cyclone risk ___15___ efforts since 2011.

11. squander
    emerged
    dissolve
    fritter
    evanesce
    Option B
    

     

12. vulnerable
    protected
    battered
    inviolable
    monolithic
    Option C
    

     

13. lineage
    apprehend
    breed
    arc
    file
    Option D
    

     

14. resilience
    frailty
    tenacity
    solidity
    callosity
    Option A
    

     

15. hyperbole
    mitigation
    disruptive
    encumber
    exaggeration
    Option B
    

     

Directions(16-20): In each of the following questions there are sentences. There is an error in one of the parts. Mark the option which contains error parts as your answer. If no part contains error mark option E as your answer.

16. (A) This time it’s a full-blown state visit, rather than the brief smash and grab when Donald Trump insulted Theresa May, beefed with Sadiq Khan, /(B) and triggered a domestic mini-culture war because of blimp. /(C) The buildup to this week’s pageantry was trailed on Sky News with an advertisement featuring an animation of that Donald Trump blimp casting a shadow over London /(D) with the tag line “He’s back”, with ominous music accompanying it, as if the whole affair were some sort of comedy-horror Ghostbusters movie.
    A
    B
    C
    D
    NE
    Option B
    because of blimp = because of a blimp

     

17. (A) Labour’s position on a confirmatory referendum seems to shift daily, but even if every Labour MP backed one, /(B) we’d still need either government support, or Tory MPs breaking the whip. /(C) And there are still Labour MPs holding sincere reservations about the prospect, including colleagues /(D) I respect tremendously like Gloria De Piero and Lisa Nandy.
    A
    B
    C
    D
    NE
    Option E
    

     

18. (A) John Lydon got it wrong in 1977, when the Sex Pistols warned: /(B) “There is no future in England’s dreaming.” He was out for 40 years. /(C) England’s dreamtimes show no sign of coming to an end and Scotland, /(D) Wales and Northern Ireland are being dragged under with us.
    A
    B
    C
    D
    NE
    Option B
    for = by

     

19. (A) The catalyst for a week of recriminations was Labour winning just 14% of the vote, /(B) the worst performance in a nationwide election since 1910 when the party was still in its infancy. /(C) This was a bit better than the more catastrophic result for the Tories, but emotionally it has been /(D) more of a shock to Labour because at least the Conservatives had warning that they were going to be obliterated.
    A
    B
    C
    D
    NE
    Option E
    

     

20. (A) You don’t need to spend more time on Twitter /(B) to know that the surest way to upset certain people is to challenge their preferred version of events, /(C) but if you want to watch those people, by and large white, male Anglo-Saxons, explode in real time, /(D) the social media site does provide a ringside seat.
    A
    B
    C
    D
    NE
    Option A
    more = much

     

Direction (21-25): In each question below a sentence is given with two 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 both the blanks of the sentence.

21. He pointed his finger in friendly ______________ and went over to the parapet, laughing to himself. Stephen Dedalus stepped up, followed him wearily halfway and sat down on the edge of the gunrest, watching him still as he propped his mirror on the parapet, dipped the brush in the bowl and ______________ cheeks and neck.
    sob, eased
    jest, lathered
    bemoan, sedated
    bawl, appeased
    All are Correct
    Option B
    

     

22. Across the threadbare cuffedge he saw the sea hailed as a great sweet mother by the wellfed voice beside him. The ring of bay and skyline held a dull green mass of liquid. A bowl of white china had ______________ beside her deathbed holding the green sluggish ______________ which she had torn up from her rotting liver by fits of loud groaning vomiting.
    stopped, ataraxia
    be, pax
    stood, bile
    stand, safety
    All are Correct
    Option C
    

     

23. And what is death, he asked, your mother’s or yours or my own? You saw only your mother die. I see them pop off every day in the Mater and Richmond and cut up into ______________ in the dissectingroom. It’s a beastly thing and nothing else. It simply doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t kneel down to pray for your mother on her deathbed when she asked you. Why? Because you have the ______________ jesuit strain in you, only it’s injected the wrong way. To me it’s all a mockery and beastly. Her cerebral lobes are not functioning.
    duodenum, anointed
    casings, canonized
    entrails, blest
    tripes, cursed
    All are Correct
    Option D
    

     

24. Folded away in the memory of nature with her toys. Memories beset his brooding brain. Her glass of water from the kitchen tap when she had ______________ the sacrament. A cored apple, filled with brown sugar, roasting for her at the hob on a dark autumn evening. Her shapely fingernails reddened by the blood of ______________ lice from the children’s shirts.
    approached, squashed
    departed, squished
    receded, quelled
    answered, bruised
    All are Correct
    Option A
    

     

25. The key ______________ round harshly twice and, when the heavy door had been set ajar, welcome light and bright air entered. Haines stood at the doorway, looking out. Stephen haled his upended valise to the table and sat down to wait. Buck Mulligan ______________ the fry on to the dish beside him. Then he carried the dish and a large teapot over to the table, set them down heavily and sighed with relief.
    grazed, ranked
    scraped, tossed
    scuffed, arrayed
    marred, aligned
    All are Correct
    Option B
    

     

Directions(26-30): Rearrange the following SEVEN sentences (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and (F) in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph; then answer the questions given below.

A. The outcome, hence, must be understood as an electoral endorsement of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, the creed that guided the BJP and its forebears for nearly a century since Vinayak Damodar Savarkar wrote the treatise by the same title.
B. It takes strong personalities to popularise an idea, but it is those ideas that outlive personalities that define the course of a people or a nation.
C. In recess, if not in irreversible decline, is the idea of India that had grown from the freedom movement, and had prevailed for most part of the history of the Republic.
D. Mr. Modi, who counts Savarkar as a critical influence, has been the catalyst and the alchemist of the transformation in the way India imagines itself.
E. For good reasons, this result is being viewed as an endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s persona, and his imprint on this victory is distinctive.
F. If the 16th general election in 2014 catapulted the BJP as the primary pole of Indian politics, relegating the Congress to a distant second, 2019 establishes it as the overarching hegemon.
G. But it will be a folly to ignore the underlying structural reasons that made this victory possible, and its sweep so deep and wide.

26. Which of the following sentences should be the LAST after rearrangement?
    
    A
    B
    C
    D
    E
    Option C
    F-E-G-B-A-D-C

     

27. Which of the following sentences should be the FIRST after rearrangement?
    
    D
    E
    F
    G
    D
    Option C
    F-E-G-B-A-D-C

     

28. Which of the following sentences should be the SIXTH after rearrangement?
    
    A
    B
    C
    D
    E
    Option D
    F-E-G-B-A-D-C

     

29. Which of the following sentences should be the SECOND after rearrangement?
    
    A
    B
    C
    D
    E
    Option E
    F-E-G-B-A-D-C

     

30. Which of the following sentences should be the THIRD after rearrangement?
    
    C
    D
    E
    F
    G
    Option E
    F-E-G-B-A-D-C