English: Sentence Fillers(Based on SBI PO Mains 2017) Set – 54

Directions: In each of the following questions a passage is given in which there is a blank. Choose the most logical and appropriate option from the five options given that can be filled in the blank.

1. The government’s reported move to set up an expert panel to look at decriminalising some of the offences in the Companies Act is a good idea. It will reduce the burden on trial courts and save time and expenses of a legal proceeding. The new system must be simple, rule-based and without any discretion that increases the chances for arbitrariness. True, the Companies Act defines what constitutes a fraud. But ________________________________________.
   a clear demarcation will be needed on what should be kept out of consent settlement to deter serious offences.
   neither the guilt of the party is established nor is innocence proven.
   officials charged of wrongdoing to pay compounding charges, and avoid criminal prosecution.
   penalties must also be commensurate with the offence, not harsh and disproportionate.
   None of these
   Option D
   

    

2. On July 15, Sunday evening, World Cup 2018 closed in great style. France, it will be recorded, is the new champion of global football. Tiny Croatia, ________________________________________and dominated much of the game, before falling 2-4 to the champions of 1998. Exhaustion had a role to play in Croatia’s defeat, after all.
   with a population less than aquarter of greater Delhi, is ranked second — deservedly —as it played with style
   saw otherwise stodgy Fifa, football’s global administrator, introduce the video assistant referee
   takes much ambiguity out of refereeing calls.
   seen in the stands in several games
   None of these
   Option A
   

    

3. The knee-jerk reaction follows a Bombay High Court directive asking the state government to file an affidavit on what steps it proposes to regulate ‘exorbitant’ prices of food items at multiplexes. Instead, ________________________________________. In any case, it’s not as if moviegoers use cinemas as restaurants. The purpose, lest there be any confusion, is to watch movies.
   the government is in the business to make profits.
   the government has set out to proactively damage Maharashtra’s multiplex industry.
   box-office collections and leverage revenue sources that include food and beverages — which account for 35-40% of their revenues — makes no sense.
   charges of predatory pricing, or cartelisation to prevent competition, can be genuine.
   None of these
   Option B
   

    

4. The Centre has pushed back the goal of a 3% fiscal deficit for FY2019, and slippage at the state level could push up the general government deficit in the medium term. An increase in government borrowings to fund loan waivers will crowd out private investment. And ________________________________________.
   the consequences of fiscal imprudence will be, without doubt, adverse for the country.
   there are gaps in the data on the goods and services tax.
   to improve realisations from state power distribution utilities and levy reasonable user charges to support fiscal consolidation and create the space to spend on health and education.
   getting state bonds rated on the basis of prudent fiscal performance could provide incentives for such changes
   None of these
   Option A
   

    

5. What happened in Lane 4 at the 400-m women’s final track at Ratina Stadium in Tampere, Finland, on Thursday may be ________________________________________At the 2018 World Under-20 Championships in Athletics, sprinter Hima Das tore down the tracks to win the first-ever gold for India in any world athletic championship.
   when she took to the blocks at Tampere.
   end up as a world-eating sporting nation, pulled by athletes like Das
   an apt metaphor for not just Indian sports but also the change in the way India looks at itself.
   ahead of the pack to see how far everyone else was, denied him a medal at the 400-m final in the 1960 Rome Olympics.
   None of these
   Option C
   

    

6. Used to, as most of us are, with the idea of ‘the more, the merrier’, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra’s rejection of majoritarianism in the form of letting a referendum decide the fate of decriminalising homosexuality is a useful ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ moment. In a parliamentary democracy, ‘majority’ — ________________________________________.
   holding the greater number —is imbued with protective significance.
   may have led to an understandable faith in the value of the ‘will of the majority’ in this variegated nation of ours.
   imposes the will of the majority on the rest.
   making same-sex relationships illegal, this meant that even if, out of ignorance or malice.
   None of these
   Option A
   

    

7. In this impending Gold Rush, regulation must ensure non-discriminatory pricing in the carrier-content universe. For example, ________________________________________, if that be the case — for consumers no matter where it is housed, whether in the network of the carrier that owns the app, or in other carriers’ networks.
   the right lessons from the US Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) reckless decision to roll back net neutrality.
   app should be charged for access.
   norms are based on the principle that internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all traffic equally.
   if a telecom carrier also owns a streaming app, the latter should be priced exactly the same — free
   None of these
   Option D
   

    

8. It is downright tragic — and the shame lies firmly here — that in circa 2018, the Government of India (GoI), as the representative of the Indian State, is caught prevaricating on abolishing the anachronistic, humiliating Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) ________________________________________. It can’t even afford the excuse of ignorance for its sad ho-humming.
   a reflection of the worries of many sections in society
   who dig their heels into social regression.
   that continues to make consensual same-sex sex illegal.
   that seeks to legalise eating as it may proactively encourage forcefeeding, food poisoning, obesity and other horrors.
   None of these
   Option C
   

    

9. But it’s ironic that a bulk of India’s higher education network — comprising 850 universities, 37,204 colleges and 11,443 stand-alone institutions — seem to be going the other way: more political interference, shrinking autonomy. ________________________________________
   a term far too easily bandied about as a sticker to slap on than as a genuinely globally competitive place for knowledge and innovation.
   What’s sauce for the selected ‘eminent’ geese should be sauce for the not-so-éminences grises.
   Higher education would be better served by creating the conditions that allow a larger number of institutions to be(come) ‘eminent’.
   Rather than creating pockets of resistance in a deteriorating knowledge economy.
   None of these
   Option B
   

    

10. On July 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, ________________________________________ to make 120 million handsets every year, up from 68-odd million today. Modi promised 1,000 new jobs from this expansion and 30% exports from the new-expanded unit.
    with a sub-billion dollar investment, does not an investment revolution make.
    lit lamps to a project that is expected to build up capacity for the Korean electronic and electrical giant Samsung
    is eager to get this facility up and working and is thwarted by red tape.
    turns out to be lover’s promises and discounted on bitter experience, a look at ground reality is a better indicator of how things are going.
    None of these
    Option B