English Test for IBPS Clerk 2018 Prelim Exam Set – 26

Directions(1-5): In each of the following questions there are sentences. There is 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.

1. (A) Britain in 2018 has the feel of a Netflix drama approaching its season finale. It’s the classic /(B) “how on earth does anyone get out of this one?” kind of cliffhanger, /(C) with all of the key protagonists confronted by their nemesis. Despite the unpredictability inherent in one of Britain’s most severe peacetime political crises, there is one plotline guaranteed to feature when you next tune in. /(D) In every possible scenario the ascendant far right stands for profit.
   A
   B
   C
   D
   NE
   Option D
   for = to

    

2. (A) Theresa May has challenged Jeremy Corbyn to debate her Brexit plan on TV, and he wants to do it before the final of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. /(B) This is surprising. No one can quite understand why she has done it. She can’t be expecting to use it to sell her deal: /(C) she is tied down by facts while her opponent can claim he would bring home any manner of fairytale alternatives. /(D) She can’t expecting to charm the audience: her public speaking style is after all somewhere between a defendant in the dock and a supermarket self-service machine.
   A
   B
   C
   D
   NE
   Option D
   can’t be

    

3. (A) The rhetoric of the likes of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Steve Bannon and other figures in the ascendant populist right might not openly embrace “white power”, /(B) but there is no doubt that open white racists have emboldened by them. Trump may have not wanted Richard Spencer (who coined the term “alt right”) /(C) to gleefully exclaim: “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory” just after the 2016 US election, /(D) but he was not particularly bothered by it either.
   A
   B
   C
   D
   NE
   Option B
   have = have been

    

4. (A) I was 29 when my brother-in-law casually said to me: “It would be nice if one day you could make use of your education.” /(B) I had a degree and an MA in creative writing which, as far as I was concerned, /(C) I used every day – reading novels, trying to write novels, arguing about politics, interpreting the subtle meanings in French cinema, and generally leading an examined life. /(D) But my brother-in-law, who left school at 18, didn’t understand why, as a journalist, I was bringing home less than half the salary he earned in the hospitality industry.
   A
   B
   C
   D
   NE
   Option E
   

    

5. (A) The mass evacuation of children from British cities to rural areas laid bare the abysmal lack of education many had received. /(B) The government response was the 1944 Education Act, which established what we now call state-maintained /(C) comprehensive schools and free, compulsory education to the age of 15. Free, as in not requiring parental fees. It was a change the then education minister, Rab Butler, would describe in the House of Commons as characterised by “dignity”; /(D) but 75 years later, under cover of Brexit, this basic pillar of our postwar order is being quietly eroded, with “free” schools asking parents if they can make a contribution to help meeting the chronic funding shortfall they are facing.
   A
   B
   C
   D
   NE
   Option D
   meeting = meet

    

Direction (6-10): 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.

6. David Cameron’s subsequent governments _______________ Labour’s “uncontrolled immigration”, and portrayed the movement of people to the UK solely as a problem to be _______________ , while setting impossible targets on numbers that were not even close to being met. Theresa May, then home secretary, was the most ardently anti-migrant member of his cabinet, notoriously sending “Go home” vans to mixed communities.
   indicted, excepted
   denounced, contained
   absolved, excluded
   excused, vented
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

7. It is a welcome change in direction: a handbrake turn, almost. Some have pointed out it is at odds with the prime minister’s most recent line of argument: people are _______________ with Brexit, enough, let’s get on with it. “Nothing to see here,” one might continue. This is of course a fairly obvious attempt at dodging scrutiny, and if her debate idea is an about-turn that should be welcomed. The public may well be _______________ with Brexit but, if they are, it is the job of politicians and the media to catch their interest.
   weary, weary
   irritated, irritated
   bored, bored
   annoyed, annoyed
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

8. Obama is not a perfect human being, nor was he a perfect US president. But it’s impossible to deny his qualities. He is intelligent, _______________, witty, plain-speaking, empathetic and has a loving relationship with his family. Obama is also a man who was not born into wealth and power, and worked hard to make something of his life. Trump is the _______________ : incompetent, mendacious, rude and seemingly incapable of non-instrumental relationships.
   shabby, rescind
   clumsy, regression
   inane, converse
   competent, reverse
   All are Correct
   Option D
   

    

9. The IFS figures drew a predictable response from the universities minister Sam Gyimah, who cited “a clutch of courses at certain universities that are not delivering the financial outcomes for students” and _______________ sanctions for institutions that don’t improve students’ earning prospects. Last week, Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England, _______________ further education colleges of giving “false hope” to students on courses that leave them with unrealistic job prospects in the creative industries.
   threatened, accused
   prudent, respondent
   innocuous, arraigned
   alleviated, litigant
   All are Correct
   Option A
   

    

10. It has long been predicted that a two-tier system like this within schools would be _______________. As the sociologist Michael Young, who coined the term meritocracy, wrote in 1958, children who have “been labelled ‘dunce’ repeatedly … cannot any longer _______________; their image of themselves is more nearly a true, unflattering reflection”.
    wondrous, genuine
    disastrous, pretend
    triumphant, veritable
    fluky, refined
    All are Correct
    Option B