Mixed English Questions for Mains Exam— Set 154

Directions(1-5): 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. Subtext, rather than context, is everything. One of these new words is “controversial” and its derivatives. “Provocateur” is another. “Provocateurs” have “controversial” opinions that inspire “robust” debate. You see how there is no clue or indication as to the value, quality or intent of these ideas; __________________. In this system, “controversial” has itself become an attribute that imbues an opinion with value. Not only is orthodoxy a bad thing in an advanced civilisation, this implies; it is boring. Controversial now means different, unique, titillating, perhaps even quite brave. It does not matter what idea travels in the controversy vehicle, it will be entertained.
   they feel that intellectual discussion is being hindered by a culture of fear and self-censorship
   their entire merit is that they are polarising
   their own university administration
   their virtues, specifically in allowing those who feel marginalised to congregate and share their experiences
   None of these
   Option B
   

    

2. More than 12 million Muslims have effectively been taken prisoner in their own homeland, an area of north-west China officially referred to as Xinjiang, which means “New Dominion”. For tens of thousands, some estimate as many as one million, the imprisonment is literal. Concerned Xinjiang scholars, such as myself, ___________________. Partly as a result of these efforts, a network of huge “concentration re-education centres” in the desert has been revealed.
   are plunged into an environment that seeks to erase their culture
   are taught “vocational skills” – mostly menial labour such as packing tea leaves – to “prepare” them for their eventual release
   have helped document and expose the crisis unfolding there through simple but tedious research requiring hundreds of hours scouring Chinese government documents and satellite imagery
   they are denied regular contact with their extended family and removed from communities where Muslim and Central Asian norms shape daily life
   None of these
   Option C
   

    

3. I’ve been stopped and searched many times. None of them ever resulted in further action. One occasion that springs to mind is when I was 14 years old, walking alone along a street near my home, ____________________. I compliantly explained that the woman’s purse I carried was because my aunt had sent me to the local shop for groceries. The officers seemed sceptical but eventually released me.
   when the use of stop and search or lowering the level of suspicion an officer needs to conduct the procedure troubling
   when I was searched; it felt as though officers were fishing for a sign of wrongdoing
   when black people were stopped and searched for drugs at 25.6 times the rate of white people without evidence or proportionate result
   when three or four officers rushed towards me after jumping out of what we referred to as a “bully van”
   None of these
   Option D
   

    

4. The Democratic Unionist party will scrutinise the withdrawal agreement with a gimlet eye for any evidence that Theresa May has reneged on her commitments to it by granting a backstop agreement that could give Northern Ireland a special status within the UK. But the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, _______________. May’s political bedfellows have wasted no time in throwing their weight around and talking up their role in the confidence and supply agreement, signed after the Conservatives lost their majority in the 2017 election.
   should be careful not to overplay her hand
   have vetoed and slapped down Foster’s suggestions as party leader
   is exasperated by the party’s refusal to entertain the prospect of a backstop for the north
   talk of it emboldening paramilitary groups and dissident republicans pales
   None of these
   Option A
   

    

5. Today’s events for Purple Tuesday aim to bring about education and change, but in reality they are just a ruse to pretend that disabled people have a voice. The aim is to make businesses more aware of the opportunities and challenges posed by customers with disabilities, and to inspire them to make changes to improve our experience over the long term. But my peers and I know that ___________________.
   everyone was invited to that party but you
   it will take more than a PR exercise to really change the way we experience customer service
   we are still seen as an anomaly, not people to be considered
   taken seriously and properly understood
   None of these
   Option B
   

    

Directions(6-10): Each sentence below contains 3 blanks followed by 3 words given in a, b, c. You have to choose the sequence in which these words can fill the blanks of the sentence respectively.

6. Obesity and depression: a chicken-and-egg situation that ___________ and beguiles medical health professionals in surgeries and academic journals equally. Which truly comes first in this ouroboros of NHS resource drains – the incapacity to feel fully and ___________ with the world around you, or getting the 12-pack box of doughnuts instead of just the three because screw-it-I-___________ -some-happiness-today-don’t-I?
   a. deserve
   b. baffles
   c. interact
   abc
   bca
   bac
   cab
   None of these
   Option B
   

    

7. This is a beautiful shot of some __________, ochre autumn leaves ruined by a human tornado of __________ stupidity. That’s probably not what he is reflecting on. Much more likely it’s about the Paris not being in Germany thing. Remember how when the Macrons visited Washington they brought a gift of an oak tree that had __________ from a first world war battlefield? Neither does Trump.
   a. bigoted
   b. grown
   c. crisp
   abc
   bac
   cab
   bca
   None of these
   Option C
   

    

8. It isn’t fair, he said to use _________ “as an excuse not to make hard decisions in industry, which is going to cost the industry money.” Interestingly the former Tory communications chief _________ environmental campaigner Carrie Symonds, who is close to Gove, tweeted shortly after publication that government should now seriously consider halting the _________.
   a. turned
   b. cull
   c. badgers
   abc
   bac
   cab
   cba
   None of these
   Option C
   

    

9. As in 1985, she is blaming the agency’s budgetary problems, but – again, just like then – it is nothing but a ___________ for the Tories’ shameful ___________ with pleasing this US president. When the Trump administration announced its withdrawal from Unesco jointly with Netanyahu’s last year, it was explicit about the supposed “anti-Israel bias” that had driven its decision, by which it meant Unesco’s temerity in accepting the overwhelming vote of its members in 2011 to admit the state of Palestine as a full member. For Mordaunt to ___________ concerns over Unesco’s finances instead is not only to take the public for fools but also a surprisingly cowardly move for a minister who is usually willing to speak her mind.
   a. blame
   b. smokescreen
   c. obsession
   abc
   cab
   bca
   bac
   None of these
   Option C
   

    

10. The fact of Russian meddling in the 2016 United States presidential election is not in __________. The scale of complicity with the Trump campaign should soon be revealed by special counsel Robert Mueller. In the absence of an equivalent investigation in Britain, it is hard to know how much energy the Kremlin has put into influencing our own politics, but there are no prizes for guessing which side Vladimir Putin __________ for in the Brexit battle. Maybe Leave.EU’s Arron Banks was invited to boozy lunches in the Russian embassy, and __________ privileged access to goldmine investments because of his amiable manners. It is likelier he made the guest list as a financier of anti-EU propaganda.
    a. rooted
    b. offered
    c. doubt
    abc
    bac
    cab
    bca
    None of these
    Option C