Mixed English Questions for Mains Exam — Set 259

Directions(1-5): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

1. Paragraph 1: The “who’s who” of universities and research institutions published by the Human Resource Development Ministry, as the National Institutional Ranking Framework, 2018, should be viewed mainly as a proposition that data makes it possible to assign objective credentials to some aspects of education. Its assessment of some of the top institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, the IITs and the IIMs is unsurprising, given their record of research, peer-reviewed publications and outcomes for graduates.

   Paragraph 2: Even among the 3,954 institutions that participated, there is a clear skew towards southern, southeastern and western India. Participation levels are inadequate: there were 40,026 colleges and 11,669 standalone institutions according to the HRD Ministry’s All India Survey on Higher Education for 2016-17.

   Paragraph 3: To the faculty and students in many colleges, what matters is the vision of the administrative leaders and a commitment to excellence. The governing bodies should make available adequate financial and academic resources to colleges, particularly the younger ones, to help them improve performance. These are measured by the NIRF in terms of the percentage of faculty with doctoral degrees, papers published in credentialed journals, inclusivity and diversity of students, and median salaries for the graduates.

   1. As per paragraph 1, what does the author mean when he refers to the universities and institutions as “Who’s who”?

   He is trying to understand ‘who’ the list prepared by NIRF consists of.
   He is referring to the top institutions among all institutions mentioned in the list prepared by NIRF.
   He is asking the reader to fathom ‘who’ developed the list and the reasons behind it.
   Both A and C
   None of the above
   Option B
   Who’s who is basically used to refer to people/entities who/ which are important in a particular group. In this case, NIRF ranks all institutions and the topmost here have been referred to as who’s who.

    

2. As per paragraph 2, there is a skew towards which region/regions in terms of participation?

   I. North
   II. North-East
   III. Western
   IV. South –Eastern

   Only III and IV
   Only I, III and IV
   Only I, II and IV
   Only I, II and III
   Only II, III and IV
   Option A
   Refer to: ‘Even among the 3,954 institutions that participated, there is a clear skew towards southern, south-eastern and western India.’

    

3. As per paragraph 3, which of the following parameter/s matter/s to faculty and students when determining the worth of an institution?

   I. Vision of its leaders
   II. Frequency of pay hikes
   III. Availability of adequate academic resources

   Only I
   Only II
   Only I and II
   Only I and III
   Only II and III
   Option D
   Refer to: ‘To the faculty and students in many colleges, what matters is the vision of the administrative leaders and a commitment to excellence. The governing bodies should make available adequate financial and academic resources to colleges, particularly the younger ones, to help them improve performance.’
   

    

4. As per the passage, which of the following parameters is/are used by NIRF to judge institutions for ranking them?

   I. Papers published in reputed journals
   II. Number of highly qualified faculty
   III. Diversity in terms of students

   Only II
   Only III
   Only I and II
   Only I and III
   All of the above
   Option E
   Refer to: ‘These are measured by the NIRF in terms of the percentage of faculty with doctoral degrees, papers published in credentialed journals, inclusivity and diversity of students, and median salaries for the graduates.’

    

5. Which of the following is/are true as per the passage?

   I. There was a huge amount of participation seen in NIRF 2018.
   II. The ranking approach has been critiqued for failing to capture the crucial metric of learning outcomes.
   III. NIRF’s assessment of the top notch institutions was expected.

   Only III
   Only I and II
   Only II and III
   Only I and III
   All of the above
   Option A
   Refer to:

   ‘Participation levels are inadequate: there were 40,026 colleges and 11,669 standalone institutions according to the HRD Ministry’s All India Survey on Higher Education for 2016-17.’

    

Directions(6-10): A sentence with two blanks is given, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Choose the words that best fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

6. The upheaval at Ford ________ pressure on all three Detroit automakers to prove they can _______ losses, as the U.S. auto market begins to slow from last year’s record sales.
   Runs, gain
   Comes, see
   Underlines, avoid
   Takes, view
   Underlines, gain
   Option C
   

    

7. Courage gives you the _______ to persist where others have failed. Ultimately, the degree of courage you live with determines the amount of _______ you receive.
   
   Self-respect, completion
   Self-control, fulfilment
   Incense, fulfilment
   Self-improvement, fruition
   Supremacy, execution
   Option B
   

    

8. The WHO advocates generic ________ as a part of an overall strategy to ensure rational medical treatment and prescribing _______ to the local conditions.
   
   Deceiving, contempts
   Pretend, Encroachment
   Continued, blitzkrieg
   Prescribing, tailored
   Betraying, assailment
   Option D
   ‘Prescribing’ refers to (as a medical practitioner) advise and authorize the use of (a medicine or treatment) for someone, especially in writing and ‘tailored’ means (for clothes) smart, fitted, and well cut.
   

    

9. This vision is presented as if it is something new and ___________ but there is much more in this new technological imagination that should remind us of old religious ___________.
   Catastrophe, discomforts
   Devotees, nuisances
   Radical, imaginations
   Patrons, admirers
   Witnesses, onlookers
   Option C
   ‘Radical’ refers to (especially of change or action) relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough while ‘imaginations’ refers to the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.

    

10. With a whole lot of games _________ in the coming months from the post-apocalyptic genre, everybody will be able to _________ the world after the unthinkable has happened.
    Retiring, exploit
    Rejecting, report
    Releasing, explore
    Launching, visualize
    Opening, understand
    Option C