How to prepare for verbal ability and reading comprehension - Sharma Arun, Upadhyay Meenakshi 2014

Practice exercises on paragraph jumbles
Section 4: Paragraph Jumbles
Part 2: Verbal Ability

TYPE 1

The first line[A] of each question is fixed. Arrange the other four lines in a logical sequence.

Question 1:

A.As the recession deepens, people across the ideological spectrum declare that capitalism has failed.

B.Yet, recessions are not aberrations of capitalism but an intrinsic part of it.

C.A bust is an occasion for cleaning out deadwood and failed experiments, and re-inventing capitalism.

D.Almost every economic news report carries Countries in recession words like ’crisis’ and ’disaster’.

E.Markets create boom and bust cycles, arising from human tendencies to swing from euphoria to fear and back.

(a) ECDB (b) EDCB

(e) DCEB

Question 2:

A.Two decades ago, economist Jerry Muller chronicled never-ending predictions of the demise of capitalism, by its friends as well as foes.

B.The Great Depression of the 1930s provoked further predictions of capitalism’s demise.

C.Lenin harboured similar illusions: his 1916 book was titled Imperialism: the Last Stage of Capitalism.

D.In the 1850s, Karl Marx claimed capitalism was dying.

E.Rosa Luxemburg wrote in The Accumulation of Private Capital (1913), “Though imperialism is the historical method prolonging the career of capitalism, it is also a sure means of bringing it to a swift conclusion.”

(a) DECB (b) CBDE

(e) DCEB

Question 3:

A.Building new towns is the key to raising productivity of the Indian economy as well.

B.Expensive real estate makes education and health care costly as well.

C.This jacks up the cost of quality healthcare and education, and these higher costs feed into business costs, affecting India’s competitiveness in the global marketplace.

D.Right now, artificial shortage of urban land has put a premium on the cost of real estate.

E.Office rentals, hotel accommodation, land for factories, all these cost the earth and add to the cost of the goods and services emerging from these expensive sites of production.

F.Hospitals and schools in urban areas will find that upwards of 50 per cent of their capital cost is accounted for by real estate.

(a) DECBF (b) BCDEF

(e) CBEFD

Question 4:

A.In other words, instead of more “reservations”, with the resentment that breeds, let us make it easier for minorities to join the police.

B.Unless young people from minorities see that the police service offers real career opportunities and a good quality of life in the workplace; they will not overcome their negative perceptions.

C.In India, the promotion of minority police personnel at senior and middle levels and using them as visible symbols of the police force would constitute a powerful model to the minority community.

D.The fact that, in many Western countries, there are several officers from the visible minorities now at senior officer rank, sends a powerful message to these communities.

E.But let’s not stop with recruitment; we also need to focus on the retention and progression of minority officers.

(a) EBCD (b) EBDC

(e) ECDB

Question 5:

A.So when fear happens, just become totally aware and don’t get identified with that thought.

B.You feel insecure because you have a concept of what is security and from that concept you are seeing life.

C.Anything that does not fit that concept makes you insecure.

D.With wordless awareness, just watch.

E.This is called objective watching.

F.This watching will not allow the previous fears to have a snowballing effect.

(a) DFECB (b) DFCBE

(e) CDBFE

Question 6:

A.I’m a huge fan of Vikas Swarup’s novel, one of the most delightful reads I’ve enjoyed in years.

B.He’s rescued by a female lawyer who gets him to tell his life story and explain how he, an uneducated slum kid, knew the answers to such difficult questions.

C.But he has retained the novel’s structure and premise, and Danny Boyle has brought its spirit alive in a way that i believe even Swarup would appreciate.

D.Screenwriter Simon has changed pretty much all of Swarup’s stories, introduced a romantic element and even re-baptised the hero.

E.It’s about an orphan boy called Ram Mohammed Thomas who is about to win a TV quiz show based on Kaun Banega Crorepati and is arrested on suspicion of having got that far by cheating.

F.Ram then tells a number of stories, each of which explains how he knew what he happened to know.

(a) EBFDC (b) EDEBC

(e) ECDFB

Question 7:

A.According to Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the troops close to PTK, the last remaining LTTE-held town at that time, passed on information about the two aircraft even before the radars detected them.

B.The Tiger craft flew over Mannar and Wilpattu en route to Colombo. It was their normal route. The troops would have captured the LTTE planes within days, and the LTTE had acted before they lost the craft on the ground.”

C.The Defence Ministry said each aircraft was loaded with explosives weighing 215 kg and added that the pilots failed to drop any bomb.

D.He said: “The LTTE may have used a straight road in their last stronghold for taking off as the outfit had lost all the airstrips to the troops during the past few months.

E.There was no explanation as to how the two light-wing aircraft managed to make their way from PTK to the heart of the national capital and come within metres of their purported targets.

(a) CDEB (b) CDBE

(e) CBDE

Question 8:

A.Over a span of less than two years, some have been displaced at least a dozen times and are haunted by memories of sleepless nights spent in bunkers, constant bombardment and an uncertain future.

B.The worst nightmare for them was the possibility of forcible recruitment of their young boys and girls by the Tigers as the military began to corner them from mid-2008.

C.Reporters who visited the village heard horror tales of innocent citizens caught in the crossfire.

D.Every one of the 500-odd families in the village has gone through more or less the same trauma.

E.The choice before them was the known devil, the Tigers, and the unknown deep sea, the military.

(a) CEBD (b) CEDB

(e) CBDE

Question 9:

A.US President Barack Obama made a significant commitment to reversing the previous president’s attitude towards combating climate change earlier this week.

B.The California regulations would force automakers to reduce vehicle emissions by a third by 2016, four years before new federal standards take effect.

C.The move would increase fuel efficiency by as much as eight miles per gallon.

D.If, as expected, California receives permission from the EPA to move ahead, it would mean that both US and other automakers would have to produce cars that are more fuel-efficient than current models.

E.He directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider allowing the state of California to set stricter fuel-emission standards on vehicles than federal limits.

(a) BCDE (b) EDCB

(e) CDEB

Question 10:

A.Under the US Clean Air Act, the state of California is allowed to petition the federal government for a waiver to set its own stricter standards for tailpipe emissions and fuel economy.

B.Thirteen states have joined California in applying to the EPA, while three others have said that they will impose the standards if the waiver is granted.

C.The move has not been popular with American carmakers, who successfully argued to the Bush administration that rising standards would cripple the industry.

D.Other states can choose to adopt California’s standards or stick with federal rules.

E.That accounts for nearly half the country’s auto market, thus forcing car manufacturers worldwide to conform to stricter standards.

(a) BDCE (b) DBEC

(e) CDBE

Question 11:

A.Indians and Pakistanis are the same people.

B.The idea of India is stronger than the Indian, and the idea of Pakistan weaker than the Pakistani.

C.Why then have the two nations moved on such divergent arcs over the last six decades?

D.India has progressed into a modern nation occasionally hampered by backward forces. Pakistan is regressing into a medieval society with a smattering of modern elements.

E.Multi-religious, multi-ethnic, secular, democratic India was an idea that belonged to the future; one-dimensional Pakistan was a concept borrowed from the fears of the past.

(a) CBED (b) CBDE

(e) EDCB

Question 12:

A.As the country copes with the aftermath of the horrors of Mumbai, the hard work of reconstruction, of rebuilding—of reimagining our country has begun.

B.The victims of the killers were from every faith, and Indians of every religion have stood united in their anger and determination.

C.And yet it was just the weekend before the attacks that the PM had urged senior police officers not to widen “the fault lines in our society” and to act to “restore the faith of the people—especially those belonging to religious and ethnic minorities and the weaker sections—in the impartiality and effectiveness of the police.”

D.One genuine cause of satisfaction must be that there was no demonisation of our Muslim minority, which the terrorists must have hoped to provoke.

E.His words reflected a real conundrum: the general public feels it is not adequately protected against the random violence of terrorists, but every pro active policing effort seriously alienates India’s largest minority community.

(a) DCBE (b) DEBC

(e) BCDE

Question 13:

A.Instead, we saw the majority of Sikhs stay loyal to their country, as a largely Sikh police force, led by a charismatic Sikh officer, K.P.S. Gill, ably combated the minority of Sikh terrorists, while the Indian state orchestrated a democratic political process which brought elected Sikh leaders to power in Punjab.

B.Obviously, we cannot infuse a significant number of Muslims into these forces overnight.

C.There are well-known historical and sociological reasons that explain why Muslims are under-represented in the country’s police forces, the Central Reserve Police and crucial gendarmeries like UP’s Provincial Armed Constabulary.

D.There is absolutely no reason why a similar approach cannot work with the Muslim community, the overwhelming majority of whom are proud and loyal Indians.

E.To do so we must start by getting more Muslims into the security forces.

(a) DEBC (b) DECB

(e) CDEB

Question 14:

A.The one advantage that people of peace have over war-mongers is numbers.

B.You can be as private or outspoken as you wish.

C.But those around you will know that you are for peace.

D.If enough people turned into peacemakers, war could end.

E.When the time is right and enough people participate, critical mass can change the world.

F.The programme for peacemakers asks you to follow a specific practice every day of the week. It takes only a few minutes.

(a) EDBCF (b) DCBEF

(e) BCEFD

Question 15:

A.The film will be released in India, both in its original bilingual version and in a version dubbed in Hindi, in January.

B.There is even a scene involving human excrement that is both revolting and hilarious. But this is not, despite all of that, an exercise in the pornography of poverty.

C.Slum life is depicted with integrity and dignity, and with a joie de vivre that transcends its setting.

D.It was filmed in large part with small hand-held digital cameras on location in Dharavi and in the Juhu slums, and the mounds of garbage, the cesspits, the overflowing drains are all very present.

E.It is easy to see why this movie would appeal to international cinegoers in a way that a bleaker film like City of Joy could not.

F.One fair warning to Indian viewers: its depiction of Indian poverty and slum life is searingly real.

(a) FDBEC (b) FDBCE

(e) CBEFD

Question 16:

A.I saw the film in New York with an audience made up largely of Indian expatriates.

B.Danny Boyle reacted to that charge by pointing out that his Scottish characters in Trainspotting were also conniving, unprincipled and ruthless, and that he happened to like to depict people like that.

C.And the film’s hero, played by the teenage British Indian actor Dev Patel with a look that combines intensity and expressiveness and yet seems utterly genuine, is as sincere a protagonist as you could hope to find.

D.In the enthusiastic discussion that followed, only one person reacted negatively, saying that the film seemed to show all Indians as conniving, unprincipled and ruthless, and that the only compassionate people in the film were a pair of white tourists who give Jamal some money.

E.Something tells me that most Indian viewers will take this in stride—we live in a land largely devoid of larger-than-life heroes, and we have learned to take human beings as they are, which is to say, as grossly imperfect.

(a) DBEC (b) DCEB

(e) EDCB

Question 17:

A.She was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at the time, when the radiologist had raised an alarm and sent her to a cardiologist.

B.Even in my dazed state, I remember wondering how it was at all possible that a well-built woman like Angel could shrink to half her size within a day of being in hospital.

C.It was absurd, insane.

D.Within an hour, she was in hospital and our carefree, happy little world came crumbling down like a house of cards.

E.The bony woman lying helplessly in that sterile hospital room with strange machines blinking around her wasn’t my Angel at all.

(a) DBEC (b) DBCE

(e) CBED

Question 18:

A.Lead researcher Eden King says that a study has revealed that people, who support diversity programs, have changing attitudes in times of economic strife.

B.“The reality is, diversity programs and disadvantaged groups may be the first to go in times of economic uncertainty.

C.This causes real problems for people of socially disadvantaged groups,” she says.

D.King points out that competition for fewer jobs and resources often increases tension among workers, and may especially affect minority groups.

E.The study also suggests that those in hiring positions may be less likely to hire a minority job applicant in an economic downturn, she adds.

(a) EBCD (b) EDBC

(e) CBED

Question 19:

A.But the problem is that politics has power; religion has only love, peace and the experience of the divine.

B.Religion has no mundane power like nuclear weapons and atom bombs and guns; its dimension is totally different.

C.It is just like a beautiful rose flower: its beauty, poetry, its dance makes life worth living, gives life meaning and significance.

D.Politics can easily interfere with religion; and it has been interfering all along, to such an extent that it has destroyed many religious values which are absolutely necessary for the survival of humanity and life on this Earth.

E.Religion is not a will to power; religion is a search for truth. And the very search makes the religious man humble, simple, innocent.

(a) DBCE (b) EDCB

(e) DCBE

Question 20:

A.Sufism is among the easiest and a unique path to achieve ultimate flowering.

B.The association of the master is satsang, and the world of the master is satnam or the only scripture.

C.Thus, the entire edifice of the Sufi path rests on the Master.

D.It is not a religion but the way... It is the art and science of correct living through a systematic understanding and following of austerities.

E.This path has three pillars which form the basis: Meditation; master and the remembrance; Zikr qulb or repeating the remembrance at the heart centre; tasubbre sheikh or remembrance of the master and marakba or meditation.

(a) DCBE (b) DECB

(e) CBED

Question 21:

A.The word Master does not refer to a specific person.

B.As an individual you cannot see beyond your understanding.

C.And as you are, you cannot envision a master.

D.This is the state of spiritual awareness.

E.This is the reason the masters appear from time to time to manifest that state of awareness, the light absolute and the path laid down by other masters.

(a) DBCE (b) DECB

(e) CEDB

Question 22:

A.As a novelist myself, i wondered about the changes made to the book on its way to the screen.

B.In particular, novels can afford to digress in ways that the attention span of movie audiences cannot accept: a film requires one clear over-arching narrative, fewer characters to keep straight, and a common thread from beginning to end.

C.But some of the changes were arguably unnecessary: I lamented, in particular, the loss of Ram Mohammed Thomas and his mongrelised Amar-Akbar-Anthony exemplifying of Indianess.

D.But above all, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is the work of an artist at the peak of his powers.

E.Some i could understand; cinema and novels are distinct art forms, and what works well in one medium does not necessarily translate well into the other.

F.I hope that people will both read the book and see the movie to savour the differing strengths of Swarup’s original premise and Danny Boyle’s transcreation of it.

(a) EDCBF (b) DCEBF

(e) CFBDE

Question 23:

A.It was time for Tina’s annual art show ’Harmony’ and Jaya did the honours of inaugurating the same.

B.Giving Tina all the support she needed was her camera-shy husband Anil her son Jai and her mother-in-law Kokilaben.

C.And of course, supporting the show and Tina’s tireless efforts were a huge number of art lovers and her friends and well-wishers.

D.Reema Jain met Jaya warmly, and the two spent some time talking. Adi Godrej and Harsh Goenka made time out for Tina, and congratulated her on her efforts.

E.Devieka and her mother took a round of the gallery as did the other guests that included Gulshan Grover, Siddharth Jaideep and Seema Mehrotra and Gauri.

F.Joining Jaya was her son Abhishek, looking cool in his crop cut and a black jacket with jeans. But what was cooler was the way he embraced Tina with a warm hug.

(a) FBCDE (b) FCBDE

(e) DBCEF

Question 24:

A.The space shuttle and its crew of seven blasted off Sunday just as the sun was setting.

B.NASA is thrilled to see Discovery finally on its way.

C.That’s because Discovery needs to be gone from the space station before a Russian rocket lifts off to put a fresh crew at the space station March 26.

D.The shuttle is carrying a final set of solar wings for the space station that the astronauts will install.

E.A hydrogen leak Wednesday scrapped the first launch attempt. Before that, valve concerns kept postponing the flight that was originally scheduled to launch in mid-February.

F.Because of the delays, the mission has been shortened by a day and one of four spacewalks has been dropped.

(a) BDCEF (b) BDECF

(e) EDCBF

Question 25:

A.However, following the collection of evidence and material used by the attackers, and their subsequent verification by the forensic laboratories, the charge sheet puts down, officially and conclusively, what has been reported in the media and stated by officials in the past three months.

B.In doing so, it debunks conspiracy theories such as the one that Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare was killed by some “other” groups because of his investigations into the September 29, 2008, Malegaon blast case.

C.Investigating officials said they put together the charge sheet on the basis of the evidence collected from the boat, that the terrorists hijacked the five targeted sites and approximately 150 eyewitness accounts.

D.For instance, it categorically states that the men came from Pakistan, and that it was the LeT that planned and executed the attack.

E.It details the sequence of events and the entire operation in each location.

(a) DECB (b) DEBC

(e) CBDE

TYPE II

The first line[A] and last line [F] of each question are fixed. Arrange the other four lines in a logical sequence.

Question 1:

A.The estimate on the number of civilians has been a matter of debate for over six months.

B.The government contested both these figures as vastly exaggerated and estimated the number to be 75,000.

C.Neutral observers are now veering round to the view that the government figure appears more reliable.

D.The United Nations and other international agencies projected a figure of 2.5 lakhs.

E.The LTTE has consistently maintained that the figure is above four lakhs.

F.It is improbable for more than a lakh people to be present in LTTE-controlled territory, which is shrinking with every passing day.

(a) EDCB (b) EDBC

(e) BEDC

Question 2:

A.First, take five minutes to meditate for peace.

B.Allow them to radiate from your stillness out into your body.

C.Bring into your mind anyone against whom you have a grievance and let it go.

D.Close your eyes.

E.Put your attention on your heart and inwardly repeat the words: peace, harmony, laughter, love.

F.Then introduce the intention of peace in your thoughts. After a few moments of silence, repeat this prayer: let me be loved, happy and peaceful; let my friends, my perceived enemies, all beings in the world be happy, loved, and peaceful too.

(a) CBED (b) CDEB

(e) DBEC

Question 3:

A.India is fast losing its low-cost position. In Mumbai, executive compensation levels for the financial sector are higher than in London, rental costs are above those in New York and electricity is dearer than in Tokyo.

B.The software sector will have to aspire to be the poet, not just the scribe. Indian exports of its own software, or licensing of its own intellectual property (IP), amounted to only about $450 million in the year ending March 31, 2007.

C.Increasingly, Indian companies will have to do more with their intellectual resources.

D.As Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, mentioned, in the crucial IT sector, cost arbitrage is one entry point but the continued growth of the sector will have to be based on quality.

E.Indian companies will need to evolve from their low-cost position.

F.This is a tiny fraction of India’s IT service exports. India’s IT sector must go beyond “renting out IQ and start creating IP” if it is to compete in the face of ever-rising costs.

(a) BDCE (b) EDCB

(e) BCDE

Question 4:

A.The Defence Ministry proudly proclaimed that the two LTTE-improvised, Czech-manufactured Zlin-143 aircraft were brought down by anti-aircraft fire within an hour of their detection.

B.The body of the second pilot was found near the wreckage of the aircraft at Katunayake.

C.The air raids surprised political and diplomatic circles in Colombo, considering that on the day of the air raids the LTTE was confined to an area of less than 100 sq km.

D.Incidentally, the air raids coincided with the visit of Sir John Holmes, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, for a first-hand assessment of the crisis triggered by the war.

E.The first craft crashed into the rear of the building housing the Inland Revenue Department, opposite the Air Force headquarters, killing the pilot and two persons in the building, three storeys of which were damaged, and injuring 45, including two airmen.

F.In the course of his interaction with the media, Sir John hinted at efforts by neutral parties to reach a settlement between the LTTE and the government for safe passage for the trapped civilians.

(a) EBCD (b) CDEB

(e) CDBE

Question 5:

A.The political head of the LTTE, B. Nadesan, urged the international community to affect a ceasefire and initiate a political solution as a priority rather than insist that the LTTE lay down arms.

B.There is no evidence to suggest that the LTTE is concerned about the safety and welfare of civilians in the war zone.

C.The government is not prepared on the ground to deal with the internally displaced.

D.In an appeal to the heads of the co-chair countries, he said: “When a permanent political solution is reached for the Tamil people, with the support and the guarantee of the international community, the situation will arise where there will be no need for the arms of the LTTE.”

E.The Sri Lankan government dismissed it as “hilarious.”

F.Samarasinghe told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 3 that over 36,000 people trapped in the Wanni had managed to escape the LTTE and flee the theatre of conflict.

(a) BCDE (b) EDBC

(e) DECB

Question 6:

A.However, the ground realities are far from satisfactory.

B.However, at the moment only one camp, which can accommodate 500 families, is ready. The rest are housed in schools and other public buildings.

C.To give one example, minutes away from the model village, several hundred people are housed in a school.

D.The government has been talking for months about its preparedness to accommodate the displaced in temporary camps.

E.A group of foreign and local media personnel who were flown in to the government “model village” on the outskirts of Vavuniya returned with the impression that the government was simply not geared to meet the gigantic task.

F.The visiting journalists were taken to the school after they insisted on looking at least one other facility. Each classroom in the school is packed with at least 40 persons. Their belongings are kept on benches along the walls.

(a) BCDE (b) EDBC

(e) EDCB

Question 7:

A.The government is working on a project close to the model camp to create facilities to accommodate more people.

B.Informed sources suggest that shortage of funds is a serious hurdle.

C.The authorities are not sure how long it will take to complete the facility.

D.There is no clarity at the moment on how long the people will stay in the camps.

E.On paper, the government is gearing up to accommodate 200,000 displaced people.

F.The government’s argument is that it will take time to rebuild infrastructure and remove landmines before the people can return to their original places.

(a) BCDE (b) BDCE

(e) CBDE

Question 8:

A.Given that the Indian armed forces have an overwhelming dependence on Russian defence equipment, the news that Russia has grounded its entire fleet of MiG-29 aircraft due to structural defects and subsequently found a large percentage unsafe to fly is ominous.

B.And in a larger context, this is the latest in a series of developments over the past few years that suggest it is time for India to diversify its sources of defence equipment.

C.Russia’s defence manufacturing base is facing shortfalls in capabilities and capacities, leading to contract deadline overruns and increased costs, as seen repeatedly in the case of the Gorshkov.

D.The immediate implications for India are worrying. The IAF operates over 60 of the aircraft and is in the midst of procuring 45 more to fly off the much-delayed Admiral Gorshkov and indigenous Cochin-built carriers.

E.Poor quality and a lack of spare parts only worsen the situation, as do its moribund R&D facilities which compel it to rely on technology dating back to the 1970s and 1980s

F.India’s ambitious plans to upgrade its military technology and the changing profile of its requirements mean that it can no longer afford to persist with a strategy that depends on Russia as its primary supplier.

(a) CEBD (b) DBCE

(e) DBEC

Question 9:

A.Obama allows federal funding for stem cell research in the US. The controversy in America over the ethics of using embryonic stem cells to heal the sick hasn’t deterred US President Barack Obama from making a new policy announcement.

B.By issuing an executive order on March 9, Obama has reversed George W Bush’s policy that no federal funding would be available to promote research in human embryonic stem cells.

C.Stem cells are undefined cells present in adults; they are also found in abundance in embryos and umbilical cord blood.

D.Though all stem cells have the potential to heal—because they can be coaxed to grow into specific kinds of tissues or organs with cloning technology—it is embryonic stem cells that have greater potential on account of their ability to grow into virtually any body part.

E.Will the US Congress now allow taxpayers’ money to be used for human embryo experiments involving their creation and destruction, overturning the legislative ban it has been renewing every year since 1996?

F.That’s why researchers prefer to work with embryonic stem cells that have greater scope than adult stem cells with their limitations.

(a) BEDC

(b) CDBE

(d) BECD

(e) BCDE

Question 10:

A.Embryonic stem cells are controversial because the embryos are discarded once the cells are extracted from them. Critics object to creation of embryos for the purpose of harvesting their cells.

B.Researchers are sourcing these to-be-discarded embryos for stem cells, and not creating new ones for the purpose.

C.The other objection is that the technology could be used in human reproductive cloning.

D.However, given the growth of infertility treatments and with more people opting for assisted reproductive techniques, fertility clinics end up with more embryos than they require.

E.Fears of reproductive cloning—as opposed to therapeutic cloning—are unfounded, too, since the US, like most countries, expressly prohibits it.

F.The Indian Council of Medical Research has laid down guidelines on stem cell research, following a proposal to set up a national apex committee for this purpose.

(a) DBCE (b) BDCE

(e) DBEC

Question 11:

A.Giving a new twist to probe into Mumbai attacks, Pakistan is now alleging that there were “elements in India” who helped carry out the strikes and wants its investigators to be provided access to them.

B.In what could further delay the prosecution of Mumbai attackers, the paper said Pakistan is also seeking DNA samples of the terrorists involved in the strikes and more information about contacts made by them through the internet.

C.In its report, Pakistan has sought results of DNA tests on Ajmal Kasab and the nine other attackers killed by Indian security forces so that these could be matched with their family members, if any, in Pakistan, the sources said.

D.“There is a strong realisation in Pakistani security agencies that without the help of elements in India, the Mumbai crime could have not been committed,” official sources were quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper on Tuesday.

E.Pakistan’s investigation report into the Mumbai attacks, which was reviewed on Monday at a meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, would be sent to New Delhi in a couple of days, the paper quoted these officials.

F.Pakistan wants information about weapons used by the terrorists and details of mobile phone calls made by them and taped by Indian security agencies.

(a) BCDE (b) EDCB

(e) CBDE

Question 12:

A.Pakistan also wants information regarding IP addresses from which emails were sent to attackers by the alleged perpetrators, the sources said.

B.An FIR would be registered in a “couple of days” and this would also make the contents of the Pakistani report public, the paper said quoting sources.

C.It wants India to provide details about people who were reportedly killed by the terrorists when they illegally entered the country’s territorial waters.

D.The government has described the information provided by India as “insufficient” to reach a logical conclusion and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

E.The Pakistan government on Monday decided to register a case against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to bring them to justice in accordance with Pakistani laws.

F.An official statement issued on Monday said further queries would soon be sent to India.

(a) CEBD (b) BDEC

(e) CBDE

Question 13:

A.This is not the only fallout of switching to bio-fuels.

B.Obama’s new energy plan, which backs a greater use of ethanol, could worsen the situation.

C.In the US, government subsidies have ensured that nearly 30 million tonnes of maize have been diverted for the production of ethanol.

D.Many American farmers are also switching to maize production from other crops.

E.Several studies have found evidence of a link between spiraling food prices and increased acreage for crops used to produce bio-fuel.

F.This has led to an increase in global food prices, particularly of wheat.

(a) CDEB (b) EBDC

(e) EDBC

Question 14:

A.The current situation does not warrant such large-scale diversion of land and resources to produce bio-fuels.

B.Given the global recession, there is little likelihood of oil prices soaring soon. So there is no immediate need to rush to substitute oil.

C.From a peak of $147 a barrel last year, oil prices are now below $40.

D.The electric car is an innovation that could significantly cut down the world’s dependence on oil.

E.Instead the world should be looking at developing long-term replacements for fossil fuels.

F.What we need is more research to make electric cars that can run longer on a single charge and are also competitively priced.

(a) BCDE (b) EDCB

(e) BCDE

Question 15:

A.But Obama, while acknowledging that Detroit’s auto majors would see the move as an added burden on an ailing industry in the short term, made clear that the way forward was to embrace green technology.

B.Such political commitment to fight climate change seems lacking in India. Attempts to set fuel emission standards have been stymied by inter-agency squabbling on exactly how such norms should be set.

C.It was only with the recent intervention of the Prime Minister’s Office that a consensus was reached.

D.Fuel economy regulations will go some way in reducing India’s import bill since we import 78 per cent of our oil.

E.In doing so, he has sent a clear signal that his administration is prepared to act on climate change even in the face of opposition from interest groups such as the car industry.

F.The government should follow Obama’s example and act quickly to fight climate change and cut oil imports.

(a) DEBC (b) EBDC

(e) ECDB

Question 16:

A.Why does the institution of the arranged marriage survive in India in this day and age? The India I am talking about in this case includes the educated middle class, where the incidence of arranged marriages continues to be high and more importantly, is accepted without any difficulty as a legitimate way of finding a mate.

B.Twenty years ago, looking at the future, one would have imagined that by now, the numbers of the arranged marriage types would have shrunk and the few remaining stragglers would be looked down upon as belonging to a somewhat primitive tribe.

C.The answer lies partly in the elastic nature of this institution, and indeed most traditional Indian customs that allows it to expand its definition to accommodate the needs of modernity.

D.So today’s arranged marriage places individual will at the heart of the process; young men and women are rarely forced to marry someone against their wishes.

E.But this is far from being so.

F.The role of the parents has moved to that of being presiding deities, with one hand raised in blessing and the other hand immersed purposefully in the wallet.

(a) BEDC (b) BECD

(e) CBDE

Question 17:

A.The arranged marriage of today is more clearly manufactured but it also offers a more certain outcome.

B.In the West, the curiously antiquated notion that it is the prerogative of the man to propose marriage makes for a situation where the promise of marriage is tantalisingly withheld by one of the concerned parties for an indefinite period of time.

C.Indeed, going by Hollywood movies, it would appear that to mention marriage too early in a relationship is a sure way of scaring off the man.

D.So we have a situation where marriage is a mirage that shimmers on the horizon frequently, but materialises rarely.

E.Online matrimonial sites are full of young professionals seeking matches on their own, knowing that what is on the table here is not a date but the promise of marriage.

F.The mating process becomes a serial hunt with the man doing the pursuing to begin a relationship and the woman taking over the role in trying to convert it into something more lasting.

(a) EBCD (b) CDEB

(e) DBEC

Question 18:

A.At a more fundamental level, the idea that romantic love is the most suitable basis for a long-term relationship is not as automatic as it might appear.

B.For a long time, in a lot of cultures, and even now in some, marriage too is a relationship we do not personally control.

C.This view of marriage works best in contexts where the idea of the individual is not fully developed. People live in a sticky collective and individuality is blurred.

D.Marriage is the only significant kinship tie that we enter into by choice.

E.We don’t choose our parents, our relatives or our children—these are cards that are dealt out to us.

F.A young Saraswat Brahmin boy, earning in four figures was sufficient as a description and one such person was broadly substitutable with another.

(a) BCDE (b) DBCE

(e) CEDB

Question 19:

A.As the role of the individual increases and as dimensions of individuality get fleshed out in ever newer ways, marriage must account for these changes.

B.In contexts where communities fragment and finding mates as a task devolves to individuals, romance becomes a natural agent of marriage.

C.For, the greater emphasis on the individual has also meant that personal needs and personal growth come to occupy a privileged position in every individual’s life.

D.The trouble is that while the device works very well in bringing people together, it is not intrinsically equipped to handle these individuals over time.

E.The idea of romance makes the coming together of individuals seem like a natural event. Mutual attraction melts individuals together into a union.

F.Falling in love becomes infinitely easier than staying in it as individuals are no longer defined primarily by the roles they play in marriage.

(a) EBCD (b) EBDC

(e) BCDE

Question 20:

A.So we have a situation where people fall in and out of love more often, making the idea of romance as a basis of marriage not as socially productive as it used to be.

B.In a world where our present has become a poor indicator of our future, the idea of arranging marriages continues to hold charm.

C.Of course, the arranged marriage has its own assumptions about what variables make this contract work and these too offer no guarantees.

D.It keeps the headiness of romance at bay, and recognises that romance and the sustenance of a socially constructed long-term contract like marriage do not necessarily converge.

E.Romantic love seeks to extend the present while the arranged marriage aims at securing the future.

F.Whether it is cloaked in tradition as it is in India or in modernity as it is elsewhere, the institution of marriage needs some help.

(a) CBED (b) EDCB

(e) EDBC

Question 21:

A.The Indian state was founded on equality and equity: political equality through democracy, religious equality through secularism, gender equality, and economic equity

B.India, therefore, saw land reforms and the abolition of zamindari. Pakistan has been unable to enforce land reforms.

C.India and Pakistan were alternative models for a nation-state. Time would determine which idea had the legs to reach a modern horizon.

D.Economic equality is a fantasy, but without an equitable economy that works towards the elimination of poverty there cannot be a sustainable state.

E.The two strands within Pakistan’s DNA began to slowly split its personality.

F.The father of the nation, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, thought he had produced a child in his own image, but his secular prescription was soon suppressed.

(a) DBCE (b) BDEC

(e) CBDE

Question 22:

A.After some debate, the first Constitution in 1956 proclaimed Pakistan as an “Islamic” state.

B.The principal institutions of state, and the economy, remained largely in the control of the secular tendency until, through racist prejudice, arrogance and awesome military incompetence it was unable to protect the integrity of the nation.

C.No one cared (or dared) to examine what it might mean.

D.The crisis of 1969—1971, and the second partition of the subcontinent, which created a Muslim-majority Bangladesh out of a Muslim-majority Pakistan, forced Pakistan to introspect deeply about its identity.

E.It was an uneasy compromise.

F.Perhaps the last true secularist of this Islamic state was the Western-Oriented-Gentleman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who came to power in 1971, preached emancipation from poverty and did not mind a spot of whisky in the evening.

(a) BDEC (b) CEBD

(e) CDBE

Question 23:

A.If it had been only a question of an individual’s excesses Zia’s death could have been a swivel moment for the restoration of the pre-Zia era, particularly since his successor was Benazir Bhutto

B.There are now over 20,000 of them, with perhaps two million students, most (not all) of them controlled by extremists.

C.The children of Gen Zia are now threatening Islamabad. Sometimes a simple fact can illuminate the nature of a society.

D.Worse, prompted by thoughtless advice, Benazir engineered the rise of the Taliban and helped it conquer Kabul.

E.But in the quarter century since his sudden death by mid-air explosion, no one in Islamabad has had the courage to change the curriculum or challenge the spread of the madrassas.

F.During the 2005 earthquake, male students of the Frontier Medical College were stopped by religious fanatics—their elders—from saving girls from the rubble of their school building.

(a) EDCB (b) EBDC

(e) DBCE

Question 24:

A.For six decades, power in Pakistan has teetered between military dictatorship and civilian rule.

B.Men like Baitullah Mehsud, Mangal Bagh and Maulana Faziullah are a very different breed from the mullahs who have already been coopted and corrupted by the system.

C.When the credibility of civilians was exhausted the people welcomed the army; when the generals overstayed their welcome, the citizen returned to political parties.

D.How long before the poor and the middle classes turn to the theocrats waiting to take over? The state has already handed over a province like Swat to Islamic rule.

E.Pakistan is facing a dangerous moment, when the credibility of both the military and politicians seems to have ebbed beyond recovery.

F.They have a supplementary query which resonates with the street and the village after 9/11: why is Pakistan’s army fighting America’s war against fellow Muslims?

(a) DBCE (b) CEBD

(e) BCDE

Question 25:

A.We could also take a leaf out of Britain’s book in what they do to combat racism within the police, as well as enhance cross-cultural knowledge, offering training courses to white officers that include a ’long weekend’ spent living with a minority family.

B.But we must acknowledge the grave risk to the national fabric of any community being alienated from the police.

C.Of course India is not Britain, and no foreign ideas can simply be imported wholesale into our country.

D.Britain is far from perfect—as the current discrimination case filed by Deputy Commissioner Tariq Ghafoor suggests—but many Hindu policemen, especially in Gujarat and the suburbs of Mumbai, would benefit immeasurably by spending a few days in a Muslim mohalla.

E.Let’s face it: if our police are not properly and continuously trained in minority relations, the current problems will continue

F.Our police forces must reflect the diversity of India. Such a policy would be the “other side of the coin” to a tough security policy which is indispensable to reassure the common urban resident, terrorised by the bomb blasts, that the Government can keep them safe.

(a) DEBC (b) DECB

(e) BDEC

◊ Answer Key

Type I

1. (c)	2. (a)	3. (d)	4. (b)	5. (c)
6. (a)	7. (d)	8. (b)	9. (c)	10. (b)
11. (a)	12. (d)	13. (b)	14. (d)	15. (b)
16. (a)	17. (d)	18. (b)	19. (c)	20. (d)
21. (a)	22. (c)	23. (a)	24. (c)	25. (b)

Type II

1. (b)	2. (d)	3. (b)	4. (a)	5. (d)
6. (b)	7. (c)	8. (b)	9. (d)	10. (a)
11. (c)	12. (a)	13. (d)	14. (c)	15. (c)
16. (b)	17. (a)	18. (d)	19. (b)	20. (b)
21. (a)	22. (c)	23. (b)	24. (d)	25. (b)

How to prepare for verbal ability and reading comprehension - Sharma Arun, Upadhyay Meenakshi 2014

Practice exercises on paragraph jumblesSection 4: Paragraph JumblesPart 2: Verbal Ability

Practice exercises on paragraph jumbles
Section 4: Paragraph Jumbles
Part 2: Verbal Ability