Directions (1- 10): In the following passage, there are blanks, each of which has been numbered and bold. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five words are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word in each case.

 

What Indian politicians and bureaucrats share with their scientist, engineer and carpenter counterparts is their acceptance of mediocrity and lack of skill. The greatest moral failure of Indian institutions is the tolerance of incompetence ……. (1)……. criminality or corruption. The tolerance of incompetence in …….. (2)…….. is a result of a low cultural value attached to the creation and …….. (3)…….  of institutions. Institution building is hard work; it requires a combination of vision, commitment and performance. Any institution involves a contract between those who …….. (4)……. to the institution and those who support it. The support can take the form of money or votes but that support must be ……. (5)…… continuously. In a properly functioning institutional system, the institutional contract …….. (6)……… the institution members and their supporters take the form you give me support and I will give you results.

Competence is the channel that sustains the flow of trust from supporters to institutions and back. If doctors don’t cure will they not lose our trust? While blaming individual politicians and babus for their corrupt ways, let us also examine the system that accepts mediocrity and even lets it …….. (7)…… .

What we are seeing in India is a case of contract failure. The contractor who bribes an official and then builds a leaky stadium is not just being …….. (8)……. . He is sustaining a collusive system that subverts rules regulating mutual cooperation between government institutions, market players and society as a whole. In the case of endemic contract failure everyone ………(9)………  including the contractor, for once the public loses its trust in institutions even businessmen will ………(10)………  out on opportunities to make money. The moral status of institutions is central to continued development and prosperity.

 

(a) as

(b) to

(c) never

(d) not

(e) for

 

(a) turn

(b) individual

(c) world

(d) partly

(e) importance

 

(a) destruction

(b) justification

(c) sustenance

(d) excess

(e) marginalization

 

(a) belong

(b) work

(c) help

(d) employed

(e) trust

 

(a) returned

(b) earned

(c) needed

(d) discouraged

(e) asked

 

(a) suggests

(b) akin

(c) twosome

(d) centered

(e) between

 

(a) question

(b) bolder

(c) thrive

(d) out

(e) kill

 

(a) variant

(b) trivial

(c) immature

(d) corrupt

(e) generous

 

(a) Succeeds

(b) suffers

(c) proliferates

(d) responsible

(e) encompasses

 

(a) storm

(b) venture

(c) lose

(d) get

(e) walk

 

1. (d);

 

2. (a)

 

3. (c)

 

4. (a); If ‘work’ were to be used; it would go with preposition ‘for’. ‘help’ will not come as ‘support’ is there. Also, it doesn’t take any preposition.

 

5. (b)

 

6. (e)

 

7. (c); ‘thrive’ means ‘flourish’ or ‘continue to grow’

 

8. (d)

 

9. (b)

 

10.(c)

 

 

Directions (11-15): In the following passage, some of the words have been left out, each of which is indicated by a number. Find the suitable word from the options given against each number and fill up the blanks with appropriate words to make the paragraph meaningfully complete.

Anti-slavery advocate Harriet Tubman will become the first African American on the face of U.S. paper currency, and the first woman in more than a century, when she replaces former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday that Tubman, __(11)__was born into slavery in the early 1820s and went on to help hundreds of slaves escape, would take the centre spot on the bill, while Jackson, a slave owner, would move to the back. Introduced alongside a __(12)__of changes to the $5 and $10 notes as well, the redesign gives the Treasury “a chance to open the aperture to reflect more of America’s history”, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said. A new $10 bill will add images of five female leaders of the women’s __(13)__ movement, including Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to the back, while keeping founding father Alexander Hamilton on the front. The reverse of a new $5 note will show former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., officials said. Former President Abraham Lincoln will remain on the front. Mr. Lew said the designs should be unveiled __(14)__2020 and go into circulation “as quickly as possible,” although he declined to say when. He said the $10 bill was scheduled to go out first, citing security needs. The long-awaited decision to __(15)__ the seventh president of the United States with Tubman followed months of outreach by the Treasury regarding which woman should be featured on a bill.

 

(a)which

(b) that

(c)who

(d)what

(e) she

 

(a) slew

(b) wind

(c) event

(d) time

(e) adaptation

 

(a) suffering

(b) suffer

(c) suffered

(d) sufferance

(e) suffrage

 

(a) at

(b) by

(c) in

(d) on

(e) until

 

(a) put

(b) change

(c) print

(d) replace

(e) honor

 

1. (c)

 

2. (a)

 

3. (e)

 

4. (b)

 

5. (d)