Reading Comprehension
Directions (1-15): Read the passage and answer the following questions:
Unemployment is the problem of every modern nation. The government is not able to ensure a job for everyone. Following the conventional strategy of creating employment, governments of many developing countries try to attract employers (business houses/industrialists) by offering tax rebates and many other facilities so that they locate their upcoming plants on their soil, and thereby create industrial employment. But there is a limit to what industry can bring. Also, industrial plants often create toxic waste which results in air and water pollution and environmental problems which can outweigh whatever implement benefit industrial employment may bring as substantial relief to the dwindling economy of the host country and the profits of such foreign investments are carried back to the parent company and foreign shareholders aboard.
Self-employment has none of these drawbacks. The problem is that self-employment is not as obviously glamorous is not as a shiny new factory. But profits from self-employment remain in the country where they are produced. It is too small to create environmental hazards. It also puts the poor person in charge of his or her own working hours and conditions. The hours are flexible and can be adapted to fit any family situation. It allows people to choose between running a business full time and part time when they face a crisis, or to put their business on hold and work full time for a salary. Self-employment is tailor-made for anyone who is street-smart and has many acquired and inherited traditional skills, rather than learning acquired from books and technical schools. This means the illiterate and the poor can exploit their strengths, rather than be held back by their weaknesses. It allows a person to turn their hobbies into gainful employment. It allows individuals who cannot work well in a rigid hierarchy to run their own show.
Financing the poor to start their own little ventures elevates their sense of pride and self-respect. It offers a way out of welfare dependency, not just to become wage slaves, but to open a store or start a manufacturing business. It can help those who have found a job and are still nonetheless poor. It gives the victims of prejudice who would not be hired because of their colour or national origin a chance to earn a living. The average cost of creating self-employment is ten, twenty or hundred times lesser than creating industry-based employment. It helps isolated poor people gain self-confidence, step by step.
Obviously, self-employment has limits, but in many cases, it is the only solution to help those whom economies refuse to hire and taxpayers do not want to carry on their shoulders. The policy needed for the eradication of poverty must be much wider and deeper than the policy for the provision of mere employment. Real eradication of poverty begins when people are able to control their own fate. Poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a flower pot, you get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted; only the soil base that is too inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Simply society never gave them the base to grow. All it takes to get the poor people out of poverty is for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor are able to unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly.
Direction(1-3): Choose the word/group of words which is MOST OPPOSITE in MEANING to The word/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.
Q1. RIGID

(a) Unstructured (b) Flexible (c) Soft (d) Gentle (e) Calm

Answer: Option b
Q2. STEP BY STEP

(a) All at once (b) In quick succession (c) In slow motion (d) In a nutshell (e) Once and for all

Answer: Option e
Q3. OFFERING

(a) Stealing (b) Permitting (c) Refusing (d) Pretesting (e) Questioning

Answer: Option c
Direction(4-6): Choose the word/group of words is MOST SIMILAR in MEANING to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
Q4. REMAIN

(a) Left-over (b) Endure (c) Stagnate (d) Continue (e) Linger

Answer: Option b
Q5. HIRED

(a) Allowed (b) Rented (c) Authorized (d) Employed (e) Delegated

Answer: Option d
Q6. LIMIT

(a) Maximum (b) Finish (c) Cap (d) Decrease (e) Barrier

Answer: Option a
Q7. Which of the following is a reason foreign investments do not strengthen the economies of host nations?

(a) The parent company all the profit as tax to its nation. (b) The profit of such enterprise does not remain in the host notion; rather it goes back to the share-holders and owners of the parent company. (c) The employees of the parent company demand extra pay from profits that the companies earn from factories in another nation. (d) The profit earned by such enterprises for anything beyond the salaries of employees. (e) None of these

Answer: Option b
Q8. What is the tone of the passage?

(a) Offensive (b) Satirical (c) Analytical (d) Humorous (e) Speculative

Answer: Option c
Q9. Which of the following is an advantage that self-employment has over industry based employment? (A) The work timings are highly flexible. (B) Starting one’s own venture is an easy task and needs no investment as financers are readily available. (C) Self-employment makes one a master of other people and thus satisfies their need to control others.

(a) Only (C) (b) Only (A) (c) Only (B) (d) Only (A) and (B) (e) Only (A), (B) and (C)

Answer: Option b
Q10. Which of the following may be inferred about self-employment? (A) Self-employed slowly but steadily strengthens the economy of the country. (B) Self-employed checks unemployment. (C) Self-employment is slow and unprogressive, foreign investment is the only effective tool to boost economy.

(a) Only (B) (b) Only (B) and (C) (c) Only (A) (d) Only (A) and (B) (e) Only (A) and (C)

Answer: Option d
Q11. What does the author indicate by the example of a bonsai tree? (A) When provided the right kind of financial help, poor people can flourish. (B) Poor people are as capable as the well-to-do class. (C) Poor people are intolerant and incapable while adopting change.

(a) Only (A) (b) Only (B) (c) Only (A) and (B) (d) Only (A) and (C) (e) Only (B) and (C)

Answer: Option c
Q12. The author claims that self-employment is ‘tailor-made’ for people with certain qualities. Which of the following are the qualities of such people? (A) They have an unconventional approach to all things. (B) They are street smart. (C) They possess many acquired and traditional skills.

(a) Only (C) (b) Only (A) (c) Only (B) (d) Only (A) and (C) (e) Only (A), (B) and (C)

Answer: Option c
Q13. Which of the following outweighs the employment benefits that foreign industrialists bring?

(a) Huge industries set up by them cause environmental pollution. (b) They employ more people belonging to their native nations, than the host nations’ unemployed. (c) They evade many taxes that could be a source of revenue for the host nation. (d) They manufacture products that have no market in the host nation. (e) They practice discrimination on grounds of gender when providing employment to host nations’ residents.

Answer: Option a
Q14. Which of the following may be an appropriate title for the passage?

(a) Addressing conventional employment in developed nations. (b) Varied strategies and approaches to eradicating poverty (c) Limitations of industrial employment. (d) How is poverty linked to conventional (industrial) employment? (e) Role of self-employment in battling unemployment and eradication of poverty.

Answer: e
Q15. Which of the following is TRUE as per the passage?

(a) Self-employment is beneficial only as per the passage? (b) Self-employment is not as glamorous as conventional (industrial) employment. (c) Finance for poor is readily available in the developed nations of the world. (d) Small-scale industries produce as much toxic waste as big industries. (e) None is true

Answer: Option b
Word Association Pair
Four words are given below. Choose the pair of words that most nearly mean the SAME or OPPOSITE of each other. A. Deception B. Delusion C. Hallucination D. Demolish

(a) A-B (b) A-C (c) A-D (d) B-C (e) B-D

Answer: Option d
Error Spotting
Read each sentence given below and find out whether there is an error in it. The error if any will be one of the parts of the sentence which are marked as A, B, C and D. If there is no error, the answer will be (E) i.e. No error. (Ignore the errors of punctuation, if any)
The low learning levels is due to the fact (A)/ that the state spends 87% of its budget (B)/ on salaries of its teachers (C)/ and not on infrastructure development for students (D)/ No error (E) Answer: Option E
Para Jumbles
Directions (1-5): Rearrange the following sentences in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph; then answer the questions given below them.
(A) One evidence of this is that many highly intelligent people are very low on creativity. (B) In other words they may find replicating a process very easy but creating a process difficult. (C) But it is unfortunate that in many organisations these replicates are rated high and promoted over creators. (D) Intelligence and creativity are two different things. (E) They may understand the things very fast but are poor if any new thing is to be developed; this in long term gives creators an upper edge.
Q1. Which of the following will be the SECOND sentence?

(a) A (b) B (c) C (d) D (e) E

Answer: Option a
Q2. Which of the following will be the FIFTH sentence?

(a) A (b) B (c) C (d) D (e) E

Answer: Option e
Q3. Which of the following will be the FOURTH sentence?

(a) A (b) B (c) C (d) D (e) E

Answer: Option c
Q4. Which of the following will be the FIRST sentence?

(a) A (b) B (c) C (d) D (e) E

Answer: Option d
Q5. Which of the following will be the THIRD sentence?

(a) A (b) B (c) C (d) D (e) E

Answer: Option b
Cloze Test
Directions (1-15): In the passage given below there are 15 blanks, each followed by a word given in bold. Each blank has four alternative words given in options (a), (b), (c) and (d). You have to tell which word will best suit the respective blank. Mark (e) as your answer if the word given in bold after the blank is your answer.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is being 1. ___(framed) as the single-biggest economic reform since the economic liberalisation of 1991. Even critics of the tax, who complain about its complex four-slab rate structure, agree that it is a step in the right direction. The primary reason is that it 2. ___(does away) with the present system of multiple Central and State taxes, replacing it with a much simpler tax system. Another supposed benefit of GST is that it is a tax on consumption, which replaces the current web of 3. ___(running) taxes in the production chain that 4. ___(lowers) prices and distorts production. In the process, it is said, the new tax system does away with the barriers to free trade 5. ___(into) and between States, effectively turning India into a single free market for goods and services.
For 6. ___(psychoanalysts), there is good reason to doubt all these claimed benefits of the GST. One, a nationwide tax such as the GST will 7. ___(form) to a higher tax burden as it reduces tax competition. Earlier, States which were keen to 8. ___(put in) investment and labour from each other had a reason to cut taxes. Now, the Centre, which will 9. ___(increase) no tax competition except from the rest of the world, can 10. ___(terminate) rates at whim. This will encourage tax rate increases that are detrimental to growth. Two, the number of taxes does not necessarily reflect the actual burden 11. ___(proposed) on businesses by any tax system. For example, a single, high tax rate might impose a greater burden on businesses than multiple taxes that 12. ___(sum up) to a lower rate. A single, low tax rate might also turn out to be more burdensome if the cost of bureaucratic compliance is higher than under multiple, higher tax rates. So what matters eventually is the overall burden under a tax regime, which is likely to be lower when States compete than otherwise.
No change in prices: Three, contrary to common belief, the prices that consumers pay don’t rise or fall in 13. ___(tandem) with taxes imposed on goods, be they production or consumption taxes. Consumer prices are determined purely by consumer 14. ___(forum), not the cost of production. It is true that a discriminatory tax might force businesses to 15. ___(rise) or reduce the supply of certain goods in favour of others.
Q1.

(a) turned (b) flaunted (c) biggest (d) oldest (e) no change

Answer: Option b
Q2.

(a) do over (b) does over (c) done over (d) done up (e) no change

Answer: Option e
Q3.

(a) giving (b) devastating (c) cascading (d) lower (e) no change

Answer: Option c
Q4.

(a) controls (b) remarket (c) decreases (d) increases (e) no change

Answer: Option d
Q5.

(a) in (b) on (c) within (d) onto (e) no change

Answer: Option c
Q6.

(a) sceptics (b) astrologists (c) people (d) predicament (e) no change

Answer: Option a
Q7.

(a) promote (b) diminish (c) administer (d) lead (e) no change

Answer: Option d
Q8.

(a) attract (b) commit (c) advice (d) adore (e) no change

Answer: Option a
Q9.

(a) arrange (b) conflict (c) face (d) advocate (e) no change

Answer: Option c
Q10.

(a) determine (b) admire (c) desire (d) cultivate (e) no change

Answer: Option a
Q11.

(a) imposed (b) dosed (c) dozed (d) taken on (e) no change

Answer: Option a
Q12.

(a) add up (b) grow up (c) give up (d) do up (e) no change

Answer: Option a
Q13.

(a) conflicting (b) relevant (c) clinging (d) lament (e) no change

Answer: Option e
Q14.

(a) demand (b) court (c) case (d) comment (e) no change

Answer: Option a
Q15.

(a) increase (b) allow (c) discontinue (d) create (e) no change

Answer: Option c
Fill in the Blanks
Directions(1-5): In these questions, sentences are given with blanks to be filled in with an appropriate word(s). Five alternatives are suggested for each question. Choose the correct alternative out of the five.
Q1. She did not tell __________ that she __________ attended the party.

(a) someone….have (b) no one….has (c) him….not (d) anyone….had (e) none….did

Answer: Option d
Q2. After carefully __________ the situation, the farmer sympathised __________ the mule.

(a) scrutinizing….on (b) assessing….with (c) observing….through (d) fighting….by (e) ignoring….for

Answer: Option b
Q3. Once there lived a cunning fox who always __________to__________ others with his awful acts.

(a) wished….cheating (b) desired….betrayed (c) thought….fooling (d) tried….deceive (e) longed….between

Answer: Option d
Q4. I __________ a friend named Raj who __________ a horse ranch in the city.

(a) has….buys (b) need….holds (c) posses….run (d) have….owns (e) got…sells

Answer: Option d
Q5. As night __________ in the heights of the mountains, Ramesh could not __________ anything.

(a) fell….see (b) darkened….view (c) rose….advice (d) dive….perceive (e) become…get

Answer: Option a
Sentence Improvement
Directions: A part of the sentence has been Bold which is given below. From the choices given to you, you are required to choose the one, which would best replace the Bold part in terms of grammatical usage.
The tendency to eat late, though it has never been tested properly, many nutritionists believe, as a factor in putting on weight.

(a) many nutritionists believe, to be a factor in putting on weight. (b) many nutritionists believe factor in putting on weight. (c) is believed by many nutritionists to be a factor in putting on weight. (d) is believed by many nutritionists as a factor in putting on weight. (e) None of the above replace the bold part.

Answer: Option c