Questions

Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.

The Amazon basin has been continuously inhabited for at least 10, 000 years, possibly more. Its earliest inhabitants were stone-age peoples, living in hundreds of far-flung tribes, some tiny, others numbering in the tens of thousands. It was from the west that Europeans explorers first arrived. In 1541 a Spanish expedition from Quito, led by Gonzalo Pizarro, ran short of supplies while exploring east of the Andes in what is today Peru. Pizarro’s cousin Francisco de Orellana offered to take 60 men along with the boats from the expedition and forage for supplies. De Orellana floated down the Rio Napo to its confluence with the Amazon, near Iquitos (Peru), and then to the mouth of the Amazon. Along the way his expedition suffered numerous attacks by Indians; some of the Indian warriors, they reported, were female, like the Amazons of Greek mythology, and thus the world’s greatest river got its name. No one made a serious effort to claim this sweaty territory, however, until the Portuguese built a fort near the mouth of the river at Belém in 1616, and sent Pedro Teixeira up the river to Quito and back between 1637 and 1639. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Portuguese bandeirantes (groups of roaming adventurers) penetrated ever further into the rain forest in pursuit of gold and Indian slaves, exploring as far as present-day Rondônia, and the Guaporé and Madeira river valleys. Amazonian Indians had long used the sap from rubber trees to make waterproof bags and other items. European explorers recognized the potential value of natural latex, but were unable to market it because it tended to grow soft in the heat, or brittle in the cold, and thus had limited appeal outside the rain forest. However, in 1842 American Charles Goodyear developed vulcanization (made natural rubber durable) and in 1890 Ireland’s John Dunlop patented pneumatic rubber tires. Soon there was an unquenchable demand for rubber in the recently industrialized USA and Europe, and the price of rubber on international markets soared. As profits skyrocketed, so did exploitation of the seringueiros, or rubber tappers, who were lured into the Amazon, mostly from the drought-stricken northeast, by the promise of prosperity only to be locked into a cruel system of virtual slavery dominated by seringalistas (owners of rubber-bearing forests). Rigged scales, hired guns, widespread illiteracy among the rubber tappers, and monopoly of sales and purchases all combined to perpetuate the workers’ debt and misery. In addition, seringueiros had to contend with jungle fevers, Indian attacks and all manner of deprivation.

From where did the Europeans explorers first arrive?

In a market system, the central problems regarding how much and what to produce are solved through the coordination of economic activities brought about by ________ signals.

Which of the following is a Block Mountain?

In the following question, some part of the sentence may have errors. Find out which part of the sentence has an error and select theappropriate option. If a sentence is free from error, select 'No Error'.

She was (1)/ quite amusing (2)/ at that story. (3)/ No error (4)

In the following question, the sentence given with blank to be filled in with an appropriate word. Select the correct alternative out of the four and indicate it byselecting the appropriate option.

Being linked with nature brings joy and peace as it is the ______ of the laws of Nature.

Each item consists of six sentences of a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet.

S1 :We do not know, after 60 years of equation, how to protect ourselves against epidemics like cholera and plague.

S6 :This is the disastrous result of the system under which we are educated.

P :If our doctors could have started learning medicine at an earlier age, they would not make such a poor show as they do.

Q : I have seen hundreds of homes. I cannot say that I have found any evidence in them of knowledge of hygiene.

R : I consider it a very serious blot on the state of our education that our doctors have not found it possible to eradicate these diseases.

S :I have the greatest doubt whether our graduates know what one should do in case on is bitten by a snake.

The correct sequence should be

Who played Gandhi in 1982's Oscar Winning Movie of the same name?

Which among the following is NOT an event during the photosynthesis process?