Questions

A sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect Speech. Out of the four given alternatives, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct Speech.

“Do you write with a left hand?” she asked.

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which will improve the bracketed part of the sentence. In case no improvement is needed, select "no improvement".

There is something in a train journey that (was fascinated) a lot of people and I am one of them.

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the idiom/phrase.

In the same boat

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.

Seringalistas refers to

In the following question, a sentence has been given in Active/Passive voice. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which bestexpresses the same sentence in Passive/Active voice.
 

The movie critic wrote a sarcastic review.

In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.

______________ reader can add to the list and to the possibilities of a new ethical and moral politics _________________ requires a Gandhian inventiveness of ritual and politics. What I wish to add is a ___________________. The rituals of apology and the question of justice, reconciliation and ethical repair are not easy. They require a rigour and an inventiveness _____________ ethical thinking which ___________________ new experiments with the idea of truth and healing in India.

______________ reader can add to the list

The question below consists of a set of labelled sentences. These sentences, when properly sequenced form a coherent paragraph. Select the most logical order of sentences from among the options.

P: This would bring a sense of closure to an issue that has seen about two decades of wrangling.
Q: By clearing the path for 49 percent foreign investment in Air India (AI), the Centre has finally decided to push ahead on its privatisation.
R: While the parliamentary standing committee on AI privatisation is yet to express its views, a sort of political consensus appears to be close at hand.
S: There cannot be a more opportune time to push ahead with disinvestment; this, ironically, is despite the fact that the airline has improved its operational  performance.

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the idiom/phrase.

A bone of contention