General Knowledge Questions

________ means that the President of India can refer any matter that is of public importance or that which involves interpretation of Constitution to Supreme Court for advice.

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives and click the button corresponding to it.

The first working steam­ powered vehicle was designed and most likely built by Ferdinand Verbies, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65 cm long scale­ model toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger. It is not known if Verbiest's model was ever built. Nicolas- Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first full­ scale, self ­propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769; he also created a steam­ powered tricycle. He constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. His inventions were however handicapped by problems of water supply and maintaining steam pressure. In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam ­powered road vehicle. It was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods. Sentiment against steam ­powered road vehicles led to the Locomotive Acts of 1865. In 1807 Nicephore Niepce and his brother Claude probably created the world's first internal combustion engine which they called Pyreolophore.

Cugnot built steam tractors for:

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.

The scenario _________________ dramatically today. We have the ___________________ of powerful Internet monopolies that are much bigger ________________ the telcos. Not surprisingly, these companies now see the _______________ of monopoly. They would like to combine with telcos to create monopolies for their platforms, ensuring that they control the future of the Internet and freeze their competition ____________.

monopolies that are much bigger ________________ the telcos

Brain fever is a disease spread through which of the following?

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 by selecting the appropriate option.

The airline was unable to give us a reason for the ______________ departure delay.

In the following items, each passage consists of six sentences. The first and the sixth sentence are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been removed and jumbled up. These are labeled P, Q, R and S. You are required to find out the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet.

S1 :Universities are peculiar institutions.
S6:It is the most important institution in the complex process of knowledge creation and distribution.
P:Traditionally elite institutions, the modern university has provided social mobility to previously disfranchised groups.
Q:The contemporary university stands at the centre of its society.
R:They have common historical roots yet are deeply embedded in their societies.
S:Established in the medieval period to transmit established knowledge and provide training for a few key professions, universities have become a primary creator of new knowledge through basic research.

The proper sequence should be 

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

The alpha and the omega

In the following question, a passage is given which describes a situation. From the given options, mark the correct inference that can be drawn from the passage. If none of the inferences follow, mark option 5, “None of these” as the answer.
The philosophy of pragmatism goes something like this. The mind is such that it deals only with ideas. It is not possible for the mind to relate to anything other than ideas. Therefore, it is not correct to think that the mind actually can ponder reality. All that the mind can ponder is its ideas about reality. (Whether or not that is the way reality actually is, is a metaphysical
issue). Therefore, whether or not something is true is not a matter of how closely it corresponds to the absolute truth, but of how consistent it is with our experience.