All questions of English Language Tests for Bank Exams Exam

Two weeks after the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled in favour of India in the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, Pakistan has yet to take the first step towards implementing the order: providing him “consular access”. In its verdict on July 17, the ICJ had decided near-unanimously that by not informing India immediately of Mr. Jadhav’s arrest in 2017, by not informing him of his rights, and not allowing the Indian High Commission to meet with him and arrange for his legal representation, Pakistan was in violation of the Vienna convention on consular relations. Although Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had offered a meeting between Mr. Jadhav and the Indian High Commission in Islamabad on Friday afternoon, the offer came with conditions, including CCTV cameras on proceedings, and a Pakistani official being in the room during the meeting. This was a violation of the (A) unimpeded consular access that the ICJ had ordered, and India decided to reject the offer until Pakistan reconsiders its conditions. India’s concerns are three-fold. First, Pakistan’s delay in granting full consular access displays a non-serious attitude to implementing a clear-cut order from the UN’s highest judicial body. This augurs badly for Pakistan’s application of the rest of the ICJ order that calls for a full review of Mr. Jadhav’s trial conviction and death sentence for terrorism and espionage charges. Most importantly, the nature of the conditions indicates Pakistan wants to monitor what Mr. Jadhav tells Indian officials closely, as much of their original case, as presented to the public, rested on his purported confession. If he shares adverse details of (B) coercion, the court may well go beyond its current order in the case, and India may have a stronger chance of trying to have the trial overturned.

Islamabad must stop dragging its feet and creating unnecessary hurdles in providing what is a basic human right for Mr. Jadhav, and New Delhi needs to keep its rhetoric low, while pressing its case for access to the former naval officer, consistently and firmly. This will not be easy, as after some relative calm, shelling at the Line of Control has opened up with a new fury in the last few days. The allegations by Pakistan that the Indian Army is deploying cluster-munitions on civilian areas (firmly denied by the government), and the Army’s claim that several Pakistani regulars and terrorists were killed in an infiltration attempt by a “Border Action Team” (BAT) have ratcheted up tensions further. The government’s ham-handed reaction to the threats, of cancelling the Amarnath Yatra, pulling out tourists and pilgrims and raising security levels in the valley further, have only added to the narrative. _________ (C) ________ if the situation overshadows the fate of Mr. Jadhav, just when hopes had been raised by the international court verdict to help secure his freedom.

Q. Choose the option which is most similar to the word marked (A) in the passage.

Directions: In each question below, four sentences each with one  underlined word type are given. These are numbered (A), (B), (C) and (D). One these words printed underlined might either be wrongly spelt or are inappropriate in the context of the sentence. Find out the word that is inappropriate or wrongly spelt, if any. If the words printed underlined are correctly spelt and appropriate in the context of the sentence then mark (E), i.e. 'All Correct', as your answer.

(A) As the popularity of hiking vacations grows, scores of walkers have tightened their laces and discovered troumping over trails sparks an instant connection with the land -- a wonder that's hard to replicate from the comfort of a car or tour bus.

(B) Of course, this kind of interaction with nature also provides fantastic exercise, combining sightseeing and workouts into one.

(C) The four-day, 27-mile hike starts outside the tiny town of Ollantaytambo and winds through a number of knee-buckling passes in the Andes Mountains.

(D) Along the way, the trail passes nearly a dozen archaeological sites -- cities, farms, places of worship and lookouts that serve as evidence of the Inca's heyday before the Spanish Inquisition.

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that surrogacy needs to be regulated by law. (A) There is no (1) aplenty about whether an (2) issue such as surrogacy (3) fraught with bioethical issues (4) argument requires regulation: it does. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, should have come a long time ago. Regulations in the past in the area of child adoption and transplantation of human organs have, historically, borne fruit, effectively putting an end to ________ (B) ________ commercial transactions, and providing a structure by which any excursions outside of the law may be shut down. (C) Flagrant violations of human rights have been witnessed repeatedly in the ‘baby-making factory’ in India, the underprivileged woman often in the cross hairs, and at the bottom of the pile. The (D) plethora of unregulated assisted reproductive techniques (ART) clinics that mushroomed, coinciding with India becoming a global health-care destination, ensured that there was a good volume of traffic toward the country, besides growing domestic demand for surrogacy services. In this context, there is expectation that the Surrogacy Bill will regulate commercial surrogacy, while allowing an (E) altruistic form of it to continue, by putting in place strict supervisory and regulatory frameworks. The question here is whether the Bill, recently passed by the Lok Sabha, will serve the wholesome purpose of regulating the vastly complex area of surrogacy, while sensitively balancing the needs of ‘intending parents’ and surrogates.

The Bill mandates payment to the surrogate mother, who can only be a ‘close relative’, to the extent of covering medical expenses and providing insurance during the term of the pregnancy. It has specified that ‘exploiting the surrogate mother’ would attract punishment of imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of up to ₹10 lakh; advertising for surrogacy and selling/importing human embryos or gametes for surrogacy also attract the same punishment. It has mandated registration of surrogacy clinics, and put in place regulatory boards to ensure (F) compliance with the law. But its critics have panned it for the lack of specifics in definitions (the generalised ‘close relative’ criterion for surrogates); the _______ (G) ___________ of various groups of people from access to surrogacy (only married couples of a certain age group are eligible); and primarily, of trying to put the ‘cart before the horse’ by seeking to regulate surrogacy before setting the ART house in order. The capacity of the state to end commercial surrogacy may itself be compromised if it does not first set up a regulatory framework for ART clinics, which provide the basic technology for surrogacy. Else, the government is merely setting itself up to implement a law that may spectacularly fail. _____________ (H) _________________ this is one law that is pregnant with the possibility of truly revolutionizing the surrogacy sector, cleaning it up, and fulfilling the dreams of people who are themselves unable to bear children.

Q. The sentence given in (A) has four words given in bold. Amongst the given bold words which of the following must replace each other to make the sentence contextually correct and meaningful.

The overall literacy rates have risen multi-fold in India since Independence from around 18 percent in the 1950s to 74 percent in the last Census. But the averages hide the vast disparities. Female literacy is particularly wanting in the country as a significant proportion of them are still illiterate with major ramifications for the Indian economy.

The lack of education among women prevents their participation in the workforce, thus hindering the country’s development. Many studies have also concluded that female education has a significant impact on the development of future generations as they usually have a more direct role to play in their child’s education than their father. An addition of a year of schooling to a mother’s education has a significantly higher impact on the next generation than an addition to the father’s schooling by the same number of years. Further, better birth outcomes like higher birth weight and lower child mortality are observed among educated mothers.

When compared with the rest of the world, the female literacy rate is considerably low in India at around 60 percent, which is 22 percentage points below the world average. The figure below shows the stark difference in India’s female literacy is not only with the developed countries but also with middle- and lower-income countries like Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Apart from the low female literacy, there is also a wide gender disparity in India’s performance on literacy with a difference of around 20 percentage points between male and female literacy rates. This disparity has been persistent throughout the years, although it has been falling over time with the current gap being the lowest since Independence.

Q. What are the reasons behind the notion that female education has significant impact on the development of future generations?

i) Women tend to participate in the social events whereas men cannot afford to be a part in most of the social events.

ii) Women have a capability to run a family on their own when they are equipped with good education.

iii) Women’s contribution to their children’s education is considerably more effective than that of men.

iv) Better birth outcomes like higher birth weight and lower child mortality are observed among educated mothers.

Any move to increase the strength of the judiciary ought to be welcomed, given the perennial complaint that availability of judges is not increasing in proportion to the institution of cases. In this perspective, the Union Cabinet’s decision to raise the strength of the Supreme Court from 31 to 34, including the Chief Justice of India, will help in dealing with the large pendency — 59,331 cases on July 11. The law that fixes the number of judges in the highest court was last amended in 2009 to raise the figure from 26 to 31. (A) Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had written to the Prime Minister recently, (1) highlighting the problem of (2) questions of judges, due to which he was unable to (3) constitute enough Constitution Benches to decide important (4) paucity of law. However, a moot question is whether the highest court should go into the correctness of every decision of every high court. Are the judicial resources available being used optimally? Is valuable time being taken up by mundane matters that do not ______ (B) _______ on larger questions that involve interpretation of laws and constitutional provisions? For instance, routine bail matters land up in the Supreme Court within days of persons being arrested. Every major crime or disaster seems to invite a litigant, ostensibly in public interest, who mentions the matter before the Chief Justice for urgent hearing. The court is being invited to even oversee flood relief work.

A mere increase in the court’s strength may not be enough to liquidate the burgeoning docket. (C) Another set of measures that would save the court’s time, including a reasonable restraint on the duration of oral arguments and a disciplined adherence to a schedule of hearings may be needed. In this case, one of the principal objectives should be to preserve the apex court’s primary role as the ultimate arbiter of constitutional questions and statutory interpretation. All other questions involving a final decision on routine matters, especially civil cases that involve nothing more than the interests of the parties before it, ought to be considered by a mechanism that will not detract from the court’s primary role. Some countries have brought in a clear division at the level of the apex judiciary by having separate constitutional courts, which limit themselves to deciding questions of constitutional importance. It may be worthwhile considering the 229th Report of the Law Commission, suggesting a new system under which there will be one Constitution Bench in Delhi, and four ‘Cassation Benches’ for different regions of the country. These will be final appellate courts for routine (D) litigation. This arrangement may also increase access to justice to those living in far-flung areas of the country and who may otherwise have to come to Delhi and spend more time and money in pursuing appeals. It may also cut down on the time taken for disposal of cases.

Q. What can be a suitable title for the passage?

Directions: In each question below, four sentences each with one  underlined word type are given. These are numbered (A), (B), (C) and (D). One these words printed underlined might either be wrongly spelt or are inappropriate in the context of the sentence. Find out the word that is inappropriate or wrongly spelt, if any. If the words printed underlined are correctly spelt and appropriate in the context of the sentence then mark (E), i.e. 'All Correct', as your answer.

(A) Researchers have generally believed that only towards the very end of the Classic period, increasing droughts would have reduced food supplies, in turn escalating tensions between Maya kingdoms and resulting in violent warfare that is believed to have preacipitated their decline.

(B)Research presented today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, however, is adding to the evidence that violent, destructive warfare targeting both military and civilian resources (often referred to as total warfare) was taking place even before a changing climate impariled Maya agriculture.

(C)The lake is situated at the bottom of a steep cliff topped by the ruins of the ancient Maya city archaeologists call Witzna, and Wahl believed the sediment on the bottom of the lake might reveal what happened to the people that once thrived there.

(D) Fast-accumulating sediment indicates that forests were cut and land was cleared, causing increased erosion, while corn pollen found in those sediments leave no doubt about the main crop grown in the area. 

Any move to increase the strength of the judiciary ought to be welcomed, given the perennial complaint that availability of judges is not increasing in proportion to the institution of cases. In this perspective, the Union Cabinet’s decision to raise the strength of the Supreme Court from 31 to 34, including the Chief Justice of India, will help in dealing with the large pendency — 59,331 cases on July 11. The law that fixes the number of judges in the highest court was last amended in 2009 to raise the figure from 26 to 31. (A) Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had written to the Prime Minister recently, (1) highlighting the problem of (2) questions of judges, due to which he was unable to (3) constitute enough Constitution Benches to decide important (4) paucity of law. However, a moot question is whether the highest court should go into the correctness of every decision of every high court. Are the judicial resources available being used optimally? Is valuable time being taken up by mundane matters that do not ______ (B) _______ on larger questions that involve interpretation of laws and constitutional provisions? For instance, routine bail matters land up in the Supreme Court within days of persons being arrested. Every major crime or disaster seems to invite a litigant, ostensibly in public interest, who mentions the matter before the Chief Justice for urgent hearing. The court is being invited to even oversee flood relief work.

A mere increase in the court’s strength may not be enough to liquidate the burgeoning docket. (C) Another set of measures that would save the court’s time, including a reasonable restraint on the duration of oral arguments and a disciplined adherence to a schedule of hearings may be needed. In this case, one of the principal objectives should be to preserve the apex court’s primary role as the ultimate arbiter of constitutional questions and statutory interpretation. All other questions involving a final decision on routine matters, especially civil cases that involve nothing more than the interests of the parties before it, ought to be considered by a mechanism that will not detract from the court’s primary role. Some countries have brought in a clear division at the level of the apex judiciary by having separate constitutional courts, which limit themselves to deciding questions of constitutional importance. It may be worthwhile considering the 229th Report of the Law Commission, suggesting a new system under which there will be one Constitution Bench in Delhi, and four ‘Cassation Benches’ for different regions of the country. These will be final appellate courts for routine (D) litigation. This arrangement may also increase access to justice to those living in far-flung areas of the country and who may otherwise have to come to Delhi and spend more time and money in pursuing appeals. It may also cut down on the time taken for disposal of cases.

Q. Which of the following word given in the options should come at the place marked (B) in the above article to make it grammatically correct and meaningful?

Directions: In each question below, four sentences each with one  underlined word type are given. These are numbered (A), (B), (C) and (D). One these words printed underlined might either be wrongly spelt or are inappropriate in the context of the sentence. Find out the word that is inappropriate or wrongly spelt, if any. If the words printed underlined are correctly spelt and appropriate in the context of the sentence then mark (E), i.e. 'All Correct', as your answer.

(A) Deep in remote Florida swamps a team of researchers and photographers have made a new discoverythat upends what we thought we knew about the ghost orchid, one of the world™s most iconic flowers, and how it reproduces. 

(B) But now, photographs by Carlton Ward Jr. and Mac Stoneshow that a couple of moth species other than the giant sphinx visit and carry the ghost orchid™s pollen”and the giant sphinx itself may play a compleately different role than previously thought.

(C) Grizzly Creek Filmsin partnership with biographic capture the discovery in this impressive

(D) We look for work that affirms National Geographic's belief in the power of science, exploration, and stortelling to change the world.