SNAP 2008: Previous Year Question Paper with Solutions

 Page 1


SNAP 2008
General English
1. Match the following idiomatic references to parts of the human anatomy
A    1-8, 2-6, 3-5, 4-7
B    1-5, 2-7, 3-6, 4-8
C    1-7, 2-8, 3-6, 4-5
D    1-6, 2-8, 3-5, 4-7
A n s w e r : C
     
Instructions [2 - 5 ]
Answer the following questions based on the information given below.
2. Find the maximum number of times any one of the given words fits the sets of sentences:
RAISE 
ARISE
AROSE 
RISE
i) Opportunities will _______, and you must grab them.
ii) A hot wind _______ from the desert.
iii) I _______ at dawn on most days.
iv) A mood of optimism _______ among the people.
A    in all four sentences
B    in 3 sentences
C    in 2 sentences
D    in 1 sentence
A n s w e r : C
3. Which two sentences in the following convey the same idea? Choose from the combinations listed below:
1) He is in a fool’s paradise
2) He can’t see the wood for the trees
3) He can’t distinguish between reality and fancy.
4) He is unable to separate unimportant details from the really important ones
A    2, 3
B    2, 4
C    1, 4
D    
1, 3
  
.
Page 2


SNAP 2008
General English
1. Match the following idiomatic references to parts of the human anatomy
A    1-8, 2-6, 3-5, 4-7
B    1-5, 2-7, 3-6, 4-8
C    1-7, 2-8, 3-6, 4-5
D    1-6, 2-8, 3-5, 4-7
A n s w e r : C
     
Instructions [2 - 5 ]
Answer the following questions based on the information given below.
2. Find the maximum number of times any one of the given words fits the sets of sentences:
RAISE 
ARISE
AROSE 
RISE
i) Opportunities will _______, and you must grab them.
ii) A hot wind _______ from the desert.
iii) I _______ at dawn on most days.
iv) A mood of optimism _______ among the people.
A    in all four sentences
B    in 3 sentences
C    in 2 sentences
D    in 1 sentence
A n s w e r : C
3. Which two sentences in the following convey the same idea? Choose from the combinations listed below:
1) He is in a fool’s paradise
2) He can’t see the wood for the trees
3) He can’t distinguish between reality and fancy.
4) He is unable to separate unimportant details from the really important ones
A    2, 3
B    2, 4
C    1, 4
D    
1, 3
  
.
A n s w e r : B
4. Find the correct match of grammatical function with usage for the word THEN.
A    1-8, 2-5, 3-7, 4-7
B    1-6, 2-5, 3-8, 4-7
C    1-7, 2-5, 3-6, 4-8
D    1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5
A n s w e r : B
    
5. We can never make our beliefs regarding the world certain. Even scientific theory of a most rigorous and well-confirmed nature
is likely to change over a decade or even tomorrow. If we refuse to even try to understand, then it is like resigning from the
human race. Undoubtedly life of an unexamined kind is worth living in other respects—as it is no mean thing to be a vegetable or
an animal. It is also true that a man wishes to see this speculation domain beyond his next dinner.
From the above passage it is clear that the author believes that
A    men would do well not to speculate
B    progress in the scientific field is impossible
C    one should live life with the dictum ‘what will be will be’
D    men are different from animals as far as their reasoning abilities are concerned.
A n s w e r : C
Instructions [6 - 11 ]
Answer the question based on the passage given below.
Rajendra K. Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is getting nightmares because of the Nano, Tata’s soon -
to - be - launched Rs. One lakh car. Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says that it isn’t the Nano by itself but
cars overall that give her nightmares. The villains in my nightmares are neither the Nano nor cars overall, but stupid government policies
that subsidize and encourage pollution, adulteration and congestion.
Sanctimonious greens call the Nano disastrous because of its affordability - millions more will now clog roads and consume more fossil
fuel. This is elitism parading as virtue. Elite greens own cars, but cannot stand the poorer masses becoming mobile, since the
consequent congestion will eat into the time of the elite!
More logical would be a protest against big cars that use more space and fuel, or highly polluting old cars. Instead, green hypocrites aim
at a new car with the lowest cost, best mileage and least emissions. The Nano will not burden us with too many cars. India has very few
cars per person by world standards. London and New York have ultra-high car densities, yet have clearer air than Delhi. Our problem is
too many bad
policies, not too many cars.
We subsidize vehicles on a gargantuan scale invisible to lay folk. Roads and flyovers cost crores to build and maintain, yet road use is
free (save on a few toll roads). Traffic police and lights are costly, yet are provided free. These invisible subsidies starve cities of funds
  
.
Page 3


SNAP 2008
General English
1. Match the following idiomatic references to parts of the human anatomy
A    1-8, 2-6, 3-5, 4-7
B    1-5, 2-7, 3-6, 4-8
C    1-7, 2-8, 3-6, 4-5
D    1-6, 2-8, 3-5, 4-7
A n s w e r : C
     
Instructions [2 - 5 ]
Answer the following questions based on the information given below.
2. Find the maximum number of times any one of the given words fits the sets of sentences:
RAISE 
ARISE
AROSE 
RISE
i) Opportunities will _______, and you must grab them.
ii) A hot wind _______ from the desert.
iii) I _______ at dawn on most days.
iv) A mood of optimism _______ among the people.
A    in all four sentences
B    in 3 sentences
C    in 2 sentences
D    in 1 sentence
A n s w e r : C
3. Which two sentences in the following convey the same idea? Choose from the combinations listed below:
1) He is in a fool’s paradise
2) He can’t see the wood for the trees
3) He can’t distinguish between reality and fancy.
4) He is unable to separate unimportant details from the really important ones
A    2, 3
B    2, 4
C    1, 4
D    
1, 3
  
.
A n s w e r : B
4. Find the correct match of grammatical function with usage for the word THEN.
A    1-8, 2-5, 3-7, 4-7
B    1-6, 2-5, 3-8, 4-7
C    1-7, 2-5, 3-6, 4-8
D    1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5
A n s w e r : B
    
5. We can never make our beliefs regarding the world certain. Even scientific theory of a most rigorous and well-confirmed nature
is likely to change over a decade or even tomorrow. If we refuse to even try to understand, then it is like resigning from the
human race. Undoubtedly life of an unexamined kind is worth living in other respects—as it is no mean thing to be a vegetable or
an animal. It is also true that a man wishes to see this speculation domain beyond his next dinner.
From the above passage it is clear that the author believes that
A    men would do well not to speculate
B    progress in the scientific field is impossible
C    one should live life with the dictum ‘what will be will be’
D    men are different from animals as far as their reasoning abilities are concerned.
A n s w e r : C
Instructions [6 - 11 ]
Answer the question based on the passage given below.
Rajendra K. Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is getting nightmares because of the Nano, Tata’s soon -
to - be - launched Rs. One lakh car. Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says that it isn’t the Nano by itself but
cars overall that give her nightmares. The villains in my nightmares are neither the Nano nor cars overall, but stupid government policies
that subsidize and encourage pollution, adulteration and congestion.
Sanctimonious greens call the Nano disastrous because of its affordability - millions more will now clog roads and consume more fossil
fuel. This is elitism parading as virtue. Elite greens own cars, but cannot stand the poorer masses becoming mobile, since the
consequent congestion will eat into the time of the elite!
More logical would be a protest against big cars that use more space and fuel, or highly polluting old cars. Instead, green hypocrites aim
at a new car with the lowest cost, best mileage and least emissions. The Nano will not burden us with too many cars. India has very few
cars per person by world standards. London and New York have ultra-high car densities, yet have clearer air than Delhi. Our problem is
too many bad
policies, not too many cars.
We subsidize vehicles on a gargantuan scale invisible to lay folk. Roads and flyovers cost crores to build and maintain, yet road use is
free (save on a few toll roads). Traffic police and lights are costly, yet are provided free. These invisible subsidies starve cities of funds
  
.
to expand roads and public transport. Land in cities now costs lakhs per square metre. Yet parking is free in the suburbs, and often
costs just Rs.
10 day per day in city centres. A single parking space of 23 square meters occupies land worth Rs. 40 lakhs. A car occupies more space
than an office desk, yet the desk space pays full commercial rent while parking space costs just about Rs. 10 per day.
Daily parking charges range from $30 (Rs. 630) in Washington to $30 (Rs. 1260) in New York. CSE launched a sensible campaign to
raise parking fees in Delhi to Rs. 120 per day, but was foiled. So, parking space now exceeds green space, a scathing comment on
priorities.
The world price of crude oil has risen 13 fold since 1998 to over $139 per barrel, but Indian petrol prices have barely doubled. Left Front
politicians, who once wanted to soak the rich, now want to subsidize them. Under-recoveries of oil companies’ total may be Rs. 2,00,000
crore, even after a recent price hike. This is far more than the cost of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) and the Employment
Guarantee
Scheme put together.
We sanctimoniously lecture rich countries to reduce their green house emissions, yet subsidize our own. Diesel is subsidized to be
cheaper than petrol. So, Indian car makers produce the highest proportion of diesel cars in the world. Diesel fumes contain suspended
particles that are highly toxic. This subsidy kills.
So does kerosene provided at throwaway prices, ostensibly to benefit poor villagers. One third of all kerosene is used to adulterate petrol
and diesel. This causes horrendous pollution even in the greenest of cars.
What’s the way forward? We must abolish subsidies and raise taxes on vehicles and fuels to reflect their full social cost. The biggest but
least visible subsidy is for parking, and we should start there.
Many car owners in the West take public transport to work since parking space downtown is costly and scarce. We should levy parking
fees on an hourly, not daily, basis. Rs. 10 per hour could be a starting point in the metros.
In parts of Tokyo, you cannot own a car unless you own a private parking space. This is too extreme for India, but indicates the future
path. If we charge owners the full social cost of parking, people will buy smaller and perhaps fewer vehicles, and fewer still will take
them to work. That will slash congestion and pollution.
Cities should levy stiff annual taxes on vehicles, not a one-time tax, and use the revenue to constantly expand public transport and
roads. This will create economic synergy: Private transport will finance public transport. London and New York have high density public
transport as well as high car density.
Apart from underground rail, cities need elevated roads to ease congestion and pollution. Lata Mangeshkar helped kill a proposal for an
elevated
road near her Mumbai flat: perhaps she felt her throat and singing would be affected. She did not care that the throats of poor people
living on the pavements were far worse affected by fumes, and might get relief if some fumes were diverted to a higher level. What
elitism!
Next, some medicine that will be really bitter, politically. The excise duty on all automotive vehicles should be raised to reflect their
social costs. Fuel subsidies should be abolished. Price differentials between petrol, diesel and kerosene should be removed, ending
incentives for adulteration. Diesel cars should bear a heavy additional cess to finance improved healthcare for those affected by their
emission of harmful particulate matter.
That is a long, politically difficult agenda. Only part of it will ever be achieved. Yet that is the way to go, rather than agitate the Nano.
6. By ‘Sanctimonious greens’ the writer refers to
A    aristocratic environmentalists
B    the rich
C    environmentalists with a ‘holier than thou’ attitude
D    those who decry deforestation
A n s w e r : C
7. The elite are
A    jealous of Nano owners
B    afraid of traffic jams and depletion of fossil fuel
  
.
Page 4


SNAP 2008
General English
1. Match the following idiomatic references to parts of the human anatomy
A    1-8, 2-6, 3-5, 4-7
B    1-5, 2-7, 3-6, 4-8
C    1-7, 2-8, 3-6, 4-5
D    1-6, 2-8, 3-5, 4-7
A n s w e r : C
     
Instructions [2 - 5 ]
Answer the following questions based on the information given below.
2. Find the maximum number of times any one of the given words fits the sets of sentences:
RAISE 
ARISE
AROSE 
RISE
i) Opportunities will _______, and you must grab them.
ii) A hot wind _______ from the desert.
iii) I _______ at dawn on most days.
iv) A mood of optimism _______ among the people.
A    in all four sentences
B    in 3 sentences
C    in 2 sentences
D    in 1 sentence
A n s w e r : C
3. Which two sentences in the following convey the same idea? Choose from the combinations listed below:
1) He is in a fool’s paradise
2) He can’t see the wood for the trees
3) He can’t distinguish between reality and fancy.
4) He is unable to separate unimportant details from the really important ones
A    2, 3
B    2, 4
C    1, 4
D    
1, 3
  
.
A n s w e r : B
4. Find the correct match of grammatical function with usage for the word THEN.
A    1-8, 2-5, 3-7, 4-7
B    1-6, 2-5, 3-8, 4-7
C    1-7, 2-5, 3-6, 4-8
D    1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5
A n s w e r : B
    
5. We can never make our beliefs regarding the world certain. Even scientific theory of a most rigorous and well-confirmed nature
is likely to change over a decade or even tomorrow. If we refuse to even try to understand, then it is like resigning from the
human race. Undoubtedly life of an unexamined kind is worth living in other respects—as it is no mean thing to be a vegetable or
an animal. It is also true that a man wishes to see this speculation domain beyond his next dinner.
From the above passage it is clear that the author believes that
A    men would do well not to speculate
B    progress in the scientific field is impossible
C    one should live life with the dictum ‘what will be will be’
D    men are different from animals as far as their reasoning abilities are concerned.
A n s w e r : C
Instructions [6 - 11 ]
Answer the question based on the passage given below.
Rajendra K. Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is getting nightmares because of the Nano, Tata’s soon -
to - be - launched Rs. One lakh car. Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says that it isn’t the Nano by itself but
cars overall that give her nightmares. The villains in my nightmares are neither the Nano nor cars overall, but stupid government policies
that subsidize and encourage pollution, adulteration and congestion.
Sanctimonious greens call the Nano disastrous because of its affordability - millions more will now clog roads and consume more fossil
fuel. This is elitism parading as virtue. Elite greens own cars, but cannot stand the poorer masses becoming mobile, since the
consequent congestion will eat into the time of the elite!
More logical would be a protest against big cars that use more space and fuel, or highly polluting old cars. Instead, green hypocrites aim
at a new car with the lowest cost, best mileage and least emissions. The Nano will not burden us with too many cars. India has very few
cars per person by world standards. London and New York have ultra-high car densities, yet have clearer air than Delhi. Our problem is
too many bad
policies, not too many cars.
We subsidize vehicles on a gargantuan scale invisible to lay folk. Roads and flyovers cost crores to build and maintain, yet road use is
free (save on a few toll roads). Traffic police and lights are costly, yet are provided free. These invisible subsidies starve cities of funds
  
.
to expand roads and public transport. Land in cities now costs lakhs per square metre. Yet parking is free in the suburbs, and often
costs just Rs.
10 day per day in city centres. A single parking space of 23 square meters occupies land worth Rs. 40 lakhs. A car occupies more space
than an office desk, yet the desk space pays full commercial rent while parking space costs just about Rs. 10 per day.
Daily parking charges range from $30 (Rs. 630) in Washington to $30 (Rs. 1260) in New York. CSE launched a sensible campaign to
raise parking fees in Delhi to Rs. 120 per day, but was foiled. So, parking space now exceeds green space, a scathing comment on
priorities.
The world price of crude oil has risen 13 fold since 1998 to over $139 per barrel, but Indian petrol prices have barely doubled. Left Front
politicians, who once wanted to soak the rich, now want to subsidize them. Under-recoveries of oil companies’ total may be Rs. 2,00,000
crore, even after a recent price hike. This is far more than the cost of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) and the Employment
Guarantee
Scheme put together.
We sanctimoniously lecture rich countries to reduce their green house emissions, yet subsidize our own. Diesel is subsidized to be
cheaper than petrol. So, Indian car makers produce the highest proportion of diesel cars in the world. Diesel fumes contain suspended
particles that are highly toxic. This subsidy kills.
So does kerosene provided at throwaway prices, ostensibly to benefit poor villagers. One third of all kerosene is used to adulterate petrol
and diesel. This causes horrendous pollution even in the greenest of cars.
What’s the way forward? We must abolish subsidies and raise taxes on vehicles and fuels to reflect their full social cost. The biggest but
least visible subsidy is for parking, and we should start there.
Many car owners in the West take public transport to work since parking space downtown is costly and scarce. We should levy parking
fees on an hourly, not daily, basis. Rs. 10 per hour could be a starting point in the metros.
In parts of Tokyo, you cannot own a car unless you own a private parking space. This is too extreme for India, but indicates the future
path. If we charge owners the full social cost of parking, people will buy smaller and perhaps fewer vehicles, and fewer still will take
them to work. That will slash congestion and pollution.
Cities should levy stiff annual taxes on vehicles, not a one-time tax, and use the revenue to constantly expand public transport and
roads. This will create economic synergy: Private transport will finance public transport. London and New York have high density public
transport as well as high car density.
Apart from underground rail, cities need elevated roads to ease congestion and pollution. Lata Mangeshkar helped kill a proposal for an
elevated
road near her Mumbai flat: perhaps she felt her throat and singing would be affected. She did not care that the throats of poor people
living on the pavements were far worse affected by fumes, and might get relief if some fumes were diverted to a higher level. What
elitism!
Next, some medicine that will be really bitter, politically. The excise duty on all automotive vehicles should be raised to reflect their
social costs. Fuel subsidies should be abolished. Price differentials between petrol, diesel and kerosene should be removed, ending
incentives for adulteration. Diesel cars should bear a heavy additional cess to finance improved healthcare for those affected by their
emission of harmful particulate matter.
That is a long, politically difficult agenda. Only part of it will ever be achieved. Yet that is the way to go, rather than agitate the Nano.
6. By ‘Sanctimonious greens’ the writer refers to
A    aristocratic environmentalists
B    the rich
C    environmentalists with a ‘holier than thou’ attitude
D    those who decry deforestation
A n s w e r : C
7. The elite are
A    jealous of Nano owners
B    afraid of traffic jams and depletion of fossil fuel
  
.
C    
afraid of reaching their destinations late
D    full of disdain that the poor can afford cars
A n s w e r : C
    
8. The paradox of the situation is that
A    bigger cars mean more fuel, more space and more pollution
B    though India has fewer cars the Nano will bring more pollution
C    London and New York have more cars and less pollution
D    though India is smaller than the US its cars cause more pollution
A n s w e r : C
9. In saying 23 square metres of parking space costs 40 lakhs, the writer is _____
A    Caustic
B    exaggerating
C    Sarcastic
D    ironical
A n s w e r : C
10. The writer blames India for
A    subsidizing kerosene whereby greenhouse emissions are indirectly subsidized
B    subsidizing diesel
C    for increasing the cost of parking by the hour
D    for not making it mandatory for car owners to own parking space
A n s w e r : A
    
11. The most suitable title for this passage is
A    Polluting Politics
B    No No Nano
C    Submerge Subsidies
D    More Cars, Less Pollution
A n s w e r : C
Explanation:
  
.
Page 5


SNAP 2008
General English
1. Match the following idiomatic references to parts of the human anatomy
A    1-8, 2-6, 3-5, 4-7
B    1-5, 2-7, 3-6, 4-8
C    1-7, 2-8, 3-6, 4-5
D    1-6, 2-8, 3-5, 4-7
A n s w e r : C
     
Instructions [2 - 5 ]
Answer the following questions based on the information given below.
2. Find the maximum number of times any one of the given words fits the sets of sentences:
RAISE 
ARISE
AROSE 
RISE
i) Opportunities will _______, and you must grab them.
ii) A hot wind _______ from the desert.
iii) I _______ at dawn on most days.
iv) A mood of optimism _______ among the people.
A    in all four sentences
B    in 3 sentences
C    in 2 sentences
D    in 1 sentence
A n s w e r : C
3. Which two sentences in the following convey the same idea? Choose from the combinations listed below:
1) He is in a fool’s paradise
2) He can’t see the wood for the trees
3) He can’t distinguish between reality and fancy.
4) He is unable to separate unimportant details from the really important ones
A    2, 3
B    2, 4
C    1, 4
D    
1, 3
  
.
A n s w e r : B
4. Find the correct match of grammatical function with usage for the word THEN.
A    1-8, 2-5, 3-7, 4-7
B    1-6, 2-5, 3-8, 4-7
C    1-7, 2-5, 3-6, 4-8
D    1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5
A n s w e r : B
    
5. We can never make our beliefs regarding the world certain. Even scientific theory of a most rigorous and well-confirmed nature
is likely to change over a decade or even tomorrow. If we refuse to even try to understand, then it is like resigning from the
human race. Undoubtedly life of an unexamined kind is worth living in other respects—as it is no mean thing to be a vegetable or
an animal. It is also true that a man wishes to see this speculation domain beyond his next dinner.
From the above passage it is clear that the author believes that
A    men would do well not to speculate
B    progress in the scientific field is impossible
C    one should live life with the dictum ‘what will be will be’
D    men are different from animals as far as their reasoning abilities are concerned.
A n s w e r : C
Instructions [6 - 11 ]
Answer the question based on the passage given below.
Rajendra K. Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is getting nightmares because of the Nano, Tata’s soon -
to - be - launched Rs. One lakh car. Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says that it isn’t the Nano by itself but
cars overall that give her nightmares. The villains in my nightmares are neither the Nano nor cars overall, but stupid government policies
that subsidize and encourage pollution, adulteration and congestion.
Sanctimonious greens call the Nano disastrous because of its affordability - millions more will now clog roads and consume more fossil
fuel. This is elitism parading as virtue. Elite greens own cars, but cannot stand the poorer masses becoming mobile, since the
consequent congestion will eat into the time of the elite!
More logical would be a protest against big cars that use more space and fuel, or highly polluting old cars. Instead, green hypocrites aim
at a new car with the lowest cost, best mileage and least emissions. The Nano will not burden us with too many cars. India has very few
cars per person by world standards. London and New York have ultra-high car densities, yet have clearer air than Delhi. Our problem is
too many bad
policies, not too many cars.
We subsidize vehicles on a gargantuan scale invisible to lay folk. Roads and flyovers cost crores to build and maintain, yet road use is
free (save on a few toll roads). Traffic police and lights are costly, yet are provided free. These invisible subsidies starve cities of funds
  
.
to expand roads and public transport. Land in cities now costs lakhs per square metre. Yet parking is free in the suburbs, and often
costs just Rs.
10 day per day in city centres. A single parking space of 23 square meters occupies land worth Rs. 40 lakhs. A car occupies more space
than an office desk, yet the desk space pays full commercial rent while parking space costs just about Rs. 10 per day.
Daily parking charges range from $30 (Rs. 630) in Washington to $30 (Rs. 1260) in New York. CSE launched a sensible campaign to
raise parking fees in Delhi to Rs. 120 per day, but was foiled. So, parking space now exceeds green space, a scathing comment on
priorities.
The world price of crude oil has risen 13 fold since 1998 to over $139 per barrel, but Indian petrol prices have barely doubled. Left Front
politicians, who once wanted to soak the rich, now want to subsidize them. Under-recoveries of oil companies’ total may be Rs. 2,00,000
crore, even after a recent price hike. This is far more than the cost of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) and the Employment
Guarantee
Scheme put together.
We sanctimoniously lecture rich countries to reduce their green house emissions, yet subsidize our own. Diesel is subsidized to be
cheaper than petrol. So, Indian car makers produce the highest proportion of diesel cars in the world. Diesel fumes contain suspended
particles that are highly toxic. This subsidy kills.
So does kerosene provided at throwaway prices, ostensibly to benefit poor villagers. One third of all kerosene is used to adulterate petrol
and diesel. This causes horrendous pollution even in the greenest of cars.
What’s the way forward? We must abolish subsidies and raise taxes on vehicles and fuels to reflect their full social cost. The biggest but
least visible subsidy is for parking, and we should start there.
Many car owners in the West take public transport to work since parking space downtown is costly and scarce. We should levy parking
fees on an hourly, not daily, basis. Rs. 10 per hour could be a starting point in the metros.
In parts of Tokyo, you cannot own a car unless you own a private parking space. This is too extreme for India, but indicates the future
path. If we charge owners the full social cost of parking, people will buy smaller and perhaps fewer vehicles, and fewer still will take
them to work. That will slash congestion and pollution.
Cities should levy stiff annual taxes on vehicles, not a one-time tax, and use the revenue to constantly expand public transport and
roads. This will create economic synergy: Private transport will finance public transport. London and New York have high density public
transport as well as high car density.
Apart from underground rail, cities need elevated roads to ease congestion and pollution. Lata Mangeshkar helped kill a proposal for an
elevated
road near her Mumbai flat: perhaps she felt her throat and singing would be affected. She did not care that the throats of poor people
living on the pavements were far worse affected by fumes, and might get relief if some fumes were diverted to a higher level. What
elitism!
Next, some medicine that will be really bitter, politically. The excise duty on all automotive vehicles should be raised to reflect their
social costs. Fuel subsidies should be abolished. Price differentials between petrol, diesel and kerosene should be removed, ending
incentives for adulteration. Diesel cars should bear a heavy additional cess to finance improved healthcare for those affected by their
emission of harmful particulate matter.
That is a long, politically difficult agenda. Only part of it will ever be achieved. Yet that is the way to go, rather than agitate the Nano.
6. By ‘Sanctimonious greens’ the writer refers to
A    aristocratic environmentalists
B    the rich
C    environmentalists with a ‘holier than thou’ attitude
D    those who decry deforestation
A n s w e r : C
7. The elite are
A    jealous of Nano owners
B    afraid of traffic jams and depletion of fossil fuel
  
.
C    
afraid of reaching their destinations late
D    full of disdain that the poor can afford cars
A n s w e r : C
    
8. The paradox of the situation is that
A    bigger cars mean more fuel, more space and more pollution
B    though India has fewer cars the Nano will bring more pollution
C    London and New York have more cars and less pollution
D    though India is smaller than the US its cars cause more pollution
A n s w e r : C
9. In saying 23 square metres of parking space costs 40 lakhs, the writer is _____
A    Caustic
B    exaggerating
C    Sarcastic
D    ironical
A n s w e r : C
10. The writer blames India for
A    subsidizing kerosene whereby greenhouse emissions are indirectly subsidized
B    subsidizing diesel
C    for increasing the cost of parking by the hour
D    for not making it mandatory for car owners to own parking space
A n s w e r : A
    
11. The most suitable title for this passage is
A    Polluting Politics
B    No No Nano
C    Submerge Subsidies
D    More Cars, Less Pollution
A n s w e r : C
Explanation:
  
.
After reading the entire passage , it is inferred that the passage talks about the ill effects of subsidies in fuel and the extent of pollution
caused due to it. The passage concludes by saying that abolishing fuel subsidies and introducing heavy additional cess is required.
Therefore option C , which is focused on abolition of subsidies is the correct answer.
Instructions [12 - 21 ]
Answer the following questions based on the information given below.
12. The plural of Virus is
A    Viruses
B    Virae
C    Virii
D    Virus
A n s w e r : A
Explanation:
The plural of virus is viruses. option A is the correct answer.
13. If the following segments of a sentence are to be rearranged in logical order as A, B, C, D where would ‘3’ be placed
1) to see that students do not altogether forget to write especially during exam time
2) the education groups are now asking for hand writing classes
3) thanks to mobile testing and computer literacy
4) writing in long hand is becoming a vanishing art
A    A
B    B
C    C
D    D
A n s w e r : B
Explanation:
Writing in long hand is becoming a vanishing art thanks to mobile testing and computer literacy. The education groups are now asking
for hand writing classes to see that students do not altogether forget to write especially during exam time.
The above gives the correct ordering of the sentences. We can see that the third sentence, comes in the second part of the sentence.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.
    
14. If leaf is to leaves and knife is to knives, then belief is to --------
A    beliefs
B    believes
C    belief
D    believing
A n s w e r : A
Explanation:
The connection between the words is that the second word is the plural form of the first word. The plural of belief is beliefs. Hence,
optino A is the correct answer.
  
.