English MOCK Test (New Pattern) - 10 - CLAT MCQ

Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. What prohibits entrepreneurs to take up new outsource? 

Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. What puts off customers? 

Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. What does minimum guarantee clause mean? 

Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. The outsourcing is like a marriage because 
A) the partner relationships are based on trust.
B) the stakes of both the parties are interdependent.
C) the parties concerned do not have equal say.

Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. The incumbency problem, according to the passage, is linked with 

Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. What is a 65:35 model? 

Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. Which of the following best explains the phrase ‘one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill‘?

Choose the word/phrase which is most nearly the same in meaning as the word/phrase given in Underline as used in the passage.
Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. SHUT YOUR EYES

Choose the word/phrase which is most nearly the same in meaning as the word/phrase given in Underline as used in the passage.
​Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. RUB-OFF

Choose the word/phrase which is most nearly the same in meaning as the word/phrase given in Underline as used in the passage.
​Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. PLAYERS 

Choose the word/phrase which is most opposite in meaning to the word/phrase printed in bold as used in the passage. 
​Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. IMPLICIT

Choose the word/phrase which is most opposite in meaning to the word/phrase printed in bold as used in the passage. 
​Passage: As a concept, outsourcing is no doubt gaining ground. But there are many who still keep away from it. First, there‘s a perception that outsourcing could adversely impact the quality of service. ―We believe that directly controlling our stores is the only way to maintain quality. If we outsource, quality would suffer as a whole. You can do outsourcing only if you‘re willing to shut your eyes to many things, -says a Managing Director of a company. Despite being the dominant partner in the relationship, the outsourcer doesn‘t always have all the advantages. For one, very few entrepreneurs are willing to take on a new outsource, unless it comes with a guarantee of a certain level of sales. The trade refers to it as the minimum guarantee clause, which means that if an outsource is unable to reach an anticipated sales level, he will be compensated for the balance amount. This invariably acts as an incentive for outsource to be lax in developing the business. Yet, given that there are too many outsourcers chasing too few potential outsources, the minimum guarantee clauses often become a crucial deciding factor in choosing an outsource. Of course, there are ways of working around this. The Rs 14 –crore-chain of personal grooming and fitness clinics tried the outsourcing route two years ago by handing over management of the outlet to its outsource. That agreement did not work. ―Ours is a very critical service. Our business is about people‘s health and well-being. If the standards area not kept up one mistake will wipe out so many years of goodwill. And since we saw maintaining the right service levels were a problem, we decided to opt out of outsourcing, -says a managing director. To make things simpler, it set up joint ventures with interested parties and kept 65% of the stake and, therefore, management control in its hands. Its future plans of opening specialized fitness centre chains and good health eateries are also based on the current 65:35 model. Players with a large existing outsourced network have an incumbency problem: upgrading the quality of the outlets in line with changing customer needs. The logic may seem reasonable, but convincing an outsource to invest more in up gradation is seldom easy. Bentex wants to move beyond the retail ambience it is offering to its customers. ―We have grown to a fair level with our outsources but times have changed. We need to move on, -says executive director. Won‘t it unsettle the 430-odd Bentex outsources? ―We are only setting up 25 of these shops to show our outsources it can work. The rest we want to outsource, -affirms marketing manager. But potential outsources will be up against a hurdle: the stores will be allowed to stock only branded Bentex products, from earnings to bangles. This may put off consumers who seek variety. Currently, Bentex allows its outsources to outsource 35% of the products in the outlet. ―There may be a certain sense of independence that an outsource gets by choosing some stock but we think it is a habit. Once he realizes the convenience of sourcing from just one place, he will upgrade. But Bentex realizes the psychological impact of starting its own retail stores.-So, how does outsourcing work? ―It‘s like a marriage, -says general manager, marketing. The stakes are high on both sides. The outsourcer gives up his precious asset, the brand, and the outsource parts with his right to operate alone. In the end, implicit trust is at the cornerstone of the relationship between an outsource and an outsourcer. 

Q. DOMINANT 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. Victoria Reiter came to know her days were numbered because of 
A) the immune system booster.
B) chronic myeloid leukemia.
C) failure of interferon. 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. Victoria Reiter had decided to
A) divide her property between her two daughters owing to her chronic illness.
B) postpone her plan of dividing her possessions between her two daughters as she had started recovering.
C) undergo a treatment with an experimental drug called Gleevec when the interferon treatment was found to be futile. 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. What was the impact of Gleevec on the health of Victoria Reiter? 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. The author has given the example of Bob Ferber in order to 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. What, according to Ferber, does any cancer patient look forward to? 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. Which of the following characteristics are applicable to Gleevec? 
A) The drug doesn‘t help anyone suffering from nausea and muscle cramps.
B) It is not free form side-effects.
C) It is effective in curing a rare form of stomach cancer.

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. Which of the following statements is definitely TRUE about Gleevec? 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. What are the effects of radiation and chemotherapy on cancer patients? 

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. Dr Larry Norton‘s statement is 

Choose the word or group of words which is MOST NEARLY THE SAME in meaning of the word printed in Underline as used in the passage. 
Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. FINGURED 

Choose the word or group of words which is MOST NEARLY THE SAME in meaning of the word printed in Underline as used in the passage. 
​Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. CAVEATS 

Choose the word or group of words which is MOST NEARLY THE SAME in meaning of the word printed in Underline as used in the passage. 
​Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. AMASS 

Choose the word or group of words which is MOST OPPOSITE in meaning of the word printed in bold 
​Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. RARE

Choose the word or group of words which is MOST OPPOSITE in meaning of the word printed in bold 
​Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. BOOSTER 

Choose the word or group of words which is MOST OPPOSITE in meaning of the word printed in bold 
​Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.

Q. RAPACIOUS