FILL IN THE BLANKS

The following question has a sentence with two blanks. Given below it are four pairs of words. Choose the pair that best completes the sentence.

“I am blown away by Einstein’s __________, by the power of his reasoning which _________ this theory and which has never been faulted,” French astrophysicist Guy Perrin said.

1. predilections, ceded
2. predictions, produced
3. propensity, yielded
4. forecasts, relinquished

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Verbal Question of the Day: 36

Verbal Question of the Day: 35

PARAJUMBLE

The five sentences (labelled 1,2,3,4, and 5) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of five numbers as your answer.

1. Let’s say you’re a crack investment banker who’s been presented with two opportunities.
2. Would you still bet on them?
3. Both companies — one engaged in providing maps to fire insurers to help them assess underwriting risks, the other, a farm equipment maker specialising in windmills — were going great guns a few decades ago, but are well past their prime today.
4. This has led to a slide in their revenues and profits.
5. Sanborn Map Company has been steadily yielding its insurance business to carding, a new technology based on algorithmic calculations, while Dempster Mill Manufacturing Company is losing out to electrical pumps.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 35

Verbal Question of the Day: 34

CR- Conclusion

Q. Over the past 18 months, big-name retailers sharply scaled back on stocking the products made by Ivanka Trump’s fashion company. Online sales of her brand fell nearly 55% in the 12 months to June. It’s hard to pinpoint the precise reason for the brand’s decline: her own manifest amorality, her father’s coarse and destructive Presidency, or the poor USP of her products. Given that the segment under which Ms.Trump’s products sold is influenced by branding, rather than price or product differentiation, it is difficult to escape the notion that the first two were major factors in the falling sales of her company.

Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the paragraph above?

1. The falling sales of Ivanka Trump’s fashion company can largely be accredited to her amoral conduct and her father’s style of governance.
2. The lack of focus on branding has been the primary factor responsible for the decline in sales of Ivanka Trump’s fashion company.
3. Ivanka Trump’s fashion company can stem its falling sales by improving the products’ USP and investing in its branding.
4. The problems ailing Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand can be narrowed down to her own amorality, her father’s crude Presidency, and the products’ attributes.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 34

Verbal Question of the Day: 33

OUT OF CONTEXT

Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them are thematically consistent. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.

1. The language of the comments, posts and tweets is often abusive; female targets, such as the Turkish journalist Ceyda Karan and her Filipina colleague Maria Ressa, are routinely threatened with rape.

2. Thousands of social network accounts, both operated by humans and by bots used to amplify the attack, gang up on a person who dares to criticize a regime or a political figure.

3. Invariably, the person is accused of being a foreign agent and a traitor, with memes and cartoons being used to insult the target.

4. Personal attacks on a mass scale are the worst abuse of social networks by governments and political actors- it is impossible for a target to be impervious to one.

5. The target is given the impression of swelling public indignation about his or her work, and attempts to drown out the target’s voice are made.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 33

Verbal Question of the Day: 32

FILL IN THE BLANKS

The following question has a sentence with two blanks. Given below it are four pairs of words. Choose the pair that best completes the sentence.

The most                  discoveries in science are those that significantly deepen existing knowledge about _________ phenomena.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 32

Verbal Question of the Day: 31

PARAJUMBLE

The five sentences (labelled 1,2,3,4, and 5) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of five numbers as your answer.

1. In each sector of the economy we are presented with the need for reform, none more so than in higher education.
2. Since this was a ‘reform’, and since reform must evidently be done quickly, vice chancellors were advised (or instructed?) it be done from the forthcoming session.
3. Every epoch has its buzzwords, and ours seems obsessed with Reform.
4. Important issues such as syllabi, reading material and infrastructure were presumably to be regarded as minor and hence ignored, to be dealt with later (if ever).
5. An example of this is our being told in 2015 that with a “view to bringing about qualitative improvement”, a Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) would be introduced in institutions of Higher Education in the country.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 31

Verbal Question of the Day: 30

CR- CONCLUSION

The ‘GM Crops Regulatory Regime’ policy is hurting cotton the most because over 90 per cent of the crop area is under Bt-cotton seeds. While the existing Bt-hybrids are gradually losing their effectiveness- as part of the normal process- new ones are nowhere in sight to replace them. More importantly, the major pests of cotton, notably the American or pink bollworms, which were restrained by the Bt-cotton, are reemerging and even getting immune to the currently used killer genes. If the government doesn’t allow the evolution of new and better gene-engineered strains as alternatives to the existing ones, the cotton revolution may not endure for long.

Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the paragraph above?

1. The major pests of the cotton crop are reemerging stronger than before, and threatening the cotton revolution.
2. The cotton crop is the most adversely affected by the government’s GM crops’ policy.
3. The onus of the premature ending of the cotton revolution is on the government’s short-sighted GM crops’ policy.
4. The government’s GM crops’ policy must allow the evolution of better gene-engineered strains of cotton seeds.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 30

Verbal Question of the Day: 29

OUT OF CONTEXT

Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.

1. Considering the buzz the historic gold medal generated, one can safely assume that Hima caught the nation’s imagination when she became the first Indian to win a track event at a world competition.

2. Hima’s confidence and grit work in her favor on the track, but need to be managed so that she doesn’t train beyond her physical capacity.

3. Spotted last January, the girl from a remote village in Assam has made light of the hardships of staying alone in Guwahati to break one barrier after another.

4. Hima’s shining 400m gold at the World U20 Championships has provided a ray of hope for India’s sporting aspirations.

5. Her rise, which has attracted skeptical scrutiny, is nothing short of magical.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 29

Verbal Question of the Day: 28