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. Such was Imran’s venom that the batsman Lala Amarnath had remarked that he had never seen such a “combination of pace and swing”.
2. Many fast bowlers have kept excellent form at 30.
3. It was more Imran the captain rather than Imran the performer who won the Nehru Cup in India in 1989 and the World Cup in 1992.
4. Malcolm Marshall did it, and so did Dennis Lillee, though the Australian bowler had lost some of his earlier speed owing to repeated back problems but made up for that by scaling up his swing.
5. Never had a fast bowler, at least not since Larwood, reached his peak at 30, in the way Imran Khan did in the 1982-83 series against India in Pakistan.

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Verbal Question of the Day: 37

Verbal Question of the Day: 36

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