List of top Language Comprehension Questions

Handicrafts constitute an important _______ of the decentralised sector of India's economy and_______ employment to over six million artisans..Pick out the effective pair of words from the given choices (1), (2), (3) and (4) in this questions to make the sentence meaningfully complete.

A. but there is some merit in it
B. as distinct from consumption
C. the bifurcation of plan and non-plan funds
D. in so far as it focuses attention on development expenses
E. in the budget is artificial

Part of the conclusion in our societies ..... from our pursuit of efficiency and economic growth, in the ...... that these are the necessary ingredients of progress.
Pick out the most effective pair of words to make the sentence meaningful.

The problem of housing shortage ....... with the population explosion has also been ...... by this policy.
Pick out the most effective pair of words to make the sentence meaningful.

Critically examine the statements given in italics against each question.
The circumstances of birth are irrelevant. What you do with the gift of life, determines what you are. Which statement best explains this?

We tend to be harsh on our bureaucracy, but nowhere do citizens enjoy dealing with their government. They do it because they have to. But that does not mean that the experience has to be dismal. Now there is a new wind blowing through government departments around the world, which could take some of this pain away. In the next five years it may well transform not only the way public services are delivered but also the fundamental relationship between governments and citizens. Not surprisingly, it is the internet that is behind it. After e-commerce and e-business, the next revolution may be e-governance. Examples abound. The municipality of phoenix, Arizona, allows its citizens to renew their car registrations, pay traffic fines, replace lost identity cards etc. online without having to stand in endless queues in a grubby municipal office. The municipality is happy because it saves \( \$ 5\) a transaction - it costs only\( \# 1.60\) to process an online transaction versus \(\$ 6.60\) to do it across the counter. In Chile, people routinely submit their income tax returns over the Internet, which has reduced the time taken and the number of errors and litigation with the tax department. Both tax-payers and the revenue department are happier. The furthest ahead, not surprisingly, is the small, rich and entrepreneurial civil service of Singapore, which allows citizens to do more functions online than any other. As in many private companies, the purchasing and buying of Singapore's government department is now on the Web, and cost benefits come through more competitive bidding, easy access to global suppliers and time saved by online processing of orders. They can post their catalogues on their site, bid for contracts, submit invoices and check their payment status over the Net. The most useful idea for Indian municipalities is Government works, a private sector-run site that collects local taxes, fines and utility bills for 3,600 municipalities across the United States.It is a citizen's site, which also provides information on government jobs, tenders, etc. The most ambitious is the British government, which has targeted to convert 100 per cent of its transactions with its citizens to the internet by 2005. Cynics in India will say, ‘Oh, e-government will never work in India. We are so poor and we don't have computers. But they are wrong! There are many experiments afoot in India as well. Citizens in Andhra Pradesh can download government forms and submit applications on the net without having to bribe clerks. In many districts, land records are online and this has created transparency. Similarly, in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, villagers have begun to file applications for land transfers and follow their progress on the Net. In seventy villages in Kolhapur and Sangli districts in Maharashtra, Internet booths have come up where farmers can daily check the market rates of agricultural commodities in Marathi, along with data on agricultural schemes, information on crop technology, when to spray and plant their crops and bus and railway timetables. They also find vocational guidance on jobs, applications for ration cards, kerosene/gas burners and land record extracts with details of land ownership. Sam Pitroda's World Tel, Reliance Industries and the Tamil Nadu government are jointly laying 3,000 km of optic fibre cables to create a Tamil Network which will offer ration cards, schools, college and hospital admission forms, land records, and pension records. If successful, World Tel will expand the network to Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal. In Kerala, all the villages are getting linked online to the district headquarters, allowing citizens to compare the development priorities of their village with other villages in the State. Many are still sceptical of the real impact because of few Indians have computers. The answer lies in interactive cable TV and in Internet kiosks. Although India has only five million computers and thirty-eight million telephones, it has thirty-four million homes with cable TV and these are growing at eight percent a year. By 2005 most  cable homes will have access to the Internet from many of the 700,000 local STD/PCR booths. Internet usage may be low today, but it is bound to grow rapidly in the future, and e-governance in India may not be a dream.

Study the following passage carefully to answer the questions that follow each passage:
Chinese Goods sight now make up less than \( 3\%\) of India's imports and if the figures are sight they are growing at no more than \(25\%\) a year. So, why is everyone making such a hue and cry over the Chinese threat? Aren't Indian Industrialists merely trying to get more tariff protection by stoking Xenophobia? Probably some are. But that should not divert attention from the main point: China has finally shown up on India's economy rodar screen and it needs to be watched.
The figures may not yet reflect, but anecdotal evidence points to the fact that China is weighting heavily on the minds of the manufacturing industry. Even if you discount all the praying and petitioning for protection there is enough indication that increasing number of businessmen are to dag looking of setting up operations in China. IN other words they are putting their money where their mouth is: If you are in manufacturing, Industry. Even if discount all the praying and petitioning for protection, there is enough indication that increasing number of businessmen are today looking at selling up operation in China. In other words they are putting their money where their mouth is: if you are manufacturing if makes for more sense to operate out of China than out of India.
According to news paper reports. Ajanta the world largest clock maker is shifting its manufacturing base tools, stock and travel from morb in Gujarat's Saurashtra region to Shenshen in china. Many other Indian companies, from Bajaj electricals to Blow past are looking at options that range from setting up their own operations in China to starting joint ventures to out sourcing. What we have seen so far could be just the tip of a bigger trend: there are lot more Indian companies central around three fourth of China's exports Only one fourth of its exports consists of goods made by Chinese owned companies and that store is shrinking, according to the wall street journal.
In other words, China's amazing export performance is due to its ability to gell itself as the perfect base for global manufacturing. This puts the issue in a larger context. This is the largest term issue that should engage the attention of policy makers, more than the flood of imported goods from China.
It is almost as if focusing on export means lettering down the country, just as rupee depreciation, in some quarters is take a man rational emasculation? Focussing on exports will mean a lot of things policy makers only need to talk to Indian firms who are chocking out China to got a laundry list of needs. There is of course, another way of looking at all this China competitive advantages lie in its manufacturing towers, India's advantages lie in services powered by its highly skilled English speaking man power. It is only natural therefore, that even as India in on the way to becoming the global back office for the world, China is becoming the global manufacturing base. We believe that this line of thinking is misleading. The only thing that prevents India from becoming a global manufacturing base is the lick of a government that functions the way it should. Meanwhile, here's a piece of advice for Indian businessmen. Please do what ever it takes to keep your business alive- whether it means investing in Shenzhen or outsourcing from Timbuctoo but do think global. While the government gets act together, the country's search for new business models that skirt around existing bottlenecks has to continue. Suehdeep Agarwal's Bhartiya International, India's top leather garments exporter with a turnover of Rs. 200 crore, has been notching up \(30\%\) growth year after year by outsourcing its requirements from factories all around the world - including China. Maybe that's one way to go.

By making it a crime/(1) to take any life, even one's own/(2), we make a public announcement/(3) that each person was unique and valuable/(4).

Study the following passage carefully to answer the questions that follow each passage:
There is a long list of horror stories connected with the consumption of sugar-hyperactivity in children; criminal behaviour in adults; diabetes, and elevated cholesterol. There is little good scientific evidence that sugar causes these conditions, but under certain circumstances it is though to aggravate them. While the relationship between diet and health is far from an exact science, the relationship between diet and behaviour is even less clear. "There is a reasonable amount of evidence that what we eat does regulate one's brain chemistry", said Bambi Young, associate visiting professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA, "and it is more pronounced in certain individuals and under certain circumstances. The effect of food on behavior are subtle, but they do exist. There are some people, particularly young children who are super respondents.” Sugar, perhaps because it provides nothing but calories and pleasure, is high on the list of culprits. Sugar is a carbohydrate like pasta and grain. It is a simple carbohydrate; pasta and grain are complex ones. But they are worlds apart. All carbohydrates are made up of one or more simple sugars. Other names under which sugar appears are glucose (blood sugar), fructose (milk sugar), and maltose (malt sugar). Sugar is used for energy. Brain cells need it to function. Some of the glucose we take in, whether in the form of simple or complex carbohydrates is stored to be used as needed. The excess is converted to fat. Sugar, that includes all forms of honey, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup and molasses - is the number one additive in foods. It turns up in the least expected places, like mayonnaise and ketchup. Researchers generally agree that an inborn desire for sweetness begins at birth. One school of thought theories that sugar is addictive and provides a high similar to, though much lesser than, drugs. "No one knows whether one becomes addicted to the pleasure or whether sugar has an effect in the brain level," said a professor of psychiatry. "But behaviorally there are children who become very very dependent on sugar”. However, for some people who are anxious and tense, sugar has a positive effect because it promotes a feeling of well-being and of alertness. Though there is a general agreement about this in the scientific community, others disagree. According to them, there can be the opposite effect. "It depends on the persons and on the situations,” said Mr. Conners of Duck University. "There are huge individual differences. Though sugar dos not cause hyperactivity, uncontrollable behaviour in children, it exacerbates it." One typical scenario is the child who eats candy, cookies and cakes ata birthday party. "People are always telling me about their children who came home from a birth-day party hanging from a chandelier,” said Bonnie Kaplan, an associate professor pediatrics and psychology. "Parents blame it on sugar, but birthday parties are very exciting things for children and in addition there are other things besides sugar in the food." Mr. Conners agreed that "stimulus is important,” but he added, "It is hard to pin down until you realise it depends on the content of the rest of the meal.”

An expert group has sounded a timely warning on what environmentally destructive tourism will mean to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and the objectives they are suppose to serve. Given the unique and rare wildlife the country has been endowed with, the rationale for using the resources for attracting tourists from abroad is unassailable. This necessarily postulates that the flora and the fauna should be protected and conserved. As a matter of fact much of the government's interest in wildlife preservation has to do with the tremendous prospect of tourist traffic on that account. Yet the risk of the revenue-earning motivation overrunning the conservation imperatives is very real, the lure of the coveted foreign exchange that goes with this business only serving to enhancing it several folds. Even with the tourist inflow far below the potential, the pressure of visitors is said to have been already felt on the tiger reserves. With the Government of India's declared intent to boost tourism quite justified for its own reasons, the need for eliminating the risk assumes a greater sense of urgency. The study team has noted that most of the 41 national parks and 165 wildlife sanctuaries surveyed are open to tourists. The less frequented among them may not require special attention immediately in this respect as much as the ones that are major tourists attraction do. These include the Sanjay Gandhi National park in Maharashtra, Nandankanan in Orissa, and Bannerghatta in Karnataka.Over a year ago, the Indian Board for wildlife expressed concern over the looming danger,and decided that the core areas of national parks and sanctuaries should be kept to tally free from biotic disturbances, and the visitors be permitted to view the wildlife only from are as marked out for the purpose. And now, the expert group has come up with the suggestion that a case by case evaluation be done of the capacity as well as the limitations of all the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and based on such assessment an area-specific plan for tourist promotion within the safety norms be charted. That this is the most scientific way of going about the job, and that there is no time to lose can be really conceded.

For the given word at the top of each table, match the dictionary definition on the left (A, B, C, D) with their corresponding usage on the right (E, F, G, H). Out of the four possibilities given below the table, select the one that has all the definitions and their usage correctly matched.
Drum

	Meaning		Usage
A.	A percussion instrument	E.	The musician was testing the drum before the show began
B.	to beat a drum	F.	He had drummed it into her that the event was the chance of a lifetime for her
C.	To sound rhythemically	G.	The musicians were asked to  drum to a faster beat
D.	To drive or force by steady effort	H.	The girl was drumming her fingers on the table nervously

For the given word at the top of each table, match the dictionary definition on the left (A, B, C, D) with their corresponding usage on the right (E, F, G, H). Out of the four possibilities given below the table, select the one that has all the definitions and their usage correctly matched.
Last

	Meaning		Usage
A.	To continue is existence of operation	E.	The sole was being cut on the last so that it would fit in well
B.	To be enough for needs of	F.	The car lasted much longer than any one had expected
C.	A foot shaped from on which a shoe is required	G.	Last but not the least, thanks was due to the jury which had done such a good job
D.	At the end: in conclusion	H.	The provisions would have lasted them less than a fortnight

For the given word at the top of each table, match the dictionary definition on the left (A, B, C, D) with their corresponding usage on the right (E, F, G, H). Out of the four possibilities given below the table, select the one that has all the definitions and their usage correctly matched.
Steep

	Meaning		Usage
A.	Having a very sharp slope	E.	He found the price too steep and decided against buying it
B.	To soak in liquid	F.	She had steeped the clothes in a solution to get rid of the smell
C.	Too great or too high	G.	He was steeped in learning but was surprisingly inarticulate
D.	Saturate	H.	The trekkers were used to steep mountains but this one unnerved them

For the given word at the top of each table, match the dictionary definition on the left (A, B, C, D) with their corresponding usage on the right (E, F, G, H). Out of the four possibilities given below the table, select the one that has all the definitions and their usage correctly matched.
Mix

	Meaning		Usage
A.	To combine into one mass	E.	She was unable to mix with the crowd as she was too self conscious
B.	Associate	F.	The mix looked rather unappetizing to the customer
C.	Confuse	G.	He was mixing the herbs in accordance with the directions given in the book
D.	A product of mixing	H.	He was rather mixed up about whether  he should go to college or not

For the given word at the top of each table, match the dictionary definition on the left (A, B, C, D) with their corresponding usage on the right (E, F, G, H). Out of the four possibilities given below the table, select the one that has all the definitions and their usage correctly matched.
Ground

	Meaning		Usage
A.	A message for belief  action or argument	E.	He was at loss to explaining what ground he had decided to take up the case
B.	Foundation	F.	He received a thorough grounding in the theoretical aspects before he was allowed to move on
C.	To provide a reason  or justification for	G.	He realised he was on a shaky ground when the principal questioned him
D.	To instruct in Fundamental principal	H.	The book has provided the philosophical ground for most of the Nazi policies

Handicrafts constitute an important....... of the decentralised sector of India's economy and .......employment to cover six million artisans.
Pick out the most effective pair of words to make the sentence meaningful

A.The judge remarkedthat not all the accused werereally guilty.
B. The judge remarked that some of the accused were guilty while others were not.
C. The judge remarked that all those who are accused include some who are not really guilty.
In each question, there are three sentences marked A, B and C. Find the two or three sentences which convey the same meaning.

A. in different regions of that federation.
B. that was Yugoslavia.
C. the fundamental cause has been the very large difference in the quality of life.
D. although the dismemberment of the federation.
E. is seen more as the result of an ethnic conflict.
Each question has a sentence that has been scrambled and the scrambled parts have been marked A, B, C,D and E. Find the correct order of the parts to reconstruct the sentence.

A. like the industrialised countries
B. as if they are to be suffered as relics of a backward past
C. we have specially drawn attention to the non-motorized
D. because they are completely overlooked in transport planning
E. till replaced by faster petroleum fuelled transport
Each question has a sentence that has been scrambled and the scrambled parts have been marked A, B, C,Dand E. Find the correct order of the parts to reconstruct the sentence.

A: he was highly sensitive and resentful
B: towards the country or to those
C: when there was even implied discourtesy
D: while he was extremely gentle and tolerant
E: he held in honour
Each question has a sentence that has been scrambled and the scrambled parts have been marked A, B, C,Dand E. Find the correct order of the parts to reconstruct the sentence.

A. The manager would like you to help him locate the fault.
B. If you help him locate the fault, the manager would like you.
C. The Managerdesires that you should provide him the necessary assistance to locate the fault.
In each question, there are three sentences marked A, B and C. Find the two or three sentences which convey the same meaning.

The quality of...... between individuals and the organisation for which they work can be...... to the benefit of both parties.
Pick out the most effective pair of words to make the sentence meaningful

Most students/(1) of the college union/(2) rejects the chairman's/(3) demand that they return to classes/(4).
Each sentence against the question has four underlined parts numbered (1), (2) and (4). Choose the part of the sentence which contains an error.

Terrible as it sound/(1), most of us will support a death penalty/(2) system which is perfect in which/(3) only the guilty is executed/(4).
Each sentence against the question has four underlined parts numbered (1), (2) and (4). Choose the part of the sentence which contains an error.

To make drink and drive/(1) to criminal offence/(2), is an approach directed/(3) only to intoxicated drivers/(4).
Each sentence against the question has four underlined parts numbered (1), (2) and (4). Choose the part of the sentence which contains an error.