List of top Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) Questions

Look at the italicized part of the sentence. Below the sentence are given some possible substitutions for the italicized part. If one of them is better than the italicized part, indicate your response against the corresponding letter. If none of these substitutions improve the sentence, indicate ‘No improvement’ as your response.
The watch has been founded.

Look at the italicized part of the sentence. Below the sentence are given some possible substitutions for the italicized part. If one of them is better than the italicized part, indicate your response against the corresponding letter. If none of these substitutions improve the sentence, indicate ‘No improvement’ as your response.
The rose is the sweetest of all flowers.

Look at the underlined part of the sentence. Below the sentence are given some possible substitutions for the italicized part. If one of them is better than the italicized part, indicate your response against the corresponding letter. If none of these substitutions improve the sentence, indicate ‘No improvement’ as your response.
What cannot be cured must be endured.

Look at the italicized part of the sentence. Below the sentence are given some possible substitutions for the italicized part. If one of them is better than the italicized part, indicate your response against the corresponding letter. If none of these substitutions improve the sentence, indicate ‘No improvement’ as your response.
I had the late lunch today.

The following question has two blanks, each blank indicating something has been omitted. Choose the word for each blank which best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Generally your conduct …. good and therefore you will not be punished for having been guilty of …. act of folly, but I advise you to be more prudent in future.

The following question has two blanks, each blank indicating something has been omitted. Choose the word for each blank which best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Inspired ……. Napoleon, the first Emperor of the French and a great soldier, …….. the most war-like spirit, his armies won many victories.

Convert the sentence given in the question into DIRECT SPEECH.
The captain replied that he had promised to reward his soldiers and that he had kept his word.

Convert the sentence given in the question into DIRECT SPEECH.
I wrote that I would visit him next day.

Convert the sentence given in the question into DIRECT SPEECH.
Raja thought that his time had come and decided to meet death like a man.

Convert the sentence given in the question into DIRECT SPEECH.
The Guest Lecturer said that it gave him great pleasure to be there that evening.

The following question has two blanks, each blank indicating something has been omitted. Choose the word for each blank which best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
When we work continuously, …….several hours we feel very tired and, unless we have some break, we cannot carry …. and our health may be injured.

The following question has two blanks, each blank indicating something has been omitted. Choose the word for each blank which best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
A man who cannot laugh fails …….. attract friends, loses his health, grows pessimistic and deprives himself ……. any pleasure in life.

Convert the sentence given in the question into DIRECT SPEECH.
He replied that he could not drive away the mother, who had born him and nourished him

Convert the sentence given in the question into INDIRECT SPEECH.
The King said ,'Alas! Our enemies are too strong'

Convert the sentence given in the question into INDIRECT SPEECH.
‘Have you anything to tell me, little bird?’ asked the Prince.

Convert the sentence given in the question into INDIRECT SPEECH.
‘Call the first witness’, said the magistrate

Convert the sentence given in the question into INDIRECT SPEECH.
The English Teacher said to her, ‘Do not read so fast’.

Convert the sentence given in the question into INDIRECT SPEECH.
Venessa said, ‘How clever I am!’

Read the following passage and answer the question
Crypto assets, including private crypto currencies and non-fungible tokens, pose a unique challenge to regulators with their issuance as well as the transactions taking place beyond traditional channels involving banks, other financial intermediaries or central banks. With users able to transact on platforms located in other countries and transfer funds easily across borders, ability to tax these transactions and to halt the misuse of these channels for illicit purposes also becomes difficult through unilateral action. Therefore, India and some other countries have been calling for concerted action by all nations and a standardised regulatory framework to regulate these assets. The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), drafted by the OECD, is in response to this. It primarily seeks to enable exchange of information between countries so https://link.testbook.com/bQQ2EkH1bpb https://link.testbook.com/bQQ2EkH1bpb Page- 5 that all crypto asset related transactions or money transfer done by the residents of a country are available with the government and regulators. Indian regulators were extremely concerned about the surge in trading in crypto assets during the pandemic; about 9 to 11 crore users were estimated to be indulging in speculative trading in these assets. But the Centre’s move to tax gains made in trading crypto assets at punitively high rate in the Union Budget of 2022 and mandating crypto trading platforms to deduct TDS of 1 per cent on sale of these assets have helped restrain this speculative fervour effectively. Trading volume on Indian crypto trading platforms is down over 75 per cent over the last one year. But India, as well as other countries are yet to decide whether holding and trading in crypto assets is a legal activity or not. Also, it is currently not possible to acquire information regarding crypto trading transactions by Indian residents on overseas platforms. The CARF regulation outlines a way in which information can be collected from crypto asset trading platforms and service providers and shared with the countries where the traders or users reside. The framework addresses four areas – one, the scope of crypto currencies covered by the rules, two, the entities and individuals mandated to collect the data and the reporting requirement, three, the kind of transactions which have to be reported and four, the due diligence needed to identify the crypto asset users and to identify the tax jurisdiction to which they belong so that information can be exchanged. The model rules contained in the CARF can be included in the domestic laws and the OECD is planning to work with all jurisdictions over the coming months to implement the framework. The OECD has met decent success with the Common Reporting Standard which has resulted in over 100 countries exchanging information regarding 111 million financial accounts in 2021, helping check tax evasion. Replicating this with crypto transactions may be the way forward to bring all countries onboard in adopting similar rules for regulating crypto assets. Though regulatory scrutiny could result in reducing the speculative activity in this segment, users will be pleased as adoption of these rules will make trading and use of crypto assets a legal activity. This will ensure that those who wish to mine and trade in these assets can continue doing so, but under full regulatory glare.
The fundamental requirement for crypto currency regulation is………………………….

Read the following passage and answer the question
Nearly six decades after the Green Revolution, it appears that the wheel with respect to the general perception on millets is coming full circle. After being reduced to marginal status during the Green Revolution years, millets are slowly regaining favour among policymakers and consumers. Faced with a food shortage in the 1960s, India opted for an input-intensive push that yielded huge productivity gains in wheat and rice. But now the times have changed; India is self-sufficient in wheat and rice output. But the health effects of wheat and rice overconsumption and the impact on the production side on soil and water resources are no longer in dispute. The Centre observed with regret while heralding the New Year as ‘International Year of Millets’ that millets output in India accounted for 40 per cent of all cultivated grains till the 1960s, against about 16 per cent at present, or 45-50 million tonnes a year now. Millets, with their iron, calcium and zinc content, can make a big difference in combating micro-nutrient deficiency in India, besides diabetes and heart disease. Meanwhile, farmers growing millets can make do with 20 cm of rain annually, against 120-140 cm needed for rice. That millets are by default organic — since the crop does not rely on chemicals and pesticides and its essentially small growers lack the resources to use them — actually makes it a big draw in a world where organic produce is in demand. What is not working for millets is its poor prices, low productivity, processing difficulties and above all, insufficient demand. Prices will rise and infrastructure will come up if demand improves, even as research on hybrids is expected to lift yields. Government agencies at the States and Centre are trying out two approaches to lift demand. First, States such as Odisha are raising rural demand through awareness campaigns, while also distributing millet-based meals through mid-day meal programmes in schools and anganwadis, an approach that is likely to boost market prices, particularly if there is a procurement process to back this up. The second approach is to lift urban demand through promotional campaigns. A NABARD paper has suggested that millet foods be served on trains and flights. Ready to cook millets can work for the young in particular. It is possible that as urban demand picks up, it will challenge the decades-old notion of millets being a non-aspirational food meant for the downtrodden. The Centre has raised MSP for millets, but in the absence of procurement and demand (the former being weak because of the latter), prices have not picked up. Production of millets in India, grown primarily in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, accounts for 41 per cent of global output. Yet, India is only the fifth largest exporter, earning barely $30 million annually. Being grown by small farmers in dry regions, it is ideally suited to Farmer Producer Organisations. The Budget should give millets a financial and institutional push.
The cultivation of millets as popular cereals has not happened due to…………..

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No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment. The planet Mars, I scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world. It must be, if the nebular hypothesis has any truth, older than our world; and long before this earth ceased to be molten, life upon its surface must have begun its course. The fact that it is scarcely one seventh of the volume of the earth must have accelerated its cooling to the temperature at which life could begin. It has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence. Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level. Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our earth, with scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from the sun, it necessarily follows that it is not only more distant from time’s beginning but nearer its end.
According to the above passage, the writers up to the end of the nineteenth century………………….the extra-terrestrial intelligence life.

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Global equity markets turned extremely nervous this week with market benchmarks declining sharply, the primary reason behind this sell-off being the gloomy growth outlook for 2023 projected by the central banks of the US, UK and the European Union, and their resolve to continue aggressive monetary tightening next year. The overarching concern of the three central banks appeared to be pulling inflation down towards their long-term targets and all of them indicated that further monetary tightening was warranted until price stability was restored. The US Federal Reserve hiked the Federal Funds Rate by 50 basis points to 4.25-4.50 per cent and has indicated that the pace of rate hikes will not slacken next year despite inflation moving lower in November. It has also indicated that the terminal rate could be 5.1 per cent, instead of 4.5 per cent projected in September 2022 and that rates will not begin moving lower until 2024. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank too hiked their policy rates by 50 basis points, in a bid to tame raging inflation. Both the US Fed and the ECB used the term ‘restrictive’ to describe the policy stance which they intend to adopt to curb demand. The attempt appears to be to move demand lower to address the demand-supply mismatch. Of concern is the fact that all three central banks appear to be willing to sacrifice near-term growth to ensure price stability. This monetary tightening so far in 2022, is already beginning to impact growth in these regions. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell pointed out that consumer spending has slowed reflecting lower disposable income, prices in the housing segment have cooled due to rising mortgage rates and investments by businesses are coming down. Given the delay in transmission of the rate hikes, demand is expected to further dampen next year, leading to lower growth rates for 2023. The Federal Reserve Board members are now projecting the real GDP growth at 0.5 per cent in 2023, down from the earlier projection of 1.2 per cent. The Bank of England retained the projections given in its November policy meeting — that GDP will continue to decline throughout 2023 and in the first half of 2024 as well due to the impact of high energy prices and rising interest rates. The Euro system staff projections for euro area have also been revised lower for 2023 to 0.5 per cent and they expect a shallow and short-lived recession ahead. This gloomy prognosis for growth in the world’s leading economies does not bode well for India’s merchandise and services trade. The difficult external environment will challenge growth in the domestic IT services industry which is currently fuelling domestic consumption. External finance for Indian corporates will also be difficult due to tightening liquidity, rising interest rates and weakening rupee. While India’s growth projections for next year are among the highest, the economy can not remain insulated from slowing global growth. RB I will have to be mindful of these factors which deciding on its future policy actions.
The capital investments in the Indian Corporate companies are affected by……..

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The Supreme Court’s timely intervention has halted the forcible eviction of some 50,000 people from Haldwani in Uttarakhand, where the occupants are accused of squatting on railway property for decades. The Uttarakhand High Court had taken a tough stand against the residents, and passed a slew of directions that would have entailed their eviction within a week, backed by force, including the deployment of paramilitary forces. It is significant that the Bench underscored the human angle to the issue and spoke about the need for rehabilitation before eviction while staying the order. In an earlier round of litigation over the same land, which adjoins the Haldwani Railway Station, court orders had allowed proceedings against individual occupants under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971, to be completed. This time, too, it was on a PIL that the High Court had passed its orders. The High Court’s detailed judgment shows that the residents’ claim is traceable to a 1907 Office Memorandum that says the area be managed under rules pertaining to ‘nazul land’. The court has ruled that it was not a government order but only a communication on how to manage the land, and it does not amount to declaring it as ‘nazul land’, that is, land that has fallen into the hands of the state by escheat. As one of the nazul rules is that there cannot be sale or lease, the court rejected all claims made by occupants based on purported documents for lease, sale, and, in some cases, purchase through auction. Conflicts between occupants of public land and the state that wants to reclaim the land are a never-ending saga in the country. A shortage of housing, as well as inadequate recognition of the right to shelter, means that large masses of people encroach on vacant land, be it on the bed of water bodies or government property. This often leads to attempts to evict the occupants and spawns litigation. Invariably, there are claims to occupancy rights based on long years of stay at the same location. There are court judgments that stress rehabilitation measures and consultation with the oustees before eviction. Some courts have also recorded the view that mandatory rehabilitation may prove to be an incentive for encroachment. The Haldwani eviction effort has unfortunately taken communal overtones, and there appears to be a clamour for the early eviction of the Muslim residents. India does not have a good record on rehabilitation of those evicted from public spaces, and this case presents an opportunity to the Supreme Court to lay down the law on meaningful rehabilitation as well as effective prevention of encroachments.
Rehabilitation ………………..

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There are two chief types of inattention whose danger threatens every person. First, we may be thinking about the right things, but not thinking hard enough. We lack mental pressure. Outside thoughts which have no relation to the subject in hand may not trouble us much, but we do not attack our problem with vim. The current in our stream of consciousness is moving too slowly. We do not gather up all our mental forces and mass them on the subject before us in a way that means victory. Our thoughts may be sufficiently focused, but they fail to "set fire." It is like focusing the sun's rays while an eclipse is on. They lack energy. They will not kindle the paper after they have passed through the lens. This kind of attention means mental dawdling. It means inefficiency. For the individual it means defeat in life's battles; for the nation it means mediocrity and stagnation. A college professor said to his faithful but poorly prepared class, "Judging from your worn and tired appearance, young people, you are putting in twice too many hours on study." At this commendation the class brightened up visibly. "But," he continued, "judging from your preparation, you do not study quite half hard enough." Happy is the student who, starting in on his lesson rested and fresh, can study with such concentration that an hour of steady application will leave him mentally exhausted and limp. That is one hour of triumph for him, no matter what else he may have accomplished or failed to accomplish during the time. He can afford an occasional pause for rest, for difficulties will melt rapidly away before him. He possesses one key to successful achievement.
The successful thinking needs……………