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

A. what interests you is the way in which you have created the illusion
B. they are angry with you, for it was
C. the public is easily disillusioned and then
D. the illusion they loved; they do not understand that
A. I have had a small power of .............
B. Down with a very high fever, he suffers from frequent fits of .............
C. They are now bitter enemies – all because of a small .............
D. Her ............. is the most creative thing she has ever possessed.
A. Communism states that every individual must live for the .............
B. The ............. of the affairs of the nation is deplorable.
C. ............. have been laid down by the United States: states The Statesman.
D. No ............. has succeeded in gaining complete autonomy from the Federal government.
A. there was the hope that in another existence a greater happiness would reward one
B. previous existence, and the effort to do better would be less difficult too when
C. it would be less difficult to bear the evils of one’s own life if
D. one could think that they were but the necessary outcome of one’s errors in a
lying : perjury
prehistoric : medieval
loud : stentorian
A. Professional studies has become the ............. of the rich.
B. Every citizen has the ............. to speak, travel and live as he pleases.
C. He has a definite ............. over all his rivals.
D. Sheron no longer has the ............. of the company’s bungalow and car.
A. People sensed .............
B. A bad ............. case had come in – a person with a smashed arm.
C. And then, without warning, ............. struck.
D. The dogs were the first to recognize the signs of oncoming .............
A. The men there have fought ............. and emotional withdrawal, and were more capable of helping Jim.
B. But ............. does occasionally inflict all the adults.
C. A person who is deeply hurt feels very .............
D. It is hard to survive this feeling of .............
A. But instead you are faced with another huge crag and the weary trail continues.
B. No, the path winds on and another mountain bars your way.
C. When for days you have been going through a mountain pass, a moment comes when you are sure that after winding around the great mass of rock in front of you, you will come upon the plain.
D. Surely after this you will see the plain.
A. During one exhibition, however, some air became mixed with the hydrogen, and in the words of the shaken performer: "The explosion was so dreadful that I imagined all my teeth had been blown out!"
B. An entertainer would finish his acts by blowing the hydrogen he had inhaled towards a lighted candle; as the hydrogen caught fire, flames would shoot menacingly from his lips.
C. A paper bag filled with hydrogen amazed guests by zooming off into space.
D. When people learned about its unique lighter-than-air property, they began to use it in all sorts of parlor stunts.
A. It is exciting and various.
B. I am a writer as I might have been a doctor or a lawyer.
C. The writer is free to work in what he believes.
D. It is so pleasant a profession that it not surprising if a vast number of persons adopt it who have no qualifications for it.
A. To have settled one’s affairs is a very good preparation to leading the rest of one’s life without concern for the future.
B. When I have finished this book I shall know where I stand.
C. One does not die immediately after one has made one’s will; one makes one’s will as a precaution.
D. I can afford then to do what I choose with the years that remain to me.
A. It is sad that India has always been in a hurry to conform to the western thought, especially the American.
B. Even the smaller countries have the guts to take a firm contrarian stand if they feel the policies happen to compromise their country’s interest.
C. It’s one thing to sprout theories on liberalization, and entirely another to barter the interests of the nation in its name.
D. In this case too, while a large number of countries are yet to ratify the GATT, India has not only ratified the treaty, but is also preparing to amend the Patents Act.
The wind had savage allies.
A. If it had not been for my closely fitted helmet, the explosions might have shattered my eardrums.
B. The first clap of thunder came as a deafening explosion that literally shook my teeth.
C. I didn’t hear the thunder, I actually felt it — an almost unbearable physical experience.
D. I saw lighting all around me in every shape imaginable.
6. It was raining so torrentially that I thought I would drown in mid air.
All human beings are aware of the existence of a power greater than that of the mortals – the name given to such a power by individuals is an outcome of birth, education and choice.
A. Logically, therefore such a power should be remembered in good times also.
B. Their other philanthropic contributions include the construction and maintenance of religious places such as temples or gurudwaras.
C. Industrial organizations also contribute to the veneration of this power by participating in activities such as religious ceremonies and festivities organized by the employees.
D. This power provides an anchor in times of adversity, difficulty and trouble.
6. The top management/managers should participate in all such events, irrespective of their personal choice.
A thorough knowledge of the path or course to be followed is essential for achieving success.
A. Seniors must show the path clearly by laying down the precise expectations of the management in terms of job description, key result areas and personal targets.
B. They should also ‘light the path’ by personal example.
C. Advice tendered or help offered must be objectively evaluated for its effectiveness in achieving the desired goal.
D. A display of arrogance and a false sense of ‘self-worth’, in order to belittle those who come to help, prove dysfunctional.
6. The individuality of each employee must be respected.
I can think of no serious prose play that has survived the generation that gave it birth.
A. They are museum pieces.
B. They are revived now and then because a famous part tempts a leading actor, or a manager in want of a stop-gap thinks he will put on a play on which he has no loyalties to pay.
C. A few comedies have haphazardly traveled down a couple of centuries or so.
D. The audience laugh at their wit with politeness and at their farce with embarrassment.
6. They are not held nor taken out of themselves.
It is often said that good actors can get out of a play more than the author has put into it.
A. A good actor, bringing to a part his own talent, often gives it a value that the layman on reading the play had not seen in it, but at the utmost he can do no more than reach the ideal that the author has seen in his mind’s eye.
B. In all my plays I have been fortunate enough to have some of the parts acted as I wanted; but in none have I had all the parts so acted.
C. That is not true.
D. He has to be an actor of address to do this; for the most part the author has to be satisfied with an approximation of the performance he visualized.
6. This is obviously inevitable, for the actor who is suited to a certain role may well be engaged and you have to put up with the second or third best, because there is no help for it.

1. India’s experience of industrialization is characteristic of the difficulties faced by a newly independent developing country.
A. In 1947, India was undoubtedly an under – developed country with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world.
B. Indian industrialization was the result of a conscious deliberate policy of growth by an indigenous political elite.
C. Today India ranks fifth in the international comity of nations if measured in terms of purchasing power.
D. Even today however, the benefits of Indian industrialization since independence have not reached the masses.
6. Industrialization in India has been a limited success; one more example of growth without development.

1. It is significant that one of the most common objections to competition is that it is blind.
A. This is important because in a system of free enterprise based on private property chances are not equal and there is indeed a strong case for reducing the inequality of opportunity.
B. Rather it is a choice between a system where it is the will of few persons that decides who is to get what and one where it depends at least partly, on the ability and the enterprise of the people concerned.
C. Although competition and justice may have little else in common, it is as much a commendation of competition as of justice that it is no respecter of persons.
D. The choice today is not between a system in which everybody will get what he deserves according to some universal standard and one where individuals’ shares are determined by chance of goodwill.
6. The fact that opportunities open to the poor in a competitive society are much more restricted than those open to the rich, does not make it less true that in such a society the poor are more free than a person commanding much greater material comfort in a different type of society.

1. What does the state do in a country where tax is very low?
A. It tries to spy upon the taxpayers.
B. It investigates income sources and spending patterns.
C. Exactly what the tax authority tries to do now even if inconsistently.
D. It could also encourage people to denounce to the tax authorities any conspicuously prosperous neighbours who may be suspected of not paying their taxes properly.
6. The ultimate solution would be an Orwellian System.

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer for each question.

Emile Durkheim, the first person to be formally recognized as a sociologist and the most scientific of the pioneers, conducted a study that stands as a research model for sociologists today. His investigation of suicide was, in fact, the first sociological study to use statistics. In Suicide (1964, originally published in 1897), Durkheim documented his contention that some aspects of human behaviour---even something as allegedly individualistic as suicide---can be explained without reference to individuals.

Like all of Durkheim’s work, Suicide must be viewed within the context of his concern for social integration. Durkheim wanted to see if suicide rates within a social entity (for example, a group, organization, or society) are related to the degree to which individuals are socially involved (integrated and regulated). Durkheim describes three types of suicide: egoistic, anomic, and altruistic. Egoistic suicide is promoted when individuals do not have sufficient social ties. Since single (never married) adults, for example, are not heavily involved with family life, they are more likely to commit suicide than are married adults. Altruistic suicide, on the other hand, is more likely to occur when social integration is too strong. The ritual suicide of Hindu widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres is one example. Military personnel, trained to lay down their lives for their country, provide another illustration.

Durkheim’s third type of suicide---anomic suicide---increases when the social regulation of individuals is disrupted. For example, suicide rates increase during economic depressions. People who suddenly find themselves without a job or without hope of finding one are more prone to kill themselves. Suicides may also increase during periods of prosperity. People may loosen their social ties by taking new jobs, moving to new communities, or finding new mates.

Using data from the government population reports of several countries (much of it from the French Government Statistical Office), Durkheim found strong support for his line of reasoning. Suicide rates were higher among single than married people, among military personnel than civilians, among divorced than married people, and among people involved in nationwide economic crises.

It is important to realize that Durkheim’s primary interest was not in the empirical (observational) indicators he used such as suicide rates among military personnel, married people, and so forth. Rather, Durkheim used the following indicators to support several of his contentions:

1. Social behavior can be explained by social rather than psychological factors;
2. Suicide is affected by the degree of integration and regulation within social entities; and
3. Since society can be studied scientifically, sociology is worthy of recognition in the academic world.

Durkheim was successful on all three counts.

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer for each question.

How quickly things change in the technology business! A decade ago, IBM was the awesome and undisputed king of the computer trade, universally feared and respected. A decade ago, two little companies called Intel and Microsoft were mere blips on the radar screen of the industry, upstart start-ups that had signed on to make the chips and software for IBM’s new line of personal computers. Though their products soon became industry standards, the two companies remained protected children of the market leader.

What happened since is a startling reversal of fortune. IBM is being ravaged by the worst crisis in the company’s 79 year history. It is undergoing its fifth restructuring in the past seven years as well as seemingly endless rounds of job cuts and firings that have eliminated 100,000 jobs since 1985. Last week IBM announced to its shell-shocked investors that it lost \$4.97 billion last year – the biggest loss in American corporate history.

And just when IBM is losing ground in one market after another, Intel and Microsoft have emerged as the computer industry’s most fearsome pair of competitors. The numbers on Wall Street tell a stunning story. Ten years ago, the market value of the stock of Intel and Microsoft combined amounted to about a tenth of IBM’s. Last week, with IBM’s stock at an 11-year low, Microsoft’s value surpassed its old mentor’s for the first time ever (\$26.76 billion to \$26.48 billion) and Intel (\$24.3 billion) is not far behind. While IBM is posting losses, Intel’s profits jumped 30% and Microsoft’s rose 44%.


Both Intel, the world’s largest supplier of computer chips, and Microsoft, the world’s largest supplier of computer software, have assumed the role long played by Big Blue as the industry’s pacesetter. What is taking place is a generational shift unprecedented in the information age – one recalls a transition in the US auto industry 70 years ago, when Alfred Sloan’s upstart General Motors surpassed Ford Motor as America’s No. 1 car maker. The transition also reflects the decline of computer manufacturers such as IBM, Wang, and Unisys and the rise of companies like Microsoft, Intel, and AT\&T that create the chips and software to make the computers work. “Just like Dr. Frankenstein, IBM created these two monster competitors,” says Richard Shaffer, publisher of the Computer Letter. “Now even IBM is in danger of being trampled by the creations it unleashed.”


Although Intel and Microsoft still have close relationships with Big Blue, there is little love lost between IBM and its potent progeny. IBM had an ugly falling-out with former partner Microsoft over the future of personal computer software. Microsoft developed the now famous disk operating system for IBM-PC – called DOS – and later created the operating software for the next generation of IBM personal computers, the Personal System/2. When PS/2 and its operating system, OS/2, failed to catch on, a feud erupted over how the two companies would upgrade the system. Although they publicly patched things up, the partnership was tattered. IBM developed its own version of OS/2, which has so far failed to capture the industry’s imagination. Microsoft’s competing version, dubbed New Technology, or NT, will debut in a few months and will incorporate Microsoft’s highly successful Windows program, which lets users juggle several programs at once. Windows NT, however, will offer more new features, such as the ability to link many computers together in a network and to safeguard them against unauthorized use.

IBM and Intel have also been parting company. After relying almost exclusively on the Santa Clara, California company for the silicon chips that serve as computer brains, IBM has moved to reduce its dependence on Intel by turning to competing vendors. In Europe, IBM last year began selling a low-cost line of PCs called Ambra, which runs on chips made by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices. IBM also demonstrated a sample PC using a chip made by another Intel enemy, Cyrix. And that October IBM said it would begin selling the company’s own chips to outsiders in direct competition with Intel.

IBM clearly feels threatened. And the wounded giant still poses the biggest threat to any further dominance by Intel and Microsoft. Last year, it teamed up with both companies' most bitter rivals – Apple Computers and Motorola – to develop advanced software and microprocessors for a new generation of desktop computers. In selecting Apple and Motorola, IBM bypassed its longtime partners. Just as Microsoft’s standard operating system runs only on computers built around Intel’s computer chips, Apple’s software runs only on Motorola’s chips. Although IBM has pledged that the new system will eventually run on a variety of machines, it will initially run only computer programs written for Apple’s Macintosh or IBM’s OS/2. Its competitive juice now flowing, IBM last week announced that it and Apple Computer will deliver the operating system in 1994 – a year ahead of schedule.