English Quiz Test for Banking | IBPS | SBI | RBI | RRB 20 (PASSAGE)

Because millions of years ago, a little tarsier like creature began to use its hand sand became inquisitive, the long trail of evolution towards man began. Those things are among mans characteristic features. Every year he delves deeper and deeper into the secrets of nature and his responsibilities grow more serious. In an age of mass production and machines, collective reason must control mass hysteria and mass instinct. That is the problem. The atomic bomb has only thrown it into higher relief. In the atomic bomb, man has used the fundamental energy process of the universe for destructive purpose, but that is largely and accident of the time and place. All around we have abundant evidence that without this energy, life itself could not exist. 

1.       The author believes that man has evolved from a little tarsier like creature because

(a) his face resembles that of a tarsier

(b) he uses his hands and walks like a tarsier

(c) he is curious and walks like a tarsier

(d) he is curious and used his hands like a tarsier

2.       The increasing human knowledge of the secrets of nature has given rise to a problem which

(a) involves a huge expenditure               

(b) makes man more and more irreligious and irreverential

(c) is both a boon and a bane

(d) necessitates a rational and humane approach to individual and social life.

3.       The invention of the atomic bomb has made this problem

(a) more obscure

(b) more prominent

(c) more controversial

(d) insignificant

4.       Man has used atomic energy for destructive purposes because

(a) it has no constructive purposes at all

(b) he does not know how to use it constructively

(c) its constructive use is too expensive to be practicable

(d) the force of circumstances compelled his to do so

5.       The author thinks that the use of atomic energy

(a) will affect the society adversely

(b) is needed for the enrichment of life

(c) will ultimately destroy our civilization

(d) will lead to the end of the universe

PASSAGE-2

The jobs do not get changed around from time to time. I started off on one of the nicer ones. I sat at a conveyor belt slipping a piece of cardboard under each cake as it came down the line. At first it was difficult to keep up. An uneconomic movement, a fumble and four cakes have gone without cards. I got up to chase the four cakes, eight more appeared and for five minutes or so I had to work at twice the speed to work my way back to where I was sitting before. But it takes half a day or so to learn how it’s done and soon it becomes quite automatic. The frenzy had quite worn off by the end of the first day and then there was only the monotony and the aching arms. Later I moved to another job on the line, as the girl who usually did it had left. I wasn’t surprised. It was the nastiest job in that department. As the cake came out of a machine that had sliced it in three layers, two streams of artificial cream were poured over the layers. I had to stack the layers up again – a messy and very tiring job. The cakes are heavy and the cream is slippery. Anyone who has worked at all in a factory knows how deathly conveyor belt works is. At first it is difficult to keep up, and when you are tired it is quite merciless. After a while, when you have become fairly used to it, the fact that you can’t work faster is also infuriating.

6.       The writer’s purpose in writing this piece is to

(a) make people who don’t work in factories realize what it is like to work there

(b) plead to abolish manual labour from factories  

(c) plead to get unskilled jobs made easier

(d) explain to young people how to handle a job in an authomatized production unit.

7.       When the writer was moved to another job she wasn’t surprises to find that

(a) she had been moved

(b) her new job was very unpleasant

(c) the cream in the cakes was artificial

(d) the girl before her had left

8.       The writer found it a messy job to

(a) separate the three layers of the cake

(b) pour artificial cream over the layers

(c) stack the layers up again                     

(d) put the cake back on the conveyor belt again 

9.       The writer calls the conveyor belt ‘merciless’ because it

(a) could cause an injury if one makes a mistake

(b) is devoid of human feelings

(c) does not slow down even when the worker is tired

(d) is a hard taskmaster

10.    After sometime the writer got annoyed at the conveyor self because

(a) she found it dull and monotonous to work with it

(b) she wanted to change her profession

(c) she found it merciless

(d) it always had the same speed

PASSAGE-3

The arrival of the train did not disturb Sir Mohan Lan’s sang froid. He continued to sip his Scotch and ordered the bearer to tell him when he had moved the luggage to a first class compartment. Excitement, bustle, and hurry were exhibitions of bad breeding, and Sir Mohan was eminently well bred. He wanted everything tickety boo and orderly. In his five years abroad, Sir Mohan had acquired the manners and attitudes of the upper classes. He rarely spoke Hindustani. When he did, it was like an Englishman only the very necessary words and properly anglicized. But he fancied his English, finished and refined at no less a place than the University of Oxford. He was fond of conversation and like a cultured Englishman he could talk on almost any subject – books, politics, people. How Frequently had he heared English people say that the spoke like an Englishman!

11.    Sir Mohan Lal is portrayed as

(a) an indophile            (b) a true Englishman

(c) a Hindu                    (d) ananglophile

12.    When Sir Mohan Lal spoke Hindustani it was

(a) colloquial Hindi     (b) literary Hindi

(c) Indian English        (d) anglicized Hindi

13.    According to Sir Mohan Lal, a well bred person would

(a) remain aloof from the crowd

(b) like to drink only Scotch in public

(c) always be calm and orderly

(d) speak like an Englishman

14.    From his description in this passage, Sir Mohan Lal appears to be

(a) a man of culture    (b) an aristocrat

(c) a snob                      (d) a scholar

15.    According to the passage, a cultured Englishman is able to talk effortlessly on

(a) art and culture        (b) human civilization

(c) modern science      (d) almost any subject

Directions (16-20): Which of the phrases (1), (2), (3) and (4) given below each sentence should replace the word/phrase printed in bold in the sentence to make it grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is given and ‘No correction is required’, then mark (5) as the answer.

16.    In attempting to move ahead, we have forsaken our good cultural even practices.

1) our even good cultural practices.
2) even our good cultural practices.
3) our good even cultural practices.
4) good cultural practices even.
5) No correction required

17.    Sikkim has emerged as one of the most after sought tourists destinations in the country.

1) tourists destination sought after
2) sought-after tourist destination
3) seeking-after tourists destination
4) sought-after tourist destinations
5) No correction required

18.    Uttarakhand has struck by a calamity that the state's Chief Minister has called a 'Himalayan Tsunami'.

1) has been struck
2) had stricken
3) is being struck
4) was being stricking
5) No correction required

19.    Edward Snowden, in other words, has informed US and British citizens that they have no privacy who so ever.

1) whoever
2) whomever
3) whatsoever
4) whatever
5) No correction required

20.    If you lived in Delhi and read the sports pages regularly, you might remember seeing Shikhar Dhawan's name emblazoned across headlines for almost a decade now, though never in the main sports page.

1) never over
2) ever at
3) always beside
4) however inside
5) No correction required

Directions (21-25): Rearrange the following six sentences (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and (F) in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph and then answer the questions given below.

(A)     The pressure on land is high and the workers on land also are compelled to go to the city to find a job there.

(B)     Today, with the establishment of factories, the commodities produced by the village craftsmen cannot compete in quality or price with those produced in factories with the result that the village industries suffer a loss and after some time close down.

(C)     The joint family system in India flourished in the days of yore when agriculture and trade in the villages were in a sound position.

(D)     With the closing down of the village industry the workers move to the city.

(E)     Besides the decline of agriculture and trade, there are other causes which induce people to move to the city.

(F)      Owing to the inrush of people from the villages to the cities, the Hindu joint family system breaks down.

21.    Which of the following should be the FIRST sentence after rearrangement?

1) A  
2) B 
3) D
4) C  
5) F

22.    Which of the following should be the SECOND sentence after rearrangement?

1) E  
2) B 
3) D
4) C  
5) A

23.    Which of the following should be the THIRD sentence after rearrangement?

1) C 
2) A 
3) B
4) E 
5) D

24.    Which of the following should be the LAST (SIXTH) sentence after rearrangement?

1) E 
2) F 
3) B
4) A 
5) C

25.    Which of the following should be the FOURTH sentence after rearrangement?

1) D  
2) E 
3) A
4) C  
5) B

DIRECTIONS (26-30): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below.

Certain words in the passage have been printed in bold to help you locate them when answering some of the questions. He was a funny looking man with a high, bald, dome shaped head, a face very small in comparison and a long wavy beard. His unusual features were a standing joke among his friends. He was a poor man - an idler. He didn't work at his trade - astonecutter, more than what was necessary to keep his wife and three boys alive. He preferred to talk but since his wife was an irate complaining woman, he loved to be away from home. The whole city he lived in was seething with argumentation. The city was Athens and the man was Socrates - the Greek philosopher. He had funny ways and notions. And to the astonish­ment of all, the Oracle at Delphi, the priestess when asked, "Who is the wisest man in Athens ?" mentioned Socrates. Socrates was the evangelist of clear thinking :he would present people with questions pretending he didn't know the answers and get them to make astounding ad­missions. Socrates would go upto a prominent statesman coming to the end of a speech on "courage", about the glory of dying for one's country and say, "Forgive my intrusion, but just what do you mean by courage ?" "Courage is sticking to your post in danger" would be the reply. "But supposing good strategy demands that you retire?", Socrates would ask. "You wouldn't stay in that case" the man would be forced to admit. Socrates would persist. "Then is courage sticking to your post or retiring ?". "I am afraid I don't know." "I don't either", Socrates would say "but perhaps it is not different from just doing the reasonable thing regardless of the danger."

26.    Socrates by profession was-

(1) Philosopher            

(2) Idler                         

(3) Politician

(4) Evangelist              

(5) None of these

27.    How did Socrates perceive courage?

(1) Not abandoning one's post.

(2) Retiring from one's post

(3) Dying for one's country.      

(4) Rightful action in the face of danger

(5) Not changing one's opinion

28.    Which of the following best describes Socrates ?

(1)     He loved to argue with his wife

(2)     He was a handsome man

(3)     He was not the wisest man               

(4)     He had no sense of humour             

(5)     None of these

29.    Which of the following is true in the context of the passage?

(1)     The Oracle at Delphi did not know anything.               

(2)     Socrates could not support his family.

(3)     Socrates ideas were the same as those of other citizens of Athens.

(4)     Socrates believed in reason and logic.

(5)     All of these.

30.    What was Socrates' style of arguing?

(1)     Make fun of people by pointing out   the flaws in their arguments.

(2)     Preach till his audience was convinced about his point of view.

(3)     Question a person's assumptions to lead him to a different point of view.

(4)     Rudely interrupt speeches and question the orator.

(5)     Insult the speaker so that he would get angry and lose the argument.

  

ANSWER KEY
1.	B	2.	D	3.	B	4.	D	5.	B
6.	A	7.	D	8.	C	9.	C	10.	D
11.	D	12.	D	13.	C	14.	A	15.	D
16.	B	17.	D	18.	A	19.	A	20.	C
21.	D	22.	B	23.	E	24.	B	25.	C
26.	A	27.	D	28.	E	29.	B	30.	C