Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
There are five basic features of services. These features distinguish them from goods. The first is that services are intangible. They are experiential in nature. One cannot taste a doctor’s treatment, or touch entertainment. One can only experience it. An important implication of this is that quality of the offer can often not be determined before consumption or before purchase. It is, therefore, important for the service providers that they consciously work on creating a desired service so that the customer undergoes a favourable experience. The second important characteristic of services is inconsistency. Since there is no standard tangible product, services have to be performed exclusively each time. Different customers have different demands and expectations. Service providers need to have an opportunity to alter their offer to closely meet the requirements of the customers. Another important characteristic of services is the simultaneous activity of production and consumption being performed. This makes the production and consumption of services inseparable. While we can manufacture a car today and sell it after, say, a month; this is often not possible with services that have to be consumed as and when they are produced. For example, the services of a teacher, doctor or lawyer. Service providers may design a substitute for the person by using appropriate technology but the interaction with the customer remains a key feature of services. Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) may replace the banking clerk for the front office activities like cash withdrawal and cheque deposit. But, at the same time, the presence of the customer, is required and his/her interaction with the process has to be managed. Services have little or no tangible components and, therefore, cannot be stored for a future use. That is, services are perishable and providers can, at best, store some associated goods but not the service itself. This means that the demand and supply needs to be managed as the service has to be performed as and when the customer asks for it. They cannot be performed earlier to be consumed at a later date. For example, a railway ticket can be stored but the railway journey will be experienced by a traveller only when the railways provide it.

For a pleasant experience of a service, the provider should:

In the question a sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct and mark your answer in the Answer Sheet.

“Where do you live?” asked the stranger.

Read the passage carefully and answer the question accordingly.

The saddest part of life lies not in the act of dying, but in failing to truly live while we are alive. Too many of us play small with our lives, never letting the fullness of our humanity see the light of day. I’ve learned that what really counts in life, in the end, is not how many toys we have collected or how much money we’ve accumulated, but how many of our talents we have liberated and used for a purpose that adds value to this world. What truly matters most are the lives we have touched and the legacy that we have left. Tolstoy put it so well when he wrote: “We live for ourselves only when we live for others.” It took me forty years to discover this simple point of wisdom.

Forty long years to discover that success cannot really be pursued. Success ensues and flows into your life as the unintended yet inevitable byproduct of a life spent enriching the lives of other people. When you shift your daily focus from a compulsion to survive towards a lifelong commitment to serve, your existence cannot help but explode into success. I still can’t believe that I had to wait until the “half-time” of my life to figure out that true fulfillment as a human being comes not from achieving those grand gestures that put us on the front pages of the newspapers and business magazines, but instead from those basic and incremental acts of decency that each one of us has the privilege to practice each and every day if we simply make the choice to do so. Mother Teresa, a great leader of human hearts if ever there was one, said it best: “There are no great acts, only small acts done with great love.” I learned this the hard way in my life. Until recently, I had been so busy striving, I had missed out on living. I was so busy chasing life’s big pleasures that I had missed out on the little ones, those micro joys that weave themselves in and out of our lives on a daily basis but often go unnoticed. My days were overscheduled, my mind was overworked and my spirit was underfed.

According to the passage, what does ''failing to truly live while we are alive means.''?

Identify the best way to improve the Bold part of the given sentence. If there is no improvement required, select ‘no improvement’-

I'll be at the parlour near 5 p.m.

Directions : In the following passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered.These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five options are given. Four of the Five words to the blank coherently.Find out the which word cannot fit in the blank properly.

It was a _____(xa)_____ journey that these 166 passengers of Jaipur bound Jet Airways flight number 9W 697 from Mumbai on Thursday will never forget. When the _____(xb)_____ took off at about 6 am on Thursday everything _____(xc)_____ normal. However, after 10 minutes into the flight, the _____(xd)_____ of these passengers began. Suddenly the oxygen masks came down from above their seats. By this time the aircraft was flying at a/an _____(xe)_____ of about 28,000 feet. Suddenly the _____(xf)_____ started feeling uncomfortable while some started to bleed from nose and ears. The panicked passengers _____(xg)_____ putting oxygen masks onto themselves while many _____(xh)_____ that they were not working. After about 10-15 minutes of _____(xi)_____ and panic the oxygen started flowing into the masks, much to the _____(xj)_____ of the passengers.

Find the blank at xd.

In the following passage some words have been deleted. Fill in the blanks with the help of the alternatives given. Select the most appropriate option for each blank.
 
I had seen the magic shop from afar several times. I had passed (1)______ once or twice, a shop window of (2)______ little objects, magic balls, magic hens, wonderful cones, magic dolls and all those (3)______ of things. But never had I thought of going in (4)______ one day, Gip hauled me by my finger – right (5)______ to the window.

Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank No.2.

In the questions given below, choose the word most opposite in meaning to the given word and mark your answer.

Acerbic

Select the correct homonym from the given options to fill in the blank.

The wind________ so powerfully that the door closed.