Directions: Rearrange the following five sentences/group of sentences (A), (B), (C), (D) and (E) in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph, then answer the questions given below them.

A. The bear saved himself from the bees by jumping into a nearby pond.
B. This act by the little bee made the bear very angry and he was determined to destroy the nest of bees inside.
C. As he came closer to inspect, a single little bee flew out of the log to protect the swarm and stung him sharply on the nose.
D. This only alerted the bees and quick as a wink, the entire swarm of bees flew out of the log and began to sting the bear from head to heel.
E. A bear came across a log where a swarm of bees had nested to make their honey.

Which sentence should come in the THIRD place after rearrangement?

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.

Wetlands are amongst the most productive ecosystems on the Earth and provide many important services to human society. They exhibit enormous diversity according to their genesis, geographical location, water regime and chemistry, dominant species, and soil and sediment characteristics. Globally, the areal extent of wetland ecosystems ranges from 917 million hectares (m ha) to more than 1275 m ha. One of the first widely used wetland classifications systems, devised by Cowardin et al., 1979, categorized wetlands into marine (coastal wetlands), estuarine (including deltas, tidal marshes, and mangrove swamps), lacustrine (lakes), riverine (along rivers and streams), and palustrine ( marshes, swamps and bogs) based on their hydrological, ecological and geological characteristics.

Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was an international treaty signed in 1971. Overall, 1052 sites in Europe; 289 sites in Asia; 359 sites in Africa; 175 sites in South America; 211 sites in North America; and 79 sites in Oceania region have been identified as Ramsar sites or wetlands of International importance.

As per the Ramsar Convention definition most of the natural water bodies (such as rivers, lakes, coastal lagoons, mangroves, peat land, coral reefs) and man- made wetlands (such as ponds, farm ponds, irrigated fields, sacred groves, salt pans, reservoirs, gravel pits, sewage farms and canals) in India constitute the wetland ecosystem distributed in different geographical regions ranging from Himalayas to Deccan plateau. As of February, 2022, India has 49 Ramsar sites covering an area of 10,93,636 hectares, the highest in South Asia. As per the estimates, India has about 757.06 thousand wetlands with a total wetland area of 15.3 m ha, accounting for nearly 4.7% of the total geographical area of the country . Out of this, areas under inland wetlands accounts for 69%, coastal wetlands 27%, and other wetlands (smaller than 2.25 ha) 4%.

Gujarat has the highest proportion (17.5%) and Mizoram has the lowest proportion (0.66%) of the area under wetlands. Among Union Territories, Lakshadweep has the highest proportion (around 96%) and Chandigarh has the least proportion (3%) of geographical area under wetlands.

Match the continents with the number of Ramsar sites.

continents no. of Ramsar sites

a. North America 1. 1052 sites

b. Europe 2. 211sites

c. Africa 3. 289 sites

d. Asia 4. 359 sites

Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word.

CONDENSE

Select the most appropriate option to substitute the underline segment in the given sentence.
 My sincerity and patience drove me through all odds and problems of life

Select the most appropriate meaning of the idiom given in bold in the following sentence.
 She was within a hair's breadth of winning.

Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the right order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.

A. However, its importance is primarily for its location.

B. But unlike other rivers, it is not used for shipping.

C. Although not the longest river, the Rio Grande is the most important river in America.

D. America has several long river systems.

Given below are four jumbled sentences. Select the option that gives their correct order.

A. The mountaineers set up a camp at a height of 15000 feet.

B. Then they started climbing.

C. They struggled up a steep slope and stopped at a height of 20000 feet.

D. There they stayed for a week to get accustomed to the climate.

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.

The stark observation made in the Economic Survey of 2015-16 that “Indian agriculture, is in a way, a victim of its own past success – especially the green revolution”, shows the dark reality of the agriculture sector at present and the havoc that has been wreaked by the green revolution.

The green revolution, which is often characterised by the introduction of high-yielding variety of seeds and fertilisers, undoubtedly increased the productivity of land considerably. But the growth in the productivity has been stagnant in recent years, resulting in a significant decline in the income of farmers. There have also been negative environmental effects in the form of depleting water table, emission of greenhouse gases, and the contamination of surface and ground water. Needless to say, the agriculture sector is in a state of distress, which is severely affecting peasants and marginal farmers, and urgent policy interventions are required to protect their interests.

The government has responded to the problem by constituting a panel, which will recommend ways to double the income of farmers by 2022. While this may be an overtly ambitious target, if we want to boost stagnated agricultural growth a shift has to be made from food security of the nation to income security of the farmers. However, there are many hurdles that have to be crossed if we want to achieve this objective.

The first major barrier to overcome is declining productivity. Data from 2013 reveals that India’s average yield of cereal per hectare is far less than that of many countries (including several low income countries), but the difference is huge when compared to China. For instance, our average yield per hectare is 39% below than that of China and for rice this figure is 46%. Even Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia fare better than India in case of rice yield. Further, there is a huge inter-regional variation; the wheat and rice yield from Haryana and Punjab is much higher than from the other states.

In order to cross the declining productivity barrier there is a need to herald a rainbow revolution by making a shift from wheat-rice cycle to other cereals and pulses. Since wheat and rice coupled with other crops are backed by minimum support prices (MSP) and input subsidy (whether water, fertiliser or power) regime, there is a huge incentive for the farmers in the irrigated region of Northwest India to grow these crops.

As per the passage, which country has the highest yield of rice per hectare?