General English Practice Question and Answer
8 Q:A passage is given with five questions following it. Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.
Teaching about compassion and empathy in schools can help deal with problems of climate change and environmental degradation,” says Barbara Maas, secretary, Standing Committee for Environment and Conservation, International Buddhist Confederation (IBC). She was in New Delhi to participate in the IBC’s governing council meeting, December 10-11, 2017. “We started an awareness campaign in the year 2005-2006 with H H The Dalai Lama when we learnt that tiger skins were being traded in China and Tibet. At that time, I was not a Buddhist; I wrote to the Dalai Lama asking him to say that ‘this is harmful’ and he wrote back to say, “We will stop this.” He used very strong words during the Kalachakra in 2006, when he said, ‘If he sees people wearing fur and skins, he doesn’t feel like living. ‘This sent huge shock waves in the Himalayan community. Within six months, in Lhasa, people ripped the fur trim of their tubba, the traditional Tibetan dress.
The messenger was ideal and the audience was receptive,” says Maas who is a conservationist. She has studied the battered fox’s behavioral ecology in Serengeti, Africa. She heads the endangered species conservation at the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) International Foundation for Nature, Berlin. “I met Samdhong Rinpoche, The Karmapa, HH the Dalai Lama and Geshe Lhakdor and I thought, if by being a Buddhist, you become like this, I am going for it, “says Maas, who led the IBC initiative for including the Buddhist perspective to the global discourse on climate change by presenting the statement, ‘The Time to Act is Now: a Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change,’ at COP21 in Paris.
“It was for the first time in the history of Buddhism that leaders of different sanghas came together to take a stand on anything! The statement lists a couple of important things: the first is that we amass things that we don’t need; there is overpopulation; we need to live with contentment and deal with each other and the environment with love and compassion,” elaborates Maas. She is an ardent advocate of a vegan diet because “consuming meat and milk globally contributes more to climate change than all "transport in the world.”
Turning vegetarian or vegan usually requires complete change of perspective before one gives up eating their favorite food. What are the Buddhist ways to bring about this kind of change at the individual level? “To change our behavior, Buddhism is an ideal vehicle; it made me a more contented person,” says Maas, who grew up in Germany, as a sausage chomping, meat-loving individual. She says, “If I can change, so can anybody.
What did HH Dalai Lama said to his followers which came as a blow to them?
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601b47d9552e5f41f7b35d3eThe messenger was ideal and the audience was receptive,” says Maas who is a conservationist. She has studied the battered fox’s behavioral ecology in Serengeti, Africa. She heads the endangered species conservation at the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) International Foundation for Nature, Berlin. “I met Samdhong Rinpoche, The Karmapa, HH the Dalai Lama and Geshe Lhakdor and I thought, if by being a Buddhist, you become like this, I am going for it, “says Maas, who led the IBC initiative for including the Buddhist perspective to the global discourse on climate change by presenting the statement, ‘The Time to Act is Now: a Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change,’ at COP21 in Paris.
“It was for the first time in the history of Buddhism that leaders of different sanghas came together to take a stand on anything! The statement lists a couple of important things: the first is that we amass things that we don’t need; there is overpopulation; we need to live with contentment and deal with each other and the environment with love and compassion,” elaborates Maas. She is an ardent advocate of a vegan diet because “consuming meat and milk globally contributes more to climate change than all "transport in the world.”
Turning vegetarian or vegan usually requires complete change of perspective before one gives up eating their favorite food. What are the Buddhist ways to bring about this kind of change at the individual level? “To change our behavior, Buddhism is an ideal vehicle; it made me a more contented person,” says Maas, who grew up in Germany, as a sausage chomping, meat-loving individual. She says, “If I can change, so can anybody.
- 1He said Buddhism is an ideal vehicles it makes people more contented.false
- 2He said “we need to live with contentment and deal with each other and the environment with love and compassion”.false
- 3He said “we need to live with contentment and deal with each other and the environment with love and compassion.false
- 4He said that if he sees people wearing fur and skins, he doesn’t feel like living.true
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Answer : 4. "He said that if he sees people wearing fur and skins, he doesn’t feel like living."
Q: Which of the following should be avoided in official letter?
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63726f49815edc264eac8666- 1clear detailsfalse
- 2polite wordsfalse
- 3jargonstrue
- 4formal wordsfalse
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Answer : 3. "jargons"
Q:Direction: In the following question, out of the four alternatives, choose the one which can be substituted for the given sentence.
Violation of something holy or sacred
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60c1eca5590e633a7d3caf6f- 1Ritualfalse
- 2Ceremonyfalse
- 3Sacrilegetrue
- 4Piousfalse
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Answer : 3. "Sacrilege"
Q:In the following passage some of the word have been left out. Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer to each question out of the four alternatives and fill in the blanks.
A civilised life is a rule __(177)___ violence, against taking __(178)__ in to our hands. It is a rule which _(179)__of use observe so often, indeed, that a great __(180)__ of people go through life __(181)___ orderliness and non-violence as apart of the scheme of nature. But when __(182)__ comes into their midst __(183)___refuses to observe the current rules, and ___(184)__ the simplest rule that might is right, the law abiding members___(185)__ society do not know what to do, and look on in _(186)__ bewildered confusion.
Mark your answer at (181).
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5f28f6037079852b5537910dA civilised life is a rule __(177)___ violence, against taking __(178)__ in to our hands. It is a rule which _(179)__of use observe so often, indeed, that a great __(180)__ of people go through life __(181)___ orderliness and non-violence as apart of the scheme of nature. But when __(182)__ comes into their midst __(183)___refuses to observe the current rules, and ___(184)__ the simplest rule that might is right, the law abiding members___(185)__ society do not know what to do, and look on in _(186)__ bewildered confusion.
- 1not expectingfalse
- 2expectingtrue
- 3not acceptingfalse
- 4acceptingfalse
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Answer : 2. "expecting"
Q:The 1st and the last sentences of the passage are numbered 1 and 6. The rest of the passage is split into four parts P, Q, R and S. These four parts are not given in their proper order. Read the sentence and find out which of the four combinations is correct. The find the correct answer and indicate it in the answer sheet.
1.Once I tended a peony with great care.
P. A guest had picket my peony.
Q. On a Thursday my cook phoned to tell me the awful truth.
R. Finally it had one promising pink bud.
S. It was the first peony I had raised on the desert.
6. My anger was greater than her offence.
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5f4778c08733fc33258cced9P. A guest had picket my peony.
Q. On a Thursday my cook phoned to tell me the awful truth.
R. Finally it had one promising pink bud.
S. It was the first peony I had raised on the desert.
6. My anger was greater than her offence.
- 1SQPRfalse
- 2PQSRfalse
- 3PQRSfalse
- 4SRQPtrue
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Answer : 4. "SRQP"
Q:Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom.
Upset the apple-cart
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64635a34cdae930acb7aa196- 1Withdrawfalse
- 2Spoil careful planstrue
- 3Consider unsatisfactoryfalse
- 4To be offendedfalse
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Answer : 2. "Spoil careful plans"
Explanation :
poil careful plans. This idiom means to disrupt or ruin well-laid plans.
Q:Direction : Read the following passage carefully and answer the question given below it. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the question.
Governments have traditionally equated economic progress with steel mills and cement factories. While urban centers thrive and city dwellers get rich, hundreds of millions of farmers remain mired in poverty. However fears of food shortages, a rethinking of anti-poverty priorities and the crushing recession in 2008 are causing a dramatic shift in world economic policy in favour of greater support for agriculture.
The last time when the world’s farmer felt such love was in the 1970s. At that time, as food prices spiked, there was real concern that the world was facing a crisis in which the planet was simply unable to produce enough grain and meat for an expanding population. Government across the developing world and international aid organisations plowed investment into agriculture in the early 1970s, while technological breakthroughs, like high-yield strains of important food crops, boosted production. The result was the Green Revolution and food production exploded. But the Green Revolution became a victim of its own success. Food prices plunged by some 60% by the late 1980s from their peak in the mid-1970s. Policy makers and aid workers turned their attention to the poor’s other pressing needs such as health care and education. Farming got starved of resources and investment. By 2004 aid directed at agriculture sank to 3.5 % and Agriculture lost its glitter. Also as consumer in high-growth giants such as China and India became wealthier they began eating more meat so grain once used for human consumption got diverted to beef up livestock. By early 2008 panicked buying by importing countries and restrictions slapped on grain exports by some big producers helped drive prices upto heights not seen for three decades. Making matters worse land and resources got reallocated to produce cash crops such as biofuels and the result was that voluminous reserves of grain evaporated. Protests broke out across the emerging world and fierce food riots toppled governments. This spurred global leaders into action. This made them aware that food security is one of the fundamental issues in the world that has to be dealt with in order to maintain administrative and political stability. This also spurred the US which traditionally provisioned food aid from American grain surpluses to help needy nations to move towards investing in farm sectors around the globe to boost productive for themselves and be in a better position to feed their own people.
Africa, which missed out on the first Green Revolution due to poor policy and limited resources, also witnessed a 'change'. Swayed by the success of East Asia the primary poverty-fighting method favoured by many policy-makers in Africa was to get farmers off their farms and into modern jobs in factories and urban centers. But that strategy proved to be highly insufficient. Income levels in the countryside badly trailed those in cities while the FAO estimated that the number of poor going hungry in 2009 reached an all time high at more than one billion. In India on the other hand with only 40% of its farmland irrigated, entire economic boom currently underway is held hostage by the unpredictable monsoon. With much of India’s farming areas suffering from drought this year, the government will have a tough time meeting its economic growth targets. In a report Goldman Sachs, predicted that if this year, too receives weak rains it could cause agriculture to contract by 2 % this fiscal year making the government 7%GDP growth target look "a bit rich". Another green revolution is the need of the hour and to make it a reality, the global community still has much backbreaking farm work to do.
What is the author’s main objective in writing the passage?
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5ea69f0f5657c22f78030347Governments have traditionally equated economic progress with steel mills and cement factories. While urban centers thrive and city dwellers get rich, hundreds of millions of farmers remain mired in poverty. However fears of food shortages, a rethinking of anti-poverty priorities and the crushing recession in 2008 are causing a dramatic shift in world economic policy in favour of greater support for agriculture.
The last time when the world’s farmer felt such love was in the 1970s. At that time, as food prices spiked, there was real concern that the world was facing a crisis in which the planet was simply unable to produce enough grain and meat for an expanding population. Government across the developing world and international aid organisations plowed investment into agriculture in the early 1970s, while technological breakthroughs, like high-yield strains of important food crops, boosted production. The result was the Green Revolution and food production exploded. But the Green Revolution became a victim of its own success. Food prices plunged by some 60% by the late 1980s from their peak in the mid-1970s. Policy makers and aid workers turned their attention to the poor’s other pressing needs such as health care and education. Farming got starved of resources and investment. By 2004 aid directed at agriculture sank to 3.5 % and Agriculture lost its glitter. Also as consumer in high-growth giants such as China and India became wealthier they began eating more meat so grain once used for human consumption got diverted to beef up livestock. By early 2008 panicked buying by importing countries and restrictions slapped on grain exports by some big producers helped drive prices upto heights not seen for three decades. Making matters worse land and resources got reallocated to produce cash crops such as biofuels and the result was that voluminous reserves of grain evaporated. Protests broke out across the emerging world and fierce food riots toppled governments. This spurred global leaders into action. This made them aware that food security is one of the fundamental issues in the world that has to be dealt with in order to maintain administrative and political stability. This also spurred the US which traditionally provisioned food aid from American grain surpluses to help needy nations to move towards investing in farm sectors around the globe to boost productive for themselves and be in a better position to feed their own people.
Africa, which missed out on the first Green Revolution due to poor policy and limited resources, also witnessed a 'change'. Swayed by the success of East Asia the primary poverty-fighting method favoured by many policy-makers in Africa was to get farmers off their farms and into modern jobs in factories and urban centers. But that strategy proved to be highly insufficient. Income levels in the countryside badly trailed those in cities while the FAO estimated that the number of poor going hungry in 2009 reached an all time high at more than one billion. In India on the other hand with only 40% of its farmland irrigated, entire economic boom currently underway is held hostage by the unpredictable monsoon. With much of India’s farming areas suffering from drought this year, the government will have a tough time meeting its economic growth targets. In a report Goldman Sachs, predicted that if this year, too receives weak rains it could cause agriculture to contract by 2 % this fiscal year making the government 7%GDP growth target look "a bit rich". Another green revolution is the need of the hour and to make it a reality, the global community still has much backbreaking farm work to do.
- 1Criticising developed countries for not bolstering economic growth in poor nationsfalse
- 2Analysing the disadvantages of the Green Revolutionfalse
- 3Persuading experts that a strong economy depends on industrialisation and not on agriculturefalse
- 4Making a case for the international society to engineer a second Green Revolutiontrue
- 5Rationalising the faulty agriculture policies of emerging countriesfalse
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Answer : 4. "Making a case for the international society to engineer a second Green Revolution"
Q: Choose the suitable word from the choices given to make the sentence meaningful.
Don't _____ over the past.
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63495411455735285617c640Don't _____ over the past.
- 1veilfalse
- 2wailtrue
- 3valefalse
- 4wellfalse
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