General English Practice Question and Answer

Q:

Directions: Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct/most appropriate options.

AU Small Finance Bank Limited is an Indian Small Finance Bank, based in Jaipur, India. It was founded as vehicle finance company AU Financiers (India) Ltd. in 1996 and converted to a small finance bank on April 19, 2017.

AU Small Finance Bank serves low and middle-income individuals and micro and small businesses that have limited or no access to formal banking and finance channels. The Bank offers loans, deposits, and payment products and services. AU Small Finance Bank ranked 355 in the list of Fortune India 500 (2019) companies, with annual revenue of 3410.87 crore (US$427 million) and Total B/S Assets of 31198.68 crore (US$ 3.9 billion).

AU Bank enjoys a long-term credit rating of "AA-/Stable" from CRISIL Ratings, ICRA Ratings, India Ratings and CARE Ratings.

The company was founded by Sanjay Agarwal (Managing Director and CEO of AU Small Finance Bank) as a private limited company, and publicly listed in an IPO on June 29, 2017. A merit holder Chartered Accountant and a first-generation entrepreneur, he holds ~ 28.5% stake in the bank. He is supported by a team of 23486 employees.

AU Small Finance Bank is listed on NSE and BSE with a market capitalisation of ~ 37942 crore. On its first day of trading, the stock rose 51% to be the most expensive bank in India based on price-to-book. In November 2017, the Reserve Bank of India added the bank to its schedule of commercial banks, further improving the bank's growth prospects by reducing the cost of short-term funds and improving the bank's ability to provide services.

Over the years, the Bank has attracted marquee investors like IFC, Warburg Pincus, Temasek Holdings, Nomura, Kotak Mahindra MF, etc. Private equity companies that provided venture capital, including Warburg Pincus and International Finance Corporation, made partial exits for as much as nine times their original investment.

Due to its history as a vehicle finance company, as of March 2018 almost all the loans made by AU Small Finance Bank were secured, unlike most small finance banks that have unsecured loans due to their background in microfinance. This provides lower yields (lower interest rates) than unsecured loans, so the bank has been particularly active in growing its deposits, as bank deposits have a lower cost than other sources of funds. It has also sought to diversify into savings products like deposits, payment/transaction banking, distribution of third-party products, and additional loan products thereby positioning itself as a holistic financial products and services provider.

As on June 30, 2021, AU Small Finance Bank's distribution network............... 758 Banking Touchpoints and 23486 employees spread contiguously across 15 states and two Union Territories with over 2 million customers.

The bank has operations in 15 States and two Union Territories, with Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh being key states. It is one of the largest banks by a number of locations in its home state of Rajasthan.

Choose the antonym of the word 'Expensive'.

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    Economical
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Extortionate
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Extravagant
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Valuable
    Correct
    Wrong
  • 5
    Valuable
    Correct
    Wrong
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Answer : 1. "Economical"

Q:

Select the most appropriate option to substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. If there is no need to substitute it, select ‘No substitution required’.

On winter evenings, a haze of smog hang in Delhi.

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    hangs over
    Correct
    Wrong
  • 2
    is hanging over
    Correct
    Wrong
  • 3
    hangs up
    Correct
    Wrong
  • 4
    No substitution required
    Correct
    Wrong
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Answer : 1. "hangs over"
Explanation :

The correct sentence should be:

On winter evenings, a haze of smog hangs in Delhi.

Explanation: The verb "hangs" agrees with the singular subject "haze." In the original sentence, "hang" is incorrect in this context.

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Answer : 2. "2"
Explanation :

had I will replace I had because – When a negative Adverb/Adverbial Expression (no sooner, hardly/barely/scarcely), is used at the beginning of a clause; it is followed by Aux. Verb + Subject.

Look at the examples given below :

No sooner had he finished dinner

                   ↓    ↓

            Aux.V. Subject

than he started feeling sick.

Hardly had she arrived, when problems started.

              ↓    ↓

        Aux. V. Subject

Hence, had I spoken is the right usage

Q:

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Chanhudaro was a tiny settlement (less than 7 hectares) as compared to Mohenjodaro (125 hectares), almost exclusively devoted to craft production, including bead-making, shellcutting, metal-working, seal-making and weight-making. The variety of materials used to make beads is remarkable: stones like carnelian (of a beautiful red colour), jasper, crystal, quartz and steatite; metals like copper, bronze and gold; and shell, faience and terracotta or burnt clay. Some beads were made of two or more stones, cemented together, some of stone with gold caps. The shapes were numerous – disc shaped, cylindrical, spherical, barrel-shaped, segmented. Some were decorated by incising or painting, and some had designs etched onto them.

Techniques for making beads differed according to the material. Steatite, a very soft stone, was easily worked. Some beads were moulded out of a paste made with steatite powder. This permitted making a variety of shapes, unlike the geometrical forms made out of harder stones. How the steatite micro bead was made remains a puzzle for archaeologists studying ancient technology. Archaeologists’ experiments have revealed that the red colour of carnelian was obtained by firing the yellowish raw material and beads at various stages of production. Nodules were chipped into rough shapes, and then finely flaked into the final form. Grinding, polishing and finally drilling completed the process. Specialised drills have been found at Chanhudaro, Lothal and more recently at Dholavira. Nageshwar and Balakot, both settlements are near the coast. These were specialised centres for making shell objects – including bangles, ladles and inlay – which were taken to other settlements. Similarly, it is likely that finished products (such as beads) from Chanhudaro and Lothal were taken to the large urban centres such as Mohenjodaro and Harappa.

Which of these stones is very soft and easy to mould?

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    Quartz
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Steatite
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Jasper
    Correct
    Wrong
  • 4
    Crystal
    Correct
    Wrong
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Answer : 2. "Steatite"

Q:

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Santiniketan embodies Rabindranath Tagore’s vision of a place of learning that is unfettered by religious and regional barriers. Established in 1863 with the aim of helping education go beyond the confines of the classroom, Santiniketan grew into the Visva Bharati University in 1921, attracting some of the most creative minds in the country.

He developed a curriculum that was a unique blend of art, human values and cultural interchange. Even today, in every step, in every brick and in every tree at Santiniketan, one can still feel his presence, his passion, his dedication and his pride in the institution. In 1862, Maharishi Debendranath Tagore, father of Rabindranath, was taking a boat ride through Birbhum, the westernmost corner of Bengal, when he came across a landscape that struck him as the perfect place for meditation. He bought the large tract of land and built a small house and planted some saplings around it. Debendranath Tagore decided to call the place Santiniketan, or the ‘abode of peace’, because of the serenity it brought to his soul. In 1863, he turned it into a spiritual centre where people from all religions, castes and creeds came and participated in meditation.

In the years that followed, Debendranath’s son Rabindranath went on to become one of the most formidable literary forces India has ever produced. He wrote in all literary genres but he was first and foremost a poet. As one of the earliest educators to think in terms of the global village, he envisioned an education that was deeply rooted in one’s immediate surroundings but connected to the cultures of the wider world.

Located in the heart of nature, the school aimed to combine education with a sense of obligation towards the larger civic community. Blending the best of western and traditional eastern systems of education, the curriculum revolved organically around nature with classes being held in the open air. Tagore wanted his students to feel free despite being in the formal learning environment of a school, because he himself had dropped out of school when he found himself unable to think and felt claustrophobic within the four walls of a classroom. Nature walks and excursions were a part of the curriculum, special attention was paid to natural phenomena and students were encouraged to follow the life cycles of insects, birds and plants.

The rural paradise of Santiniketan, Tagore’s erstwhile home, has become a thriving centre of art, education and internationalism over the years.

With what aim was Santiniketan established?

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    To nurture plants, birds and insects
    Correct
    Wrong
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    To attract the most creative minds
    Correct
    Wrong
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    To encourage education outside the classroom
    Correct
    Wrong
  • 4
    To make it the perfect place for meditation
    Correct
    Wrong
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Answer : 3. "To encourage education outside the classroom"

Q:

Directions: In the following passage, there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. Against every five words are suggested one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word in each case.

The world of finance can be __(A)_, but understanding key concepts and strategies can help investors make __(B)_ decisions. One important concept is the time value of money, which refers to the fact that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future. This is because money can be invested and earn _(C)__ over time, meaning that a dollar today has the potential to grow into more than a dollar in the future. Risk tolerance is another important consideration when it comes to investing. The level of risk an investor is willing to take on should be carefully __(D)_ against the potential for return. Generally, the higher the risk of an investment, the higher the potential return, but also the higher the potential for loss.

When investing in the stock market, investors have several strategies to choose from. Value investing involves looking for stocks that are trading at a lower price than their intrinsic value, while growth investing involves looking for companies that are expected to grow at a faster rate than the overall market. Regardless of the strategy chosen, it's important to __(E)_ a portfolio across different asset classes to reduce overall risk and maximize potential gains.

Which of the following words most appropriately fits the blank labelled (C)?

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    Interest
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Money
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Grains
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Prosperity
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Calmness
    Correct
    Wrong
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Answer : 1. "Interest"

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Answer : 1. "Without limits"

Q:

Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words.

Deliberately and maliciously set something (buildings usually) on fire

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    Agrarian
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Arson
    Correct
    Wrong
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    Ambush
    Correct
    Wrong
  • 4
    Apex
    Correct
    Wrong
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Answer : 2. "Arson"

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