PREPARATORY QUESTIONS

READING COMPREHENSION

PREPARATORY PAPER-04

Direction (Qs.1 to 10): Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

A (A) visceral debate on racism and immigration has again (B) gripped the United States, after

President Donald Trump attacked four Democratic Congresswomen of colour, asking them to return to the “totally broken and crime (C) infested places from which they came”. His tweets raised a furore over their racist tenor and exacerbated the sense of bitter polarisation, given the strident ongoing debate over Mr. Trump’s zero-tolerance approach toward undocumented migration. The House of Representatives, under Democratic control, voted to condemn Mr. Trump’s remarks as racist, marking the first such (D) reprimand of a sitting President in over a century. (E) Not only did that Congressional (1) rebuke to Mr. Trump pass mostly along (2) label lines, by a vote of 240 to 187, but other senior Republicans including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (3) defended the President against the racist (4) partisan. Nevertheless, Mr. Trump hit back again at the four Congresswomen — who have adopted the moniker “the Squad” — on Twitter for what he called their “horrible and …(F)… actions”, “racist hatred”, and for being “anti-America”, “anti-Semitic”, and possibly communist sympathisers.

(G) Stepping back from the immediate, acerbic terms of this exchange, the bigger concern is that these hateful comments risk damaging the fabric of American society further, as they are an unmistakable and painful hint from their President that legal immigrants, especially people of colour, are not welcome. Yet, there can be no denying the significance of immigrants as a demographic cohort of the country. More than 44.5 million immigrants, at least 13.7% of the overall population, reside in the U.S.; one in seven U.S. residents is foreign-born. Mexicans, Indians and Chinese immigrants are respectively the largest sub-groups within this cohort. It was little surprise then, that Ilhan Omar, one of Mr. Trump’s targets, situated the comments in the agenda of white nationalism, arguing that given the direct contravention of U.S. constitutional values implied, it was time to consider impeaching him. Yet impeachment would be an option only if the Senate were also to come under Democratic control, or if there might be some conceivable reason why Republicans would break with their recent record of siding with Mr. Trump no matter how egregious his conduct. A more tedious, but deep-rooted approach would be for liberals of all hues to engage in a meaningful dialogue with their conservative detractors, over what they could agree on as a common minimum agenda and values that could anchor their nation’s march into the 21st century. If a nationwide conversation of this sort, aimed at discovering a reasonable middle ground is not undertaken, the very idea of the American dream, of a (H) meritocracy built on harnessing talent from around the world, will unravel fast.

Question No : 1

Direction (Qs.1 & 2): Choose the option which is MOST SIMILAR to the word in the question, as mentioned in the passage.

Visceral

(1) Intuitive      

(2) Rational          

(3) Factual          

(4) Preclusion      

(5) None of these

Question No : 2

Gripped

(1) Seize          

(2) Release      

(3) Languid    

(4) Temporal  

(5) None of these

Direction (Qs.3 & 4): Choose the option which is MOST OPPOSITE to the word in the question, as mentioned in the passage.

Question No : 3

Infested

(1) Intelligible

(2) Diseased   

(3) Overrun    

(4) Plagued     

(5) None of these

Question No : 4

Reprimand

(1) Acquiesce

(2) Reproach  

(3) Berate        

(4) Admonish

(5) None of these

Question No : 5

The sentence given in (E) has four words given in bold. Amongst the given bold words which of the following must replace each other to make the sentence contextually correct and meaningful.

(1) 2-4

(2) 1-3

(3) 2-3

(4) 3-4

(5) 1-2

Question No : 6

Which of the following worda given in the options should come at the place marked (F) in the above article to make it grammatically correct and meaningful.

(1) Disgusting            

(2) Painful      

(3) Praiseworthy        

(4) Promising

(5) None of these

Question No : 7

In the passage given, a sentence (G) is given in bold. There may or may not be an error in one part of the sentence. Choose the part which has an error in it as your answer. If there is no error then choose option (5) as your answer.

(1) Stepping back from the immediate, acerbic terms of this exchange, the bigger

(2) Concern is that these hateful comments risk damaging the fabric of American

(3) Society further, as they are an unmistakable and painful hint from their

(4) President that legal immigrants, especially people of colour, are not welcome

(5) No error

Question No : 8

Which of the following statements given in the options is/are correct?

(I) The House of Representatives which is under Democratic control, voted to condemn Mr.Trump’s remarks as racist, marking the first such reprimand of a sitting President in over a century.

(II) More than 44.5 million immigrants, at least 22.7% of the overall population, reside in the U.S.

(III) Impeachment would be an option only if the Senate were also to come under Democractic control, or if there might be some conceivable            reason why Republicans would break with their recent record of siding with Mr. Trump no matter how egregious his conduct.

(1) Only I        

(2) Only III     

(3) I and II      

(4) I and III     

(5) I, II, III

Question No : 9

What is the central theme of the given passage?

(1) Decision of the Senate on the impending impeachment of the President

(2) Trump’s racist tweets risk damaging the fabric of American society further

(3) Racist remarks of Donald Trump against Women in general

(4) Illegal immigration – the cause of high rate of unemployment in the US today

(5) None of these

Question No : 10

Which of the following replace the word marked (H) to make it contextually correct and meaningful? If no replacement is required, mark option (5).

(1) Mediocrity                               

(2) Democracy                                 

(3) Republican                          

(4) Nationalist                        

(5) No replacement required