Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

 

It is a labour of love and the result of painstaking research. Chikankari - A Lucknawi Tradition by Paola Manfredi, an Italian, is a book that shows her close and long association with the craft. Lucknow’s chikankari is known across the world yet very little research or documentation has been done. Articles or features have appeared off and on but this book is amongst the first of its kind, which aims to document the vast treasure called Chikan. What makes the book extremely interesting is that unlike other books that tend to rely on second hand material, with exhaustive references and quotes, Paola Manfredi has filled her tome with passionate grass-roots level research. The narrative more in the nature of a personal journey, with all the quirks and street-smart practicality, makes the book refreshing. As Paola says in the book, it is not a scholarly or academic research but more of a documentation of the world of chikankari.

Paola questions the use of chikan as a word for embroidery, highlighting that it has a broader connotation encompassing haute couture, the fine art of making a garment, embroidering it and finishing it with finesse. She is no stranger to chikankari having worked with SEWA and several craftsmen. Her love for white on white embroidery also found a calling in chikan. Paola came to India to work in textile exports and as she says, “If you like textiles ... India is a heaven, an inexhaustible treasure trove.”

 

When did Paola get her first experience of chikankari?

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which will improve the bracketed part of the sentence. In case no improvement is needed, select "no improvement".

You (will being surprised) to learn that some leading philosophers have supported immoral views.

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which is the best substitute of the words/sentence.

A person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or type

In the following question, four words are given out of which one word is correctly spelt. Select the correctly spelt word.

The question below consists of a set of labelled sentences. Out of the four options given, select the most logical order of the sentences to form a coherent paragraph.

The smoke rises and

A-chokes my apartment

B-gets trapped in the

C-tree-tops and

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which will improve the bracketed part of the sentence. In case no improvement is needed, select "no improvement".

I (had been) a unique case of slow learning.

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which is the best substitute of the words/sentence.

Relating to or involved in crime

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the idiom/phrase.

Under the weather

In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.

People are now either exposed to the very best of their inner circle and the world, ________ to the worst — articles that look to shock, to provoke rage and put a lens on everything that is wrong _________ the world. Imperceptibly, it goes unsaid that often __________ pieces of ‘news’ fail to actually provide a constructive solution. The effect of such a disparity _________ to the same effect as news of TV and newspapers — a feeling that what we see does not ____________ our lives.

we see does not ____________ our lives.