English Questions

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

India’s title triumph in the Under-19 cricket World Cup at the Bay Oval in New Zealand seemed inevitable. Prithvi Shaw’s boys, astutely coached by Rahul Dravid, maintained an unbeaten record through their three-week sojourn. The rousing campaign commenced with a 100-run win against Australia on January 14; in subsequent games, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Pakistan were all emphatically defeated. There were no big-game nerves and even in the much- hyped semifinal against Pakistan, India pocketed a facile 203-run victory. In the summit clash against Australia, Shaw’s boys followed their template of dominance.

Australia was bowled out for 216 and India cruised home in 38.5 overs with eight wickets to spare, and enjoyed the added lustre of opener Manjot Kalra’s unbeaten 101. Through the tournament India found diverse heroes. Fittingly, its batting troika of Shaw, Kalra and Shubman Gill, along with seamer Kamlesh Nagarkoti and spinner Anukul Roy, found a berth in the International Cricket Council’s Under-19 World Cup team, essentially a tribute to the best players on view in the championship. Cricketing excellence allied with the resultant celebrity status, especially during the teenage years, can be a double-edged sword and it helped that in the dressing room there was the calming presence of Dravid. As the ecstatic players leapt and photo-bombed after clinching the trophy, Dravid cut through the hype and said that this win should not be the team’s defining memory as each individual cricketer has much more to achieve in his career. Dravid has a point. India has won the Under-19 World Cup on four occasions, including the previous golden runs in 2000, 2008 and 2012. From among these champion sides, only a few graduated to the big stage. Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli came through the under-19 ranks and managed to carve a niche for themselves, but Unmukt Chand, who led the team to the Cup in 2012, and then featured in a soft drink advertisement besides writing a book, has been unable to make it to the Indian senior team.

According to the passage, who is the captain of the U-19 Cricket World Cup team?

Each item consists of six sentences of a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up and labelled as P, Q, R and S. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four sentences and mark your response accordingly on the Answer Sheet.

S1 : He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife.

S6 : He urinated outside the shack and then went up the road to wake the boy.

P : He never dreamed about the boy.

Q : He only dreamed of places and of the lions on the beach now.

R : He simply woke, looked out through the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.

S : They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy.

The correct sequence should be

Improve the bracketed part of the sentence.
(Hardly nothing) was offered to the victims of the earthquake.

In the following question, out of the given four alternatives, select the one which is opposite in meaning of the given word.

Vagrant

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

Fever in the season of dengue is sending Calcuttans scurrying to hospitals for admission, triggering a shortage of beds that has forced some private health care institutes to even postpone planned surgeries. Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals on the Bypass had 504 patients in its care as on Thursday of whom 70 had been admitted with fever. Belle Vue Clinic had 180 patients, 32 of them with dengue. Calcutta Medical Research Institute had 350 patients 60 of them with fever.

The number of people admitted for treatment of fever caused by dengue or any undiagnosed illness has been rising every day across hospitals for more than a fortnight.

"There has been heavy pressure on all private hospitals for admission of dengue and cases of unknown fever since the beginning of August. Now it is a surge," said Pradip Tondon, President of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India.

In July, four to five patients were getting admitted with fever on an average in every hospital. The number has since ballooned with the Calcutta Municipal Corporation apparently in denial about the extent of the dengue outbreak and the Government focused on playing down the threat.

Such has been the rush of patients with fever that some hospitals are calling up people to postpone admissions planned in advance, mostly for surgeries. "We have told many people to come only when we call them to confirm availability of beds," said an official at Belle Vue.

The reason for shortage of beds in hospitals is

A sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect Speech. Out of the four given alternatives, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct Speech.

He says, “I am a little bit afraid.”

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

The punishment of being kept in school after hours.

In the following question, a sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect speech. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best express the same sentence in Indirect/Direct speech.

Vicky said, "I clean my teeth daily."