Questions

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

The Amazon basin has been continuously inhabited for at least 10, 000 years, possibly more. Its earliest inhabitants were stone-age peoples, living in hundreds of far-flung tribes, some tiny, others numbering in the tens of thousands. It was from the west that Europeans explorers first arrived. In 1541 a Spanish expedition from Quito, led by Gonzalo Pizarro, ran short of supplies while exploring east of the Andes in what is today Peru. Pizarro’s cousin Francisco de Orellana offered to take 60 men along with the boats from the expedition and forage for supplies. De Orellana floated down the Rio Napo to its confluence with the Amazon, near Iquitos (Peru), and then to the mouth of the Amazon. Along the way his expedition suffered numerous attacks by Indians; some of the Indian warriors, they reported, were female, like the Amazons of Greek mythology, and thus the world’s greatest river got its name. No one made a serious effort to claim this sweaty territory, however, until the Portuguese built a fort near the mouth of the river at Belém in 1616, and sent Pedro Teixeira up the river to Quito and back between 1637 and 1639. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Portuguese bandeirantes (groups of roaming adventurers) penetrated ever further into the rain forest in pursuit of gold and Indian slaves, exploring as far as present-day Rondônia, and the Guaporé and Madeira river valleys. Amazonian Indians had long used the sap from rubber trees to make waterproof bags and other items. European explorers recognized the potential value of natural latex, but were unable to market it because it tended to grow soft in the heat, or brittle in the cold, and thus had limited appeal outside the rain forest. However, in 1842 American Charles Goodyear developed vulcanization (made natural rubber durable) and in 1890 Ireland’s John Dunlop patented pneumatic rubber tires. Soon there was an unquenchable demand for rubber in the recently industrialized USA and Europe, and the price of rubber on international markets soared. As profits skyrocketed, so did exploitation of the seringueiros, or rubber tappers, who were lured into the Amazon, mostly from the drought-stricken northeast, by the promise of prosperity only to be locked into a cruel system of virtual slavery dominated by seringalistas (owners of rubber-bearing forests). Rigged scales, hired guns, widespread illiteracy among the rubber tappers, and monopoly of sales and purchases all combined to perpetuate the workers’ debt and misery. In addition, seringueiros had to contend with jungle fevers, Indian attacks and all manner of deprivation.

Seringalistas refers to

In each of the questions, four alternatives are given for the Idiom/Phrase. Choose the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the Idiom/Phrase and click the button corresponding to it.

Hope against hope

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

To bite the dust

In the following question, a sentence has been given in Active/Passive Voice. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Passive/Active Voice.

Do not insult the poor.

In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the word similar in meaning to the word given.

Suffix

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.

The most powerful and the most perfect ____________ of thought and feeling through the medium of oral language must be traced to the mastery of words.___________ is better suited to lead speakers and readers ___________ English into an easy control of this language than the command of the phrase that perfectly expresses the thought. Every speaker's aim is to be heard and _____________. A clear, crisp _____________ holds an audience as by the spell of some irresistible power.

aim is to be heard and _____________. A clear

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

Namita is from the state of Kerala. She has come to Dubai to serve as a governess for the only child of the Nairs. The Nairs are nice and gentle and Namita has no cause to complain. One day she overhears something that makes her jittery. Mr. Nair is not employed in an American company as she has been told. The nature of his business is illegal. She is shocked and wants to go back to her home town to her own people.

Gopal is from a very poor family. His family owns a very small piece of land that can hardly meet their food requirement. One day, Gopal gets a nice offer to work in the Emirates with a construction contractor. In order to meet the expenses on travelling, the family decides to sell their own land and send Gopal to the foreign country, to make money. On arrival, the contractor confiscates Gopal's passport and gives him a small place to live in with ten others like him. Gopal has little idea what he must do.

Namita and Gopal are in a similar situation, because they

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

Rebuke