Questions

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

Eight north Indian Ocean countries, namely, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, were asked to contribute names so that a combined list could be compiled. Each country gave eight names and a combined list of 64 names was prepared. This list is currently in use, and all cyclones arising in the north Indian Ocean are named from this list, with one name from each country being used in turn. Almost 38 or 39 names from the list have been used up, but since many cyclones dissipate long before they hit land, their names rarely figure in the papers or other media. The names that people do know about, and remember are, naturally, those that were most destructive ones, or very recent. Aila, in 2009 is remembered with a shudder for the enormous destruction it caused in West Bengal and Bangladesh; Phaillin, also for the damage it caused when it hit the Odisha coast in 2013. Two harmless cyclones, which also might remain in people’s memory, are the more recent ones of 2014 — Hudhud, which threatened the east coast of India and Nilofar, which was expected to, but did not, devastate the western coast. The names in the cyclone list are usually words one associates with storms; words which mean water or wind or lightning in various national languages. Sometimes they are names of other things — birds or flowers or precious stones. The name ‘Aila’, contributed by the Maldives means ‘fire’, the name ‘Phaillin’ from Thailand means sapphire, the name ‘Hudhud’ from Oman is the name of a bird, probably the hoopoe, and the name ‘Nilofar’, given by Pakistan, is the Urdu name of the lotus or water lily. The eight names suggested by India, and which are in the list of 64, are Agni, Akaash, Bijli, Jal, Leher, Megh, Sagar and Vayu, meaning in that order, fire, sky, lightning, water, wave, cloud, sea and wind. Five of these names (that is, up to Leher) have been used so far.

For the next cyclone if it is the turn of an Indian name to be chosen, then what will be that name?

Rearrange the parts of the sentence in correct order.

To have succumbed to their

P-blackmail was not an instance of
Q-making pragmatic political
R-concessions; it was one of capitulation

Improve the bracketed part of the sentence.

I took for a ride the motorcycle (which Rohit has) bought yesterday.

Select the antonym of

agonising

Rearrange the parts of the sentence in correct order.

In that case,

P-put together the best gender-just
Q-practices from all Personal Laws
R-a Uniform Civil Code would simply

What is the purpose of adding Gypsum to the cement?

Improve the given sentence if necessary.

The teacher as well as his wife were invited.

Rearrange the parts of the sentence in correct order.

This is where clear,

P-well-publicized editorial guidelines are
Q-precisely formulated, and
R-badly needed in Indian newsrooms