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.

Which of the following names is a type of a precious stone?

Rearrange the following jumbled sentences to make a meaningful one

P - weather conditions across a vast geographic

Q - the climate of India

R - scale and varied topography

S - comprises of a wide range of

The proper sequence should be

Improve the bracketed part of the sentence.

When the prodigal son returned home, his father welcomed him (with open hands).

Rearrange the parts of the sentence in correct order.

P: His story symbolizes a lifestyle struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Q: 'Nelson Mandela' was born on July 18th, 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, then a part of South Africa's Cape Province.
R: It was a terrible form of institutionalized racism that held the South African society in it's grip for a long time.
S: It was not easy for Mandela to fight against it, as he too was among those who were oppressed by the system.

Select the antonym of

sibilate

Select the synonym of

to superimpose

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

Manja, or the glass-coated string used for flying kites, not only poses threat to humans, animals and birds but also to trees. A study by the country's oldest botanical garden has revealed that it poses a great threat to trees. But how can a snapped string struck in a tree kill the tree? Apparently, it does so by allying with the creepers in the garden.

A research paper by three scientists of the Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, located in West Bengal's Howrah district, illustrates in detail how the manja, in collusion with climbers, does the damage. "The abandoned, torn kite strings act as an excellent primary supporting platform for the tender climbers, giving easy passage to reach the top of the trees. Lateral branches from the top of the climber and other accessory branches from the ground reaches the top taking support of the first climber, completely covers the treetop, thus inhibiting the penetration of sunlight," says the research paper.

How many scientists contributed to a study by country's oldest botanical gardens on how manja can kill a tree?

Select the antonym of

obligation