English Questions

A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

Due to poor rainfall over the past few months, the vadu mangai season is expected to be short this year. There are two distinct varieties available in the vicinity of Coimbatore. The closest to Coimbatore, and the one that appears in the markets first, is the Thadagam variety. The second and more popular variety is the one from the Thirumoorthy Hills, near Udumalpet. Representatives from commercial pickle brands whisk these mangais away in big lots directly from the wholesalers. Only a small portion of the year's harvest trickles down to the local markets. Small vendors bring sacks full of these tiny tender mangoes to one particular street corner in Ram Nagar during the season. The corner of Rajaji Road and Sathyamurthy Road plays host to these vendors from as early as 7.00 am every day. Depending on the quantity they have, the mangais are available until around 11.00 am. If the vendors have a good day and their produce is sold quickly, they pack up and leave even as early as 9.00 am.

What may happen if there is adequate rainfall? 

In the following question the 1st and the last part of the sentence/passage are numbered 1 and 6. The rest of the sentence/ passage is split into four parts and named P, Q, R and S. These four parts are not given in their proper order. Read the sentence/passage and find out which of the four combinations is correct.

1. Prices of food products are going up.
P. Seven straight weeks of rising prices have burnt holes in common man's pockets.
Q. But it ruled out any "blind control" to rein in the increasing rates.
R. Wholesale price-based inflation has already touched over a three-year high.
S. The government has admitted that containing inflation would be a more difficult task.
6. This may hurt economic growth and reforms.

Expedite is the opposite of

Read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in any underlined part and indicate your response in the Answer Sheet against the corresponding letter i.e., (a) or (b) or (c). If you find no error, your response should be indicated as (d).

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

Priya advised me not to go to school the next day.

In the following question, a sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect speech. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct speech.
He said, "I saw a snake here."

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

To make a long story short

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

The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean. It stretches southward across the largest and northernmost state in the United States, ending at a remote ice-free seaport village nearly 800 miles from where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely complicated to operate. The steel pipe crosses windswept plains and endless miles of delicate tundra that tops the frozen ground. It weaves through crooked canyons, climbs sheer mountains, plunges over rocky crags, makes its way through thick forests, and passes over or under hundreds of rivers and streams. The pipe is 4 feet in diameter, and up to 2 million barrels (or 84 million gallons) of crude oil can be pumped through it daily. Resting on H-shaped steel racks called "bents", long sections of the pipeline follow a zigzag course high above the frozen earth. Other long sections drop out of sight beneath spongy or rocky ground and return to the surface later on. The pattern of the pipeline's up-and-down route is determined by the often harsh demands of the arctic and subarctic climate, the tortuous lay of the land, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, or permafrost (permanently frozen ground). A little more than half of the pipeline is elevated above the ground. The remainder is buried anywhere from 3 to 12 feet, depending largely upon the type of terrain and the properties of the soil. One of the largest in the world, the pipeline cost approximately $8 billion and is by far the biggest and most expensive construction project ever undertaken by private industry. In fact, no single business could raise that much money, so 8 major oil companies formed a consortium in order to share the costs. Each company controlled oil rights to particular shares of land in the oil fields and paid into the pipeline-construction fund according to the size of its holdings. Today, despite enormous problems of climate, supply shortage, equipment breakdowns, labour disagreements, treacherous terrain, a certain amount of mismanagement, and even theft, the Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating.

Which of the following were not problems faced while constructing the pipeline?