VARC MOCK 5

17.
Four alternative summaries are given below each text. Choose the option that
best captures the essence of the text and indicate the number corresponding
with it in the box provided below each question.

No discussion of South Korea’s dramatic transition from a poor

underdeveloped country to a developed country member of the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) club of rich
nations can ignore the role of the “chaebols”, its “clans of wealth”. Consisting
of a large number of legally independent firms controlled by a single family-
dominated decision-making centre (very much like India’s business groups),
these Korean conglomerates grew rapidly during the regime of General Park
Chung-hee (1961-1979), and today, the top 10 of them together earn
revenues equivalent to around 80 per cent of the country’s GDP (gross
domestic product).
1 The chaebols played a major role in transforming South Korea from a
poor underdeveloped country to a developed country member of the
OECD, and today the top 10 of them together earn revenues equivalent
to 80% of the country’s GDP.
2 Chaebols, the Korean conglomerates that grew rapidly during the
regime of General Park Chung-hee, have played a major role in
transforming South Korea from a poor underdeveloped country to a
developed country member of OECD.
3 Thanks to the chaebols, South Korea’s clans of wealth, the country has
been transformed into a developed nation that is now a member of the
OECD.
4 Chaebols, the Korean conglomerates that grew rapidly during the
regime of General Park Chung-hee, have played a major role in
transforming South Korea from a poor underdeveloped country to a
developed country member of the OECD, and today, the top 10 of them
together earn revenues equivalent to 80% of the country’s GDP.

18.
Four alternative summaries are given below each text. Choose the option that
best captures the essence of the text and indicate the number corresponding
with it in the box provided below each question.

With the advent of digital technology, cloud computing and social networks,
and even the everyday, mundane aspects of our lives have changed
dramatically. Also, almost every business process has been deeply impacted
by it. Various functions carried out across the organisation by employees right
from the CEO to the junior-most executive, have undergone a sea change.
For communication, social media, video, online notice boards, chats and
webinars are used extensively. All functions in the company, including human
resources, finance, sales, manufacturing, supply chain, and after-sales
services, are performed with almost complete reliance on IT tools.
1 Apart from deeply influencing our daily lives, digital technology is today
widely used in business organisations for all functions including human
resources, finance, sales, manufacturing, supply chain, etc.
2 Apart from the wide utility in our daily lives, digital technology is used in
organisations for communication, social media, video, online notice
boards, chats, webinars, etc.
3 Digital technology, apart from revolutionising cloud computing, social
networks and even the everyday mundane aspects of our lives, has
deeply impacted almost every business process too.
4 With the advent of smartphones and advancements in the field of digital
technology, it has become essential for organisational employees to be
savvy in using IT tools.
19.
The following questions have a paragraph from which the last sentence has
been omitted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the
paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Data is the lifeblood of today’s digital economy, and is driving new businesses
that challenge conventional wisdom about markets. With the proliferation of
smartphones, every tap creates a digital footprint: valuable information that
can be exploited by companies to generate everything from customer
preferences to consumption patterns. Critically, the traditional notion of data
being merely sensitive personal information is now being challenged as
companies are also exploiting real-time data generated from daily activities.
Even the government’s drive to digitise India on the back of initiatives such as
JAM (Jan-Dhan-Aadhaar Mobile) and the increased focus on digital payments
is fuelled by data. As dependence on data continues to grow, so does the
vulnerability of data subjects.

a) With technology constantly evolving, an approach based on standards

would enable the law to keep pace with rapid changes in technology, as
against objective rules that would fail to be relevant with constant
technological developments.    
b) Hence, any debate on data privacy must recognise the need for a
comprehensive data privacy law, which not only contributes to and
complements the constitutional right to privacy but also enables data subjects
to harness the benevolence of technological advances.    
c) While ‘consent’ is the cornerstone of any data privacy regime, the
adequacy of such consent from the data subjects is sometimes debatable.    
d) Behavioural research also points to the inability of data subjects to manage
their own data, which is attributed to a combination of lack of understanding
and general disinclination.    

20. The following questions have a paragraph from which the last sentence
has been omitted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the
paragraph in the most appropriate way.

A recent judgement in a vaccine compensation case in Europe has set alarm

bells ringing globally. The case involved a French national known as “J.W.” in
court documents, who had developed multiple sclerosis (MS) a year after he
had been vaccinated against hepatitis B in 1998. According to the court
documents, in August 1999, J.W. developed symptoms of MS, an
autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks its own
tissues. In 2006, he sued pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, which had
made the vaccine, claiming that it had caused the illness. He died in 2011.
Given a lack of scientific consensus over the safety profile of the vaccine, the
European Union (EU) court has allowed circumstantial evidence to determine
the cause.

a) Although vaccines are among the most effective public health interventions
that save an estimated 2.5 million lives each year, they can have side effects,
including serious ones, in a small proportion of people.    
b) Public health interventions must be guided by scientific panels, weighing
the pros and cons for the larger public good.    
c) The judgement has got the global public health community worried as it
may set a precedent for similar cases.    
d) The need of the hour is to ensure effective surveillance, compensation for
those affected, and to promote public confidence in vaccines, without which
we would be forgoing the most remarkable health advances so far.    

21.
Each of the following questions presents 5 statements of which 4, when
placed in appropriate order would form a contextually complete paragraph.
Pick a statement that is not part of that context and mark the number
corresponding with in the box provided below each question.

1 While tax administration has seen some paradigm shifts both in the
domain of direct and indirect taxes, the taxpayer still seems to be
wanting for greater certainty and fairness in the levy, assessment and
collection of taxes.
2 These words of British economist John Maynard Keynes best sum up
the wave of reforms in the domain of tax administration in India in the
last few years.
3 India has seen key tax disputes ever since a similar growth-oriented
road map was adopted by the government in the early 1990s.
4 “It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.”
5 This is where an internationally recognized concept such as taxpayer
rights holds well even in the Indian context.

22.
The sentences given in each of the following questions, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is indicated with a
number. Rearrange the sentences in a proper sequence to form a logically
coherent paragraph and indicate the sequence in the box provided below
each question.
 1 Cardinal Alfonso Petrucci was strangled in his cell in the Castel
Sant’Angelo, Rome on 4 July 1517.
2 Right from the start, observers asked whether there was really a plot, or
whether Petrucci and his colleagues were framed by Leo in his pursuit
of power, wealth and the interests of his family, the Medici.
3 The ‘abominable case’ of the Cardinals’ Conspiracy is one of the great
Renaissance mysteries.
4 He had been a prisoner in the papal fortress for six weeks, one of five
cardinals accused of plotting to poison Pope Leo X.
5 Petrucci's execution was judicially sanctioned, but in the most dubious
of circumstances.

23. The sentences given in each of the following questions, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is indicated with
a number. Rearrange the sentences in a proper sequence to form a
logically coherent paragraph and indicate the sequence in the box
provided below each question.

1 While the underlying motive for this action, as cited by the ministry, of
“breaking the network of shell companies” in the government’s fight
against black money is laudable, there is a real danger of inadvertently
tainting genuine firms and individuals.
2 This was in evidence when the Securities Appellate Tribunal recently
gave relief to some entities over trading curbs hastily imposed on them
by SEBI.
3 However, the Union government’s move to publicise the identities of
some of these individuals with a view to ‘naming and shaming’ them is
fraught with risk; the devil, as always, is in the detail.
4 The decision by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to crack down on so-
called ‘shell companies’, disqualify select directors in these entities and
debar them from taking board positions for a specified period of time
cannot be faulted.
5 This would begin the clean-up of the Augean stables of firms set up in
many cases with less than bona fide intent and having virtually no
business operations.