PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)
Total Questions: 25 Total Marks: 25
Directions (Q1-5): In each of the following
questions a short passage is given with one of
the lines in the passage missing and represented
by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer
choices given, to make the passage complete and
coherent (coherent means logically complete and
sound).
1. ---------------------Business is instead moving to
digital-native insurers, many of which are offering
low premiums to those willing to collect and share
their data. Yet the biggest winners could be tech
companies rather than the firms that now
dominate the industry. Insurance is increasingly
reliant on the use of technology to change
behaviour; firms act as helicopter parents to
policyholders, warning of impending harm—slow
down; reduce your sugar intake; call the plumber
—the better to reduce unnecessary pay outs. Yet
this sort of relationship relies on trust, and the
Googles and Apples of the world, on which
consumers rely day-by-day and hour-by-hour, may
be best placed to win this business.
(a) The growing mountain of personal data
available to individuals and, crucially, to firms is
giving those with the necessary processing power
the ability to distinguish between low-risk and
high-risk individuals.
(b) Cheap sensors and the tsunami of data they
generate can improve our lives; black boxes in
cars can tell us how to drive more carefully and
wearable devices will nudge us toward healthier
lifestyles.
(c) The better behaviour resulting from smart
devices is just one threat to the insurance
industry. Conventional risk pools (for home or car
insurance, for example) are shrinking as
preventable accidents decline, leaving the slow-
footed giants of the industry at risk.
(d) The uncertainty that underpins the need for
insurance is now shrinking thanks to better
insights into individual risks.
(e) The data has enabled insurance companies to
gauge the situation and plan accordingly.
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Time: 30min.
2. By calling for exempting unionized businesses
from the minimum wage, unions are creating
more incentives for employers to favour unionized
workers over the non-unionized sort. Such
exemptions strengthen their power.
---------------------------------------------------Once
employers are obliged to pay the same minimum
wage to both unionized and non-unionized labour,
workers often see less reason to pay the dues to
join a union.
(a) High rates of unionization make minimum-
wage rules unnecessary as collaborative wage
setting achieves the flexibility goals of a low
minimum wage and the fairness goals of a high
one.
(b) Workers who have no real alternative to
employment in the unregulated shadows of the
labour market are even more vulnerable to
exploitation and abuse than workers with the
legal right to take low wages.
(c) The labour ethos of worker solidarity seems
hollow if non-union workers are underpriced by
union workers and left unemployed or scrambling
for unauthorized work.
(d) This is useful because for all the effort unions
throw at raising the minimum wage, laws for
better pay have an awkward habit of undermining
union clout.
(e) Unions have been demanding democratic
values in the work culture but on the contrary
they have been practicing dictatorial ways.
3. The premise that the choice of major amounts
to choosing a career path rests on the faulty
notion that the major is important for its content,
and that the acquisition of that content is valuable
to employers. But information is fairly easy to
acquire and what is acquired in 2015 will be
obsolete by 2020. What employers want are basic
but difficult-to-acquire skills.----------------They care
about a potential employee’s abilities: writing,
researching, quantitative, and analytical skills. A
vocational approach to education eviscerates
precisely the qualities that are most valuable
about it: intellectual curiosity, creativity and
critical thinking.
1
 PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)
(a) As students flock to the two or three majors
they see as good investments, professors who
teach in those majors are overburdened, and the
majors-themselves become more formulaic and
less individualized.
(b) Often it is the art historians and anthropology
majors, for example, who, having marshalled the
abilities of perspective, breadth, creativity, and
analysis, have moved a company or project or
vision forward.
(c) Furthermore, the link between education and
earnings is notoriously fraught, with cause and
effect often difficult to disentangle.
(d) Ideas such as education is necessary to be
successful in corporate life are unacceptable
because education isn't that much relevant into
day's society.
(e) When they ask students about their majors, it
is usually not because they want to assess the
applicants’ mastery of the content, but rather
because they want to know if the students can
talk about what they learned.
4. What happens to our brains as we age is of
crucial importance not just to science but to
public policy.____________________ However,
this demographic time-bomb would be much less
threatening if the elderly were looked upon as
intelligent contributors to society rather than as
dependants in long-term decline. It is time we
rethink what we mean by the ageing mind before
our false assumptions result in decisions and
policies that marginalize the old or waste precious
public resources to re-mediate problems that do
not exist.
(a) The idea that we get dumber as we grow
older is just a myth, according to brain research
that will encourage anyone old enough to know
better.
(b) By 2030, for example, 72 million people in the
US will be over 65, double the figure in 2000 and
their average life expectancy will likely have edged
above 20 years
(c) Many of the assumptions scientists currently
make about ‘cognitive decline’ are seriously
flawed and, for the most part, formally invalid.
(d) Using computer models to simulate young and
old brains, Ramscar and his colleagues found they
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could account for the decline in test scores simply
by factoring in experience
(e) The reason it becomes harder to recall an
acquaintance’s name as you grow older is that
there are so many more of them.
5. The expenditure of time, money and sparse
judicial and prosecutorial resources is often
justified by claims of a powerful deterrent
message embodied in the ultimate punishment-
the death penalty. ________________In 2010, the
average time between sentencing and execution
in the United States averaged nearly 15 years. A
much more effective deterrent would be a
sentence of life imprisonment imposed close in
time to the crime.
(a) A single federal death penalty case in
Philadelphia was found to cost upwards of $10
million —eight times higher than the cost of trying
a death eligible case where prosecutors seek only
life imprisonment.
(b) The ethics of the issue aside, it is questionable
whether seeking the death penalty is ever worth
the time and resources that it takes to sentence
someone to death.
(c) Apart from delaying justice, the death penalty
diverts resources that could be used to help the
victims’ families heal.
(d) But studies repeatedly suggest that there is no
meaningful deterrent effect associated with the
death penalty and further, any deterrent impact is
no doubt greatly diluted by the amount of time
that inevitably passes between the time of the
conduct and the punishment.
(e) While some victims and their families
supported and some opposed the decision, any
expectation that Tsarnaev will be put to death
might be misplaced.
Directions (6-10): In each of the following
questions a short passage is given with one of
the lines in the passage missing and represented
by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer
choices given, to make the passage complete and
coherent.
6. North India lies in the Indo-Gangetic plain.
Towards the North is the Himalayas, which
separates the country from Central Asia. The
Vindhya ranges separate the North from the
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 PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)
South. South India is situated in the Peninsular
Deccan Plateau. This region has the Arabian Sea in
the west, Bay of Bengal in the east and Indian
Ocean in the south. When talking about the racial
differences, the North Indians are termed as
Aryans, and the South Indians as Dravidians. In
physique as well, there are many differences
between the people of the South and North. The
North Indians are taller, and more strongly built
than the South Indians. The South Indians are a bit
darker than the North Indians..............Salwar
Kamiz is the widely used dress by North Indian
women. On the other hand, women in the South
wear saris. While men in the North wear Salwar,
the men in South prefer dhotis. Another
difference that can be seen between North and
South India is their food. When compared to the
North Indian food, the South Indian food is spicier.
The South Indians use more tamarind and coconut
when compared to North Indians. The North
Indians use more milk products when compared
to the people of South India. When talking about
the culture, there is vast difference between
North and South India. One can come across
differences in their music (Northern Hindustani
and Southern Carnatic), dance forms and folks.
(a) A big difference is in their style of living
(b) A big difference is in their fashion statements
(c) A big difference can be seen in their dressing
styles
(d) A big difference arises in their taste for clothes
based on their earnings
(e) A big difference can be seen in their climate
that demands different dressing styles
7. An open economy is an economy in which
there are economic activities between domestic
community and outside, e.g. people, including
businesses, can trade in goods and services with
other people and businesses in the international
community, and flow of funds as investment
across the border. Trade can be in the form of
managerial exchange, technology transfers, all
kinds of goods and services. Although, there are
certain exceptions that cannot be exchanged, like,
railway services of a country cannot be traded
with another. To avail this service, a country has
to produce its own. This contrasts with a closed
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economy in which international trade and finance
cannot take place. The act of selling goods or
services to a foreign country is called exporting.
The act of buying goods or services from a foreign
country is called importing............. There are a
number of advantages for citizens of a country
with an open economy. One primary advantage is
that the citizen consumers have a much larger
variety of goods and services from which to
choose. Additionally, consumers have an
opportunity to invest their savings outside of the
country. In an open economy, a country’s
spending in any given year need not to equal its
output of goods and services. A country can spend
more money than it produces by borrowing from
abroad, or it can spend less than it produces and
lend the difference to foreigners. There is no
closed economy in today’s world.
(a) Together exporting and importing are
collectively called trade
(b) Exporting and Importing are exclusive classes
of trade
(c) Both are independent of each other and do
not constitute the term ‘trade’.
(d) Together they make GDP of a country
(e) Together they are indicators of influence of a
country on world map
8. A no budget film is a produced film made with
very little, or no money. Young directors starting
out in film making commonly use this method
because there are few other options available to
them at that point. All the actors and technicians
are employed without remuneration, and the
films are largely non-profit.,..............or uses a very
minimum “crew” of volunteers to assist him/her
on such projects where no money or financing is
available, not including the cost of film. No-budget
films are made everyday with video
tapes and consumer cameras.
(a) Usually the director works alone on such films
(b) These films are huge employers in
entertainment industry
(c) A team of experts two or three in number
starts without any significant infrastructure
(d) Director is the camera-man, light-man, script
writer, screen player and sometimes even act
himself in the film
3
 PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)
(e) It is difficult task to find suitable people with
desired skills, hence director works alone on such
films
9. In finance, the term ‘yield’ describes the
amount in cash that returns to the owners of a
security. Normally it does not include the price
variations, at the difference of the total return.
Yield applies to various stated rates of return on
stocks (common and preferred, and convertible),
fixed income instruments (bonds, notes, bills,
strips, zero coupon), and some other investment
type insurance products (e.g. annuities).........It can
be calculated as a
ratio or as an internal rate of return (IRR). It may
be used to state the owner’s total return, or just a
portion of income, or exceed the income. It may
be used for production output in other industries,
Because of these differences, the yields from
different uses should never be compared as if they
were equal.
(a) The term is a misnomer
(b) The term is understood differently by different
people
(c) The term has no definite meaning
(d) The term is used in different situations to
mean different things
(e) The term slightly differs in meaning from the
text book definitions
10. Market trends are fluctuated on the
demographics and technology. In a macro
economical view, the current state of consumer
trust in spending will vary the circulation of
currency. In a micro economical view,
demographics within a market will change the
advancement of businesses and companies. With
the introduction of the internet, consumers have
access to different vendors as well as substitute
products and services changing the direction of
which a market will go. Despite that, it is believed
that market trends follow one direction over a
matter of time, there are many different factors
that can change this idea.
Technology s-curves as is explained in the book
The Innovator’s Dilemma. It states that technology
will start slow then increase in users once better
understood, eventually levelling off once another
technology replaces it......................
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(a) This proves that change in the market is
actually consistent
(b) Change is inevitable
(c) Fluctuations with these changes do not last
long
(d) Be prepared for the change
(e) Changing changes the fortunes
Directions (11-15): In each of the following
questions a short passage is given with one of
the lines in the passage missing and represented
by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer
choices given, to make the passage complete and
coherent.
11. After the East Asia crisis, the World Bank
conducted a study on the underlying reasons for
the crisis. It was found that at least a major part of
the fundamental responsibility was on banks,
which had understated their non performing
accounts by as much as 47%. Since this was a
study and not an investigation.................
Nevertheless, the Basel committee on supervision
did take cognizance, and issued circulars and
directives not only on supervision, but also on
Internal Functional Management. It will be
remembered by those interested that Basel
committee had also acted expeditiously after the
Barring Bank's failure, to separate treasury and
lending operations from the decision making
processes. Bank failures are nothing new in the
world, although we in India have been insulated g
from such traumas for more than two decades.
(a) The findings were not taken note of
(b) The findings were not taken seriously
(c) The findings were not legally binding on any
one
(d) The fallout from this revelation was only taken
note of
(e) The fallout from this revelation was seriously
taken
12. Whether the Government is right in bailing
out a private sector bank is an issue that is
decided more than by the long term social
security policy of the Government, than by
economic reasons alone....................Nevertheless,
in a situation of scarcity of resources, bailing out
somebody means the denial of resources to
others. The irony of it is that in performing its
4
 PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)
duties of proper governance to the larger society
through the process of bailing out, Government
excuses the lack of corporate governance in
banks.
(a) Economists world over learnt it hard way
during the Great depression
(b) This is elementary principle of economics
taught in schools
(c) Reasons are not limited to these two but
extend to debts, liquidity & credit ratings issues
(d) It was unexpected and came like a bolt from
the blue
(e) Particularly true for the Asian countries like
India and China
13. But no depreciation is allowed on Live Stock
i.e. Horses. Although the horses are in the nature
of fixed assets in the hands of the owner, no
depreciation is allowed under Income Tax Act.
Instead when the animal dies or becomes
permanently useless the entire value of the horse
can be written off as revenue loss in the year in
which it dies or becomes permanently useless.
When the gross income exceeds the total
expenditure, it results in net profit which will be
taxable at usual rates of tax applicable to the
person. ....................... Although the live stock is in
the nature of fixed assets of the owners buy them,
maintain them, train them, and participate in
races and Sell them or send them away to studs
when they are useless.
(a) But when the gross income is less than the
expenditure, then results in loss
(b) But when the gross income is higher than the
expenditure, then results in loss
(c) But when the gross income is equal to
expenditure then result is loss
(d) But when the gross income is there loss is the
result
(e) But when the gross income is increasing then
result is becoming evident
14. Aggregation of risks is somewhat quite new to
banks in India. While some banks have started
thinking in that line by trying to put integrated
limits framework and integrated risk policies as
well as using CBS solutions for technological
integration, the effort required is beyond such
requirement. Risk aggregation would mean
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aggregating the individual risk measures to decide
most appropriate assets class that would contain
the risk to the desired level dictated by the risk
appetite. Capital allocation (about how much)
would be based on such strategies...........
(a) Most banks are yet to conceptualize the same
in their processes
(b) Most banks have already integrated it in their
functioning; it is working over the years
satisfactorily.
(c) Which would in long run prove to be the
growth impeding
(d) Of risk aggregation which is really a new
concept to Indian banks
(e) On expected lines of the regulation conditions
laid down in the manual of the bank
15. However, it is possible that the non -resident
entity may have a business connection with the
resident Indian entity. In such a case, the resident
Indian entity could be treated as Permanent
Establishment of the nonresident
entity. ...............During the last decade or so, India
has seen a steady growth of outsourcing of
business processes by non-residents or foreign
companies to IT -enabled entities in India. Such
entities are either branches or associated
enterprises of the foreign enterprise or an
independent India enterprise. The non- resident
entity or foreign company will be liable to tax in
India only if the IT -enabled BPO unit in India
constitutes its Permanent Establishment.
(a) The tax treatment of the Permanent
Establishment in such a case is under
consideration
(b) How would the profit would be shared is not
decided yet?
(c) A lengthy and cumber some process requiring
a lot of application of mind and revenue principles
is ahead for the tax department of India
(d) A new trend is seen in last decade.
(e) Indian companies have a lot on stake as
competition increases
Directions (16-25): Each of the following
questions has a paragraph from which the last
sentence has been deleted From the given
options, choose the one that completes the
paragraph in the most appropriate way
5
 PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)
16. For everyone who expected Budget 2010 to
lay out the roadmap for goods and services tax
(GST) rollout, there was much disappointment Not
only did the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
sound cautiously optimistic about April 2011
rollout, there was very little in the form of explicit
steps in that direction other than alignment of
rates for goods and services as well as expansion
of the ambit of service tax.
(a) It can be argued that the government has
added a few more services to the list like the
previous years.
(b) A comprehensive list of services is critical for
the implementation of GST.
(c) It can be argued that when GST is at the
threshold, government should not have tinkered
with the rates.
(d) But everything is not as simple as it appears.
(e) So where does the plan to migrate to GST
stand
17. It remains to be seen whether the economy-
wide innovative trend would be sufficient to shore
up growth in the secular period. For, as
researchers like Solow have shown since the
1950s, the bulk of growth over the long term is
not so much due to increase in factor inputs like
capital and labour as technological change,
efficiency improvements and productivity gains.
And given our weak science, technology and
innovation indicators, to assume world-leading
growth for decades would verily belie the
empirical evidence of umpteen studies –
(a) that growth is essentially about technological
progress.
(b) that the Solow thesis is not the heart of
modern growth theory.
(c) that economic growth in India would surpass
those of the other major economies soon.
(d) that technology is not really an exogenous,
standalone factor.
(e) that figures can be rather deceptive.
18. The Economic Survey went to the extent of
expunging details of distribution losses of power
utilities, preferring to drop an entire table of
figures on rates of return, commercial losses and
other attendant annual projections. The Economic
Advisory Council is concerned about
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unacceptably-large revenue leakages in
distributing power-and rightly so. But without up-
to-date data and comprehensive figures about
happenings and goings-on in the vexed power
sector, the policy process would surely be left
plodding along in the dark.
(a) The survey clearly needs to have wide-ranging
data on distribution.
(b) When it comes to power distribution, large
unaccounted-for losses continue pan-India.
(c) The fact is that there’s a huge gap when it
comes to electricity generation and supply.
(d) Yet, we seem more focused on ritualizing
reforms and opening up.
(e) Yet, aggregate technical and commercial
losses amount to almost 35%.
19. Finding ways to improve humanity’s living
standards is the point of economics. Having a
good measure of living standards, you may think,
is there fore pretty fundamental to the discipline.
For decades, economists have turned to gross
domestic product (GDP) when they want an
estimate of how well off people are. By how much
are Americans better off than Indians, or than
their parents’ generation? Chances are the answer
will start with GDP. GDP is really a measure of an
economy’s output, valued at market prices. As
societies produce more, and there fore earn more,
their
material well-being rises.
(a) That said, economists and statisticians have
been debating for years whether GDP measures
true well-being.
(b) But GDP was not intended to be a
comprehensive measure of society’s well-being.
(c) But GDP is not a true measure of improving
living standards as GDP is an aggregate measure.
(d) But GDP isn’t the only measure.
(e) So when economists want to measure the
living standards of whole societies, GDP is where
they usually start.
20. The American novelist John Gardner famously
defined the crafting of fiction as the creation of a
vivid and continuous dream-first in the mind of
the writer and then, if the novelist does his or her
job properly, in the mind of the reader. The British
novelist Rupert Thomson too talks about the roots
6
 PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)
of his inspiration in a similar way: whenever I start
a new book I have nightmares. Night after night.
For a long time I didn’t understand why. Recently I
came up with a theory. To write fiction of any
power and authenticity you have to draw on the
deepest, most secret parts of yourself.
(a) You might say that I want my fiction to have
that relationship to reality.
(b) The paradox at the heart of Thomson’s work is
that it remains as strange as a dream.
(c) That’s where fiction comes from, but it’s also
where dreams are made.
(d) I seem to be attracted to ideas that allow me
to do this.
(e) Thomson works hard to help the reader
imagine himself deeply into the story.
21. Marriage, in America at least, is an institution
in decline. There is a significant drop in the
number of married couples between the ages of
30 and 44: 60% in 2007, down from 84% in 1970.
This erosion in legally bound partners has been
steady: 77% of this demographic was married in
1980, down to 65% in 2000. During this same
period another dramatic change was taking place:
the expansion of economic and educational
opportunities for women. You might be tempted
to conclude that the new economic caste of well-
employed, highly educated women is responsible
for marriage’s decline; it’s not.
(a) They want to experience something of youth,
work and life before committing to a life-long
contractual bond.
(b) For many women in the West, the matter of
marriage is deeply vexed.
(c) Given the decline in the popularity of
marriage, the institution itself must be becoming
less significant.
(d) Examining the necessity of marriage, for
oneself and for women in general, is actually not
self-indulgent or frivolous.
(e) Perhaps, there is never going to be any tidy
ultimate conclusion here.
22. People who pursue happiness through
material possessions are liked less by their peers
than people who pursue happiness through life
experiences. The mistake we can sometimes make
is believing that pursuing material possessions will
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gain us status and admiration while also
improving our social relationships. In fact, it seems
to have exactly the opposite effect.
(a) This is really problematic because we know
that having quality social relationships is one of
the best predictors of happiness, health, and well-
being.
(b) Not only will investing in material possessions
make us less happy than investing in life
experiences, but that it often makes us less
popular among our peers as well.
(c) Material possessions don’t provide as much
enduring happiness as the pursuit of life
experiences.
(d) So there’s a real social cost to being
associated with material possessions rather than
life experiences.
(e) None of these
23. Three centuries have passed since the
polymath Sir Christopher Wren predicted that “a
time will come when men will stretch out their
eyes-they should see planets like our Earth. ”By
most astronomers’ accounts, that time is just
about nigh. Indeed, detecting big planets orbiting
other stars is no longer tricky nearly 450 such
exoplanets have been catalogued. Smaller, rocky
planets orbiting at a comfortable distance from
their stars-as the Earth does-remain more elusive.
Most exoplanets have been discovered by
inferring their presence from the rhythmic wobble
their gravity imparts on their home star-like a
waltz between two dancers of markedly different
weights. The problem is that this method favours
the discovery of large planets close to their stars.
(a) As a result, the catalogue of planets is filled
with huge bodies basking brightly in the light of
their sun.
(b) As a result, mankind’s ability to look for extra-
terrestrial life remains defeated.
(c) As result, planets a little farther away from
their stars cannot support life.
(d) As a result, astronomers have solved the
problem of looking at objects near to a star’s
bright glare.
(e) None of these
24. The basic principle in magic is that if you
believe in the magic you do, the audience will too.
7
 PARA COMPLETITION - TEST (3)

Secondly, magic does not happen on stage, but in
the minds of the audience.
(a) Magic is like a tree that you water and
nurture.
(b) There is psychology to magic.
(c) A successful magician just triggers off the
magic.
(d) A little alteration to a card, a coin, or napkin
can create magic.
(e) None of these
25. Iceland has a lot of volcanoes, and it’s a rare
decade when one of them doesn’t erupt. So why
is the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull causing such
chaos, and what does that mean for the future?
The answer to the first question is that the
Eyjafjallajokull eruption is peculiarly well attuned
to messing with international air travel; most
eruptions of a similar size would do a lot less long-
distance harm.
(a) The answer to the second is that very little is
known about the effects of erupting volcanoes on
air travel.
(b) The answer to the second is that many of
Europe’s busiest airports will remain out of action
for some time.
(c) The answer to the second is that the future of
air travel at least in Europe is bleak.
(d) The answer to the second is that less well
attuned but considerably larger eruptions are all
but certain in decades to come.
(e) None of these

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