SBI PO Mains Quiz
- `Level of Quiz – 1 to 5 – very hard
- Level of Quiz 6 to 10 – hard
- Time limit: None
Directions for Questions 1 to 5: In each of these questions, a paragraph is given that has a blank in it. Five options for the blank have been suggested. Out of these, only one fits the blank in the context of the paragraph. Pick that as the answer
- Questions have been raised about the possibility of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)-tampering either by the introduction of malicious code (trojans) in the chip, or manipulating the communication between the ballot and the control units through remote signals or equipment. (____________________).The steps include time-stamping of key presses, dynamic coding in second-generation machines besides tamper-proofing and self-diagnostics in the third-generation machines that are now being deployed.
A.The Election Commission has evolved improvements over time to address these concerns, and has strengthened technical and administrative safeguards.
B.The Election Commission is planning to remove these defects by inviting the best pool of engineers around the world by tying up with foreign universities.
C.The Election Commission has approached the govt. to increase the budget for buying new EVMs
D.Election Commission admits its failure in keeping the elections clean and is ready to take steps for improvement.
E.To correct its previous failings, Election Commission has formed a committee to make the machine foolproof.Answer – A
Explanation :
Line before the blank tells about how EVM can be tampered with – trojan, chip etc. Its difficult to get the meaning of line after the blank; the only word that helps istamper-proofing. The line tells about the steps taken to make the EVM tamper-proof (just like bullet-proof). D and E go out of the scope of paragraph – EC is just trying to improve the machines (as there is ‘POSSIBILITY’ of tampering- check line 1st), there has not been any discussion of failure in the past. So, accepting or admitting failure is wrong. C may fit the blank, but then the use of ‘The steps include’, does not follow. B could also fit the blank, but ‘the steps’ have not been defined for recruiting the best pool of engineers. Only A follows. EC is trying to address these concerns (trojans, chip etc) and strengthened technical safeguard, which have been defined step by step in the next line. Hence A. - (____________________). Sound economic policies and fiscal consolidation measures like GST, have ensured that the economic scenario is poised for steady growth. The landmark demonetization drive and other anti-corruption measures like Income Declaration Scheme, setting up of an SIT, etc. are radical steps towards eradicating corruption and black money. Various measures to make India a manufacturing hub under ‘Make in India’ programme were initiated with the aim to leverage India’s massive demographic dividend and generate employment opportunities for the youth.
A.Riding on Modi wave, different departments have started functioning in the right direction.
B.Increase in the GDP provides increased budget for different departments, which ultimately helps a nation to grow.
C.Govt. has been successful in keeping its citizens happy with a number of reforms.
D.Thanks to the then Finance Minister, Dr. Manhoman Singh, the LPG reforms of 1991have started taking shape now.
E.Government’s thrust on all round development has brought every area of development into limelight.Answer – E
Explanation :
Since the blank is the first line of the paragraph, it must set tone for what follows in the paragraph. After reading, we get to know that there is discussion of GST, Demonetization, Make in India, Employment for youth etc. The passage talks only about good things. A and B use the word ‘departments’, whereas the focus of the paragraph is on different steps taken by the govt. to against black money, corruption etc. Also, none of the departments have been discussed, A & B thus can be eliminated. C – it can be the answer, although a weak one. The tone of the passage suggests that govt. is working hard for the development of nation, whereas C talks of ‘keeping citizens happy’. If we don’t get a better answer, we will go for C
D goes out of the scope of the paragraph, it is too far fetched. E suits all our requirements. The use of ‘all round development’ and ‘every area of development’ concur with the mentioning of GST, Manufacturing, Demonetization etc. E sets the perfect tone on which paragraph could be built. Hence E. - The EC’s challenge to political parties to participate in a hackathon on June 3, to test out manipulation of EVMs with the various safeguards in place, is welcome. The scepticism of some political parties apart, there is definitely a case for constantly improving EVM design and security features in order to completely rule out any sophisticated tampering attempt, howsoever difficult it is to carry it off considering the strict administrative safeguards in place.The decision of the EC, in this regard, is not only applaudable but also strengthens the ever-clean image of EC. (____________________).
A.Thus, the EC’s attempt at proving its image as being transparent will only invite the apprehensions that it might have faltered previously in conducting the elections.
B.Other govt. organisations could follow the suit in promoting themselves as dedicated to the growth of the nation.
C.The more transparent the EC is about demonstrating the robustness of its safeguards, the greater will be the public’s trust in the electoral process.
D.EC could hold these types of exercises on regular basis to win the voter’s confidence, which is beneficial for the country as well as for the humanity as a whole .
E.However, such open challenges or projections of clean image always try to hide some soring fact from the past; EC thus might end up ruining its clean image.Answer – C
Explanation :
Read the line before the blank carefully. The decision of EC – to invite people to find mistake with EVM – is applaudable. A goes totally against the line, hence eliminated. B deviates from the topic – use of words like ‘growth of nation’ goes out of scope of the paragraph, it is just focused on EVMs. C builds upon the line before the blank, and may be our answer.
D sounds okay but why would EC want to win ‘voter’s confidence’? Also, it is beneficial for ‘humanity’ as a whole does not bring out any meaning. EC + humanity = confusing.
‘However’ connects opposite or contrasting sentences. Preceding sentence talks of EC’s decision being applaudable, E must talk of EC in a negative way due to use of ‘however’. E may or may not fit, but the use of ‘always’ make it a very generalized statement. Hence we will cross this out and mark the answer as C.
Always take care of the options which go into extreme and use words like – must, always, never, only etc. - (____________________). They have always emphasized the importance of welfare measures to be taken by the government of the day for the development of the nation. India’s growth story during the recent years has been one of tremendous achievements in various sectors be it fiscal consolidation, financial inclusion, infrastructure, agriculture, et al.
A.In the olden days, concept of a nation was unknown and mythological texts are filled up with irrational arguments.
B.All the ancient Indian scriptures have pointed out that the growth of a nation does not depend on the governing authority but the people of the nation.
C.Since long, ancient Indian texts have been a source of valuable information in providing strategies for winning the trust of people.
D.Norms for good governance have been laid in various traditional Indian texts.
E.A nation cannot grow until the governing body is unable to keep its citizens happy.Answer – D
Explanation :
One big hint is ‘they’, there must be a plural noun in the blank. E can be crossed out hence, ‘they’ cannot be used of ‘citizens’.
A negates the statement made after blank; it uses word ‘irrational arguments’. If the texts have irrational arguments, why would they emphasize the importance of welfare measures. The two sentences do not gel with each other.
B talks of growth being dependent on people, and then next line talks of steps taken by govt. for the the growth of nation. Both sentences provide different information, even if not opposite, hence B crossed out too.
C talks of winning trust of people, whereas paragraph is focused on developing the nation. Similarly E talks about keeping citizens happy, while the theme of the paragraph is very different. Always remember that first line sets the tone of the paragraph. Rest of the paragraph must build upon it.
D is the perfect fit. ‘Norms of good governance’ have been further defined, like welfare measures. - Questions have been raised about the possibility of EVM-tampering either by manipulating the communication between the ballot and the control units through remote signals or equipment. In this regard, the Election Commission (EC) has pledged the universal deployment of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) beginning 2019. (____________________). Nevertheless, some political parties have been adamant at their demand of restoring the old Ballot-paper as they claim to have lost trust in the any kind of technology being used in electoral process.
A.Not many in the country agree with this decision of EC as the VVPATs are not completely foolproof.
B.VVPATs will add another layer of accountability, allowing voters to verify the choice registered on the ballot unit in real time, and the machine-read vote tallies post-election.
C.They are currently being used in many countries and various problems regarding VVPATs have come to the fore.
D.VVPATs will help modify the way elections are conducted in India and help the nation reach new heights.
E.The cost incurred on implementing VVPATs will be many times more than the expected outcome.Answer – B
Explanation :
Notice how paragraph is moving: Possibily of tampering (1st line) – EC decides to use VVPATs as solution (2nd line) – How will VVPAT help in tamper-proofing (3rd line). This is the logical analogy.
Only B and D fit into the scheme of things. Between the two, only B tells how VVPATs will help in solving the problem of EVM-tampering. Hence B
Conjuction ‘Neverthless’ joins opposite and contrasting sentences. Last sentence talks of returning to paper ballot. So, the preceding one must talk of ‘not returning’ to paper ballot, that means it must talk good about EVMs, and how they are good for conducting elections. B provides solution to the problem as well as fits well with ‘Nevertheless’.
Directions for Questions 6 to 10: Five statements are given below, labeled a, b, c, d and e. Among these, four statements are in logical order and form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, choose the option that does not fit into the theme of the passage.
- A.Electricity from water also requires enormous river valley projects involving huge expenditure.
B.In contrast, electricity from atomic power stations will result in a tremendous saving in expenditure.
C.The power from atomic plants could help supply power even to the remote areas of the nation.
D.The main source of power in industrial undertaking is electricity. But the production of electricity needs huge quantities of coal.
E.The installation of atomic plants is costly initially but is economic in the long run.Answer – C
Explanation :
A talks of problems in hydro power – huge expenditure
D talks of problems in thermal power – huge coal (hence huge expenditure)
B & E introduce another way of generating electricity and see it as solution to the problems discussed in A and D – tremendous savings, economical in the long run.
All the sentences are related except C. - A.When the acquaintance with ripens into intimacy, we are likely to become very keenly aware of defects and imperfections.
B.In the beginning, we may feel greatly attracted by someone but on closer acquaintance we will begin to perceive his faults and shortcomings.
C.Human experience tends to show that the more we mix with a man, the more we come to dislike him.
D.The truth is that nobody is free from faults and weaknesses.
E.These defects and imperfections make a person more vulnerable to dangers associated with being unsuccessful.Answer – E - A.Foreign trade increased as a result of the New Economic Policy, which India followed after the disintegration of Soviet Union.
B.A young India, some years after independence fashioning her foreign policy of nonalignment,found it prudent to stay close to the former Soviet Union.
C.Once upon a time there was a super power named Soviet Union that attracted nations apprehensive of the global aspirations of the other superpower, the U.S.A.
D.One way of doing this was to evolve a bilateral relation in trade that could be called upon to provide a buffer against the arm-twisting by the U.S.A.
E.Trade protocols were signed, the dollar as the medium of exchange was ignored, trade was denominated in rupees and the exchange rate between the two countries was to be fixed outside the ambit of free markets.Answer – A
Explanation :
D must follow C, and E provides how the bilateral relation between India and the USSR evolved, It discusses D in detail. B and C are related too. All these sentences discuss how the geo-politics was taking shape.
Focus of A is on advantages of New Economic Policy. - A.In 1947, India was undoubtedly an under – developed country with one of the lowest per capitain comes in the world.
B.Economic growth has been just limited to the a small group of population, with benefits yet to percolate to the masses.
C.India’s experience of economic growth is characteristic of the difficulties faced by a newly independent developing country.
D.Today India ranks fifth in the international comity of nations if measured in terms of purchas in gpower.
E.It was made possible with the help of a conscious deliberate policy of growth by an indigenous political elite.Answer – B
Explanation :
We need to use some concepts of Parajumbles in this. ADE, form a trio. E begins with ‘it was made possible’. what was made possible? – ‘the transition of India from lowest per capita to 5th rank’ was made possible.
Between B and C, we would choose B as our answer as C connects with A. ‘Newly developing independent country’ obviously refers to India being independent in 1947. B does not connect with the theme of the passage. - A.The thrust of the new policy was towards creating a more competitive environment as a means to improving the productivity and efficiency of the economy.
B.The objective was simple – to improve the efficiency of the system.
C.The regulator mechanism involving multitude of controls enhanced the capacity and increased competition even in the public sector.
D.This was to be achieved by removing the bans and restrictions on the entry and growth of foreign investments.
E.The New Economic Policy comprises the various policy measures and changes introduced since July 1991.Answer – D
Explanation :
E is the obvious starting choice – B tells about the objective of Policy – A further builds upon B and tells in detail how the objective is to be achieved: by providing competitive environment. C tells about steps taken to improve the competition.
D is the odd one out. It talks about ‘Foreign Investments’, which cannot be related to increasing the competition.
Note:
Quiz has been framed keeping in mind the level of questions asked in SBI PO Mains. If you could score good in this quiz, you will definitely crack the question in Mains exam.
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