Punjab National Bank Specialist Officers Exam. english language solved paper

Punjab National Bank Specialist Officers Exam., 2010
English Language : Solved Paper(Held on 4-10-2010)

Directions—(Q. 1–10) In the following passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five words are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word in each case.

What Indian politicians and bureaucrats share with their scientist, engineer and carpenter counterparts is their acceptance of mediocrity and lack of skill. The greatest moral failure of Indian institutions is the tolerance of incompetence, …(1)… criminality or corruption. The tolerance of incompetence in …(2)… is a result of a low cultural value attached to the creation and …(3)… of institutions.

Institution building is a hard work; it requires a combination of vision, commitment and performance. Any institution involves a contract between those who …(4)… to the institution and those who support it. The support can take the form of money or votes but that support must be …(5)… continuously. In a properly functioning institutional system, the institutional contract …(6)… the institution members and their supporters takes the form : you give me support and I will give you results. Competence is the channel that sustains the flow of trust from supporters to institutions and back. If doctors don’t cure will they not lose our trust ? While blaming individual politicians and babus for their corrupt ways, let us also examine the system that accepts mediocrity and even lets it …(7)….

What we are seeing in India is a case of contract failure. The contractor who bribes an official and then builds a leaky stadium is not just being …(8)…. He is sustaining a collusive system that subverts rules regulating mutual co-operation between government institutions, market players and society as a whole. In the case of endemic contract failure everyone …(9)…, including the contractor, for once the public loses its trust in institution is even businessmen will …(10)… out on opportunities to make money. The moral status of institutions is central to continued development and prosperity.

1. (A) as
(B) to
(C) never
(D) not
(E) for
Ans : (D)

2. (A) turn
(B) individual
(C) world
(D) partly
(E) importance
Ans : (B)

3. (A) destruction
(B) justification
(C) sustenance
(D) excess
(E) marginalization
Ans : (C)


4. (A) belong
(B) work
(C) help
(D) employed
(E) trust
Ans : (A)

5. (A) returned
(B) earned
(C) needed
(D) discouraged
(E) asked
Ans : (C)

6. (A) suggests
(B) akin
(C) twosome
(D) centered
(E) between
Ans : (E)

7. (A) question
(B) bolder
(C) thrive
(D) out
(E) kill
Ans : (C)

8. (A) variant
(B) trivial
(C) immature
(D) corrupt
(E) generous
Ans : (D)

9. (A) succeeds
(B) suffers
(C) proliferates
(D) responsible
(E) encompasses
Ans : (B)

10. (A) storm
(B) venture
(C) lose
(D) get
(E) walk
Ans : (E)

Directions—(Q. 11–15) Rearrange the following five sentences (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph; then answer the questions given below them.
(a) Thus, if we really value it, we will work hard to make it a reality.
(b) Inner peace is the most elusive thing that a human being can seek.
(c) The most important criterion in order to experience it is to value the importance of inner peace.
(d) To experience inner peace one doesn’t have to retreat to a Himalayan cave; rather, one can experience inner peace seated exactly where they are by watching these thoughts.
(e) Nobody can gift the other inner peace at the same time it is only one’s own thoughts that can rob them of their inner peace.

11. Which of the following should be the FIFTH sentence after rearrangement ?
(A) (a)
(B) (b)
(C) (c)
(D) (d)
(E) (e)
Ans : (C)

12. Which of the following should be the FOURTH sentence after rearrangement ?
(A) (e)
(B) (d)
(C) (c)
(D) (b)
(E) (a)
Ans : (A)

13. Which of the following should be the SECOND sentence after rearrangement ?
(A) (e)
(B) (d)
(C) (c)
(D) (b)
(E) (a)
Ans : (C)

14. Which of the following should be the FIRST sentence after rearrangement ?
(A) (a)
(B) (b)
(C) (c)
(D) (d)
(E) (e)
Ans : (B)

15. Which of the following should be the THIRD sentence after rearrangement ?
(A) (a)
(B) (b)
(C) (c)
(D) (d)
(E) (e)
Ans : (D)

Directions—(Q. 16–20) Each question below has two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Choose the set of words for each blank which best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

16. After ……… payrolls and tightening perks to cope with the economic slowdown last year, software companies are finding that a rising number of engineering and management graduates are transferring their ……… to vocations such as manufacturing and banking.
(A) trimming - loyalties
(B) reducing - accounts
(C) hiking - services
(D) increased - affections
(E) dropped – potentials
Ans : (A)

17. It is very important to ……… that when the swine flu virus enters a human body, it takes a minimum of one day to a maximum of eight days for the disease to develop ……….
(A) gauge - extensively
(B) ascertain - further
(C) understand - fully
(D) verify - remarkably
(E) fathom – clearly
Ans : (C)

18. Scientists, working to save the earth, have ……… ‘dry water’ that soaks carbon three times better than water, and hence helps ……… global warming.
(A) aided - cut
(B) created - combat
(C) built - stop
(D) produced - increase
(E) invented – monitoring
Ans : (B)

19. The first round of the contest had the students ……… themselves and ……… about their hobbies.
(A) introducing - talking
(B) sensitizing - sketching
(C) showcasing - planning
(D) acclimatizing - mentioning
(E) gearing – chalking
Ans : (D)

20. The varsity’s poll process for ……… of new candidates has ……… poor response with only ten thousand applications being received till date.
(A) entrusting - seen
(B) registration - evoked
(C) entrance - made
(D) admission - visited
(E) experimenting – generated
Ans : (B)

Directions—(Q. 21–25) Read each sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical error or idiomatic error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The letter of that part is the answer. If there is no error, the answer is (E). (Ignore errors of punctuation, if any.)

21. Initially, shop owners tried to (A) / offer some resistance to the demolition but (B) / seeing the heavy presence of the police force, (C) / their resistance faded off. (D) No error (E)
Ans : (E)

22. Cleanliness drives will be (A) / conducted in various localities (B) / to opening the drains blocked (C) / with polythene bags. (D) No error (E)
Ans : (C)

23. The results of the study showed that (A) / if the partners were willing to talk to each other (B) / and arrive at a mutually agreeable decision,` (C) / the joint decisions were more better than any one person’s judgment. (D) No error (E)
Ans : (D)

24. A year after the global financial crisis saw (A) / students from the best B-schools across the world struggling for a job, (B) / a survey on management education this year thrown (C) / up some rather interesting findings. (D) No error (E)
Ans : (C)

25. The district authorities are making (A) / a last-ditch attempt to provide (B) / alternative solutions to farmers but (C) / the options is clearly inadequate. (D) No error (E)
Ans : (D)

Directions—(Q. 26–30) Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

At the time when the unfortunate incident of the ‘accidental’ exposure to radiation that affected workers and waste collectors in Delhi as they handled radioactive material, took place, the issue of waste disposal, particularly hazardous waste, made the headlines. The lives of those who live off collecting and sorting waste came into out line of vision. But then the issue disappeared.

Long term policies that ensure that the safety and health of those who do such an essential job – “a community of silent environmentalists” someone called them – are not such a high priority any more. One reason is that the people affected are virtually invisible.

Waste collectors around India work silently, often late into the night, sorting out mountains of waste,foraging for anything that can be sold. If you walk down some streets of Central Mumbai after 11 at night, you will see an army of waste collectors. Men, women, children are all hard at work. They work through the night and finally manage to get some sleep on the doorsteps of the shops on those streets. By daylight they become invisible, having stowed their belongings in boxes behind the signs of the shops on whose doorsteps they sleep. These are the people of the night, not noticed by those who inhabit the areas in the day.

What is often not entirely appreciated is that a substantial percentage of waste collectors is women. According to a study, 85 per cent of waste collectors in the city are women, five per cent are children and 10 per cent are men. The majority of them are poor and landless people who came to the city because of drought in their villages. The age group ranges from 7 to 70 years and 98 per cent of them are illiterate. A survey of 60,000 waste collectors found a similar proportion : 60 per cent women, 20 per cent men and 20 per cent children. Studies have revealed that 90 per cent of the women waste pickers are primary bread-winners, often widowed or deserted. It is interesting how the gender division of labour plays out even in the business of waste. While women, and children, do the morehazardous job of sorting and separating the waste, the men deal with the dry garbage, which they transport to wholesalers and factories. As a result, it is the women who are exposed to hazardous waste – none of them wear any kind of protective gear – and also face the physical problems of constantly bending and carrying head loads of the waste. Look at any group of waste collectors and you will spot the bent old women who have been performing this function for decades.

In the slum-city of Mumbai, waste collectors experience the most acute degree of homelessness. While poor people in other kinds of jobs somehow manage to find some shelter in a slum, irrespective of whether it is legal or illegal, waste collectors sleep next to the garbage they have sorted. This is their “wealth”, something they have to protect after they have collected and sorted it until they canmonetize it. Hence, near many garbage dumps, even in the better off localities of cities like Mumbai, you see families of waste pickers asleep in the morning. And most often you see only women and children.

Why bring up waste collectors at a time when the main environmental issues being debated are the larger issues of global warming, or environmental disasters such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ? This is because one cannot speak of the environment without considering its impact on the lives of people. We have hundreds of small-scale and continuing environmental disasters taking place all around us. But we overlook them so long as they do not impact our lives or our lifestyles. Millions of waste pickers in India, who play a crucial role in dealing with the perennial environmental crisis of waste, risk their lives and their health every single day. This is an on-going environmental issue that requires as much attention from ordinary people, the media and policy makers as the larger macro issues.

26. Why are long term policies favouring waste collectors not high priority ?
(A) The Government is currently contemplating over the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and does not have time for other issues.
(B) The plight of these people is not evident as they work late into the night and are not seen much during the day.
(C) The Government is unable to see these people at all and thus is not aware of their existence.
(D) These waste collectors themselves are not in favour of being brought into the organized sector because of the numerous complications involved.
(E) As previous such favourable policies failed to improve the conditions of these waste collectors as they were not implemented effectively.
Ans : (B)

27. Which of the following is true about waste collectors as given in the passage ?
1. Majority of waste collectors are people who have migrated from their village because of some natural calamity.
2. Waste collectors prefer to sleep next to the garbage they have sorted.
3. Most waste collectors are not literate.
(A) Only (2)
(B) Only (1) and (2)
(C) Only (3)
(D) Only (2) and (3)
(E) All (1), (2) and (3) are true.
Ans : (E)

28. Why are women waste collectors at a disadvantage as compared to the men waste collectors as mentioned in the passage ?
(A) The men sell the waste collected by the women to wholesalers and keep all the money to themselves without sharing it with the women.
(B) The women do the more dangerous and physical work of sorting through the garbage whereas men mostly transport dry garbage.
(C) Men wear protective gear while sorting through the garbage thereby shielding themselves from the ill effects of being exposed to the waste.
(D) The men force their wives and children to work for them whereas the women do not have this luxury.
(E) The men are not as affected by the waste as the women waste collectors because of the difference in their physical constitution.
Ans : (B)

29. Which of the following is possibly the most appropriate title for the passage ?
(A) The General Public’s Apathetic ways
(B) The Unorganized Sector
(C) The Invisible Waste
(D) Waste Collectors – The World Over
(E) Recognizing the ‘Work’ in ‘Dirty Work’
Ans : (B)

30. Why, according to the author, is the issue of waste collectors as important as the issue of global warming ?
1. As most waste collectors in big cities are children who are ultimately the future of our nation.
2. As without the waste collectors sorting waste the phenomenon of global warming would increase exponentially.
3. As waste collectors deal with wastage which impacts the people’s everyday lives and is also environmentally significant.
(A) Only (2) and (3)
(B) Only (1)
(C) Only (1) and (2)
(D) Only (3)
(E) All (1), (2) and (3)
Ans : (D)

Directions—(Q. 31–33) Choose the word/group of words which is most similar in meaning to the word/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.

31. INHABIT
(A) Reside in
(B) Encompass
(C) Infest
(D) Submerge
(E) Are used to
Ans : (A)

32. FORAGING
(A) Penetrating
(B) Incising
(C) Probing
(D) Begging
(E) Searching
Ans : (E)

33. MONETIZE
(A) Currency
(B) Buy
(C) Encash
(D) Regulate
(E) Pay
Ans : (C)

Directions—(Q. 34–35) Choose the word/group of words which is most opposite in meaning to the word/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.

34. CONSIDERING 
(A) Untying
(B) Remembering
(C) Understanding
(D) Disregarding
(E) Condemning
Ans : (D)

35. HAZARDOUS
(A) Pleasant
(B) Efficient
(C) Important
(D) Risky
(E) Harmless
Ans : (E)