English Passage

Asked what a business is, the typical businessman is likely to answer, “An organisation to make a profit.” The typical economist is likely to give the same answer. This answer is not only false, it is irrelevant.

The prevailing economic theory of the mission of business enterprise and behaviour, the maximization of profit which is simply a complicated way of phrasing the old saw of buying cheap and selling dear — may adequately explain how Richard Sears operated. But it cannot explain how Sears, Roebuck or any other business enterprise operates, or how it should operate. The concept of profit maximization is. in fact, meaningless. The danger in the concept of profit maximization is that it makes profitability appear a myth.

Profit and profitability are, however, crucial for society even more than for the individual business. Yet profitability is not the purpose of, but a limiting factor on business enterprise and business activity. Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behaviour and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity. If archangels instead of businessmen sat in directors’ chairs, they would still have to be concerned with profitability, despite their total lack of personal interest in making profits.

The root of the confusion is the mistaken belief that the motive of a person — the so called profit motive of the businessman is an explanation of his behavior or his guide to right action. Whether there is such a thing as a profit motive at all is highly doubtful. The idea was invented by the classical economists to explain the economic reality that their theory of static equilibrium could not explain. There has never been any evidence for the existence of the profit motive, and we have é long since found the true explanation of the phenomena of economic change and fig growthwhich the profit motive was first put forth to explain.

It is irrelevant for an understanding of business behaviour, profit, and profitability, whether there is a profit motive or not. That Jim Smith is in business to make a profit concerns only him and the Recording Angel. It does not tell us what Jim 5 Smith does and how he performs. We do not learn anything about the work of a prospector hunting for uranium in the Nevada desert by being told that he is trying to make his fortune. We do not learn anything about the work of a heart specialist by being told that he is trying to make a livelihood, or even that he is trying to benefit humanity. The profit motive and its offspring maximisation of profits are just as irrelevant to the function of a business, the purpose of a business, and the job of managing a business.

In fact, the concept is worse than irrelevant: it does harm. It is a major cause of the misunderstanding of the nature of profit in our society and of the deep —seated hostility to profit, which are among the most dangerous diseases of an industrial society. It is largely responsible for the worst mistakes of public policy — in this country as well as in Western Europe — which are squarely based on the failure to understand the nature, function, and purpose of business enterprise. And it is in large part responsible for the prevailing belief that there is an inherent contradiction between profit and a company’s ability to make a social contribution. Actually, a company can make a social contribution only if it is highly profitable.

To know what a business is, we have to start with its purpose. Its purpose must lie outside of the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society since business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.

Markets are not created by God, nature, or economic forces but by businesspeople. The want a business satisfies may have been felt by the customer before he or she was offered the means of satisfying it. Like food in a famine, it may have dominated the customer’s life and filled all his waking moments, but it remained a potential want until the action of business people converted it into effective demand. Only then is there a customer and a market. The want may have been unfelt by the potential customer; no one knew that he wanted a Xerox machine or a computer until these became available. There may have been no want at all until business action created it — by innovation, by credit by advertising, or by salesmanship. In every case, it is business action that creates the customer.

QUESTION:

1. The author of this passage is of the opinion that profits and profitability are:

(A) The purpose of setting up a business 

(B) The sole goal and responsibility of a businessman 

(C) The test of validity of business existence 

(D) The guiding factor for a businessman‘s actions and decisions 

Show Answer

2. This passage highlights that the theory of profit maximisation and profit motive

(A) Is largely responsible for the worst mistakes in public policy 

(B) Is a synchronised goal with a company’s ability to make a social contribution? 

(C) Is the main purpose and job of managing a business? 

(D) Was an idea not invented by classical economists? 

Show Answer

3. As stated in this passage, the purpose of a business is to

(A) Make profits 

(B) Increase wants 

(C) Create customers 

(D) Manage Demand 

Show Answer

4. According to the author of this passage, what comes first?

(A) Want

(B) Market

(C) Demand

(D) Customer

Show Answer

(Source: IIFT-2012)

Brazil is a top exporter of every commodity that has seen dizzying price surges – iron ore, soybeans, sugar – producing a golden age for economic growth Foreign money-flows into Brazilian stocks and bonds climbed heavenward, up more than tenfold, from $5 billion a year in early 2007 to more than $50 billion in the twelve months through March 2011.

The flood of foreign money buying up Brazilian assets has made the currency one of the most expensive in the world, and Brazil one of the most costly, overhyped economies. Almost every major emerging market currency has strengthened against the dollar over the last decade, but the Brazilian Real is on a path alone, way above the pack, having doubled in value against the dollar.

Economists have all kinds of fancy ways to measure the real value of a currency, but when a country is pricing itself this far out of the competition, you can feel it on the ground. In early 2011 the major Rio paper, 0 Globo, ran a story on prices showing that croissants are more expensive than they are in Paris, haircuts cost more than they do in London, bike rentals are more expensive than in Amsterdam, and movie tickets sell for higher prices than in Madrid. A rule of the road: if the local prices in an emerging market country feel expensive even to a visitor from a rich nation, that country is probably not a breakout nation.

There is no better example of how absurd it is to lump all the big emerging markets together than the frequent pairing of Brazil and China. Those who make this comparison are referring only to the fact that they are the biggest players in their home regions, not to the way the economies actually run. Brazil is the world‘s leading exporter of many raw materials, and China is the leading importer; that makes them major trade partners – China surpassed the United States as Brazil’s leading trade partner in 2009 f but it also makes them opposites in almost every important economic respect: Brazil is the un-China, with interest rates that are too high, and a currency that is too expensive. It spends too little on roads and too much on welfare, and as a result has a very un-China-like growth record.

It may not be entirely fair to compare economic growth in Brazil with that of its Asian counterparts, because Brazil has a per capita income of $12,000, more than two times China’s and nearly ten times India’s. But even taking into account the fact that it is harder for rich nations to grow quickly, Brazil’s growth has been disappointing. Since the early 19805 the Brazilian growth rate has oscillated around an average of 2.5 percent, spiking only in concert with increased prices for Brazil’s key commodity exports. While China has been criticized for pursuing “growth at any cost,” Brazil has sought to secure “stability at any cost.” Brazil’s caution stems from its history of financial crises, in which overspending produced debt, humiliating defaults, and embarrassing devaluations, culminating in a disaster that is still recent enough to be fresh in every Brazilian adult’s memory: the hyperinflation that started in the early 19805 and peaked in 1994, at the vertiginous annual rate of 2,100 percent.

Wages were pegged to inflation but were increased at varying intervals in different industries, 50 workers never really knew whether they were making good money or not. As soon as they were paid, they literally ran to the store with cash to buy food, and they could afford little else, causing non-essential industries to start to die. Hyperinflation finally came under control in l995, but it left a problem of regular behind. Brazil has battled inflation ever since by maintaining one of the highest interest rates in the emerging world.

Those high rates have attracted a surge of foreign money, which is partly why the Brazilian Real is so expensive relative to comparable currencies. There is a growing recognition that China faces serious “imbalances” that could derail its long economic boom. Obsessed until recently with high growth, China has been pushing too hard to keep its currency too cheap (to help its export industries compete), encouraging excessively high savings and keeping interest rates rock bottom to fund heavy spending on roads and ports. China is only now beginning to consider a shift in spending priorities to create social programs that protect its people from the vicissitudes of old age and unemployment.

Brazil’s economy is just as badly out of balance, though in opposite ways. While China has introduced reforms relentlessly for three decades, opening itself up to the world even at the risk of domestic instability, Brazil has pushed reforms only in the most dire circumstances, for example, privatizing state companies when the government budget is near collapse. Fearful of foreign shocks, Brazil is still one of the most closed economies in the emerging world – total imports and exports account for only 15 percent of GDP – despite its status as the world’s leading exporter of sugar, orange juice, coffee, poultry, and beef.

To pay for its big government, Brazil has jacked up taxes and now has a tax burden that equals 38 percent of GDP, the highest in the emerging world, and very similar to the tax burden in developed European welfare states, such as Norway and France. This heavy load of personal and corporate tax on a relatively poor country means that businesses don’t have the money to invest in new technology or training, which in turn means that industry is not getting more efficient. Between 1986 and 2008 Brazil’s productivity grew at an annual rate of :about 0.2 percent, compared to 4 percent in China. Over the same period, productivity grew in India at close to 3 percent and in South Korea and Thailand at close to 2 percent.

1. According to the passage, the major concern facing the Brazil economy is:

(a)   Despite being a major exporter of several key primary commodities, the openness of the economy has not improved.

(b)   High tax incidence on the household and company incomes, which restricts the ability of the firms to facilitate innovation and skill formation.

(c)   Insufficient spending of budgetary resources on infrastructure augmentation, which hurts economic interests.

(d)   All of the above

Ans: ()

2. Brazil’s quest for stability in its economy has originated From:

(a)   The bitter experience of financial crisis and hyperinflation in the nineties

(b)   The need to maintain steady supply of commodity exports from its economy

(c)   The urge to enhance economic growth further

(d)   All of the above

Ans: ()

3. Identify the false statement:

(a)   The Brazilian government in the past has shown lesser inclination towards quick implementation of reform measures,

(b)   The inflow of foreign currency in Brazil has increased by around US $ 45 Billion over the four-year period starting from 2007

(c)   The annual productivity growth rate in China during 1980-2008 is found to be 20 times higher than the corresponding figure experienced by Brazil.

(d)   The current inflation management practice of Brazil has proved its economy a significant edge vis-à-vis other countries.

Ans: ()

4. According to the passage, Brazil does not seem to be an exporter of which commodity combination?

(a)   Poultry and beef

(b)   Iron ore and soybeans

(c)   Croissants and bikes

(d)   Sugar, orange juice and coffee

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2013)

To equate ‘capitalism’ with ‘greed’ is a mistake. We tend to confuse self-interest in the marketplace with selfishness or greed. At the heart of capitalism is the idea of exchange between ordinary, self-interested human beings, who seek to advance their interests peacefully in the marketplace Adam Smith called this ‘rational self-interest’. It is the same motive that gets one to jump out of bed in the morning or makes one carry an umbrella if it rains—nothing selfish about that. To be human is to be self-interested, and this is what exchange in {he market place entails.

Greed or selfishness, on the other hand, is an excess of self interest and often transgresses on the rights of others. It is present in all of us, but we find it easier to see it in others and difficult to see it in ourselves. Greed can motivate theft, entail himsa—hurting another whose opposite, ahimsa, is a virtue that Mahatma Gandhi extolled. But the other side of greed is ambition, a positive thing, and when rightly directed, is life-affirming. Herein lies the conundrum of human existence: that the same inner forces that result in a vice can just as easily become virtues that can motivate the well-being of our species.

Those who believe that capitalism has been forced on us by the imperial West are also wrong. Friedrich Hayek, the Noble laureate, called the market a spontaneous order——it is natural for human beings to exchange goods and services, and this is how every society evolved money, laws, conventions and morals to guide behaviour in the marketplace. These are natural products of human endeavor. Competing and cooperating in the marketplace existed in India before the West was imperial or modern.

Whether we like it or not, India is headed in the direction of some sort of democratic capitalism. After two decades of reforms, hardly anyone in India wants state ownership of production, where the absence of competition corrodes the character even more, as we know too well from the dark days of the ‘license raj’ .

Our animus against capitalism has diminished after communism’s fall as people increasingly believe that markets do deliver greater prosperity, but most think that capitalism is not a moral system. They continue to believe that morality must depend on religion.

Although the market is neither moral nor immoral, human self-interest usually brings about good behaviour in the marketplace. A seller who does not treat his customers with fairness and civility will lose market share A company that markets defective products will lose customers. A firm that does not promote the mast deserving employees will lose talent to its competitors. A buyer who does not respect the market price will not survive. Lying and cheating will ruin a image, making it untouchable to creditors and suppliers. Hence, free markets powerful incentives for ethical conduct, but they must be backed by state institutions that enforce contracts and punish criminal behaviour. lf the market has an inbuilt morality, why are there so many crooks in file marketplace? The answer is that are crooked people in every society, this is why we need effective regulators, policemen and judges. We should design our institutions to catch crooks and not harass innocent people as we do so often.

The other cause of our grief is to mistake being ‘promarket’ with being ‘pro-business’. To be ‘pro-market’ is to believe in competitive markets which help to keep prices low and gradually raise the quality of products. Competition also means that some businesses will die because they are poorly managed and cannot compete. Kingfisher Airlines and Air India should be allowed to die and not be bailed out by the government Thus, being pro-market leads to ‘rules-~based capitalism’; ‘pro-business’ often leads to ‘crony capitalism’. Not to have explained this difference has been the great mistake of our reformers and this has led to the false impression that the reforms only make the rich richer. Crony capitalism exists in India today because of the lack of reforms in sectors such as mining and real estate. To get rid of crony capitalism we need more rather than less reform.

The doom-mongers, who claim that we are now resigned to live in an age of decaying moral standards, are also wrong. Yes, the new Indian middle class is permissive and indulges enthusiastically in harmless pleasures. Yes, it is,  materialistic, consumerist and capitalistic. But these impulses are not to be mistaken for greed. Only when one’s pleasure hurts another does it become a matter of the law and then, of course, it must be punished. The shared imagination of the new India with its harmless pleasure and victimless vice should not be condemned. Think of ours as a society in transition. Mass wealth is profoundly disturbing but once there is enough, India might again return to its old character of renunciation.

Instead of religious rules, young Indians are motivated by duties to fellow human beings rather than to gods. Those who accuse them of shallow materialism ignore the injustices that prevailed when religion held a monopoly on morality. They overlook real ethical progress with regard to sexual and caste equality that our secular society has begun to deliver. So, the next time Kejriwal makes an expose and the TV screams ‘greed’, do not fall into the trap of believing capitalist culture is morally sick or that we should return to a moral order rooted in socialism or religion.

1. Which of the following statement correctly reflects the views of the author?

(a)   Greed entails both himsa and ahimsa

(b)   Self interest does not necessarily lead to selfish behaviour

(c)   Being pro market lead to the rich becoming richer

(d)   Both B and D

Ans: ()

2. Which of the following options most closely explains what the author wants to say, in the sentence beginning with: “Herein lies the conundrum of human existence:…”

(a)   The enigma of human existence is that vices and virtues can result from the same inner forces.

(b)   The bane of human existence is that vices and virtues can result from the same inner forces.

(c)   The boon of human existence is that the same inner forces can lead to vices and virtues.

(d)   The solution for human existence is that the same inner forces can lead to vices and virtues.

Ans: ()

3. As wealth spreads in society, what is likely to happen according to the author?

(a)   India will have to resign itself to decaying moral standards

(b)   India may once again embrace renunciation

(c)   The moral order in India will become deeply rooted in religion

(d)   None of the above

Ans: ()

4. Which of the following statements does not reflect the views given in this passage?

(a)   Indian society is undergoing a change and the middle class is emerging

(b)   Crony capitalism exists in India today because of the governments’ pro- market policies.

(c)   The Indian youth is motivated/ driven by moral duties rather than religious diktats.

(d)   Free markets need the: oversight of state; institutions for defeating crooks and criminals

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2013)

Many years ago, one mustard dominated the supermarket shelves: French’s. It came in a plastic bottle. People used it on hot dogs and bologna. It was yellow mustard, made from ground white mustard seed with turmeric and vinegar, which gave it a mild, slightly metallic taste. if you looked hard in the grocery store, you might find something in the speciality-foods section called Grey Poupon, which was Dijon mustard, made from the more pungent brown mustard seed. In the early seventies, Grey Poupon was no more than a hundred-thousand dollar-a-year business. Few people knew what it was or how it tasted, or had any particular desire for an alternative to French’s or the runner-up, Gulden’s. Then one day, the Heublein Company, which owned Grey Poupon, discovered something remarkable: if you gave people a mustard taste test, a significant number had only to try Grey Poupon once to switch from yellow mustard. In the food world that almost never happens; even among the most successful food brands, only about one in a hundred has that kind of conversion rate. Grey Poupon was magic.

So Heublein put Grey Poupon in a bigger glass jar, with an enamelled label and enough of a whiff of Frenchness to make it seem as if it were still being made in Europe (it was made in Hartford, Connecticut, from Canadian mustard seed and white wine). The company ran tasteful print ads in upscale food magazines. They put the mustard in little foil packets and distributed them with airplane meals — which was a brand-new idea at the time. Then they hired the Manhattan ad agency Lowe Marschalk to do something, on a modest budget, for television The agency came back with an idea: A Rolls-Royce is driving down a country road. There’s a man in the backseat in a suit with a plate of beef on a silver tray. He nods to the chauffeur, who opens the glove compartment. Then comes what is known in the business world as the reveal. The chauffeur hands back a jar of Grey Poupon. Another Rolls Royce pulls up alongside. A man leans his hand out of the window.

“Pardon me. Would you have any Grey Poupon?”

In the cities where the ads ran, sales of Grey Poupon leaped 40 to 50 percent, and whenever Heublein bought airtime in new cities sales jumped 40 to 50 percent again. Grocery stores put Grey Poupon next to French’s and Gulden’s. By the end of the 1980’s Grey Poupon was the most powerful brand in mustard. “The tagline in the commercial was that this was one of life’s finer pleasures.” Larry Elegant, who wrote the original Grey Poupon spot, says, “and that, along with the Rolls Royce, seemed to impart to people’s minds that this was something truly different and superior.”

The rise of Grey Poupon proved that the American supermarket shopper was willing to pay more — in this case $3.99 instead of $1.49 for eight ounces — as long as what they were buying carried with it an air of sophistication and complex aromatics. Its success showed, furthermore, that the boundaries of taste and custom were not fixed: that just because mustard had always been yellow didn’t mean that customers would use ‘only yellow mustard. It is because of Grey Poupon that the standard American supermarket today has an entire mustard section. And it is because of Grey Poupon that a man named Jim Wigon decided, four years ago, to enter the ketchup business. Isn’t the ketchup business today exactly where mustard was thirty years ago? There is Heinz and, far behind, Hunt’s and Del Monte and a handful of private label brands. Jim Wagon wanted to create the Grey Poupon of ketchup.

Wigon is from Boston. He runs his ketchup business under the brand World’s Best Ketchup-out of the catering business of his partner, Nich Schiarizzi, in Norwood, Massachusetts. He starts with red peppers, Spanish onions, garlic. and a high-end tomato paste. Basil is chopped by hand, because the buffalo chopper bruises the leaves. He uses maple syrup, not corn syrup, which gives him a quarter of the sugar of Heinz, He pours his ketchup into a clear ten-ounce jar, and sells its for three times the price of Heinz, and for the past few years he has crisscrossed the country, peddling World’s Best in six regular, sweet, dill, garlic, caramelized onion, and basil to speciality grocery stores and supermarkets. If you were in Zabar’s on Manhattan’s Upper West Side a few months ago, you would have seen him at the front of the store, in the spot between the sushi and the fish. In front of him, on a small table, was a silver tureen filled with miniature chicken and beef meatballs, a box of toothpicks, and a dozen or so open jars of his ketchup. “Try my ketchup!” Wigon said, over and over, to anyone who passed. “If you don’t try it, you’re doomed to eat Heinz the rest of your life.”

In the same aisle at Zabar’s that day two other demonstrations were going on, so that people were starting at one end with free chicken sausage, sampling a slice of prosciutto, and then pausing at the World’s Best stand before heading for the cash register. They would look down at the array of open jars, and Wigon would impale a meatball on a toothpick, dip it in one of his ketchups, and hand it to them with a flourish. The ratio of tomato solids to liquid in World’s Best is much higher than in Heinz, and the maple syrup gives it an unmistakable sweet kick. Invariably, people would close their eyes, just for a moment, and do a subtle double take. Some of them would look slightly perplexed and walk away, and others would nod and pick up a jar. “You know why you like it so much?” he would say, in his broad Boston accent, to the customers who seemed most impressed. “Because you have been eating bad ketchup all your life!“ Jim Wigon had a simple vision: build a better ketchup — the way Grey Poupon built a better mustard — and the world will beat a path to your door.

1. Why has the author termed Grey Poupon as “magic”?

(a)   It had a different taste and was seen as belonging to speciality-food division

(b)   It was made from Dijon mustard

(c)   It commanded a conversion rate uncommon in the food world

(d)   It came in a bigger glass jar than French’s

Ans: ()

2. How many years did it take for Grey Poupon to grow from a hundred-thousand dollar a year brand to the most powerful brand in mustard?

(a)   Less than 5 years

(b)   About 5-10 years

(c)   About 15-20 years

(d)   More than 25 years

Ans: ()

3. What kind of audience was Grey Poupon reaching out to through its ads?

(a)   Frequent Flyers

(b)   Those who did not like the taste of French’s

(c)   Buyers of large quantities of mustard

(d)   Rich and sophisticated customers

Ans: ()

4. Which of the following statements is correct?

(a)   World’s Best Ketchup was cheaper than Heinz

(b)   Wigon claimed that people will be doomed if they tried Heinz Ketchup

(c)   World’s best Ketchup was thicker than Heinz

(d)   People who were perplexed with the taste tended to pick up the jar of World’s Best Ketchup

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2013)

Much remained a mystery about Bernie Madoff’s crime even after he pleaded guilty in March 2009. But one thing, it that everybody knew was true was this: his wife and sons were guilty too. From the first weeks after his arrest, unidentified “former prosecutors” and “criminal lawyers who have followed the case” and “legal sources” were repeatedly quoted in various media outlets asserting that Ruth, Mark, and Andrew Madoff were under investigation and would soon be indicted. Glossy magazine articles would speculate carefully; garish Internet blogs would accuse recklessly; television commentators would wink and nod knowingly“ All that fierce, smug certainty about their guilt~unsupported by any cited facts-effectively drove Madoff’s immediate family into exile.

In an era of hypermedia, with mobile phone paparazzi and Internet commentators constantly on the alert for ways to attract attention, it is worth noting that these attacks on the Madoff family were a sharp departure from the typical public reaction to cases of whitecollar crime, going back more than a century.

Of course, such criminals-confidence men, embezzlers, crooked politicians, fraudsters of all kinds-were attacked savagely by the press and the public when their crimes came to light. But their wives and children were almost never included in those attacks; rather they were almost always ignored or, at the very least, quickly left alone. There were a few exceptions where criminal charges were actually filed against a close relative, who was then pulled to the whipping post of public attention. In general, however, even the wives and children of executed murderers were left to rebuild their lives in relative obscurity, unless they sought the spotlight themselves.

The treatment over the years of organized-crime defendants is instructive. Despite widespread fascination with the murderous escapades of socalled “Mafia dons” and crime-family “capes”, it was extremely rare for any attention to fall on the elderly Mrs. Mafia Don or the capos’ children-even though a realist might have wondered how much they knew about Why their husband or father had asked all his closest buddies to wear guns and sleep on mattresses in the garage. On rare occasions, a mobster’s relatives actively courted publicity. But those who didn’t were routinely ignored by the media and certainly were never publicly and repeatedly accused of complicity in their husbands’ 0r fathers’ crimes.

Yet the public outcry against Ruth Madoff and her sons began almost from the instant of Madoff’s arrest and did not cease. By the time he pleaded guilty, it was deafening.

From the beginning, however, there were facts in the Madoff case that just didn’t seem to be consistent with the family’s guilt. First, there was the fact that none of them fled the country. Perhaps Bernie Madoff, seventy years old at the time of his confession, felt too old and tired to leave as a wealthy fugitive; and perhaps Ruth, even if she were guilty and faced arrest and a lifelong imprisonment, would not leave without him. But his two sons, if they were guilty, had the opportunity, the means, and the motive to flee. The end was clearly in sight weeks in advance, there was still a princely sum in the bank, and they and their families were relatively young and portable. Surely, Madoff, before turning himself in, would have handed his sons the keys to the company jet and enough cash to let them live comfortably beyond the reach of the law for the rest of their lives. After all, if they were his accomplices, their only other option would have been to stay and go to prison.

And yet Madoff did not and neither did his wife or sons.

Then, there was his confession. Some hostile theorists immediately argued that Madoff and his guilty sons  staged his confession so they could turn him in and thereby deflect suspicion from themselves. But this would have been a worthless gesture unless they all could have been absolutely sure that no incriminating evidence would surface later and none of their other low-level accomplices would finger the sons in a bid for leniency-assumptions that were not remotely realistic if the sons were actually guilty. Moreover, if Madoff truly believed anyone could be insulated from suspicion simply by turning himself in, wouldn’t he have arranged for that to be Ruth?

Logic aside, assumptions about the family’s guilt began to run up against the fact that, as the Madoff investigation progressed, the predicted arrests of his wife and sons simply did not happen.

1. According to the author, why did the wife and sons of Madoff not flee the country?

(a)   Because Bernie Madoff had already pleaded guilty

(b)   Because they did not have the opportunity and means to flee

(c)   Because they had deflected suspicion from themselves by turning Bernie Madoff in

(d)   None of the above

Ans: ()

2. How did the family of Bernie Madoff react to media frenzy declaring them guilty?

(a)   They launched counter publicity to prove they were not guilty

(b)   They sued the media for defamation

(c)   They stayed away from public eye

(d)   They approached the media to confess their crime

Ans: ()

3. What is the point the author has highlighted in the given passage?

(a)   That the Madoff crime came to light because of the dynamism of hypermedia

(b)   That the treatment over the years of organized-crime defendants has changed

(c)   That media tends to run parallel trials to the court

(d)   That families of criminals must also be indicated

Ans: ()

4. Which of the following sentences is incorrect?

(a)   It was the facts about the Madoff case that indicated that his family was guilty

(b)   Madoff had been arrested following his confession

(c)   Media has always shown extensive interest in the exploits of mafia dons and other criminals

(d)   Madoff had committed a white-collar crime

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2013)

Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are pulling back on credit disbursement to lower rated companies, as they keep a closer watch on using their own scarce capital and the banking regulator heightens its scrutiny on loans being sanctioned.

Bankers say the Reserve Bank of India has started strictly monitoring how banks are utilizing their capital. Any big-ticket loan to lower rated companies is being questioned. Almost all large public sector banks that reported their first quarter results so far have showed a contraction in credit disbursal on a year-to date basis, as most banks have shifted to a strategy of lending largely to government-owned “Navratna” companies and highly rated private sector companies. On a sequential basis too, banks have grown their loan book at an anaemic rate.

To be sure, in the first quarter, loan demand is not quite robust, However, in the first quarter last year, banks had healthier loan growth on a sequential basis than this year. The country’s largest lender State Bank of India grew its loan book at only 1.21% quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank shrank their loan book by 1.97% and 0.66% respectively in the first quarter on a sequential basis.

Last year, State Bank of India had seen sequential loan growth of 3.37%, while Bank of Baroda had seen a smaller contraction of 0.22%. Punjab National Bank had seen a growth of 0.46% in loan book between the January-March and April-June quarters last year.

On a year-to-date basis. SBI’s credit growth fell more than 2%, Bank of Baroda’s credit growth contracted 4.71% and Bank of India’s credit growth shrank about 3%. SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya said the bank’s year-to-date credit growth fell as the bank focused on ‘A’ rated customers. About 90% of the loans in the quarter were given to high-rated companies. “Part of this was a conscious decision and part of it is because we actually did not get good fresh proposals in the quarter.” Bhattacharya said.

According to bankers, while pan of the credit contraction is due to the economic slowdown, capital constraints and reluctance to take on excessive risk has also played a role. “Most of the PSU banks are facing pressure on capital adequacy. It is challenging to maintain 9% core capital adequacy. The pressure on monitoring capital adequacy and maintaining capital buffer is so strict that you cannot grow aggressively.” said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda.

Nitsure said capital conservation pressures will substantially cut down “irrational expansion of loans” in some smaller banks, which used to grow at a rate much higher than the industry average. The companies coming to banks, in turn, will have to make themselves more creditworthy for banks to lend. “The conservation of capital is going to inculcate a lot of discipline in both banks and borrowers.” she said.

For every loan that a bank disburses, some amount of money is required to be set aside as provision. Lower the credit rating of the company, riskier the loan is perceived to be. Thus, the bank is required to set aside more capital for a lower rated company than what it otherwise would do for a higher rated client. New international accounting norms, known as Basel III norms, require banks to maintain higher capital and higher liquidity. “They also require a bank to set aside “buffer” capital to meet contingencies. As per the norms, a bank’s total capital adequacy ratio should be 12% at any time, in which tier-I, or the core capital, should be at 9%. Capital adequacy is calculated by dividing total capital by risk-weighted assets. If the loans have been given to lower rated companies, risk weight goes up and capital adequacy falls.

According to bankers, all loan decisions are now being assessed on the basis of the capital that needs to be set aside as provision against the loan and as a result, loans to lower rated companies are being avoided. According to a senior banker with a public sector bank, the capital adequacy situation is so precarious in some banks that if the risk weight increases a few basis points, the proposal gets cancelled. The banker did not wish to be named. One basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point. Bankers add that the Reserve Bank of India has also started strictly monitoring how banks are utilising their capital. Any big ticket loan to lower rated companies is being questioned.

In this scenario, banks are looking for safe bets, even if it means that profitability is being compromised. “About 25% of our loans this quarter was given to Navratna companies, who pay at base rate. This resulted in contraction of our Net Interest Margin (NIM)”, said Bank of India chairperson V.R. Iyer, while discussing the bank’s first quarter results with the media. Bank of India’s NIM, or the difference between yields on advances and cost of deposits, a key gauge of profitability, fell in the first quarter to 2.45% from 3.07% a year ago, as the bank focused on lending to highly rated customers.

Analysts, however, say the strategy being followed by banks is short-sighted. “A high rated client will take loans at base rate and will not give any fee income to a bank. A bank will never be profitable that way. Besides, there are only so many PSU companies to chase. All banks cannot be chasing them all at a time. Fact is, the banks are badly hit by NPA and are afraid to lend now to big projects. They need capital, true, but they have become risk averse,” said at senior analyst with a local brokerage who did not wish to be named. 

Various estimates suggest that Indian banks would require more than `2 trillion of additional capital to have this kind of capital adequacy ratio by 2019. The central government, which owns the majority share of these banks, has been cutting down on its commitment to recapitalize the banks. In 2013-14, the government infused `14,000 crore in its banks. However, in 2014-15, the government will infuse just `11,200 crore.

1. Which of the following statements is correct according to the passage’?

(a)   Last year banks had recorded a healthier loan growth in the first quarter over the preceding quarter, as compared to this year.

(b)   Risk level of loans move in the same direction as the credit ratings of a company.

(c)   Bank of Baroda shrank its loan book by less than 1% in the first, quarter this year as compared to the preceding quarter.

(d)   Punjab National Bank recorded a decline in its loan books by less than 1% in the first quarter this year as compared to the same quarter last year.

Ans: ()

2. Which of the following cannot be concluded from the passage?

(a)   Banks, loan books have shown a weak rate of growth in the first quarter this year.

(b)   According to Basel III norms total capital adequacy ratio should be 12%.

(c)   SBI received many good fresh proposals in the first quarter this year.

(d)   The shrinking credit is partly caused by economic slowdown.

Ans: ()

3. Based on the information given in the passage, which of the following is a likely outcome of lending to highly rated customers?

(a)   Narrowing gap between yields on advances and cost of deposit

(b)   Lower risk for the bank

(c)   Easier meeting of capital adequacy norms

(d)   All of the above

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2014)

The movement to expel the Austrians from Italy and unite Italy under a republican government had been gaining momentum while Garibaldi was away. There was a growing clamour, not just from Giuseppe Mazzini’s republicans, but from moderates as well, for a General capable of leading Italy to independence. Even the King of Piedmont, for whom Garibaldi was still an outlaw under sentence of death, subscribed to an appeal for a sword for the returning hero. Meanwhile, the ‘year of revolutions’, 1848, had occurred in which Louis Philippe had been toppled from the French throne. In Austria, an uprising triggered off insurrections in Venice and Milan, and the Austrian garrisons were forced out. The King of Piedmont. Charles Albert ordered his troops to occupy these cities. There had also been instruction in Sicily, causing the King Ferdinand II, to grant major constitutional freedoms in 1849, prompting both the Pope and Charles Albert to grant further concessions.

Meanwhile, largely ignorant of these developments, Garibaldi was approaching Italy at a leisurely pace, arriving at Nice on 23 June 1848 to a tumultuous reception. The hero declared himself willing to fight and lay down his life for Charles Albert, who he now regarded as a bastion of Italian nationalism.

Mazzini and the republicans were horrified, regarding this as outright betrayal: did it reflect Garibaldi’s innate simplemindedness, his patriotism in the war against Austria, or was it part of a deal with the monarchy’? Charles Albert had pardoned Garibaldi, but to outward appearances he was still very wary of the General and the ltalian Legion he had amassed of 150 ‘brigands’.

The two men met near Mantua, and the King appeared to dislike him instantly. He suggested that Garibaldi’s men should join his army and that Garibaldi should go to Venice and captain a ship as a privateer against the Austrians.

Garibaldi, meanwhile, met his former hero Mazzini for the first time, and again the encounter was frosty. Seemingly rebuffed on all sides. Garibaldi considered going to Sicily to fight King Ferdinand II of Naples, but changed his mind when the Milanese offered him the post of General – something they badly needed when Charles Albert’s Piedmontese army was defeated at Custoza by the Austrians. With around 1,000 men, Garibaldi marched into the mountains at Varese, commenting bitterly: ‘The King of Sardinia may have a crown that he holds on to by dint of misdeeds and cowardice, but my comrades and I do not wish to hold on to our lives by shameful actions’.

The King of Piedmont offered an armistice to the Austrians and all the gains in northern Italy were lost again. Garibaldi returned to Nice and then across to Genoa, where he learned that, in September 1848, Ferdinand II had bombed Messina as a prelude to invasion – an atrocity which caused him to be dubbed ‘King Bomba’. Reaching Livorno he was diverted yet again and set off across the Italian peninsula with 350 men to come to Venice’s assistance, but on the way, in Bologna, he learned that the Pope had taken refuge with King Bomba. Garibaldi promptly altered course southwards towards Rome where he was greeted once again as a hero. Rome proclaimed itself a Republic. Garibaldi’s

Legion had swollen to nearly 1,300 men, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany fled Florence before the advancing republican force.

However, the Austrians marched southwards to place the Grand Duke of Tuscany back on his throne. Prince Louis Napoleon of France -despatched an army of 7,000 men under General Charles Oudinot to the port of  ivitavecchia to seize the city. Garibaldi was appointed as a General to defend Rome.

The republicans had around 9,000 men, and Garibaldi was given control of more than 4,000 to defend the Janiculum Hill, which was crucial to the defence of Rome, as it commanded the city over the Tiber. Some 5,000 well-equipped French troops arrived on 30 April 1849 at Porta Cavallegeri in the old walls of Rome, but failed to get through, and were attacked from behind by Garibaldi, who led a baton charge and was grazed by a bullet slightly on his side. The French lost 500 dead and wounded, along with some 350 prisoners, to the Italians, 200 dead and wounded. It was a famous victory, wildly celebrated by the Romans into the night, and the French signed a tactical truce.

However, other armies were on the march: Bomba’s 12,500-strong Neapolitan army was approaching from the south, while the Austrians had attacked  Bologna in the north. Garibaldi took a force out of Rome and engaged in a flanking movement across the Neapolitan army’s rear at Castelli Romani; the Neapolitans attacked and were driven off, leaving 50 dead. Garibaldi  accompanied the Roman General, Piero Roselli, in an attack on the retreating  Neapolitan army. Foolishly leading a patrol of his men right out in front of his forces, he tried to stop a group of his cavalry reheating and fell under their horses, with the enemy clashing at him with their sabres. He was rescued by his legionnaires, narrowly having avoided being killed, but Roselli had missed the chance to encircle the Neapolitan army.

Garibaldi boldly wanted to carry the fight down into the Kingdom of Naples, but Mazzini, who by now was effectively in charge of Rome, ordered him back to the capital to face the danger of Austrian attack from the north. In fact, it was the French who arrived on the outskirts of Rome first, with an army now reinforced by 30,000. Mazzini realized that Rome could not resist and ordered a symbolic stand within the city itself, rather than surrender, for the purposes of international propaganda and to keep the struggle alive, whatever the cost. On 3 June the French arrived in force and seized the strategic country house, ‘Villa Pamphili.

Garibaldi rallied his forces and fought feverishly to retake the villa up narrow and steep city streets, capturing it, then losing it again. By the end of the day, the sides had 1,000 dead between them. Garibaldi once again had been in the thick of the fray, giving orders to his troops and fighting, it was said, like a lion. Although beaten off for the moment, the French imposed a siege in the morning, starving the city of provisions and bombarding its beautiful centre.

On 30 June the French attacked again in force, while Garibaldi, at the head of his troops, fought back ferociously. But there was no prospect of holding the French off indefinitely, and Garibaldi decided to take his men out of the city to continue resistance in the mountains. Mazzini fled to Britain while Garibaldi remained to fight for the cause. He had just 4,000 men, divided into two legions, and faced some 17,000 Austrians and Tuscans in the north, 30,000 Neapolitans and Spanish in the south, and 40,000 French in the west. He was being directly pursued by 8,000 French and was approaching Neapolitan and Spanish divisions of some 18,000 men. He stood no chance whatever. The rugged hill country was ideal, however, for his style of irregular guerrilla warfare, and he rnanoeuvred skilfully, marching and counter-marching in different directions, confounding his pursuers before finally aiming for Arezzo in the north. But his men were deserting in droves and local people were hostile to his army: he was soon reduced to 1500 men who struggled across the high mountain passes to San Marino where he found temporary refuge.

The Austrians, now approaching, demanded that he go into exile in America. He was determined to fight on and urged the ill and pregnant Anita, his wife, to stay behind in San Marino, but she would not hear of it. The pair set off with 200 loyal soldiers along the mountain tracks to the Adriatic coast, from where Garibaldi intended to embark for Venice which was still valiantly holding out against the Austrians. They embarked aboard 13 fishing boats and managed to sail to within 50 miles of the Venetian lagoon before being spotted by an Austrian flotilla and fired upon.

Only two of Garibaldi’s boats escaped. He carried Anita through the shallows to a beach and they moved further inland. The ailing Anita was placed in a cart and they reached a farmhouse, where she died. Her husband broke down into inconsolable wailing and she was buried in a shallow grave near the  farmhouse, but was transferred to a churchyard a few days later. Garibaldi had no time to lose; he and his faithful companion Leggero escaped across the Po towards Ravenna.

At last Garibaldi was persuaded to abandon his insane attempts to reach Venice by sea and to return along less guarded routes on the perilous mountain paths across the Apennines towards the western coast of Italy. He visited his family in Nice for an emotional reunion with his mother and his three children but lacked the courage to tell them what had happened to their mother.

1. Find the correct statement:

(a)   Garibaldi had a sore relationship with King Charles Albert before 1849, which however greatly improved in the subsequent period.

(b)   Garibaldi’s wife Anita Garibaldi passed away at a farmhouse, after their journey to Venice was interrupted by a Spanish flotilla.

(c)   After defeat of the republican army in the battle of ‘Rome, a total of 80000 foreign soldiers were moving in Italy across all directions, while Garibaldi was being directly pursued by 8000 French forces.

(d)   When Garibaldi and his wife left San Marino after threat from the Austrians, they were accompanied by 200 soldiers who were still loyal to him.

Ans: ()

2. Which of the following statements can be deduced from the passage?

(a)   King of Naples was given the name ‘King Bomba’, when he bombed Milan before the invasion that he was planning.

(b)   During the defence of Rome from the attack of Austrian troops, Garibaldi positioned his army near the Janiculum Hill.

(c)   While Garibaldi was fighting in Italy for unification of the country, his children stayed at Nice.

(d)   At the time when Garibaldi returned to meet King Charles Albert at Mantua, Giuseppe Mazzini was a major leader of the Italian moderates.

Ans: ()

3. Match the Following:

Name                      Place

Charles Albert a. Naples

Ferdinand II b. Tuscany

iii. Grand Duke       c. Piedomnt

Grand Duke d. France

(a)   i-c, ii-a, iii-d, iv-b

(b)   i-c, ii-b, iii-a, iv-d

(c)   i-a, ii-c, iii-d, iv-b

(d)   i-b, ii-a, iii-d, iv-c

Ans: ()

4. After his failure to reach Venice, Garibaldi left towards ––– with ––––––––.

(a)   Arezzo, Oudinot

(b)   Ravenna, Leggero

(c)   Livorno, Anita

(d)   Varese, Roselli

Ans: ()

Find the incorrect statement:

(a)   In 1848, when the battle for unification of Italy was going on, the Pope had taken refuge with the King of Piedmont.

(b)   When the news of Garibaldi’s decision to return to Italy and fight under King Charles Albert reached the republicans, they initially suspected his ulterior motive.

(c)   After the fighting at Castelli Romani, Garibaldi’s intention was to fight down into the Kingdom of Naples, a decision which was not approved by Mazzini.

(d)   Around the time Rome was declared a Republic, a French army under the command of General Oudinot were despatched to Civitavechia by Prince Louis Napoleon.

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2014)

The tight calendar had calmed hint, as did the constant exertion of his authority as a judge. How he relished his power over the classes that had kept his family pinned under their heels for centuries – like the stenographer, for example, who was a Brahmin. There he was, now crawling into a tiny tent to the side, and there was Jemubhai reclining like a king in a bed carved out of teak, hung with mosquito netting.

“Bed tea”, the cook would shout “Baaad tee”.

He would sit up to drink.

6.30: he’d bathe in water that had been heated over the fire so it was redolent with the smell of wood smoke and flocked with ash. With a dusting of powder he graced his newly washed face, with a daub of pomade, his hair. Crunched up toast like charcoal from having been toasted upon the flame, with marmalade over the burn.

8.30: he rode into the fields with the local officials and everyone else in the village going along for fun. Followed by an orderly holding an umbrella over his head to shield him from the glare, he measured the fields and checked to make sure his yield estimate matched the headman’s statement. Farms were growing less than ten maunds an acre of rice or wheat, and at two rupees a maund, every single man in a village, sometimes, was in debt to the bania. (Nobody knew that Jemuhhai himself was noosed, of course, that long ago in the little town of Piphit in Gujarat, moneylenders had sniffed out in him a winning combination of ambition and poverty … that they still sat waiting cross-legged on a soiled mat in the market, snapping their toes, cracking their knuckles in anticipation of repayment….) 2.00: after lunch, the judge sat at his desk under a tree to try cases, usually in a cross mood, for he disliked the informality, hated the splotch of leaf shadow on him imparting an untidy mongrel look. Also, there was a worse aspect of contamination and corruption; he heard cases in Hindi, but they were recorded in Urdu by the stenographer and translated by the judge into a second record in English, although his own command of Hindi and Urdu was tenuous; the witnesses who couldn’t read at all put their thumbprints at the bottom of “Read Over and Acknowledged Correct”, as instructed. Nobody could be sure how much of the truth had fallen between languages, between languages and illiteracy; the clarity that justice demanded was nonexistent. Still, despite the leaf shadow and language confusion, he acquired a fearsome reputation for his speech that seemed to belong to no language at all, and for his face like a mask that conveyed something beyond human fallibility. The expression and manner honed here would carry him, eventually, all the way to the high court in Lucknow where, annoyed by lawless pigeons shuttlecocking about those tall, shadowy halls, he would preside, white powdered wig over white powdered face, hammer in hand.

His photograph, thus attired, thus annoyed, was still up on the wall, in a parade of history glorifying the progress of Indian law and order.

4:30: tea had to be perfect, drop scones made in the frying pan. He would embark on them with forehead wrinkled, as if angrily mulling over something important, and then, as it would into his retirement, the draw of the sweet took over, and his stern work face would hatch an expression of tranquillity.

5:30: out he went into the countryside with his fishing rod or gun. The countryside was full of game; lariats of migratory birds lassoed the sky in October; quail and partridge with lines of babies strung out behind whirred by like nursery toys that emit sound with movement; pheasant – fat foolish creatures, made to be shot – went scurrying, through the bushes. The thunder of gunshot rolled away, the leaves shivered, and he experienced the profound silence that could come only after violence. One thing was always missing, though, the proof of the pudding, the prize of the action, the manliness in manhood, the partridge for the pot, because he returned with – Nothing!

He was a terrible shot.

8:00: the cook saved his reputation, cooked a chicken, brought it forth, proclaimed it “roast bastard”, just as in the Englishman’s favourite joke book of natives using incorrect English. But sometimes, eating that roast bustard, the judge felt the joke might also be on him, and he called for another rum, took a big gulp, and kept eating feeling as if he were eating himself, since he, too, was (was he?) part of the fun….

9:00: sipping Ovaltine, he filled out the registers with the day’s gleanings. The Petromax lantern would be lit – what as noise it made – insects fording the black to dive – bomb him with soft flowers (moths), with iridescence (beetles). Lines, columns, and squares. He realized truth was best looked at in tiny aggregates, for many baby truths could yet add up to one big size unsavory lie. Last, in his diary also to be submitted to his superiors, he recorded the random observations of a cultured man, someone

who was observant, schooled in literature as well as economics; and he made up bunting triumphs: two partridge…. one deer with thirty-inch horns….

11:00 : he had a hot water bottle in winter, and, in all seasons, to the sound of the wind buffeting the trees and the cook’s snoring, he fell asleep.

1. Which of the following statements is incorrect?

(a)   The judge used to visit the countryside to shoot game

(b)   The judge was not a Brahmin

(c)   The judge had good command over Hindi and Urdu

(d)   The judge owed money to moneylenders in Piphit

Ans: ()

2. What always happened when the judge went to the countryside?

(a)   He could not hear any noise and there was only profound silence

(b)   He could not manage to hit a single bird

(c)   He could not get the proof that the pudding was made from the Patridge

(d)   He could not see lariats of migratory birds

Ans: ()

3. People were in “debt to the “bania” because:

(a)   Yield per acre did not appear to be very good.

(b)   Moneylenders in Piphit were asking all villagers for repayment.

(c)   People in the village spent too much time on hunting.

(d)   The fields were spoiled when the judge rode around to take measurements.

Ans: ()

Which is the odd one out:

(a)   Lariat

(b)   Brood

(c)   Flock

(d)   Flight

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2014)

No club in the English Premier League generated less money than Wigan Athletic. No club in the Premier League had so little history, or so few fans. Ever since 2005, when they won promotion to the top flight for the first time in their existence, Wigan started the season listening to prophecies of doom. 2013 was the year that football gravity finally caught up with them, and they returned to their ‘rightful’ place among the also-rans. Even as the naysayers and doubters were ignoring seven years of wrong forecasts and congratulating themselves for seeing Wigan’s fate, this little David took out one last Goliath, Manchester City, in the FA Cup final.

          In their book Why England Lose, the football journalist Simon Kuper and the economist Stefan Szymanski found that money matters a great deal for the success of football clubs. According to their calculations. 92 per cent of the differences in English football clubs leage position can be explained by a club’s relative wage bill. It might not be the case that the team with the highest wage bill finished top each and every season, but over the long term, the correlation is uncanny. At the other end of the table, it seems inevitable that, eventually, in football poverty will drag you down.

          For Wigan, this was unfortunate. The annual reports into football’s finances prepared by the accountants Deloitte must have made miserable reading for anyone who followed the club: their turnover, wages and attendance were all fractions of the Premier League’s giants. And yet Wigan managed to avoid relegation for seven years. It was almost pathological. They defied the laws of football economics. They disobeyed the laws of football gravity.

Part of the reason Wigan managed to survive so long in the rarefied air of the Premier League is Dave Whelan, the local magnate who owns the club. Wigan’s average attendance was just 17,000- they rarely sold out their home ground, the DW Stadium, its initials a (self-awarded) tribute to the club’s benefactor – on a par with the likes of Vitesse Arnhem or the average German second-division side, but half the Premier League’s average. That’s a considerable shortfall in revenue. It’s the same when we look at television and commercial earnings: in 2010-11, they earned £50.5 million from all of these streams – a tidy sum, to be sure, but half what the average Premier League team took. Only because of Whelan’s enduring generosity did the club avoid sinking into the red. In 2011-12, he wrote off a £48 million loan to the club to balance the books. Financially, Wigan could not compete. And yet on the pitch they did.

In truth, Wigan did not dramatically outperform their wage bill, the gauge-for Kuper and Szymanski – of a manager’s true impact. From 2006 to 2011, they finished eighteenth, fifteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and sixteenth in the salary league, not far off their finishes in the actual division, yet Wigan’s continued survival was still, as the respected financial blog. The Swiss Ramble had it, ‘a minor modern miracle’. To explain why, we have to consider the odds that – given their spending on wages – Wigan would have been relegated well before the final axe fell in 2013. To do that properly, we need to calculate the odds of relegation as a function of a club’s payroll.

The notional odds of relegation from the Premier League in any given seasons, for any team, are 15 per cent: three sides out of twenty endure the pain of demotion every year. But of course those three clubs are not simply drawn out of a hat: money does matter. More specifically, when we examined twenty years of club finances with the help of data from Deloitte, we found that a club’s odds of relegation are 7.2 per cent if its wage spends is greater than average. In other words you can halve the chances of being relegated just by spending a little more on your salaries than the average side. But for clubs that spend less, the odds of relegation shoot up from 15 to 21 per cent. For a team that spends as little as Wigan or less, these odds can even be as high as 44 percent in any given season.

Spending less isn’t death sentence, but you are flirting with the chair. And spending less than the average year after year means the odds of relegation accumulate. For Wigan, the odds that they would be relegated at some point over the five Premier League seasons to 2012 were 95 per cent. It was, both  mathematically and financially, almost certainly. With wage bills four, two, and one and a half times Wigan’s £40 million. Manchester United, Aston Villa and Fulham faced odds of demotion of 0,31 and 69 per cent, respectively.

All this suggests that Wigan’s continued survival was more than just good luck, and it was not simply attributable to their individual wage spending in any given year: the numbers weresquarely against them. So Wigan’s story is not just about money, but also how that money is put to use. By any standard measure Wigan had been a mediocre team for a long time. They conceded more goals than they scored in every season they were in the Premier League. They tended to have more possession than most of their peers at the wrong end of the table, but much of that came from the sterile domination of their own half. Roberto Martinez’s team, though, had been doing more than just passing the ball around at the back and getting lucky.

With the help of Ramzi Ben Said, a student at Cornell University, and the performance chalkboards published online by the British newspaper the Guardian in conjunction with Opta Sports, we tried to establish how Wigan went about scoring their goals in the 2010-11 season. Ramzi collected and coded a year’s worth of data of attacking production (how each Premier League club scored their goals that season).

The data showed that the vast majority -66 per cent – of the 1.4 goals a team scored in the average match that year came from open play. By far the smallest proportion of goals came from direct free kicks: just 2.8 per cent per team, per match. The average team produced one goal a game from open play, but needed to make thirty-five direct free kicks before finding the net that way.

But Martinez’s Wigan was not your typical club. In 2010-11, they created goals in extremely unusual ways. They relied much less on traditional open-play goals than most, and did not bother with anything that resembled a patient build-up. In half their games they failed to score from open play at all. When they did, they tended to come from what are known among analysts as ‘fast breaks’ – lightning quick counter attacks. And the rest of their goals came from free kicks. Their output in both these categories was exceptional. They scored twice as many goals on the break as the average side, and they scored almost four times as many goals from free kicks.

Rather than choosing one or the other, Martinez as a manager seemed to have forsaken both high frequency – not scoring from the most common source of goals – as well as good odds – trying to score from low probability shots (free kicks) – as a way to win matches. Martinez was not trying to fight his opponents in a conventional way. Instead, he was beating them any way he could. Albert Larcada, an analyst at ESPN’s Stats Information Group, filled in the picture further. Using opta’s master file of play-byplay data, Larcada discovered ‘Wigan were unusual in a number of other ways.

Not only did they score from fast breaks and free kicks, but when Larcada calculated the average distances from which Premier League clubs attempted shots that season. Wigan were the overall league leaders. Their average shooting distance was some twentysix yards. This looked deliberate: their goals came from a longer distance than any of their peers – an average of 18.5 yards, way ahead of second-placed Tottenham, while their players Charles N’Zogbia and Hugo Rodallega both finished in the top five scorers from distance in the Premier League in 2010-11.

Martinez was thinking outside the box in the most literal fashion. Indeed, his team had the lowest number of goals scored from inside the penalty area of any side in the league-just twentyeight, compared to Manchester United’s sixty-nine. This sounds very defensive – hitting teams on the break, relying on set pieces and long-range shots – but Wigan’s formations told a more nuanced story. Martinez’s strategy relied on highly accurate long-range shooting, firing from distance – allowing his team to recover their defensive shape more easily – and persistence. He did not place any emphasis on corners- Wigan scored just one goal from a corner in the entire 2010-11 season – because it meant allowing his troops out of hiding and into open sight, leaving them vulnerable. Martinez was playing guerrilla football. He had his team lie in wait for their opponents and then punish them on the counter attack. He employed sharpshooters, let fly from distance and snipers, to hit free kicks. His team were adaptable unpredictable.

1. Identify the correct statement:

(a)  In terms of salary payments to the staff, Wigan was ranked fifteenth during the 2009-10 season.

(b)  According to the article, the wage bill of Manchester United is two times the corresponding figure for Aston Villa.

(c)  According to the article, the research of Kuper and Szymanski revealed that if a football club is successful in including a number of highly paid footballers in its team, the club is more likely to win all major European tournaments.

(d)  For analyzing the performance of the teams in English Premier League the above article has used the performance chalkboards published by The Guardian in its daily newspaper in conjunction with ESPN Sports.

Ans: ()

2. As per the research conducted by the ESPN’s Stats & Information Group, the average distances from which Wigan Athletic attempted shots dining 2010-11 was:

(a)   22 yards

(b)   20 yards

(c)   26 yards

(d)   18.5 yards

Ans: ()

3. Match the following:

Name                               Occupation

Hugo Ro dallega a. Student at Cornell University

Ramzi Ben Said b. Manager of Wigan Athletic

iii. Roberto Martinez        c. Analysts at ESPN

Albert Larcada d. Player of Wigan Athletic

(a)   i-c, ii-b, iii-d, iv-a

(b)   i-d, ii-c, iii-a, iv-b

(c)   i-b, ii-a, iii-c, iv-d

(d)   i-d, ii-a, iii-b, iv-c

Ans: ()

4. Wigan’s playing style has been termed as ‘guerrilla football’ because:

(a)   Instead of deciding to play with : a team full of superstars, they were relying mainly on junior players with less professional experience, which resulted into poorer performance of the team.

(b)   The team was among the lowest scoring teams in the English Premier League in all the years they played.

(c)   Instead of attacking style of playmaking the team played a counter-attack based game, and depended heavily on goals scored from distance and through free kicks, and getting back: to defensive positions quickly.

(d)   All of the above

Ans: ()

5. Identify the incorrect statement:

(a)   The data on club finances, collected by Deloitte in the last decade alone, indicates that the odds of relegation of an English Premier League team are 7.2 per cent if the club’s spending on wage is greater than average.

(b)   The Article suggests that in 2010-11, an average English Premier League team earned around £101 million through television and commercial earnings.

(c)   The average attendance in Wigan’s matches was around 17,000 and their home matches were held at DW Stadium, named after Dave Whelan, the magnate and owner of the club.

(d)   During 2010-11, the goals scored by Wigan from free kicks were as high as almost four times as the goals scored by an average English Premier League team.

Ans: ()

(Source: IIFT-2014)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the most appropriate options.

In the affluent,, industrialized nations giant surpluses of what, maize, and sorghum are commonplace; cattle, swine, and poultry are fed and fattened on cereal grains; meat, milk, eggs, fruits, and vegetables are within the economic reach of most of the population; well-balanced diets are more or less automatically achieved, and cereal products constitute only a modest portion of the ‘daily bread’. Consequently, most of the people in such societies have difficulty in comprehending and appreciating the vital significance of providing high-yielding strains of wheat, rice, maize, sorghum and millet for the people of the developing nations. Understandably then, the majority of the urbanites in the industrialized nations have forgotten the significance of the words they learned as youngsters. ‘ Give us this day our daily bread.’ They know that food comes from the supermarket, but only a few see beyond the necessary investments, the toils, struggle, and frustrations on the farms and ranches that provide their daily bread. Since the urbanites have lost their contact with the soil, they take food for granted and fail to appreciate the tremendous efficiency of their farmers and ranchers, who, although constituting only five percent of the labour force in a country such as the United States, produce more than enough food for their nation.

                   Even worse urbanites often vociferously criticize their government for attempting to bring to balance the agricultural production of its farmers with the domestic and foreign market demands for farm products, and attempting thereby to provide the consumer and abundant food supply at reasonable cost and also to assure a reasonable return to the farmer and ranchers.

[LDAdvQuiz 1545]

(Source: CTET SEP-15 Paper-II)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the most appropriate options:

            The massive fort of Jodhpur looked down from the hill at the new city which had sprawled out around the old one. The desert lay beyond the city. IT crouched there like a lion, and was the colour of one, its rippled tawny pelt flea-specked here and there with small clumps of scrub. A gritty wind blew out of it, little rivers of sand eddied briefly down the pavements, then were snatched back into the air and flung like a challenge to the south. At the edge of the city, herds of camels twined their long necks around stunted trees, as though they were snakes. Then there were no more trees. Tall whirlwinds of sand marched down towards us from the horizon.

          The desert enclosed us for the next ten days. There was a glare and dazzle on the skyline at dawn, then the ferocious eye of summer opened for a long look at its domain. For the next twelve hours it scowled down at the sand. We closed our eyes, visualized shadow and water, narrowed them open once more to the parch and scald of the desert wind. The shifting wind caused the dunes constantly to collapse and reform, or drifted them lazily out as bulwarks across the road. The car had to stop at frequent intervals, so that we could clear the heaped sand away, or because one of the tyres, hissing on the burning surface of the tarmac, had exploded. During those prolonged and sweaty intervals by the roadside, we were passed, sometimes, by the ghostly herds of livestock moving south.

[LDAdvQuiz 1543]

[LDAdvQuiz 1544]

(Source: CTET SEP-15 Paper-II)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the most appropriate options :

            One of the unhealthiest emotions is anger. It destroys our ability to think clearly, properly and in totality. Anger also has adverse impact on health. If you ask a selection of people what triggers their anger, you would get a wide range of answers. However, whatever the cause, even a single word spoken in anger an leave a lasting impression on a person’s heart and has the ability to ruin the sweetness of any relationship.

  A sage once said, “How can there be peace on earth if the hearts of men are like volcanoes ?” We can live in harmony with others only when we overcome anger and make room for peace. So how can we set about creating that sense of peace within ourselves ? It starts with the realization that w do have the choice to think and feel the way we want to. If we look at what it is that makes us angry, we  might discover there is nothing that has the power to make us feel this way. We can only allow something to trigger our anger – the anger is a way in which we respond to an event or person. But because we are so used to reacting on impulse, we forget to choose how we want to feel, and end up reacting inappropriately, leaving ourselves with angry feelings.

            Mediation helps us create personal space within ourselves so that we have the change to look, weigh the situation, and respond accordingly, remaining in a state of self-control. When we are angry, we have no self-control. At that moment, we are in a state of internal chaos, and anger can be a very destructive force.

            Stability that comes from practice of meditation can create a firm foundation, a kind of positive stubbornness. Others can say whatever they want, and it may also be true, but we don’t lose our peace or happiness on account of that. This is to respect what is eternal within each of us.

                   We give ourselves the opportunity to maintain our own pace of mind, because let’s face it, no one’s going to turn up at our door with a box full of peace and say, “Here, I think you could do with some of this today !” There is a method which could be described as sublimation, or the changing of form. With daily practice and application of spiritual principles in our practical life, experience of inner peace can come naturally.

[LDAdvQuiz 1541]

(Source: CTET SEP-15 Paper-II)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the most appropriate options:

            Your attitudes are the perspectives from which you view life. Some people seem to have a good attitude towards most things. Some people seem to have a bad attitude towards everything. But when you look closer, you will find that most of us have a combination of attitudes, some good, some not so good.

            Whatever attitude we have towards anything will affect how we feel about it, which in turn determines whether or not we will do well. So our right attitudes play a very important part in  helping us become successful.

            In fact, as we can see, a good attitude is essential for achievement of any kind ! We so often hear of someone who is said to have a “bad attitude”. The term is often applied to young people, especially to teenagers whose frequently get into trouble, but we often hear it about adults, too. The implication is always that the individual in question is not going to make it if he doesn’t change his attitude.

            I would agree, without a good attitude it is not possible to see the opportunities ahead and set one’s sights to reach them. But even more important is the fact that in order to possess the kind of feelings which work for us, we’ve got to have the right attitude to start with.

                   But where do we get our attitudes from ? Are we born with them or do they just appear out of nowhere? Our attitudes are no accident. They don’t just happen. Our attitudes are created and influenced entirely by our beliefs.

[LDAdvQuiz 1539]

(Source: CTET SEP-15 Paper-I)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the most appropriate options:

            One Sunday morning, I was travelling on a subway in Mumbai. People were sitting quietly – some reading newspapers, some lost in thought. It was a calm, peaceful scene.

            Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.

            The man sat next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.

            It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild and do nothing about it. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, I turned to him and said, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more ?”

            The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died an hour ago. I don’t know what to think and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either”.

                   Can you imagine what I felt at that moment. My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, and because I saw things differently, I thought, felt and behaved differently. My irritation vanished; my heart was filled with the man’s pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. “Your wife just died ? Oh, I am sorry ! Can you tell me about it ? What can I do to help ?” Everything changed in an instant.

[LDAdvQuiz 1536]

[LDAdvQuiz 1537]

(Source: CTET SEP-15 Paper-I)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the most appropriate options:

Madam Cama’s Paris home became a shelter for world revolutionaries. Even Lenin, the father of Russian revolution visited her house and exchanged views. Savarkar got all encouragement in writing the history of the First India War of Independence from Cama. She helped its printing in Holland as no English publisher came forward to publish it. It was a banned book but found its way to India. Smuggled ingeniously under “Don Quixote” covers ! She became the publisher of “VandeMataram”, a revolutionary magazine and its distributor, an extremely difficult task in the days of British espionage. Another magazine “Madan’sTalwar” was also started in memory of MadanLalDhingra who laid down his life for the country. Both the magazines were outlawed in India and England. Madam Cama somehow found ways to sent them to Indian revolutionaries.

            Madam Cama also fought for the cause of women. Speaking at National Conference at Cairo, Egypt in 1910, she asked, :Where is the other half of the Egypt ? I see only men who represent half the country !” She stressed the role of women in building a nation.

  When the First World War broke out in 1914, Madam Cama took an anti-British stand and tried her best to make the Indian people aware of the exploitative nature of British imperialism.

                   The British had banned her entry into India, being afraid of her revolutionary past and staunch nationalistic outlook. But the lioness was getting old and 35 years of fighting on foreign-land had taken its toll. She decided to return to her motherland. Her health was worsening. After reaching Bombay, she was hospitalized and died on 13^th of August, 1936.

[LDAdvQuiz 1533]

[LDAdvQuiz 1534]

(Source: CTET SEP-15 Paper-I)

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/ phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

The news from China in recent weeks has been dire. Violent strikes and protests are reported almost daily. Millions of workers are out of jobs. Economic indicators presage more gloom, with electricity production for industry falling 4% in October, the first time it has declined in a decade. So is China – the “fragile superpower,” as historian Susan Shirk memorably termed it- about to experience the one thing its leaders have feared for years : a so-called hard landing of its economy that could spark widespread social unrest ?

How will China Weather the Financial Storm ? China’s View of the Financial Meltdown : Alarmed But Confident. Behind the Global Markets’ Meltdown. The gloom-and-doom camp makes a persuasive case. Nouriel Roubini, a professor at New York University, had been warning for years of the dangers of an international financial implosion – and the current economic crisis proved him depressingly right. In a recent article Roubini has laid out a bleak scenario for China. “The risk of a hard landing in China is sharply rising,” he writes. “A deceleration in the Chinese growth rate … is highly likely, and an even worse outcome cannot be ruled out.” But a clique of China specialists inside the country predicts a different outcome. They believe that a range of factors unique to China will not only preserve it from the worst of the global meltdown but also keep its economy chugging along at about 8% GDP growth in 2009. So who’s right ? I’d go with the locally based economists. While the U.S. fiscal package is unlikely to add even 1 percentage point to American growth, a recent report by Merrill Lynch estimates that the $600 billion stimulus Beijing unveiled in mid-November will likely add 3 percentage points. (And that was before China’s provinces unveiled their own $1.4 trillion bailout plan, which depends on a massive infrastructure-building spree to boost the economy.) Such growth would be unachievable in other economies. But China remains a special mixture of raging capitalism resting on a foundation of state domination. “People who don’t follow China on a regular basis can miss some of the underlying drivers of growth,” says Arthur Kroeber, a Beijing-based economist, who cites factors such as changing demographics, the adoption of new technology from developed countries and rapid urbanization. Yes, there will be plenty of pain. Kroeber and others predict a rough next few months. They also concede that a sharp decline in exports will hit China hard, possibly cutting 2.5 percentage points off growth in 2009. There’s also the strong likelihood that tens of millions of dollars will disappear into China’s bridges to nowhere – or into the pockets of corrupt local officials. Still, if any government can drive change by diktat, it’s the Chinese Communist Party. Doomsayer Roubini writes: The government cannot force corporations to spend or banks to lend.” In fact, Beijing can do exactly that – and is doing so now. “On the outside, China’s banks do look a lot more like normal Western commercial banks,” says an investment-bank analyst with a decade of experience in China. “But every single senior officer right down to the manager of the smallest branch in Inner Mongolia is a Party member. And when the Party says, ‘Jump or we’re all in trouble,’ they say, ‘How high ?” The same principle applies to state owned enterprises, which account for about a third of the nation’s GDP. Some of the problems China now faces are a result of economic policies that are finally kicking in at an inopportune time. Concerned earlier this year about spiking inflation and a blistering yearly growth rate of 11% or more, China’s economic czars set out to cool things down. They introduced tough labor laws designed to decelerate production of lower-value-added goods. It’s in that sector that hundreds of thousands of workers are now losing jobs. The same holds true for the bubbling property market, where Chinese authorities conveyed to potential home buyers that they would be wise to hold off. “The government basically said, ‘You’d be an idiot to buy an apartment right now because we’re going to make sure that prices drop like a stone’,” says the investment-bank analyst. “Chinese people stopped buying. Now the government is telling them, ‘It would be a great time to buy, and the banks will be happy to lend to you.’ Of course people will start buying again.” China’s current economic woes come at a momentous point in history. Dec. 18 marks the 30th anniversary of when Deng Xiaoping launched the nation into the most extraordinary burst of economic development the world has ever seen. For almost this entire period, outsiders have been predicting that it wouldn’t last. And each time, China has forged ahead. The financial crisis has led the whole world into uncharted territory. But the one constant in this changing world may be China’s ability to surprise once more.

Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word given in bold as used in the passage.

QUESTION:

1. Blistering

(A) comfortable

(B) existing

(C) worrying

(D) baffling

(E) scorching

Show Answer

2. Woes

(A) oaths

(B) flam buoyancies 

(C) miseries

(D) shambles

(E) feasibilities

Show Answer

3. Decelerate

(A) up-beat 

(B) re-invent 

(C) escalate

(D) slow-down 

(E) de-activate 

Show Answer

Choose the word/group of words which is most OPPOSITE in meaning of the word given in bold as used in the passage.

1. Unveil

(A) conceal

(B) display

(C) explore

(D) deplore

(E) reveal

Show Answer

2. Dire

(A) terrible

(B) wonderful

(C) unpleasant 

(D) healthy

(E) inextinguishable

Show Answer

3. Momentous

(A) earth-shattering 

(B) significant

(C) unsynchronizable

(D) inevitable

(E) trivial

Show Answer

(Source: UCO Bank PO Exam Paper -2009)

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

          Agriculture has always been celebrated as the primary sector in India: Thanks to the Green Revolution, India is now self-sufficient in food production. Indian agriculture has been making technological advancement as well. Does that mean everything is looking bright for Indian agriculture? A superficial analysis of the above points would tempt one to say yes, but the truth is far from it. The reality is that Indian farmers have to face extreme poverty and financial crisis, which is driving them to suicides. What are the grave adversities that drive the famers to commit suicide at a time when Indian economy is supposed, to be gearing up to take on the world?

          Indian agriculture is predominantly dependant on nature. Irrigation facilities that are currently available do not cover the entire cultivable land. If the farmers are at the mercy of monsoons for timely water for their crops, they are at the mercy of the government for alternative irrigation facilities. Any failure of nature, directly affects the fortunes of the farmers. Secondly, Indian agriculture is largely an unorganized sector, there is no systematic planning in cultivation, famers work on lands of uneconomical sizes, institutional finances are not available and minimum purchase prices of the government do not in reality reach the poorest farmer. Added to this, the cost of agricultural inputs have been steadily rising over the .years, farmers margins of profits have been narrowing because the price rise in inputs is not complemented by an increase in the purchase price of the agricultural produce. Even today, in several parts of the country agriculture is a seasonal occupation. In many districts, farmers get only one crop per year and for the remaining part of the year, they find it difficult to make both ends meet.

          The farmers normally resort to borrowing from money lenders, in the absence of institutionalized finance. Where institutional finance is available, the ordinary farmer does not have a chance of availing it because of the procedures involved in disbursing the finance. This calls for removing the elaborate formalities for obtaining the loans. The institutional finance, where available is mostly availed by the medium or large land owners, the small tamers do not even have the awareness of the existence of such facilities. The money lender is the only source of finance to the farmers. Should the crops fail, the farmers fall into a debt trap and crop failures piled up over the years give them no other option than ending their lives.

          Another disturbing trend has been observed where farmers commit suicide or deliberately kill a family member in order to avail relief and benefits announced by the government to support the families of those who have committed suicide so that their families could at least benefit from the Government’s relief programmes. What then needs to be done to prevent this sad state of affairs? There cannot be one single solution to end the woes of farmers.

          Temporary measures through monetary relief would not be the solution. The governmental efforts should be targeted at improving the entire structure of the small farmers wherein the relief is not given on a drought to drought basis, rather they are taught to overcome their difficulties through their own skills and capabilities. Social responsibility also goes a long way to help the farmers. General public, NGOs, Corporate and other organizations too can play a part in helping farmers by adopting drought affected villages and families and helping then to rehabilitate.

          The nation has to realize that farmers suicides are not minor issues happening in remote parts of a few states, it is a reflection of the true state of the basis of our economy.

Choose the word which is most similar in meaning to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.

QUESTION:

1. BRIGHT

(A) Glowing

(B) Radiant

(C) Dazzling

(D) Lustrous

(E) Promising 

Show Answer

2. Promising

(A) Cemetery

(B) Fatal

(C) Severe

(D) Carve

(E) Trivial

Show Answer

3. WOES

(A) Suffering

(B) Tragedy

(C) Bitterness

(D) Anger

(E) Fear

Show Answer

Choose the word which is most opposite in meaning to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.

1. SUPERFICIAL

(A) Careless

(B) Profound

(C) Extreme

(D) Articulate

(E) Fear

Show Answer

2. NARROWING

(A) Broadening

(B) Stretching

(C) Changing

(D) Increasing

(E) Extending

Show Answer

(Source: SBI Assistant Manager (System) Exam – 2009)

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

          The current global food situation is very serious and hence, we need to understand the reasons for such a dramatic increase in food prices in a short period. It is argued that increases in energy costs are resulting in cost push inflation but the contribution of energy costs to overall costs in agriculture may not explain the huge increase in food prices. Related to the current elevated energy prices, there has been a diversion of corn and edible oils to bio-fuels, which is significantly influenced by policy mandates. Very clearly this diversion to bio-fuels is a policy induced new reality, which coincided with price escalation in precisely those products and hence, is note worthy.

          The financialization of commodity trade and current extraordinary conditions in global financial markets could have influenced the spurt in prices. The recent reductions in interest rates in the U.S. and the injection of liquidity have resulted in investors seeking new avenues such as commodity markets, in view of the turbulence in financial markets and the low returns in treasuries. The relatively easy liquidity and low interest rates, by themselves, make holding of inventories attractive and thus induce greater volatility in commodity markets. The weakening of the U.S. dollar is also advanced as a reason for the recent volatility in commodity markets, including food items. It is evident that this phenomenon is now also coinciding with the across the board rise in food prices.

In brief, while there are demand and supply side pressures on food items, there is considerable merit in the argument that the recent extraordinary increases in food prices are closely linked to public policy responses to high energy costs in advanced economies, and the turbulence in financial markets and financial institutions. It is said that the impact of such policy induced diversion of food to bio-fuels is significant at this juncture and reflects a preference to fill the fuel tanks of automobiles rather than fill the empty stomachs of people. Similarly, it is sometimes held that the weight accorded to financial stability in public policy may now be at the expense of stability in real sector – especially of sensitive commodities like food. At the same time, there is a general consensus that public policy in regard to food in many economies around the world has not provided adequate incentive to farmers to increase the supply of food and other agricultural products to comfortably match the growing demand over the medium term.

Choose the word/group of words which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word given in bold as used in the passage.

QUESTIONS:

1. None of these

(A) acceleration

(B) surplus

(C) baiting 

(D) inspiration

(E) encouragement

Show Answer

2. advanced

(A) put forward 

(B) set aside 

(C) taken over 

(D) marched forward 

(E) escalated further 

Show Answer

3. turbulence

(A) tranquility

(B) certainty

(C) turmoil

(D) restless

(E) lackluster

Show Answer

Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning of the word given in bold as used in the passage.

1. consensus

(A) deviant

(B) disagreement

(C) dejection

(D) denial

(E) dissuasion

Show Answer

2. elevated

(A) raised

(B) stabilized

(C) inclined

(D) fallen

(E) slanted

Show Answer

3. volatility

(A) agitation

(B) effervescence

(C) optimism

(D) disparity

(E) inactivity

Show Answer

(Source: Punjab National Bank P.O Exam – 2009)

For many years, the continent of Africa remained unexplored and hence unknown. The main reason was the inaccessibility to its interior region due to dense forests, wild life, savage tribals, deserts and barren solid hills. Many people tried to explore the land but could not survive the dangers. David Livingstone is among those brave few who not only explored part of Africa but also lived among the tribals bringing them near to social milieu. While others explored with the idea of expanding their respective empires, Livingstone did so to explore its vast and mysterious hinterland, rivers and lakes. He was primarily a religious man and a medical practitioner who tried to help mankind with it.

          Livingstone was born in Scotland and was educated to become a doctor and a priest. His exploration started at the beginning of the year 1852. He explored an unknown river in Western Luanda. However, he was reduced to a skeleton during four years of travelling. By this time, he had become famous and when he returned to England for convalescing, entire London, along with Queen Victoria the, turned to welcome him. After a few days, he returned to Africa.

          He discovered the origin of the River Nile in 1866. He again suffered many discomforts. He became too sick and could not even walk. He lost contact with rest of the world that grew anxious to know his whereabouts. Ultimately, it was Stanley, the American journalist, who found him after many efforts, but Livingstone had died in a tribal village in 1873. His body was brought to London and buried in Westminster with full honour.

Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word given in bold as used in the passage.

QUESTIONS:

1. exploration

(A) execution

(B) cultivation

(C) foundation

(D) discovery

(E) assimilation

Show Answer

2. turned

(A) rotated

(B) twisted

(C) spinned

(D) revolved

(E) arrived

Show Answer

3. rest

(A) remaining

(B) relax

(C) respite

(D) break

(E) most

Show Answer

Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning of the word given in bold as used in the passage.

1. barren

(A) uncultivated

(B) fertile

(C) forest

(D) unlevelled

(E) marshy

Show Answer

2. vast 

(A) miniature

(B) magnified

(C) enormous

(D) gigantic

(E) small

Show Answer

3. dense

(A) crowded

(B) dark

(C) sparse

(D) transparent

(E) opaque

Show Answer

(Source: Oriental Bank of Commerce (Bank Clerk) Held on: 27-12-2009)

Jet Airways announced a new scheme, check Fares ‘ that enables passengers to avail substantial savings on air tickets on select flights.

  These fares are 30 to 45 per cent lower than the normal economy class fares and will be available to passengers close to the date of travel in two levels. Available in the economy class of specific flights, ‘Check Fares’ will complement the existing 15-day and 21-day apex fares and the 30-day super apex fares. However, unlike the apex fares, these need not be booked in advance. All a passenger is required to do is to check the availability of tickets at the time of booking on the website, www.jetairways.com, or at any Jet Airways ticketing counter.

  Travel agents across the country can book these fares on Global Distribution Systems. Waitlisted reservations and open date’s tickets will not be allowed on ‘Check Fares ‘ booking. These fares can be sold on tickets only in India. Similarly, extension of validity and group travel is not permitted on this new pricing initiative. The tickets can be reissued only at Jet Airways offices after deduction of Rs. 500 as cancellation charges, a jet Airways release said.

  The ‘Check Fares’ between Bangalore and Delhi will be available on flight numbers 801 and 802 costing Rs. 5,855 per ticket in Ievel-1 and Rs. 7,150 a ticket in level-2. On the Delhi-Mumbai sector, the new price will be avail bale on flight numbers 302, 305, 306 and 353 with the cost being Rs. 4,250 in level-1 and Rs. 5,150 in levet-2. The level-1 fares between Mumbai and Bangalore will be Rs. 3,250 and Rs. 3,750 in level-2 on flight numbers 443, 417, 444 and 418. In the Delhi- Hyderabad sector, the Ievel-1 and level-2 ‘.Check Fares’ are priced at Rs. 4,750 and Rs. 5,950 respectively on flight numbers 825 and 828. The flight between Delhi and Chennai will now cost Rs. 5,850 in level-1 and Rs. 7, !50 in level-2 on flights 822, 831 and 725. The Chennai-Hyderabad sector will now cost Rs. 2,890 in level-1 and Rs. 3,350 in level-2 on flight numbers 3502 and 493. Between Delhi and Guwahati, a ticket will cost Rs. 5, 750 and Rs. 6, 750 in level-1 and level-2 flights 601 and 602.

Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word given in bold as used in the passage.

QUESTIONS:

1. AVAIL

(A) benefit

(B) aid

(C) damage

(D) harm

(E) hinder

Show Answer

2.NORMAL

(A) peculiar

(B) ordinary

(C) old

(D) straight

(E) popular

Show Answer

3. AVAILABLE

(A) handy

(B) unavailable

(C) vacant

(D) aiding

(E) pioneering

Show Answer

(Source: Corporation Bank Specialist Officer’s Exam – 2004)