Reading Comprehension

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'thrive', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Despite the economic crunch worldwide that saw pulverization of some of the largest banking and finance giants, Indian banking houses have managed to show positive growth this quarter. Some of India's leading national banks have posted a net profit rise of more than 40% over the last quarter amid global turmoil. This would come as a big shot in the arm for the investors and consumers of these banks even though apprehension is mounting on other banking and broking firms worldwide. One of the main reasons behind the success of these banks this quarter would be their direct backing by the Government of India. People take solace in their investments in public sector watching the bailout packages being cashed out by governments all over the world to save big business houses.
Other private banks in India have also reported a substantial net profit over the last quarter. Given the international and domestic scenario one cannot put this down as a mundane achievement. While others are on a cost cutting spree and firing employees, Indian Companies are actually working on boosting staffing in banking and broking sectors. This can be seen as a big boon in the days to come when the current recession eases and the economy gradually comes back on to the fast track. The finance minister has assured Indian public about the sound health of all Indian banks. This could also be evident from the fact that there have been no mergers and takeovers in Indian Banking sector in a contrast to world scenario where finance houses are looking for mergers to cut costs on operations. We definitely are not looking to thrive; rather we are looking for growth. It is just that the pace of growth is a little slow now as compared to a year or two before. These are hard times to test the hard. The weak in business and career will be weeded out and it is sometimes very beneficial for business on the long run.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word ‘slapped’, as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Governments have traditionally equated economic progress with steel mills and cement factories. While urban centres thrive and city dwellers get rich, hundreds of millions of farmers remain mired in poverty. However, fears of food shortages, a rethinking of antipoverty priorities and the crushing recession in 2008 are causing a dramatic shift in world economic policy in favour of greater support for agriculture.
This last time when the world’s farmers felt such love was in the 1970s. At that time, as food prices spiked, there was real concern that the world was facing a crisis in which the planet was simply unable to produce enough grain and meat for an expanding population. Governments across the developing world and internationals ploughed investment into agriculture in the early 1970s, while technological breakthroughs, like high-yield strains of important food crops, boosted production. The result was the Green Revolution and food production exploded.
But the Green Revolution became a victim of its own success. Food prices plunged by some 60% by the late 1980s from their peak in the mid-1970s. Policymakers and aid workers turned their attention to the Poor’s other pressing needs, such as health care and education. Farming got starved of resources and investment. By 2004, aid directed at agriculture sank to 3.5% and “Agriculture lost its glitter”. Also, as consumers in high-growth giants such as China and India became wealthier, they began eating more meat, so grain once used for human consumption got diverted to beef up livestock. By early 2008, panicked buying by importing countries and restrictions slapped on grain exports by some big producers helped drive prices up to heights not seen for three decades. Making matters worse, land and resources got reallocated to produce cash crops such as biofuels and the results was that voluminous reserves of grain evaporated. Protests broke out across the emerging world and fierce food riots toppled governments.
This spurred global leaders into action. Africa, which missed out on the first Green Revolution due to poor policy and limited resources, also witnessed a ‘change’. Swayed by the success of East Asia, the primary poverty-fighting method favoured by many policymakers in Africa was to get farmers off their farms and into modern jobs in factories and urban centres
In India on the other hand, with only 40% of its farmland irrigated, entire economic boom currently underway is held hostage by the unpredictable monsoon. With much of India’s farming areas suffering from drought this year, the government will have a tough time meeting its economic growth targets. In a report, Goldman Sachs predicted that if this year too receives weak rains, it could cause agriculture to contract by 2% this fiscal year, making the government’s 7% GDP-growth target look “a bit rich”. Another green revolution is the need of the hour and to make it a reality, the global community still has much backbreaking farm work to do.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'mired', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Governments have traditionally equated economic progress with steel mills and cement factories. While urban centres thrive and city dwellers get rich, hundreds of millions of farmers remain mired in poverty. However, fears of food shortages, a rethinking of antipoverty priorities and the crushing recession in 2008 are causing a dramatic shift in world economic policy in favour of greater support for agriculture.
This last time when the world’s farmers felt such love was in the 1970s. At that time, as food prices spiked, there was real concern that the world was facing a crisis in which the planet was simply unable to produce enough grain and meat for an expanding population. Governments across the developing world and internationals ploughed investment into agriculture in the early 1970s, while technological breakthroughs, like high-yield strains of important food crops, boosted production. The result was the Green Revolution and food production exploded.
But the Green Revolution became a victim of its own success. Food prices plunged by some 60% by the late 1980s from their peak in the mid-1970s. Policymakers and aid workers turned their attention to the Poor’s other pressing needs, such as health care and education. Farming got starved of resources and investment. By 2004, aid directed at agriculture sank to 3.5% and “Agriculture lost its glitter”. Also, as consumers in high-growth giants such as China and India became wealthier, they began eating more meat, so grain once used for human consumption got diverted to beef up livestock. By early 2008, panicked buying by importing countries and restrictions slapped on grain exports by some big producers helped drive prices up to heights not seen for three decades. Making matters worse, land and resources got reallocated to produce cash crops such as biofuels and the results was that voluminous reserves of grain evaporated. Protests broke out across the emerging world and fierce food riots toppled governments.
This spurred global leaders into action. Africa, which missed out on the first Green Revolution due to poor policy and limited resources, also witnessed a ‘change’. Swayed by the success of East Asia, the primary poverty-fighting method favoured by many policymakers in Africa was to get farmers off their farms and into modern jobs in factories and urban centres
In India on the other hand, with only 40% of its farmland irrigated, entire economic boom currently underway is held hostage by the unpredictable monsoon. With much of India’s farming areas suffering from drought this year, the government will have a tough time meeting its economic growth targets. In a report, Goldman Sachs predicted that if this year too receives weak rains, it could cause agriculture to contract by 2% this fiscal year, making the government’s 7% GDP-growth target look “a bit rich”. Another green revolution is the need of the hour and to make it a reality, the global community still has much backbreaking farm work to do.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'swayed', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Governments have traditionally equated economic progress with steel mills and cement factories. While urban centres thrive and city dwellers get rich, hundreds of millions of farmers remain mired in poverty. However, fears of food shortages, a rethinking of antipoverty priorities and the crushing recession in 2008 are causing a dramatic shift in world economic policy in favour of greater support for agriculture.
This last time when the world’s farmers felt such love was in the 1970s. At that time, as food prices spiked, there was real concern that the world was facing a crisis in which the planet was simply unable to produce enough grain and meat for an expanding population. Governments across the developing world and internationals ploughed investment into agriculture in the early 1970s, while technological breakthroughs, like high-yield strains of important food crops, boosted production. The result was the Green Revolution and food production exploded.
But the Green Revolution became a victim of its own success. Food prices plunged by some 60% by the late 1980s from their peak in the mid-1970s. Policymakers and aid workers turned their attention to the Poor’s other pressing needs, such as health care and education. Farming got starved of resources and investment. By 2004, aid directed at agriculture sank to 3.5% and “Agriculture lost its glitter”. Also, as consumers in high-growth giants such as China and India became wealthier, they began eating more meat, so grain once used for human consumption got diverted to beef up livestock. By early 2008, panicked buying by importing countries and restrictions slapped on grain exports by some big producers helped drive prices up to heights not seen for three decades. Making matters worse, land and resources got reallocated to produce cash crops such as biofuels and the results was that voluminous reserves of grain evaporated. Protests broke out across the emerging world and fierce food riots toppled governments.
This spurred global leaders into action. Africa, which missed out on the first Green Revolution due to poor policy and limited resources, also witnessed a ‘change’. Swayed by the success of East Asia, the primary poverty-fighting method favoured by many policymakers in Africa was to get farmers off their farms and into modern jobs in factories and urban centres
In India on the other hand, with only 40% of its farmland irrigated, entire economic boom currently underway is held hostage by the unpredictable monsoon. With much of India’s farming areas suffering from drought this year, the government will have a tough time meeting its economic growth targets. In a report, Goldman Sachs predicted that if this year too receives weak rains, it could cause agriculture to contract by 2% this fiscal year, making the government’s 7% GDP-growth target look “a bit rich”. Another green revolution is the need of the hour and to make it a reality, the global community still has much backbreaking farm work to do.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'eluded', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Globally, the working microfinance equation consists of borrowing funds cheaply and keeping loan defaults and overhead expenses sufficiently low. Microlenders, including Grameen, do this by charging colossal interest rates—as high as 60% or 70% — which is necessary to compensate for the risk and attract bank funding. But loans at rates much above the standard 15% would most likely be attacked as usurious in America. So, the question is whether there is a role for a Third World lender in the world's largest economy. Grameen America believes that in a few years it will be successful and turn a profit, thanks to 9 million US households untouched by mainstream banks and 21 million using the likes of payday loans and pawn shops for financing. But enticing the unbanked won't be easy. After all, profit has long eluded US microfinanciers and if it is not lucrative, it is not microlending, but charity. When Grameen first went to the US, in the late 1980s, it tripped up. Under Grameen's tutelage, banks started micro loans to entrepreneurs with a shocking 30% loss. But Grameen America says that this time results will be different because Grameen employees themselves will be making the loans, not training an American bank to do it.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'metaphor', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'usurious', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Globally, the working microfinance equation consists of borrowing funds cheaply and keeping loan defaults and overhead expenses sufficiently low. Microlenders, including Grameen, do this by charging colossal interest rates—as high as 60% or 70% — which is necessary to compensate for the risk and attract bank funding. But loans at rates much above the standard 15% would most likely be attacked as usurious in America. So, the question is whether there is a role for a Third World lender in the world's largest economy. Grameen America believes that in a few years it will be successful and turn a profit, thanks to 9 million US households untouched by mainstream banks and 21 million using the likes of payday loans and pawn shops for financing. But enticing the unbanked won't be easy. After all, profit has long eluded US microfinanciers and if it is not lucrative, it is not microlending, but charity. When Grameen first went to the US, in the late 1980s, it tripped up. Under Grameen's tutelage, banks started micro loans to entrepreneurs with a shocking 30% loss. But Grameen America says that this time results will be different because Grameen employees themselves will be making the loans, not training an American bank to do it.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'reincarnation', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'tutelage', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Globally, the working microfinance equation consists of borrowing funds cheaply and keeping loan defaults and overhead expenses sufficiently low. Microlenders, including Grameen, do this by charging colossal interest rates—as high as 60% or 70% — which is necessary to compensate for the risk and attract bank funding. But loans at rates much above the standard 15% would most likely be attacked as usurious in America. So, the question is whether there is a role for a Third World lender in the world's largest economy. Grameen America believes that in a few years it will be successful and turn a profit, thanks to 9 million US households untouched by mainstream banks and 21 million using the likes of payday loans and pawn shops for financing. But enticing the unbanked won't be easy. After all, profit has long eluded US microfinanciers and if it is not lucrative, it is not microlending, but charity. When Grameen first went to the US, in the late 1980s, it tripped up. Under Grameen's tutelage, banks started micro loans to entrepreneurs with a shocking 30% loss. But Grameen America says that this time results will be different because Grameen employees themselves will be making the loans, not training an American bank to do it.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word ‘brewery’, as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'enticing', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

Globally, the working microfinance equation consists of borrowing funds cheaply and keeping loan defaults and overhead expenses sufficiently low. Microlenders, including Grameen, do this by charging colossal interest rates—as high as 60% or 70% — which is necessary to compensate for the risk and attract bank funding. But loans at rates much above the standard 15% would most likely be attacked as usurious in America. So, the question is whether there is a role for a Third World lender in the world's largest economy. Grameen America believes that in a few years it will be successful and turn a profit, thanks to 9 million US households untouched by mainstream banks and 21 million using the likes of payday loans and pawn shops for financing. But enticing the unbanked won't be easy. After all, profit has long eluded US microfinanciers and if it is not lucrative, it is not microlending, but charity. When Grameen first went to the US, in the late 1980s, it tripped up. Under Grameen's tutelage, banks started micro loans to entrepreneurs with a shocking 30% loss. But Grameen America says that this time results will be different because Grameen employees themselves will be making the loans, not training an American bank to do it.

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'banishing', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

But with almost routine ways now available to test DNA samples for the presence of specific mutant genes, there is increased anxiety that an individual's genetic heritage may be vulnerable to unwanted prying. The DNA from a single human hair for example may be sufficient to alert a prospective employer or health insurer to a person's genetic predisposition to disease. Broad privacy laws must therefore be enacted to forbid genetic tests without the informed consent of the individual involved. But even with such laws, dilemmas will arise when individuals do not realise the significance of the proposed genetic screening. These tests warn of impending disease, but do not cure. And how many people would want to have certain knowledge that they will contract a disease for which there is no cure?

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'prying', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

But with almost routine ways now available to test DNA samples for the presence of specific mutant genes, there is increased anxiety that an individual's genetic heritage may be vulnerable to unwanted prying. The DNA from a single human hair for example may be sufficient to alert a prospective employer or health insurer to a person's genetic predisposition to disease. Broad privacy laws must therefore be enacted to forbid genetic tests without the informed consent of the individual involved. But even with such laws, dilemmas will arise when individuals do not realise the significance of the proposed genetic screening. These tests warn of impending disease, but do not cure. And how many people would want to have certain knowledge that they will contract a disease for which there is no cure?

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'senility', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

But with almost routine ways now available to test DNA samples for the presence of specific mutant genes, there is increased anxiety that an individual's genetic heritage may be vulnerable to unwanted prying. The DNA from a single human hair for example may be sufficient to alert a prospective employer or health insurer to a person's genetic predisposition to disease. Broad privacy laws must therefore be enacted to forbid genetic tests without the informed consent of the individual involved. But even with such laws, dilemmas will arise when individuals do not realise the significance of the proposed genetic screening. These tests warn of impending disease, but do not cure. And how many people would want to have certain knowledge that they will contract a disease for which there is no cure?

Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'awe', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

There is nothing like a tropical rain forest for replacing arrogance with awe. Who could enter these primordial places, these untamed Edens, and not be wonderstruck? Dark and mysterious even in daytime, rain forests inspire respect. They are one of Nature's last frontiers, alive with flora and fauna seen rarely or never by human beings, and peculated by a handful of indigenous tribes that have had little or no contact with the outside world. Vast, fecund and biologically diverse, rain forests are bountiful and seemingly inexhaustible ecosystems that have supplied the human race with a staggering treasure trove including timber, fruit, spices and medicines. Although much more bounty lies in wait, the pace of discovery in the rain forest is naturally slow.
The English naturalist and author Gerald Durrell assailed those who would ravage the rain forests loggers, ranchers and miners, for acting "with the savage, unthinking ferocity of a troupe of drunken apes in art gallery". But, he added, "Whereas pictures can be repainted, tropical rain forests can't be recreated". Indeed, what could replace the wondrous electric fish of the Amazon
River, the poison-sweating frogs of Panama, or the host of plants and animals whose secrets and potential benefits have yet to be fathomed?
This treetop world enchants Andrew Mitchell, an Oxford-based naturalist and author who is program director for Earth Watch, an organisation that matches volunteer members of the public with scientific and conservation projects worldwide. Mitchell has extensively explored the rain forests of Asia and Latin America, making perilous climbs into the canopy, which he describes as the "penthouse where the trees have their sex lives". The canopy is physically and biologically the most active part of any rain forest.