Dear Aspirants, Our IBPS Guide team is providing a new series of English Language Questions for IBPS PO 2020 Prelims so the aspirants can practice it on a daily basis. These questions are framed by our skilled experts after understanding your needs thoroughly. Aspirants can practice these new series questions daily to familiarize with the exact exam pattern and make your preparation effective.
Inference based
Directions (1-5): In each of the questions given below, a passage has been given which are either situational based or describes a scenario. Below each passage, a question has been given which is framed to make you to infer something out of it. Mark out the correct inference as your answer.
1) There has been a major force build-up of Chinese tanks and infantry forces in the South Pangong region of Eastern Ladakh after the Indian Army seized the initiative and gained control of several key heights in the area on August 30. Given the range of their guns, Chinese artillery would be located in ‘depth’ positions, more than twenty kilometres away from the Line of Actual Control.
However, the movement of Chinese heavy weaponry continues to be well sighted by the Indian Army ”which dominates the heights from Thakung to beyond Mukpari.”
The Indian Army has reinforced its own tank formations in the area, and deployed additional forces to shore up the heights that it holds along the disputed Line of Actual Control in the region. By dominating the heights, Indian infantry forces are in a position to engage Chinese armour and troop formations with anti-tank guided missiles, rockets and other weapons. India also operates missile-armed T-90 heavy main battle tanks in addition to upgraded T-72M1 tanks in high-altitude areas in Eastern Ladakh.
Which among the following can be inferred from the above passage?
- China’s sudden military buildup on their side of the LAC has caught the Indian armed forces napping
- A Chinese attack on Indian forces is imminent anytime now
- Although the Chinese side is building up its military presence on the LAC very strongly, the Indian army is well prepared for any kind of challenges
- The situation on the India/China border has not been this serious in over 50 years
- None of the above
2) The sudden announcement of the death from cancer of Chadwick Boseman, the actor best known for his portrayal of the superhero character “Black Panther” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has shocked fans and film buffs all over the world. What has come as a bigger surprise is the fact that unbeknownst to anyone but his very close circle, Boseman continued to work through several film projects in the last 4 years while undergoing chemotherapy and other cancer related treatments. One incident in particular has been repeatedly discussed is the fact that Boseman visited a cancer hospital to meet children afflicted by the disease while his own body was being ravaged by the dreaded disease.
Which among the following can be said about Chadwick Boseman’s character from the above passage?
- Shrewd
- Fortitudinous
- Melancholic
- Charming
- None of the above
3) On Thursday, even the President and the White House seemed to think he might have gone too far with his suggestion that North Carolinians try to vote twice to test election security, a potential crime and the latest attempt by the President to cast as illegitimate an election that polls suggest he may lose. At a rally on Thursday in Pennsylvania, Trump again said mail-in ballots are a “disgrace,” charging that dogs have received them in the mail. He advised his supporters to “follow” their ballots and go vote if they’re not tabulated.
There have been many weeks when the Trump train has looked like it’s going to jump the tracks. But in the seven days since the Republican convention, the President has come perhaps as close as he ever has to a full derailment.
What can we say about the author’s attitude towards President Trump from the above passage?
- Indulgent
- Despondent
- Reproving
- Hopeful
- None of the above
4) Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Royal Japanese Navy formulated plans for a major attack on the US Pacific base of Midway. The Japanese were confident that just like at Pearl Harbor, the Allied forces would be caught napping, enabling Japan to deliver a crippling blow to USA in the Pacific Theater. However, there were two major lacunae in the Japanese assumptions.
The humiliation of Pearl Harbor had ensured that the America was determined not to be caught unawares again. And more importantly, American cryptographers had been able to crack the Japanese secret messaging codes, thus forewarning the US Navy command of the impending attack and turning Japan’s biggest advantage, the surprise factor, into a drawback.
Which among the following is the most likely to have taken place as a follow up to the incidents described above.
- Another bloody defeat for USA at the hands of Japan
- USA handed out a real thrashing to Japan, turning the tides of war
- With the US Navy prepared, the battle resulted in a stalemate
- The Americans came out on top but only at a very severe cost
- None of the above
5) As prime minister, Harold Macmillan took close control of UK’s foreign policy. He worked closely to reduce the rift with the USA caused by the Suez crisis of 1956, leveraging his wartime friendship with American president Dwight Eisenhower. In 1959, Macmillan visited Soviet Union and held talks with Premier Nikita Khruschev that helped considerably reduce East-West tensions over West Berlin and led to a breakthrough agreement in principle to stop nuclear tests.
He also was instrumental in restoring confidence of Britain’s Persian Gulf allies post the collapse of the Baghdad Pact in 1958. Many observers have cited his decisive use of the RAF and British Special Forces in quelling a Saudi and Egypt backed rebellion against the Sultan of Oman as having a big influence on the same.
Which of the following leadership styles can be considered as exact opposite of Harold Macmillan’s style in handling foreign relations?
- Laissez-Faire
- Pragmatic
- Decisive
- Transformational
- None of the above
Sentence rearrangement
Directions (6-10): Given below the sentences each of which has been divided into five parts out of which the first part has been marked bold. Each of the questions is then followed by the five options which give the sequence of the rearranged parts. You must choose the option which gives the correct sequence of the parts. If the sentence is already arranged or the correct sequence doesn’t match any of the given sequence, mark (E) .i.e. “None of the above” as your answer.
6) The first-quarter GDP growth number — a contraction by 24% — was on expected lines and shows that the Indian economy has slumped sharply due to the lockdown / It has been observed that with the economy moving from the stage of a total lockdown in April to a gradual opening up of the windows in subsequent months, the movement from one stage to another did reflect in macro-economic numbers such as the Index of Industrial Production (A) / But two basic factors would influence the assumptions being made on the growth prospects for the coming quarters (B) / Experts caution that while it is reasonable to assume that the “Unlock” process will be positive for the economic sectors, there is no assurance that there will not be localized lockdowns (C) / The first is the process of “Unlocking” (D)
- DBCA
- BCAD
- BDAC
- ACDB
- None of the above
7) Delhi seems to be demonstrating the perils of celebrating early in an epidemic that is still evolving / Alsorecoveries were outnumbering the new cases on most days, thereby bringing down the number of active cases to just about 10,000 (A) / For most of July and August, the national capital gave the impression that it had achieved the peak of the coronavirus pandemic and embarked on the downhill journey (B) /But it seemed just too good to be true (C) / The detection of new cases had come down to below 1,000 a day, deaths were being reported in single digits, or early double digits (D)
- DBCA
- BCAD
- BDAC
- ACDB
- None of the above
8) Rescue teams in Beirut are digging deeper into rubble Friday where signs of life were detected 30 days after a massive explosion destroyed much of the city’s downtown coastal area. On Friday morning local time, thermal imaging showed body heat in the rubble, while rescuers also detected eight breaths per minute amid the debris (A) / Search teams swarmed to the Mar Mikhael area, a neighborhood near the epicenter of last month’s blast, on Thursday after rescue teams detected movement deep within debris (B) / George Abu Musa, operations head at the Lebanese Civil Defense, told CNN on Friday that the operation was “less than half a meter” away from a possible survivor’s location (C) / Rescuers worked under floodlights in humid summer conditions to remove portions of a wall with a crane as a crowd stood by, anxious for updates (D)
- DBCA
- CBDA
- BDAC
- CDBA
- None of the above
9) A respiratory infection like COVID-19 is spread by droplets expelled when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. This is why maintaining a distance of nearly two metres or six feet is advised (A) / The relatively bigger and heavier ones do not travel far or remain in the air (B) / These droplets can be of varying sizes (C) / These droplets sink to the ground or on objects and surfaces (D)
- DBCA
- CADB
- BDAC
- CBAD
- None of the above
10) At least 10,000 people visited two popular highway restaurants in Haryana’s Murthal that have been sealed now after 75 employees were found infected with coronavirus, officials have said. / “We collected samples of 360 employees of AmrikSukhdevDhaba on Wednesday. 65 of them were found positive,” Sonepat district commissioner Shyam Lal Poonia said (A) / A massive contact-tracing work is going on to identify possible infected people, but it is a huge challenge to find them, officials said (B) / MrPoonia said it’s a big challenge to trace all the customers who visited the super-spreader dhabas in the last one week (C) / Another 10 employees of a highway restaurant in Murthal, GaramDhaba, owned by actor Dharmendra, have tested positive for COVID-19 (D)
- BADC
- CADB
- BDAC
- ACDB
- None of the above
Answers :
Directions (1-5):
1) Answer: C
It is clearly mentioned that the Chinese weapons movement is “well-sighted” by the Indian army. Hence, inference A is incorrect.
Although the passage starts with reports of heavy mobilization of Chinese forces on their side of the LAC, it does not necessarily imply that China will attack India imminently. So we can rule out B as well.
The passage makes no reference to the antiquity of India/China border relations anywhere in the passage so inference D cannot be made either.
By the fact that the Chinese movements are “well-sighted” by the Indian side and India has also mobilized her own forces in very significant numbers on the border, it can be inference that India is well prepared to handle any eventuality.
Therefore option C is the correct answer to this question.
2) Answer: B
Chadwick Boseman carried on with his film career while secretly fighting the dreaded disease of cancer from which he eventually passed away. Not just film shoots; he even made compassionate public appearances during this time. This shows tremendous strength of character and mental fortitude to not let adversity overpower his life as long as he lived. The correct term to describe him would be ‘fortitudinous’, meaning one who has a lot of fortitude / one whose character is marked by bravery and courage in face of hostility.
Therefore option B is the correct answer to this question.
3) Answer: C
It is quite evident from reading the passage that the author is extremely critical of the recent activities of President Trump. He/she is almost in a condemnatory note as far talking about the President in these lines. Among the given options, the term that perfectly describes the author’s attitude is “reproving” which means “conveying or expressing blame or disapproval.”
Therefore option C is the correct answer to this question.
4) Answer: B
The key points in the passage are as follows: (i) six months after a surprise attack that soundly defeated USA in the Pearl Harbor, Japanese Navy planned a similar thing on Midway (ii) Japan had anticipated that another surprise attack would yield similar results (iii) However, they had underestimated on one count: having already suffered a humiliating defeat at Pearl Harbor, the USA would have most certainly started preparing for similar incidents and was unlikely to be caught so unprepared again (iv) Most critically, unknown to the Japanese, their secret weapon had been lost as America had been able to break & decipher their secret codes and were now aware of the Japanese plans. It was the Americans who now held a surprise advantage about which Japan knew nothing.
Considering the above, the most likely sequel to these events can be confidently surmised to be an overwhelming battle victory for USA.
Therefore option B is the correct answer to this question.
5) Answer: A
To answer this question, we must first understand Harold Macmillan’s leadership style w.r.t. his foreign policies. Macmillan was clearly a very “hands-on” person as far as foreign relations were concerned, getting directly involved and even using personal friendships to ensure better relations with other countries. Therefore, the exact opposite of his leadership style will be a very “hands-off” style of leadership.
Among the given options, the style that implies a “hands-off” approach is Laissez-Faire. It is a style in which the leader is largely hands-off from matters and allows his subordinates/team-members to make strategic decisions.
Therefore option A is the correct answer to this question.
Directions (6-10):
6) Answer: C
We’ll try to find the correct sequence of fragments using elimination technique here.
The opening fragment talks about how the GDP growth in the first quarter has fallen to record low levels. It is therefore logical to assume that the follow up fragment will pertain to recovery in the subsequent quarter(s). Fragment B fits this requirement perfectly – But two basic factors would influence the assumptions being made on the growth prospects for the coming quarters.
We can thus immediately omit answer options A and D.
Since fragment B talks about two factors that are likely to impact future recovery. Hence, it is very likely that the next sentence will talk about the first of those factors. Going by this logic, fragment D must follow B – The first is the process of “Unlocking.”
Thus fragment D must follow fragment B in the second place. This eliminates option B as well.
Now, if we read the sequence of fragments given in option C, we find that they make a meaningful sentence together. Evidently, the correct sequence of fragments is: BDAC
Therefore, option C is the correct answer to this question.
7) Answer: C
We’ll try to find the correct sequence of fragments using elimination technique here.
The passage essentially is talking about how Delhi’s coronavirus situation led to sense of false success. Thus, if we read the opening fragment carefully, it is likely that the next sentences would talk about the initial successes that were thought to herald end of the pandemic. Going by this logic, B is the best fitting fragment – For most of July and August, the national capital gave the impression that it had achieved the peak of the coronavirus pandemic and embarked on the downhill journey.
So we can eliminate options A and D. Now the following fragment to B must ideally be supporting the claim made in fragment B with numbers. The one fragment which does this perfectly is D – The detection of new cases had come down to below 1,000 a day, deaths were being reported in single digits, or early double digits. Thus fragment D must follow fragment B in the second place. This eliminates option B as well.
Now, if we read the sequence of fragments given in option C, we find that they make a meaningful sentence together. Evidently, the correct sequence of fragments is: BDAC
Therefore, option C is the correct answer to this question.
8) Answer: B
We’ll try to find the correct sequence of fragments using elimination technique here.
If we read the opening fragment carefully, it is quite likely that the next fragments would give some more details about potential survivor (s). There are two such fragments – A and C. However, since none of the options start with A, therefore, the 2nd fragment is likely to be C – George Abu Musa, operations head at the Lebanese Civil Defense, told CNN on Friday that the operation was “less than half a meter” away from a possible survivor’s location.
Therefore, we can eliminate answers options A and C as these do not start with C.
The fragment that follows C is expected to provide specific details of the rescue mission like place, time etc. which we can find in fragment B – Search teams swarmed to the Mar Mikhael area, a neighborhood near the epicenter of last month’s blast, on Thursday after rescue teams detected movement deep within debris.
Thus fragment B must follow fragment C in the second place. This eliminates answer option D as well.
Now, if we read the sequence of fragments given in option B, we find that they make a meaningful sentence together. Evidently, the correct sequence of fragments is: CBDA
Therefore, option B is the correct answer to this question.
9) Answer: D
We’ll try to find the correct sequence of fragments using elimination technique here.
The opening fragment says that when a covid-19 infected person coughs/sneezes/talks, he/she expels infected droplets. Hence, it is logical that the next fragment would provide more details on droplets. There are two such fragments: C and D. So, we can rule out answer option C since it doesn’t start with C or D.
We have another fragment (B) that describes bigger and heavier droplets. This fragment must follow fragment C which mentions droplets of varying sizes. So, CB is a complimentary pair. The only answer option among the remaining three which has CB in sequence is option D.
Now, if we read the sequence of fragments given in option D, we find that they make a meaningful sentence together. Evidently, the correct sequence of fragments is: CBAD
Therefore, option D is the correct answer to this question.
10) Answer: A
We’ll try to find the correct sequence of fragments using elimination technique here.
The opening fragment tells us that 10, 000 people visited two restaurants where 75 employees have been found infected with coronavirus. It is therefore, very logical to assume that the next fragment will be discussing about efforts/steps to find these 10, 000 people since they pose risk of further infection. We can see that fragment B is specifying such efforts – A massive contact-tracing work is going on to identify possible infected people, but it is a huge challenge to find them, officials said.
Therefore, we can eliminate answers options B and D as these do not start with B. Since the remaining answer options are A and C, therefore, the 2nd fragment after B could be either A or D. Fragment D says – Another 10 employees of a highway restaurant in Murthal, GaramDhaba, owned by actor Dharmendra, have tested positive for COVID-19. It is starting with ‘another’, making it obvious that is the 2nd of the two restaurants and there must be a fragment which gives details of the 1st restaurant. That fragment must be A – which is telling us about the restaurant where 65 staff were found infected. So the likely sequence we are getting is B-A-D, making it clear that option A is the answer to this question.
Now, if we read the sequence of fragments given in option A, we find that they make a meaningful sentence together. Evidently, the correct sequence of fragments is: BADC
Therefore, option A is the correct answer to this question.
