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Set 14 Email: pthq@ptindia.com Web: www.ptindia.com
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The sentences (four/five/four between 1 and 6) given in each question, when properly sequenced form a
coherent paragraph. Each sentence in labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences
from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.

1. (A) Half a million soldiers were amassed on the western border in strike-ready formations.
(B) As the armed forces of the two countries went eyeball to eyeball, there were very tense and dangerous 10
months though to many from the outside it seemed like empty posturing.
(C) After the December 13 attack on Parliament, the Indian armed forces undertook the largest mobilisation since
the 1971 Indo-Pak War.
(D) The high-alert lasted for 10 months–the longest ever.
(1) BCAD (2) ABCD (3) BACD (4) CABD

2. (A) War has always been a serious business but, as this exclusive account reveals, what used to be a national
prerogative is now vulnerable to many external pressures.
(B) Assistant Editor Shishir Gupta (India Today) has produced a gripping story of how an Indo-Pak war was narrowly
averted, with the United States playing a major role.
(C) Gupta says, “Everyone in the know is very cagey talking about specific D-days, but war was imminent; military
planners were prepared for it, those in operations didn’t go home for days, the troops were ready.”
(D) Today when nuclear neighbours come close to war the world quite justifiably gets jittery.
(1) BCAD (2) BCDA (3) DBCA (4) ABCD

3. (A) “It is as if the Orissa coast has become a big graveyard for sea turtles,” says Mohanty.
(B) As the carcass count mounts, turtle lovers can only lament.
(C) Either way, the turtle court death.
(D) After journeying from the distant Indian Ocean to bolster their numbers, the reptiles have their throats mangled
by propeller blades of the trawlers that angle illegally near the state’s shores or are suffocated in fishing nets.
(1) ABDC (2) BDAC (3) ABCD (5) BADC

4. (A) Worldwide, most psychiatrists accept Durkheim’s hypothesis that pressures of modern living, and not just a
person’s genetic predisposition, are behind the dramatic rise in suicides.
(B) Few realities are as chillingly compelling and as morbidly intriguing as suicide.
(C) This ultimate desperation undermines, overwhelms, outwits and devastates not just the people who commit it
but also the people who are left behind.
(D) “The cause is essentially social,” said French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his 1897 seminal analysis of suicide.
(1) ABDC (2) BDCA (3) BCDA (4) BADC

5. (A) According to her, the only discordant note is the danger posed by communal histories that are rearing their
heads in a society increasingly polarised along communal lines.
(B) Then she presents us with a pleasant picture of a gentle ironing out of earlier distortions and imbalances, a
broadening of horizons brought about by the fruitful dialogue between history and the other social sciences.
(C) She highlights the important contribution made by Marxist historians and the debates generated by them.
(D) Thapar’s discussion of the historiography of ancient India focuses on a critique of the Orientalist and nationalist
misreadings of India’s ancient past.
(1) DACB (2) DCBA (3) DACB (4) DBAC

Choose the word or set of words for each blank in the following questions that best fits the meaning of the
sentence.

6. The mayor remained ..... in her commitment to ..... to the rise of unemployment among her constituents.
(1) firm, uphold (2) wavering, identify (3) steadfast, stem (4) uncertain, staunch
(5) alone, approach

7. Concerned for his children’s safety, the father tried to ..... in them a ..... attitude toward strangers.
(1) obviate, hospitable (2) ingratiate, assiduous (3) insinuate, salubrious (4) assimilate, benevolent
(5) inculcate, wary

IC : PTwebeu14 (1)
8. Her ..... smile ..... all those who saw it.
(1) devastating, replenished (2) penultimate, inured (3) radiant, obliged (4) sunny, tamed
(5) bright, dazzled

9. Most young children are highly conformist and will ..... a classmate whose appearance or manners are ..... .
(1) welcome, bizarre (2) shun, conventional (3) emulate, unusual (4) ostracize, different
(5) deride, ordinary

10. They acted in concert, each ..... for a(n) ..... of the plot.
(1) reliable, source (2) responsible, element (3) unavailable, section (4) appoint, article
(5) agreeable, felony

Choose the lettered word or phrase that is most nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters.

11. CLICHE
(1) increase (2) vehicle (3) morale (4) platitude
(5) pique

12. INCONTINENT
(1) insular (2) complaisant (3) crass (4) wanton
(5) false

13. REPARTEE
(1) witty retort (2) wilful departure (3) spectator (4) monologue
(5) sacrifice

14. GAUCHE
(1) rigid (2) swift (3) awkward (4) taciturn
(5) needy

15. ATTENUATE
(1) appear (2) be absent (3) weaken (4) testify
(5) soothe

Choose the lettered word or phrase that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the word in capital letters.

16. OPPORTUNE
(1) occassional (2) fragrant (3) fragile (4) awkward
(5) neglected

17. SEDULOUS
(1) indolent (2) guileless (3) vindictive (4) upright
(5) incorrect

18. JAUNDICED
(1) whitened (2) inflamed (3) quickened (4) aged
(5) unbiased

19. CELERITY
(1) assurance (2) state (3) acerbity (4) delay
(5) infamy

20. DIN
(1) lightness (2) safety (3) silence (4) hunger
(5) promptness

(2) IC : PTwebeu14
Select the lettered pair in the following analogy questions that best expresses a relationship similar to
that expressed in the original capitalised pair.

21. TIRADE : ABUSIVE

(1) monologue : lengthy (2) aphorism : boring (3) prologue : conclusive (4) encomium : laudatory
(5) critique : insolent

22. INCUBATOR : INFANT

(1) henhouse : chicken (2) greenhouse : plant (3) archives : document (4) cooler : wine
(5) hive : bee

23. RANCID : TASTE

(1) tepid : temperature (2) glossy : look (3) rank : smell (4) dulcet : sound
(5) savoury : odour

24. STOREY : BUILDING

(1) plot : outline (2) ring : ladder
(3) cable : elevator (4) foundation : skyscraper
(5) spire : church

25. WITCH : COVEN

(1) ogre : castle (2) seer : prophecy (3) actor : troupe (4) fairy : spell
(5) doctor : medicine

Objective Key
1.(4) 2.(2) 3.(4) 4.(3) 5.(2) 6.(4) 7.(4) 8.(1) 9.(3) 10.(3)
11.(3) 12.(5) 13.(5) 14.(4) 15.(2) 16.(1) 17.(1) 18.(5) 19.(4) 20.(3)
21.(4) 22.(2) 23.(3) 24.(2) 25.(3)

IC : PTwebeu14 (3)