In the following passage some words have been deleted. Fill in the blanks with the help of the alternatives given. Select the most appropriate option for each blank.
 
I had seen the magic shop from afar several times. I had passed (1)______ once or twice, a shop window of (2)______ little objects, magic balls, magic hens, wonderful cones, magic dolls and all those (3)______ of things. But never had I thought of going in (4)______ one day, Gip hauled me by my finger – right (5)______ to the window.

Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank No.2.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.
If the census tells us that India has two or three hundred languages, it also tells us, I believe, that Germany has about fifty or sixty languages. I do not remember anyone pointing out this fact in proof of the disunity or disparity of Germany. As a matter of fact, a census mentions all manner of petty languages, sometimes spoken by a few thousand persons only; and often dialects are classed for scientific purposes as different languages. India seems to me to have surprisingly few languages, considering its area. Compared to the same area in Europe, it is far more closely allied in regard to language, but because of widespread illiteracy, common standards have not developed and dialects have formed. The principal languages of India are Hindustani (of the two varieties, Hindi and Urdu), Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. If Assamese, Oriya, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Pushtu and Punjabi are added, the whole country is covered except for some hill and forest tribes. Of these, the Indo-Aryan languages, which cover the whole north, centre and west of India, are closely allied; and the southern Dravidian languages, though different, have been greatly influenced by Sanskrit, and are full of Sanskrit words. 

The Dravidian languages have been greatly influenced by Sanskrit. This- 

Select the option that will improve the underlined part of the sentence. In case no improvement is needed, select ‘No improvement’.

But what of the young people whom are part of the cricket crowds, some of who are presumably born in England?

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.

From January 28 to February 4, 2023, a Chinese-operated, large white high-altitude balloonwas seen in North American airspace, including Alaska, western Canada, and the contiguousUnited States. The American and Canadian militaries asserted that the balloon was for surveillance, while the Chinese government maintained it was a civilian meteorological research airship that had been blown off course. Analysts said that the balloon's flight path and structural characteristics made it dissimilar from those which have typically been used formeteorological research. The U.S. Department of State said that the balloon was capable oflocating electronic communication devices, including mobile phones and radios, and that American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft deployed to track the balloon in the air revealed that the balloon carried antennas and other equipment "clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment on board weather balloons." The State Department said that the spy balloon was part of a global Chinese military-directed surveillance effort in which Chinese spy balloons have flown over more than 40 nations in five continents. On February 4, the U.S. Air Force shot down the balloon over U.S. territorial waters off the coast of South Carolina, on the order of U.S. President Joe Biden. Debris from the wreckage was recovered and sent to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis. The incident increased U.S.-China tensions. The incident prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to delay a diplomatic visit to Beijing, which was set to be his first since 2018. Italso further strained Canada–China relations, as Canada summoned the Chinese ambassador because of the violation of Canadian airspace. On February 3, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that a second Chinese balloon was passing over Latin America, which China also said belonged to it. On February 10, the Air Force shot down another aerial object over U.S. territory at the order of President Biden.

How did US make sure that the Balloon flying over its territory was a ‘spy’ balloon? 

Fill the suitable word in the blank given in the following sentences – 

Humiliation or death ………………………………waiting for him. 

In these questions read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in it. If there is no error, the answer is (D).

One of the books (a) /are (b) /interesting.(c)/No error(d)

Given below are four jumbled sentences. Pick the option that gives their correct order.

A: They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter’s wedding, even when especially invited.

B: The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back.

C: After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding.

D: No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home.

Choosing the correct option, change the following sentence into Assertive without changing the meaning:
Shyam has promised never to touch hard drink again.