Comprehension: In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. The Romans had developed a (1)____ for chariot racing. The (2)_____ of the game are so excited that sometimes it may (3)____ into chaos, confusion and riots. The (4)_____ in which racing took place was called a circus. The (5)____ one was the Circus Maximus in Rome, that could hold up to 3,85,000 spectators, which shows the popularity of the sport

Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank no. 1.

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

The teacher advised the children to not went near the lake.

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

Wetlands are amongst the most productive ecosystems on the Earth and provide many important services to human society. They exhibit enormous diversity according to their genesis, geographical location, water regime and chemistry, dominant species, and soil and sediment characteristics. Globally, the areal extent of wetland ecosystems ranges from 917 million hectares (m ha) to more than 1275 m ha. One of the first widely used wetland classifications systems, devised by Cowardin et al., 1979, categorized wetlands into marine (coastal wetlands), estuarine (including deltas, tidal marshes, and mangrove swamps), lacustrine (lakes), riverine (along rivers and streams), and palustrine ( marshes, swamps and bogs) based on their hydrological, ecological and geological characteristics.

Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was an international treaty signed in 1971. Overall, 1052 sites in Europe; 289 sites in Asia; 359 sites in Africa; 175 sites in South America; 211 sites in North America; and 79 sites in Oceania region have been identified as Ramsar sites or wetlands of International importance.

As per the Ramsar Convention definition most of the natural water bodies (such as rivers, lakes, coastal lagoons, mangroves, peat land, coral reefs) and man- made wetlands (such as ponds, farm ponds, irrigated fields, sacred groves, salt pans, reservoirs, gravel pits, sewage farms and canals) in India constitute the wetland ecosystem distributed in different geographical regions ranging from Himalayas to Deccan plateau. As of February, 2022, India has 49 Ramsar sites covering an area of 10,93,636 hectares, the highest in South Asia. As per the estimates, India has about 757.06 thousand wetlands with a total wetland area of 15.3 m ha, accounting for nearly 4.7% of the total geographical area of the country . Out of this, areas under inland wetlands accounts for 69%, coastal wetlands 27%, and other wetlands (smaller than 2.25 ha) 4%.

Gujarat has the highest proportion (17.5%) and Mizoram has the lowest proportion (0.66%) of the area under wetlands. Among Union Territories, Lakshadweep has the highest proportion (around 96%) and Chandigarh has the least proportion (3%) of geographical area under wetlands.

Under which category of wetlands, are delta and mangrove swamps included?

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

A. Kunming, the Spring City, is the largest city in the Yunnan province of China.

B. It is the political, economic, communication and cultural centre of Yunnan.

C. Kunming has pleasant weather and picturesque views.

D. Owing to the standard of life and favourable climate, the city has been ranked among the best cities to live in China.

Directions: Below, a passage is given with five blanks labelled (A)- (E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Tiny plastic particles washed off products like synthetic clothing and car tyres account for up to a third of the plastic polluting oceans, __ (A) __ eco-systems and human health, a top conservationist body warned. Unlike the __ (B) __ images of country-sized garbage patches floating in the oceans, the micro plastic particles that wash off textiles and roadways leave the waterways looking __ (C) __.

But they constitute a significant part of the “plastic soup” clogging our waters — accounting for between 15% and 31% of the estimated 9.5 million tones of plastic released into the oceans each year, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

In its report “Primary Micro plastics in the Oceans”, the IUCN found that in many developed countries in North America and Europe, which have __ (D) __ waste management, tiny plastic particles are in fact a bigger source of marine plastic pollution than plastic waste.

In addition to car tyres and synthetic textiles, such particles stem from everything from marine coatings and road markings, to city dust and the micro beads in cosmetics. “Plastic waste is not all there is to ocean plastics,” IUCN chief Inger Andersen said in a statement, insisting that “we must look far beyond waste management if we are to __ (E) __ ocean pollution in its entirety”.

Which of the following words most appropriately fits the blank labelled (E)?

In the following question, out of the given four alternatives, select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the Idiom/Phrase.

Select the option that expresses the given sentence in reported speech.

The policeman said, “It is clear that this is the work of a professional robber”.

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.

If you’re concerned that automation and artificial intelligence are going to disrupt the economy over the next decade, join the club. But while policymakers and academics agree there’ll be significant disruption, they differ about its impact.

On one hand, techno-pessimists argue that new forms of automation will displace most jobs without creating new ones. In other words, most of us will lose our jobs. On the flip side of the debate, techno-optimists contend that continued investments in education and research and development will offset the job losses and generate many new human tasks that complement AI.

Researchers have been studying jobs that involve digital skills for years to try to understand their merit. But what does it really mean for a job or skill to be “digital”?

In earlier research, all it meant was that a worker used a computer. Since nearly all workers use a PC today, we need a more refined definition of digital skills that takes into account how much a job depends on doing things like programming, crunching data in Excel spreadsheets and even using a smartphone.

In a particular research, a new way was created to measure digital or information technology skills in the labour market based on how frequently they’re used in an occupation. For example, how much time does a financial adviser spend analyzing data or an event planner use a computer?

It was found that workers in occupations that rank higher in IT industry earn more than demographically similar peers in other occupations – and that this earnings gap has been growing. Not only that, but it was also found something interesting on the impact of a college degree on the lifetime earnings of a person in IT industry. Historically, workers with a college degree have earned a lot more than peers without one. Even the level of the college makes a difference. Recent research has shown that this so-called college premium has been flattening. The main cause, according to the analysis, is that the college premium for occupations requiring fewer digital skills has been declining, while it has been rising for those we identified as digital jobs such as software developers, programmers and aerospace engineering. At least some of the flattening in the college premium is due to the increasing number of bachelor’s degrees that convey few skills that are valued in the marketplace.

Another research compares the measures of job quality – such as a sense of purpose, enjoyability and career advancement – with income, occupations and a range of demographic characteristics. It found that jobs that require greater interaction with technology tended to score higher in quality, particularly in terms of measures like career advancement.

The fact that these jobs not only pay more but also provide greater levels of employee satisfaction and engagement paints a more optimistic picture about the future of work. And that gives hope, particularly since the digital economy is growing at a pace nearly four times faster than the broader economy.

The key is making tomorrow’s jobs “robot-proof” by designing them in a way that takes advantage of the digital skills described above. And universities must play a big role in this by identifying what a good job looks like and ensuring future generations learn the necessary skills.

Which of the following is TRUE with respect to the context of the passage?

I. In terms of quality, jobs that involve a greater interaction with technology, tend to score higher than ones that require lesser interaction.
II. The rate at which digital economy is sluggish when compared with the rate at which the broader economy is growing.
III. Even with continued investments in education and research it will not be possible to cover up the job losses which will happen due to increased use of automated technology.