English & Verbal Ability

Directions(1-6): Study the passages below carefully and answer the questions that follow.

PASSAGE 1

The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa has developed a real-time reporting and internet-accessible coastal sea-level monitoring system and it has been operational at Verem jetty in the Mandovi estuary in Goa since September 24, 2005. The gauge uses a cellular modem to put on the internet real-time sea-level data, which can be accessed by authorized personnel. By using a cellular phone network, coastal sea-level changes are continuously updated on a web-server. The sea level gauge website can be made available to television channels to broadcast real-time visualization of the coastal sea level, particularly during oceanogenic hazards such as storm surges or a Tsunami. A network of such gauges along the coast and the islands that lie on either side of the mainland would provide data to disaster management agencies to disseminate warning to coastal communities and tourism centres.

The gauge incorporates a bottom pressure transducer as the sensing element. The sea unit of the gauge, which houses the pressure transducer, is mounted within a cylindrical protective housing, which in turn is rigidly held within a mechanical structure. This structure is secured to a jetty. The gauge is powered by a battery, which is charged by solar panels. Battery, electronics, solar panels, and cellular modems are mounted on the top portion of this structure. The pressure sensor and logger are continuously powered on, and their electrical current consumption is 30mA and 15mA respectively. The cellular modem consumes 15mA and 250mA during standby and data transmission modes respectively. The pressure sensor located below the low tide level measures the hydrostatic pressure of the overlying water layer. An indigenously designed and developed microprocessors based data logger interrogates the pressure transducers and acquires the pressure data at the rate of two samples a second. The acquired pressure data is averaged over an interval of five minutes to remove high-frequency wind-waves that are superimposed on the lower frequency tidal cycle. The average data is recorded in a multimedia card. The measured water pressure is converted to water level using sea water density and acceleration owing to the earth’s gravity. The water level so estimated is then referenced to Chart Datum (CD), which is the internationally accepted reference level below which the sea level will not fall. The data received at the internet server is presented in graphical format together with the predicted sea level and the residual. The residual sea level (that is, the measured minus the predicted sea level) provides a clear indication of sea-level oscillation and a quantitative estimate of the anomalous behavior, the driving force for which could be atmospheric forcing (storm) or geophysical (tsunami).

A network of sea-level gauges along the Indian coastline and islands would also provide useful information to mariners for safe navigation in shallow coastal waters and contribute to various engineering projects associated with coastal zone management, besides dredging operations, port operation and management of inland water resources (reservoirs, dams). The system can also be used effectively for sharing of water resources between States and neighboring countries, and for monitoring and implementation of river water treaties with greater transparency. Among the various communications technologies used for real- time transmission of sea-level data are the wired telephone connections, VHF/UHF transceivers, satellite transmitted terminals and cellular connectivity. Wired telephones connections are severely susceptible to lose the connectivity during natural disasters such as storm surges, primarily because of telephone line breakage. Communication via VHF/UHF transceivers is limited by line-of-sight distance between transceivers and normally offer only point to point data transfer. Satellite communication via Platform Transmit Terminals (PTTs) has wide coverage and, therefore, allows data reception from offshore platforms. However, data transfer speeds are limited. Further, many satellite (for example, GOES, INSAT) permit data transfer only at predefined time slots, thereby inhibiting continuous data access. Technologies of data reporting via satellite have undergone a sea change recently in terms of frequency of reportage, data size, recurring costs and so forth. Broadband technology has been identified as one that can be used optimally for real time reporting of data because of its inherent advantages such as a continuous two-way connection that allows high speed data transfer and near real time data reporting. While satellite communication is expensive, wireless communication infrastructure and the ubiquity of cellular phones have made cellular communication affordable. Low initial and recurring costs are an important advantage of cellular communication. A simple and cost-effective methodology for real time reporting of data is the cellular- based GPRS technology, which has been recently implemented at the NIO for real-time reporting of coastal sea level data.

1. According to the passage which one of the following statements is not true?

(A) Network of gauges along the coast and the islands would help disaster management agencies to disseminate warnings.

(B) Cellular base GPRS technology is not a simple and coast effective method for real time reporting of data.

(C) Disadvantage of wired telephone connections is the loss of connectivity during disasters due to line breakages.

(D) Data reporting via satellites has undergone changes in terms of frequency, data size, recurring cost etc.

2. What is the outermost part of the sea unit of the gauge?

(A) Pressure transducer

(B) Mechanical structure

(C) Cylindrical protective housing

(D) Sensing element

3. What is the limitation of satellite communication via platform transmit terminals?

(A) Coverage

(B) Off shore platforms

(C) Data transfer speed

(D) None of these

4. Which one of the following relationships is correct as per the passage?

(A) Predicted sea level is a product of measured sea level and residual sea level

(B) Predicted sea level is the sum of measured sea level and residual sea level.

(C) Residual sea level is the sum of predicted sea level and measured sea level.

(D) Predicted sea level is obtained by dividing measured sea level and residual sea level.

PASSAGE 2/p>

TThe World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, which commenced in Hong Kong on December 13, 2005 adopted a declaration on December 18, 2005 after 6 days of acrimonious negotiations between developed and developing countries. Although initially there was a show of unity among developing countries especially on the issue of agriculture, which was reflected in the formation of the G-110, the final outcome of the Ministerial Declaration has been thoroughly anti-development. The Ministerial Declaration has not only failed to address substantially the concerns of developing countries but has actually paved the way for an eventual trade deal by the end of 2006, which is going to be severely detrimental to their interests. It is clear by now that the so called “Development Round” launched in Doha in 2001 has been manipulated by developed countries, especially the United States and the members of the European Union, to push for further trade liberalization in developing countries while they continue to protect their economies through high subsidies and non-tariff barriers. Far from redressing the asymmetries of the global trading system, the Doha round seems to be heading for another catastrophe for the developing world. The E.U. stuck to its intransigent position on the deadline of 2013 for the elimination of export subsidies and developing countries gave up their demand for an earlier end date despite the initial collective efforts of the G-110. The gross inadequacy of this so called ‘concession’ can be understood from the fact that exports subsidies comprise less than 2 per cent of the total farm subsidies in the developed world. There has been no concrete commitment on the reduction of domestic support other than export subsidies. The E.U. can continue to subsidize agriculture to the tune of 55 billion Euros a year. The E.U. budget adopted recently ensures that nothing can be touched in the agriculture budget till at least 2013. The U.S. budget reconciliation process and the final vote in the Congress are set to extend domestic support to agriculture and counter- cyclical support to commodities up to around 2011. Even in the case of cotton, the agreement to eliminate subsidies by 2006 is restricted to export subsidies only and does not include other forms of domestic support. The U.S. refused to give duty-free access to exports from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for 99.9 per cent of product lines and the final agreement was on 97 per cent of them, which would enable the U.S. and Japan to deny market access to LDCs in product lines such as rice and textiles. Much of the aid for trade for LDCs, which is being showcased by developed countries as a ‘development package’, is disguised in conditional loan packages that are contingent upon further opening up of their markets.

India’s prime interest in agriculture was to ensure the protection of is small and marginal farmers from the onslaught of artificially low-priced imports or threats thereof. The proposals for agricultural tariff cuts, which are already on the table, are quite ambitious and the G-20 has already committed itself to undertake cuts to the extent of two-thirds of the level applicable to developed countries. Moreover, India has 100 per cent tariff lines bound in agriculture with the difference in the applied level and the bound level not very marked in many lines. In this context, the systematic problem faced by India’s small and marginal farmers practicing subsistence agriculture will only get aggravated as a result of the impending tariff cuts that have been agreed upon. The government claims that the right to designate a number of agricultural product lines as special products based upon the considerations of food and livelihood security and to establish a special safeguard mechanism based on import quantity and price triggers, which have been mentioned in the Ministerial text, adequately addresses the concerns of Indian farmers. The claim is questionable since the nature as well as the extent of protection under the category of special products remains restricted and the special safeguard mechanism, admittedly , is a measure to deal with an emergency and is off ‘a temporary nature’. Therefore, seen in the light of the insignificant reductions in domestic farm subsidies by developed countries, tariff reduction commitments by developing countries seem to be totally unjustifiable. Developing countries have also agreed on the Swiss formula for tariff cuts under Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA). Although the coefficients will be negotiated later, it is unlikely that developed countries will agree upon sufficiently large coefficients for the formula that would ensure adequate policy space for developing countries in future to facilitate development of different sectors of their industries. The Ministerial Text’s ritual references to ‘less than full reciprocity’ and ‘special and differential treatment’ fails to conceal the fact that the flexibilities provided by the July framework regarding the nature of the tariff reduction formula, product coverage, the extent of binding and the depth of cuts have been done away with. Moreover, no concrete commitment has been obtained in the Ministerial Text for the removal of the Non-Tariff barriers by developed countries, which is their principal mode of protection, despite developing countries making such major concessions on industrial tariff cuts. The fact of the matter is that developing countries. And India has facilitated the adoption of this bad deal in the back drop of an acute crisis faced by Indian agriculture. Unfortunately, developing countries have lost the opportunity to rework fundamentally the iniquitous agreement on Agriculture and protect the domestic policy space vis-a-vis industrial protection by developing countries, which could have been achieved by galvanizing the unity of the G-110.

5. What was/were the flexibility/flexibilities envisaged by the July framework?/p>

(A) Depth of cuts

(B) Product coverage

(C) Tariff reduction formula

(D) All of the above

6. Which one of the following statements is not correct as per the passage?

(A) Aid which is the given for the Least Developed Countries (LCDs) by the developed countries in the form of ‘developed package’ is conditioned upon further opening of their market.

(B) Reduction in the domestic farm subsidies by the developed countries is insignificant and the commitment made by the developing countries for tariff reduction is unjustifiable.

(C) India’s main interest in agriculture is to protect its small and marginal farmers from the onslaught or artificially low priced imports or threats of such nature.

(D) Developed countries have given commitment to the ministerial Text on the removal of Non-Tariff barriers.

7. Which claim of the Indian Government is questionable?

(A) Right to designate agriculture product lines as special products considering food and livelihood security.

(B) India has facilitated the adoption of a beneficial deal for agriculture at WTO.

(C) Formation of G-110 proves unity among developing countries.

(D) Developing countries can negotiate large coefficients on the Swiss formula for tariff cuts.

8. Why is it that the imbalances of the global trading system appear to be catastrophic?

(A) EU has not moved away from its declared position

(B) US refused to give duty free access to exports from LCDs

(C) The collective efforts of G-110 failed

(D) All of the above

PASSAGE 3

It is easy to accept Freud as an applied scientist, and, indeed he is widely regarded as the twentieth century’s master clinician. However, in viewing Marx as an applied scientist the stance needed is that of a Machiavellian operationalism. The objective is neither to buy nor to praise him. The assumption is simply that he is better understood for being understood as an applied social scientist. This is in part the clear implication of Marx’s thesis on Feurbach, which culminate in the resounding 11th thesis: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point is , however, to change it”. This would seem to be the tacit creed of applied scientists everywhere. Marx was no Faustian, concerned solely with understanding society, but a Promethean who sought to understand it well enough to influence and to change it. He was centrally concerned with the social problems of a lay group. The proletariat, and there can be little doubt that his work is motivated by an effort to reduce their suffering, as he saw it. His diagnosis was that their increasing misery and alienation engendered endemic class struggle; his prognosis claimed that this would culminate in revolution; his therapeutic prescription was class consciousness and active struggle. Here, as in assessing Durkheim or Freud, the issue is not whether this analysis is empirically correct or scientifically adequate. Furthermore, whether or not this formulation seems to eviscerate Marx’s revolutionary core, as critics on the left may charge, or whether the formulation provides Marx with a new veneer of academic respectability, as critics on the right may allege, is entirely irrelevant from the present standpoint. In so far as Marx’s or any other social scientist’s work conforms to a generalized model of applied social science, in so far as it is professionally oriented to the values and social problems of laymen in his society, he may be treated as an applied social scientist. Despite Durkheim’s intellectualistic proclivities and rationalistic pathos, he was too much the product of European turbulence to turn his back on the travail of his culture. “Why strive for knowledge of reality, if this knowledge cannot aid us in life,” he asked. “Social science’” he said, “can provide us with rules of action for the future.” Durkeim, like Marx, conceived of science as an agency of social action, and, like him, was professionally oriented to the values and problems of laymen in his society. Unless one sees that Durkheim was in some part an applied social scientist, it is impossible to understand why he concludes his monumental study of suicide with a chapter on ‘Practical Consequences,’ and why, in the Division of Labour, he proposes a specific remedy for anomie. Durkheim is today widely regarded as a model of theoretic and methodological sophistication, and is thus usually seen only in his capacity as a pure social scientist. Surely this is an incomplete view of a man who regarded the practical effectiveness of a scientist as its principal justification. To be more fully understood, Durkheim also needs to be seen as an applied sociologist. His interest in religious beliefs and organization, in crime and penology, in educational methods and organization, in suicide and anomie, are not casually chosen problem areas. Nor did he select them only because they provided occasions for the development for his theoretical orientation. These areas were in his time, as they are today, problems of indigenous interest to applied sociologists in Western society, precisely because of their practical significance.

9. Which of the following, best describes the author’s conception of an applied social scientist?

(A) A professional who listens to people’s problems

(B) A student of society

(C) A professional who seeks social action and change

(D) A proponent of class struggle

10. According to the author, which of the following did Marx and Durkheim have in common?

(A) A belief in the importance of class struggle

(B) An interest in penology

(C) A desire to create a system of social organization

(D) Regard for the practical applications of science

11. It may be inferred from the passage that the applied social scientist might be interested in all of the following subjects except:

(A) the theory of mechanics

(B) rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents

(C) how to make workers more efficient

(D) reduction of social tensions

12. Which of the following best summarizes the author’s main point?

(A) Marx and Durkheim were similar in their ideas.

(B) Philosophers, among others, who were regarded as theoreticians can also be regarded as empiricists.

(C) Freud, Marx, and Durkheim were all social scientists.

(D) Marx and Durkheim were applied social scientists because they were concerned with the solution of social problem.

PASSAGE 4

Unemployment is an important index of economic slack and lost output, but it is much more than that. For the unemployed person, it is often a damaging affront to human dignity, and sometimes a catastrophic blow to family life. Nor is this cost distributed in proportion to ability to bear it. It falls more heavily on the young, the semi-skilled, the unskilled, the black person, the older worker, and the underemployed person in the low income rural area who is denied the option of securing more rewarding urban employment.

The concentrated incident of unemployment among specific groups in the population means far greater cost to society than can be measured simply in hours of involuntary idleness or dollars of income lost. The extra costs include disruption of the careers of the young people, increased juvenile delinquency, and perpetuation of conditions which breed racial discrimination in employment and otherwise deny equality of opportunity. There is another and more subtle cost. The social and economic strains of prolonged underutilization create strong pressures for cost increasing solutions. On the side of labour, prolonged high unemployment leads to ‘share-the-work’ pressure for shorter hours, intensifies resistance to technological change and to rationalization of work rules, and, in general, increases incentives for restrictive and inefficient measures to protect existing jobs. On the side of business, the weakness of markets leads to attempts to raise prices to cover high average overhead costs and to pressures for protection against foreign and domestic competition. On the side of agriculture, higher prices are necessary to achieve income objective when urban and industrial demand for foods and fibres is depressed and lack of opportunities for jobs and higher incomes in industry keep people on the farm. In all these cases, the problems are real and the claims understandable. But the solutions suggested raise costs and promotes inefficiency. By no means the least of the advantages of full utilization will be a diminution of these pressures. They will be weaker, and they can be more firmly resisted in good conscience, when markets are generally strong and job opportunities are plentiful. The demand for labour is derived from the demand for goods and services which labour participate in producing. Thus, unemployment will be reduced to 4% of the labour force only when the demand for the myriad of goods and services……., automobiles, clothing, food, haircut, and so on……. Is sufficiently great in total to require the productive efforts of 96% of the civilian labour force. Although many goods are initially produced as materials or components to meet demands related to the further production of other goods, all goods (and services) are ultimately destined to to satisfy demands that can , for convenience, be classified into four categories: consumer demand, business demand for new plants and machinery, and for additions to inventory, net export demand of foreign buyers, and demand of government units, (federal, state and local). Thus Gross National Product (GNP), our total output, is the sum of four Major components of expenditure; personal consumption expenditures, gross private domestic investment, net exports, and government purchases of goods and services. The primary line of attack on the problem of unemployment must be through measures which will expand one or more of these components of demand. Once a satisfactory level of employment has been achieved in a growing economy, economic stability requires the maintenance of a continuing balance between growing productive capacity and growing demand. Action to expand demand is called for not only when demand actually declines and recession appears but even when the rate of growth of demand falls short of the rate of growth of capacity.

13. According to the passage, unemployment is an index of:

(A) Over-utilization of capacity

(B) diminished resources

(C) economic slack and lost output

(D) the employment rate

14. Serious unemployment leads lab our groups of demand:

(A) more jobs by having everyone work shorter hours

(B) ‘no fire’ policies

(C) higher wages to those employed

(D) cost-cutting solutions

15. According to the passage, a typical business reaction to a recession is to press for :

(A) higher unemployment insurance

(B) government action

(C) protection against imports

(D) restrictive business practices

16. The demand for lab our is:

(A) a derived demand

(B) about 4 per cent of the total work force

(C) declining

(D) dependent upon technology

Directions (17-20): Pick out the most effective pair of words from the given choices (a), (b), (c) and (d) in each of these questions to make the sentence meaningfully complete.

17. Part of the confusion in our societies ……………. From our pursuit of efficiency and economic growth, in the ……… that these are the necessary ingredients of progress.

(A) stems…. Conviction

(B) derives…. Evaluation

(C) emerges…. Consideration

(D) extends….. planning

18. The problem of housing shortage…………. With the population explosion has also been ………… by this policy.

(A) projected…. discussed

(B) dispensed….. acknowledge

(C) threatened….. manifested

(D) compounded…. Addressed

19. The quality of ………… between individuals and the organization for which they work can be ………. To the benefit of both parties.

(A) life….. conceptualized

(B) interaction…… improved

(C) service……. Evaluated

(D) sophistication….developed

20. Handicrafts constitute an important……….. of the decentralized sector of India’s economy and ……….employment to over six million artisans.

(A) factors…. Aims

(B) extension……. Plants

(C) segment….. provides

(D) period …… projects

Directions (21-24): In each of these questions, there are three sentences given as (A), (B) and (C). Find out which two or three sentences convey the same meaning.

21.

A. The manager would like you to help him locate the fault.

B. If you help him locate the fault, they would like you.

C. The Manager desires that you should provide him the necessary assistance to locate the fault.

(A) A and B

(B) A and C

(C) B and C

(D) All of the above

22.

A. Although the strike of transporters continue, I shall come.

B. I shall come if the strike of transporters continues.

C. Even though I come, the strike of transporters is going to continue.

(A) A and B

(B) A and C

(C) B and C

((D) None of these

23./b>