HCL - English Verbal

HCL – English Verbal

Read the following passage and then answer the questions that follow:

A spate of soul-searching is guaranteed by two major anniversaries that loom this year: the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807, and the Act of Union of England and Scotland in 1707. Both will feed into Britain's nagging sense of self-doubt: who are we? As the debates around integrated and multi-culturalism show no sign of flagging, both anniversaries will be mind for their contemporary relevance.

Television programmes, books, ceremonies, conferences, and newspaper supplements have been in the planning for months.

Some might regard this self-preferentialism as tedious; they might advocate an apology for the slave trade and let's be done with 2007's anniversaries. But our reckoning with British history has been so limited that these two anniversaries provide us with a good opportunity for an overdue reality check. Any chance of reinventing a plausible national identity now (as many are keen to do) is only possible if we develop a much better understanding of how our nation behaved in the past and how nationalisms (English, Scottish, and British) were elaborately created over the past few hundred years — and how incomplete and fragile that process always was.

The coincidence of these two anniversaries is fortuitous. The abolition of the slave trade is a painful reminder of British imperial history, which we have, incredible, managed to largely forget. Who remembers the Bengal famine or Hula camp, the empire's opium trade with China or our invention of concentration camps in the Boer war? We too easily overlook how empire was a linchpin to British national identity, vital to welding Scotland and England together. Indeed, historian Linda Colley suggests three ingredients for British identity: “Great Britain is an invented nation that was not founded on the suppression of older loyalties so much as superimposed on them, and that was heavily dependent for its raison d'etre on a broadly Protestant culture, on the treat and tonic of recurrent war, especially war with France, and on the triumphs, profits and otherness represented by a massive overseas empire.”

These three props for Britishness have collapsed: Protestant Christianity has declined sharply, war with France is the pastime only of a few drunken football fans, and the empire is no more. No wonder Britishness is on the decline over the past couple of decades. People have become increasingly likely to define themselves in polls as English or Scottish rather than British.

This is the social trend in defining identity that politicians such as Gordon Brown watch closely. Could this re-emergence of the older loyalties to which Ms Colley refers have political consequences? Could the Scottish National Party translate that into significant electoral gains in the Scottish elections only a few days after the official commemoration of the Act of Union in May?

It's not just the Scots who could decide they've had enough of the English — the feeling could become mutual. The grumbles are getting louder about Scottish MPs who vote on legislation affecting the English and the disproportionate amount of public spending swallowed up by the Scots.

Mr Brown clearly has a vested interest in stilling such complaints. He's been at the forefront of an establishment attempt to redefine Britishness on the grounds of “common values” such as fair play and tolerance. Who is going to define Englishness? Julian Baggini has a stab at it in a book to be published in March, ‘ Welcome to Every town: A Journey into the English Mind’. He spent six months living in Rotherham to get beyond the metropolitan, liberal elite's perceptions of Englishness and establish what most people (that is, the white working class) understand by their Englishness. Parochial, tightly knit, focused on family and local communities; nostalgic, fearful of the future and insecure, a dogged belief in common sense these are his conclusions. Mr Baggini confesses to feeling that his six months in Rotherham was like visiting a foreign country, and no doubt many of the people he met would regard six months in London as profoundly alienating. How do you weld national identities out of global metropolises disconnected from hinterland? Englishness is riven with huge regional and class divides. The stakes are high-for example, a rising British National Party vote, a fear of asylum, and hostility to Islam. The anniversary of the Act of union will provide a stage for all this to be played out. It's just as painful a commemoration for the English as for the Scottish. It required one nation to lose its sovereignty and the other its identity.

1. According to the passage, the two major anniversaries will

(a)  give an impetus to the questioning of British national identity.

(b)  set the Britons thinking who they really are.

(c)  be just another occasion to raise the issue of British national identity.

(d) be just another occasion to give rise to a debate on multiculturalism.

(e) not be celebrated because of the shame attached with slave trade.

Ans: (a)

2. According to Linda Colley, Great Britain owes its nation-state concept to

(a) ceding of its territory by Scotland to England.

(b) a shared relation of race, religion and economy.

(c) what can today be seen as a concept of free trade area.

(d) the perpetuation of slave trade.

(e) commonality of interest between its constituents.

Ans: (e)

3. Going by the passage, which of the following may instil a sense of national identity among the Britons?

(a) The return of Catholics to the Protestant fold

(b) Britain going to war with Germany

(c) Britain going to war as an Allied force

(d) Regular football matches between British and French clubs

(e) Any of the above

Ans: (b)

4. According to the facts stated in the passage, if England and Scotland decide to split,

(a) it is the former that stands to gain.

(b) it is the latter that stands to gain.

(c) it will be a win-win situation.

(d) it will be a lose-lose situation.

(e) both the parties will lose their face but gain materially

Ans: (a)

5. According to the passage, the post-modern mind views imperialism as

(a) something that was necessary in the context of the times.

(b) a thing of the past which need not be mentioned further.

(c) a blot on the history of mankind.

(d) the white man's burden.

(e) a concept relevant even in the present times, given the inability of the developing countries to catch up with the West.

Ans: (c)

Directions (Q. 6-12): In each of the following sentences there are two blank spaces. Below each sentence there are five pairs of words. Find out which pair of words can be filled up in the blanks in the sentence in the same sequence to make it meaningfully complete.

6) The truth is that in a highly capital-intensive business _______ deep pockets, domestic civil aviation is _______ undercapitalized.
(a) ascertaining, highly
(b ) requiring, woefully
(c) sustaining, alarmingly
(d) balancing, astonishingly
(e) demanding, niggardly
Ans: (b)

7) Time has now come for all agencies working in the development sector to launch a multi-pronged __________ to _________ malnutrition.
(a) system, abjure
(b) weapon, annihilate
(c) policy, deviate
(d) strategy, eradicate
(e) fact, demolish
Ans: (d)

8) A well- _________, physically and mentally active ________ alone can contribute to the speedier economic progress of a nation.
(a) educated, subjects
(b) organized, systems
(c) advanced, brethren
(d) formulated, citizens
(e) nourished, populace
Ans: (e)

9) We must develop _____ systems from the village upwards and up to the national level to constantly _______ the nutritional status of the people.
(a) monitoring,  review
(b) machinery, tackle
(c) efficient, emancipate
(d) sound, harbour
(e) inherent, inundate
Ans: (a)

10) Democracy has taken a ______ in a system which promotes sycophancy and _____.
(a) dive, bureaucracy
(b) delve, dictatorship
(c) beating, mediocrity
(d) ride, heredity
(e) privilege, intolerance
Ans: (c)

11) People in power love to _______ the freedom of expression by the players because it might ______ their position.
(a) suppress, undermine
(b) counter, reveal
(c) contradict, focus
(d) exploit, hamper
(e) violate, degrade
Ans: (a)

12) Rituals play an important role in ____ growth and growth of our minds to its full _____.
(a) cultural, measure
(b) religious, maximum
(c) mystical, exposure
(d) traditional, limits
(e) spiritual, potential
Ans: (e)

13) If it is possible to make only one meaningful English word with the first, the fifth, the seventh and the eighth letters of the word ORGANISED, which of the following will be the third of that word? If no such word can be made give 'X' as the answer and if more than one such word can be made, give 'Y' as the answer.
(a) N                      (b) D                      (c) S                       (d) X                      (e) Y

Ans: (c)  Word: NOSE

14) The position (s) of how many letters in the word PRODUCT will remain unchanged, when the letters within the word are rearranged alphabetically?
(a) None
(b) One

(c)  Two

(d) Three

(e) more than three

Ans: (b)