Spotting Errors Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :

Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

There's an air of excitement on the platform as the train's departure time draws close. You've found your name on the passenger's list, together with the names of those in the compartment with you; so you already know your 'fellow passengers' names, ages, sex and destination. People are pushing past you to get on, as you show your coupon to the conductor and he tells you to board.

Your fellow passengers are settling in, staking out their claims to territory with too much luggage. A bell clangs but there is no slamming of carriage doors, no blowing of whistles and no shout of "All aboard !" as in the states. The train simply draws out of the station while people stroll alongside and with studied nonchalance, clamber on, one after the other through the still-open doors.

You claim your own seat, pleased to be on the move. Since you have a long journey ahead in the company of strangers, what happens next will govern your enjoyment of the trip. You can start up a conversation and make friends, allies quickly, or he anti-social and lonely for the whole of the journey. Of course, it depends on your personality but if you are travelling alone you'll need an ally, someone you feel you can trust to watch your luggage when you go to the washroom. You can't isolate yourself completely on a train so if that's your style, train travel isn't for you.

I get a thrill out of the start of every train journey. It's not just the excitement of moving on to a new place, there's the anticipation of what's going to happen during the journey; the pleasure at the new acquaintances I'm going to make; the dissolving of city skyline into lush, rural landscape beyond the windows; and the heightened emotions of everyone on board. Indians love to travel by train; they are used to it and prepare properly so it becomes a picnic on wheels. I get excited when I am part of it, you will too.

Direction for [ Question No: 2 To 2 ] :

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.

1. There is something we all want to do, although few of us readily admit it : Get rid of guests.

2. For nine months in the year, only my closest friends come to see me. Then, when temperatures start soaring in the plains, long-lost acquaintances suddenly remember that I exist, and people whom I am barely able to recognize appear at the front door, willing to have me put them up for periods ranging from six days to six weeks.

3. Occasionally, I am the master of the situation I inform them that the cottage is already bursting, that people are sleeping on the floor. If the hopefuls start looking around for signs of these uncomfortable guests, I remark that they have all gone out for a picnic.

4. The other day I received visitors who proved to be more thick-skinned than most. The man was a friend of a friend of an acquaintance of mine. I had never seen him before. But on the strength of this distant relationship, he had brought his family along.

5. I tried the usual ploy but it didn't work. The man and his family were perfectly willing to share the floor with any others who might be staying with me.

6. So I made my next move. 'I must warn you about the scorpions', I said. The scorpion-scare is effective with most people. But I was dealing with professionals. The man set his son rolling up the carpet. 'Sometimes centipedes fall from the ceiling', I said desperately.

7. We were now interrupted by someone knocking on the front door. It was the postman with a rejected manuscript, his arrival inspired me to greater inventiveness.

8. 'I'm terribly sorry', I said, staring hard at a rejection slip. 'I'm afraid I have to leave immediately. A paper wants me to interview the Maharishi. I hope you won't mind. Would you like the name of a good hotel ?'

9. 'Oh, don't worry about us', said the woman expansively. 'We'll look after the house while you are away.'

Direction for [ Question No: 3 To 3 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow, by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

1. Each drop represents a little bit of creation and of life itself. When the monsoon brings to northern India the first rains of summer, the parched earth opens its pores and quenches its thirst with a hiss of ecstasy. After baking in the sun for the last few months, the land looks cracked, dusty and tired. Now, almost overnight, new grass springs up, there is renewal everywhere, and the damp earth releases a fragrance sweeter than any devised by man.

2. Water brings joy to earth, grass, leaf-bud, blossom, insect, bird, animal and the pounding heart of man. Small children run out of their homes to romp naked in the rain. Buffaloes, which have spent the summer listlessly around lakes gone dry, now plunge into a heaven of muddy water. Soon the lakes and rivers will overflow with the monsoon's generosity. Trekking in the Himalayan foothills, I recently walked for kilometres without encountering habitation. I was just scolding myself for not having brought along a water-bottle, when I came across a patch of green on a rock face. I parted a curtain of tender maiden hair fern and discovered a tiny spring issuing from the rock-nectar for the thirsty traveller.

3. I stayed there for hours, watching the water descend, drop by drop, into a tiny casement in the rocks. Each drop reflected creation. That same spring, I later discovered, joined other springs to form a swift, tumbling stream, which went cascading down the hill into other streams until, in the plains, it became part of a river. And that river flowed into another mightier river that kilometres later emptied into the ocean. Be like water, taught Laotzu, philosopher and founder of Taoism. Soft and limpid, it finds its way through, over or under any obstacle. It does not quarrel; it simply moves on.

Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

Legends will tell you that flamingoes are no ordinary visitors to Kachchh. They were the honoured guests of King Lakho and he had forbidden the hunting of flamingoes, which came to Kachchh from various parts of the world every year to breed. For centuries, the region had been a haven for the migratory bird. Today, Flamingo City, an island in the middle of the Rann of Kachchh, known the world over as one of the biggest breeding grounds of the Greater Flamingo, is strewn with bodies of hundreds of flamingo chicks. The parents of these chicks have fled the island due to lack of food. Zooplanktons, algae and the small fish that these birds survive on are dying due to a sudden increase in the salinity of the Rann waters. One can even see dead fish floating. Flamingoes need salt-encrusted, damp mud to build nests. The place where they build their nests has to be inaccessible to predatory cats and birds. It should also have sufficient food. The right mix of sweet and brackish water in the Rann is crucial for the proliferation of planktons and algae that the flamingoes feed on. Faced with starvation, flamingoes have fled the island leaving their chicks to fend for themselves. Till date, around a thousand flamingoes have died.

Maharaj Kumarshi Himmatsinghji, a member of the royal family of Kachchh and an expert on the birds of Kachchh, traces the problem of increased salinity in the Rann waters to the construction of dams on rivers that flow into the region. He emphasises that efforts should be made to ensure that at least some water flows into the Rann. In fact, over the years, the number of flamingoes coming to the island has decreased because of the change in salinity of the Rann water. In 1945, Salim Ali, the late ornithologist, had found 5 lakh birds on the island. Since then, the number has not gone above 2.2 lakh. However, the studies carried out on the Flamingo City so far cannot be taken as 100 percent accurate.

Direction for [ Question No: 5 To 5 ] :

Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct/most appropriate options :

Freedom is one of the most important factors in life. Man has fought politically all over the world for freedom. Religions have promised freedom, not in this world but in another. In the capitalist countries, individual freedom exists to some degree, and in the communist world it has been denied. From ancient times, freedom has meant a great deal to man, and there have been its opponents, not only political but religious through Inquisition, by excommunication, tortures and banishments, and the total denial of man's search for freedom. There have been wars and counter-wars fought for freedom. This has been the pattern of man's endeavours for freedom throughout history.

Freedom of self-expression and freedom of speech and thought exist in some parts of the world, but in others it does not. Those who have been conditioned, revolt against their backgrounds. This reaction which takes different forms is called 'freedom'. The reaction to politics is often to shun the field of politics.

One economic reaction is to form small communities based on some ideology or under the leadership of one person, but these soon disintegrate. The religious reaction against established organisations of belief is to revolt, either by joining other religious organisations or by following some guru or leader or by joining some cult. Or one denies the whole religious endeavour.

One thinks of freedom only as freedom of movement, either physical or movements of thought. It appears that one always seeks freedom on the surface. Surely, this is rather a limited freedom, involving a great deal of conflict, wars and violence.

Inner freedom is something entirely different. It has its roots not in the idea of freedom but in the reality of freedom. It covers all the endeavours of man. Without inner freedom life will always be an activity within the limited circle of time and conflict.

Direction for [ Question No: 6 To 6 ] :

Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow, by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

1. Kangri Karchok, the Kailash Purana of the Tibetans describes the sacred elephant-mouthed river or Langchen Khambab as a long and extensive river that rises from the 'lake unconquerable', the Tso Maphan or Manasarovar that flows from the mountainous regions of Tibet. According to this holy book, this cold river with its sands of gold, circles the holy Manasarovar seven times before taking its course to the west.

2. The Langchen Khambab flows down from the red coloured mountains of the Kanglung Kangri Glacier in the Trans-Himalayan region of Tibet, channelling its way through the earth forests of Tholing and Tsparang of the Gugi Kingdom. These earth forests are full of pillars formed by rocks that collectively appear like a forest from afar - an 'out of the world' landscape that was formed by geological movements of the earth and erosion by wind and water. The Khyunglung ruins also lies on the northern bank of the Sutlej river in this valley which was once known as the 'Garuda Valley".

3. This mighty river then flows north-west for about 260 km before entering Himachal Pradesh through Shipki La cutting across the formidable Himalayan ranges of Zanskar, the Greater Himalaya and the Dhauladhar. Subsequently, the waters meander through the gigantic Kinnaur Kailash-Jorkanden Range at Reckong Peo creating the terrifying Sutlej gorge. Then it streams into Shimla, Kullu, Mandi and Bilaspur and is responsible for the rich cultivation of grapes, apples and apricots all along its banks. After its confluence with the River Spiti at Khab it is known as Sutlej.

4. It is 1,448 km in length, making it the longest among the five rivers of Punjab. Extensively used for irrigation, it is topographically divided into the Upper Sutlej Basin and Lower Sutlej Basin. It leaves the Himachal boundary to enter the plains of the Punjab at the Bhakra Dam, the second highest gravity dam and a major point of water supply and electricity generation for the North of India.

Direction for [ Question No: 7 To 8 ] :

In each of the following sentences, identify the part which has an error in it.

Direction for [ Question No: 9 To 10 ] :

Read each sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical error in it. The error, if any will be in one part of the sentence. The letter of that part is the answer. If there is no error, the answer is 'E'. (Ignore the errors of punctuation, if any).