Word Formation Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :

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

People are drawn to vegetarianism by all sorts of motives. Some of us want to live longer, healthier lives or do our part to reduce pollution. Others have made the switch because we want to preserve earth's natural resources or because we've always loved animals and are ethically opposed to eating them.

Vegetarianism promotes a natural way of life. But despite its implicit message of universal love and non-violence it has not spread as it should have. This may be because it usually is an inward-looking habit and is best cultivated in the mind.

Leading a vegetarian way of life helps the animal kingdom co-exist with man. The animals supply milk, manure and energy. This has been central to the Indian culture for thousands of years. A vegetarian life style is natural, multifaceted and helps self-preservation in a healthy way. Food and health are closely related.

Vegetarian foods provide an infinite variety of flavours whereas non-vegetarian foods have hardly any taste of their own. In fact, non-vegetarian foods have to be seasoned with ingredients from the vegetable kingdom to make them palatable.

Direction for [ Question No: 2 To 2 ] :

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

1. Physical health affects the mind and vice versa. Which of the two is the more important is like asking the age-old question : what comes first, the chicken or the egg. For our present subject, let us be clear that a sound mind in a sound body is a prerequisite for high efficiency and good quality work in the office, factory or field, which leads to a sense of achievement and fulfilment.

2. Our health is, of course, important not only to us, but also to our families and even to our employers. No wonder then that companies everywhere have a stake in the health and fitness of their employees and are willing to spend considerable money towards this purpose. Japanese companies particularly excel in this and the more successful among them start off the day with a body-bending and stretching session and even singing the company song designed to promote loyalty and motivation among the workforce! This is considered an important factor contributing to high productivity and quality. Here is a lesson which has been emulated elsewhere in the world and could work wonders in India. It is estimated that some 20,000 American firms have established in-house health clubs. Typical of these is the soft drink manufacturer Pepsi Cola which has spent about $2 million in setting up a health club at its head office in New York State. Such expenditure has proved to be a wise investment in achieving better efficiency and higher productivity. It has, indirectly, also helped reduce the premium on the health insurance of its staff. This business has grown so large that hundreds of consultancies have sprung up for the management of health clubs and fitness centres. In some cases, there is a nominal contribution by the employees on the premise that this way they will value and use the facilities all the more. Some insurance companies have teamed up with employers in such ventures as better health contributes to a longer life and hence more premium! Though many firms in India have generous medical schemes, the movement towards health clubs and the like is yet to gain momentum.

Direction for [ Question No: 3 To 3 ] :

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

The Japanese economy is being driven by small and medium-sized enterprises offering new ways of doing things.

Working hard to deliver quality products and services is hard-wired into every good Japanese business. But those principles are especially important to the nation's booming small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and niche companies. An incredible 3·58 million SMEs make up 99·7% of all Japanese businesses, and they play a massive role - by doing all the little things right. Utilizing an agile corporate structure, many such firms are thriving, whether supplying business contracts or selling direct to customers.

With Asia-Pacific neighbours leading the way in mass production and lower-cost models, Japanese firms have been taking a more focused and customer-centric approach. "A large number of manufacturers have shifted towards niche fields. Although Japanese products cannot remain competitive regarding cost and volume, they excel where high quality is needed," said Yoshio Komuro, CEO and President of precision metal rollers firm, Rikazai Co. Ltd.

Mamoru Iwata, President of manufacturing prototype specialists, Sanken Kogyo Co. Ltd. said that adaptability is a crucial factor in his firm's success. "As we do not work with mass production, client needs change from time to time and as such, our focus of production changes often," Iwata said. "Ensuring that clients are happy and satisfied is our number one priority."

Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

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

1 Digital transformation as "the most remarkable change of our era" found its echo in many parts of the G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration. From economy to sustainability, all were looped in the strings of digital innovation.

2 "The proper use of digital technologies can become a force multiplier in the decades-long global fight against poverty. Digital solutions can also be helpful in the fight against climate change - as we all saw in the examples of remote-working and paperless green offices during COVID." Citing India's experience of the past few years, our Prime Minister said, "If we make digital architecture inclusive, it can bring about socio-economic transformation. Digital use can bring scale and speed. These solutions are based on open source, open APIs, open standards, which are interoperable and public. This is our approach based on the digital revolution that is going on in India today."

3 The G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration noted, "The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the digital ecosystem and digital economy. We acknowledge that affordable and high-quality digital connectivity is essential for digital inclusion and digital transformation, while a resilient, safe and secure online environment is necessary to enhance confidence and trust in the digital economy. We recognise the importance of policies to create an enabling, inclusive, open, fair and non-discriminatory digital economy that fosters the application of new technologies, allows businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive, and protects and empowers consumers, while addressing the challenges related to digital divides, privacy, data protection, intellectual property rights, and online safety."

4 The G20 Indonesia Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG), thus, established the G20 Digital Innovation Network (DIN) to enhance engagement among global innovation builders and drivers such as start-ups, venture capitalists and corporations. The main idea was to establish the G20 DIN as a launching pad for the Digital Economy, labelling it as post-pandemic recovery and beyond.

Direction for [ Question No: 5 To 5 ] :

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

I have told you already about the formation of tribes. When agriculture came, and there was some division of work or labour, it became necessary for some person in the tribe to organise the work. Even before this, the tribes wanted someone to lead them to battle against another tribe. The leader was usually the oldest man in the group. He was called, or rather we call him now, the patriarch. As the oldest, he was supposed to be the most experienced and to have the most knowledge. This patriarch was not very different from the other members of the tribe. He worked with the others, and all the food that was produced was divided between all the members of the tribe. Everything belonged to the tribe. It was not like we have now, each person having his separate house and money and many other things. Whatever a man earned was divided up as it all belonged to the tribe. The patriarch or the organiser of the tribe did this dividing.

But changes came in slowly. There were new kinds of work, especially on account of agriculture, and the patriarch had to spend most of his time in organising and seeing that work was properly done by all the members of the tribe. Little by little, the patriarch gave up doing the ordinary work or labour of the people. He thus became quite different from the rest of the people. We see now another kind of division of work or labour : the patriarch doing the organizing and ordering people about, and the other people working in the fields and hunting and going to battle, and obeying the orders of their leader, the patriarch. If there was a war or fight between two tribes, the patriarch became even more powerful, for in wartime it was not possible to fight well without a leader. So the patriarch became very powerful.

Direction for [ Question No: 6 To 6 ] :

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

At that moment, we heard a big bang from outside, as if a bomb had exploded! We felt as if we were being thrown violently to the ground. From the shadow of a tree nearby, someone emerged and walked slowly towards the shop to stand before us. Everything had happened in the fraction of a second and seeing his face now, my throat went suddenly dry.

He was a young boy. Across his cheek ran a deep gash, from eye to lip made by a bullet or a sharp knife. There was blood and pus in it. The flesh under his lip looked as if it had been ripped open and we could see his teeth in the quavering light.

I went to the old woman and took her hand in mine, gripping it tightly. We were both shivering. The boy was wearing black jeans and a khaki jacket. And what was that in his hand ? A revolver ? Even in the smoky light of the kerosene lamp, the barrel shone. The old woman burst into a hysterical cry.

'Oh my Kanbap, my son! I told your father a thousand times to bring you from the railway track. Oh my son, what has happened to you ? Why are you bleeding like this ?'

Suddenly the boy's eyes fell on the girl sitting in the corner and trembling with fear. He sped like a bullet towards the girl and grabbing her hair, rained blows and kicks on her stomach, shouting, 'I will smash your womb! I will kill the bastard child of that soldier you are carrying... Making love with a soldier, dirty bitch! Phooh! Phooh!

Direction for [ Question No: 7 To 7 ] :

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

Soon some idea struck her and she went to the window and hollered, 'Roopa! Roopa!' After calling out for Roopa, she had a look at the things that she had brought for her. Roopa had to sit for her home science examination the next day and Tarawati had collected things like some kitchen items, a bucket, a mug and a stool that Roopa required for the practical examination.

While looking at the things that she had collected for Roopa, Tarawati recalled her husband who had died a few years ago. She remembered him berating her for not treating Roopa well. 'Roopa's mother! Do not think only sons deserve all love and care and not daughters'. I'm determined to give Roopa good education so that she leads a happy and meaningful life. You are not educated yourself. That's probably why you don't want her to be educated. This is not fair on your part. You must change your views and let her grow and flower into a happy, confident individual.'

Thinking of her husband's admonition on this account, Tarawati felt emotional. The fact of the matter was that Roopa's parents differed on Roopa's upbringing and fought with each other on the issue. The fight continued for days together and often it was Roopa who intervened to broker peace between them. On his death-bed too, Roopa's father had cried and pleaded with her to treat Roopa in a nice manner. Hugging Roopa, he had told Tarawati, 'Take care of Roopa. Give her good education and let her decide the course of her life herself.' While recalling the interaction, tears rolled down Tarawati's eyes.

Meanwhile, the evening shadows were getting darker. Tarawati was exhausted and had a headache too. She looked at her dust-laden feet and then around the room. In order to bring some semblance of order, she forced herself to get up and get going. Then she called her daughter again, Roopa! Roopa!'.

Direction for [ Question No: 8 To 8 ] :

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

The next morning, as I was about to leave the city, I saw peacocks on every tree, rock and hill. Their movements had the same peace, the same grace and the same beauty. As the evening shadows deepened, the air was filled with the song of peacocks. I thought they were there to both welcome and bid me farewell.

Whenever I recall that trip, my mind is filled with the images of those peacocks. I am surprised. Did I really see so many of them? Did the peacocks of Rajasthan actually come out to greet me? I wonder how they are now.

I try to imagine that city now, but all I can see is a picture of desolation. Shocked and disturbed, I am neither able to see the peacocks nor hear their song. Where have they all disappeared? In which corner of the world are they hiding? Suddenly, I have a vision of a lonely peacock on a distant hill. He seems battered and bruised. I walk quickly toward him but, before I can reach the hill, he rises into the sky screaming with terror and disappears.

Where has he gone? Where are his companions, those countless peacocks? Why is he sitting alone on that hill, the very picture of desolation? Why is he so despondent, so terrified? The sight of that dejected, bewildered peacock suddenly brings to mind another image of desolation that I had forgotten. On the far edge of a dark, oil-soaked sea, I see a forlorn duck covered with foul effluents, watching the waves in disbelief. Till yesterday, the sea was ambrosia, today it is poison. The wings of the duck are so heavy with slime that he can no longer fly. Poison flows through the veins in his body.

Direction for [ Question No: 9 To 9 ] :

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

The contacts between India and the western world which Chandragupta Maurya had established continued during the reign of his son, Bindusara. Ambassadors came to the court at Pataliputra from Ptolemy of Egypt and Antiochus, the son and successor of Seleucus Nicator of Western Asia. Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, added to these contacts, and India became in his time an important international centre, chiefly because of the rapid spread of Buddhism.

Ashoka succeeded to this great empire in about 273 BC. He had previously served as Viceroy in the North-Western province of which Taxila, the university centre, was the capital. Already the empire included the greater part of India and extended right into Central Asia. Only the South-East and a part of the South were beyond its sway. The old dream of uniting the whole of India under one supreme government fired Ashoka and forthwith he undertook the conquest of Kalinga on the east coast, which corresponds roughly with modern Orissa and part of Andhra. His armies triumphed in spite of the brave and obstinate resistance of the people of Kalinga. There was a terrible slaughter in the war, and when news of this reached Ashoka, he was stricken with remorse and disgusted with war. Unique among the victorious monarchs and captains in history, he decided to abandon warfare in the full tide of victory. The whole of India acknowledged his sway, except for the southern tip, and that tip was his for the taking. But he refrained from any further aggression, and his mind turned, under the influence of the Buddha's gospel, to conquests and adventures in other fields.

Direction for [ Question No: 10 To 10 ] :

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

Lata stood outside the hall for a minute. Sunlight poured onto the stone steps. The edge of her middle finger was smeared with dark blue ink, and she looked at it, frowning. She was close to tears.

Other English students stood on the steps and chatted. A post-mortem of the paper was being held, and it was dominated by an optimistic and chubby girl who was ticking off on her fingers the various points she had answered correctly.

'This is one paper I know I have done really well,' she said. 'Especially the 'King Lear' question. I think that the answer was 'Yes'.' Others were looking excited or depressed. Everyone agreed that several of the questions were far harder than they had needed to be. A knot of history students stood not far away, discussing their paper, which had been held simultaneously in the same building. One of them was the young man who had brought himself to Lata's attention in the Imperial Book Depot, and he was looking a little worried. He had spent a great deal of time these last few months in extra-curricular activities - particularly cricket - and this had taken its toll upon his performance.

Lata walked to a bench beneath the gulmohar tree and sat down to collect herself. When she got home for lunch, she would be pestered with a hundred questions about how well she had done. She looked down at the red flowers that lay scattered at her feet. In her head, she could still hear the buzzing of the fly.

The young man, though he had been talking to his classmates, had noticed her walking down the steps. When she sat down on the far bench under the tree, he decided to have a word with her. He told his friends that he had to go home for lunch - that his father would be waiting for him - and hurried along the path past the gulmohar. As he came to the bench, he uttered an exclamation of surprise and stopped.