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16th NovemberCloze Test – The Hindu
The Geographical Indication (GI) Registry andIntellectual
Property India on Tuesday_______(1)______ the Geographical
Indication Tagstatus to Banglar Rasogolla ______(2)_____ WestBengal
and Mamallapuram stone sculptures ofTamil Nadu. West Bengal was
________(3)_____ ina lengthy battle with Odisha,
______(4)_______too had claimed Rasogolla as
its______(5)_______.
1. (a) declared (b) announced(c) presented (d) decided
2. (a) by (b) in(c) of (d) from
3. (a) found (b) grappled(c) involved (d) included
4. (a) they (b) which(c) that (d) it
5. (a) product (b) domain(c) search (d) invention
Parajumble – SE404A. US regulators approved the first
medicine
with an embedded sensor
B. sending a signal to a patch worn on thepatient’s torso and
transmitting theinformation to a smartphone app.
C. The sensor, developed by Proteus, isactivated by stomach
fluids,
D. a so-called digital pill made by OtsukaPharmaceutical Co. and
Proteus DigitalHealth.
E. The pill is a version of Otsuka’s Abilify,which treats
depression, bipolar disorder andschizophrenia.
F. to help keep track of whether patients areadhering to their
prescriptions,
Basic Fillers31. She had clearly no ________ of doing anywork,
although she was very well paid.A) desire B) ambition C)
willingnessD) intention E) meaning
32. The car salesman took the customer for adrive in the new
model in order to ________ itsimproved features.A) advocate B)
demonstrate C) exhibitD) reveal E) expound
33. The actual ________ by which coal Isextracted is well worth
watching.A) conduct B) process C) processionD) pattern E)
fashion
34. If we ______ the plan you suggest, we aremore likely to be
successful.A) decide B) elect C) commandD) vote E) adopt
35. The child was ________ for getting his shoesand socks wet.A)
corrected B) remonstrated C) sufferedD) scolded E) complained
36. Certainly man must ________ the future, andfind ways of
providing for his needs.A) look to B) look up C) look afterD) look
for E) look on
37. He took the day off work to ________ hisaunt’s funeral.A)
accompany B) regard C) assistD) attend E) follow
38. His energetic efforts met with only ________success.A)
particular B) proportionate C) partialD) entire E) complete
39. My rifle was not ________, so I did not hitanything.A) from
the best B) for the better C) of the bestD) for the best E) of the
better
40. Any student who ________ his homework isunlikely to pass his
examination.A) reduces B) neglects C) practicesD) denies E)
offends
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Common Error – CGL171. According to me, it’s a bad film.
2. It was a too good party to miss.
3. Whole Paris was celebrating.
4. I nearly wish I’d stayed at home.
5. One Speaks Italian in my town.
Note: Answers on Sunday
Idioms – Theory1.
Cack-handedLacking skill in doing things with hands or indealing
with peopleRob made a attempt to fix the door and nowit won’t close
at all.What struck me was the cack-handed way hedealt with the
whole situation.
2.Be in cahootsTo be planning or doing sth dishonest
withsomeoneThere are theories that someone in thegovernment was in
the cahoots with theassassin.
3.Have your cake and eat itTo have both things that are
availableHe wants to have his cake and eat it. Hewants the security
of marriage and theexcitement of affaires.
4.Call sb’s bluffTo tell sb to do what they are threatening
todoAlice called his bluff and dared him to telleveryone what he
knew about her.
5.Call sb namesTo use insulting wordsI was afraid that if I wore
glasses to school,the other students will call me names.
6.A can of wormsTo start doing sth that will cause a lot
ofproblemsOnce you start making concessions toindividual members of
staff, you really opena can of worms.
7.Have a card up your sleeveTo have a plan/idea to gain
advantage kepthidden until it is neededI still had a card up my
sleeve in the form ofa letter from his father.
8.Not have a care in the worldTo not have any worriesBabies are
the luckiest, they do not have acare in the world.He was walking
along the street whistling,looking as if he didn’t have a care in
theworld.
9.Carrot-and-stickTo persuade sb to try harder by
offeringrewardThe emphasis is on the carrot of incentiverather than
the stick of taxes.
10.Carry a torch for sbTo secretly love sb who doesn’t love
youbackGraeme’s been carrying a torch for Linda foryears.
11.Put the cart before the horseTo do things in wrong
orderDeciding what to wear before you’ve evenbeen invited to the
party is rather putting thecart before the horse.
12.Be cast in the same mouldTo have same type of characterJack
is cast in the same mould as his father –intelligent, kind, but
stubborn.
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13.Cast aspersions on sbTo criticize someone or someone’s
characterHis opponents cast aspersions on hispatriotism.
14.Cast ironA promise that can be trusted completelyNo new
business comes with a cast ironguarantee of success.
15.Be like a cat on a hot tin roofTo be nervous and unable to
keep stillWhat is the matter with her? She is like a caton a hot
tin roof.
Answers:
Cloze Test - CCCBD
Parajumble – AFDECB
Basic Fillers - 31-D 32-B 33-B 34-E 35-D 36-A37-D 38-C 39-C
40-B
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The last resort: on ThomasChandy’s resignationThere is usually
little to be gained in delayingthe inevitable by a day or two.
After the KeralaHigh Court passed strictures against him forfiling
a petition against his own government,Transport Minister Thomas
Chandyshould havehad the good sense to resign immediately.
But,quite inexplicably, he dithered on the issue,embarrassing Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayanand creating divisions within the ruling
LeftDemocratic Front (LDF). Indeed, once AlappuzhaDistrict
Collector T.V. Anupama submitted areport on alleged encroachments
by a companyin which he holds a stake, Mr. Chandy shouldhave
stepped down as a matter of propriety. Bymoving the court
challenging the Collector’sreport, prepared on the orders of
thegovernment, he virtually invited the judicialreprimand on
himself. That he entertained thehope of tiding over the political
crisis engulfinghim even after the court’s strictures betrays
astrange mix of nose-in-the-air arrogance andhead-in-the-sand
ignorance. For the past fewmonths, Mr. Chandy has been caught inthe
encroachments controversy. The Lake PalaceResort, part-owned by
him, came under a cloudover issues related to reclamation of paddy
landto create a vehicle park, diversion of the courseof rivulets
for construction activities, and layingof an approach road to the
resort by filling paddyfields. That the Minister chose to stand by
theresort, and not with the government, was thereal shocker.
As for Mr. Vijayan, he should have sacked Mr.Chandy instead of
leaving it to the NationalistCongress Party to secure his
resignation. Thatthe Minister belonged to a smaller allied partyand
that the LDF is bound by acoalition dharma are justifications that
do notwash in the face of a strong judicial stricture.Not
surprisingly, the Communist Party of Indiasaw things differently
and boycotted a Cabinetmeeting on the ground that Mr. Chandy was
aparticipant. The party argued that Mr. Chandycould not be expected
to discharge hisresponsibilities as a Minister after having
challenged the government in a court of law. TheCPI’s strident
stand can also be explained by thefact that one of its members,
E.Chandrasekharan, holds the Revenue portfolioand was monitoring
the action against theencroachments. The eventual exit of Mr.
Chandyon Wednesday might pave the way for the returnof his party
colleague A.K. Saseendran to theCabinet. Mr. Saseendran had to
resign followinga questionable sting operation in which he isheard
allegedly seeking sexual favours from awoman. The LDF is not short
of talent, butcoalition dynamics require that Mr. Vijayanreplace
Mr. Chandy with the only other MLAfrom the NCP. Despite a
comfortable majority,Mr. Vijayan might not want to risk upsetting
thepolitical equations within the LDF. The real testfor him will be
to ensure that governance doesnot suffer amid his deft political
manoeuvres.
Daily Vocab – The Hindu Editorial – 16th NovThe last resort: on
Thomas Chandy’sresignation
Strictures – rule that restricts बा यताDithered – to hesitate
about what to do दु वधाStep down – resign इ तीफ़ा देनाReprimand –
rebuke डाटंनाTide over – to help by providing what they needकाबू
पानाEngulf – to affect sb very strongly भा वत होनाunder a cloud –
if sb is under a cloud, otherpeople think that they have done sth
wrong संदेहमReclamation – to get something back फर से पानाRivulet –
a very small river छोट नदStrident – determined कठोर रा ताPave the
way – to create a situation to do sthतैयार करनाDeft – skillful and
quick चालाकManoeuvre – a clever plan or action
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You’ve tried the grammar method.Did you succeed???
If not, trycomprehension.
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NITI Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kantrecently spoke of
debit cards, credit cards andATMs becoming redundant in the next
three tofour years. Since demonetisation, the governmenthas been
working to make India a cashlesseconomy. With the ubiquity of
Aadhaar,smartphones and the new unified paymentsinterface
(UPI)-based apps, it wants to move onfrom cash to a digital
payments economy—whereeverything from payment to receipt is done
online.
Kant’s prediction about debit and credit cards hasthe potential
to come true because theinfrastructure to replace physical cards,
as well asthe momentum in the adoption of alternativepayment
mechanisms, is well under way. Whiledebit and credit cards continue
to dominate retaildigital payments, the UPI and prepaid
paymentinstruments (PPIs) are catching up.
Between 2014-15 and 2016-17, the share of PPIsin total volume of
card transactions increased from18% to 36%. PPIs caught on when
customersdidn’t want to authenticate recurring transactionsthrough
the two-factor authentication process.That is why they linked their
prepaid wallets withcab-hailing, mobile-recharge and
grocery-shoppingservices. Then, in August 2016 came UPI, based
onbanks’ immediate payment service (IMPS). It linkedthe user’s
various bank accounts to a single mobileapplication, doing away
with the need to recharge awallet. UPI transaction volumes have
increasedfrom 4.2 million in January to 30 million inSeptember 2017
(growing 85% between Augustand September itself). While PPIs still
have muchhigher volumes (87 million) right now, UPI is eatinginto
their share as well as that of cards. This isexpected to continue
with the launch of UPI 2.0,which will bring the ease of
pre-authorizeddeductions for recurring payments, like cab rides,to
UPI, along with a possible increase in thetransaction limit from
the present Rs1 lakh. MajorPPIs have already integrated UPI into
their serviceso as to not lose customers to competing
UPI-onlyapps.
With regard to offering a point of sale (POS)payment solution,
Samsung is the first mover inIndia, offering a mobile payment mode
that workson all existing terminals—whether contactless ornot—with
Samsung Pay; the technology is availableon select handsets.
Samsung’s entry is likely to befollowed by that of Google and
Apple, which canlead to wider adoption.
Thus, cards might well be on their way out. Butmaking ATMs
redundant is a task of vastlydifferent proportions. An ATM’s role
is to dispensecash, and reducing the dependence on cashrequires a
massive increase in the adoption of
bank accounts, mobile wallets and paymentplatforms. There are
several challenges here.
A prerequisite to a less-cash economy is financialinclusion. The
Economic Survey, 2015-16 reportedthat the basic savings bank
penetration was 46%across states, on average. The Jan Dhan
Yojana(JDY) had laudably managed to open 294 millionbank accounts
as of August 2017, increasingaccess to the formal banking system
for theunbanked masses, but a quarter of them remainzero-balance
inoperative accounts.
If people received income in their bank accountsand could spend
digitally, they could go cashless.But most people work in the
informal economy andget paid in cash. Then there is the scarce use
ofmobile payment platforms. Most product vendorsstill don’t use a
mobile platform to receivepayments because there are limited
use-cases fordigital money. Take the case of Thane’s Dasaivillage,
which was touted as India’s first cashlessvillage last year,but has
gone back to its old ways.The village doesn’t have a reliable
internet service,which hampers the functioning of POS devices
andeven ATMs. All applicants haven’t been issued ATMcards and since
cash has become available, peoplehave had little reason to use them
anyway.
Finally, mobile wallets are largely designed for useon
smartphones, and 56% of Indians still usefeature phones. Given the
frequent power outages,poor connectivity and low income,
smartphoneshave limited utility for most people. Moreover,recent
offers have reduced the acquisition cost ofhandsets to near-zero;
and survey data fromKantar IMRB shows that only 15% of the
currentfeature-phone users intend to buy a smartphone.UPI does work
with feature phones, but it wasused for just 0.19 million
transactions out of the 9million that happened in May.
India has been unable to increase accessibility tobanks within
the formal banking system; only 27%villages have a bank branch
within 5km. But theincrease in the number of payment banks canbring
the basic banking functions of securingdeposits, providing an
ATM-debit card and allowingaccess to online payment gateways.
Interoperability across PPIs may increase adoptionby vendors
and, therefore, increase the use-casesfor people. But the largely
informal nature of theeconomy, the preponderance of feature phones
andthe old habit of using cash are enduring problemsthat will keep
the cashless economy fromspreading outside urban centres for many
years.
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