Paragraph Completion Exercise - VI

In each of the following questions a short passage is given with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank. Select the best answer choices given, to make the passage complete.

Paragraph 1.
Even the United States lets its citizens know when public databases are breached. Aadhaar and NATGRID might be hacked several times a year for all we know; no one is obligated to tell us. _________________________________. This renders us powerless and steps around our painstakingly crafted civil liberties to hand control of our lives and information back to the state.

(A) We have no idea how secure these databases are and have given no thought to what will happen if someone hacks them or misuses the sensitive information contained in them.
(B) The government wants to add our travel and bank information to these databases, and is pressuring all the phone manufacturers to integrate with them.
(C) This is a governance form in which governments use surveillance, data collection, data mining and other such invasive methods to prevent crime, terrorist attacks and to deliver welfare services.
(D) The imbalance of power created by the state’s attempts at treating citizens like pawns is dangerously magnified by advances in digital technology that allow for easy monitoring of communication and access to large amounts of data.
Answers :
Correct Option: B
option B is the best fit for the blank as the words ‘these databases’ are complementing the chain of thoughts being discussed in the paragraph.

Paragraph 2.
After the categorical verdict of the Delhi High Court that the Capital is a Union Territory, it was quite clear that any decision made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal without the Lieutenant Governor’s approval will be rendered illegal. ________________________________. The appointments, made in March 2015, suffered from multiple legal infirmities. Apart from the lack of the LG’s concurrence, it raised the question of whether it was an ‘office of profit’ under the government, something legislators are barred from holding. The penalty stipulated in the Constitution for a legislator holding an office of profit is disqualification.

(A) The Election Commission has also reserved its verdict on the question whether these 21 MLAs have incurred such disqualification, and it is possible for the Aam Aadmi Party now to ask the matter to be closed, citing the court’s setting aside of the appointments.
(B) Counsel for the Delhi government had to concede the point in court, leading to the appointment of 21 Delhi legislators as parliamentary secretaries being set aside.
(C) At the same time, it cannot be denied that the EC could still choose to decide whether these MLAs had indeed held an office of profit for nearly a year-and-a-half.
(D) Mr. Kejriwal could have avoided this setback had he not given executive oversight responsibilities to so many of his party’s legislators.
Answers :
Correct Option: B
Kindly observe the sentence that follows the blank. It starts with the noun phrase ‘The appointments’ and the only sentence that talks about the appointment is the sentence B.

Paragraph 3.
General Motors Corporation, also known as GM, is a multinational corporation headquartered in the United States and has been the world’s most dominant automaker since 1931. Recent times, however, have not been as favourable for the automotive giant with GM posting a record $38.7 billion loss in 2016. These losses were sustained due to a variety of factors, such as adverse market conditions in the United States and Europe, high inventory levels as well as the fall in the value of the U.S. dollar. _________________________________.

(A) Since the value of the dollar is still falling, the losses sustained seem destined to continue in 2017.
(B) GM’s management is to be blamed for not venturing into emerging markets like Russia and India.
(C) Higher oil prices would probably lead to GM incurring another big loss to its bottom line in 2017.
(D) GM now ranks as the world’s second largest automaker, behind Toyota Motor Corporation.
Answers :
Correct Option: D
Option D is the most appropriate choice here because it can be inferred that due to GM’s losses its position declined from number 1 to number 2. It is the most correct ending to the paragraph.

Paragraph 4.
Labour is restive today. It is apprehensive about what the future bodes for itself. But it’s not as if labour militancy has gone up in recent years. _________________________________. These figures are considerably lower than those in the 1970s and 1980s. However, there is little doubt that organised labour in India, as in the rest of the world, sees itself as a loser in the changes unleashed by liberalisation and globalisation. It fears that if the government goes ahead with some of its proposed “reforms”, its losses will begin to mount.

(A) One of the principal demands of the unions was an increase in the daily minimum wage for unskilled workers from Rs.246 to Rs.692.
(B) However, this argument may have well been overtaken by events in the global economy.
(C) An estimated 120 million workers took part.
(D) On the contrary, man-days lost due to industrial disputes came down from 23.7 million in 2001 to 13 million in 2012 before rising to 19 million in 2013.
Answers :
Correct Option: D
The sentence preceding the blank talks about the rise of ‘labour militancy’ The sentence following the blank starts with the phrase ‘These figures’ that refers to some kind of data or the other.