Directions (1 to 5): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.
Among those suffering from the global recession are millions of workers who are not even included in the official statistics : urban recyclers -the trash pickers, sorters, traders and reprocessors who extricate paper, cardboard and plastics from garbage heaps and prepare them for reuse. Their work is both unrecorded and largely unrecognised, even though in some parts of the world they handle as much as 20 per cent of all waste. The world’s 15 million informal recyclers clean up cities, prevent some trash from ending in landfills and thus, reduce climate change by saving energy on waste disposal techniques like incineration. In the developed countries they are the preferred ones since they recycle waste much more cheaply and efficiently than governments or private corporations can. In the developing world, on the other hand, they provide the only recycling services except for a few big cities. But as recession hits the markets worldwide, the price of scrap metal, paper and plastic has also fallen. Recyclers throughout the world are experiencing a sharp drop in income. Trash pickers and scrap dealers saw a decline of as much as 80 per cent in the price of scrap from October 2007 to October 2009. In some countries scrap dealers have shuttered so quickly that researchers at the Solid Waste Management Association didn’t have a chance to record their losses.
In Delhi, some 80 per cent of families in the informal recycling business surveyed by an organisation said they had cut back on “luxury foods,” which they defined as fruit, milk and meat. About 41 per cent had stopped buying milk for their children. By this summer, most of those children, already malnourished, hadn’t had a glass of milk in nine months. Many of these children have also cut down on hours spent in school to work alongside their parents. Families have liquidated their most valuable assets—primarily copper from electrical wires—and have stopped sending remittances back to their rural villages. Many have also sold their emergency stores of grain. Their misery is not as familiar as that of the laid-off workers of big-name but imploding, service sector corporations, but it is often more tragic.
Few countries have adopted emergency measures to help trash pickers. Brazil, for one, is providing recyclers, or “catadores,” with cheaper food, both through arrangements with local farmers and by offering food subsidies. Other countries, with the support of non-governmental organizations and donor agencies are following Brazail’s example. Unfortunately, most trash pickers operate outside official notice and end up falling through the cracks of programmes like these. In the long run, though, these invisible workers will remain especially vulnerable to economic slowdowns unless they are integrated into the formal business sector, where they can have insurance and reliable wages. This is not hard to accomplish. Informal junk shops should have to apply for licences, and governments should create or expand doorstep waste collection programmes to employ trash pickers. Instead of sorting through haphazard trash heaps and landfills, the pickers would have access to the cleaner scrap that comes from households.
The need of the hour, however, is a more immediate solution. An efficient but temporary solution would be for governments where they’d have to pay a small subsidy to waste dealers so they could purchase scrap from trash pickers at about 20 per cent above the current price. This increase, if well-advertised and broadly utilised, would bring recyclers a higher price and eventually bring them back from the brink. Trash pickers make our cities healthier and more liveable. We all stand to gain by making sure that the work of recycling remains sustainable for years to come.
- Which of the following is not true in the context of the passage?
(1) Purchase of trash at a higher price by the government is only a temporary solution to the larger problem
(2) The welfare programs started by the government for the recyclers largely fail to help them
(3) In the last couple of years the price of scrap has come down to 20% of its original price
(4) Few countries have started to take steps against the plight of the recyclers
(5) All the true
- According to the passage, which of the following measures have been taken to help the distressed recyclers?
(A) Helping them with the aid of NGOs.
(B) Taking steps to make the scrap pickers have access to cleaner scrap.
(C) Providing food subsidies to the recyclers.
(1) Only A
(2) A and C
(3) Only C
(4) B and C
(5) None of these
- How, according to the author, have the recyclers contributed towards saving the environment?
(A) By preventing the trash being dumped into the landfills.
(B) By using renewable sources of energy to recycle the scrap.
(C) By helping to avoid the energy consuming waste disposal techniques.
(1) Only A
(2) Only B
(3) A and B
(4) A and C
(5) None of these
- Which of the following has not been an effect of the losses observed in the informal waste recycling?
(1) To help their families, the children of the recyclers have started working thus compromising on their education
(2) Many scrap dealers have discontinued their businesses
(3) The government in many countries has derecognized scrap dealers in view of their unprofitable business
(4) Governments in many countries had to take emergency steps to help the recyclers deal with the crisis
(5) None of the above
- What does the author mean by ‘Their misery is not as familiar as that of the laid-off workers of big-name but imploding, service sector corporations’ as given in the passage?
(1) The effect of recession on the famous organizations is clearly noticed, whereas the plight of informal recyclers is neglected
(2) Big name corporations are often hesitant to help the relatively smaller set-ups such as the that of the informal recyclers
(3) The big name private recyclers have been getting the government help, whereas the smaller ones are not
(4) The misery of the informal recyclers has been kept a secret by the government
(5) None of the above
Directions (6 to 10): Rearrange the following six sentences (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and (F) in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph; then answer the questions given below them.
(A) Voluntary measures such as codes of conduct have failed to address these issues and deliver change.
(B) However they can also cause serious problems with their irresponsible behaviour.
(C) Companies are a powerful force for good.
(D) There are several instances of companies undermining worker’s rights and damaging the environment.
(E) The Companies Bill 2009 is thus a means to address issues of corporate governance and ensure companies are accountable for theft financial performance and social impact.
(F) They provide jobs, boost economies and aid social and environmental development.
- Which of the following should be the FIRST sentence after rearrangement?
(1) A
(2) B
(3) C
(4) D
(5) E
- Which of the following should be the SECOND sentence after rearrangement?
(1) A
(2) B
(3) C
(4) D
(5) F
- Which of the following should be the THIRD sentence after rearrangement?
(1) B
(2) C
(3) D
(4) E
(5) F
- Which of the following should be the FIFTH sentence after rearrangement?
(1) A
(2) B
(3) C
(4) D
(5) E
- Which of the following should be the SIXTH (LAST) sentence after rearrangement?
(1) B
(2) C
(3) D
(4) E
(5) F
Directions (11 to 15): 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 number of that part will be the answer. If there is no error, mark (5) as the answer. (Ignore errors of punctuation, if any).
- In emerging economies (1)/the private credit market (2)/ remainshighly segmented and thus (3)/ weaken power of monetary policy (4)./ No error. (5)
- The recent election campaign (1)/ has been one of (2)/ the most noisiest campaigns (3)/ in the last decade (4). / No error. (5)
- Wholesome strategic planning (1)/ was the focus as (2)/ the firm manage through a difficult period (3)/ a couple of years ago. (4)/ No error. (5)
- In spite of the best governmental efforts (1)/ emission of green house gases (2)/ and noxious chemicals (3)/ remain a cause of worry. (4)/ No error. (5)
- The rate of metabolism of (1)/ a body is comparatively lowest when (2)/ it is at rest and is (3)/ thus optimum for examination. (4)/ No error. (5)
Solution
- (3)
- (3)
- (4)
- (3)
- (3)
- (3)
- (5)
- (1)
- (1)
- (4)
- (4), Use ‘weakens’ in place of ‘weaken’. The subject ‘the private credit market’ is singular and so, singular verb is required.
- (3), Remove ‘most’. Doubt superlative is not used in sentence.
- (3), Use ‘managed’ in place of ‘manage’. The sentence shows past time. Therefore, second form verb is required.
- (4), Use ‘remains’ in place of ‘remain’. The subject, emission is singular. Therefore, the verb will agree according to the number of the word ‘emission’.
- (2), Use ‘low’ in place of ‘lowest’. Usually Positive degree is used after comparatively.
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