Improve your English with English quiz. English Quiz to help you improve your score for exams like Bank, SSC, Railway, UPSC, UPSSSC, CDS, UPTET, KVS, DSSSB and other Government exams.
Directions (1-10): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them.
It is frequently said by top managers that were they ever inclined to ask themselves if there might be problems or opportunities deserving their attention other than those continuously arising from the daily round, they would at once send for some reputable firm of business consultants-company doctoral management professors, experts from Boston, confidential advisors, and so forth. The Idea that what might be lacking is something personal to the top managers themselves, something, moreover, that they alone might one day be able to put right, would strike them as very strange. It would be even stranger to them to suggest that, not only were they themselves alone in being able to put things right, but that only they, too, could discover the avenues to successful amendment, But since there can be no learning without action and no action without learning, If change is to be brought about by the purchased services of outsiders, independently of any involvement at a personal level of the top managers who commission those outsiders, then there can be no learning-that is, no preparation among those at present in charge to meet the recurrent challenges of the future. The enterprise will therefore become dependent upon its external advisors until it can no longer afford to meet their fees and expenses-a condition now frequently encountered. Nor is this all, the external consultant generally claims expertise in such-and-such a field, and, on this account, will diagnose the affliction (or interpret the hope) of his client management in terms of it; for a month or more everything will go as he predicts, the pattern uncovered will fit the forecast already made, and the plan of action will build upon the personal enthusiasms of members of the host management. The outside consultants who have prepared the plan-not seldom by piecing together fragments of their past prescriptions to other clients-will gradually ‘phase themselves out’, leaving those on the spot to implement what still needs to be done. With their wide connections across a fast professional culture, the itinerant experts are able quickly to find the super-specialist needed (it might seem) to advice upon some highly technical obstruction to success…
The assignment of a visiting fellow from another enterprise also anxious to do something about its more obstinate and ill-structured embarrassments has battle in common with the engagement of professional experts. Were the fellows of the Inter University Programme to carry visiting cards to widen their possibilities of future employment, they would endorse them in red capitals: ‘Our strength, just like your own, lies in our ignorance of your troubles.’ For, while the expert may pretend that his first desire is to see the problem as it is seen by the management that needs to do something about it, he is in his particular business for quite a different reason; the visiting fellow, on the other hand, is clearly another manager in fact, anxious to interpret the trouble as a manager among managers, and to learn from his hosts as much as they are to learn from him. He does not seek to prolong his engagement with his hosts, or to withhold unpleasant advice that may prejudice the willingness of his clients to meet their financial obligations-since there are none. He is not hoping, as are many consultants that he may be offered an appointment in the firm he is setting out to help, so that his advice will not be coloured by quite adventitious possibilities having nothing to do with the original reasons for his being in the action learning programme at all. Faced with a temporary check, the visiting fellow has no headquarters office he may ring for instant support from another itinerant expert; he will need to open up some fresh line of questioning with his hosts. Unlike the professional consultant, he will not be spending a lot of his time trying to find out what the most powerful person in the receiving organization believes the problem to be in order to present to him a solution based upon that interpretation; the visiting fellow will, laboriously and with little thanks, be trying to reconcile the myriad views and experiences of large numbers of his new colleagues in such a manner that these now start to suggest to him what might be going on and how it may be improved upon. While in practice the expert consultant is desperately striving to use every interview he conducts as a means of assembling every shared of an idea from others into what he will claim as his own solution, he must be very cautious about creating the impression that he is circulating as the thirstiest of learners; his official status is a teller of others, an instructor of babes, a guide to the foolish, an enlightened dispelling the darkness, a leader of the blind, and so forth, He must be extremely cautious about giving an impression that there is anything he has to learn. The visiting fellow, on the other hand, gets his authority to help his new colleagues from his own eagerness to learn by recording the explanations of what they themselves imagine to be wrong, as the supreme non-expert, he is, at least at the outset, in no position to question what they say, nor to stem their desire to say it-and hence to learn from what they are trying to tell him about that which, they feel, seems to pass their own understanding, As Saint Paul reminded us all. ‘Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemed to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.’ It is one of the texts upon which action learning is founded, but rarely seen on the Christmas cards from experts.
Q1. According to the writer, the top managers send for the outside experts to put things right as-
(a) They do not believe in the capability level of their company staff.
(b) It appears to them, as the waste of time to get their own company staff involved.
(c) They do not wish to get themselves shouldered with such involvements and personal responsibilities in such situations.
(d) They think that outside companies/firms have better skilled expertise in the area.
(e) None of these.
Q2. As per the passage, it would be better in the interest of the company –
(a) If the top managers are not involved in such situations of putting the right, as it might distract them from their other important role.
(b) If the job of correction and putting the things right is handled by the staff of the host company, with an active involvement of top managers, to enable them to have proper knowledge & skills. It will gear them up to face the problems which might arise later on.
(c) If the job of putting things right is given to outside companies, within the fixed time frame since they have better expertise.
(d) To award the jobs of putting things right to outside companies as the charges paid to the outside companies are much less than those that might be incurred on own experts.
(e) None of these.
Q3. Which of the following messages does the writer desire to convey by using the phrases “Our strength, just like your own, lies in our ignorance of your troubles”?
(a) The host company is full of ignorant people, it would be better to put them to action learning programmed.
(b) The visiting expert is equally ignorant but cunning enough to buy time and getting the things put right by gathering knowledge from the host company.
(c) The expert from outside company is also a manager and can very well put the things right with his knowledge & skill.
(d) The visiting expert would be making strenuous efforts to get things right in order to get a job in the company, he is visiting.
(e) None of these.
Q4. – ‘Phase themselves out’ as described in the passage means –
(a) The ignorance and working style of outside consultants might put the host company in trouble.
(b) The expert company/firm will prolong the work to buy time only.
(c) The work will ultimately have to be managed by the host team whole the visiting expert will move out of the role.
(d) Right from the beginning, the outside expert will not be of much help and the entire work will be accomplished by the employees of Host Company.
(e) None of these.
Q5. The writer firmly believes that –
(a) The managers at the top level should not be involved in action learning programmes.
(b) It is better to have the knowledge & skill from outside agencies than involving the own staff.
(c) The managers & operational staff of the host company must go for operational learning to face recurring problems and is critical of outside agencies.
(d) The visiting expert will solve the problem without wasting the time of host company managers, thus avoiding the trouble of their personal responsibilities.
(e) None of these.
Directions (6-8): Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
Q6. Avenue
(a)Method
(b)Refusal
(c)Dissent
(d)Rejection
(e)Veto
Q7. Affliction
(a)Advantage
(b)Delight
(c)Hope
(d)Blessing
(e)Hardship
Q8. Obstinate
(a)Amenable
(b)Pliant
(c)Soft
(d)Adamant
(e)Flexible
Directions (9-10): Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning of the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
Q9. Itinerant
(a)Roving
(b)Afoot
(c)Floating
(d)Nomadic
(e)Settled
Q10. Deceive
(a)Assist
(b)Beguile
(c)Betray
(d)Fake
(e)Hoodwink
SOLUTIONS
- Ans.(c)
Read the passage carefully. Refer the first paragraph of the passage. It can be easily implied that they do not wish to get themselves shouldered with such involvements and personal responsibilities in such situations.
- Ans.(b)
“If the job of correction and putting the things right is handled by the staff of the host company, with an active involvement of top managers, to enable them to have proper knowledge & skills. It will gear them up to face the problems which might arise later on.” is the correct choice as it can be inferred from the second paragraph of the passage.
- Ans.(b)
Read the first few sentences of the second paragraph. It can be inferred from there that the visiting expert is equally ignorant but cunning enough to buy time and getting the things put right by gathering knowledge from the host company. Hence (b) is the correct option.
- Ans.(c)
“The work will ultimately have to be managed by the host team whole the visiting expert will move out of the role.” explains the phrase appropriately.
- Ans.(c)
After reading the whole passage it can be easily inferred that the writer believes that the managers & operational staff of the host company must go for operational learning to face recurring problems and is critical of outside agencies.
- Ans.(a)
Avenue means a way of approaching a problem or making progress towards something. Hence ‘avenues’ and ‘method’ are similar in meanings.
- Ans.(e)
Affliction means a cause of pain or harm. Hence ‘affliction’ and ‘hardship’ are similar in meanings.
- Ans.(d)
Obstinate means (of an unwelcome situation) very difficult to change or overcome. Adamant means refusing to be persuaded or to change one’s mind. Hence ‘obstinate’ and ‘adamant’ are similar in meanings.
- Ans.(e)
Itinerant means travelling from place to place. Hence ‘settled’ and ‘itinerant’ are opposite in meanings.
- Ans.(a)
Deceive means (of a thing) give (someone) a mistaken impression. Hence ‘assist’ and ‘deceive’ are opposite in meanings.
WhatsApp Group Join here
Mail us at : ambitiousbaba1@gmail.com
Follow our Blog for Regular Updates:- Ambitious Baba
Like & Follow our Facebook Page:- Click here
Join our Facebook Group:- Click Here
Telegram Group:- Click Here
Subscribe our YouTube channel:- Click Here
Follow us on Twitter:- Click Here
Join us on Linked In:- Click Here
“Thanks & Be Ambitious”
All the best for your Exam
