Vocabulary Test 37

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Sailing is an Olympic sport today, but in Britain, in the past, seafaring was an important source of work and not just for sailors and fishermen. People all over Britain worked to make, equip and support the military, commercial, and fishing fleets. So, many people found work in construction and maintenance work related to the shipping industry. Ships needed to be supplied with sails, ropes, and other essentials; warships needed cannon and gunpowder; sailors and passengers needed food and these requirements kept people in employment throughout the year. This is not the case so much today, at least not so widely, but the coast of Britain is, to this day, dotted with hundreds of marinas - places where recreational boats are kept for people who enjoy sailing. Britain has many maritime museums but the most impressive is the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, which showcases the nation's rich nautical history. Further, British literature and art are full of evidence of the importance of seafaring in the country's history and culture; Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and the novels of C. S. Foster and Patrick O Brian effectively capture the people's relationship with sailing.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]In May 1998, just two years after breaking his back in a parachuting accident whilst in the army, Bear Grylls became the youngest Briton to __(1)__ the summit of Mount Everest and return __(2)__. He was just 23 years old.
As his back recovered and he regained his __(3)__, Bear decided to leave the army in order to pursue his lifelong ambition to conquer the highest __(4)__ in the world. A friend of his was organizing an expedition to Everest and Bear was asked to __(5)__. After a year spent preparing for the climb and ___ (6)___ sponsorship money, he and his companions moved out to the Himalayas to __(7)__ up the challenge. 
In __(8)__ Bear spent 10 weeks on the mountain's southeast face. This __(9)__ a whole week at camp two simply waiting for the right condition to make his attempt on the summit. When he finally made it to the top, he sat for 20 minutes, just gazing in wonder at the __(10)__ before him. The hardest part was yet to come, though. Every year the number of climbers killed on Everest increases, with most deaths occurring on the descent. 
It was __(11)__ surprising then, that Bear felt a __(12)__ sense of relief when he eventually got back to base camp.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]    Among the old Tedas, it was customary for certain tribesmen to dress in the skins of the beasts they had slain, and thus to give themselves a fearsome air of brutality, which was calculated to strike dread into the hearts of their foes. Of course, it's a fair guess that a cheetah or bison skin would make a warm, comfortable outer coat for a man whose life was in the most brutal of conditions atop ridges.
    Many legends tell of these cavemen-like soldiers, also known as Badangas, and folklore has it that they were physically transformed into the beasts whose skins they wore. The most common animals that the warriors were transformed into were the bull-tiger and leopard. Rumours suggest that the skins carried the power of the beasts and, when worn, turned the wearer into that animal at the height of its capabilities. The fact is that no one has ever set sight on a Badanga in the flesh.
    The Badanga was an object of sheer horror, as his life's object was to challenge quiet villagers to a duel. As the then law of the land stood in the Teda tribe, a man who declined to accept a challenge from a Badanga forfeited all his worldly possessions, even his wife, over to the hands of his challenger. Therefore, the Badanga had any man he challenged at his mercy. If the Badanga slews him, the farmer's possessions became his, and if the poor fellow declined to fight, he lost all legal right to his property anyway. A Badanga would invite himself to any feast and contribute to the hilarity of the entertainment by killing in gory fashion any merrymaker who displeased him. He might even single one out to murder for no other reason than to practice his combat skills.
    It is not difficult to imagine that popular superstition went along with the popular dread of these animal-skinned aggressors and that they were believed to be filled with the force, as they certainly were with the ferocity, of the beasts whose skins they wore.
    In the unlikely event of a villager slaying a Badanga warrior, he was revered as a divine savior and had a temple devoted to him. It wasn't easy. Fire merely singed, a scythe landed a mere scratch, and a venomous spear just put him to sleep - what it took was a club made of the betel tree stump to fell this fiery warrior. Of course, it comes as no surprise that no one has heard of one such village victory yet. 

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]To most people, landfill sites are holes in the ground where waste____(1)____ is buried. To garbologists, however, they provide a valuable ____(2)____ of information about a population's activities in areas such as food consumption and waste disposal. Garbology is a branch of ethnography, a science which abandons traditional methods of ___(3)___ market research information, such as questionnaires and focus groups, in favour of  ____(4)____ observation of people and their habits. The world's ___(5)___ garbologist, Professor William Rathje, is also an archaeologist. Archaeologists study past cultures by examining the ___(6)___ of objects and buildings, but the basic principles of archaeology can also be applied to the discarded rubbish of present day civilizations in order to ___(7)___ a better understanding of how people behave now. As founder and director of the Garbage Project at the University of Arizona, Professor Rathje has ___(8)___ over 30 years of his life to the archaeological study of modern refuse. His work is of ____(9)____ interest to commerce; companies need to understand the lives of their consumers in order to create brands which will be of most ___(10)___ to them. Rathje's ____(11)____ can help them achieve this. In addition, his analysis of the composition of landfill sites reveals a greater need not only to recycle more rubbish but also to  ___(12)___ down on the amount of rubbish we produce in the first place.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]Of the many aspects of public administration, the ethical aspect is perhaps the most important but the least codified. While administrative rules and procedures have been codified in various public documents and manuals, there is no manual for the ethics of public servants. While organisational behaviour analyses the factors which influence the behaviour of individuals in an organisation, ethics refers to those norms and standards which the behaviour of the people in an organisation must conform to. While behaviour analysis deals with factual aspects, ethics relates to the normative aspects of administration. The normative aspects are of the greatest significance. Just as for an individual, if the character is lost, everything is lost, so also for an administration, if the ethics are lost, everything is lost. Neither efficiency nor loyalty can substitute for high ethical standards. In India, though there is no ethical code for public administrators, there are what are called, the Government Servants' Conduct Rules. These rules lay down what constitutes misconduct for the public servants. It is apparently implied that such misconduct, which is not permitted, is also unethical conduct.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows.[/passage-header]Competitiveness is defined as the ability to add value better than the others in the globalized economic environment. In other words, for the Indian AC&R industry to succeed, it should be able to add value better than its competitors across the globe. Despite the poor infrastructure, there is a growing sentiment that India can do it. We have made rapid strides in manufacturing and service sectors, and the international community is admiring many of our Indian companies. I indeed believe that India can become the global economic powerhouse, and it can rival China as the world's factory. I believe that India can become a major exporter of the AC&R equipment. A recent report by Make-Singh & Company comprehensively addresses the status of the global and local trends, and an action plan for the industry to achieve rapid growth. It also outlines what the Government can do to promote the growth of this vital industry so that it can fulfill its potential to preserve food, increase productivity and contribute to the quality of life. But, the challenges are many. Compared to the stature our industry has in most countries, including the developing Asian countries, the Indian AC&R industry still has a long, long way to go. To become a major exporter, we need, primarily, a scale of manufacture. To acquire scale, we need a large domestic market, which we need to build. We have a long way to go in terms of customer education. The usage and application of products itself are questionable. We come across retailers using deep freezers for storing bottles as well as butter and other products, which are not supposed to be stored in freezers. The consumers do not use several innovative features that are available. The country also lacks standards in terms of building codes such as ceiling heights. It is not only the government which will have to act but also the builders, architects, consultants and industry players. By our working together, this industry can grow at least 3 to 5 times faster than it has grown in the past.