Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below the passage.

As compared to May-August 2019, there were 6.6 million fewer white-collar jobs during May-August 2020, finds the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The jobs in question are not the clerical, data-entry or other low-skill variety, but skilled jobs, such as those of engineers, including software engineers, physicians, teachers, accountants and analysts — those that call for professional training. And this does not take into account the loss of work suffered by self-employed professionals. That such job loss would be a natural corollary of economic growth collapsing, as it has in the first quarter, is no solace for those rendered jobless. This is a disturbing trend and underlines the imperative for the government to stop dithering over when to deliver its booster intervention in the economy.

The skilled professionals are a vital segment of society. They represent the success and achievement that convince the less-fortunate that aspirations for social mobility are not dreams that take wing when they sleep but drivers of action to actualise achievable goals. This role is even more important than the consumption demand the professionals articulate, the taxes they pay and the savings they deploy wisely. For their ranks to be hollowed out is to undermine a great deal of the economic model fast-growing India works with. A youth bulge that sees no positive future of legitimate upward mobility is a fertile ground for social disruption: crime, anarchy and the quenching of fire-inthe-belly with dissipation. The pandemic has shown that a whole lot of work can be done from home, that a lot of work can be automated, that a whole lot of work can be shifted from expensive cities to tier-2 and tier-3 towns.

This is true not only of India, but of the world at large. In this, there is a great opportunity for high-end whitecollar jobs from the rest of the world to be redeployed to India. But that opportunity cannot be seized when the economy is down in the dumps. The government must think big, act bold and catalyse large-scale investment.

1) Which of the following jobs are in question according to the passage?

a) Low skilled jobs

b) Clerical

c) Skilled jobs

d) Data-entry

e) None of these.

2) According to the passage, which of the following statements is/are true about the “skilled professionals”?

a) The skilled professionals are a vital segment of society

b)They represent the success and achievement

c)Their ranks to be hollowed out is to undermine a great deal of the economic model fast-growing India works with.

d) All of the above

e) None of the above

3) Fill the blank with information from the passage.

A youth bulge that sees no positive future of legitimate upward mobility is ______________________________?

a) a fertile ground for social disruption

b) a barren ground for social disruption

c)a fecund ground for social disruption

d) Both a and c

e) both a and b

4) Which of the following is/are the synonym of the word “catalyse” given in bold in the passage?

a) cause to begin.

b) cause to end

c) prevent

d) destroy

e) none of these

5) Which of the following is/are the antonym of the word “solace” given in vold in the passage?

a) comfort

b) console

c) relief

d) agony

e) none of these

Answers :

1) Answer: C

It is mentioned in the passage “The jobs in question are not the clerical, data-entry or other low-skill variety, but skilled jobs, such as those of engineers, including software engineers, physicians, teachers, accountants and analysts — those that call for professional training.”

2) Answer: D

These statements are mentioned in the passage “The skilled professionals are a vital segment of society. They represent the success and achievement that convince the less-fortunate that aspirations for social mobility are not dreams that take wing when they sleep but drivers of action to actualise achievable goals. This role is even more important than the consumption demand the professionals articulate, the taxes they pay and the savings they deploy wisely. For their ranks to be hollowed out is to undermine a great deal of the economic model fast-growing India works with.”

3) Answer: D

“fecund” is the synonym of “fertile”, and “barren” is the antonym of “fertile”.

It is mentioned in the passage “. A youth bulge that sees no positive future of legitimate upward mobility is a fertile ground for social disruption”.

4) Answer: A

Catalyse-cause (an action or process) to begin.

Other options are opposite to the given word.

5) Answer: D

Solace- Console/ relies/ comfort.

“agony”(pain) is the antonym of the given word.