Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Some words in the passage are printed in bold to help you find answers.

The inevitable has happened. India’s GDP suffered its steepest contraction on record in the April-June quarter, as output shrank 23.9% from a year earlier, provisional data show. It is evident that the stringent COVID-19 lockdowns in force through the first third of the quarter, and substantially in May, hollowed out demand. Private consumption spending, which accounts for almost 60% of GDP, contracted 26.7% as consumers abjured almost all discretionary spending. And exports, which contribute to a fifth of GDP and reflect overseas demand for Indian goods and services, shrank by nearly 20%. Investment activity was the worst-hit, collapsing 47% and shrinking in share of GDP to about 22% from 32% a year earlier as larger businesses conserved cash and refrained from any capital spending in the face of uncertainty, and smaller firms prioritised survival. Across the real economy, every single industry and services sector shrank with the solitary exception of agriculture, which grew 3.4% and outpaced the year earlier quarter’s 3% expansion. Construction suffered the most, plunging 50%, followed by the omnibus services category — trade, hotels, communication, transport and broadcasting — which shrank 47%, hit by the pandemic-linked restrictions. Manufacturing too took a severe beating, contracting 39% as demand for products deemed non-essential evaporated, and factories, even after reopening, struggled to run amid shortages of labour and added safety norms.

It was left to the government to keep the bottom from falling out on demand as the Centre’s pandemic mitigation expenditure helped expand its consumption spending by 16.4% year-on-year and softened the overall blow to GDP. However, with the fiscal deficit already having exceeded the full-year’s budgeted target in just the first four months, and revenue receipts impacted by the economic contraction, the government is unlikely to maintain a similar trend in expenditure growth over the next three quarters. Unless, of course, it is prepared to forsake its vaunted fiscal conservatism and finds innovative ways to mobilise resources. The still rising trajectory of new COVID-19 infections and a high level of job losses and income erosion are also sure to retard any recovery in momentum. If the latest survey-based data from IHS Markit show manufacturing PMI for August signalling growth for the first time in five months, the same researcher’s findings also stress that “job shedding continues at a strong rate” in the industry. Equally significantly, the output numbers which are expected to undergo revision given the acknowledged difficulties in collecting data, do not capture a swathe of informal sector activity that was severely impacted. Agriculture too faces headwinds in the form of higher-than-ideal rainfall in August in several key crop growing regions in western and central India and with the impact of recent farm market ordinances yet to play out, it may be a while before the end of the tunnel is sighted.

1) Which of the following can be the title of the passage?

a) The Adverse effects of The Corona Pandemic

b) Economic Crisis of the World

c) Inevitable Collapse: On the Steepest Contraction of GDP

d) Both a and c

e) None of these

2) What is the tone of the passage?

a) Laudatory

b) Euphemistic

c) Patronizing

d) Objective

e) None of these

3) Which of the following can be inferred from the sentence “The still rising trajectory of new COVID-19 infections and a high level of job losses and income erosion are also sure to retard any recovery in momentum.”?

a) India is suffering from severe financial crisis

b) There is less scope for new job opportunities in India

c) India is recovering fast but Covid-19 cases are rising rapidly

d) The rising number of Covid-19 positive cases and job loses will deter India’s recovery

e) None of the above

4) Which of the following can not be an idea of the passage?

a) The Global Innovation Index, brought out by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, in association with Cornell University and Insead, offers an opportunity to assess how a country compares with its peers.

b) It was left to the government to keep the bottom from falling out on demand as the Centre’s pandemic mitigation expenditure helped expand its consumption spending by 16.4% year-on-year and softened the overall blow to GDP.

c) Manufacturing too took a severe beating, contracting 39% as demand for products deemed non-essential evaporated, and factories, even after reopening, struggled to run amid shortages of labour and added safety norms.

d) All of these

e) None of these

5) Which of the following is the pair of synonym and antonym of the word “Contraction” printed in bold in the passage?

a) Shrinking: Decline

b) Shrinking: Expansion

c) Decline: Diminution

d) All of these

e) None of these\

Answers :

1) Answer: C

From the very first line of the passage “The inevitable has happened. India’s GDP suffered its steepest contraction on record in the April-June quarter, as output shrank 23.9% from a year earlier, provisional data show.”, we can clearly understand that option (c) perfectly displays the main idea of the passage.

Hence, (c) is the correct answer.

2) Answer: D

Objective tone is used when the author provides information in an unbiased, neutral and factual manner.

In the passage the author has analyzed the matter of contraction GDP and presented lots of information and data about this matter. Hence, the tone of the passage is Objective.

Laudatory- When the author praises something or someone continuously

Euphemistic- When the author shows his dislike for something or someone in an indirect way.

Patronizing- When the author displays scornful expressions with regard to things considered

inferior in his view.

3) Answer: D

If we read the given sentence, we can clearly understand that only (d) can be inferred from it.

Focus on the bold parts: “The still rising trajectory of new COVID-19 infections and a high level of job losses and income erosion are also sure to retard any recovery in momentum.”

4) Answer: C

Statement (c) is giving us idea about The Global Innovation Index,which is not an idea of the given passage. It is not mentioned anywhere in the passage.

Hence, (c) is correct.

5) Answer: B

Contraction- The process of becoming smaller.

“shrinking” is the synonym and “expansion” is the antonym of the given word, hence, (b) is correct.

(a) and (c) are the pairs of synonyms of the given word.