General English #16 Multiple Choice Questions

GENERAL ENGLISH #16

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Directions (1-10): In these questions, you have brief passages with 5 (five) questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

Passage-I

The world’s largest living organism is not the blue whale which still is the world’s largest living animal but Australia’s Great Barrier Reef one of the country’s prime living animals and prime tourist attraction. Sadly, size notwithstanding, it is slowly succumbing to the killer ‘white syndrome’, a bleaching disease which has invaded 33 of its 48 reefs.

Otherwise brilliantly multicoloured and teeming with a kaleidoscope of life, the affected reefs have acquired a deathly white pallor, the result of dying tissues. The bleaching of the reef happened following the recording of the warmest ever sea water temperature in the area here. Scientists fear that the naturally gorgeous reef are endangered and the as yet undiscovered animal and plant species would soon suffer irreplaceable damage. This is only because of the rising of water temperature.

1. Which of the following statements is not true?

(a) The Great Barrier Reef is not the world’s largest living mammal.

(b) The Blue Whale is dying of white syndrome.

(c) The ‘white syndrome’ is a new bleaching disease.

(d) The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living organism.

Answer: (b)

2. 33 out of Australia’s 48 reefs have succumbed to:

(a) the impact of the Blue whale

(b) the impact of tourism

(c) the destructive impact of ‘white syndrome’

(d) the bleaching disease affecting the whales

Answer: (c)

3. The dying reefs acquired a:

(a) brilliant and multicolour

(b) kaleidoscopic hues

(c) brilliant blue colour like the whale

(d) sickly white pallor

Answer: (d)

4. Scientists’ main worry is that:

(a) there will be a fall in tourism with the reefs gone

(b) the bleaching will make the water warmer

(c) other endangered and undiscovered flora and fauna will also be damaged

(d) future research on ‘white syndrome’ will stop

Answer: (c)

5. The meaning of ‘succumbing’ is:

(a) giving way to an underground passage

(b) giving way to something powerful

(c) following order

(d) coming in the way of

Answer: (b)

Passage-II

The Wright brothers did not have to look far for ideas when building their airplane, they studied birds. The act of copying from nature to address a design problem is not new, but over the last decade the practice has moved from obscure scientific journals to the mainstream. The term ‘biomimicry’, popularized by American natural-sciences writer Janine Benyus in the late 1990s, refers to innovation that take their inspiration from flora and fauna. Biomimicry advocates argue that with 3.8 billion years of research and development, evolution has already solved many of the challenges humans now encounter. Although we often see nature as something we mine for resources, biomimicry views nature as a mentor. From all around the globe, there are countless instances where natural sources have serve as inspiration for inventions that promise to transform every sector of society. One such instance occurred in 1941 when Swiss engineer, George de Mestral was out hunting with his dog one day when he noticed sticky burrs, with their hundreds tiny hooks, had attached themselves to his pants and his dog’s fur. These were his inspiration for Velcro.

6. The airplane was inspired by:

(a) animals

(b) plants

(c) birds

(d) flies

Answer: (c)

7. Biomimicry refers to designs that:

(a) are inspired by natural things

(b) transformed society

(c) are based on scientific engineering

(d) arise out of man’s creativity

Answer: (a)

8. Biomimicry views the natural world as a:

(a) mine for resources

(b) mine field of ideas

(c) mentor

(d) source of inspiration

Answer: (c)

9. What has helped solve many of the challenges encountered by man?

(a) biomimicry

(b) evolution

(c) innovation

(d) invention

Answer: (b)

10. The two instances of biomimicry mentioned in the passage are:

(a) flora and fauna

(b) birds and burrs

(c) copying and innovating

(d) airplane and velcro

Answer: (d)