General English #41 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) : Assam Jobs Guide

GENERAL ENGLISH #41

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Directions (1-10): You have one brief passage with 10 questions following the passage. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

Passage-I

Time was when people looked heavenward and prayed, “Ye Gods, given us rain, keep drought away,” Today there are those who pray. “Give us rain, keep EI Nino away.”

El Nino and its atmospheric equivalent, called the Southern Oscillation, are together referred to as ENSO, and are household words today. Meteorologists organize it as often being responsible for natural disaster worldwide. But this wisdom dawned only after countries suffered, first from the lack of knowledge, and then from the lack of coordination between policy making and the advance in scientific knowledge.

Put simply, El Nino is a weather event restricted to certain tropical shores, epically the Peruvian coast. The event has diametrically opposite impacts on the land and sea. The Peruvian shore is a desert. But every few years, an unusually warm ocean current - El Nino - warms up the normally cold surface-waters of the Peruvian coast, causing very heavy rains in the early half of the year.

And then, miraculously, the desert is matted green. Crops like cotton, coconuts and banana grow on the other wise stubbornly barren land. These are the Peruvians’ anos de adundencia or years of abundance. The current had come to be termed El Nino, or the Christ Child because it usually appears as an enhancement if a mildly warm current that normally occurs here around every Christmas.

But this boon on land is accompanied by oceanic disasters. Normally, the waters off the South American coast are among the most productive in the world because of a constant upswelling of nutrient rich cold waters from the ocean depths. During an El Nino, however waters are stirred up only from near the surface. The nutrient-crunch pushes down primary production, disrupting the food chain. Many marine species, including anchoveta (anchovies) temporarily disappear.

This is just one damming effect of El Nino. Over the years its full impact has been studied and what the Peruvians once regarded as manna, is now seen as a major threat.

1. Meteorologist took time to understand El Nino because ……………

(a) it was neither a disaster nor a boon for the people living in desert areas

(b) they recognized it as an atmospheric equivalent and hence called it Southern Oscillation

(c) they suffered from lack of knowledge about El Nino as they were not scientifically advanced

(d) All of the above

Answer: (c)

2. El Nino in a layman language is ……………

(a) a natural disaster

(b) Southern Oscillation

(c) a weather event

(d) None of the above

Answer: (c)

3. What are the two types of landscapes that are effected by El Nino?

(a) Coastal areas and sea

(b) Tropical shores and land

(c) Deserts and oceans

(d) All of the above

Answer: (d)

4. Which word in Para 4 is the antonym for - ‘Fertile’?

(a) Matted

(b) Abundance

(c) Barren

(d) None of the above

Answer: (d)

5. What, according to the author, is a positive effect of El Nino?

(a) It causes change in atmosphere

(b) It results in vegetation of barren lands

(c) It comes around Christmas

(d) It is regarded as manna

Answer: (b)

6. How can we say the El Nino proves to be a boon for South American Coast?

(a) It causes and upswelling of rich nutrients making it the most productive in the world

(b) It causes the destruction of many marine species such as anchoveta

(c) It warms up normally cold surface waters off causing heavy rains

(d) It enhances warm currents around every Christmas

Answer: (a)

7. The ‘years of abundance’ is when ……………

(a) El Nino occurs during Christmas

(b) the deserts are matted green

(c) marine species is destroyed

(d) None of the above

Answer: (a)

8. The phrase, ‘damning effect’ means ……………

(a) negative effects

(b) destructive effects

(c) full effects

(d) disrupting effects

Answer: (b)

9. People today, pray to God to keep ……………

(a) rains and droughts away

(b) drought away

(c) El Nino away

(d) El Nino and droughts away

Answer: (d)

10. The word which means - ‘equal in value, power and meaning’ is ……………

(a) unusual

(b) current

(c) equivalent

(d) appear

Answer: (c)