SBI PO PRELIM 04 JANUARY 2021

Direction: Two sentences with one blank in each, followed by five alternatives, are given. Choose that option as the answer which can fill both the blanks of both the sentences.
A) After supper, Longarm stepped out onto the sidewalk and took a ____________ on his cheroot.B) Anyone living an active lifestyle is bound to ____________ a muscle eventually.

Direction: Two sentences with one blank in each, followed by five alternatives, are given. Choose that option as the answer which can fill both the blanks of both the sentences.
A) She spoke with total resignation and ________ defeat as she looked up at me.B) No one has ever heard him ________ a groan or a word of complaint.

Direction: Two sentences with one blank in each, followed by five alternatives, are given. Choose that option as the answer which can fill both the blanks of both the sentences.
A) For them, the house's main ____________ lay in its quiet country location.B) The three-course menu is varied and good _______________ for money.

Direction: Two sentences with one blank in each, followed by five alternatives, are given. Choose that option as the answer which can fill both the blanks of both the sentences.
A) Failing to ________ them to the good cause he was determined anyhow to organize the great cultivated middle class into a political party.B) The Jacobites made an ineffectual ________ under Lord George Murray after the battle of Culloden.

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
In the 1800s it was the Luddites smashing weaving machines. These days retail staff worry about automatic checkouts. Sooner or later taxi drivers will be fretting over self-driving cars. The battle between man and machines goes back centuries. Are they taking our jobs? Or are they merely easing our workload?
A study by economists at the consultancy Deloitte seeks to shed new light on the relationship between jobs and the rise of technology by trawling through census data for England and Wales going back to 1871. ____________________________ . Findings by Deloitte such as a fourfold rise in bar staff since the 1950s or a surge in the number of hairdressers this century suggest to the authors that technology has increased spending power, therefore creating new demand and new jobs.
Their study, shortlisted for the Society of Business Economists’ Rybczynski prize, argues that the debate has been skewed towards the job-destroying effects of technological change, which are more easily observed than its creative aspects.
“The dominant trend is of contracting employment in agriculture and manufacturing being more than offset by rapid growth in the caring, creative, technology and business services sectors,” they write.
“Machines will take on more repetitive and laborious tasks but seem no closer to eliminating the need for human labour than at any time in the last 150 years.”
The study reveals that in some sectors, technology has quite clearly cost jobs, but Stewart and his colleagues question whether they are really jobs we would want to hold on to. Technology directly substitutes human muscle power and, in so doing, raises productivity and shrinks employment.
“Easy access to information and the accelerating pace of communication have revolutionised most knowledge-based industries,” say the authors. At the same time, rising incomes have raised demand for professional services.
The Deloitte economists believe these rising incomes have allowed consumers to spend more on personal services, such as grooming. That in turn has driven employment of hairdressers.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/17/technology-created-more-jobs-than-destroyed-140-years-data-census?CMP=fb_gu
According to the passage, what does the author mean when he says “The battle between man and machines goes back centuries” ?
I. It has been around a century that the fight between man and machine is on, offering no clear results.
II. There seems to be no trace of any truce being reached in near future that might end the war between man and machine.
III. The emerging technologies and the effect on jobs have been a reason for the tussle between man and machine since ages.

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
In the 1800s it was the Luddites smashing weaving machines. These days retail staff worry about automatic checkouts. Sooner or later taxi drivers will be fretting over self-driving cars. The battle between man and machines goes back centuries. Are they taking our jobs? Or are they merely easing our workload?
A study by economists at the consultancy Deloitte seeks to shed new light on the relationship between jobs and the rise of technology by trawling through census data for England and Wales going back to 1871. ____________________________ . Findings by Deloitte such as a fourfold rise in bar staff since the 1950s or a surge in the number of hairdressers this century suggest to the authors that technology has increased spending power, therefore creating new demand and new jobs.
Their study, shortlisted for the Society of Business Economists’ Rybczynski prize, argues that the debate has been skewed towards the job-destroying effects of technological change, which are more easily observed than its creative aspects.
“The dominant trend is of contracting employment in agriculture and manufacturing being more than offset by rapid growth in the caring, creative, technology and business services sectors,” they write.
“Machines will take on more repetitive and laborious tasks but seem no closer to eliminating the need for human labour than at any time in the last 150 years.”
The study reveals that in some sectors, technology has quite clearly cost jobs, but Stewart and his colleagues question whether they are really jobs we would want to hold on to. Technology directly substitutes human muscle power and, in so doing, raises productivity and shrinks employment.
“Easy access to information and the accelerating pace of communication have revolutionised most knowledge-based industries,” say the authors. At the same time, rising incomes have raised demand for professional services.
The Deloitte economists believe these rising incomes have allowed consumers to spend more on personal services, such as grooming. That in turn has driven employment of hairdressers.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/17/technology-created-more-jobs-than-destroyed-140-years-data-census?CMP=fb_gu
Which of the following statement(s) best fits the given blank in the passage?
I. Technological progress has cut the prices of essentials, such as food, and the price of bigger household items such as TVs and kitchen appliances.
II. Their conclusion is unremittingly cheerful: rather than destroying jobs, technology has been a “great job-creating machine”
III. “In the UK the first sector to feel this effect on any scale was agriculture,” says the study.