QUANTMASTERS

TCS NQT 2021 Solutions to Verbal Ability

Slot 1 8-11 AM
Q1s to 2: Read the Passage given below and answer questions
It used to be the American shopper that exemplified the state of the world economy. The focus
now should be on the person on the other side of the till. America’s retail industry is huge: it
employs 15.9 Mn workers, who represent one in nine American jobs. It is also undergoing
wrenching change, as e-commerce eats into sales. There is no more pressing test of society’s
ability to cope with technology’s impact on work.
That impact is already visible. For all the benefits that online retailing brings to consumers, it is
causing immense pain to offline rivals. Last year 4,000 American stores closed; this year more
than twice that number may shutter. Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, expects retail defaults
this year to outnumber those in 2009, at the height of the global recession. Some formats—
discount stores, groceries, high-end malls—will continue to thrive. But many will shrink. The
industry has shed 50,000 net jobs since January. Department stores may need to close more
than 800 stores to reach the productivity levels of 2006. Many outlets are looking for ways to cut
labour costs by embracing automation.

Q1. This passage is mainly about _________

A. Those who regularly do their shipping online.
B. Those who run large businesses and retail stores.
C. Those who run smaller retail shops.
D. Those who cannot afford to buy anything in large retail shops.

Answer: Option C

Q2. What is the significant measure that stores are trying to adopt?
A. Diversifying
B. Shutdown business
C. Merging
D. Automation

Answer: Option D

Q3..Governments have been promising the eradication of child labour in high risk Industries in
India for many years. However almost 100 million children are still at work instead of going to
school, and around 10 million are working in (1) __________________ Industries. India has the
biggest child population of 380million in the world; plus the (2)____________ number of children
who are forced to earn a living.
Blank 1. A) honorary B)hazardous C)handicraft D)hardware
Blank 2. A)largest B) lowest C)latest D)loudest

1 - D, 2 - C
1 - B, 2 - A
1 - A, 2 - D
1 - C, 2 - B

Answer: 1 - B, 2 - A

Q4. For the four sentence (S1 to S4) paragraph given below, sentences S1 & S4 are
given.From the options P,Q and R, choose appropriate sentences for S2 & S3.
S-1: Once upon a time an ambassador came to see the king of Sparta on some official business
S-2:
S-3:
S-4:But he found nothing of that kind
P.The ambassador knew that the king of sparta was also really the ruler of entire Greece and so
he expected to see massive walls around the city for purpose of defence
Q:You are looking at the walls___ten thousand men, and every man is a brick
R.After their work was over the king took his visitor on a sight-seeing tour of the capital city
A.RP
B.RQ
C.QP
D.PQ

Answer: Option D

Qs 5 to 9: Read the passage given below and answer questions

Twinkling lights are just visible behind screens where staff are putting the finishing touches to
this year’s Christmas displays, but in other parts of the shop, the lights are still off. John Lewis’s
flagship store in Oxford Street, central London, is bearing the scars of the pandemic.
A restaurant and cafe are closed and there are more staff than customers on the furnishings
floor. The fashion floor is also a depressing sight, with tags flagging big discounts on racks of
unwanted dresses and office wear. Last week it emerged John Lewis had applied for planning
permission to convert entire floors of this shop into office space. It’s not hard to see why.

John Lewis, with its employee ownership and reputation for stellar customer service, still holds a
special place in shoppers’ hearts. But while sister chain Waitrose, along with other
supermarkets, has thrived in the pandemic, results published last week show the department
store chain is in deep trouble.Huge changes in shopper behaviour, which have been
accelerated by coronavirus, mean the John Lewis website is now responsible for 60% of the
chain’s sales – up from 30% pre-Covid. This tilt towards the web means the department stores,
as properties, are now deemed to be worth nearly £500 Mn less than before – a reassessment
in last week’s results that sent the group crashing £635 Mn into the red in the first half of its
financial year.
Q5. Which one of the following is NOT a scar of the pandemic?

A. More floors converted to office space

B. Putting finishing touches to festive decorations
C. Lights off in parts of the shop
D. Fewer customers and more staff

Answer: Option B

Q6. Which business will NOT continue to prosper?

A. Department stores
B. Discount stores
C. High-end Malls
D. Grocery Stores

Answer: Option A

Q7. What unpleasant announcement will the chairman have to make to the employees?
A. That they will have a pay cut
B. That they will not get their annual bonus
C. That they will not get their salaries
D. That they will lose their jobs

Answer: Option B

Q8. How do we know that John Lewis had been in prosperous business prior to the COVID
pandemic?

A. Their website now handles 60% of their business

B. They paid an annual bonus for sixty-seven years
C. They have a new Lady Chairman
D. They were known for their customer services

Answer: Option B

Q9. Which one of the following expressions from the passage means losing money?

A. Tilt towards
B. On racks
C. Sent crashing
D. In the red
Answer: Option D

Q10. Aisha had been very successful managing her team in Edinburgh and was asked by the
company to lead a remote team for an important two-year project. Keen to demonstrate her
leadership abilities to the head office, Aisha got her team members together for a remote
meeting. But right from that first meeting, she realised that this was going to be a different
challenge. (1)____________________Lucia kept asking about really specific details, while
Aisha was hoping to use the meeting to get to know the team members and identify priorities.
Archie and Lucia kept accidentally talking at the same time, and when they didn’t speak, there
was an uncomfortable silence. Valentina hardly said a word. (2)_______________Without these
visual clues, Aisha had no idea whether people were interested, lost, confused or bored.

A. No one had their cameras on, so there was none of the usual communication through
body language or facial expressions
B. Compared to face to face meeting the remote team is not preferred by all the managers
C. For a start,Archie was late for the meeting by about 15 minutes because of ‘technical
problems’.

1 - A, 2- C
1- B, 2- A
1- A, 2- B
1- C, 2-A

Answer: 1- C, 2-A

Q11. Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate set of words from the options given
below:

What did the painter do ---------- himself from falling?

When he felt the ladder --------- he grabbed the gutter to save himself from falling

A. to save/ beginning to slip

B. to savel begin to slip
C. for saving/ began to slip
D. to save/ began slipping

Answer: Option A

Q12. One part of the sentence below may contain may error. Identify the part. If there is no
error, choose ‘No error’. Everyday life have become more complicated with the advancement in
mobile technology.
A. More complicated with the
B. Everyday life have become
C. No error
D. Advancement in mobile technology

Answer: Option B

Q13. For the four sentence (S1 to S4) paragraph given below, sentences S1 & S4 are
given.From the options P,Q and R, choose appropriate sentences for S2 & S3.

S-1. Gandhi does not reject machinery as such.

S-2.
S-3.
S-4. What he objects to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such
P.He says that today, machinery merely helps a few to ride on the back of millions.
Q. And adds that the spinning wheel is a machinery, a little tooth-pick is a machine.
R. He observes,”How can I be against machinery when I know that even this body is a most
delicate piece of machinery?”

A. PQ
B. RQ
C. QP
D. QR
Answer: Option B

Q14. The following three sentences can be revised into one better sentence. Choose the
sentence that is the best revision:
I was at the fair. I got lost. I got scared.

A. I am scared after I am lost at the fair.

B. I went to fair and got scared as I was lost.
C. I am lost at the fair so I am too scared.
D. I got lost at the fair and was scared.

Answer: Option D

Q15. Which of the following sentences does NOT use informal language?

A. Did you locate our office quite easily?

B. You will be working with different managers during your training.
C. We shall endeavour to inform you of the position in two weeks time.
D. Is there anything else you want to ask me?

Answer: Option B
Q16. The lady ________purse was lost lodged a complaint at the police station.

A. Who
B. Whose
C. Whom
D. Where

Answer: Option B

Q17. You are going to read a text about a man in a photograph. Some sentences are missing
from the text. Choose from the list (A-C) the most appropriate sentence for each gap (1-2) in the
text. There is one extra sentence that you do not need to use.
It was the first photograph that i had ever seen, and its fascinated me. I still remember holding it
at every angle in order to catch the flickering light from the oil lamp on the dresser. (1) _____ I
had never met him but I felt that I knew him. (2) _____ I moved the photograph so that the
shadow lay perfectly around his hollow cheeks. How different he looked!

A. The man in the photograph was unsmiling, but his eyes were kind.
B. I would tell him how wonderful he looked with the shadow that I had seen across his
photograph, and I would most carefully suggest that he grew whiskers.
C. One evening when I was looking at the photograph, as I always did before I went to sleep, I
noticed a shadow across the man’s thin face.

A. (1)-A, (2)-C
B. (1)-B, (2)-A
C. (1)-C, (2)-B
D. (1)-C, (2)-A
Answer: (1)-A, (2)-C

Q18. Henry looks carefully into the telescope which let shim see far,far away, as far away as the
distant nebulae on the fair edges of the milky way.Henry is an (1)_____________.He looks at
the sky and at stars in particular.Even though he spends much of his time looking at detailed
computer reports,which are just lists and the lists are numbers, his (2)______ thing about his job
is looking through the telescope.And today he is very excited. He isn't sure yet, but he thinks he
has seen a dense cloud which might be the beginning of a new star.

Blank 1. A.astrologer B.astrologist C.astronomer D. astronaut

Blank 2. A. favouring B. pleasant C.pleasing D.favourite

1-C,2-D
1-D,2-B
1-A,2-A
1-B,2-C

Answer: 1-C,2-D

Q19. One part of the sentence below may contain an error. Identify the part.If there is no
error,choose ‘No error’.
The board announced that the decision to reduce the syllabus is yet to be approved by the
competent authority.
A. Is yet to be approved by the competent authority
B. No error
C. The decision is to reduce the syllabus
D. The board announced that

Answer: Option B

Q20.The final report on the project was ________into three parts

A. Broken up
B. Broken off
C. Broken away
D. Broken out

Answer: Option A