GE6674

I. Read the given passage and answer the following questions. (10 x 1 = 10)
Incidents of obesity is said to be on an increasing trend in many cities. An ongoing study
named ‘Childhood Obesity Prevention in Schools’ (COPS) has come out with alarming
results on obesity in school-going children in Coimbatore.
Of the 16,000-odd school students aged between eight and 16 screened as part of the
study, 12 % were found obese while 16 % were overweight based on Body Mass Index
(BMI), which calculates the weight-for-height for classification.
As per WHO standards, BMI above 30 is considered as obesity while index between 25
and 30 is considered as overweight for adults. As COPS covers minors, the BMI was
calculated based on the growth chart prepared by the Indian Academy of Paediatrics for
Indian children.
Jointly conducted by Young Indians, Gem Hospital, and Avinashilingam University for
Women, and COPS, it covers schools in private as well as Government sectors. In the
last one year, the team has conducted screenings in 25 schools in the district that
extended cooperation for the study.
“BMI of the students were primarily checked to find the risks of overweight and obesity.
The result is alarming. The main aim of the study is to let parents and teachers know the
risk factor of obesity among children and prevent further risks at the early stage,” says
Praveen Raj, head of the Department of Bariatric Surgery at Gem Hospital, a key person
behind the study which aims to screen a total number of 1.5 lakh students in another two
years.
The study also aims to educate parents and teachers that obesity and overweight can be
prevented, thus not putting them at the risk of associated diseases like type 2 diabetes,
accumulation of high cholesterol, and menstrual problem in girls to name a few.
“If left unattended and uncontrolled, obese children may soon develop associated
diseases and conditions. Those who are overweight may become obese too,” says Dr.
Raj.
Reduction in physical activity coupled with excess intake of food, supplying more
calories than the body needs, is the main reason for trend, says G. Krishna Shankar,
consultant adult and paediatric endocrinologist attached to Sri Ramakrishna Hospital.
“If not burned, every 100 kilocalorie of energy consumed (equal to the energy contained
in an idli) per day can lead to increase of 100g in one’s body per month. The
consequences will be high incidences of type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension
and early incidence of heart attack,” he says.
According to him, to prevent obesity in children, the family itself should have a diet plan
and not force the children alone into dieting.
“At least 30 minutes of physical activity for five days a week is must to balance the
energy intake and burning of unused calories,” he adds.
According to S. Uma Mageshwari, head of the Department of Food service Management
and Dietetics at Avinashilingam University, regular intake of high calories and processed
food in the absence of physical activity was causing obesity among school going
children.
“Students live in an obesogenic environment where they are exposed more to processed
food, high salted/sugared snacks and carbonised beverages with high calories than
natural foods. When there is a lack of physical activity, the extra calories get converted
to fat in the body. Students also tend to consume more of such items for peer group
acceptance,” she adds.
1. What is the target number of children that COPS, a study on childhood obesity,
hopes to screen?
a. A lakh and a half
b. Sixteen thousand
c. Eight thousand
d. Twenty-five thousand
2. Which of the following is NOT an aim of the study?
a. To educate parents and teachers on the risk factor of obesity among children
b. To popularise treatments such as bariatric surgery for obesity
c. To prevent further risks of obesity among children
d. To inform parents and teachers that obesity is a preventable condition
3. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as a risk associated with
obesity?
a. Heart attack
b. Mental disease
c. Skin disease
d. Peer rejection
4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as one of the recommendations for
reducing obesity?
a. Diet plan for the entire family
b. Minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week
c. Adoption of an idli diet
d. Avoidance of processed food and carbonised drinks
5. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as the reason why children
eat more of processed foods?
a. For the taste
b. To avoid eating healthy food
c. To supply more calories to the body
d. For acceptance among their peer group
6. Which of the following is the main reason for the alarming trend of obesity
among children?
a. Reduced physical activity combined with excessive intake of food.
b. Lack of control and attention at home.
c. Enforced dieting patterns combined with no diet restrictions for the rest of
the family.
d. Peer pressure to stop physical activity.
7. What is Body Mass Index?
a. Growth rate
b. Rate of risk of disease
c. Weight for height index
d. Index of physical activity
8. What does an “obesogenic environment” mean?
a. Environment in which all peers are obese
b. Environment in which children are exposed to more processed food
c. Environment which exerts pressure on children to become obese
d. Environment in which children do not get peer acceptance.
9. Which of the following organisations is NOT a collaborator with COPS in the
study?
a. Avinashilingam University for Women
b. Gem Hospital
 c. Young Indians
d. Indian Academy of Paediatrics for Indian Children
10. A BMI between 25 and 30 is considered _____________ as per WHO
standards.
a. Overweight
b. Underweight
c. Perfect wight
d. Obese

II. A. Listen to the given passage and answer the questions that follow: (5 x 1 = 5)
Listening Transcript
Reversing baldness in the future may be as simple as wearing a hat, thanks to a new
noninvasive, low-cost hair-growth-stimulating technology tested successfully on mice,
scientists say.
Based on devices that gather energy from a body’s day-to-day motion, the hair-growth
technology, described in the journal ACS Nano, stimulates the skin with gentle, low-
frequency electric pulses, which coax dormant follicles to reactivate hair production.
“I think this will be a very practical solution to hair regeneration,” said Xudong Wang, a
professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
The devices don’t cause hair follicles to sprout anew in smooth skin. Instead they reactivate
hair-producing structures that have gone dormant, researchers said.
The technology can be used as an intervention for people in the early stages of pattern
baldness, but it would not bestow tresses to someone who has been bald for several years,
they said.
Researchers noted that because the devices are powered by the movement of the wearer, they
don’t require a bulky battery pack or complicated electronics.
Small devices called nanogenerators passively gather energy from day-to-day movements and
transmit low-frequency pulses of electricity to the skin. That gentle electric stimulation
causes dormant follicles to “wake up,” the researchers said.

1. How is the new device powered?

a. By a hat-like structure
b. By a bulky battery pack
c. By low frequency electric pulses
d. By gathering energy from the wearer’s movements
2. Which of the following technologies does the new device use?
a. Nanotechnology
b. Space technology
c. Automobile technology
3. Pharmaceutical technology Which of the following group of people can benefit from
the technology?
a. People who have been bald for several years.
b. People who are in the early stages of baldness
c. People who were born bald
d. People who are dormant
4. Which of the following is mentioned as a feature of the new technology for reversing
baldness?
a. It requires a bulky battery
b. It uses complicated electronics
 c. It is non-invasive
d. It causes hair follicles to sprout afresh
5. How does the technology work?
a. It uses low frequency electric pulses to stimulate dormant hair follicles to grow
hair.
b. It uses high end electronics to cause smooth skin to sprout new hair.
c. It uses hair follicles from mice to sprout new hair in human skin.
d. It uses batteries to create new hair.
d.

II. B. Listen to the given passage and answer the following questions. (5 x 1 = 5)
Listening Transcript
Amazon on Wednesday announced support for Hindi and Hinglish for its voice assistant
Alexa.
With this update, users in India will be able to interact with Alexa using Hindi (and Hinglish)
as opposed to only English at present.
Till now, Alexa, which was launched in India in 2017, was able to understand and pronounce
names of popular places, names and songs in regional languages, including Hindi, Tamil,
Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi, but supported commands only in English.
“Our goal is that Alexa should be a native citizen. With this update, Alexa can now
understand customers speaking to her completely in Hindi or Hinglish, in multiple contexts
and varied regional accents and dialects,” said Rohit Prasad, vice president and head scientist,
Alexa AI, Amazon.
Stating that India had uniquely challenged the firm’s AI teams with its cultural and linguistic
diversity, Mr. Prasad added that many Indian users contributed to Hindi development through
the Cleo skill on Alexa. He also indicated that more regional languages could be added to
Alexa in the future.
“In India, pronunciation, diction and accents in Hindi are different across the country even if
the language being spoken is the same... With today’s launch, Alexa becomes more local.
Alexa will not only understand and respond in Hindi or Hinglish but is also armed with
knowledge about topics that interests users in the country,” said Puneesh Kumar, country
manager, Alexa Experience and Devices, Amazon India, said.
Amazon said about 500 skills — which is the term for various things that Alexa can do such
as playing music, bringing up news, stories or giving weather forecasts — are available in
Hindi and more will be added.
Mr. Prasad said overall, there were over 90,000 Alexa skills of which about 30,000 were
India-specific.
Alexa, which competes with digital assistants such as Apple’s Siri and the Google Assistant,
powers the Amazon Echo range of home-assistance devices besides products from brands
such as Bose, MyBox, and Syska.

1. Why did the Amazon AI team find itself facing a unique challenge from India?
a. Indian users ask Alexa to do unique things that people in other countries did not
ask.
b. India had too many digital assistants for Alexa to make a difference.
c. Indian users are trying to teach Alexa to do things that it was not programmed to
do.
 d. The linguistic and cultural diversity of India and the sheer variety of
pronunciation, diction and accents had to be taken into account while creating
Alexa.
2. Who is Alexa?
a. Head Scientist at Amazon
b. Amazon’s voice assistant
c. Country manager
d. Native citizen
3. The latest development allows users to ______________
a. Give commands to Alexa directly in Hindi
b. Get news from Alexa in Telugu, Tamil or Marathi
c. Interact with Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant through Alexa
d. Offer Hindi classes through Alexa’s Cleo skill
4. What is the next step that Amazon hopes to achieve?
a. Get Alexa an Indian citizenship
b. Power Amazon Echo range of products
c. Add more regional languages to Alexa
d. Teach Alexa regional names and pronunciation
5. How many of Alexa’s skills are targeted at the Indian user?
a. 90000
b. 500
c. 30000
d. 9000

III. Among the following sets of sentences state which sentence, A or B is correct. (5 x 1 = 5)
1. A. He treats his wife very badly.
1. B. He treats very badly his wife.

2. A. I work in this department since 2006.

2. B. I have been working in this department since 2006.

3. A. The Chief discussed about the arrangements for the programme with his assistant.
3. B. The Chief discussed the arrangements for the programme with his assistant.

4. A. She was given a lighter workload as she had just undergone a surgery.
4. B. She was given a lighter workload since because she had just undergone a surgery.

5. A. If she appoints a personal assistant, she wouldn’t feel so overworked.

5. B. If she appointed a personal assistant, she wouldn’t feel so overworked.