Dear readers,
This quiz consists of questions from past
SNAP actual papers. Leave your answers/ responses in the comments section below
and soon we’ll let you know the correct answers!
Directions
(Qs. 1-5): Read the following passage and answer within its context.
TRIPs agreement provides a comprehensive
set of global trade rules for the protection of copyright patents, trademarks,
industrial designs, trade secrets, semiconductor lay out designs, and geographical
indications, that apply to all the member- countries irrespective of their
levels of development, natural and human endowments and history. Every member-country
has been asked by the WTO to amend its national patent law to confirm to that
universal globalized format for legislation relating to pharmaceutical,
agrochemical, food, alloys, etc.
Under Article 65, the developed countries
have been asked to change their laws within another five years, and the less
developed countries within an additional five years. The least developed
countries have been asked to make those changes by 2005 AD.
This attempt at global standardisation and
uniformity by way of TRIP’s agreement is in conflict with the main thrust of
the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that set out the conditions for sustainable
development. These two reveal two contrasting types of international approaches
and norms.
While the 1992 Earth Summit and the 1993
convention on biodiversity (CBD) focused on ‘diversity’ as being fundamental to
sustain life and development, TRIPs and WTO are pushing for ‘conformity’ to
international standardized norms on patents, services, labour, investment and
what not irrespective of their history, ecology, level of economic development,
etc. But despite their diametrically opposed viewpoints, 170 countries signed
CBD upholding the need for diversity, and 50 countries signed the TRIPs
agreement in 1994 claiming the urgency of uniformity, with a very large element
of common names (130) in both.
The convention on bio-diversity (CBD) in
its Article 16.5 specifically asserts that intellectual property right must not
be in conflict with conservation and sustainable use of bio-diversity, a
provision that has been totally ignored by those who composed the TRIPs
agreement. While in case of agriculture the higher yield of patented products
induces the farmers to switch from a more varied production pattern, the
resulting narrowing of genetic base makes the economy and society more
vulnerable to plant disease and epidemics. It is true that the move towards
cultivation of a smaller number of higher yielding varieties and the uniform
spread of the same variety over a large space predates the present debate on
patent, particularly since the introduction of the green revolution technology
in the mid-sixties, but there can be no doubt that the latter has brought about
a qualitative change in the scenario and has created possibility of a vast
quantitative change too in that direction. So far no attempt has been made to
reconcile the two conflicting approaches of CBD and TRIPs. If diversity is so
important for sustaining life, how can WTO demand conformity to standardised
global formats?
1.
The author points out that intellectual property rights and their
administration mechanism
(a) is throttling the interest of global
bio-diversity.
(b) is working to help sustain global
bio-diversity.
(c) is being sustained by global
bio-diversity.
(d) is what the global bio-diversity needs.
2.
Which of the following has been said by the author in the passage?
(a) A high number of countries have signed
both CBD and TRIPs, two conflicting treaties.
(b) A narrow genetic base, if stuck to for
long, is fraught with danger.
(c) Although a nondiscriminatory approach
has been followed in the applicability of TRIPs, there has been a confessional
attitude in prescribing a timeframe for Transition, as per needs of the
respective countries.
(d) The author is supportive of international
conventions and treaties such as TRIPs, CBD etc.
3.
Out of the countries that signed CBD, the percentage of those that signed the
TRIPs also, is
(a) 76.5 (b)
74.5 (c) 78.5 (d) 80.2
4.
According to the author, a higher-yield seed variety is not always welcome as
it also ultimately leads to
(a) diseases among the consumers.
(b) diseases among the plants.
(c) monopoly of developed countries.
(d) monopoly of developing countries.
5.
As per the TRIPs agreement not much differentiation is made between a developed
country such as the USA and an undeveloped country such as Sudan. This is
(a) definitely true
(b) probably true
(c) probably false
(d) definitely false
6.
Find the maximum number of times any one of the given words fits the set of
sentences
RAISE ARISE AROSE RISE
(i)
Opportunities will ______, and you must grab them.
(ii)
A hot wind ________ from the desert.
(iii)
I ______ at dawn on most days.
(iv)
A mood of optimism _____ among the people.
(a) in all four sentences
(b) in 3 sentences
(c) in 2 sentences
(d) in 1 sentences
7.
Which two sentences in the following convey the same idea? Choose from the
combinations listed below:
(1)
He is in a fool’s paradise
(2)
He can’t see the wood for the trees
(3)
He can’t distinguish between reality and fancy.
(4)
He is unable to separate unimportant details from the really important ones
(a) 2,3 (b)
2,4 (c) 1,4 (d) 1,3
8.
We can never make our beliefs regarding the world certain. Even scientific
theory of a most rigorous and well-confirmed nature is likely to change over a
decade or even tomorrow. If we refuse to even try to understand, then it is
like resigning from the human race. Undoubtedly life of an unexamined kind is
worth living in other respects–as it is no mean thing to be a vegetable or an
animal. It is also true that a man wishes to see this speculative domain beyond
his next dinner.
From
the above passage it is clear that the author believes that
(a) men would do well not to speculate
(b) progress in the scientific field is
impossible
(c) one should live life with the dictum
‘what will be will be’
(d) men are different from animals as far
as their reasoning abilities are concerned.
9.
If the following segments of a sentence are to be rearranged in logical order
as A, B, C, D where would ‘3’ be placed
(1)
to see that students do not altogether forget to write especially during exam
time
(2)
the education groups are now asking for hand writing classes
(3)
thanks to mobile testing and computer literacy
(4)
writing in long hand is becoming a vanishing art
(a) A (b)
B (c) C (d) D
10.
If leaf is to leaves and knife is to knives, then belief is to ————
(a) beliefs (b) believes (c)
belief (d) believing
11.
Choose the sentence where the bold word is used correctly.
(a) This latest novel is a pedestrian story about spies.
(b) The exam paper is not pedestrian but difficult.
(c) This is the pedestrian highway.
(d) Every week we are forced to listen to a
pedestrian lecture.
12.
When the fire alarm rang________left the building immediately
(a) all (b)
everyone (c) all the
people (d) every
person
13.
In the following sentence choose the erroneous segment/s
He
is one of those people (a)/ who thinks (b)/ he owns the world (c)/ No error (d)
(a) error in segment A
(b) error in segment B
(c) error in segment A & C
(d) error in segment B & C
14.
Choose the correct meaning for the word: cynic
(a) the person who is selfish
(b) the person who is concerned about
others
(c) the person who isn’t misanthropic
(d) the person who believes that people
always act from selfish motives
15.
Choose the word with correct spelling
(a) catagories
(b) diarrhoea
(c) ommission
(d) inaugarate
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Answers
1(a) 2(a)
3(a) 4(b) 5(a)
6(c) 7(d) 8(c)
9(b) 10(a) 11(a)
12(b) 13(d) 14(d)
15(b)