COMPREHENSION TEST
197. Hatfield’s comment on oil reserve is                         incidence      :  the extent to which something happens/
       (1) not to be taken seriously.                                               has an effect
       (2) to be taken seriously.
                                                                  alarming       :  causing worry and fear
       (3) to be made public in oil using countries.
                                                                  indifference :    a lack of interest, feeling/reaction towards
       (4) to be circulated in all oil producing countries.                         somebody/something
198. To    deal with economic consequences                        monitor        :  to watch and check something over a pe-
       (1) there should be a cut in the use of oil.                                 riod of time
       (2) serious planning is needed.                            contaminated : a substance that is no longer pure
       (3) oil exploration should be geared up.
                                                                  adequately : in a way that is enough in quantity/good
       (4) manufacture of vehicles should be controlled.                            enough in quality
199. According to industry and energy experts, there is           sanitised      : to clean something thoroughly using chem-
       (1) short supply of oil.     (2) adequate supply of oil.                     icals to remove bacteria
       (3) plenty of oil.           (4) increase in oil use.
200. The current consumption of oil is ____ million bar-         201. In India the concern for safe drinking water is
       rels.                                                            (1) very low.          (2) good.
       (1) forty nine               (2) fifty nine                      (3) enough.            (4) more than expected.
       (3) sixty nine               (4) seventy nine             202. In the highest income categories, the number of peo-
       Directions (201–205) : You have one brief passage                ple drink tap water without boiling it is
with 5 questions following the passage. Read the passage                (1) about half of the house holds.
carefully and choose the best answer to each question out
                                                                        (2) all the house holds.
of the four alternatives.
                (SSC Higher Secondary Level Data Entry Operator         (3) nearly three fourths of the households.
                                        & LDC Exam. 27.11.2010)         (4) one fourth of the households.
      India records the world"s highest per-capita incidence     203. During rainy season, drinking water should be
of water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid and
hepatitis, in spite of which concern for safe drinking water            (1) cleaned.              (2) sanitised.
is still abysmally low even among educated Indians. This                (3) stored.               (4) used.
alarming indifference was borne out in a survey conducted         204- There is a high level of ______ to boiling water.
by market research agency Research International Ltd.
                                                                        (1) interest              (2) indifference
based on a study of 3,000 households spread across all
major cities in India. The survey found that over 73 per cent           (3) care                  (4) curiosity
of all households in the highest income categories (SEC A &      205- According to the passage, unboiled tap water con-
B) drink tap water without boiling it and as many as 55 per             tains ___.
cent of the same group drink tap water after filtration                 (1) impurities            (2) chemicals
through a cloth, but without boiling.
                                                                        (3) germs                 (4) waste matter
      Though every school child knows that unboiled tap
water contains unseen disease causing germs, and is un-               Directions (206-210) : You have one brief passage
safe to drink, the high level of indifference to boiling water   with 5 questions. Read the passage carefully and choose
will come as a surprise to many. Comments Dr. S.S.               the best answer to each question out of the four alterna-
Narvekar, Deputy Director, Directorate of Health Services,       tives.
Government of Maharashtra. " We regularly monitor water                          (SSC Higher Secondary Level Data Entry Operator
quality in all major urban centres in this State. During 1995                                 & LDC Exam. 27.11.2010 (Ist Sitting)
- 96, we found that 9,730 out of 159,233 samples of water               Although Indians spend less money on allopathic
were contaminated with disease causing organisms, repre-         medicines than people in most Asian Countries, more than
senting a high 6.11 per cent of the total number of samples      40,000 drug formulations are available here. All manufac-
collected and analysed. This is an alarmingly high level of      turers are required by law to provide information about
contamination considering that Maharashtra is one of the         their product either on the packaging or in a pamphlet in-
more developed states in India and it may be higher in           side. But, in many cases, this information is very meagre
other states. Also during late summer months when there          and hard to understand. Many doctors, too do not tell their
is water scarcity, and during the monsoon season, contam-        patients anything about the drugs they prescribe.
ination of drinking water is very high. Hence during these              What should we be concerned about when we take
months it is doubly important to ensure drinking water is        drugs ? There are two areas : (1) Side effects. Many people
adequately sanitised."                                           taking a drug will notice an undesirable reaction, usually
                                                                 minor. But even the mildest drugs can do harm if taken
                  SOME IMPORTANT WORDS                           improperly, long enough or in excessive doses. And every-
 water-borne :     spread or carried by water.                   one responds to a drug differently.(2) Failure to follow direc-
 abysmally :       very badly; terribly.                         tions. Many of us disobey prescription instructions on how
 borne out :       showed that something/somebody is             much to take and when. It is easy to fall into thinking that
                   right/true.                                   more of the drug will speed up the healing. It is more com-
                                                             SEE–926