Direction: Read the following passages carefully and choose the most appropriate answer to the questions out of the four alternatives.
Passage
The public sector banks are witnessing in India a period of transition and are at crossroads, where they without giving up social responsibility, should also remain healthy. They need to undertake risky experiments yet perform it innovatively in a way it does not fail. They should make forays into new areas which are rarely tread by them and lose no emerging opportunities. It should be understood that absence of any bad advance is no sign of efficient banking system. It only indicates immense conservatism. However this is no guarantee for profit. There should be a balance between liquidity and risk. Past sins should be forgotten. Novel and pragmatic techniques should be adopted without which banks would be in danger.
MEANING OF WORDS/PHRASES
(1) transition (N.) : the process/ a period of changing from one state/condition to another
(2) cross roads (N.) : a crisis situation/point in time when a critical decision must be made
(3) forays (N.) : an attempt to become involved in a different activity/profession
(4) tread (V.) : used; attempted
(5) conservatism (N.) : the tendency to resist great/ sudden change
(6) liquidity (N.) : the state of owning things of value that can easily be exchanged for cash
(7) pragmatic (Adj.) : solving problems in a practical and sensible way rather than by fixed ideas/theories
(8) novel (Adj.) : different from anything known before; new, interesting and often seeming slightly strange
(9) penchant (N.) : a special liking for something
(10) at the cross roads (Id.) : at an important point

Direction: Read the following passages carefully and choose the most appropriate answer to the questions out of the four alternatives.
Passage
The man who is perpetually hesitating which of the two things he will do first, will do neither. The man who resolves, but suffers his resolution to be changed by the first counter-suggestion of a friend, who fluctuates from opinion to opinion, from plan to plan, and veers like a weather-cock to every point of the compass, with every breath of caprice that blows-can never accomplish anything great or useful. Instead of being progressive in any thing, he will be at best stationary, and more probably retrograde in all. It is only the man who first consults wisely, then resolves firmly, and then executes his purpose with flexible perseverance, undismayed by those petty difficulties which daunt a weaker spirit that can advance to eminence in any line. Take your course wisely, but firmly. and having taken it, hold upon it with heroic resolution, and the Alps and Pyrenees will sink before you.
MEANING OF WORDS/PHRASES
(1) perpetually (Adv.) : without interruption
(2) resolves (V.) : to make a firm decision to do something
(3) resolution (N.) : finding a solution to a problem
(4) fluctuates (V.) : vary
(5) veers (V.) : turn sharply; change direction abruptly
(6) caprice (N.) : a sudden desire
(7) retrograde (V.) : to decline to an inferior state
(8) perseverance (N.) : the quality of continuing to try to achieve a particular aim despite difficulties
(9) undismayed (Adj.) : unshaken in purpose
(10) daunt (V.) : cause to lose courage
(11) eminence (N.) : the quality of being famous and respected