Directions: Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :
With Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma abolishing the discretionary quota for gas and telephone connections enjoyed by members of parliament last week, demands are being made for doing away with the same privilege for Union ministers.
Imposing a fine of Rs. 50 lakh on former petroleum minister Satish Sharma for arbitrarily allotting petrol pumps, the Supreme Court had said last year that absolute discretion was an anathema to the Constitution and advised the ‘judicious’ use of discretionary powers.
Citing the use of the so-called privileges as “prejudicial to public interest and a breach of trust”, HD Shourie of Common Cause has sought the prime minister’s intervention to “stop this practice of discretionary quota for ministers to present to the public an image of clean functioning of the government.”
In a letter written to the Cabinet Secretary, he has drawn the PM’s attention to the misuse of this privilege by more than a dozen ministers. In the railways, discretionary quota covers platform stalls, passes, tickets and berths on trains. In civil aviation and tourism, the largesse includes free international air tickets, out-of-turn seats and stalls in ITDC hotels

What did the Supreme Court suggest ?

Directions (57): In these questions, a sentence has been given in Active/Passive Voice. Out of the four suggested alternatives, select the one which best expresses the same sentence Passive/Active Voice.
This surface feels smooth.

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language-so the argument runs-must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. 
Now it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits, one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.. 

The author believes that –

The teacher, as well as the students (A)/ have gone on an excursion (B)/ to Ooty during their summer vacation. (C)/ No Error (D). 

In the following question, some part of the sentence may have errors. Find out which part of the sentence has an error and select the appropriate option. If a sentence is free from error, select 'No Error'

It is noticed that (a)/ the elite class have no soft (b)/ corner for the downtrodden who are the (c)/ real victims of the present social set up. (d)/ No error (e)

Direction: In the following question, out of the four alternatives, choose the one which can be substituted for the given sentence.

The short remaining end of a cigarette-

What, one wonders, is the lowest common denominator of Indian culture today? The attractive Hema Malini ? The songs of Vinidh Barati? The attractive Hema Malini? The sons of Vinidh Barati? .
Or the mouth-watering Masala Dosa? Delectable as these may be, each yield pride of place to that false (?) symbol of a new era-the synthetic fibre. In less than twenty years the nylon sari and the terylene shirt have swept the countryside, penetrated to the farthest corners of the land and persuaded every common man, woman and child that the key to success in the present day world lie in artificial fibers: glass nylon, crepe nylon, tery mixes, polyesters and what have you. More than the bicycles, the wristwatch or the transistor radio, synthetic clothes have come to represent the first step away form the village square. The village lass treasures the flashy nylon sari in her trousseau most delay; the village youth gets a great kick out of his cheap terrycot shirt and trousers, the nearest he can approximate to the expensive synthetic sported by his wealthy citybred contemporaries. And the Neo-rich craze for ‘phoren’ is nowhere more apparent than in the price that people will pay for smuggled, stolen, begged borrowed second hand or thrown away synthetics. Alas, even the uniformity of nylon.

‘The lowest common denominator’ of the Indian culture today is –

A person who_____ on his own effort has the best chance to win.