Questions 1-5: Select the most appropriate word(s) to fill in the gap(s).

Questions 6-10: In each of the following sentences, choose the option where the underlined word(s) has been used INCORRECTLY.

6/ i) Since no party was wiling to compromise, an arbitrator had to be called in to break the impasse.

ii) Given that the two countries have reached an impasse on their negotiations, the war is likely to continue.

iii) After days of fighting, the soldiers were looking for an impasse.

7/ i) The cue was only getting longer with the passage of time.

ii) The choir was waiting for the right cue to start their performance.

iii) As if on cue, the sound of a vehicle starting broke the silence.

8/ i) The pharmacy board will censure the pharmacist for not properly monitoring his drug supply.

ii) If Majed receives another censure from his boss, he will more than likely lose his job.

iii) The security device has a heat censure which detect the presence of people and animals.

9/ i) The vile man tries to insight hatred in his children by telling them falsehoods about minority groups.

ii) He showed remarkable insight on the topic considering he had just started learning about it.

iii) I wanted to point out he was a very good speaker, and could insight a crowd.

10/ i) When the crew saw flairs, they knew the other ship was in trouble

ii) She grew uneasy and watched the sky flair, with rocket and laser fire from the ongoing battle in the valley.

iii) It is obvious from Rina’s mumbling that she does not have a flair for public speaking.

Questions 11-15: Read the following paragraph and answer the questions.

Here’s a simple question - answer it honestly: How many hours did you spend reading books last week?

This question has arrived in thousands of U.S homes every other year since 1992 as part of the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study (HRS). In 2016, when researchers at the Yale School of Public Health dug into 12 years of HRS data, a hopeful pattern emerged: people who read books-fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose-for as little as 30 minutes a day over several years were living an average of two years longer than people who didn’t read anything at all.

Research suggests that reading is beneficial not only for the elderly, but also for children and adults. When practiced over a lifetime, reading and language-acquisition skills can support healthy brain functioning in big ways. Simply put: Word power increases brain power.

But what is it about reading books in particular that boosts our brain power whereas reading newspapers and magazines doesn’t? For one, the researchers posit, chapter books encourage ‘‘deep reading.’’ Unlike, say, skimming a page of headlines, reading a book of any genre forces your brain to think critically and make connections from one chapter to another, and to the outside world. Over time, the forging of new neural networks promotes quicker thinking and may provide a greater defense against the worst effects of cognitive decay.

Secondly, reading books, especially fiction, has been shown to increase empathy and emotional intelligence. Developing social tools such as empathy and emotional intelligence can lead to more positive human interaction, which in turn can lower stress levels. Both of these enhance life expectancy.

That’s not to say that magazines, newspapers, and Web articles are without merit. Reading anything that fills your mind and exposes you to new words, phrases, and facts seems to carry mental benefits. New research indicates that a large vocabulary may lead to more resilient mind by fueling what scientists call cognitive reserve. One way to think about this reserve is as your brain’s ability to adapt to damage. Just as your blood cells clot to cover a cut on your knee, cognitive reserve helps your brain cells find new mental pathways around areas damaged by stroke, dementia, and other forms of decay. It’s their cognitive reserve, researchers suspect, that may allow some seniors to seamlessly compensate for hidden brain damage.

So how does one build up cognitive reserve? That’s more good news for word lovers. Vocabulary is notoriously resistant to aging, and having a rich one, according to researchers, can significantly delay the manifestation of mental decline.

As science reminds us, it pays to increase your word power-today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life.

Questions 16-20: For each sentence, replace the underlined parts with the option that represents the proper usage of grammar.

16/ Fortunately, the baby fallen back onto the red carpet after trying to clamber up the stairs.

17/ You had be a fool to consider the enemy weak.

18/ Jason, who had always lived the life of a hedonist, found himself regret his life choices in old age.

19/ After giving the students a piece of her mind, the deviant behavior was never again seen by the teacher.

20/ Although it has been two days since the storm, none of the debris are being cleared.

26/ The length, width, and depth of a rectangular box are 8 feet, 7 feet, and 9 feet, respectively. A hose supplies water at a rate of 12 cubic feet per minute. How much time in minutes would it take to fill a conical box whose volume is three times the volume of the rectangle box?

27/ Train Karnafuli starts from Chittagong at 6 AM and reaches Dhaka at 4 PM. Train Paharika starts from Dhaka at at 7 AM and reaches Chittagong at 7:30 PM. At what time will the train cross each other?

28/ Three workers A, B, C working individually can complete a task in 30 days, 15 days and 10 days respectively. If A starts the task alone, and B and C helps A on every 2^nd and 3^rd day respectively, on which day the task will be completed?

29/ Given y = (x-6) (x-5) (x-4) (x-3), and ‘x’ is a positive integer. If y>0, then which of the following must be true?

30/ 648:36 :: 1682: ______?

31/ 6 students did not participate and 10 students failed in an exam. Among the students who passed in the exam, Abir stood 15^th from the top and 30^th from the bottom in the merit list. How many students were there in the class?

32/ What should be the value of ‘P’ in order for 4x² - Px + 9 to be square?

33/ In a rectangle, the length of the diagonal is 8 meters, and the length of the perpendicular drawn on that diagonal from the opposite corner is 4 meters. What is the area of the rectangle in square meter?

34/ In a swimming competition, Saju beat Sajib by 60 seconds. If the rate of Saju’s swimming is 69 meters/minute and that of Sajib is 66 meters/minute, how long has it taken for Sajib to complete the competition?

35/ Pavel’s monthly income is Tk. 5250. The ratio of his monthly expenditure to savings is 8:7. From the next month, he wants to increase his savings by Tk. 550 while his monthly income will remain unchanged. What will be the new ratio of his monthly savings to expenditure?

36/ Syntax cement gives a commission of 15% on the printed price of each sack of cement if sells to its dealers and gains a profit of 19%. If the commission is decreased to 10%, the new profit percentage will be:

37/ If - 1 < a < b < 0, which of the following has the highest value?

38/ A man can build a hut in 9 days; a woman can build the same hut in 12 days and a boy can build that hut in 18 days. After working together for 2 days, the man left and the woman & the boy continued the work for 2 days. After that the woman left too and the boy finished the rest of the work. If the total wage for this work is BDT 7910, how much the boy should receive based on the number of days worked?

39/ Eight years ago, Zahed was twice as old as Zubair. At present, Zahed is 1.5 times as old as Zubair. Sixteen years from now, what will be the ratio of Zubair’s age to Zahed’s age?

40/ Azam can swim 10km upstream and 25 km downstream in 12 hours. He can also swim 15 km upstream and 50 km downstream in 20 hours. How many hours will it take for him to cover 17.5 km in downstream if the rate of current increases by 40%?

41/ a, b , c, d, and e are five consecutive integers in increasing order of value. Which one of the following expressions is not odd?

42/ 3 people are splitting a TK. 150 bill. If A pays TK 5 less than B, while C pays more than TK 60, what is the most A can pay, given all of them pay integer amounts?

43/ If 30 men renovate ½ of room space in 120 days, how many days would 80 men require to renovate 1/3 of the remaining room space, assuming each person work at the same rate?

44/ A salesperson bought an item for Tk. X and marked it up by 50%. However, he could not sell the item during the first quarter and thus, decided to provide a discount of 20% on the marked up price. As the item remained unsold in the second quarter as well he stated to charge 70% of the discounted value. What is the latest sales price of the item in terms of it’s buying price?

45/ Find the range of values of x for which (2x + 3) (x-1) < 0

46/ A number of people were asked whether they liked drinks of orange, lemon or grape flavor. The responses are as follows- 85 liked orange, 45 liked orange and lemon, 65 liked grapes, 40 liked lemon and grape, 90 liked lemon, 30 liked orange and grape, 15 liked all three and 25 liked none. Find the number of people who liked only orange.

47/ In the above problem ( Question 46), how many people were interviewed?

48/ A person is standing 20m away from a wall. When he walks towards the wall, he covers half the remaining distance in every 3 seconds. How long will it take him to reach the wall?

49/ Water is poured into an cylindrical tank at a constant rate. In 15 minutes, the height of the water increased by 9 feet. The radius of the tank is 10 feet. What is the rate at which the water is poured?

50/ Working 11 hours/day, 24 men and 33 women can complete the construction of a road in 78 days. The working capacity of 3 women equals to that of 1 men. Now, the authority decides that the road is to be constructed in 55 days by working 13 hours/day. If there are only 27 women present, how many men will be needed?

51/ [Image required]

If the width of the shaded region in the following figure is 1 cm and the radius of the outer circle is 10 cm, find the radius of the inner-semi circle(s).

52/ Three students P, Q, and R are standing in a line. There are 5 students standing in the line between P and Q, and 8 students standing in the line between Q and R. If there are 3 students standing in the line before R, and 21 students standing in the line behind P, then what is the minimum number of students standing in the line?

53/ Train Green Arrow leaves Station A for Station B every day at 7 PM. On a certain day, it was delayed by 2 hours. To cover up the time, it increased it’s average speed by 20% but still arrived at Station B 1 hour later than the scheduled time. What is the usual duration of the train’s journey from Station A to Station B?

54/ [Image required]

In the following figure, ABC is an equilateral triangle where points D and E are the midpoints of sides AB and AC respectively. If point A is the center of the circle, and BC=42cm what is the area of the arc ADE?

55/ A circular well with 18cm inside diameter is dug out 14m deep. The soil taken out of it has been spread out over a square shaped field with a diagonal of 18 √2 m. The level of the field will rise by how much?

Questions 56-60: Answer each questions based on the conditions.

Ten directors of an organization will sit for their annual meeting. The ten directors will be seated in two rows of five chairs that face each other along the two long sides of the meeting-room table. The chairs are numbered consecutively from A to J with seats A through E on one side of the table and chairs F through J on the other side, with chair F opposite chair E. Five of the ten directors are men - Firuz, Gunjan, Harun, Joynul, and likhon; the rest are women - Munni, Rikita, Sumi, Tina, and Yasmen.

Among them Tina is the director of Industrial Sales department. Harun is the director of Consumer Sales department. Firuz and Gunjan are directors of Structured Finance and Consumer Finance department respectively. Munni and Rikita both are the directors of Production department. Joynul is the director of Marketing department. The rest of the directors are independent directors of the company. The seating is governed by the following rules:

On each long side of the table no more than two consecutive seats can be occupied by male directors.

Directors of Industrial Sales and Consumer Sales departments cannot sit beside each other.

Directors of Structured Finance and Consumer Finance departments cannot sit beside each other.

Directors of Production department must sit beside each other.

Director of Consumer Sales department must sit beside the director of Marketing department.

61/ As a construction material, bamboo is as strong as steel and studier than concrete. Moreover, in tropical areas bamboo is a much less expensive construction material than either steel or concrete and is always readily available. In tropical areas, therefore, building with bamboo makes better economic sense than building with steel or concrete, except where land values are high.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the exception noted above?

62/ Fast food restaurant make up 60% of all restaurants in Dhaka. Customers at these restaurants tend to be young. In fact, studies have shown that the older people get the less likely they are to eat in fast-food restaurants. Since the average age of the Dhaka population is gradually rising and will continue to do so, the number of fast-food restaurants is likely to decrease.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

Answer 63 to 65: Each of the following questions consists of two statements given below it, numbered I and II. You have to decide whether the data provided in the statement(s) is/are sufficient to answer the given question.

63/ When Shafi was born his father was 28 years old. What is the age difference between Shafi's parents?

I. When Shafi's sister was born, their mother was 26 years old

II. Shafi's sister is 2 years older than Shafi

64/ In a company, 70% of the employees are female and 60% of the employees are married. What fraction of the female employees are married?

I. Total number of employees is 430

II. 2/3 of the male employees are single

65/ Jony’s wealth is 1.4 times Moin’s wealth. Baker’s wealth 0.9 times Lisa’s wealth. Baker’s wealth is what percentage of Jony’s wealth?

I. Baker’s wealth is 1.8 times of Moin’s wealth

II. Lisa’s wealth is twice as much as Moin

Questions 66 to 70: Answer each question based on the following conditions.

Palash, Qashem, Rashed, Sohel, Tamal are the supervisors in the five production floors of a factory. Due to intense competetion, the relationship among the supervisors has somewhat deteriorated. As such, not all of them are in good terms with each other. When a supervisor needs to use a resource that he does not have, he may only request it from a supervisor who owes him a favor. The supervisors have a list of favors owed by each other which is:

Palash owes a favor to Qashem

Palash owes a favor to Tamal

Qashem owes a favor to Palash

Rashed owes a favor to Palash

Sohel owes a favor to Qashem

Sohel owes a favor to Tamal

Tamal owes a favor to Rashed

If a supervisor is owed a favor, he can also transfer that to some other supervisor.

66/ If supervisors Qashem, Rashed, Sohel, and Tamal are the only ones operating, which of the following requests for favor can be made, either directly or through one or more of the other supervisors?

67/ If supervisors Palash, Rashed, Sohel, and Tamal are the only ones operating, which of the following requests for favor can be made neither directly nor through exactly one of the other operating supervisors?

68/ Which of the following supervisors cannot ask for favor from any of the other four supervisors?

69/ Which of the following is a complete and accurate list of supervisors that can request a favor from Sohel through exactly one other supervisor?

70/ Which of the following requests for favor requires the greatest number of intermediary request for favor?

Question - 1: Critical Writing [15 Marks]

Some opine that the commencement of Uber ( a car ride hailing service) in Dhaka has increased the number of vehicles in the congested city and worsened the traffic situation. Others opine that Uber has not only been a solution to the woes of Dhaka city dwellers who have to depend on the abysmal public transport system but has also brought new employment opportunities to the city.

With which of the above opinions do you agree? Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

Question - 2: Descriptive Writing [15 Marks]

In your opinion, which industry in Bangladesh has the highest potential for growth in the next five years, and why? Discuss.