General Knowledge Quiz

1. In international Morse code what denotes the letter E?

a. double dot b. dot and a line

c. space d. dot

e. underscore

2. In 1994 Tom Hanks won an Oscar for best actor for which film?

a. Apollo 13 b. Toy Story 2

c. Forrest Gump

d. From the Earth to the Moon

e. That Thing You Do!

3. What has the highest melting point of any metal?

a. Gold b. Iron

c. Diamond d. Tungsten

e. Galena

4. What do you call the sacred river in India?

a. Ganga b. Yamuna

c. Saraswati d. Tapti

e. Godawari

5. What was the first craft to land on Mars called?

a. Apollo b. Voyageur

c. Viking I d. Skylab

e. Luna 16

6. In which country is the prime minister’s country house Chequers?

a. USA b. UK

c. USSR d. India

e. Australia

7. Roman numerals- what denotes the number 70?

a. CVV b. CXX

c. LXX d. LVV e. VXX

8. How long does it take for the earth to orbit the sun once?

a. One Year b. One Month

c. One day d. A Night e. A week

9. Which Norwegian explorer reached the South Pole before Scott?

a. Amundsen b. Armstrong

c. Andre Clerk d. Graham bell

e. Dars Pat

10. What berries are used to give gin its flavor?

a. Strawberry b. Raspberry

c. Blackberry d. Boysenberry

e. Juniper Berry

11. What is the currency of Turkey?

a. Takko b. Lira

c. Euro d. Yen

e. Dollar f. Pound

12.What is England’s largest county?

a. North Yorkshire b. Buckinghamshire

c. Cambridgeshire d. Berkshire

e. Cheshire

13.Who invented the electric light bulb?

a. Samuel Mars

b. Thomas Alva Edison

c. Albert Einstein

d. Niels Bohr

e. Leonardo De Vinci

14.Who invented the hovercraft?

a. Ben Franklin b. Carl Sagan

c. Nikola Tesla d. Christopher Cockerell

e. Charles Darvin

15. What is the highest mountain in the Alps?

a. Mount Bona

b. Mount Foraker

c. Mount Bear

d. University Peak

e. Mont Blanc

16. What was Thailand known as?

a. Armenia b. Angola

c. Siam d. Zaire e. Persia

17.What is the capital of Bulgaria?

a. Tirana b. Riga

c. Rome d. Sofia e. Athens

18. In Guatemala, Christmas Day is celebrated:

a. On January 6

b. On December 25

c. On October 31

d. On August 1 e. Never

19. Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in:

a. 1492 b. 1895

c. 1944 d. 1976 e. 1878

20. The poinsettia, a traditional Christmas flower, originally grew in which country?

a. Canada b. China

c. India d. Spain e. Mexico

21. In Australia, usual Boxing Day activities include:

a. Building snowmen

b. Tobogganing

c. Wombat hunting

d. Surfing

e. Playing Casino

22. In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. It is usually made of what material?

a. Candy b. Straw

c. Uranium d. Fir wood

e. Gold

23. In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of:

a. Fried fish, lettuce and spinach

b. Square meat pies

c. Broiled partridges with gooseberry sauce

d. Turkey and plum pudding

e. Vegetables and wine

24. The day after Christmas, December 26, is known as Boxing Day. It is also the holy day of which saint?

a. St. Eustace b. St. Brigit

c. St. Nicholas d.St. Stephen

e. St. Santa

Answers

1. d

2. c

3. d

4. a

5. c

6. b

7. c

8. a

9. a

10. e

11. b

12. a

13. b

14. d

15. e

16. c

17. d

18. b

19. b

20. e

21. d

22. b

23. a

24. d

{2006/12/13}

Reading Comprehension Test

An open letter from Vladkhleb to the residents of Vladivostok.

When bread prices rose, Valkhleb, a bakery, asked the krai and city for help in holding down prices. Here is a letter it wrote, published in the Vladivostok Times Sept. 9. 1998

Dear residents of Vladivostok:
The staff and Board of Directors of Vladkhleb can't keep silent in the current wild situation when prices for all existing products are skyrocketing unbelievably. And while we somewhat indifferently watch enormous figures on price tags for delicacy products, every kopeck of extra charge for the staples … causes a real panic. We perfectly realize that, and that's why we have kept bread prices affordable for all this time. Even after the fall of prices we have tried to keep the past prices for as long as possible. At the moment all our reserves are exhausted. Stocks of bread-baking ingredients such as flour, sugar, butter and the like are running out. To buy what we need at reasonable prices is virtually impossible today.

However, we cannot temporize. We all need bread every day, which means we will be forced to buy everything we need at much higher prices. What this means perhaps doesn't need to be explained.

The cost of bread closely depends on ingredients. Another financial crisis has led to a 50-300-percent increase of prices for butter, vegetable oil, all types of margarine, yeast and other as of September 1. All these prices continue to grow every hour.

Because of this, Vladkhleb came to the critical point where it is necessary to raise prices of its products. Otherwise, we will just destroy a most powerful bread enterprise. Should Vladkhleb shut down, the bread price will get out of hand.

Our economists projected the situation for the near future considering the growing flour cost. With the cost of flour at 2.18 rubles per kilogram at the start of September, the retail bread price was to be 4.36 rubles. With an increase of flour cost to 4 rubles per kilogram, bread price will grow to 6.17 rubles. Further growth will be possible.

So it turns out that bread may rank with delicacy products. Is there another way out? Yes. It is already put into practice by leaders of other cities and regions. For example, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov used the press in the very first days of the crisis to tell the residents that he had decided to subsidize the bread industry so that not to allow prices for this type of food to rise. There were no objections. So did Khabarovsk -- there they pay subsidies for bread-baking ingredients.

Incidentally, the city and krai administrations already have the experience of supporting our plants. Rather than artificially holding back prices, they employed loans and waivers and the like. At this point all the city and krai offices of authority as well as deputies at all levels could consider our propositions such as:

- Granting waivers on taxes to krai and city budgets;

- Establishing lower prices for electric and thermal energy for a program of bread production;

- Facilitating in reception of customs duty and tax waivers from the federal government for imported grain;

- Recovery of Pacific Fleet's debts in the amount of 6 million rubles (calculated as of August 1998) for supplied products;

- Lowering rent for premises and plots.

Any of these possible measures will help Vladkhleb contain the growth of prices for its products. Despite of our SOS signal, no measures have been taken as yet. We have found ourselves in the same situation as any of you. We see the situation changing steadily for the worse. We will not cope with that alone.

We see one recourse: Raise the bread price minimally and cancel our free plastic bag service. But what is next? This is the concern of all the 700 employees and the board of Vladkhleb.

Every extra kopeck in the cost of bread upsets you and us very much. Making our sincere apologies for a forced increase of the bread price, we hope for your understanding and support. Today and tomorrow we are with you, as usual.

The staff and board of Vladkhleb.

1. Vladkhleb is

a. A farm b. A bakery

c. A retail store d. A bike producer

2. In this open letter Vladkhleb explains to the people of Vladivostok that

a. they can no longer supply bread

b. the price of bread will treble

c. all reserves of bread-making ingredients have been depleted

d. it will have to close down

3. A possible solution to the crisis, Vladkhleb suggests is

a. to use ingredients of a lower quality

b. to cut the workers' wages

c. to urge people to eat less bread

d. to have the bread price subsidized by the authorities

4. One of the things Vladkhleb asks the local authorities is

a. More workers

b. Lower energy prices

c. money to buy fresh ingredients

d. the permission to buy flour in the US

5. From the letter it appears that the local authorities of Vladivostok

a. have a tradition of helping out local industries in difficult times

b. have a bad record of giving help when it is needed

c. have already responded positively to recent SOS messages from Vladkhleb

d. were the first to subsidize the bread industry a few months ago

6. "So it turns out that bread may rank with delicacy products," means

a. that bread has become much tastier in recent months.

b. that bread has become as expensive as caviar.

c. that bread has become an article many people can no longer afford.

7. Vladkhleb has decided not to shut down because - they say -

a. the organisation still has a lot of outstanding debts.

b. otherwise the price of bread may get out of hand.

c. otherwise the distribution of bread may end up in the hands of the mafia.

8. One of Vladkhleb's propositions to the local authorities is : "Recovery of Pacific Fleet's debts in the amount of 6 million rubles (calculated as of August 1998) for supplied products." This means

a. that the army still owes the bakery a lot of money for bread delivered in the past.

b. that Vladkhleb still owes a lot of money to the army for ingredients that it supplied in the past.

c. that the local authorities should ask Moscow funds that would otherwise end up with the Pacific Fleet.

Answers

1. b

2. c

3. d

4. b

5. a

6. c

7. b

8. a

{2006/11/22}

Mathematical Aptitude Test

1. One hundred Students took math and physics tests. 25 students got scores higher than or equal to 80 for both tests. 42 students’ math score was higher than or equal to 80. The numbers of the students whose scores of both tests were less than 80 is 48. Let x and y be the numbers of the students with only math score higher than or equal to 80, and with physics score higher than or equal to 80, respectively. What are x and y?

(A) x = 17, y = 35 (B) x = 10, y = 17 (C) x = 10, y = 23 (D) x = 23, y = 10 (E) x = 35, y = 17

2. Three lottery winners, X, Y, and Z share the lottery jackpot. X’s share equals to 1/5 of Y’s share, and also equals to 1/7 of Z’s share. If the total jackpot is 195,000 Rs., What is the amount of Z’s share?

(A) 15,000 Rs. (B) 35,000 Rs.

(C) 75,000 Rs. (D)105,000 Rs.

(E) 115,000 Rs.

3. A farmer uses 140 meter fencing to enclose a rectangular field. The ratio of the two different sides is 3:4. What is the distance between the two corners diagonally apart from each other?

(A) 40m (B) 253m (C) 45m (D) 50m (E)(653)/2 cm

4. Two types of notebooks are sold. The price of type A is 12 Rs. and that of type B is 15 Rs. for each. John bought 10 notebooks in mixture of both types, and paid 126 Rs.. How many notebooks of type A did he buy?

(A) 5 (B) 6 (C) 7 (D) 8 (E) 9

5. If -1 <>

(A) X square (B)X cube (C) 1 (D) -x (E)1/x

6. Suppose x^2 – y^2 = 155 ( x square minus y square is equal to 155) and x - y = 5. What is the value of x + y?

(A) 15 (B) 31 (C) 35 (D) 100 (E) 150

7. One printer prints a sheet in 0.5 seconds, and the other does it in 0.75 seconds. If we use both printers simultaneously, what is the minimum time to print 200 sheets?

(A) 40 sec. (B) 45 sec. (C) 50 sec. (D) 55 sec. (E) 60 sec

8. Let series an =n^2 – 2n (n = 0, 1, 2,   ). What is the value of (a100 - a99 - a98 + a97)?

(A) 2 (B) 4 (C) 10 (D) 40 (E) 400

9. How many 3-digit positive odd integers that do not contain 5 in any places exist?

(A) 256 (B) 288 (C) 320 (D) 324 (E) 360

10. Darsh and Tathya independently try to decode a coded message. The probabilities that Darsh and Tathya are successfull are 0.8 and 0.7, respectively. What is the probability that at least one of them decodes the message?

(A) 0.10 (B) 0.47

(C) 0.56 (D) 0.80 (E) 0.94

11. When throwing two fair dice, what is the probability that the sum of their numbers is equal to or greater then 11?

(A) 1/18 (B) 1/12

(C) 1/8 (D) 1/6

(E) 1/3

12. Let gcd(m, n) be the greatest common divisor of integers m and n. Which of the following is the largest?

(A) gcd(14, 144) (B) gcd(24, 144) (C) gcd(49, 144) (D) gcd(70, 144) (E) gcd(91, 144)

13. The price of a Seiko watch is 1/3 the price of Omega watch. The shop sold 45 Seiko watches and 60 Omega watches, and the total receipt is 90,000 Rs. What is the price of one Omega watch?

(A) 1200 Rs (B) 1500 Rs(C) 1850 Rs(D) 2000 Rs (E) 2200 Rs

14. There is a circular railroad track for miniature train models. The space between the two rails is

3cm. How much longer is the outer rail than the inner rail?

(A) 2p cm (B) 3p cm (C) 4p cm (D) 6p cm (E) 8p cm

15. Let S = {a, b, c, d, e}. What is the number of subsets with two elements of set S?

(A) 4 (B) 8 (C) 10 (D) 16 (E) 20

16. Let f(x) = x^2 - 1. Which of the following satisfies equation f(f(x)) = 0?

(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 2 (D) 3 (E) 3

For suggestions or queries contact alpesh.bhalala@gmail.com

Answers

1. B

2. D

3. D

4. D

5. B

6. B

7. E

8. B

9. B

10. E

11. B

12. B

13. A

14. D

15. C

16. B

{2006/11/15}