Question : Given below is a short passage followed by some items based on the passage. First, read the passage and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and the opinion of the author only.

More than eight months after the national lockdown was announced in late March, urban India is learning to live with the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, indicating a positive outlook for the future, many survey respondents in a recent survey say they plan to return to pre-lockdown levels of shopping, personal grooming, going to cinemas and socializing as pandemic fears continue to recede.
The survey findings highlight that the suppression of consumer demand because of fears of job losses and salary cuts could be coming to an end. Increasingly, urban Indians are showing increased confidence about the future of the economy. This could be an indicator of the possible 'pent-up demand' that several economists have been talking about - a demand that could be unleashed once a vaccine is developed and distributed, or when there are signs of the pandemic's spread reducing to negligible levels or vanishing totally.

Around 65 per cent of respondents said they had settled into new routines, or that they saw signs of the situation improving, or they had come to terms with the pandemic and were moving on with their lives. And since the survey was conducted before the news of the successful trials of the Pfizer vaccine for the coronavirus was announced, it is likely that the consumers are now even more positive in their outlook about the future.

Question:
What, according to the passage, is the reason behind the decline in consumer demands?
 

Option 1: Dearth of vaccine till date

Option 2: Professional insecurity
 

Option 3: The intention of saving up money.

Option 4: Careful  attitude of the general public

Question : Comprehension:

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced another successful mission. ISRO chairman S. Somanath said that three small satellites successfully separated and were injected into orbit. ISRO launched three small satellites powered by its SSLV-D2 launch vehicle from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on February 10, 2023, at 09:18 AM IST. The launch vehicle was carrying EOS-07, Janus-1 & AzaadiSAT-2 satellites and aimed to inject them into a 450 km circular orbit. The launch took place at the first launch pad at SDSC SHAR,
Sriharikota. The SSLV-D2 had to take a 15-minute flight to inject EOS-07, Janus-1, and AzaadiSAT-2 satellites into a 450 km circular lower orbit. “It is configured with three solid propulsion stages and a velocity terminal module. It is a 34 m tall, 2 m diameter vehicle having a lift-off mass of 120 t,” said ISRO. The EOS-07 satellite weighs 156.3 kg and is made by ISRO.

About 13 minutes into its flight, the SSLV rocket ejected EOS-07 and soon after that the other two satellites Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2 were ejected — all at an altitude of 450 km, said ISRO.

With the new rocket in its portfolio, ISRO will have three rockets — Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and its variants (cost about Rs 200 crore), Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-MkII cost about Rs 272 crore and LVM3 Rs 434 crore) and SSLV (Development cost of three rockets about Rs 56 crore each) and production cost may go down later.

“New experiments include mm-Wave Humidity Sounder and Spectrum Monitoring Payload. Janus-1, a 10.2 kg satellite belongs to ANTARIS, USA. An 8.7 kg satellite AzaadiSAT-2 is a combined effort of about 750 girl students across India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai,” it added.

SSLV caters to the launch of up to 500 kg satellites to Low Earth Orbits on a ‘launch-on-demand’ basis. “It provides low-cost access to Space, offers low turn-around time and flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, and demands minimal launch infrastructure,” as per a statement by ISRO.

Question:

After reading the passage it can be inferred that it is

Option 1: a government release

Option 2: a news item

Option 3: a magazine article

Option 4: an editorial

Question : Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the correct order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.
A. I felt embarrassed as if I was somehow responsible for the fire in our home.
B. In my case, it was no different.
C. It always happens that bad news travels quickly.
D. Everyone in high school was aware of my plight.

Option 1: CDAB

Option 2: ABCD

Option 3: ADBC

Option 4: CBDA

Question : Comprehension:

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.

New Delhi: India is set to surpass China as the world's most populous country in 2023, with each counting more than 1.4 billion residents this year, a United Nations report said on Monday, warning that high fertility would challenge economic growth.

The world's population, estimated to reach 8 billion by November 15 this year, could grow to 8.5 billion in 2030 and 10.4 billion in 2100 as the pace of mortality slows, said the report released on World Population Day.

India's population was 1.21 billion in 2011, according to the domestic census, which is conducted once a decade. The government had deferred the 2021 census due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world's population was growing at its slowest pace since 1950, having fallen below 1 per cent in 2020, UN estimates showed.

In 2021, the average fertility of the world's population stood at 2.3 births per woman over a lifetime, having fallen from about 5 births in 1950. Global fertility is projected to decline further to 2.1 births per woman by 2050.

Referring to an earlier World Health Organisation report estimating about 14.9 million deaths relating to the COVID-19 pandemic between January 2020 and December 2021, the UN report said global life expectancy at birth fell to 71 years in 2021 from 72.8 years in 2019, mostly due to the pandemic.

The United Nations said more than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050.

However, the population of 61 countries is projected to decrease by 1% or more between 2022 and 2050, driven by a fall in fertility.

Question:
After reading the above passage, it can be inferred that it is

Option 1: a news item

Option 2: a research report

Option 3: a magazine article

Option 4: a survey report