eBay Sample Verbal Questions

DIRECTIONS for the question 1 & 2: Given below are sentences that form a paragraph, identify the sentence(s) or part(s) that is/are incorrect in terms of grammar and usage (including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency). Then, choose the most appropriate option.

1. There is an university in the city that is famous for its research.
2. The police chief tried to exercise a undue influence on me.
3. Rajesh’s attitude is such that it seems he always puts on air.
4. Manohar has decided to visit all his sons-in-law next month.

A) A, B and C      B) B, C and D      C) A, C and D      D) All of the above

1. The court has ruled that he gave false witness against the mayor of the city.
2. She is elder than I am.
3. Sunrise is such a great phenomena that upon encountering it, one's heart is filled with joy and happiness.
4. Ever since he has started his strengthening exercises after his terrifying accident, he has been becoming strong everyday.

A) A, B and C      B) B, C and D      C) A, C and D      D) All of the above

DIRECTIONS for the question 3 & 4: Identify the meaning of the given idiom/ phrase.

To pay one back in the same coin

1. To provoke a person to quarrel
2. To offer another polite attention
3. To retaliate
4. To give a word of encouragement or praise to another

The popularity of great novel writer is on the wane.

1. To gradually declining
2. Becoming common
3. Growing more
4. At its peak

DIRECTIONS for the question 5 & 6: Choose the word from the options which is most Similar in meaning to the given word.

EXASPERATION

A) exaltation      B) irritation         C) amplification         D) exception

SALUBRIOUS

A) miasmic         B) unhealthy         C) wholesome         D) delightful

DIRECTIONS for the question 7 to 10 : Read the passage and answer the questions based on it.

Passage 1

I teach an undergraduate class on Nietzsche, a philosopher who has a reputation for captivating young minds. After one class, a student came to see me. There was something bothering her. “Is it OK to be changed by reading a philosopher?” she asked. “I mean, do you get inspired by Nietzsche—do you use him in your life?”You have to be careful about questions like this, and not only because the number of murderers claiming Nietzsche as their inspiration is higher than I would like. What the student usually means is: “Nietzsche mocks careful scholarship: Can I, in his spirit, write my paper however the hell I want and still get a good grade?” In this case, though, the student knew perfectly well how to write a scholarly paper. She wanted to do something else too: be Nietzschean!

Here’s my line, for what it’s worth: you can do whatever you want in life— take inspiration from The Smurfs for all I care—but I’m here to teach you how to read a philosopher, slowly and carefully, which is not an easy thing to do. If you want to be inspired by Nietzsche, you have to read him precisely, to make sure that it is Nietzsche who inspires you—not a preconception or a misappropriation or a scholarly reading, mine or anybody else’s, which is vulnerable to the interpreter’s peculiar agenda or the fashions of the hour. And what if, when you read him carefully, you find that he actually wrote things you think are false, wrong-headed, racist or sexist? It’s not a case of inspiration or careful scholarship, I say: choose both.

Notice: I am implying that if you get inspired by misreading someone, or by swallowing their false claims, then you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing. Of course, you might get inspired to do great things by ideas that are wrong or questionable. (Nietzsche could have told you that.) Notice too: I work in an intellectual environment in which young people think that applying philosophy to their own lives is something unusual. It is an oft-repeated idea that philosophy in its modern, professional form has become detached from what was, in ancient times, a founding ideal: to teach people how to live well. In today’s university, the emphasis is on the search for the truth about whichever subject lies at hand, regardless of how, if at all, such truths change what you do when you leave the classroom. So while students often report finding philosophy “therapeutic,” they do so in passing, somewhat guiltily. Perhaps they worry that the moment I hear they’re an emotional Nietzsche-user rather than a cold Nietzsche-scrutinizer my opinion of them will fall. Perhaps, against my better judgment, and in spite of being a user myself, they are right.

Professional philosophers don’t present themselves as particularly wise or as people to turn to for advice about how to live.  And why should we? That’s not what we were trained for when we were students and it’s not what we promise in the prospectus. I remember, as a student, asking a philosophy professor something about what I should do the following year— whether I should continue with my studies or move on to something else. “That’s not a philosophy question,” she said. “That’s a life question! I can’t answer that.” I know what she meant, now more than ever, having faced such questions myself: you can’t expect a knowledge of philosophy to guide you through the big decisions about what to do with your life. But I can’t help wondering whether something has gone astray when “philosophy” questions and “life” questions are so easy to pull apart.

According to the information given in the passage, all of the following are correct except:

1. In the modern day world, in contrast to ancient times, it is unusual to cohabit the views of philosophy in our own lives.
2. Most students find philosophy therapeutic and report that it helps them understand things better.
3. Professional philosophers are not trained to help people with their life questions.
4. One needs to be careful of one’s inspiration and make sure that one is not getting inspired by the wrong ideas of the person one admires.

Identify the statements that are correct as per the information given in the passage:

1. While being inspired from the thoughts of a particular philosopher, it is important to maintain a balanced view and not to allow your inspiration take over the spirit of scholarship.
2. Nietzsche is the favorite philosopher of serial killers.
3. It is often that a student’s view of a philosopher is impacted by the view of the person who interpreted it for the student.

A) I & II         B) II & III         C) I & III         D) All of the above

The central idea of the passage is:

1. to the highlight the distinction between philosophy and the real world.
2. to showcase the inadequacy of modern philosophical discussions.
3. to highlight how modern philosophy delineates itself from the real life questions.
4. to showcase the need for a better analytical framework to describe philosophical questions

The author of the passage ends the passage on a note of:

A) Self-recrimination      B) Self-critique  C) Self-insecurity              D) Self-immiseration