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CDS (II) 2020, English question paper

120 questions · 100 marks · 120 minutes · +0.83 per correct answer, -0.28 per wrong one

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  1. Directions: answer the items based on the two passages Passage – I Post colonial cultural analysis has been concerned with the elaboration of theoretical structures that contest the previous dominant western ways of seeing things. A simple analogy would be with feminism, which has involved a comparable kind of project : there was a time when any book you might read, any speech you might hear, any film that you saw, was always told from the point of view of male. The woman was there, but she was always an object, never a subject. From what you would read, or the films you would see, the woman was always the one who was looked at. She was never the observing eye. For centuries it was assumed that women were less intelligent than men and that they did not merit the same degree of education. They were not allowed a vote in the political system. By the same token, any kind of knowledge developed by women was regarded as non-serious, trivial, gossip or alternatively as knowledge that had been discredited by science, such as superstition or traditional practices of childbirth or healing. All these attitudes were part of a larger system in which women were dominated, exploited, and physically abused by men. Slowly, but increasingly, from the end of 18th century, feminists began to contest this situation. The more they contested it, the more it became increasingly obvious that these attitudes extended into the whole of the culture; social relations, politics, law, medicine, the arts, popular and academic knowledge. Passage – II How wonderful is the living world ! The wide range of the living types is amazing. The extraordinary habitats in which we find living organisms, be it cold mountains, deciduous forests, oceans, fresh water lakes, deserts or hot springs, leave us speechless. The beauty of a galloping horse, or a migrating bird, the valley of flowers or the attacking shark evokes awe and a deep sense of wonder. The ecological conflict and cooperation among members of a population and among populations of a community or even a molecular traffic inside a cell make us deeply reflect on – what indeed is life ? This question has two implicit questions within it. The first is a technical one and seeks answer to what living is as opposed to the non-living, and the second is the philosophical one, and seeks answer to what the purpose of life is. What is living ? When we try to define ‘living’, we conventionally look for distinctive characteristics exhibited by living organisms. Growth, reproduction, ability to sense environment and mount a suitable response come to our mind immediately as unique features of living organisms. One can add a few more features like metabolism, ability to self-replicate, self-organize, interact and emergence to this list.
    1
    Post colonialism is

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  2. 2
    What does '...she was always an object, never a subject' mean?

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  3. 3
    Why was 'she never the observing eye'?

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  4. 4
    The contestation to dominance of the male resulted in

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  5. 5
    Which word in the passage is opposite of 'contrast'?

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  6. 6
    Why are the living types amazing?

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  7. 7
    Why does the author say, 'ecological conflict and cooperation'?

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  8. 8
    Which of the following statements is true of the passage?

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  9. 9
    Distinctive characteristics exhibited by organisms indicate that

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  10. 10
    Which word in the passage means 'unique'?

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  11. Directions: find the part with an error, or no error
    11
    He has been one the most revered member of the committee of enquiry.

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  12. 12
    Rahul asked me whether I was interested to joining the group for the trip.

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  13. 13
    'Where there is a will then there is a way' is an old epithet.

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  14. 14
    Indian feminism grew out of the women's movements of the late nineteenth century, reached full maturity in the early twentieth century.

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  15. 15
    The greatest merit of democracy is that everyone feels free and can pursues his/her interest.

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  16. 16
    All stake holders of education have the right to ask for accountability in every aspects of its implementation.

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  17. 17
    Learning many languages promotes linguistic, cultural and social harmonies among people speaking different languages.

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  18. 18
    One should not act according to one's whims and fancies on public places.

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  19. 19
    Economists believe that India had taken a new turn in 1990 with the liberalization to her economy.

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  20. 20
    Irrigation works have a special importance in an agricultural countries like India, where rainfall is unequally distributed throughout the seasons.

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  21. Directions: rearrange jumbled P/Q/R/S parts into correct order
    21
    P: history of life Q: evolutionary Biology is R: forms on earth S: the study of

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  22. 22
    P: life is considered Q: the origin of R: the history of universe S: a unique event in

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  23. 23
    P: productive resources is Q: how we manage R: and competitiveness S: critical to strategic growth

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  24. 24
    P: in service firms Q: operations strategy R: from the corporate strategy S: is generally inseparable

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  25. 25
    P: are travelling, Q: a recent survey has revealed R: that they are worried about their safety S: even as more and more Indians

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  26. 26
    P: the imagination of children Q: stories can exercise R: more than the stories S: because they tell

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  27. 27
    P: as a record of Q: and suffering of humans R: the achievements, experiments S: history is considered

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  28. 28
    P: can be invented Q: it appears R: has been invented S: that all that

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  29. 29
    P: during the last century Q: Indian social, political and cultural life R: as a testimony of S: Indian cinema stands

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  30. 30
    P: of all searches for knowledge Q: should be the beginning R: an exploration into truth S: and experiments of life

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  31. Directions: choose the correct meaning of the idiom/phrase
    31
    Get the jitters

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  32. 32
    French leave

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  33. 33
    Take a stand

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  34. 34
    Cut and run

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  35. 35
    Cut the cord

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  36. 36
    Cupboard love

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  37. 37
    Around the corner

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  38. 38
    With Heavy Heart

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  39. 39
    Cost a bomb

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  40. 40
    Roll your sleeves up

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  41. Directions: order jumbled P/Q/R/S sentences between S1 and S6
    41
    S1: The country's economy is growing and would continue to grow at a rapid pace in the coming years. S6: The market share of electrical vehicles increases with increasing availability of infrastructure. P: It also provides us an opportunity to grow as manufacturer of electric vehicles. Q: According to NITI Aayog (2019), if India reaches an electric vehicles sales penetration, emission and oil savings can be achieved. R: Given the commitments that India has made on the climate front as a nation and on environmental aspects, it is likely that larger and larger share of automobile sector would be in the form of electric vehicles. S: This presents a great opportunity for the automobile industry as the demand for automobiles would only increase.

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  42. 42
    S1: Central government receipts can broadly be divided into non-debt and debt receipts. S6: This is also evident from the composition of non-debt receipts. P: Debt receipts mostly consist of market borrowing and other liabilities which the government is obliged to repay in the future. Q: The non-debt receipts comprise of tax revenue, non-tax revenue, recovery of loans and disinvestment receipts. R: The outcomes as reflected in the Provisional Actual figures is lower than the budget estimate owing to reduction in the net tax revenue. S: The Budget 2018-19 targeted significantly high growth in non-debt receipts of the Central Government, which was driven by robust growth.

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  43. 43
    S1: Palaeontology is the study of the remains of dead organisms over enormous spans of time. S6: Faunal analysis gives information about the animal people hunted and domesticated, the age of animal at death, and the diseases that afflicted them. P: Bones provide a great information. Q: The distribution of faunal remains (animal bones) at a site can indicate which areas were used for butchering, cooking, eating, bone tool making and refuse dumping. R: Within this discipline, molecular biology and DNA studies have been used to understand hominid evolution. S: Hominid evolution answers the questions about what ancient people looked like, and to plot patterns of migration.

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  44. 44
    S1: Hormones have several functions in the body. S6: The two hormones together regulate the glucose level in the blood. P: They help to maintain the balance of biological activities in the body. Q: Insulin is released in response to the rapid rise in blood glucose level. R: On the other hand hormone glucagon tends to increase the glucose level in the blood. S: The role of insulin in keeping the blood glucose level within the narrow limit is an example of this function.

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  45. 45
    S1: All living things affect the living and non-living things around them. S6: This interdependability needs to be understood when we, humans consume much more than required and abuse nature. P: This can also affect the population of fox, if foxes depend on rabbits for food. Q: For example, earthworms make burrows and worm casts. R: This act of earthworms affects the soil, and therefore the plants growing in it. S: Rabbit's fleas carry the virus which causes myxomatosis, so they can affect the size of the rabbit population.

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  46. 46
    S1: The ecosystem of water is complex and many environmental factors are intricately linked. S6: The trees slowly transfer rainwater into the sub-soil and this is critical for sustaining water for months after the rains. P: Thick forests make for excellent catchments. Q: The problems we see are because we have undermined these links over decades. R: First, rain and snowfall are the only sources of water - about 99%. S: In the four months of monsoon, there are about 30-35 downpours and the challenge is to hold this water in systems that can last us over 365 days.

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  47. 47
    S1: Politics is exciting because people disagree. S6: It is not solitary people who make politics and a good society; it is the people together which make good politics and society. P: For Aristotle politics is an attempt to create a good society because politics is, above all, a social activity. Q: They also disagree about how such matters should be resolved, how collective decision should be made and who should have a say. R: They disagree about how they should live. S: Who should get what? How should power and other resources be distributed? Should society be based on cooperation or conflict? And so on.

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  48. 48
    S1: Regular exercise makes many of the organ systems become more efficient. S6: Different activities require different levels of fitness. P: It can improve your strength; make your body more flexible and less likely to suffer from sprain. Q: It can also improve your endurance. R: It also uses up energy and helps to prevent large amounts of fat building up in the body. S: Exercise can increase your fitness in three ways.

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  49. 49
    S1: On increasing the temperature of solids, the kinetic energy of the particles increases. S6: The temperature at which a solid melts to become a liquid at the atmospheric pressure is called its melting point. P: A stage is reached when the solid melts and is converted to a liquid. Q: Due to the increase in kinetic energy, the particles start vibrating with greater speed. R: The particles leave their fixed positions and start moving more freely. S: The energy supplied by heat overcomes the forces of attraction between the particles.

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  50. 50
    S1: Things are often not what they seem. S6: This happened without you even knowing it. So imagine the changes that occur to this earth and humanity. P: But you are really not, because the Milky Way galaxy, of which you are a part, is moving through space at 2.1 million kilometre an hour. Q: So in roughly twenty second that it would have taken you to read this paragraph, you have already moved thousands of kilometre. R: And that is without taking into account the effects of earth's rotation on its own axis, its orbiting around the sun and sun's journey around the Milky Way. S: As you read this sentence, perhaps sitting in a comfortable chair in your study, you would probably consider yourself at rest.

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  51. Directions: select the word group that fits the blank
    51
    If I _______ a good match I would have got married.

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  52. 52
    The lady has been declared as one of the top ten _______ of the community.

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  53. 53
    When I visited the villages nearby the city I _______ many water bodies intact.

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  54. 54
    He has lost all his investments and he is _______.

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  55. 55
    He _______ whether he could get any certificate for the course.

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  56. 56
    I _______ farewell to all my course mates last year.

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  57. 57
    Very few of the texts from very early Vedic period are _______ now.

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  58. 58
    A speech is a _______ address, delivered to an audience that seeks to convince, persuade, inspire or inform.

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  59. 59
    All that _______ is not gold.

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  60. 60
    Having been in politics for about 40 years, the party now treats him like _______.

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  61. Directions: nearest in meaning to the underlined word
    61
    Emboldened by its success, the leader now plans to go ahead with the plan and implementation.

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  62. 62
    It is encouraging to see India's indigenous cinema is going places.

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  63. 63
    The ability to imagine and conceive a common good is inconsistent with what is known as 'pleonexia' is a major struggle for a good democracy to realize.

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  64. 64
    He tried to avoid saying something that would implicate him further.

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  65. 65
    The statutory corporate tax which forms the major income of the government has not changed this year.

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  66. 66
    He has been part of the all dissident activities.

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  67. 67
    Advocacy is one major component of any new programme.

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  68. 68
    People avoided him for his high mindedness.

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  69. 69
    There is a tendency to treat social changes as mere development in terms of accumulation of wealth.

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  70. 70
    During the ancient period poets were patronized through various institutions.

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  71. Directions: opposite in meaning to the underlined word
    71
    The archaic thinking leads to unfounded beliefs.

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  72. 72
    Police had to resort to tear gas to diffuse tension among the crowd.

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  73. 73
    Unrest in some pockets made the city dwellers confine themselves at home.

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  74. 74
    Peace and tranquility are instruments which would boost the development of society.

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  75. 75
    Barring a decision of such disputes, other matters relating to the election of President or Vice-President may be regulated by law made by Parliament.

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  76. 76
    His speech was full of emotions and it was an extempore.

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  77. 77
    The teacher asked her students to understand the ensuing problems and address them suitably.

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  78. 78
    All the allegations against the actor were expunged by the committee of inquiry.

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  79. 79
    His relatives dissuaded him from giving up the job.

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  80. 80
    He is one of the confidants of the leader and can influence the decision of the government.

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  81. Directions: part of speech of the underlined word
    81
    All the pilgrims rested for a while under the banyan tree.

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  82. 82
    The wonderful statue of the leader welcomes all people to city.

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  83. 83
    This is his pen.

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  84. 84
    When people found that the jewel was in records of Rahim, they gave it to him.

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  85. 85
    It is eleven O'clock now and all of us should retire to bed.

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  86. 86
    The flower is very beautiful.

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  87. 87
    This boy is stronger than Ramesh.

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  88. 88
    I hurt myself.

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  89. 89
    The ants fought the wasps.

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  90. 90
    I can hardly believe it.

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  91. Directions: select the word group that fits each blank Passage The difficult thing about ___(91)___ the science of habits is that most people, when they hear about this field of research, ___(92)___ to know the secret formula for quickly changing any habit. If scientists have discovered how ___(93)___ patterns work, then it stands to reason that they ___(94)___ have also found a recipe for rapid change, right ? If only it ___(95)___ that easy. It’s not ___(96)___ formulas don’t exist. The problem is that there isn’t one formula for ___(97)___ habits. There are thousands. Individuals and habits are ___(98)___ different, and so the specifics of diagnosing and changing the patterns in our lives differ from person to ___(99)___ and behaviour to behaviour. Giving up cigarettes is different ___(100)___ curbing overeating, which is different from changing how you communicate with your spouse, ___(101)___ is different from how you prioritize tasks at work. What’s more, each person’s habits are ___(102)___ by different cravings. As a result, this book does not ___(103)___ one prescription. Rather, I hoped to deliver something else : a framework for understanding ___(104)___ habits work and a guide to experimenting with how they ___(105)___ change. Some habits yield easily to analysis and influence. Others are ___(106)___ complex and obstinate, and require prolonged study. And for others, change is a ___(107)___ that never fully concludes. But that does not ___(108)___ it can’t occur. Each chapter in this book explains a different aspect of why habits exist and how they function. The framework ___(109)___ in this section is an attempt to distil, in a ___(110)___ very basic way, the tactics that researchers have found for diagnosing and shaping habits within our own lives.
    91
    Blank (91): "The difficult thing about ______ the science of habits is that ..."

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  92. 92
    Blank (92): "most people, when they hear about this field of research, ______ to know the secret formula ..."

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  93. 93
    Blank (93): "If scientists have discovered how ______ patterns work, then it stands to reason that they ..."

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  94. 94
    Blank (94): "... then it stands to reason that they ______ have also found a recipe for rapid change, right?"

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  95. 95
    Blank (95): "If only it ______ that easy. It's not ..."

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  96. 96
    Blank (96): "It's not ______ formulas don't exist."

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  97. 97
    Blank (97): "The problem is that there isn't one formula for ______ habits. There are thousands."

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  98. 98
    Blank (98): "There are thousands. Individuals and habits are ______ different ..."

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  99. 99
    Blank (99): "... and so the specifics of diagnosing and changing the patterns in our lives differ from person to ______ and behaviour to behaviour."

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  100. 100
    Blank (100): "Giving up cigarettes is different ______ curbing overeating, which is different ..."

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  101. 101
    Blank (101): "... which is different from changing how you communicate with your spouse, ______ is different from how you prioritize tasks at work."

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  102. 102
    Blank (102): "What's more, each person's habits are ______ by different cravings."

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  103. 103
    Blank (103): "As a result, this book does not ______ one prescription. Rather, I hoped to deliver something ..."

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  104. 104
    Blank (104): "... something else: a framework for understanding ______ habits work and a guide to experimenting with how they ..."

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  105. 105
    Blank (105): "... a guide to experimenting with how they ______ change."

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  106. 106
    Blank (106): "Some habits yield easily to analysis and influence. Others are ______ complex and obstinate, and require prolonged study."

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  107. 107
    Blank (107): "And for others, change is a ______ that never fully concludes. But that does not ..."

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  108. 108
    Blank (108): "But that does not ______ it can't occur. Each chapter in this book explains ..."

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  109. 109
    Blank (109): "Each chapter in this book explains a different aspect of why habits exist and how they function. The framework ______ in this section is an attempt to distil ..."

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  110. 110
    Blank (110): "... an attempt to distil, in ______ very basic way, the tactics that researchers have found for diagnosing and shaping habits within our own lives."

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  111. Directions: pick the correctly spelt alternative
    111
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  112. 112
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  113. 113
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  114. 114
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  115. 115
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  116. 116
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  117. 117
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  118. 118
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  119. 119
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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  120. 120
    Choose the correctly spelt word.

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