Practice Questions
1. (A) It is time for Indians to understand the costs of capital punishment, and its utter uselessness as a means of deterring crime.
(B) The court also mandated humane treatment – if that phrase has any meaning in this context – of prisoners of death row.
(C) Last week, the Supreme Court commuted the sentences of a woman and 14 men on death row, saying that long delays in ruling on their mercy petitions justified clemency.
(D) It laid down new procedures for handling the process of capital punishment.
2. (A) Many in local authority think apostrophes are superfluous.
(B) About a week ago, Cambridge City Council announced its decision to ban the use of apostrophes in all new street names.
(C) The decision is said to bring the council into line with the National Land and Property Gazetteer, where new street names are registered
(D) The argument put forward for this by council officers was that they were following national guidance which warned that apostrophes could lead to mistakes, especially for emergency services.
3. (A) The state newswire Xinhua, citing an official organization, urged families to use “flowers and electronic substitutes” instead.
(B) Beijing recently introduced a regulation requiring people who buy five or more boxes of fireworks to register with an official ID.
(C) But this year, China’s state media have cast the practice as an environmental faux pas, a sky-blackening indulgence.
(D) Lighting fireworks to bring in the lunar New Year holiday, which begins this year on 31 January, is an old Chinese tradition, long thought to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck.
4. (A) The development of new, more accurate and compact ultrasound devices could soon consign the Victorian stethoscope to medical history, two US heart experts
predicted.
(B) A doctor’s most important accessory, the stethoscope, may be heading for the scrap heap after 200 years, it has been claimed.
(C) Several manufacturers have already made hand-held ultrasound machines that are slightly larger than a deck of cards.
(D)Currently even a top-of-the-range stethoscope costs only a fraction of the several thousand dollars needed to buy the cheapest ultrasound device.
5. (A) Communicating the nominal anchor without any ambiguity will be a key task.
(B) A Reserve Bank-appointed committee, in its core recommendations, wants monetary policy to formally move towards using headline CPI (Consumer Price Index) as its nominal anchor.
(C) The committee has suggested crucial changes in the operating framework and instruments in the conduct of monetary policy.
(D) The objective is to ensure a monetary policy regime shift away from the current approach, which has multiple objectives, to one that is centered on the target CPI.
6. (A) Fish oils—specifically omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids — have been shown to cut the risk of cardiovascular disease and are a popular food supplement.
(B) A genetically modified plant that produces seeds packed with fish oils is set to be grown in open fields in the U.K. within months.
(C) It is possible that the plant-produced oil might overcome one of the major downsides of edible fish oil: the strong taste.
(D) The oils could provide feed for farmed fish, but they could ultimately be used as a health supplement in human foods such as margarine.
7. (A) The world needs to abandon the idea of uninterrupted electricity supply.
(B) Food safety, crime rates, transport problems and the environmental cost of diesel generators all come to the fore during a blackout.
(C) Soaring electricity demand for air-conditioning, iPads and increasingly cars, combined with a growing population and inadequate investment in creaking power networks, is pushing the world towards frequent blackouts.
(D) China, Brazil and Italy have all had significant power failures in the past decade but these are just “dress rehearsals for the future” in which the lights will go out with increasing frequency and severity.
8. (A) Modern social life is impossible to imagine without it, and whereas cities of the past relied on manpower, today we are almost complete’ reliant on a series of interlocking technic systems.
(B) It powers water purification, waste, foe transportation and communication systems.
(C) Our power generation systems are more frag, than most people think.
(D) Electricity fuels our existence.
9. (A) “Nirbheek” is small, light and can just about ‘ into a lady’s purse”; it’s also India’s first gun women.
(B) It looks relatively understated, but concession to women besides its size a. weight is that it’s presented in a maro jewellery case.
(C) Named after the 23-year-old victim of the highly publicized Delhi gang-rape case in December 2012, the 500 gram light-weight .32 caliber revolver produced by the state-owned India Ordinance Factory is being marketed as the latest solution to the wide-spread problem of sexual violence and rape in the subcontinent.
(D) “Nirbheek” is selling women an argument about self-defence: that guns are empowering and perhaps more damagingly, that women alone are responsible for keeping their aggressors away.
10. (A) In a country where a rape happens every 22 minutes, do we really need yet another weapon that can be turned against women?
(B) There is enough evidence to suggest that the argument for guns as self-defence, and particularly the defence of women, is not only an invalid but also a dangerous one.
(C) Arming women cynically conflates the myth of guns as the great equalizer with female self-defense, and tries to capitalize on the frustration, fear and anger that the issue of rape inspires in women across India.
(D) The Indian subcontinent has the second highest number of privately-owned guns, which means that the arguments for gun-control in the US are ones India should pay attention to.
11. (A) Although Baryonyx is as from a well-preserved skeleton, most of the animals discovered are represented by far from complete remains.
(B) In 1848, Gideon Mantell described a jaw of a dinosaur that he assigned to the genus Iguanodon, but in 2010 the dinosaur was identified as a new, though related, animal, Kukufeldia, showing that there was more to this specimen than originally suspected.
(C) Similarly, the crested carnivore Proceratosaurus was something of an enigma when found in Gloucestershire early in the 20th century, but in recent years it has been recognised as an early branch of the tyrannosaurs.
(D) Indeed, relatives of the genus Iguanodon are rather plentiful in English rocks and a number of new animals have been named in recent years, including Mantellisaurus and Barilium.
12. (A) However, a detailed comparison of the bacteria’s DNA sequences has revealed that the two outbreaks were quite independent of one another.
(B) It killed at least 50 million people, almost half the global population at the time, and is generally regarded as the first documented outbreak of bubonic plague.
(C) An analysis of bacterial DNA extracted from the teeth of plague victims who died in 612 AD in present-day Germany has shown that they had been infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the same plague agent that caused the Black Death 800 years later.
(D) Each pandemic was the result of different Yersinia strains, indicating their independent emergence from the black rat on two separate occasions, the researchers said.
13. (A) IT systems at high street banks have come under the spotlight again, as another week has seen another set of customers cut off from their cash.
(B) Experts say things are set to get worse as new technologies and regulation put more strain on the banks’ creaking systems.
(C) To make things more complicated, new functions are usually written in different programming languages, on different machines, by different teams, and this prevents a single person or team from fully understanding the entire structure of a bank’s IT system.
(D) Customers of the Lloyds Banking Group were the latest to be hit by payment problems, after a server failure meant that for around 3 hours, debit card transactions were declined and ATMs up and down the country did not dispense cash.
14. (A) There were practical benefits to these as well researchers at Xerox PARC learned about virtual environments and information spaces by observing MUD players and the PARC’s Jupiter project led to new ways of thinking about online collaboration for global businesses.
(B) Arguably there would be no gaming industry without these early adopters.
(C) The early era of mainframe computers also brought us the multi-user dungeon (MUD), text- only multiplayer adventure games that spread across university and research centre networks in the eighties.
(D) Pioneers like Richard Bartle and Will Crowther created online fantasy realms, which could be explored by groups of people who had never met in real-life, who may have been thousands of miles apart, but yet were able to help each other on imagined escapades.
15. (A) Under the current RSPO structure, buyers can purchase certificates from sustainable producers under what’s known as the Green Palm scheme or Book and Claim.
(B) This raises questions in consumers’ minds about the true sustainability of the product in their hand with a RSPO label.
(C) This avoids the more costly option of segregating certified palm oil in the distribution chain, but it means that the palm oil that certificate buyers receive is very possibly unsustainable.
(D) Almost one third (31%) of the companies surveyed have made only vague commitments to buy sustainable palm oil or none whatsoever.
16. (A) Despite bold statements about working with government, as of this month very few of the leading insurers have any plans to launch the new products upon which this system so heavily depends.
(B) The statements they have issued are vague and nebulous, heavy on reassuring guff about encouraging market conditions, rather than information about new insurance products we can actually buy.
(C) They are, after all, commercial companies; if there had been profits to be made, they would have dived in without government encouragement.
(D) What went wrong is that the insurers, taking a long hard look at what their putative clients will actually be having to shell out, have taken fright.
17. (A) Separation and exclusion cause pain, and the company of loved ones causes pleasure; responding to feelings of social pain and pleasure, brains adjust their circuitry to local customs.
(B) Moral values, Prof. Churchland argues, are rooted in a behavior common to all mammals – the caring for offspring.
(C) The treatment of these subjects is generally informative and often quite illuminating, albeit occasionally superficial.
(D) The evolved structure, processes, and chemistry of the human brain incline humans to strive not only for self-preservation but for the well-being of allied selves – first offspring, then mates, kin, and so on, in wider and wider “caring” circles.
18. (A) The remarkable finding highlights how much scientists have to learn about the human brain and how cutting-edge lab techniques are redrawing the map of the most complex organ in the known universe.
(B) One expert who spoke to the Guardian said the work was “stunning” and could pave the way for fresh advances in understanding psychiatric diseases.
(C) A new brain region that appears to help humans identify whether they have made bad decisions has been discovered by researchers.
(D) A combination of scans allowed the scientists to work out in great detail how each part of the ventrolateral frontal cortex, a region crucial for language and cognitive flexibility, was connected with the other parts of the brain.
19. (A) These cells hold great potential for treating diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease and diabetes.
(B) Although the research was carried out on laboratory mice, the scientists believe that the same approach should also work on human cells.
(C) From this pluripotent state, the newly created stem cells were cultured in specially prepared solutions of growth factors to develop into fully mature cells, including an entire foetus.
(D) The scientists believe that the acidity of the solution created a “shock” that caused the blood cells of adult mice to revert to their original, pluripotent state and become stem cells.
20. (A) Scattered across the world, campaigning online as well as marching in the streets, women are making themselves heard in irresistible fashion.
(B) Now, a hundred years on from the campaign for the vote, fifty years since the very first murmurs of the second wave movement, a new tide of feminist voices is rising.
(C) Whether engaging with leading feminists, describing the fight against entrenched stereotypes or bringing immediate, powerful life to vital theories such as intersectionality, All The Rebel Women binds everything together into one unstoppable idea.
(D) The second wave arose in the late-1960s, activists campaigning tirelessly for. women’s liberation, organized around a wildly ambitious slate of issues – a struggle their daughters continued in the third wave that blossomed in the early-1990s.
21. (A) A study released by the WWF blames the displacement of the milkweed plant that the species feeds on by crops in the United States, as well as the dramatic reduction of its habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging.
(B) The migration instinct is an inherited trait; no butterfly lives to make the full round-trip, and it is unclear how the insects make their way back to the same patch of forest each year after a journey of thousands of miles.
(C) The number of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico plunged this year to its lowest level since studies began in 1993, leading experts to announce that the annual migration of the insects from the United States and Canada to Mexico is in danger of disappearing.
(D) After steep declines in the previous three years, the butterflies now occupy only 1.65 acres in the pine and fir forests west of Mexico City, compared to 2.93 acres last year.
22. (A) That would happen if males with Neanderthal and modern human parents were infertile, because the males would never get to pass on their single Neanderthal X chromosome.
(B) Benjamin Vernot and Joshua Akey at the University of Washington in Seattle sequenced the genomes of more than 600 people from Europe and eastern Asia. ’
(C) The researchers found that while many non-Africans carried 1 to 3% Neanderthal DNA, the total percentage of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans was about 20%.
(D) They then used a computer analysis to find gene variants that bore all the hallmarks of having come from Neanderthals.
23. (A) Officially known as the “Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model”, this four-seater was built by hand by Ferdinand Porsche himself in 1898, and according to Porsche officials, it’s been untouched since it was parked in a warehouse in 1902.
(B) Despite their slow return to the mainstream, electric vehicles were popular during the advent of the motor car, with Porsche racing the P1 at the 1899 international motor vehicle exhibition in Berlin alongside 18 other electric vehicles.
(C) At first glance it looks more like a horse-drawn carriage than a car, but the 19th-century styling of the first Porsche ever built hides a vehicle that was technologically ahead of its time.
(D) Also known as the P1, the 1350 kg vehicle was actually battery powered with a range of up to 80 kilometres or 3 to 6 operating hours.
24. (A) Nevertheless, it’s clear that physical inactivity -a key cause of obesity and the catalogue of associated health risks – is a national problem.
(B) They have also pinpointed the cities with the worst and best records on these key public health measures.
(C) Comparing rates of physical activity, childhood obesity and diabetes in England’s nine most populous cities, the RIBA has found a clear correlation between the amount of green space and density of housing in urban areas and the overall health of the local population.
(D) Birmingham has the fewest physically active adults, while Liverpool has both the largest number of obese children and the highest rates of diabetes.
25. (A) The vast majority of cancers arise from one mutated cell and, if they spread throughout the body, die when the host itself is killed.
(B) By sequencing the genome of the cancer, Dr Elizabeth Murchison and her colleagues were able to build up a remarkable picture of the ancient dog – what it would have looked like and how it would have behaved.
(C) Its genetic sequence could not determine if it was male or female, but did indicate that it was a relatively inbred individual, the researchers said.
(D) Resembling an Alaskan Malamute or Husky, the dog probably had a short, straight coat that was coloured either grey/brown or black.
2. A
3. B
4. D
5. C
6. C
7. B
8. C
9. D
10. C
11. A
12. B
13. B
14. B
15. D
16. C
17. C
18. D
19. A
20. C
21. B
22. A
23. B
24. A
25. A
2. Sentences B, D and C make a contextually complete paragraph. B introduces a recent decision; D mentions the reason for that; and C further explains the reason mentioned in D. Sentence A has no relevance to the paragraph as it talks about what many in local authority think on the punctuation mark under reference.
3. Sentence D introduces a tradition; C states a development contrary to the normal practice with the use of the conjunction ‘but’ at the beginning of the sentence; and A states an alternative measure to the existing one. So sentences DCA make a coherent paragraph. Sentence B mentions a new idea, which is related to the topic, but contextually irrelevant.
4. Sentences A, B and C, in the order BAC, make a contextually complete paragraph. B introduces the topic; A states the reason .for the possible exit of the stethoscope; and C illustrates the point by providing an example. Sentence D mentions the price factor, which is not relevant to the context.
5. Sentences A, B and D, in the order BAD, make a contextually complete and. coherent paragraph. B introduces a change in monetary policy being recommended by a Reserve Bank-appointed committee. A adds to the nominal anchor mentioned in B. Sentence D explains the objective behind this move. Sentence C, which talks about the changes in the operating framework and instruments, is the odd man out.
6. Sentence B is the opening sentence as it introduces the topic – a genetically modified plant that produces seeds packed with fish oils. D states the uses of this oil. A tells the advantages of ‘food supplement’ mentioned in D. So sentences BDA make a contextually complete paragraph. Sentence C, which mentions an expectation about the plant-produced oil is irrelevant to the context.
7. Sentences A, C and D, in the order CDA, make a contextually complete and coherent paragraph. C introduces the topic – soaring electricity demand is pushing the world towards frequent blackouts. D explains the idea by citing examples. A concludes the paragraph. Sentence B states the problems associated with blackouts – a point not directly related to the main idea of the paragraph.
8. Sentences D, B and A make a contextually complete paragraph. Sentence D introduces the topic – electricity in our life. B explains the idea mentioned in D, and A concludes, summing up the importance of electricity today. Sentence C is the odd man out as it talks about a different point – the drawback of our power generation system.
9. Statement A is the opening sentence as it introduces “Nirbheek,” India’s first gun for women. Sentence C explains the significance of the name and mentions its features. B further adds to what is said in C. So sentences A, C and B make a contextually complete paragraph. Sentence D mentions a different point – the argument the guns sells women.
10. Sentence D is a general statement that introduces the topic of the necessity of gun-control in India. B carries forward the idea, and follows D. A concludes the paragraph by asking a rhetorical question. So DBA is a coherent paragraph. Sentence C states a different point – arming women is an attempt to capitalize on the frustration, fear and anger that the issue of rape inspires in women across India.
11. Sentences B, D and C, taken in that order, form a paragraph. Sentence B describes an early instance of incorrect identification in the mid-nineteenth century of a dinosaur and its subsequent re-identification. Sentence D says that a number of new animals related to the genus have been named in recent years. Sentence C gives yet another example of a recent identification of a dinosaur discovered many years ago.
Sentence A, however, goes off on a tangent and speaks about the completeness of dinosaur remains. Since it does not link back to any of the other sentences, we can identify it as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (A).
12. Sentences C, A and D, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence C, which tells us how scientific analysis has determined that the same bacterium was responsible for plague-related deaths in two different periods of time, is followed by sentence A, the 2nd sentence in the sequence, which tells us that the two outbreaks were independent. Sentence D, the 3rd sentence, tells us how this conclusion was arrived at. It tells us that each outbreak was because of a different strain of the bacterium and that this indicated their independent emergence. Sentence B, however, talks about something unrelated, the number of people killed during the first outbreak of bubonic plague and also refers to something, presumably, one of the strains the bacterium, using the word, ’it’. Since this sentence does not link back to any of the other sentences, we can identify it as the odd sentence. The answer option is (B).
13. Sentences A, D and C, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence A, which tells us that bank customers have been inconvenienced again by IT issues, is followed by sentence D, which provides the details. The 3rd sentence, sentence C, tells us that things are set to get worse as the banks systems are under a lot of strain.
Sentence C, even though it is related to the topic at hand, does not tie link back to any of the other sentences in the Set. The sentence is about a bank’s IT system is programmed and has to follow a sentence that talks a little about the IT systems in banks and that fact that they are complicated. Since none of the other sentences do this, we can identify sentence B as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (B).
14. Sentences C, D and A, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence C, which tells us that multi-user dungeon, -text-only multiplayer adventure games spread across university and research centre networks in the 80’s, is followed by sentence D, which names a couple of game creators and tell3 us how their creations brought together geographically separated people. Sentence A, the 3rt sentence ’in the sequence, tells us how the games also spurred learning in fields like virtual environments and information spaces.
Sentence B, however, refers to something quite unrelated It says that there would be no gaming industry without ‘these early adopters’, but it is not clear who is being referred to, as the other sentences make no allusion to any, early adopters. This allows us to identify sentence B as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (B).
15. Sentences A, C and B, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence A, which tells us what a provision in the current RSPO structure allows buyers to do, is followed by sentence C, which tells us what the benefit and drawback of this are. Sentence B, the 3rd sentence in the sequence, tells us more about the doubts the aforementioned drawback will raise in the minds of consumers.
Sentence D, on the other hand, talks about the percentage of companies that have made no commitments or only vague commitments to buy’ sustainable palm oil. This is not related to what the other sentences say. So we can identify sentence d as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (D).
16. Sentences D, A and B, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence D, which speaks about insurers having taken a fright, is followed by sentence A, which tells us that very few of them intend to launch much needed new insurance products. Sentence B corroborates this, saying that the statements they have issued are vague and contain no information about the new insurance products.
Sentence C, though, is unrelated to A, B and D, saying that if there had been profits to be made, the insurance companies would have gone ahead without government encouragement. Since it does not link back to any of the given sentences, we identify it as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (C).
17. B, D and A, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. The paragraph is about how the human brain, on account of its evolution, processes and chemistry, directs behaviour that is at the root of moral values. Sentence B, which quotes Prof. Churchland as saying that moral values are rooted in care for offspring, which is behaviour common to all animals, is followed by sentence D, the 2nd sentence in the sequence, which says that since the human brain is highly evolved, humans are inclined not just toward self- preservation, but also toward the well-being of kith and kin. The 3rd sentence in the sequence is sentence A, which tells us what causes feelings of pain and pleasure, and how the human brain responds to these feelings.
Sentence C, on the other hand, talks about the treatment of particular subjects. It does not relate to or link back to any of the other sentences. Hence, we can identify C as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (C).
18. Sentences C, A and B, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence C, which tells us that the brain region that appears to help people identify bad decisions has been discovered, is followed by A. which tells us that the discovery highlights both the cutting-edge techniques that have been developed and the fact that scientists have much more to learn about the brain. The last sentence in the sequence is B, which quotes an expert speaking about the discovery to a newspaper.
Sentence D, which tells us that a combination of scans allowed scientists to figure out how a particular part of the brain was connected to the other parts of the brain, is not related in any way to the other sentences. Therefore, we identify D as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (D).
19. Sentences D, C and B, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence D, which tells us what caused the blood cells of adult mice to revert to their original, pluripotent state and become stem cells, is followed by sentence C, which tells us that the newly-created stem cells, when cultured, developed into fully mature cells. Sentence B, the 3rd sentence in the sequence, says that although the research was carried out on laboratory mice, scientists believe that the same approach should also work on human cells. Sentence A, which says that these cells hold great potential for treating various diseases, is related to the topic but does not link back to any of the given sentences, as it is not clear as to which cells the word, ‘these’, refers to. We, therefore, identify sentence a as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (A).
20. Sentences D, B and A, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph. Sentence D, which describes the 2nd wave of the feminist movement, and mentions its 3rd wave, is followed by sentence B, which speaks of a new feminist tide that is on the rise. Sentence A, the 3rd sentence in the sequence, gives a short description of the 3rd wave. Sentence C, though, is about an organization called All The Rebel Women. Since the other three sentences do not allude to this and since this sentence does not link back to any of the other sentences, we can identify it as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (C).
21. Sentences C, A and D, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph, which is about the sharp fall in the population of a particular species of butterfly. Sentence C, which says that the Monarch butterfly population wintering in Mexico is at its lowest level since studies began in 1993 and that it is in danger of extinction, is followed by A, which tells us what has caused the population crash. Sentence D, the last sentence in the sequence, tells us about the decreased area the butterflies now occupy in forests near Mexico City. Sentence B talks about the migration instinct of the butterflies and thus, goes off on a tangent. Since its focus is not the same as the focus of the other sentences, we can identify this as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (B).
22. Sentences B, D and C, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph, which is about researchers identifying Neanderthal DNA in modern human beings. Sentence B and D, the 1st and 2nd sentences in that order, name the researchers involved and tell us how they went about their task. Sentence-C, the 3rd sentence in the sequence, gives us their findings.
Sentence A appears to talk about some particular situation. Since we don’t know what the situation is and since sentence A does not link back to any of the other sentences, we can identify sentence a as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (A).
23. Sentences C, A and D, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph, which is about the first Porsche vehicle ever built. Sentence C, which says that though the 1st Porsche looks like a horse-drawn carriage, it was technologically ahead of its time, is followed by sentence A, which gives us the vehicle’s official name and tells us that Ferdinand Porsche himself built it. The last sentence in the sequence, sentence D, gives us some specifications of the vehicle.
Sentence B, even though it mentions the P1, is about the popularity of electric vehicles. Since its focus is different, we identify it as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (B).
24. Sentences C, B and D, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph, which is about how an organization named RIBA has found a clear correlation between the quality of living areas and the overall health of the residents. Sentence C, which says that the RIBA has found a clear correlation between the quality of living areas and the overall health of the residents, is followed by sentence B, which says that they have identified the cities with the worst and best records. Sentence D, the final sentence in the sequence, names the cities which report the worst indices.
Sentence A, which says that it is clear that physical inactivity is a national problem, makes a general statement and does not link back to any of the other sentences. So we identify it as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (A).
25. Sentences B, D and C, taken in that order, form a coherent paragraph, which is about how scientists, by sequencing the genome of a particular cancer, were able to learn more about the animal that had the disease. Sentence B, the 1st sentence, which says that scientists built up a detailed picture of the ancient dog that had the cancer by sequencing the cancer genome, is followed by sentence D, the 2nd sentence, which gives us the details of the physical appearance of the dog. The 3rd sentence of the sequence, C, says that while the scientists were not able to determine the dog’s gender, they were able to conclude that it was an inbred individual.
Sentence A, which talks about the origin of cancers in general, does not fit in with the other sentences. We can, thus, identify sentence A as the odd sentence.
The answer option is (A).