English Language For IBPS Clerk | 02 - 12 - 17

Q.1-10. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.

Peasants in Honduras have sued a branch of the World Bank over its financing of the corporation Dinant, which has vast palm oil plantations in Bajo Aguán valley in the country’s north. Lawyers for the farmers say they are seeking compensation for alleged attacks and killings, including actions by the company’s private security forces. Attorneys for the NGO Earth Rights International (ERI) filed the suit on the farmers’ behalf, at a US federal court in Washington DC, where the World Bank is headquartered. The suit’s plaintiffs include more than 15 individuals. There are two class action claims: one regarding roughly 200 members of the Panamá community, the second representing roughly 1,000 people and focused on allegedly “unjust” profit-making from contested land acquisitions in the past.

The 132-page legal complaint says the plaintiffs are seeking compensation for “murders, torture, assault, battery, trespass, unjust enrichment and other acts of aggression”. Ultimately, it says, the case is about World Bank entities “knowingly profiting from the financing of murder”.The document describes decades of violence but focuses on the period since 2010, seeking damages for several specific deaths and what ERI attorneys described as a “pattern of attacks that is ongoing”. “People have been attacked in their homes, in their gardens, while riding their bikes, driving their cars, farming their land, outside of churches,” said ERI’s lawyers. “People have lost loved ones, which can never be remedied.”

The lawsuit names as defendants both the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the latter’s wholly owned subsidiary IFC Asset Management Corporation (AMC). ERI’s legal team said precise amounts of compensation requested would be determined at trial. The NGO said the suit follows years of attempts by farmers to seek justice in Honduran courts and through political advocacy and protests. Complaints have also been lodged previously with the IFC’s internal watchdog.

The lawsuit – the second of its kind filed against the IFC in US courts – follows a case filed in 2015 regarding financing of a coal-fired power plant in India that local communities say destroyed their livelihoods. In that case, the IFC asserted “absolute immunity” under the 1945 International Organisations Immunities Act, a US federal statute. (It is currently before an appeals court after a first judgment accepted the IFC’s immunity claim). The World Bank has a development mandate and explicit goals to end global poverty and boost “shared prosperity”. The UK is one of its largest shareholders. The bank’s long history in the Bajo Aguán valley includes support for a controversial land modernisation programme in the 1990s (pdf) that has been criticised for paving the way for large-scale plantations at the expense of small-scale farmers.

Q.1. The bank’s long history in the Bajo Aguán valley includes support for a controversial land modernisation programme in the 1990s that has been criticised for what?

1. paving the way for small-scale plantations at the expense of small-scale farmers.

2. paving the way for large-scale plantations at the expense of large-scale farmers.

3. paving the way for large-scale plantations at the expense of small-scale farmers.

4. paving the way for large-scale production of wheat and other similar crops.

5. paving the way for minute-scale plantations at the verge of vanishing agricultural industries.

Q.2. Lawyers for the farmers say they are seeking compensation for what?

A. Alleged attacks and killings.

B. Actions taken by the company’s private security forces.

C. Alleged blame game.

1. Both B and C

2. Only C

3. Both A and B

4. All A, B and C

5. Only A

Q.3. Where do the attorneys for the NGO Earth Rights International (ERI) filed the suit on the farmers’ behalf?

1. At a US federal court in Paris, where the World Bank is headquartered.

2. At a US federal court in France, where the World Bank is headquartered.

3. At a US federal court in Russia, where the World Bank is headquartered.

4. At a US federal court in Washington DC, where the World Bank is headquartered.

5. None of the above.

Q.4. What are two class action claims as per the passage mentioned above?

1. One regarding roughly 700 members of the Panamá community,

2. The second representing roughly 10,000 people and focused on allegedly “unjust” profit-making from contested land acquisitions in the past.

3. One regarding roughly 200 members of the Panamá community,

4. The second representing roughly 1,000 people and focused on allegedly “unjust” profit-making from contested land acquisitions in the past.

5. Both 3 and 4

Q.5. What does the 132-page legal complaint say about the plaintiffs?

A. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for “murders, torture, assault.

B. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for battery, trespass, unjust enrichment and other acts of aggression”.

C. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for corruption and defamation.

1. Both B and C

2. Only C

3. Both A and B

4. All A, B and C

5. Only A

Q.6. What did ERI’s lawyers say about the condition of the people as per the passage given above?

A. People have been attacked in their homes, in their gardens, while riding their bikes.

B. People have been attacked driving their cars, farming their land, outside of churches. 

C. People have lost loved ones, which can never be remedied.

1. Both B and C

2. Only C

3. Both A and B

4. All A, B and C

5. Only A

Q.7. Why did the NGO said that the suit follows years of attempts by farmers?

A. To seek justice in Honduran courts.

B. To seek justice through political advocacy and protests. 

C. To seek justice in the UK courts against bribery.

1. Both B and C

2. Only C

3. All A, B and C

4. Only A

5. Both A and B

Q.8. Regarding what does the lawsuit follow a case filed in 2015?

1. Financing of a coal-fired power plant in India that local communities say destroyed their livelihoods.

2. Financing of a toys manufacturing power plant in India that local communities say destroyed their livelihoods.

3. Financing of a cloth industry in India that local communities say destroyed their livelihoods.

4. Financing of a fossil-fuel powered plant in India that local communities say destroyed their livelihoods.

5. Both 3 and 4

Q.9. Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in bold as used in the passage.

TRESPASS

1. misbehaviour

2. logic

3. fixation

4. opportunity

5. off

Q.10. Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in bold as used in the passage.

ONGOING

1. current

2. noticed

3. still

4. retreat

5. gradual

ANSWERS

Q.01. Option (3) Answer lies at last of the passage.

Q.02. Option (3) Answer lies in the mid of the first paragraph of the passage.

Q.03. Option (4) Answer lies in the mid of the first paragraph of the passage.

Q.04. Option (5) Answer lies at last of the first paragraph of the passage.

Q.05. Option (3) Answer lies in the beginning of the first paragraph of the passage.

Q.06. Option (3) Answer lies at last of the second paragraph of the passage.

Q.07. Option (5) Answer lies at last of the fifth paragraph of the passage.

Q.08. Option (1) Answer lies in the beginning of the first paragraph of the passage.

Q.09. Option (1)

Q.10. Option (1)