SSC CGL Tier-2 21-February-2018 English

Improve the bracketed part of the sentence.

A passage is given with five questions following it. Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.
Passage:

Vibrant salads, wholesome bites, vegan baking, all vegetarian!” Thus proclaimed a billboard on a stand placed just outside The Lighthouse Cafe. Well, well, well, I thought to myself, another one of those places designed to attract tourists; can’t be genuine, can it? I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’d embarked on a walking tour of Galway, a city facing the Atlantic, in the Republic of Ireland, and my guide was Billy Murray who told me at the outset that I would be the solitary walker - others had stayed away because of the dismal weather. The weather had indeed been unfriendly, with beating rain, thunder, poor visibility and of course, gray and cold, especially on the Wild Atlantic Way where I had braved the weather and carried on with a coach tour I’d booked earlier, after having spent the previous day driving down to Galway from Dublin. But today the rains had stopped and the sky was clear but still gray and yet, I found the ambience rather romantic and full of promise. “Of course, we’ll go on that walking tour,” I said to a surprised Billy who led me out of the Tourist Centre in downtown Galway and on to the rain-washed street. At the end of the rather comprehensive tour I asked Billy for advice - where should I eat my lunch? And he’d recommended the Lighthouse Cafe near Lynch’s Castle (now a bank) when I specified that I was vegetarian.
It seems there are quite a few local residents who are vegetarian and more are exploring this choice, mainly because of health and environmental reasons. But the decor inside the restaurant suggested that the owner turned to this choice due to compassion. I remembered then that Billy did mention that Kerry Legh and her spouse, who run the place, practise Sahaj Marga meditation. The lotus flower was a dominant feature of the restaurant’s interior. Be that as it may, my lunch turned out to be one of the best vegetarian ones I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. When I’d entered the restaurant, a large dog that answers to the name of ‘Chieftain’ was seated beside his owner, intently watching him eat, without begging even once. Maybe they too practise some kind of meditation, I figured.

Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.
Passage:

The Russian doping scandal continues to cast a long shadow over international sport as the 2018 Winter Olympics begin in Pyeong Chang, South Korea, on February 9. In December, the International Olympic Committee banned Russia from competing in the Games following investigation into an alleged state-sponsored doping programme at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The decision to ban Russia came after the IOC’s Disciplinary Commission, headed by former president of the Swiss Confederation Samuel Schmid, confirmed “systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia”. The IOC had stated, however, that clean Russian athletes would be allowed to compete as neutrals and last month invited 169 of them - each to be known as Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) - to participate in the Pyeong Chang Games. The announcement did not go down well outside Russia, even though the IOC declared that “more than 80%” of those athletes had not competed in Sochi and had been carefully vetted. That the OAR will form one of the largest contingents at the Games, although there will be no place for the Russian flag and anthem, makes the ‘ban’ seem a bit of a farce. Further, Russian athletes could be allowed to march under their own flag at the closing ceremony if they comply with the IOC’s conditions during the Games. There is a sense that the IOC is not able to punish a sporting superpower like Russia.