D.1-10): In the following passage there are words highlighted, each of which has been numbered. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, four words are suggested marked as (a), (b), (c) and (d) out of which only one word fits in. If the given word itself is appropriate mark your answer as (e).

B) “The default (1)intimation is that everything is vulnerable,” says Robert Watson, a computer scientist at the University of Cambridge. The reasons for this run deep. The vulnerabilities of computers stem from the basics of information technology, the culture of software development, the breakneck (2)stay of online business growth, the economic (3)constrains faced by computer firms and the divided interests of governments. The rising damage caused by computer (4)stability is, however, beginning to spur companies, academics and governments into action. Modern computer chips are typically designed by one company, manufactured by another and then (5)placed on circuit boards built by third parties next to other chips from yet more firms. A further firm writes the lowest-level software necessary for the computer to function at all. The operating system that lets the machine run particular programs comes from someone else. The programs themselves from someone else again. A mistake at any stage, or in the links between any two stages, can leave the entire system faulty—or vulnerable to attack. It is not always easy to tell the difference. Peter Singer, a fellow at New America, a think-tank, tells the story of a manufacturing defect discovered in 2011 in some of the transistors which made up a chip used on American naval helicopters. Had the bug gone (6)unspotted, it would have stopped those helicopters firing their missiles. The chips in question were, like most chips, made in China. The navy eventually concluded that the defect had been an accident, but not without giving serious thought to the idea it had been (7)indecorous. Most hackers lack the resources to mess around with chip design and manufacture. But they do not need them. Software offers opportunities for (8)subversion in (9)dearth. In 2015 Rachel Potvin, an engineer at Google, said that the company as a whole managed around 2bn lines of code across its various products. Those programs, in turn, must run on operating systems that are themselves ever more complicated. Linux, a widely used operating system, (10)checked in at 20.3m lines in 2015. The latest version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system is thought to be around 50m lines long. Android, the most popular smartphone operating system, is 12m.

1)

a) predilection

b) assumption

c) appropriate

d) requisition

e) No correction required.

2)

a) shuffle

b) hobble

c) pace

d) queue

e) No correction required.

3)

a) incentives

b) dampers

c) restrains

d) deterrents

e) No correction required.

4)

a) peril

b) insecurity

c) dysfunction

d) jeopardy

e) No correction required.

5)

a) moulded

b) configure

c) mounted

d) framed

e) No correction required.

6)

a) resistant

b) spouted

c) resilient

d) dogged

e) No correction required.

7)

a) chaste

b) deliberate

c) immodest

d) cluttered

e) No correction required.

8)

a) subsumed

b) subordinate

c) subtle

d) subterfuge

e) No correction required.

9)

a) destitution

b) paucity

c) crumb

d) profusion

e) No correction required.

10)

a) amplified

b) clocked

c) accelerated

d) oscillated

e) No correction required.

Answer Key:

1) b 2) c 3) a 4) b 5) c 6) e 7) b 8) e 9) d 10) b.