English Quiz Reading Comprehension for Competitive Exams : Part

English Quiz Reading Comprehension for Competitive Exams : Part – 6

Directions (1-6) Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

The fines paid to America’s financial regulators by errant bankers vary enormously these days: from sky-high to stratospheric. Deutsche Bank is fighting a demand for $14bn. BNP Paribas paid $9bn last year for facilitating the evasion of American sanctions. So eyebrows were raised at the final settlement disclosed this month between the state-controlled Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS). The fine imposed on the bank was a mere $215m.

The comparative leniency towards ABC is probably a consequence of a failure to prove that many illegal transactions took place. But that by itself produced unresolved suspicions; compliance systems made transfers untraceable. In 2014 a new compliance officer at the two-year-old New York branch reported finding an “alarming” pattern of transactions; 20-30% were “virtually impervious to screening” for sanction violations.

In the “alarming” category were large transfers between Chinese companies and companies in Russia and Yemen; dollar-denominated payments from the United Arab Emirates; and dollar transfers from a Turkish bank to an Afghan one with ties to drug-traffickers. Invoices were suspected of being counterfeit. Documents suggested dealings on behalf of “a sanctioned Iranian party”.

Alerted by the compliance officer, the New York Fed sent a letter in February 2015 noting concerns about money-laundering and other related risks. ABC responded by curtailing the compliance officer’s independence. By June, he was gone; most of his department soon followed. DFS examiners, arriving in July, found an “unmanageable” backlog of alerts for suspicious transactions. In 2014 DFS had warned ABC not to increase the volume of transactions until it had tightened its compliance functions. But the volume had almost trebled to $72bn in the first half of 2015 compared with a year earlier, creating what DFS called “untenable risk”. (BNP Paribas’s troubles stemmed from the transfer of $9bn.)

There may be many reasons why ABC seemed to get off lightly. But the sometimes chatty regulators are mum. One said it could not comment because the issues involve confidential supervisory information. The silence does nothing to quell doubtless unfounded gossip that ABC benefited from the fear of a diplomatic spat with its owner, the government of China.

1. What, according to the context of the passage, is true about Agricultural Bank of China?
i. The fine imposed on the bank was a mere $215m.
ii. The govt. of China was lenient towards ABC
iii. the volume of transactions of ABC got trebled in the second half of 2015
A) Only i
B) Only ii
C) Both i and ii
D) Both i and iii
E) None of these

2. What is the meaning of the term “untenable risk”?
A) unknown threat
B) unacceptable peril
C) unavoidable danger
D) important risk
E) None of these

3. Explain the term “chatty regulators are mum”.
A) Regulators are talkative as well as mum
B) regulators are secretive
C) regulators readily engage in chatting
D) Other than the given options
E) None of these

4. What is the most appropriate synonym of the word “spat”:
A) boo
B) squabble
C) accommodation
D) admonish
E) None of these

5. What is the most antonym of the word “impervious”:
A) hermetic
B) immune
C) tight
D) exposed
E) None of these

6. What is the meaning of the word “quelled”:
A) suppress a feeling
B) put to burn
C) put to an end
D) Both A and C
E) All of these

Solutions :
QUES NO. 1) C
QUES NO. 2) B
QUES NO. 3) D
QUES NO. 4) B
QUES NO. 5) D
QUES NO. 6) D

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