SBI PO Prelims Full Mock Test 01

1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given after it. For most small farmers, the hardest part of the season is not growing the crop but selling it at a fair price. A tomato that leaves the field in perfect condition can be worthless within three days if it sits in the sun at a crowded market yard. Because they cannot store their produce, farmers are forced to sell at harvest time, when every other farmer is selling too and prices are at their lowest. Traders who own storage space buy cheaply, wait a few weeks, and sell when prices recover. Cold storage is the obvious answer, yet it has spread slowly in rural areas. Large refrigerated warehouses are expensive to build, need a steady power supply and are usually located near big cities, far from the villages where food is grown. A farmer who has to hire a truck to reach one often finds that the transport cost swallows most of the gain. In recent years a different model has begun to take root. Small, solar-powered cold rooms, about the size of a shipping container, are being placed directly in villages. Farmers pay a modest daily fee for each crate they store, rather than buying the equipment themselves. Because the rooms run on sunlight, they work even where the electricity supply is unreliable. Early users report that they lose far less produce to spoilage and can wait for better prices instead of selling in distress. The model is not free of difficulties. Many farmers are wary of paying for a service whose benefits they have not yet seen, and a single bad experience can turn a whole village against it. Operators have learned that a cold room succeeds only when it is linked to buyers, so that farmers know there will be a market once they take their crates out. Some have started arranging sales to hotels and city retailers, turning the cold room into a small collection centre. None of this will transform farming overnight. But by reducing waste and giving growers a little control over when they sell, modest technologies of this kind can change the balance of power in rural markets in a way that large, distant warehouses never did.

   Q1.According to the passage, why are small farmers usually forced to sell at harvest time?

   • A.They have no way to store their produce without it spoiling
   • B.Government rules require them to sell immediately
   • C.Traders refuse to buy produce later in the season
   • D.They must repay loans to the cold-storage owners
   • E.Prices are highest just after the harvest

2. Q2.Which of the following is NOT given as a reason for the slow spread of large cold-storage warehouses in rural areas?

   • A.Farmers do not grow crops that need cooling
   • B.Transport to them can cancel out the gain
   • C.They are usually located near big cities
   • D.They are expensive to build
   • E.They need a steady power supply

3. Q3.How do farmers pay for the village cold rooms described in the passage?

   • A.They pay a fixed yearly membership
   • B.They buy the equipment in instalments
   • C.They give a share of the crop to the operator
   • D.They pay a small daily fee for each crate stored
   • E.The government pays the entire cost

Start the test to answer these. Correct answers and explanations are shown after you submit.