IBPS RRBs Officer Scale I 06 Sep 2015 Paper

Directions (176–185) :
In the following passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five words are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word in each case.
Bangladesh was the original development “basket case”, the demeaning term used in Henry Kissinger’s state department for countries that would always depend on (176) . Its people are crammed onto a flood plain swept by cyclones and without big mineral and other natural resources. It suffered (177) in 1943 and 1974 and military coups in 1975, 1982 and 2007. When it split from Pakistan in 1971 many observers doubted that it could(178) as an independent state. In some ways, those who doubted Bangladesh’s potential were right. Economic growth since the 1970s has been poor; the country’s politics have been (179) wretched. Yet over the past 20 years, Bangladesh has made some of the biggest gains in the basic condition of people’s lives ever seen anywhere. Between 1990 and 2010 life expectancy rose by 10 years. Bangladeshis now have a life expectancy four years longer than Indians, (180) the Indians being, on average, twice as rich. Even more (181), the (182) in life expectancy has been as great among the poor as the rich. Bangladesh has also made huge gains in education and health. More than 90% of girls (183) in primary school in 2005, slightly more than boys. That was twice the female enrolment rate in 2000. Infant (184) has more than halved, from 97 deaths per thousand live births in 1990 to 37 per thousand in 2010 (see table). Over the same period child mortality fell by two-thirds and (185) mortality fell by three-quarters. It now stands at 194 deaths per 100,000 births. In 1990 women could expect to live a year less than men; now they can expect to live two years more