English Reading Comprehension

At the sight of the author’s bloody wound, his friends

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.

The Pundit was almost never upset as he

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.

The Pundit’s wife had told him a lie in order to

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.

He was spoilt, mostly because he was

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

The reason why the Pundit’s wife refused to return the necklace was that

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.

When his father painted in the college, Pablo

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

As a boy Pablo Picasso was

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

The author was hit by a broken bottle

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.

The weapons used by the whites, in the gang fight, were

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.

The Pundit struggled for six months so that

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.

Picasso went to school only when

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

Pablo’s father gave up painting because he

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

The locality where the author lived, was

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.

The author used the cinders for

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.

What worried the Pundit most was that

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.