English Language

English Reading Comprehension

3,503 Questions

English reading comprehension questions assess the ability to understand, analyze, and interpret written passages. Formats include paragraph rearrangement, cloze tests, and fact finding from text. Regular practice is essential for scoring well in the English sections of banking, SSC, and railway exams.

Passage based inferenceParagraph rearrangementCloze test fillingVocabulary replacementReading accuracy tests

English Reading Comprehension Questions

Multiple choice
  1. place

  2. transaction

  3. operations

  4. dealing

  5. work

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Place, dealing and work are out of context. Transaction means 'conducting business', but here we are talking about implementing the process of diversification. So, the correct option is (3). The area is 'limited' for carrying out the diversification 'operation'.

Multiple choice
  1. place

  2. transaction

  3. operations

  4. dealing

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Place, dealing and work are out of context. Transaction means 'conducting business', but here we are talking about implementing the process of diversification. So, the correct option is (3). The area is 'limited' for carrying out the diversification 'operation'.

Multiple choice
  1. luck

  2. fortune

  3. activities

  4. opportunities

  5. chance

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The passage is talking about process of diversification. The second part talks about limited area. Hence, opportunities is the correct answer as institutions get constrined only due to lack of opportunities. 

Multiple choice
  1. by

  2. onto

  3. for

  4. through

  5. at

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

As we are referring to a figurative movement through a system or process, so the correct answer is option 5 (through).

Multiple choice
  1. by

  2. onto

  3. for

  4. through

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

As we are referring to a figurative movement through a system or process, so the correct answer is option 5 (through).

Multiple choice
  1. kill

  2. lynch

  3. damage

  4. promote

  5. burn

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Increased securitisation can affect or damage client relationship. It cannot kill, lynch or burn. Promote is out of context as the sentence requires a negative word.

Multiple choice
  1. kill

  2. lynch

  3. damage

  4. promote

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Increased securitisation can affect or damage client relationship. It cannot kill, lynch or burn. Promote is out of context as the sentence requires a negative word.

Multiple choice
  1. watching

  2. mitigating

  3. taking

  4. affording

  5. seeing

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The passage is talking about managing credit risk. 'Mitigating means 'to lessen', which fits in with context of the sentence.

Multiple choice
  1. watching

  2. mitigating

  3. taking

  4. affording

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The passage is talking about managing credit risk. 'Mitigating means 'to lessen', which fits in with context of the sentence.

Multiple choice
  1. yester

  2. futuristic

  3. golden

  4. coming

  5. past

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

As the refernce is towards future years, the correct answer is 'coming' years.

Multiple choice
  1. gained

  2. sold

  3. valued

  4. bought

  5. profited

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

As per the sentence popularity of securitisation has increased. So, correct answer is 'gained'.

Multiple choice
  1. The second sentence provides additional evidence for the premise mentioned in the first sentence.

  2. The first sentence is a conclusion while the second supports the given conclusion.

  3. The first sentence elucidates the original tenets of the Knights of Columbus and the second sentence highlights how they have been corrupted.

  4. The first sentence highlights the values of the Order, and the second sentence points towards the successful perpetuation of the same.

  5. The first sentence provides additional evidence for the conclusion drawn in the second paragraph.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

(1) Correct; the sentence talks of Kael as a film critic, and how she presided over movies. An analogy with a gymnastic coach is made, and 'excoriating' correctly conveys how a coach would react to a flub (mistake). (2) Incorrect; humoring would mean tolerating good naturedly. However, since Kael is a film critic, it would be in the nature of her job to criticize bad movies. (3) Incorrect; the option is idiomatically incorrect. Also, jesting about flubs would go against the responsibility of a film critic. (4) Incorrect; the analogy with the gymnastic coach talks of three reactions; directing, applauding, and reacting to a flub. It would be hard to improve one's wards by ignoring their mistakes. (5) Correct; the sentence talks of Kael as a film critic, and how she presided over movies. An analogy with a gymnastic coach is made, and 'berating' correctly conveys how a coach would react to a flub (mistake). (6) Incorrect; the analogy with the gymnastic coach talks of three reactions; directing, applauding, and reacting to a flub. It would be hard to improve one's wards by overlooking their mistakes.

Multiple choice
  1. The second sentence provides additional evidence for the premise mentioned in the first sentence.

  2. The first sentence is a conclusion while the second supports the given conclusion.

  3. The first sentence elucidates the original tenets of the Knights of Columbus and the second sentence highlights how they have been corrupted.

  4. The first sentence highlights the values of the Order, and the second sentence points towards the successful perpetuation of the same.

  5. The first sentence provides additional evidence for the conclusion drawn in the second paragraph.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

(1) Incorrect; the clue lies in 'Levin goes out scything'. A scythe is used to cut harvest, and hence, the word has to be connected to farming. (2) Correct; the clue lies in 'Levin goes out scything'. A scythe is used to cut harvest, and hence, the word has to be connected to farming. 'Earthy' correctly connects Levin's redemption to scything. (3) Correct; the clue lies in 'Levin goes out scything'. A scythe is used to cut harvest, and hence, the word has to be connected to farming. 'Earthy' correctly connects Levin's redemption to scything. (4) Incorrect; there can be many ways of earning a true redemption but the sentence requires a redemption that is connected to scything. (5) Incorrect; there can be many ways of earning a virtuous redemption but the sentence requires a redemption that is connected to scything. (6) Incorrect; the emphasis is on villages and scything crops. The option has to have relevance to the overall structure of the sentence.

Multiple choice

In the context in which it appears, “touchstone” in sentence 4 most nearly means

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Life, they say, is the constant oscillation between the two horns of a dilemma. Going by the history of the Gold Standard, the quotation seems to be worth its weight in gold! Gold Standard allows the governments to sell gold bullion in exchange for circulating currency. Starting somewhere in 610 BC, gold has been the most trusted currency for trade and for determining the value of goods. Since the fascination with gold is rooted in the farthest reaches of recorded human history, it comes hardly as a surprise that alchemists tried for hundreds of years to find a touchstone that could convert base metals into gold. In the Middle Ages, gold coins issued by the Byzantine Empire were found throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.  The decline of the Byzantine Empire saw a decline in the use of gold as currency and silver became the de-facto medium for trade. However, Sir Isaac Newton, while the master of the Royal Mint, effected a new standard that put gold firmly in the driving seat, once again, as the choice medium for trade.
The Gold Standard, in effect, was the practice of backing circulating currency with full convertibility to gold. Since trade with China involved primarily imports, the cost had to be paid in precious metals, mainly silver. This led to an unprecedented shortfall in the availability of silver as a currency in Europe during the late eighteenth century. This prompted the central banks of European nations to substitute the coins with paper notes (also called bank notes). Since these notes were nothing but a substitute for the silver currency, they continued to be backed by their worth in gold. The first big body blow for the Gold Standard, which proved to be decisive in the long run, was the First World War. Faced with increasingly draining war effort, governments temporarily suspended the convertibility of the bank notes. Germany, after losing the war, could not move back to the gold standard as it had lost all its gold reserves towards war reparations. The process of printing deutschemarks, without backing of gold reserves, lead to hyperinflation in Germany, and drove the first nail in the coffin of Gold Reserve.

  1. conjurer’s hat

  2. mythological device

  3. desired feature

  4. magical medium

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

(1) Incorrect; a conjurer would appear to create something from the thin air inside his hat, but it would be just sleight of hand. The alchemists were trying to really create a medium that could convert base metals to gold. (2) Incorrect; mythological would imply something that is more fiction than fact. Here, the passage talks of real events from recorded history. (3) Incorrect; a desired feature would be a part of a whole. Here, the alchemists wanted to create something that could convert base metals to gold. (4) Correct; because the alchemists wanted to find the medium that could convert base metals to gold, ‘magical medium’ correctly conveys the desired meaning. (5) Incorrect; if it were a vain hope, the alchemists would not try to make gold from base metals for hundreds of years

Multiple choice

For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

Which of the following are true as per the passage?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

In the eighteenth century, the relationship between a writer and his publisher could hardly be called a monochromatic one. The two were dependent upon each other for not only for their livelihood, but also for survival, almost in the most literal manner. Charles Baudelaire, whose poem- Les Fleur du Mal (Flowers of Evil) was banned in France because of its references to drugs, sex, and satan, is just one of the examples of how the lives of two were interconnected to an almost masochistic level. He and his publisher were both successfully prosecuted for printing a poem that allegedly offended public sentiments. Queen Mab, a controversial poem by Percy Shelley, which promoted the idea of a utopian world, un-marred by violent and bloody revolutions like the French Revolution, was deemed illegal in England. Though un-printed, the poem became the cause of the imprisonment of both Percy and William Clark, in whose bookstore a few of the copies of the poem were stored. Although the poem was meant for private circulation only, just the fact that the poem was stolen, pirated, and sold in the market by an unscrupulous shopkeeper, was enough to put both the men behind bars.
Today, the poet and the publisher are a part of a bigger system, small cogs in a big machine. Though persecution of a poet or a writer for ‘felt’ blasphemy is not unheard of- a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie for sacrilege is a prime example- the very fact that they are both a part of a system that runs on money gives them certain immunity at the cost of taking away some of the liberty they enjoyed. As long as they need the money, they would stay close at heels, seemingly nipping at them, but not quite.

 

  1. Poetry, to a large extent, remains full of brimstone and fire.

  2. Pursuit of idealism can end up in courting trouble.

  3. Though rarely prosecuted, poets and writers can be hounded even today.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

(1) Incorrect; the passage concludes with a reference to the reduced combativeness of poets as they are also now firmly a part of a system that moves on money. (2) Correct; the advocacy of a utopian world by Percy Shelley lead to his and William Clark's prosecution. (3) Correct; the example of Salman Rushdie proves the point.