English Reading Comprehension

According to the author “An air of mystery surrounds the existence of this little creature”. Which of the following supports this view expressed by the author?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions by selecting the most appropriate options.

The black ant is indisputably one of the smallest visible insects on the earth. Except with the aid of a very powerful microscope, it is difficult, if not impossible, to locate the eyes, the mouth, the nostrils (if it ever has any) or any other part of its body. An air of mystery surrounds the existence of this little creature.

Have you ever taken time off your programme to watch these ants move in a row? What gives them the sense of direction, we do not know. Indeed, whoever sends them on an errand and how they even know the destination and the type of errand to run after are stories yet to be told. But they are an extremely well-organized lot.
Certainly, there are no defined routes for them on walls or trees, yet they move in an orderly manner, almost in a straight line. The beautiful thing about these insects is that, even when their line of movement is disorganized, they soon regroup and connect themselves again end to end. If in the process, one of them is killed, they quickly recognize that fact from their various positions. Then, one sees them run­ning helter-skelter with a seeming insistence on getting at the comrade to confirm its death.
When this has been done, some of them run zigzag at a tremendous speed to alert the others on the route. Soon, they disappear completely. Later, as if everything were over and forgotten, they reappear and .form a new route and continue their movement transporting food or going on one errand or the other as before. Bring your ears close to them and you hear nothing and you wonder what their means of communi­cation could be.
Perhaps, most surprising is their high sense of under­standing the weather and the climate. They are just like men in this area. They know when it is the rainy season and when the dry season comes. In fact, it is true to say that they prepare better for the future than man.

She knew a lot about poisons because

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions by selecting the most appropriate options.

Christie was probably the most successful writer in history. She wrote 78 crime novels, six other novels, 150 short stories, four non-fiction books and 19 plays. That represents two billion books sold: more than William Shakespeare’s

Christie became a writer by accident. She was bored when her husband was away in the First World War. Agatha was working in a hospital dispensary (which is where she learned all the information about poisons that she used in her books). She decided to write a novel to pass the time. She chose a detective novel because she loved reading them. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was an instant success. Each book had a new ingenious plot. Readers loved the books, particularly because Christie always gave the readers all the information they needed to find the solution.

Her first novel

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions by selecting the most appropriate options.

Christie was probably the most successful writer in history. She wrote 78 crime novels, six other novels, 150 short stories, four non-fiction books and 19 plays. That represents two billion books sold: more than William Shakespeare’s

Christie became a writer by accident. She was bored when her husband was away in the First World War. Agatha was working in a hospital dispensary (which is where she learned all the information about poisons that she used in her books). She decided to write a novel to pass the time. She chose a detective novel because she loved reading them. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was an instant success. Each book had a new ingenious plot. Readers loved the books, particularly because Christie always gave the readers all the information they needed to find the solution.

Which word in the passage can replace 'vastly'?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions by selecting the most appropriate options.

Christie was probably the most successful writer in history. She wrote 78 crime novels, six other novels, 150 short stories, four non-fiction books and 19 plays. That represents two billion books sold: more than William Shakespeare’s

Christie became a writer by accident. She was bored when her husband was away in the First World War. Agatha was working in a hospital dispensary (which is where she learned all the information about poisons that she used in her books). She decided to write a novel to pass the time. She chose a detective novel because she loved reading them. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was an instant success. Each book had a new ingenious plot. Readers loved the books, particularly because Christie always gave the readers all the information they needed to find the solution.

Christie was

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions by selecting the most appropriate options.

Christie was probably the most successful writer in history. She wrote 78 crime novels, six other novels, 150 short stories, four non-fiction books and 19 plays. That represents two billion books sold: more than William Shakespeare’s

Christie became a writer by accident. She was bored when her husband was away in the First World War. Agatha was working in a hospital dispensary (which is where she learned all the information about poisons that she used in her books). She decided to write a novel to pass the time. She chose a detective novel because she loved reading them. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was an instant success. Each book had a new ingenious plot. Readers loved the books, particularly because Christie always gave the readers all the information they needed to find the solution.

Readers liked her novels because

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions by selecting the most appropriate options.

Christie was probably the most successful writer in history. She wrote 78 crime novels, six other novels, 150 short stories, four non-fiction books and 19 plays. That represents two billion books sold: more than William Shakespeare’s

Christie became a writer by accident. She was bored when her husband was away in the First World War. Agatha was working in a hospital dispensary (which is where she learned all the information about poisons that she used in her books). She decided to write a novel to pass the time. She chose a detective novel because she loved reading them. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was an instant success. Each book had a new ingenious plot. Readers loved the books, particularly because Christie always gave the readers all the information they needed to find the solution.

What, according to the author, do people continue to underestimate?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

Although it is generally best not to mix work with friendship, there are times when a friend can be used to greater effect than an enemy. A man of power, for example, often has dirty work that has to be done, but for the sake of appearances it is generally preferable to have other people do it for him; friends often do this the best, since their affection for him makes them willing to take chances. Also, if plans go awry for some reason, the friend can be used as a convenient scapegoat. This ‘fall of the favourite’ was a trick often used by kings and sovereigns. They would let their closest friend at court take the fall for a mistake, since the public would not believe that they would deliberately sacrifice a friend for such purpose. Of course, once the card is played out, the friend is lost forever. It is best, then, to reserve the scapegoat role for someone who is close but not too close.
Finally, the problem about working with friends is that it confuses the boundaries and distances that working requires. But if both partners in the arrangement understand the dangers involved, a friend often can be employed to great effect. One must never let one’s guard down in such a venture, however; always be on the lookout for any signs of emotional disturbance such as envy and ingratitude. Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even the closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies.
When a friend is hired, his qualities kept hidden for long and let it come to fore by and by. Strangely enough, it is the act of kindness that unbalances everything. People want to feel they deserve their good fortune. The receipt of a favour can become oppressive. He may get a feeling that he has been chosen because he is a friend and not because he merited it. There is almost a touch of condescension in the act of hiring friends that secretly afflicts them. The injury will come out slowly. A little more honesty, flashes of resent and envy here and there, and before it is realized the friendship has faded away. The more favours and gifts one bestows to revive friendship, the less gratitude is received.
Ingratitude has a long and deep history. It has demonstrated its powers for so many centuries, that it is truly amazing that people continue to underestimate them. Better to be wary. One should never expect gratitude from a friend. It will be a pleasant surprise to find that they are actually grateful. The problem with using or hiring friends is that it will inevitably limit the power one intended to have. The friend is rarely the one who is most able to help; and in the end, skill and competence are far more important than friendly feelings.
All working situations require a kind of distance between people. People try to work, not to make friends; friendliness (real or false) only obscures that fact. The key to power is the ability to judge who is best suited to further the interests of an organization in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent. (Robert Greene in Power)

What is the nearest meaning of the word 'cannon' as used in the passage?

PASSAGE

There is hardly a composer concerning whom so many erroneous notions are current as concerning Chopin, and of all the histories of music I have seen that very few critics devote to Chopin an amount of space approximately proportionate to his importance. One of the most absurd of the misconceptions is that Chopin's genius was born in full armour, and that it did not pass through several stages of development, like that of other composers. Chopin did display remarkable originality at the very beginning, but the apparent maturity of his first published works is due to the fact that he destroyed his earliest efforts and disowned those works which are known as posthumous, and which may have created confusion in some minds by having received a higher opus number than his last works.
Another misconception regarding Chopin is that his latest works are morbid and unintelligible. The same charge was brought by philistines against the best works of Beethoven, Schumann, and Wagner. The fact is that these last works are of an almost matchless harmonic depth and originality, as superior to his earlier works as Wagner's last music dramas are to his first operas. Schumann was the first to recognize the revolutionary significance of Chopin's style. "Chopin's works," he says, "are cannons buried in flowers;" and in another place he declares that he can see in "Chopin's G minor Nocturne a terrible declaration of war against a whole musical past."
Chopin was quiet and retiring in his personal disposition so much so that his small voice was lost in the din of musical warfare. He warmly defended the principles of the romantic school, if necessary, and had decided opinions of other musicians, especially of the popular pianists of his day who vitiated the public taste with their show pieces; but he generally kept them to himself or confided them only to his friends.
The world is yet to acknowledge that Chopin is one of the very greatest explorers and pioneers in the domain of art. This can be explained by, for want of a better term, aesthetic Jumboism. When the late lamented Jumbo was in New York he attracted so much attention that his colleagues, although but little inferior in size, had "no show" whatever. Everybody crowded around Jumbo, stuffing him with bushels of oranges and apples, while the other elephants were entirely ignored. As elephants are intelligent animals, is it not probable that Pilot, the next in size to Jumbo, went mad and had to be shot because he was jealous of the exclusive attentions bestowed on his rival? In aesthetics, this Jumboism, this exaggerated desire for mammoth dimensions, seems to be a trait of the human mind which it is difficult to eradicate. It cannot be said that the critics of art or literature follow the popular disposition to measure genius with a yard-stick; but in music there seems to be a general tendency to do this. Liszt remarks, apropos, in his work on Chopin: "The value of the sketches made by Chopin's extremely delicate pencil has not yet been acknowledged and emphasized sufficiently. It has become customary in our days to regard as great composers only those who have written at least half a dozen operas, as many oratorios, and several symphonies."

What do they come across on their way to Manasa?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the following question.
Four friends live in a village which has been struck by famine. Three of them are extremely clever and learned and consider their friend Shivanand a lazy, but practical fool. The four decide to go to a place called Manasa, which is considered an asylum for scholars. On their way they have to pass through a forest. There they come across the bones of a lion. Satyanand decides to show his knowledge by recreating the lion’s skeleton. The other friend reconstructs the lion’s muscles and structure. Vidyanand then wants to show his superior powers by breathing life into the lion. Shivanand tries to stop them and warns them of the consequences of their plans. But they do not stop. Shivanand climbs a tree before Vidyanand foolishly proceeds with his plans. The lion comes to life and devours the three learned fools. Shivanand’s practical nature saves him. It is better to be practical than learned.

According to the three friends, who was a lazy person?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the following question.
Four friends live in a village which has been struck by famine. Three of them are extremely clever and learned and consider their friend Shivanand a lazy, but practical fool. The four decide to go to a place called Manasa, which is considered an asylum for scholars. On their way they have to pass through a forest. There they come across the bones of a lion. Satyanand decides to show his knowledge by recreating the lion’s skeleton. The other friend reconstructs the lion’s muscles and structure. Vidyanand then wants to show his superior powers by breathing life into the lion. Shivanand tries to stop them and warns them of the consequences of their plans. But they do not stop. Shivanand climbs a tree before Vidyanand foolishly proceeds with his plans. The lion comes to life and devours the three learned fools. Shivanand’s practical nature saves him. It is better to be practical than learned.

Why did Birbal give a stick to all servants?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the following questions.
Once a rich merchant’s house was robbed. The merchant suspected that the thief was one of his servants. So he went to Birbal and mentioned the incident. Birbal went to his house and assembled all of his servants and asked who stole the merchant’s things. Everybody denied. Birbal thought for a moment, then gave a stick of equal length to all the servants of the merchant and said to them that the stick of the real thief will be longer by two inches tomorrow. All the servants should be present here again tomorrow with their sticks. All the servants went to their homes and gathered again at the same place the next day. Birbal asked them to show him their sticks. One of the servants had his stick shorter by two inches. Birbal said, “This is your thief, merchant.” Later the merchant asked Birbal, “How did you catch him?” Birbal said, “The thief had already cut his stick short by two inches in the night fearing that his stick will be longer by two inches by morning.” Truth will always prevail.

What happens when life is breathed into the lion?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the following question.
Four friends live in a village which has been struck by famine. Three of them are extremely clever and learned and consider their friend Shivanand a lazy, but practical fool. The four decide to go to a place called Manasa, which is considered an asylum for scholars. On their way they have to pass through a forest. There they come across the bones of a lion. Satyanand decides to show his knowledge by recreating the lion’s skeleton. The other friend reconstructs the lion’s muscles and structure. Vidyanand then wants to show his superior powers by breathing life into the lion. Shivanand tries to stop them and warns them of the consequences of their plans. But they do not stop. Shivanand climbs a tree before Vidyanand foolishly proceeds with his plans. The lion comes to life and devours the three learned fools. Shivanand’s practical nature saves him. It is better to be practical than learned.

Where do the little mouse and its mother live?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the following questions.
Once upon a time a Baby Mouse and Mother Mouse lived in a hole in the skirting board of a big, warm house with lots of cheese to eat and where they wanted nothing else. Then, one day, Mother Mouse decided to take Baby Mouse outside of their home. Waiting outside for them was a huge ginger tomcat, licking its lips and waiting to eat them both up. "Mother, Mother! What should we do?" cried Baby Mouse as he clung to his mother’s tail. Mother Mouse paused and stared up into the beady eyes of the hungry cat. But she wasn’t scared, because she knew exactly how to deal with big, scary cats. She opened her mouth and took in a deep breath. Woof! Woof! Woof! She shouted, and the cat ran away as fast as he could. "Wow, Mother! That was amazing!” Baby Mouse said to his mother, smiling happily. And that is why it is always good to have a second language.

What does famine mean in the passage?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the following question.
Four friends live in a village which has been struck by famine. Three of them are extremely clever and learned and consider their friend Shivanand a lazy, but practical fool. The four decide to go to a place called Manasa, which is considered an asylum for scholars. On their way they have to pass through a forest. There they come across the bones of a lion. Satyanand decides to show his knowledge by recreating the lion’s skeleton. The other friend reconstructs the lion’s muscles and structure. Vidyanand then wants to show his superior powers by breathing life into the lion. Shivanand tries to stop them and warns them of the consequences of their plans. But they do not stop. Shivanand climbs a tree before Vidyanand foolishly proceeds with his plans. The lion comes to life and devours the three learned fools. Shivanand’s practical nature saves him. It is better to be practical than learned.

Why did one of the servants have a 2 inch shorter stick?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the following questions.
Once a rich merchant’s house was robbed. The merchant suspected that the thief was one of his servants. So he went to Birbal and mentioned the incident. Birbal went to his house and assembled all of his servants and asked who stole the merchant’s things. Everybody denied. Birbal thought for a moment, then gave a stick of equal length to all the servants of the merchant and said to them that the stick of the real thief will be longer by two inches tomorrow. All the servants should be present here again tomorrow with their sticks. All the servants went to their homes and gathered again at the same place the next day. Birbal asked them to show him their sticks. One of the servants had his stick shorter by two inches. Birbal said, “This is your thief, merchant.” Later the merchant asked Birbal, “How did you catch him?” Birbal said, “The thief had already cut his stick short by two inches in the night fearing that his stick will be longer by two inches by morning.” Truth will always prevail.