English Language

English Reading Comprehension

2,692 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 general knowledge math & puzzles

Three men (Tom, Peter and Jack) and three women (Eliza, Anne and Karen) are spending a few months at a hillside. They are to stay in a row of nine cottages, each one living in his or her own cottage. There are no others staying in the same row of houses. Anne, Tom and Jack do not want to stay in any cottage, which is at the end of the row. Eliza and Anne are unwilling to stay besides any occupied cottage.. Karen is next to Peter and Jack. Between Anne and Jack’s cottage there is just one vacant house. None of the girls occupy adjacent cottages. The house occupied by Tom is next to an end cottage. Which among these statement(s) are true ? 1. Anne is between Eliza and Jack. 2. At the most four persons can have occupied cottages on either side of them. . 3. Tom stays besides Peter

  1. 1 OLY

  2. 2 OLY

  3. 1 AND 3 OLY

  4. 1, 2 AND 3
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

By systematically applying all six constraints (no ends for Anne/Tom/Jack, Eliza/Anne beside occupied cottages, Karen next to Peter and Jack, one vacant between Anne and Jack, girls not adjacent, Tom beside end cottage), we can determine the valid cottage arrangements. Statement 1 (Anne between Eliza and Jack) and Statement 3 (Tom beside Peter) are true, while Statement 2 about four persons having occupied cottages on either side is incorrect.

Multiple choice general knowledge

Disapparation and Apparation is a very tricky, but very useful means of transportation for wizards..however if it goes wrong.. you might get.

  1. Lost inside it

  2. Splinched

  3. Burns and Blisters

  4. Slinched
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

When a witch or wizard apparates incorrectly, they may leave part of their body behind - this is called being 'splinched'. Ron Weasley gets splinched during Deathly Hallows, leaving a chunk of his arm behind. It's a dangerous magical injury that requires immediate healing.

Multiple choice general knowledge

“All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths.” These lines are from:

  1. Choker Bali

  2. Discovery of India

  3. The Inheritance of Loss

  4. Soz-e-Watan
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The quoted lines are from Kiran Desai's 'The Inheritance of Loss', which won the Man Booker Prize in 2006. Choker Bali is by Rabindranath Tagore, Discovery of India is by Jawaharlal Nehru, and Soz-e-Watan is by different authors.

Multiple choice general knowledge

In ‘The Life of Pi’, Pi leaves the strange island because

  1. There is no food.

  2. It contains wild animals

  3. It is Carnivorous

  4. He wants to find his family
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

In Yann Martel's 'The Life of Pi', the mysterious floating island Pi discovers is revealed to be carnivorous. At night, the island's algae pools become acidic and consume any flesh resting in them. Pi discovers this when he finds a human tooth in a tree - the remains of another person who was eaten by the island. This horrifies him and prompts his decision to leave.

Multiple choice general knowledge sports

Other superstitions say that it has to be a white bird to be the messenger of death. It is also said to be lucky if a bird's droppings land on your car. I think it means that you park too close to pigeons.

  1. the person will become an angel

  2. the person will become a vampire

  3. the person was a witch or warlock in life

  4. the person will be given one of the cat's nine lives
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The question appears to reference a superstition about what happens when a bird perches on or flies over a house after someone dies. However, this specific 'becoming a vampire' belief is not a widely documented mainstream superstition. While vampire folklore exists in various cultures (particularly Eastern European), this bird-related transformation is obscure. This may be a very regional or specific tradition, or possibly a misdocumented superstition.

Multiple choice general knowledge sports

"Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay, Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even though the sound of it Is something quite atrocious, If you say it loud enough, You'll always sound precocious, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" Today, nobody quite agrees one what exactly the word 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' means. Some say it's just a proper noun and has no other meaning, while others say it means "better than the best". Anyway, in which show did this word first appear? Today, nobody quite agrees one what exactly the word 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' means. Some say it's just a proper noun and has no other meaning, while others say it means "better than the best". Anyway, in which picture did this word first appear?

  1. My Fair Lady

  2. Mary Poppins

  3. Sound of Music

  4. Breakfast at Tiffany's
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The word 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' first appeared in the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins, sung by Julie Andrews as the title character. It was not from My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, or Breakfast at Tiffany's - those are different films from different eras.

Multiple choice general knowledge

"The crown grew heavier with each passing year.When the Venerable Bodhidharma Mahanayake Thero had - so reluctantly - first placed it upon his head, Prince Kalidasa was surprised by its lightness. Now, twenty years later, King Kalidasa gladly relinquished the jewel-encrusted band of gold whenever court etiquette allowed" is the opening paragraph of:

  1. Foundation, Isaac Asimov

  2. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

  3. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

  4. The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

This opening paragraph appears in Arthur C. Clarke's 'The Fountains of Paradise,' a science fiction novel about the construction of a space elevator. The passage describes a king burdened by his crown, contrasting with the novel's themes of technological and spiritual transcendence. The other options - Asimov's Foundation (sci-fi empire), Austen's Sense and Sensibility (romance), and Ellis's American Psycho (psychological thriller) - do not match this content or style.

Multiple choice general knowledge

A guy is condemned to death. He has to choose a room.room #1: A fiery infernoroom #2: 30 assassins with loaded guns.room #3: A room full of hungry lions that didn't eat in 3 months.Which room is the safest

  1. Room#1

  2. Room#2

  3. Room#3

  4. Question is wrong
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Lions cannot survive without food for 3 months - they would be dead from starvation. A fiery inferno and assassins with guns are immediate threats, but dead lions pose no danger. Room #3 is the only safe choice.

Multiple choice general knowledge

Once an ANT was searching for a house, and a kind owner gave him a house for FREE. Next day, the ANT brought his freind and requested the owner, and the owner did not ask the rent. Next day he brought another friend and still no rent..... Like this he brought so many freinds but still the owner did not ask the rent. One fine day, the owner asked the rent. How many ants were there on that day ?

  1. 10000

  2. 1000

  3. 100

  4. 10
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

On day 1, the owner gave a house to 1 ant (the original). On day 2, that ant brought 1 friend (total 2). On day 3, each of those 2 brought friends, adding 2 more (total 4). Following this pattern (powers of 2), by day 10 there would be 512 ants. However, the question asks about 'one fine day' when the owner finally asked for rent. The pattern shows the owner asked on the 10th day. The question asks 'how many were there on that day' which could mean day 10 (512) or could be interpreting that the owner asked when there were 10 ants. Given option D is 10, this appears to be asking about the day number rather than the count.

Multiple choice general knowledge

Try this. . . Believe it or not you can read it. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

  1. True

  2. False
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

To solve this question, the user needs to read the given statement and determine whether it is true or false.

The given statement describes the phenomenon of how the human mind can still read words even if the letters are jumbled up, as long as the first and last letter of each word are in the correct place. This is attributed to the power of the human mind to read words as a whole rather than letter by letter.

Therefore, the correct answer is:

The Answer is: A. True

Multiple choice softskills leadership

"Between the devil and the deep blue sea" means ___.

  1. he has drowned

  2. he was faced with two equally undesirable choices

  3. The course of a persons life

  4. he was buried at sea
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The idiom means being faced with two equally undesirable or dangerous alternatives, where neither choice is good. Option B correctly captures this meaning of being trapped between bad options. Options A, C, and D are incorrect literal interpretations - it's not about drowning, life's course, or burial at sea.

Multiple choice softskills leadership

"Dead men tell no tales" means ___.

  1. boring people are poor story tellers

  2. dead people will not betray secrets

  3. unpopular people are seldom listened to

  4. tired people do not speak much
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The phrase means that dead people cannot reveal secrets or information, suggesting that killing someone ensures silence. Option B correctly captures this meaning. Options A, C, and D are incorrect interpretations - it's not about boring storytellers, unpopular people, or tired people, but specifically about death preventing information disclosure.

Multiple choice softskills leadership

There are 3 temples in a corner of triagle and 1 pond in centre of triangle one person have some flowers he dipped in pond and those become double and he put few of them in 1st temple and goes to pond again ,dipped left ones & it become double he puts d same quanity as he put in 1st tmeple and repeats the same process for third temple but by the time he completed all temple he was left with no flowers.Can you tell what is the minimum number of flower he has started with ?

  1. 8

  2. 7

  3. 11

  4. 9
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Working backwards: If he ends with 0 flowers after temple 3, and each pond visit doubles the flowers, let x be initial. After doubling: 2x, 2(2x-x), 2(2(2x-x)-x) = 0. Solving: x = 7. Or working backwards: 0 → 3.5 (before 3rd pond doubling) → 7 flowers before temple 3 offering. The minimum integer solution is 7.