Reading Comprehension

Directions: Choose the appropriate option from (1 - 4) according to the information given in the reading passage.

Some people may have a strange mix of personality traits in case they have

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

Palmistry implies the study of the hand. The study of this branch of science is broadly divided into two areas. The first area deals with the study of the shape and size of the hand as well as the fingers. In the second area, a comprehensive study of the palm is done including the lines and markings on it. Analysis of both these aspects of the hand of an individual is done in order to predict the events in his/her life. These include past, present and future events. People have different shapes and sizes of  hands. Some have small, some have long, and others have weak or robust hands. On the basis of ancient Indian texts on palmistry, different types of hands are categorized as following - First type of hand is described as basic or the lowest type. This type of hand embodies a generally low mental ability. Such a hand has clumsy appearance with thick and short fingers and nails. The palm of such hand is coarse and animal like which according to palmistry symbolizes the animal nature of that individual. Then comes the type of hand which is believed to be possessed mostly by orderly, punctual and hardworking people. It is also known as the useful hand. The nails and fingers in such a hand are generally square and short. Third type is a spatula form of hand. It is so called due to the unusually broad wrist or the base of fingers taking the shape of a spatula. People with such hands are observed to be of restless nature. Further there is one very interesting type of hand, also called the philosopher’s hand. This type of hand is long and angular. Such people tend to have the nature of a student who studies mankind. Such people have a secretive and silent nature. The fifth type of hand demonstrates a conic shape. Such people possess artistic impulses. They are mostly ridden by impulses and lack patience. Next comes the idealistic hand, which also is the rarest type. These are long narrow and weak looking hands with tapering fingers. Such hands are possessed by people of an idealistic nature. They love beauty in every shape and form and are far from being practical. The last type of hand is that which has qualities and features of all other types. Such a hand is beyond classification as it may have fingers of different shapes. Thus, the nature and persona of people with such hands too is a mix of various qualities.

Along with the woman's son and daughter, who was the third person weeping beside her?

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question based on it.

The old woman died without pain, a death worth a woman whose life had been blameless. She was resting in her bed, lying on her back, with eyes closed, her face calm, her long white hair carefully arranged as though she had done it up ten minutes before dying. The whole pale face of the dead woman was, so calm, so satisfied that one could feel her sweet soul that lived in her body. She had been a pure and quiet soul. Kneeling beside the bed, her son, a judge with rigid principles, and her daughter, Maria, known as Sister Alis, were weeping with broken hearts. She had given them strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise. He, the man, had become a judge and handled the law as a weapon with which he smote the weak ones without pity. She, the girl, influenced by the virtue, which had bathed her in this austere family, had become the bride of the Church through her loathing for man.

What made the son and the daughter inclined towards religion?

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question based on it.

The old woman died without pain, a death worth a woman whose life had been blameless. She was resting in her bed, lying on her back, with eyes closed, her face calm, her long white hair carefully arranged as though she had done it up ten minutes before dying. The whole pale face of the dead woman was, so calm, so satisfied that one could feel her sweet soul that lived in her body. She had been a pure and quiet soul. Kneeling beside the bed, her son, a judge with rigid principles, and her daughter, Maria, known as Sister Alis, were weeping with broken hearts. She had given them strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise. He, the man, had become a judge and handled the law as a weapon with which he smote the weak ones without pity. She, the girl, influenced by the virtue, which had bathed her in this austere family, had become the bride of the Church through her loathing for man.

In the passage, which of the following words means 'to strike with a firm blow'?

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question based on it.

The old woman died without pain, a death worth a woman whose life had been blameless. She was resting in her bed, lying on her back, with eyes closed, her face calm, her long white hair carefully arranged as though she had done it up ten minutes before dying. The whole pale face of the dead woman was, so calm, so satisfied that one could feel her sweet soul that lived in her body. She had been a pure and quiet soul. Kneeling beside the bed, her son, a judge with rigid principles, and her daughter, Maria, known as Sister Alis, were weeping with broken hearts. She had given them strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise. He, the man, had become a judge and handled the law as a weapon with which he smote the weak ones without pity. She, the girl, influenced by the virtue, which had bathed her in this austere family, had become the bride of the Church through her loathing for man.

Which kind of family did the woman and her children belong to?

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question based on it.

The old woman died without pain, a death worth a woman whose life had been blameless. She was resting in her bed, lying on her back, with eyes closed, her face calm, her long white hair carefully arranged as though she had done it up ten minutes before dying. The whole pale face of the dead woman was, so calm, so satisfied that one could feel her sweet soul that lived in her body. She had been a pure and quiet soul. Kneeling beside the bed, her son, a judge with rigid principles, and her daughter, Maria, known as Sister Alis, were weeping with broken hearts. She had given them strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise. He, the man, had become a judge and handled the law as a weapon with which he smote the weak ones without pity. She, the girl, influenced by the virtue, which had bathed her in this austere family, had become the bride of the Church through her loathing for man.

How could one make out that a sweet soul lived in the body of the woman who died?

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question based on it.

The old woman died without pain, a death worth a woman whose life had been blameless. She was resting in her bed, lying on her back, with eyes closed, her face calm, her long white hair carefully arranged as though she had done it up ten minutes before dying. The whole pale face of the dead woman was, so calm, so satisfied that one could feel her sweet soul that lived in her body. She had been a pure and quiet soul. Kneeling beside the bed, her son, a judge with rigid principles, and her daughter, Maria, known as Sister Alis, were weeping with broken hearts. She had given them strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise. He, the man, had become a judge and handled the law as a weapon with which he smote the weak ones without pity. She, the girl, influenced by the virtue, which had bathed her in this austere family, had become the bride of the Church through her loathing for man.

Which one of the following statements is correct?

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

This rule of always trying to do things as well as one can do them has an important bearing upon the problem of ambition. No man or woman should be without ambition, which is the inspiration of activity. But if one allows ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond one’s own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result. If one imagines that one can do everything better than other people, then envy and jealousy, those twin monsters, will come to sadden one’s days. But if one concentrates one’s attention upon developing one’s own special capacities, the things one is best at, then one does not worry overmuch if other people are more successful.

The statement 'if one allows ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond one's own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result', means that

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

This rule of always trying to do things as well as one can do them has an important bearing upon the problem of ambition. No man or woman should be without ambition, which is the inspiration of activity. But if one allows ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond one’s own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result. If one imagines that one can do everything better than other people, then envy and jealousy, those twin monsters, will come to sadden one’s days. But if one concentrates one’s attention upon developing one’s own special capacities, the things one is best at, then one does not worry overmuch if other people are more successful.

Which one of the following statements can be assumed to be true?

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

This rule of always trying to do things as well as one can do them has an important bearing upon the problem of ambition. No man or woman should be without ambition, which is the inspiration of activity. But if one allows ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond one’s own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result. If one imagines that one can do everything better than other people, then envy and jealousy, those twin monsters, will come to sadden one’s days. But if one concentrates one’s attention upon developing one’s own special capacities, the things one is best at, then one does not worry overmuch if other people are more successful.

The system based on rewards satisfied all except

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

PASSAGE – I
Those responsible for teaching young people have resorted to a variety of means to make their pupils learn. The earliest of these was the threat of punishment. This meant that the pupil who was slow, careless or inattentive risked either physical chastisement or the loss of some expected privilege. Learning was thus associated with fear. At a later period, pupils were encouraged to learn in the hope of some kind of reward. This often took the form of marks awarded for work done and sometimes of prizes given at the end of the year to the best scholar. Such a system appealed to the competitive spirit, but was just as depressing as the older system for the slow pupil.
In the nineteenth century sprang up a new type of teacher, convinced that learning was worthwhile for its own sake and that the young pupil’s principal stimulus should neither be anxiety to avoid a penalty nor ambition to win a reward, but sheer desire to learn. Interest, direct or indirect, became the keyword of instruction.

The passage says that early instruments for measuring earthquakes were

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the given question.

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore, to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses which would stand up on end like ninepins. When a shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus, the rods by falling and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the direction from which it came.

But, instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record with a pen on paper the movements, of the ground or of the table, as the quake passed by. While I write, my pen moves but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could, in time, learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves. But when table, penholder and paper are all moving, how is it possible to write legibly? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made? It is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.

The early seismometers adopted the idea that in order to record the earthquake, it is

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the given question.

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore, to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses which would stand up on end like ninepins. When a shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus, the rods by falling and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the direction from which it came.

But, instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record with a pen on paper the movements, of the ground or of the table, as the quake passed by. While I write, my pen moves but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could, in time, learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves. But when table, penholder and paper are all moving, how is it possible to write legibly? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made? It is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.

Why was it necessary to invent instruments to observe an earthquake?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the given question.

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore, to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses which would stand up on end like ninepins. When a shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus, the rods by falling and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the direction from which it came.

But, instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record with a pen on paper the movements, of the ground or of the table, as the quake passed by. While I write, my pen moves but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could, in time, learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves. But when table, penholder and paper are all moving, how is it possible to write legibly? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made? It is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.

What helps the snakes receive advance warning is their sensitivity to

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

PASSAGE – II
On a surface which is free from obstacles, such as a clear road or a path, only two or three species of snakes can hope to catch up with a human being, even if they are foolish to try. A snake seems to move very fast but its movements are deceptive. In spite of the swift, wave-like motions of its body, the snake crawls along the ground at no more than the speed of man’s walk. It may, however, have an advantage inside a jungle, where the progress of a man is obstructed by thorny bushes. But in such places, the footsteps of a man are usually more than enough to warn snakes to keep away. Although they have no ears of the usual kind, they can feel slight vibrations of the ground through their bodies, and thus get an early warning of danger.

A simple device which consisted of rods that stood up on end like ninepins was replaced by a more sophisticated one because it failed

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the given question.

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore, to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses which would stand up on end like ninepins. When a shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus, the rods by falling and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the direction from which it came.

But, instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record with a pen on paper the movements, of the ground or of the table, as the quake passed by. While I write, my pen moves but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could, in time, learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves. But when table, penholder and paper are all moving, how is it possible to write legibly? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made? It is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.