Reading Comprehension

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

There will always be produced native talent, vast power of influencing mankind, united with restless, aspiring and insatiate ambition. And this talent will be unfolded in greater proportion as common education is more generally diffused. The question then, is not whether such talent shall or shall not exist. The only practical question is, whether these rare endowments shall be cultivated and disciplined and cautioned and directed by the lessons of past wisdom, or whether they shall be allowed to grow up in reckless and headstrong arrogance. It is merely a question whether the extraordinary talent bestowed upon society by our Creator, shall be a blessing or a curse to us and to our children.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

It’s a good thing that almost all of us worry. Think of worry as a built-in alarm device. When it is used wisely, it alerts us to danger and prompts us to navigate our way through a maze of solutions to life’s various problems. We need to think through our options when we are faced with problems, weighing the benefits and pitfalls of each alternative, and then come up with the best solution. From there we take action which, we hope, solves the problem. Worry is helpful when it is used at the right time and at the right level for resolving our difficulties. Like many things in life, however, too little worry, or too much of it, can be harmful.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

As far as superior knowledge and talent confer on their possessor a natural charter of privilege to control his associates and exert an influence on the direction of the general affairs of the community, the free and natural action of that privilege is best secured by a perfectly free democratic system, which will abolish all artificial distinctions, and, preventing the accumulation of any social obstacles to advancement, will permit the free development of every germ of talent, wherever it may chance to exist.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

Consider this question – if the harm we have experienced leads us to a life dominated by unresolved anger, a negative image of ourselves, and an inability to trust, are we not allowing the perpetrator to continue to have power over us? When we have sleepless nights cycling and recycling thoughts about old hurts, when we seethe with anger, when we ask questions repetitively that seem to have no answers, we continue to suffer the consequences of being hurt. Perhaps our goal should be to find a way to free ourselves from the damage and to reclaim our lives for ourselves.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

While the workman concentrates his faculties more and more upon the study of a single detail, the master surveys an extensive whole, and the mind of the latter is enlarged in proportion as that of the former is narrowed. In a short time, the one will require nothing but physical strength without intelligence; the other stands in need of science, and almost of genius to ensure success. This man resembles more and more the administrator of a vast empire; that man, a brute. The master and the workman have then here no similarity, and their differences increase every day. Each of them fills the station which is made for him, and which he does not leave; the one is continually, closely and necessarily dependent upon the other and seems as much born to obey as that other is to command. What is this but aristocracy?

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

Yes, but someone will say to me that this design of making use of oneself as a subject to write about would be excusable in great and famous men, who by their reputation had aroused some desire to know them. That is certain, I confess it, and know very well that an artisan will scarcely lift his eyes from his work to see a man of the common sort, whereas men forsake workshops and stores to see a great and prominent person arrive in a city. It will become any other to make himself known except him who has qualities worthy of imitation and whose life and opinions may serve as a model.

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

In a world where social place was still determined largely by birth, the idea that political leadership and social pre-eminence should derive from an individual’s talents and virtues was in many ways revolutionary. Nevertheless, demands to create a thoroughly egalitarian society or democratic government, perhaps by eliminating private property or selecting rulers by law, were few. Instead, eighteenth century debate about civil society, and political governance focussed principally on balancing the claims of rights and privileges of merit, and thus, the competing pulls of equality and difference. It was this debate that pushed questions concerning the nature of virtues and talents to centre stage.

Which of these fits gap (i)?

Directions: Read the following passage having some numbered gaps.

Kai-Kaoos was young and filled with pride at the thought of the great kingdom that was under his rule, and so he ___(i)___ and he would not listen to the advice of his councillors but thought that his will should be ___(ii)___ all the wisdom of the earth. Then the Evil Spirits who are always on the watch out to ruin mortals, saw this, and ___(iii)___. One of the Evil Spirits, dressed as a singer, came to Kai-Kaoos, and sang so sweetly of the beautiful city of Mazinderan that Kai-Kaoos __(iv)___.

Which of these fits gap (ii)?

Directions: Read the following passage having some numbered gaps.

Kai-Kaoos was young and filled with pride at the thought of the great kingdom that was under his rule, and so he ___(i)___ and he would not listen to the advice of his councillors but thought that his will should be ___(ii)___ all the wisdom of the earth. Then the Evil Spirits who are always on the watch out to ruin mortals, saw this, and ___(iii)___. One of the Evil Spirits, dressed as a singer, came to Kai-Kaoos, and sang so sweetly of the beautiful city of Mazinderan that Kai-Kaoos __(iv)___.

Which of the following options should replace the underlined word in line 4?

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

1. A farmer had three sons who were idlers.

2. When the farmer fell ill, he told them that ______________.

3. Before the farmer died, the sons went to the field and dug the whole field but found no treasure.

4. Then they understood the real meaning of his father’s advice.

Which of the following options should replace the underlined word in line 3?

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

1. A farmer had three sons who were idlers.

2. When the farmer fell ill, he told them that ______________.

3. Before the farmer died, the sons went to the field and dug the whole field but found no treasure.

4. Then they understood the real meaning of his father’s advice.

Which of these fits gap (iv)?

Directions: Read the following passage having some numbered gaps.

Kai-Kaoos was young and filled with pride at the thought of the great kingdom that was under his rule, and so he ___(i)___ and he would not listen to the advice of his councillors but thought that his will should be ___(ii)___ all the wisdom of the earth. Then the Evil Spirits who are always on the watch out to ruin mortals, saw this, and ___(iii)___. One of the Evil Spirits, dressed as a singer, came to Kai-Kaoos, and sang so sweetly of the beautiful city of Mazinderan that Kai-Kaoos __(iv)___.

What happened when a few of the tenants informed the proprietor of the house?

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

Vicomte inherited a large house from his uncle. He learned that the large house being rented out to tenants, was fetching big revenues. He thought that his uncle was too hard to rent out the units at high prices. He would lower the rents and his tenants would bless him. So, he notified all the tenants that their rents were being lowered by one-third thereafter. The unheard of word “lower” fell like a brick on the Real of Bernard the caretaker of the building. “Lower the rents!” He stammered. “Never was such a thing known, Truly.”
Vicomte interrupted Bernard and strictly commanded him to follow his orders. Staggering Bernard went out, all his ideas upset, overthrown and confounded. And the next morning, Bernard, buttoning himself into his best coat, made the rounds of the lodges to announce the great news. Ten minutes later, the whole house was in commotion. People clustered together and chatted eagerly. A few of them wrote to the proprietor to warn him that his caretaker had wholly lost his mind. Vicomte responded, confirming what Bernard had said.

Which of the following is the correct spelling of “meantained” as used in the passage above?

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

“My curiosity about birds dates back to a long time. In my childhood, we had a pet mynah at home and I had taught it to pronounce some words. I believed then that the birds did not really know the meaning of what they only mechanically repeated. But I had to revise my opinion as my mynah did something amazing. One afternoon, as I was about to sit for lunch, the mynah started screeching ‘Earthquake! Earthquake! We felt nothing, but next morning, there was a report in the paper about a mild tremor. Ever since, I have meantained an interest in birds.”

Which of these fits gap (i)?

Directions: Read the following passage having some numbered gaps.

Man used sticks and stones long before he dared to interfere with fire, ____(i)_____ the early man like all wild creatures dreaded the fire. Fire, of course existed; for lightning must ____(ii)____ have set the forests ablaze just as it does today and in those days, today’s volcanoes were ___(iii)___ they now are. The forgotten hero who first dared to tame fire for his own use, was the greatest of early inventers; for once man had fire, ____(iv)____.