English Language

Reading Comprehension

7,656 Questions
All Explicit Fact Retrieval 2427 Inference and Logical Deduction 1147 Contextual Vocabulary Meaning 845 Main Idea and Title Selection 781 Cause and Effect Extraction 699 Synonym and Antonym Identification 692 Sentence Structure and Discourse Function 336 Author Tone and Perspective 194 Interpretation of Figurative Language 190 Passage Style and Organization 173 Pronoun Referent Identification 49

Reading Comprehension Questions

Multiple choice

What product of Small Warty Acampe is used in India?

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the question that follows:


Small Warty Acampe is a flowering species that produces aromatic tiny flowers. It grows in India, in the Eastern Himalayas up to a height of 200 meters. It is also found in adjoining areas of Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia in small patches. It is a group of small flowers with a single stem that can be either straight or curved. Due to their large size and small flowers, they are rarely cultivated. The plant's long, rubber-like leaves are divided into two parts. These species forms slow-growing, medium-sized stems that form very large plant mass in nature. The hard parts of its flower look alike. The central column is short and has two pollen grains. Its powder is used sometimes as an energy supplement in India, though the plants themselves infamously require high-maintenance and are hard to grow.

  1. Flowers

  2. Vines

  3. Powder

  4. Labellum

  5. Dummy
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

"...powder is used sometimes as an energy supplement in India," provides the answer.

Multiple choice

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

A struggle against this accentuation of money is absolutely essential. Linked as it is to the immanent tendencies of contemporary capitalism, this struggle cannot but set for itself the conscious objective of transcending capitalism. Though the precise manner of this transcendence, the stages through which it may come about and linkages between struggles in different countries are matters that cannot be answered speculatively but require theoretical resolution on the basis of concrete praxis, the necessity of such transcendence is indubitable for anyone who is concerned with human freedom as it is this theory of transcendence that provides illumination.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To ensure human freedom from the baneful effects of capitalism

  2. To trace the immanent tendencies of contemporary capitalism

  3. To determine the history of capitalism

  4. To work out the methodology of tackling the problem of amassing of money

  5. To prove that the theory of transcendence provides illumination
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Too much importance to money is a problem caused by capitalism, which the writer wants tackled/transcended.

Multiple choice

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

Today science has touched every person in all walks of life. When you visit a doctor with absolute faith that he will find a cure for every illness, you see science in action. When harvest is bountiful and when you are able to make increased productivity than your forefathers in the same land, you see science in action. When you can talk to your wards in any part of the planet from your home, you see science in action. When you realize that the world is a global village and you have all the world of information available to you, you see science in action.

What is the author's purpose in writing this passage?

  1. To show the all-pervasive impact of science on our day to day life

  2. To demonstrate the effect of science when in action

  3. To create a picture of a global village

  4. To determine the extent of the reach of science

  5. To slow down the impact of science on everyday life
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The singular purpose of the writer is to demonstrate the all-pervasive impact of science on our day to day life.

Multiple choice

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

The socialist collapse, one would say, has ushered in a period of transition characterized by a sharp increase in exploitation and misery. Those who had argued that 'capitalism had changed', that henceforth only humane face of welfare capitalism would be seen, and had concluded that Marxism was wrong, are themselves being proved wrong, with soaring unemployment in advanced countries and a progressive curtailment of the welfare state. Many argued that capitalism needed no colonies; that colonies were a millstone round its neck and concluded that Marxism was wrong. They too are being proved wrong, as the sovereignty of third world is being progressively throttled.

What message does the passage convey?

  1. That capitalism came to fore because socialism failed to deliver

  2. To show the humane face of capitalism never seen before

  3. To show the writers anxiety to bring in Marxism to address the problem of unemployment

  4. To warn those who dismantled socialism at the altar of capitalism thus causing increase in exploitation and misery

  5. To make Marxism sneak in through back door
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The writer is clear in his conclusion that those who dismantled socialism with this belief that capitalism will reduce exploitation and misery actually added to that.

Multiple choice

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

A growing economy, the stock market booming, means more jobs. The growth has started in the cities with jobs chasing people, offering hope and guidance for those on the threshold of their careers. Ten years ago, 80 per cent of jobs were in the area of manufacturing, while today the majority of jobs come from the services sector. Government jobs are no longer an attractive destination for those looking at a wide choice of other exciting options. With governments downsizing, there are less jobs, and little of the power and status that many hopefuls once coveted.

What is the central idea of this passage?

  1. To show that government jobs are no longer an attractive destination

  2. To demonstrate that the Job market is more dynamic today than it was a decade ago

  3. To suggest that service sector is the major job provider today

  4. To find ways and means of creating more job opportunities

  5. To warn job seekers against spurious job providers
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The writer pointedly draws attention to the dynamism of the expanding job market as the economy has boomed.

Multiple choice

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

The other major force that has been unleashed by the information revolution that lies at the core of globalization is ethnicity. Ethnic loyalties have resurfaced not only in the newly emergent nations, where the process of nation building on the European model is far from complete, but also in many older and supposedly homogeneous nations of Europe. So, widespread is this resurgence that one can legitimately ask whether ethnic groups had ever been really homogenized or whether the political and even social expression of ethnic identities have been simply suppressed in nation states that had been built through conquest and coercion.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To show that nation building on the European model is underway

  2. To demonstrate that ethnicity is central to globalization

  3. To show that resurgence of ethnicity is widespread

  4. To elucidate on why ethnic groups had never been homogenized

  5. To demonstrate the importance of ethnicity in Europe
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The main concern of the writer is to show that resurgence of ethnicity is widespread.

Multiple choice

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

Those stepping out into the vast cavernous world of work need to look ahead with purpose. They need to concentrate on the areas that are best suited. A clear focus on career direction will enable one to open one`s mind to the incredible choice of career options that exist and are being continuously created all the time, in every subject area. At the same time, these should help one figure out the skills that are required to be developed so as to be ready for the jobs in areas that are in demand today, and will hold good for the future.

What is the author`s purpose in writing this passage?

  1. To show how to take advantage of the available job opportunities

  2. To emphasize the need for acquiring skills to enter the ever expanding job market

  3. To discuss the ways and means of present day economics

  4. To allay fears of getting embroiled in futile search for suitable job

  5. To paint a picture of a cavernous world of work with little available by way of choice
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The writer points to the expanding market of jobs and emphasizes on acquiring skill to take benefit of the same.

Multiple choice

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

What on earth is an engaging ruffian. He must be a creature of literary imagination, I thought, for the two words do not match in my personal experience. It has happened to me to meet a few ruffians here and there, but I never found one of them engaging. I consoled myself, however, by reflecting that the friendly reviewer must have been talking like a parrot, which so often seems to understand what it says.

What message does the passage convey?

  1. To draw attention to bizarre descriptions at times given by the literary people

  2. To run down those who describe ruffians as engaging

  3. To draw a parallel between a writer and a parrot

  4. To castigate all ruffians of the world as creature of literary imagination

  5. To show that even as some writers find some critics as inane and gibberish, they do not openly resent it
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

The writer minces no word to suggest that the writers do not openly resent the critics who make bizarre and inane observations.

Multiple choice

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

The purpose of science, as expounded by Thomas Huxley, was not only the advancement of knowledge, but also 'the alleviation of human suffering'. If the first is to lead to the second, there is need to wed the pursuit of knowledge, i.e. education, with the humanistic impulse. Unfortunately, we divorced our education, politics and administration from this humanistic impulse; so these lost the capacity to alleviate human suffering; some of these, especially politics developed even the capacity to aggravate human sufferings by infecting and distorting our education, administration and labour movement.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To re-evaluate the functions of science

  2. To examine the role of education

  3. To relate knowledge with science

  4. To denigrate politics for aggravating human sufferings

  5. To give credit to Thomas Huxley for study of science
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The writer rues the fact that education that is pursued is divorced from the humanistic impulse when in fact true education should lead to 'alleviation of human suffering'.

Multiple choice

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

Freedom of the individual is fundamental to human growth; it is also fundamental to a democratic socio-political order. But that freedom becomes a menace, as much to the individual as to the nation and its democracy, if it fails to inspire itself with a second value, namely the sense of social responsibility. Along with its wedding to this sense of social responsibility, the freedom of the individual needs to be enriched with the democratic virtues of self-discipline and a humanly oriented will. This constitutes character, character centred in a socially oriented will. It is this training in citizenship virtues and graces that makes a people capable of enriching all inter-human relations, including all management techniques, with ethical and humanistic impulses and growth oriented practical efficiency.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To demonstrate that citizens need to be trained on virtues

  2. To underline the importance of character in an individual

  3. To highlight the importance of individual freedom

  4. To show the futility of individual freedom without social responsibility

  5. To illustrate the benefits of self-discipline in a society
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Individual freedom without social responsibility is a menace and therefore highly undesirable.

Multiple choice

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

Some of the profoundest ideas relating to the philosophy of work are to be found in the Bhagvad-Gita. It is unique in its stress on work-ethics. Among the great religious books of the past, this is the only book whose central theme is work, man at work, and man achieving from work a double benefit, namely, social welfare outside, and spiritual growth within. All other religious books deal with man at worship, at prayer, at meditation, at ritual. But Gita deals primarily with man at work, and presents worship, prayer, meditation and ritual as means for man`s spiritual growth, development and realization on one hand and for increasing his work-efficiency, leading to social welfare, on the other. This is yoga.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To highlight the importance of Bhagvad-Gita, the scripture

  2. To demonstrate superiority of the Bhagvad-Gita over other scriptures

  3. To show that Bhagvad-Gita is more concerned with work than with prayers and worships

  4. To throw light on the benefits of yoga

  5. To discount the aspect of spiritual growth
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The writer wants to show that by laying more stress on work than on prayers and worships, the Bhagvad-gita serves a greater cause of society.

Multiple choice

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

From the day when education and culture began to spread gradually from patricians to plebeians, distinctions grew between the modern civilization as of Western countries and the ancient civilization as of India, Egypt, and Rome, etc. Evidently, a nation is advanced in proportion as education and intelligence spreads among masses. The chief cause of a country's ruin would be the monopolizing of the whole education and intelligence of the land, by dint of pride and royal authority, among a handful of men. If they are to rise again, they will have to do it by spreading education among the masses. By what power again has the German labourer succeeded in shaking the many-century-grounded firm footing of the English labourer? It is education.

What message does the passage convey?

  1. That centralization of education would be the cause of a country's ruin

  2. That education can be productive when restricted to a select few

  3. That education and culture are not the prerogatives of the Western countries

  4. That the world will be a better place only when education spreads to the masses

  5. That patricians and plebeians cannot exist together
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The writer strongly advocates the theory of education for all.

Multiple choice

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

What makes a static system of administration and management dynamic in this human orientation? There the heart is touched, not the mere intellect. It is when heart responds to heart that a static bureaucracy and management, be it in government or in service institutions like banking, become transformed into dynamic developmental administration and management. There is an appropriate strategy in everything. Our people, and even our foreign collaborators in industry, often complain that nothing moves in our bureaucracy; how many well-conceived developmental plans and programmes in our country are getting stifled by our wooden bureaucracy! All this will change when all our public service activities become infused with enlightened-citizenship awareness and the humanistic motive.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To point out the deficiency in the system of administration and management

  2. To emphasize the role heart could play in giving human orientation to bureaucracy

  3. To discuss the ways to infuse life in the wooden bureaucracy

  4. To suggest ways and means of galvanizing the government machineries

  5. To highlight the importance of intellect in developing the work culture of the government of the day
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The writer lays emphasis on the role heart could play in making bureaucracy more responsive to human aspects.

Multiple choice

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

Earning wealth by right means and honest labour is righteousness. But greed, and its impulsion to dishonesty and unscrupulousness, is opposed to what is righteous means. It is opposed to general social welfare and one`s own inner spiritual growth. It is righteousness that equalizes a strong man and a weak man in society. If the restraint of righteousness is not there, the strong will have all the riches, and the weak will be deprived of even elementary human satisfaction; and that was what obtained in the feudal social order, where the haves monopolized all the good things of life and the have-nots were left to live a near animal life. This is what we have to change fully in our democracy, by infusing moral, ethical, and human values in our society.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To infuse moral, ethical, and human values in the society for the betterment of democracy

  2. To highlight on the importance of righteousness for general social welfare

  3. To point out the differences between the strong and the weak

  4. To return to the good old days of feudal social order

  5. To ensure equitable distribution of national wealth amongst the haves and the have-nots
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The writer is keen to see a qualitative change in democracy which can be achieved by infusing moral, ethical and human values in our society.

Multiple choice

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

Every nation, every culture, has its own approach to the subject of management, as well as to other forms of group life and activity. Today, there are two great nations which are highly specialized in the field of management and have their own philosophies relating to it: one is America and the other is Japan. Not many in India know that their own country has its own philosophy of administration and management that is second to none. And there is a positive sign today that many of our own people are eager to explore it further. Many writers have sprung up expounding this subject, basing their treatment on the great Yoga philosophy and technique of the Bhagvad-Gita.

What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?

  1. To bring focus back on the Bhagvad-Gita as the philosophy of administration and management

  2. To expound on the benefits of yoga that is based on the philosophies of the Bhagvad-Gita

  3. To demonstrate that India's philosophy of administration and management compares favourably with those of the best in the world

  4. To show that American and Japanese are no match to India when it came to the philosophy of administration and management even though they are rated high

  5. To point to the ignorance of Indians on the question of the Bhagvad-Gita supplying such a great philosophy on administration and management
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The writer is clear that the Bhagvad-gita has a great philosophy on administration and management; but because not many know about it, there is need to bring focus back on it.