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

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

Unfree people, like immature children, are difficult to manage; but free and responsible people are easy to manage. All management involves commanding and obeying. But in a democracy, all commanding should avoid injuring the self-respect of the one commanded, and all obeying should be on the basis of one`s freedom and self-respect, and never degrade into cringing. It is only in this context that inter-human relationships in the management situation can evoke the best from the other person. Such free and responsible people will be naturally endowed with the citizenship virtues and graces of duty and punctuality, cooperation and commitment.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To show that commanding and obeying are important management tools

  2. To elucidate on the importance of management philosophy based on the principle of obedience

  3. To show it is always easy to manage people who are free and not those who are shackled

  4. To discuss ways and means of achieving managerial successes

  5. To formulate principles on how to extract best from the fellow workers in a work place
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

That is precisely what the underlying idea of this passage is.

Multiple choice

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

It is obvious that, given a choice, all teachers would choose to teach in a classroom that is bright and well equipped and is limited to twenty students or thereabout with all of them having their books and materials to support their learning. That is not the situation in many classrooms in the world today, and it will probably not be the situation for years to come. In the meantime, as we have tried to show, there are ways to make learning better, more entertaining and easier for both the teacher and the students. We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sail.

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

  1. To show that even if a situation is not ideal, a profitable use of it can be made with some adjustments

  2. To elucidate on the impossibility of an ideal schooling situation in the world

  3. To lay importance on improved teacher and student relationship

  4. To issue guidelines on how to improve schooling system in the world

  5. To accept the reality of the situation about the pathetic schooling situation all over the world
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The purpose of the writer is to strike a balance between 'what ought to be' and 'what is' by making necessary adjustments.

Multiple choice

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

One of the great challenges for second language teachers has been the implementation of procedures that help learners process comprehensible input while at the same time giving them opportunities for language awareness. In other words, effective second language teaching requires input processing (acquisition) combined with focus on form. It matters little whether we call it language awareness, or consciousness-raising, or linguistic problem-solving. Language is no longer seen as a fixed inventory of structures prescribed by an itemized syllabus that is present in an atomistic and linear fashion. Rather, it is seen as a dynamic process in which learners themselves are involved.

What message does the passage convey?

  1. To work out a formula for linguistic problem-solving

  2. To denigrate the stereotyped manner of prescribing syllabus

  3. To evolve a new system of teaching second language

  4. To give free hand to teachers to experiment on new methodologies

  5. To emphasize on the dynamics of language awareness
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

It is the dynamics of language awareness that occupies the mind of the writer and that is what the passage conveys

Multiple choice

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

The challenges involved in teaching large classes can be daunting. The ideas presented for dealing with these challenges have been developed over a period of several years and are the result of research of the literature on teaching large classes and from long interactive sessions with teachers. These teachers brainstormed and conducted action research while trying out these ideas (and many others, not always with the same degree of success) in their classrooms. The idea of trying to manage a classroom full of noisy, often hungry, teenagers who may or may not be interested in learning English is daunting at best.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To address the problems teachers face in interactive sessions

  2. To discuss the ideas generated on how best to teach students

  3. To take on the question of managing large, noisy, and often unwilling teenagers huddled together to learn English

  4. To describe and paint a horrid picture of the existing classrooms that produce no positive results

  5. To tackle the problem of ever growing number of students
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

It is the daunting task of managing large classrooms that is central in this passage and is the underlying idea of the passage.

Multiple choice

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

All these talks of property are foolish. We think we are leaving things behind for our children so that they could lead a comfortable life! Just think of the kings and queens who left behind so much for the succeeding generations! Where were they now? And who was enjoying their property today? Budhu was analytically more pragmatic than his station permitted him. But while he made this observation, he did not have Pheku Miyan's status in mind. Nor for that matter, Pheku Miyan gave any thought to it. The two went about their way, munching the same cud over and over again.

What message does the passage convey?

  1. To state that leaving property behind does not necessarily ensure life of comfort for the succeeding generations

  2. To show that it is important to be analytically more pragmatic than one's station permitted

  3. To demonstrate the utility of wealth and property in the hands of the generations that follow

  4. To illustrate on how the mind of Pheku Miyan was working

  5. To dwell on the pragmatism of Budhu
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The message the passage conveys is clearly about the lack of guarantee of comfort for those left with immense property.

Multiple choice

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

A question is often asked these days by those keen to improve their English: which English to learn? Earlier, British English was the only English one needed to acquaint oneself with. It was proudly declared to be Oxford English. Things, with the arrival of computers, have radically altered. American English (some would frown at the very expression) has made a strong impact on our knowledge or non-knowledge of English. A case of no love lost between British and American English is well made out by Oscar Wilde who described Britain and America as “two great countries divided by a common language”. Americans regard British English as effete and the English regard American English as uncouth, foul and slangy. In spite of these hostilities, English language commands respect of the world.

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

  1. To project American English as uncouth

  2. To paint British English as effete

  3. To show the difference between British English and American English

  4. To give expression to the predicament of those keen to learn English
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The passage begins on this key note of the predicament a student of English faces in having to decide which English to learn.

Multiple choice

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

Having the right talent throughout the organization is a critical source of competitive advantage. The leading organizations therefore conduct assessments of their talent; they differentiate in their high performers and low performers. They reward high performers with job opportunities that excite and challenge them. This may seem simple and easy initially; in practice it requires a fundamental shift in thinking. In the process of scalability of talent, organizations recognize that poor performers are identified since they are the ones who do not fail in their own jobs, but bring down everyone else around them.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To show that appraising the performance of employees is not an easy exercise

  2. To dwell on the desirability of having right talent for competitive advantage

  3. To demonstrate the ill-effects of having poor performers in an organization

  4. To examine the process of scalability of talent employed by an organization

  5. To delineate on how to differentiate between high performers and low performers
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The underlying idea has also to be the central idea, the main focal point of a passage. Right talent gives an organization the competitive edge it needs to survive.

Multiple choice

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

Large investments are flowing into real estate. The average risk-averse wage earners prefer to make investment in residential property as a means of security steeped in cultural values. The demographic change and rising incomes as a result of economic growth has further added to the pressure on real estate prices which in turn is pulling down financial savings. On the other hand, the easy loans available from the banking system for purchase of residential property have led to conversion of financial savings into physical savings. With housing falling in shortage category, it is inevitable for the physical savings to increase in the coming years.

What is the central idea of the passage?

  1. To examine the reasons for growing investment in real estate

  2. To demonstrate the ill-effects of investment in real estate on the economy

  3. To find an answer to the housing falling in shortage category

  4. To examine the factors responsible for pulling down financial savings

  5. To check the ominous rise in physical savings
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The passage makes it clear that investments are on the increase in the real estate. It proceeds to examine the reasons for the same, and that is the central idea contained in the passage.

Multiple choice

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

It is a competitive world today with high attrition rates. To retain talent, there is need to offer something extra than what others offer to poach on employees of other organizations. This something extra has to be innovative non-monetary incentive or benefit which is priceless in its value. The effective talent management is essential to ensure that each organization has the right mix of people at present as also in the future and has leaders who can drive success in the organization`s unique context and culture. It is this need that has swung into action many organizations into talent scouting.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To retain talent irrespective of the cost

  2. To ensure right mix of people at all times

  3. To poach on employees of other organizations

  4. To ruminate on ways of creating success stories

  5. To have leaders who can deliver in all situations
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

In a competitive world with high rate of attrition, it is very important to have the right mix of people at all times for a company to survive.

Multiple choice

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

A recent Japanese visitor to our country was struck by seeing the widespread wearing of wrist watches by our people, including even our clerks, rickshaw-pullers, and other low paid citizens. He remarked to his Indian friend: In spite of Japan being economically more advanced than India, we Japanese do not consume most of what our industry produces like wrist watches and clocks, but largely export them for strengthening our economy; and what strikes me further in India is that everyone here wears a watch, but nobody is punctual, that the watch seems to be more a status symbol than a useful instrument of punctuality!

What message does the passage convey?

  1. That Indians do not understand nitty-gritty of economy

  2. That Japan is economically a developed country

  3. That keeping to time is more important than making a show of it

  4. That the visitors from Japan are very inquisitive by nature

  5. That it is important to sell watches and clocks to strengthen economy
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Indians were seen flaunting wrist watches, but were not being punctual in their work.

Multiple choice

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

A conviction in the mind of its total ignorance of the nature of the specific attributes of Godhead, and a sense of the doubt respecting the real essence of the soul, give rise to feelings of great dissatisfaction with our limited powers. A notion of the existence of a supreme superintending power who regulates such an infinity of celestial and terrestrial objects, and a due estimation of that law which teaches that man should do unto others as he would wish to be done by, reconcile us to human nature, and tend to render our existence agreeable to ourselves and profitable to the rest of the mankind.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To ruminate on what man should with his limited power

  2. To wonder what makes man reconcile to human nature

  3. To ponder on what man should do to improve the quality of life around

  4. To show that it is the fear of the unknown that forces people to cling together

  5. To question the specific attributes of Godhead
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The writer uses the cause and effect phenomenon to explain the cause of people clinging together.

Multiple choice

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

It is a common remark that science and literature are in a progressive state of decay among the natives. From every inquiry I have been enabled to make on this interesting subject, that remark appears to me but too well-founded. The number of the learned is not only diminished, but the circle of learning, even among those who still devote themselves to it, appears to be considerably constricted. The abstract sciences are abandoned, polite literature neglected, and no branch of learning cultivated. The immediate consequence of this state of things is the disuse, and even actual loss, of many books.

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

  1. To draw attention to the dwindling number of readers in the world

  2. To draw attention to the dangers of the natives losing out on books of science and literature because of their diminishing interest in learning

  3. To depict a realistic picture of what is obtaining in the world of science and literature

  4. To caution against the possibility of some books getting lost

  5. To encourage people to take interest in polite literature
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The natives face a distinct possibility of losing out on the stock of their books because of their declining interest in science and literature.

Multiple choice

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

In ancient and in modern times, seeds of great truth and power have been cast abroad by the advancing tides of national life; but it has always been with the blast of war trumpets, and with the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea has to be soaked in a deluge of blood. This is what, in the main, other nations have taught; but India has, for thousands of years, peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist, and Rome was not thought of…. Even earlier, when tradition dare not peer into the gloom of that intense past, ideas have marched out from her womb.

What is the essence of the passage?

  1. That major parts of the world have spilled blood to have their say

  2. That the ideas have to be soaked in a deluge of blood

  3. That India has not learnt the art of disseminating ideas

  4. That it is possible to exist peacefully and transmit ideas without shedding blood
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Herein lies the essence of the passage. While major nations of the world have resorted to violence to have their say, India has disseminated them without shedding blood.

Multiple choice

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

It is time to censure a body which to many seems the mightiest outcome of our new national life; to some a precious urn in which are guarded our brightest and noblest hopes; to others a guiding star which shall lead us through the encircling gloom to a far distant paradise: and if we were not fully confident that this fixed idea of ours is a snare and a delusion, likely to have the most pernicious effects, we should simply have suppressed our own doubts and remained silent. As it is, we are fully confident, and hope to bring over one or two of our countrymen to our own way of thinking.

What is the underlying idea of the passage?

  1. To create awareness about the need for uprooting and dismantling certain established traditions practised over a long period of time

  2. To banish those beliefs and practices that have pernicious effects

  3. To reconcile to those beliefs and practices that have social sanction

  4. To remove misgivings about fixed ideas being a snare and a delusion

  5. To harness energy for creation of a utopia where each individual could live in amity with nature
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The writer is bent upon creating awareness amongst people to stand up against beliefs and practices that have done them more harm than good.

Multiple choice

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

There is no instance in history of a more marvellous and sudden up-surging of strength in a nation than modern Japan. There were several theories to account for the uprising, but the intellectual Japanese told us as to what were the fountains of that mighty awakening, the sources of that inexhaustible strength. They were drawn from religion. It was the Vedantic teachings of Oyomei and the recovery of Shintoism with its worship of the national Shakti of Japan in the image and person of the Mikado that enabled the little island empire to wield the stupendous weapons of Western knowledge and science with the same ease with which Arjun wielded the Gandiv.

What is the central idea of the passage?

  1. To show that Japan would not have progressed thus far if it had not relied on the teachings of the Vedas

  2. To demonstrate that the ease with which Arjun wielded Gandiv had no parallel

  3. To elucidate on how the Vedantic teachings helped Japanese master and control the weapons of Western knowledge and science

  4. To show the history of Japan is much like the history of ancient India

  5. To demonstrate that Japan owes much of its progress to Arjun who wielded Gandiv
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The writer traces Japan's stupendous progress to their religious outlook whereby Vedantic teachings enabled them to acquire Western knowledge and science.