Reading Comprehension

Martin Luther King appealed to the conscience of white Americans by

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Martin Luther King’s active career extended from 1957 to 1968. During this brief career, he led numerous protest demonstrations in the South as well as in the North of the USA. He challenged the moral complacency of America and fought for the rights of the Negroes, he hated the eye-for-an-eye method like Gandhiji and fought with the weapon of non-violence, a weapon, said King, that ‘cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals’. In addition, he raised a vast army. It was an army that would move but not maul. It was an army to storm bastions of hatred, to lay siege to the fortress of segregation, to surround symbols of discrimination. It was an army whose allegiance was to God and whose strategic intelligence were the eloquently simple dictates of conscience. His creed of non-violence was criticized and challenged by ‘Black Power’ militants who would not renounce the use of violence to achieve their goals. Nevertheless, his faith in non-violence never wavered.

Sir Mohan Lal is portrayed as

Directions: Read the folowing passage and answr the question.

The arrival of the train did not disturb Sir Mohan Lal’s sang-froid. He continued to sip his scotch and ordered the bearer to tell him when he had moved the luggage to a first class compartment. Excitement, bustle, and hurry were exhibitions of bad breeding, and Sir Mohan was eminently well bred. He wanted everything ‘ticket boo’ and orderly. In his five years abroad, Sir Mohan acquired the manners and attitudes of the upper classes. He rarely spoke Hindustani. When he did, it was like an Englishman’s—only the very necessary words and properly anglicized. But he fancied his English, finished and refined at no less a place than the University of Oxford. He was fond of conversation and like a cultured Englishman he could talk on almost any subject—books, politics, and people. How frequently had he heard English people say that he spoke like an Englishman?

Rommel considered June 4, as a good time to leave because

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

It was 7 a.m. on Sunday, June 4, 1944. Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Commander-in-chief of the German Army Group B—guarding the occupied French coast facing the English Channel—was traveling in a car next to the driver’s seat. He was tired of waiting for the Allied invasion to begin. Leaving on this particular dismal Sunday morning suited Rommel fi ne. The timing of the trip could not have been better for the weather was so bad that the Allies would not even think of a landing. Beside him, on the seat was a cardboard box containing a pair of handmade grey-shade shoes, size 5 (1/2), for his wife Lucie-Maria. There was a special and very human reason why he wanted to be with her on Tuesday, June 6. It was her birthday.

According to the passage, a cultured Englishman is able to talk effortlessly on

Directions: Read the folowing passage and answr the question.

The arrival of the train did not disturb Sir Mohan Lal’s sang-froid. He continued to sip his scotch and ordered the bearer to tell him when he had moved the luggage to a first class compartment. Excitement, bustle, and hurry were exhibitions of bad breeding, and Sir Mohan was eminently well bred. He wanted everything ‘ticket boo’ and orderly. In his five years abroad, Sir Mohan acquired the manners and attitudes of the upper classes. He rarely spoke Hindustani. When he did, it was like an Englishman’s—only the very necessary words and properly anglicized. But he fancied his English, finished and refined at no less a place than the University of Oxford. He was fond of conversation and like a cultured Englishman he could talk on almost any subject—books, politics, and people. How frequently had he heard English people say that he spoke like an Englishman?

When Sir Mohan Lal spoke Hindustani, it was

Directions: Read the folowing passage and answr the question.

The arrival of the train did not disturb Sir Mohan Lal’s sang-froid. He continued to sip his scotch and ordered the bearer to tell him when he had moved the luggage to a first class compartment. Excitement, bustle, and hurry were exhibitions of bad breeding, and Sir Mohan was eminently well bred. He wanted everything ‘ticket boo’ and orderly. In his five years abroad, Sir Mohan acquired the manners and attitudes of the upper classes. He rarely spoke Hindustani. When he did, it was like an Englishman’s—only the very necessary words and properly anglicized. But he fancied his English, finished and refined at no less a place than the University of Oxford. He was fond of conversation and like a cultured Englishman he could talk on almost any subject—books, politics, and people. How frequently had he heard English people say that he spoke like an Englishman?

At the sight of the author’s bloody wound, his friends

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.

The Pundit was almost never upset as he

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.

You should apologise for your bad behaviour at a party, by sending

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

I consider myself something of an authority on apologies, because a quick temper has provided me with plenty of opportunities to make them. In one of my earliest memories, my mother is telling me, “Don’t look at the ground when you say, ‘I’m sorry’. Hold your head up and look the person in the eye, so he’ll know you mean it”.
My mother thus conveyed the first principle of successful apology: it must be direct. You must never pretend to be doing something else. You do not leaf through a sheaf of correspondence,  while apologising to a subordinate after blaming her for a mistake that turned out to be your fault. You do not apologise to a hostess, whose guest of honour you insulted, by sending flowers the next day, without mentioning your bad behaviour.

The Pundit’s wife had told him a lie in order to

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.

He was spoilt, mostly because he was

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

The reason why the Pundit’s wife refused to return the necklace was that

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Ordinarily, nothing upset the equilibrium of the Pundit. But the loss of the necklace, which his wife had borrowed from a neighbour, and the fact that he had to replace it worried him. He spent all his time in devising ways and means to repay the debt. Six months later, he gave his wife a gold necklace. It was exactly what she had yearned for. “There is no need to repay it’, she said. The Pundit was surprised. She explained, ‘the necklace was not stolen. That was the only way I could think of making you get me one’.

When his father painted in the college, Pablo

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

As a boy Pablo Picasso was

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw, before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and he was good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons with him.
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and lifelike, that that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.

The author was hit by a broken bottle

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.

The weapons used by the whites, in the gang fight, were

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

Our home stood behind the railroad tracks. Its skimpy yard was paved with black cinders. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the track, over where the white folks lived. However, cinders were fine weapons. All you had to do was crouch behind the brick pillars of a house with your hands full of gritty ammunition. And the first woolly black head you saw from behind another row of pillars was your target. It was fun.
One day the gang to which I belonged, found itself engaged in a war with the white boys who lived beyond the tracks. As usual, we laid down our cinder barrage thinking this would wipe the white boys out. But they replied with a steady bombardment of broken bottles. We retreated. During the retreat, a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear,  opening a deep gash. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralised our ranks. My fellow combatants left me standing paralyzed in the centre of the yard and scurried for their houses. A kind neighbour saw me and rushed me to a doctor.