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 inferences from the text reading comprehension english

The iridescent nature of opals is a result of water trapped inside silica material. With time, this water will escape. Unlike advice given for most precious stones, experts advocate frequent handling of opals, which transmit body oils to the stones and helps them maintain their  water content.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

  1. Opals will eventually lose their colour if left alone

  2. Body oils give opals their iridescent colours

  3. Opals require the same care as most precious stones

  4. An opal stone rarely maintains its value for longer than a century
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Option A is the correct answer because according to the statement , the iridescent (colourful) nature of opals is due to its water, and as the water content will be lost, they will lose their colour. 

Option B is incorrect because water gives opals their colour, not body oils, they only help them maintain their water content. 
Option C is incorrect because other stones require even more intensive care, here they only need to be exposed to body oils. 
Option D is incorrect because that is not mentioned in the passage. 

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

I was at the shop early. He was standing behind the counter and as soon as I saw him, I knew that there would be some unpleasantness. Mr Higson is never at his best unshaven, in slippers and braces and smoking on the empty stomach. The atmosphere of the little shop was heavy with the bitter odour of fresh newspaper print and ink: stacks of crisp newspapers and magazines lay neatly on the counter, and Higson and the boy were making up the daily mend. 


The overall atmosphere in the shop was:

  1. pleasant, wholesome and welcome.

  2. heavy with a lot of goods placed there.

  3. with the inactivity of the early morning.

  4. congenial and businesslike.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Even though the author assumes that there would be some unpleasantness because "Mr. Higson is never at his best unshaven", the overall atmosphere of the shop is congenial and business-like: we see Mr. Higson and "the boy" busy and engaged in some work, the magazines and newspaper were stacked neatly in their place and a general pleasantness hinted by everybody being busy and going about their way. So, option D is the correct answer.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

Popular illusions about birds extend further than the use of the word 'egg-shape' that would suggest that all eggs are alike. For instance, there is the popular idea that owls hoot. Actually, only very few owls hoot and these include the common brown or tawny wood owl. The white barn owl screeches; the little owl has a wailing cry, the long-. eared owl barks; and the short-eared owl snorts! Another mistaken idea is that all ducks 'quack' because the common farmyard duck is a domesticated form of the common wild duck or mallard that quacks. Actually, most wild ducks call with whistles.


The impression created by repeating the terms, 'popular' and 'common' are:

  1. human beings are closely attached to birds.

  2. our ideas about birds are derived from the most common types.

  3. owls and ducks are our favourite birds.

  4. domesticated birds are our source of information about the bird world.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Here, the words "popular" and "common" imply general ideas. We derive these "popular" ideas by observing only the common types of birds and make a generalization. This claim is supported by the statement: "For instance, there is the popular idea that owls hoot. Actually, only very few owls hoot and these include the common brown or tawny wood owl." So, the answer to the required question is option B.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english

Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows

A village must have some trade, and this village has always been full of virility and power. Obscure and happy, its splendid energies had found employment in wresting a livelihood out of the earth, whence had come a certain dignity, and kindliness, and love for other men. Civilization did not relax these energies, but it had diverted them; and all the special qualities, which might have helped to heal the world, had been destroyed. The family affection, the affection for the commune, the sane pastoral virtues - all had perished. No villain had done this thing: it was the work of ladies and gentlemen who were rich and often clever. 

Village life is praised by the author because it ____________. 

  1. helps villagers to achieve material prosperity.

  2. makes men complacent.

  3. breeds humane virtues.

  4. is free from the din and hurry of city life.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The author says that village life breeds virtues like dignity, kindness and love for fellow humans whereas "civilization" destroyed them. Thus, we can conclude that this becomes the main reason why the author praises village life: it breeds humane virtues. So, the answer is option C.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage and answer the question that follows. 

Once while travelling by the local bus, I got a seat beside a very strange man. He seemed interested in every passenger aboard. He would stare at a person, scribble some odd mathematical notations on his long notebook and then move on to the next. Being quite interested in what he was doing I asked him what all those notations meant and then came the startling reply. He saw a man's face not as a single unit but as thousands of squares put together. He was in fact a statistical expert and a budding artist learning the art of graphics. 


From the passage we gather that _____. 

  1. the author is very inquistive

  2. the author tries to poke his nose in other people's business

  3. the author is interested in mathematical notations

  4. the author wants to talk to fellow passengers in the bus
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Here, the author having seen a man whom he had thought of as being strange, asked the same man what his seemingly strange ways meant. This shows that the author is curious and wanted to know more. So, we can conclude that the author is very inquisitive. So, option A is the answer.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage given below and choose the option that best fits the question that follows:

It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked around me, I could hear nothing, nor see anything. I went up the shore, and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot-toes, heel and every part of a foot. 


The passage is full of short simple sentences. Their purpose is to ______.

  1. facilitate easy understanding

  2. give a plain narration

  3. convey breathless excitement

  4. imply the inability of the author to write in an better way
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The passage focuses on bringing out the surprise and excitement felt by the author when he notices a foot-print. The passage uses short simple sentence in order to convey this surprise and excitement of the author. Option C is the best answer.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

While I stood drinking in the beauty of this placid scene I became conscious of an alteration. In a moment the sole porter emerged from his midday nap, operated a signal that clanked noisily into position, and then ambled slowly towards me for my return half-ticket, whilst I remarked that his red amiable face and easy-going gait were in perfect harmony with the tranquil surroundings.
 A wisp of smoke on the horizon with a dark snake crawling beneath it announced the approach of the train. As it drew nearer, the deep silence of the place was gradually displaced by a creaking of brakes and a hissing of steam. Save for myself, no one entered the train and no one alighted. The porter with leisurely expertness, trundled a couple of milk churns on board, the door was slammed, the guard signalled to the driver, and we moved off, leaving the small station once more to its drowsy silence.


The meaning of drowsy is 

  1. Untidy

  2. Sleepy

  3. Freezing

  4. Drugged
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The word "drowsy" means half-asleep or sleepy. So, option B is the answer.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english


Read the passage given below and choose the option that best fits the question that follows:

It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked around me, I could hear nothing, nor see anything. I went up the shore, and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot-toes, heel and every part of a foot. 

Which one of the following words best describes the emotion evoked by the foot-print in the author? 

  1. Curiosity

  2. Indifference

  3. Fear

  4. Surprise
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The statement, "I was exceedingly surprised" implies that curiosity was the emotion evoked by the foot-print in the author. So, option A is the answer.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage given below and choose the option that best fits the question that follows:

While I stood drinking in the beauty of this placid scene I became conscious of an alteration. In a moment the sole porter emerged from his midday nap, operated a signal that clanked noisily into position, and then ambled slowly towards me for my return half-ticket, whilst I remarked that his red amiable face and easy-going gait were in perfect harmony with the tranquil surroundings.
 A wisp of smoke on the horizon with a dark snake crawling beneath it announced the approach of the train. As it drew nearer, the deep silence of the place was gradually displaced by a creaking of brakes and a hissing of steam. Save for myself, no one entered the train and no one alighted. The porter with leisurely expertness, trundled a couple of milk churns on board, the door was slammed, the guard signalled to the driver, and we moved off, leaving the small station once more to its drowsy silence.


The central idea of the passage is _____________.

  1. Leisure and peace

  2. Hurry and noise

  3. Activity

  4. The porter
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The correct answer for this would be option A, leisure and peace. The author of the passage has tried to illustrate the serene nature and surrounding of the speaker, juxtaposing it with the humdrum of a train station. The tone of the speaker conveys a peaceful environment. The statements of options B,C and D are incoherent with the tone of the passage, and thus, are incorrect. 

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

The psychological causes of unhappiness, it is clear, are many and various. But all have something in common. The typical unhappy man is one who, having deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, has come to value this one ' kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to the activities connected with it. There is, however, a further development which is very common in the present day. A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and oblivion. He then becomes a devotee of "pleasure". This is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive. Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide-the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness. 


What does "becoming less alive" imply?

  1. Neglect of health

  2. Decline in moral values

  3. Living in a make-believe world

  4. Leading a sedentary way of living
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

As the author says, "A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and oblivion. He then becomes a devotee of 'pleasure'. This is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive." So, he starts living in his own world of distractions. So, the answer is option C.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

The psychological causes of unhappiness, it is clear, are many and various. But all have something in common. The typical unhappy man is one who, having deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, has come to value this one ' kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to the activities connected with it. There is, however, a further development which is very common in the present day. A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and oblivion. He then becomes a devotee of "pleasure". This is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive. Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide-the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness. 


"One sided direction" refers to the pursuit of which one of the following? 

  1. Drinking and forgetfulness

  2. The satisfaction one had been deprived of

  3. Activities leading to happiness

  4. Every form of psychological satisfaction
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

In the given passage the author clearly states, "The typical unhappy man is one, who having been deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, comes to value this one kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one- side direction." This clearly implies that "one- side direction" refers to the satisfaction that one had been deprived of. Hence, the answer should be option B.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

It is said that ideas are explosive and dangerous. To allow them unfettered freedom is, in fact, to invite disorder. But, to this position, there are at least two final answers. It is impossible to draw a line round dangerous ideas, and any attempt at their definition involves monstrous folly. If views, moreover, which imply disorder are able to disturb the foundations of the State; there is something supremely wrong with the governance of the State. For disorder is not a habit of mankind. We cling so eagerly to our accustomed ways that, as even Burke insisted; popular violence is always the outcome of a deep popular sense of wrong. 


Which of the following statements may most correctly bring out the significance of the opinion of Burke quoted in the passage?

  1. Burke advocated violence against injustice

  2. Burke's opinion coincides with the author's opinion on explosive and dangerous ideas

  3. Burke hated any popular uprising

  4. Burke had no belief in political liberty
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

In the given context, the author agrees with Burke's viewpoint: how violence against injustice is a natural consequence. They both seem to agree that some ideas are explosive and dangerous as they invite injustice. So, the answer is option B.

Multiple choice inferences from the text reading comprehension english
Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:

Parlands alligator population has been declining in recent years primarily because of hunting. Alligators prey heavily on a species of freshwater fish that is highly valued as food by Parlanfers who had hoped that the declined in the alligator population would lead to an increase in the numbers of these fish available for human consumption. Yet the population of this fish species has also declined even though the annual number caught for human consumption has not increased.

Which of the following if true most helps to explain the decline in the population of the fish species?

  1. The decline in alligator population has meant that fishers can work in some parts of lakes and rivers that were formerly too dangerous

  2. Over the last few years Parlands commercial fishing enterprises have increased the number of fishing boats they use

  3. The main predator of these fish is another species of fish on which alligator also prey

  4. Many Parlanders who hunt alligator do so because of the high market price of alligator skins not because of the threat alligators pose to the fish population

  5. In several neighboring countries through which Parlands rivers also flow alligators are at risk of extinction as a result of extensive hunting
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Here, option C is the correct answer. This is so because if alligators prey on these predator fishes and the alligator population is on the decline then there would be a rise in the population of the predator fish which, in turn, would increase the non-human consumption of the freshwater fish. The other options do not provide such a solution. A does not hold true because it suggests that the decline in freshwater fish population is due to the fish being caught in larger numbers, the statement clearly states that there has not been an increase in human consumption of the fish. So A is out. B does not provide any explanation for why the fish population has declined. D provides a reason for the hunting of alligators which is irrelevant. E too fails in providing an explanation for the decline in the population of freshwater fish.

Multiple choice zoology meaning of life energy flow and loss energy flow in a food chain energy flows
Read the passage and answer the following question.

Assume you had a 10m$^2$ pond to study. You measured the amount of light energy bathing the water surface at 1,000kcal.


Based on the energy captured, about what percentage of that would be transferred to higher trophic levels?

  1. 1.65 percent

  2. 16.5 percent

  3. 33 percent

  4. 3.3 percent

  5. 66 percent
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Ecological efficiency, or the percentage of energy transferred between trophic levels, is typically around 10 percent to 20 percent. 16.5 percent is a plausible value within this range.

Multiple choice biology animal behaviour ethology natural selection coordination in human beings- chemical control endocrine system in humans

Read the following passage and answer the following question.
A group of 10 newly hatched chicks was separated into two smaller groups containing five chicks each. One group (Group A) was left with the mother hen, the other group (Group B) was taken shortly after hatching and kept with a mother goose. The chicks in Group A displayed normal behavior and followed the mother hen around. The chicks in Group B followed the mother goose around and exhibited goose like behavior, such as swimming. After one week, Group B was reunited with the mother hen, but ignored her, and instead continued to follow the mother goose around the barnyard.
The behaviour exhibited by the chicks in Group B is

  1. Imprinting

  2. Instinct

  3. Insight

  4. Habituation

  5. Conditioning
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

A form of learning that occurs during a brief genetically determined critical period shortly after birth is called as imprinting. Instinct is an inborn behaviour characteristic to a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli. Conditioning is also a learned response in which stimulus becomes associated with a consequence. Habituation is the most complicated form of learned behavior and includes applying something already learned to a new situation without a period of trial and error. Reasoning is making concept about cause and effect in particular context. Because the chicks learnt to follow mother goose and mother hen just after birth; it is imprinting. 

Thus, the correct answer is option (A).