VITTopic/Course

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Reading Comprehension
 Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a

text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words
that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message. Proficient
reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly.

TYPES OF QUESTIONS
There are two types of questions in reading comprehension:
 Referential Questions
 Inferential questions
 Reading Comprehension
Referential Questions (Direct Questions):

 Referential questions are those for which you can answer directly from the
information given in the passage.

Inferential questions:

 In order to answer inferential questions we have to read the passage or the

concerned paragraph, understand the information presented in it and then
based on our understanding answer the question.
 Question 1-3
Directions: Read the given passages and answer the questions that follow.
One day a visitor knocked at Nasreddin Shah’s door. “I am your cousin from
Konya,” he introduced himself, “and I have brought you a duck to celebrate the
visit.” Nasreddin was delighted. He asked his wife to cook the duck, and served the
visitor a fine dinner.
The next day another visitor arrived. “I am a friend of the man who brought you the
duck,” he said. Nasreddin invited him in and gave him a good meal. The next day, a
yet another visitor arrived, claiming that he was the friend of the friend of the man
who had brought the duck. Nasreddin treated this man too with a fine meal, but
began to get second thoughts that visitors are using his house as a restaurant.

(Contd..)
 Question 1-3
Then another visitor came, and said he was the friend of the friend of the friend of
the man who had brought the duck. Nasreddin invited him to eat dinner with him.
His wife served this visitor some soup and the visitor tasted it. “What kind of soup is
this?” asked the visitor very curiously. “It tastes just like warm water.” “Ah!” said
Nasreddin, “That is the soup of the soup of the soup of the duck.” The visitor was
bewildered!
 Question 1
What is the moral of the story?

A) Guests should always be welcomed and offered food.

B) Use wit and don’t allow others take you for a ride.
C) If soup is offered, guests will not pay visits to your home.
D) Nasreddin Shah is a clever man.
 Question 2
What was the name of the place of the first visitor?

A) Kenya
B) Chechenya
C) Konya
D) Himalaya
 Question 3
Why the visitor became very curious?

A) The soup was very delicious.

B) Nasreddin’s wife served warm water.
C) The dinner didn’t include soup.
D) The soup tasted like warm water.
 Question 4-5
Directions: Read the given passages and answer the questions that follow.
Dolphins are regarded as the friendliest creatures in the sea and stories of them
helping drowning sailors have been common since Roman times. The more we learn
about dolphins, the more we realize that their society is more complex than people
previously imagined. They look after other dolphins when they are ill, care for
pregnant mothers and protect the weakest in the community, as we do. Some
scientists have suggested that dolphins have a language but it is much more
probable that they communicate with each other without needing words.

(Contd..)
 Question 4-5
Could any of these mammals be more intelligent than man? Certainly the most
common argument in favour of man’s superiority over them that we can kill them
more easily than they can kill us is the least satisfactory. On the contrary, the more
we discover about these remarkable creatures, the less we appear superior when we
destroy them.
 Question 4
Dolphins belong to which class?

A) Marsupials
B) Fish
C) Reptiles
D) Mammals
 Question 5
Why does the author say that we appear less superior to Dolphins?

A) Dolphins are more superior to humans because they communicate with each
other without needing words.
B) Humans can kill Dolphins more easily.
C) Dolphins kill other species easily.
D) When humans destroy other species like these Dolphins, the former become
less superior to the later as they exhibit more life-saving and friendly traits.
 Question 6-10
Directions: Read the given passages and answer the questions that follow.
Organisations are institutions in which members compete for status and power.
They compete for the resources of the organisation, for example, finances to expand
their own departments, for career advancement and for power to control the
activities of others. In pursuit of these aims, groups are formed and sectional
interests emerge. As a result, policy decisions may serve the ends of political and
career systems rather than those of the organisation. In this way, the goals of the
organisation may give way to favour sectional interests and individual ambitions.
These preoccupations sometimes prevent the emergence of organic systems.

(Contd..)
 Question 6-10
Many of the electronic firms in the study had recently created research and
development departments employing highly-qualified and well-paid scientists and
technicians. Their high pay and expert knowledge were sometimes seen as a threat
to the established order of rank, power and privilege. Many senior managers had
little knowledge of technicality and possibilities of new developments and
electronics. Some felt that close cooperation with the experts in an organic system
would reveal their ignorance and show their experience was now redundant.
 Question 6
What is the crisis faced by an organisation as claimed by the author?

A) Members of an organisation compete for status and power.

B) Members compete for the resources of an organisation.
C) Members prefer to expand their own departments for career advancements.

D) Members’ inclination towards sectional interests and individual ambitions at

the expense of organisation’s goals.
 Question 7
What is the holistic effect of the crisis?

A) Status and power are the members’ only interest.

B) Pursuit of power to control the activities of others.
C) Policy decisions may not serve the organisation as a whole.
D) Competition for resources like finance.
 Question 8
In this passage, “organic system” means ______________________.

A) The way how a tree grows from a seed in an organisational context.

B) An organisational system that is interconnected with departments of equal
significance and one that harmoniously helps the organisation as a whole to
grow.
C) The complex hierarchy of an organisation which resembles an organic living
thing.
D) The term for denoting the various branches of an organisation.
 Question 9
Why does the author think that an organic system is not established here?

A) Many senior managers had little knowledge of technicality and possibilities of

new developments and electronics.
B) All the entities within the organisation were not willing to work as a cohesive
unit.
C) The high pay and expert knowledge of the R&D personnel were seen as a threat
to the established order.
D) Senior managers were ignorant and under-qualified.
 Question 10
What is the tone of the author in this passage?

A) Critical

B) Analytical

C) Admirable

D) Sarcastic
 Question 11-15
Direction: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions given
below it.
The world dismisses curiosity by calling it idle, or mere idle curiosity - even though
curious persons are seldom idle. Parents do their best to extinguish curiosity in
their children because it makes life difficult to be faced every day with a string of
answerable questions about what makes fire hot or why grass grows. Children
whose curiosity survives parental discipline are invited to join our university. Within
the university, they go on asking their questions and trying to find the answers. In
the eyes of a scholar, that is mainly what a university is for. Some of the questions
that scholars ask seem to the world to be scarcely worth asking let alone answering.
They ask questions too minute and specialized for you and me to understand without
years of explanation..
(Contd..)
 Question 11-15
If the world inquires of one of them why he wants to know the answer to a particular
question he may say, especially if he is a scientist, that the answer will in some
obscure way make possible a new machine or weapon or gadget. He talks that way
because he knows that the world understands and respects utility. But to you who
are now part of the university, he will say that he wants to know the answer simply
because he does not know it. The way a mountain climber wants to climb a
mountain simply because it is there. Similarly, a historian when asked by outsiders
why he studies history may come out with the argument that he has learnt to repeat
on such occasions. Something about knowledge of the past making it possible to
understand the present and mold the future.

(Contd..)
 Question 11-15
But if you really want to know why a historian studies the past, the answer is much
simpler: something happened, and he would like to know what. All this does not
mean that the answers which scholars find to their questions have no consequences.

They may have enormous consequences but these seldom form the reason for asking
the question or pursuing the answers. It is true that scholars can be put to work
answering questions for the sake of the consequences as thousands are working
now, for example, in search of a cure for cancer. But this is not the primary function
of the scholar, for the consequences are usually subordinate to the satisfaction of
curiosity.
 Question 11
According to this passage, the children make life difficult for their parents ?

A) by unceasing bombardment of questions

B) by asking irrelevant questions
C) by their ceaseless curiosity
D) by posing profound questions
 Question 12
Choose the word which is most farthest in meaning to the word 'Intricate‘.

A) complicated
B) twisted
C) extract
D) simple
 Question 13
Choose the word which is most nearly the same in meaning to the word
'enormous‘.

A) insignificant
B) colossal
C) ordinary
D) tiny
 Question 14
In the statement ’that is mainly what a university is for’, the word ’that’ refers to
_________________________.

A) parental refusal to answer questions.

B) children curiosity that survives parental discipline
C) questions not worth answering
D) the aim and scope of the university to provide an opporunity to curious minds
to find out the answers for their questions.
 Question 15
The word in the passage which means to put out/finish is __________.

A) extinguish
B) curious
C) answer
D) mould
 Question 16-20
Directions: Read the given passages and answer the questions that follow.
Although European decisions during the 16th and 17th centuries to explore,
trade with, and colonize large portions of the world brought tremendous economic
wealth and vast geographic influence, the enormous success of European maritime
ventures during the age of exploration also engendered a litany of unintended
consequences for most of the nations with which Europe interacted. Due to their
incredible military force, religious zeal, and uncompromising goal of profit,
Europeans often imposed their traditions, values, and customs on the people with
whom they traded. They frequently acted without regard to the long-term welfare of
others as their principal concern was short-term economic gain.

(Contd..)
 Question 16-20
Since many nations that traded with Europe placed high value on their historical
customs, some natives became deeply disconcerted by the changes that occurred as
a result of European power. These factors, coupled with perennial domestic political
instability, caused numerous countries to grow increasingly resistant to European
influence.

One potent example of this ideological shift can be seen in the actions of the
Tokugawa government of Japan. In its Seclusion Edict of 1636, the government
attempted to extricate cultural interactions with Europe from the intimate fabric of
Japanese society. The Edict attempted to accomplish this by focusing on three areas.

(Contd..)
 Question 16-20
First, it sought to curb cultural exchange by eliminating people bringing European
ideas into Japan. The Edict stated, “Japanese ships shall by no means be sent
abroad. All Japanese residing abroad shall be put to death when they return home.”
Second, the Edict focused on limiting trade. Articles 11 through 17 of the Edict
imposed stringent regulations on trade and commerce. Third, the government
banned Christianity, which it saw as an import from Europe that challenged the
long-established and well-enshrined religious traditions of Japan. The government
went to considerable lengths to protect its culture. Article eight of the Edict stated,
“Even ships shall not be left untouched in the matter of exterminating Christians.”

(Contd..)
 Question 16-20
With the example of Japan and the examples of other countries that chose a
different response to European influence, it is perhaps not too far of a stretch to
conclude that Japan made the right decision in pursuing a path of relative
isolationism. As history unfolded during the next 400 years, in general, countries
that embraced European hegemony, whether by choice or by force, tended to suffer
from pernicious wealth inequality, perennial political instability, and protracted
underdevelopment.
 Question 16
What was the adverse outcome of European decisions to explore, trade with, and
colonize large portions of the world?
 Question 16
A) Tremendous economic wealth and vast geographic influence to the European
nations.
B) Undesirable consequences to most of the nations with which Europe
interacted.
C) Many Asian countries were exploited to the maximum by these European
colonial masters.
D) The economies of regions other than Europe began to decline in the 16th and
17th centuries.
 Question 17
Why many countries started resisting European influence?

A) The ideological shift in the actions of Tokugawa government of Japan.

B) The Seclusion Edict of 1636 focused on limited trade.
C) The act of imposing Christianity as the main religion by Europeans in those
countries where they traded.
D) The act of Europeans’ hegemonic implementation of their own traditions and
customs upon those whom they traded and the prolonged political uncertainty
in these countries.
 Question 18
Why does the author cite the events that occurred in Japan in the 17th century?

A) As an example to show how countries became increasingly resistant to

European influence.
B) To portray the emergence of Japan in the 17th century.
C) To stress the ideological shift that is happening in Asian countries at that time.

D) To describe about the Seclusion Edict of 1636.

 Question 19
Did all non-European countries show the same kind of response as that of Japan?

A) Yes.
B) No.
C) Can’t say.
D) Hypothetical.
 Question 20
The countries that were submissive to European suffered from ___________.

A) poverty
B) Political stability.
C) Political inequality and protracted underdevelopment.
D) pernicious wealth inequality and protracted underdevelopment.
THANK YOU