Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 111 To 115 ] :

Directions : Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :

In July 1921, Tagore returned home from Europe. He was alarmed to find that many members of the staff at Santiniketan had enthusiastically embraced the non-co-operation movement, thus giving themselves up to 'narrow nationalist ideas that were already out of date'. In the first week of September, Gandhi met Tagore at his family home in Calcutta. They had a long and argumentative conversation about non-co-operation. C. F. Andrews, who was present, wrote that they had 'a difference of temperament so wide that it was extremely difficult to arrive at a common intellectual standing, though the moral ties of friendship remained entirely unbroken…'. Tagore later recalled that he had told Gandhi that 'the whole world is suffering today from the cult of a selfish and short-sighted nationalism. India has all down her history offered hospitality to the invader of whatever nation, creed or colour. I have come to believe that, as Indians, we not only have much to learn from the West but that we also have something to contribute. We dare not therefore shut the West out. But we still have to learn among ourselves how, through education, to collaborate and achieve a common understanding'.

Gandhi's answer is not recorded. But apparently Tagore was not satisfied, since he chose to make his criticisms public in the influential Calcutta journal Modern Review. In his recent travels in the West, said Tagore, he had met many people who sought 'to achieve the unity of man, by destroying the bondage of nationalism'. He had 'watched the faces of European students all aglow with the hope of a united mankind…'. Then he returned home, to be confronted with a political movement suffused with negativity. Are 'we alone to be content with telling the beads of negation', asked Tagore, 'harping on other's faults and proceeding with the erection of Swaraj on a foundation of quarrelsomeness?'

Gandhi responded immediately, defending the non-co-operation movement as 'a refusal to co-operate with the English administrators on their own terms. We say to them, "Come and co-operate with us on our terms, and it will be well for us, for you and the world". … A drowning man cannot save others. In order to be fit to save others, we must try to save ourselves. Indian nationalism is not exclusive, nor aggressive, nor destructive. It is health-giving, religious and therefore humanitarian. India must learn to live before she can aspire to die for humanity. The mice which helplessly find themselves between the cat's teeth acquire no merit from their enforced sacrifice.'

Direction for [ Question No: 116 To 118 ] :

Read the following excerpt and answer the questions asked at the end. The answers to the questions should be based on the excerpt.

Stray dogs known in scientific literature as free ranging urban dogs are unconfined dogs living in streets. India is home to one of largest population of stray dogs in the world with approximately 30 million stray dogs on streets. These free roaming dogs on streets evoke different emotions such as affection, sympathy, intolerance and fear amongst human beings. The culling of non-rabid stray dogs is now forbidden in India. This change in the thought of the country's judiciary and lack of implementation of effective animal birth control measures have resulted in increasing population. As the stray dog population increases, so do the problems associated with it - dog bites, rabies, noise pollution to name a few. Sadly, this has also forced these countless stray dogs to survive in squalid conditions. For many people, these issues have transformed dogs, who were once considered their beloved companions to their worst enemies. A mill owner killed 60 stray dogs but later felt remorse and went to Gandhiji, who approved of his deeds. This created a controversy, as violence was justified by an epitome of 'Ahimsa'. Respect for all living beings and that all life forms should be protected and not meted out with violence, forms the foundation of the concept of 'Ahimsa'. Gandhiji's endorsement of the mill owner's act could be understood in light of true interpretation of 'Ahimsa'. He thought that the act prevented the dogs from undergoing cruel state of neglect.

Direction for [ Question No: 119 To 120 ] :

Read the following excerpt and answer the questions asked at the end. The answers to the questions should be based on the excerpt.

The city of Teotihuacán, which lay about 50 kilometers north-east of modern-day Mexico City, began its growth by 200 - 100 B.C. At its height, between about A.D. 150 and 700, it probably had a population of more than 1,25,000 people and covered at least 20 square kilometers. It had over 2,000 apartment complexes, a great market, a large number of industrial workshops, an administrative center, a number of massive religious edifices, and a regular grid pattern of streets and buildings. Clearly, much planning and central control were involved in the expansion and ordering of this great metropolis. Moreover, the city had economic and perhaps religious contacts with most parts of Mesoamerica (Modern Central America and Mexico). The main factors for development were its geographic location on a natural trade route to the south and east of the Valley of Mexico, the obsidian resources in the Teotihuacán Valley itself and the valley's potential for extensive irrigation. The exact role of other factors is much more difficult to pinpoint - for instance, Teotihuacán's religious significance as a shrine, the historical situation in and around the Valley of Mexico toward the end of the first millennium B.C., the ingenuity and foresightedness of Teotihuacán's elite and finally, the impact of natural disasters, such as the volcanic eruptions of the late first millennium B.C. This last factor is at least circumstantially implicated in Teotihuacán's rise. Prior to 200 B.C., a number of relatively small centers coexisted in and near the Valley of Mexico. Around this time, the largest of these centers, Cuicuilco, was seriously affected by a volcanic eruption, with much of its agricultural land covered by lava. With Cuicuilco eliminated as a potential rival, any one of a number of relatively modest towns might have emerged as a leading economic and political power in Central Mexico. The archaeological evidence clearly indicates, though, that Teotihuacán was the center that did arise as the predominant force in the area by the first century A.D.