Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The theme is that birds living in the open enjoy their lives.

The poem sets the free bird, which sings and soars, against the caged one, which is 'only half alive'. It argues that freedom is what lets a creature live fully and sing.

The caged bird's life is shown as poor, not fruitful, so the first option reverses the poem. The poem never says birds should be kept in cages, and it does not talk about food.

Answer: B

'But my bird sings!' denotes that my bird is free.

The line closes the poem, where the speaker contrasts the cage-bird, a 'crippled thing', with a bird that is free to soar. Its singing is the proof of that freedom, and the speaker offers it as the answer to the cage.

'Sweetly' is a quality of the song and is not what the line stresses. Nothing says the bird ever lost or regained its voice, and the third option applies to the cage-bird, not the speaker's bird.

Answer: D

The prerequisite is a sound mind in a sound body.

The first paragraph says: 'a sound mind in a sound body is a prerequisite for high efficiency and good quality work in the office, factory or field'. The question's 'effect' stands for the same high efficiency.

A good office and health clubs are never called prerequisites. Exercising and stretching are part of what some Japanese firms do each morning, but the passage names a healthy mind and body as the condition for good work and does not name exercise itself.

Answer: C

Japanese companies ensure loyalty and motivation by making workers sing the company's song.

The passage says the more successful Japanese companies start the day 'with a body-bending and stretching session and even singing the company song designed to promote loyalty and motivation among the workforce'. The song is the item the passage ties to loyalty and motivation.

Exercising is mentioned in the same sentence, but it is the body-bending session and not the song, and the passage ties exercise to health and productivity. Healthy drinks are not mentioned, and joining health clubs is what American firms do, not a Japanese morning routine.

Answer: C

Companies have health clubs because they help in better efficiency and high productivity of the workers.

The passage says that such expenditure 'has proved to be a wise investment in achieving better efficiency and higher productivity'. That is the companies' reason.

Attracting more workers and profit is not stated. The tie-up of insurance companies is a side effect the passage mentions, since better health means lower premiums, and it is not the reason companies set up the clubs.

Answer: C

The sentence signifies that health clubs in Indian companies have not yet become popular.

'Is yet to gain momentum' means has not yet started to spread or grow strongly. The sentence comes after the remark that many firms in India already have generous medical schemes, and contrasts them with health clubs, which are not yet common.

The first option says the opposite. The statements about insurance premiums and consultancies describe the American experience in the passage, not the Indian one.

Answer: A

Physical health directly affects the mind.

The opening line says: 'Physical health affects the mind and vice versa.' The effect on the mind is stated directly.

Business, efficiency and insurance premium are further results in the passage, but they follow through the mind and the quality of work or through company spending, and are not what the first sentence says physical health affects.

Answer: B

The passage talks about innovative Japanese enterprises.

It opens with 'The Japanese economy is being driven by small and medium-sized enterprises offering new ways of doing things', and goes on to describe how such firms focus on quality, niche fields and customers. The subject throughout is these Japanese firms.

Asia-Pacific models are mentioned only as the competition Japan faces. The elements of business success and the 'best business model' are wider topics than the passage covers, since it describes only what these firms do.

Answer: A

The bases are good service and quality products.

The passage says: 'Working hard to deliver quality products and services is hard-wired into every good Japanese business.' Quality products and service are the foundation it names.

Mass production and low cost are what the Asia-Pacific neighbours lead in, and Japanese firms have moved away from them. Demand and supply are not mentioned, and the passage says that firms excel where high quality is needed, so cost control with compromised quality is the opposite.

Answer: C

The principle is doing all little things right.

The passage says small firms play a massive role 'by doing all the little things right'. The word 'all' is what matters here.

'Doing most of all little things right' and 'doing only few important things right' weaken that to 'most' or 'few'. 'Doing new things' picks up the phrase 'new ways of doing things', but the principle the firms believe in is about doing small things right.