Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The author finds that convenience foods lack vital nutrients.

The passage says of fast foods, fried foods, chocolates and the like: 'These foods may be delicious and, therefore, tempting, but they are highly deficient in vital nutrients.' The fault is the missing nutrients.

'Delicious and tempting' is conceded as a quality of the foods, not a fault. Being readily available is not discussed, and helping muscle development is the reverse of the advice that children eat nutrient-rich food so that their muscles develop.

Answer: B

The underlined word 'highly' is an Adverb.

In 'They are highly deficient in vital nutrients', 'highly' modifies the adjective 'deficient', telling to what degree the foods are deficient. Words that modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs are adverbs; 'highly' here is an adverb of degree, like 'very' or 'extremely'.

It is not an adjective, since it does not qualify a noun ('high' would be the adjective). It names nothing, so it is not a noun, and it shows no action or state, so it is not a verb.

Answer: B

The phrase means love that is harmful, as the key reads it.

The passage says: 'Parents are often aware of this, but out of misplaced love for children, they hardly ever discipline their eating habits.' Misplaced love is affection directed in the wrong way: parents who know the food is poor but still let the children eat it do them harm in the name of love.

'Love that does not exist' and 'love that is blind' say the love is absent or unseeing, but the passage presents it as real and aware ('often aware of this'). 'Love that lacks discipline' describes the result, that parents do not discipline eating habits, more than the love itself, and it is the nearest rival; I could not confirm from a dictionary which of the two the Board meant, so this follows the key.

Answer: B

The gods were afraid of Shibi because they thought Shibi might take away their kingdoms.

The passage says: 'They feared that Shibi might one day take away their kingdoms.' The fear came from his great power, and they set out to test him.

The gods did not fear that he was a disguised god; they disguised themselves, as the dove and the eagle. His sense of justice was what they tested, not what they feared, and the gardens around his courtroom have nothing to do with their fear.

Answer: B

The king saved the dove from the fierce eagle.

The passage says 'There came a scared dove flying to him and it was followed by a fierce looking eagle. The king gave shelter to the dove and saved her.' The dove is the one in need of saving and the eagle is the one described as fierce.

Reversing the pair makes the king save the eagle from the dove. Indra and Agni are the gods who took the forms of the eagle and the dove, and the king did not save them from anything.

Answer: D

The king was blessed for his benevolence and greatness, which is (a) and (b) together.

The last lines say that Indra and Agni stood 'smiling and blessing the king for his benevolence and greatness'. Both (a) and (b) are named.

Calmness, (c), is mentioned earlier ('the king remained calm and unperturbed'), but it is not given as a reason for the blessing. So 'only (a)', 'only (b)' and 'only (c)' each leave out part of what is true or add what is not.

Answer: D

The underlined part is a Noun clause.

In 'The king assured the eagle that he would give equal quantity of any other food', the clause 'he would give equal quantity of any other food', introduced by 'that', tells what the king assured the eagle of. It does the work of a noun, as the object of the verb 'assured'. One can test this by replacing it with a noun phrase: 'The king assured the eagle of compensation.'

It does not describe a noun, so it is not an adjective clause, and it does not tell when, why or how, so it is not an adverb clause. The principal clause is 'The king assured the eagle'.

Answer: B

The underlined word 'majestic' is an Adjective.

In 'His courtroom was surrounded by majestic gardens', 'majestic' describes the noun 'gardens', telling what kind of gardens they were. A word that qualifies a noun is an adjective. Its noun form is majesty, and the adverb form would be majestically.

It is not a noun because it does not name anything here, not an adverb because it modifies a noun rather than a verb, and not a conjunction because it joins nothing.

Answer: C

The error is in part (c), 'are certain of'.

The passage tells the story in the past tense: 'The gods in the guise of the dove and the eagle were assured of Shibi's righteousness.' The sentence in the question puts the same event in the present tense with 'are', which does not match the narration, so the verb phrase in (c) is the part that is wrong. 'Were certain of' would match.

The other parts are acceptable for this item: (a) and (d) read correctly, and (b) leaves out the articles before 'dove' and 'eagle', which the passage supplies, but the question looks for the clear error, which the key places in the tense of (c). I could not rule out that (b) was meant to be flagged, so this follows the key.

Answer: A

The movement of the water reflects joy.

The poet describes the fountain 'Leaping and flashing / From morn till night' and says it is 'Happy at midnight, / Happy by day!'. Leaping, flashing water that the poet calls happy is a picture of joy.

Sadness and weariness are contradicted by the energy of the leaping water and by the word 'happy'. Earnestness (serious purpose) is not a mood the poem gives the fountain; it is playful and light.