Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 91 To 92 ] :

Direction :

Read the following poem and answer the questions given below it :

O Lord of the Universe
Grant me these wishes :
Let wickedness of the wicked cease
Let the desire to do good in them increase.
Let all the living beings come together
As best friends.
Let the darkness of the sin recede,
And let the whole world behold
The Sun of one's own Dharma arise.
Let all living beings obtain
Whatever they truly cherish.
Let every person on this planet be truly contented.
Let everyone in these three worlds be complete.
Let everyone eternally worship
The Primeval Man.

Direction for [ Question No: 93 To 93 ] :

Read the passage and choose the most appropriate option to answer the question given below-

The initial successful attempts to create a petrol-driven internal-combustion engine were made in Germany and France. However, in England, there was an unusual hesitancy towards horseless vehicles. English inventors faced the handicap of an antiquated law that restricted these vehicles from exceeding a speed of four miles per hour and mandated a man carrying a red flag to precede them. This restrictive law remained in place until 1896. During their early days, motor cars were largely perceived as jokes or potentially dangerous toys, except by their inventors. They varied in size, some being single-seaters, while others could accommodate two or even three people. Nevertheless, they were all characterized by their noise, clumsiness, and peculiar appearance. In a significant leap forward, German inventor Carl Benz introduced a three-wheeled, petrol-driven internal-combustion car in 1888. Around the same time, another German inventor named Daimler was also experimenting and testing a petrol-driven engine, a name that is still associated with motor cars to this day.

Direction for [ Question No: 94 To 96 ] :

Directions (Q. 88 to Q. 90): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.

There is absolutely no point in complaining that over the years, there has been pressure for increased productivity and higher earnings for workers in industry. There are several ways for increasing employee earnings. Employee earnings can be increased by raising the selling price of the firm's products and services, reducing profits or costs of raw materials, or augmenting labour productivity. However, increasing employee earnings by means other than increased labour productivity jeopardizes the firm's competitive strength in the market. Higher prices usually mean fewer customers, reduced profit means less capital investment, and low-cost materials mean poor product quality. But, increasing labour productivity by enhancing skills and motivation creates an almost unlimited resource. The development of economic resources, human as well as nonhuman, is the product of human effort, and the quality of human effort in large part depends on human motivation.

Enthusing employees with workaholic spirit through traditional authority and financial incentives has become increasingly difficult as employees become economically secure and their dependency on any one particular organisation decreases. According to expectancy theorists, the motivation to work increases when an employee feels his performance is an instrument for obtaining desired rewards. Nevertheless, in many organisations today employees are entitled to organisational rewards just by being employed. Unions, governmental regulations, and the nature of the job itself in some cases prevent management from relating financial rewards to performance. People may be attracted to join and remain in organisations to receive organisational rewards, but being motivated to join an organisation is not the same as being motivated to exert effort in an organisation. The challenge to management is to find and administer alternative forms of incentives which will induce employees to improve work performance. Such alternative forms of reinforcement will require increased understanding of motivational theories and programmes.

Direction for [ Question No: 97 To 98 ] :

Read the following passage and answer the following questions with reference to the passage by choosing the most appropriate option :

After a traumatic experience, it's normal to feel frightened, sad, anxious, and disconnected. But if the upset doesn't fade, you may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can develop following any event that makes you fear for your safety. Any event, or series of events, that overwhelms you with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and leaves you emotionally shattered, can trigger PTSD - especially if the event feels unpredictable and uncontrollable. PTSD can affect people who personally experience the traumatic event, those who witness the event, or those who pick up the pieces afterwards, such as emergency workers and law enforcement officers. PTSD can also result from surgery performed on children too young to fully understand what's happening to them.

Whatever the cause for your PTSD, with treatment and support, one can learn to manage your symptoms, reduce painful memories, and move past the trauma. Following a traumatic event, almost everyone experiences at least some of the symptoms of PTSD. A normal response to trauma becomes PTSD when you get stuck. After a traumatic experience, the mind and the body are in shock. But as you make sense of what happened and process your emotions, you start to come out of it. With PTSD, however, you remain in psychological shock. Your memory of what happened and your feelings about it are disconnected. In order to move on, it's important to face and feel your memories and emotions.

Recovery from PTSD is a gradual, ongoing process. Healing doesn't happen overnight, nor do the memories of the trauma ever disappear completely. This can make life seem difficult at times. PTSD can make you feel disconnected from others. You may be tempted to withdraw from social activities and your loved ones. But it's important to stay connected to life and the people who care about you.

If you suspect that you or a loved one has post-traumatic stress disorder, it's important to seek help right away. The sooner PTSD is treated, the easier it is to overcome. This process is much easier with the guidance and support of an experienced therapist or doctor. Treatment for PTSD can relieve symptoms by helping you deal with the trauma you've experienced. When looking for a therapist, seek out mental health professionals who specialize in the treatment of trauma and PTSD. Beyond credentials and experience, it's important to find a PTSD therapist who makes you feel comfortable and safe. Trust your gut; if a therapist doesn't feel right, look for someone else. For therapy to work, you need to feel comfortable and understood.

Direction for [ Question No: 99 To 99 ] :

Directions : Carefully read the passage given below and answer the following questions.

By the year 2050, 80% of the Earth's population will live in urban centres. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about three billion people by then. An estimated 10 hectares of new land (about 20% larger than Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming methods continue as they are practised today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use. Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to ensure enough food for the world's population to live on ?

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another three billion people. Many believe an entirely new approach to indoor farming is required, employing cutting-edge technologies. One such proposal is for the 'Vertical Farm'. The concept is of multi-storey buildings in which food crops are grown in environmentally controlled conditions. Situated in the heart of urban centres, they would drastically reduce the amount of transportation required to bring food to consumers. Vertical farms would need to be efficient, cheap to construct and safe to operate. If successfully implemented, proponents claim, vertical farms offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (through year-round production of all crops), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

It took humans 10,000 years to learn how to grow most of the crops we now take for granted. Along the way, we despoiled most of the land we worked, often turning verdant, natural ecozones into semi-arid deserts. Within that same time frame, we evolved into an urban species, in which 60% of the human population now lives vertically in cities. This means that, for the majority, we humans have shelter from the elements, yet we subject our food-bearing plants to the rigours of the great outdoors and can do no more than hope for a good weather year. However, more often than not now, due to a rapidly changing climate, that is not what happens. Massive floods, long droughts, hurricanes and severe monsoons take their toll each year, destroying millions of tons of valuable crops.

Direction for [ Question No: 100 To 100 ] :

Read the following passage and answer the following questions with reference to the passage by choosing the most appropriate option :

Feminism at its core is about equality of men and women, not ‘sameness’. So many people offer up the argument that women are not the ‘same’ as men and therefore there can’t be equality. In other words, because their bodies are different (many say weaker or ‘feminine’), and because men and women have different physical capabilities, these physical differences mean equality is not possible. If there were two young boys in a classroom, and one was physically weaker and smaller than the other, would we believe it’s right to keep the weaker, smaller boy from having the same access to the teacher, to learning, to the computers, to the books and class resources, to other children in the class — because he didn’t have the same physical strength as the other boy? It is critical to understand that “same” does not mean “equal.” The issue here is about equal rights and equal access to opportunities. Men and women don’t have to be the “same” physically in order to have the right to equality. Feminism as an ideology has always been highly controversial. It asks such questions as: do women have too much or too little power? It is not only controversial as far as traditional defenders of the status quo are concerned. Some women feel that they are in favour of equality with men, but do not like the idea of feminism. It has been said that we live in a post-feminist age and some contend that the main goals of feminism have been realized, so that it is quite unnecessary for feminists to continue their argument against male domination. Feminism, however, is also controversial in the sense that different feminists mean different things by the term. There are different varieties that seem to have little in common. Just as writers have spoken of socialism, so feminism has also been presented in the plural in order to indicate the diversity involved.