Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: A

In war between tribes the patriarch became more powerful.

The passage says: 'If there was a war or fight between two tribes, the patriarch became even more powerful, for in wartime it was not possible to fight well without a leader.' War made the leader necessary, so his power grew.

He was not ignored and did not give up leadership or lose power, which is the opposite of what the passage states.

Answer: D

Both (A) and (B) are True.

Statement (A): the passage says the patriarch spent most of his time 'organising and seeing that work was properly done', and was 'the patriarch or the organiser of the tribe'. Statement (B): the tribes 'wanted someone to lead them to battle', that leader was the patriarch, and people went 'to battle ... obeying the orders of their leader, the patriarch'.

Any option that calls either statement false is therefore wrong.

Answer: D

The leader chosen was the oldest and the wisest.

The passage says: 'The leader was usually the oldest man in the group', and 'As the oldest, he was supposed to be the most experienced and to have the most knowledge.' Age and the experience and knowledge that came with it decided the choice.

The passage says the patriarch was not very different from the other members, and that he worked with them. Being the most powerful or domineering is not given as the basis. His power came later. Humility is not mentioned.

Answer: D

The food was divided equally among all members.

The passage says: 'all the food that was produced was divided between all the members of the tribe. Everything belonged to the tribe.' The patriarch did the dividing, but the whole produce was shared and nobody owned it.

The passage never says that the strong got more, that the patriarch took the lion's share or that the division followed gender. All of those contradict the shared ownership it describes.

Answer: D

Both (A) and (B) are True.

Statement (A): the narrator says 'I went to the old woman and took her hand in mine, gripping it tightly.' Taking and gripping the hand of a distressed old woman is a gesture of comfort and sympathy. Statement (B): the boy grabbed the girl by the hair and 'rained blows and kicks on her stomach', which is a violent attack. The question treats the girl as his sister.

Any option that calls either statement false therefore contradicts the passage.

Answer: D

Both (A) and (B) are True.

Statement (A): the narrator notes that 'the boy was wearing black jeans and a khaki jacket', which is casual clothing and not formal or uniform dress. Statement (B): when the boy's eyes fell on the girl, he 'sped like a bullet towards the girl' and attacked her, shouting abuse and threats, which shows rage. The question treats the girl as his sister.

Options that call either statement false are contradicted by these lines.

Answer: A

The people present were shocked beyond belief.

The narrator describes the reaction to the big bang: 'We felt as if we were being thrown violently to the ground', and later, on seeing the boy's face, 'my throat went suddenly dry'. The old woman bursts into a hysterical cry and everyone shivers. These are signs of deep shock.

'Indifferent' and 'maintained their composure' are contradicted by the shivering and the cry. 'Confused' is a milder state than the passage shows, which describes fear and a violent shock.

Answer: C

The young man was grievously wounded.

The passage describes 'a deep gash, from eye to lip' made by a bullet or sharp knife, 'blood and pus in it', and flesh under the lip that looked ripped open. That is a grievous, or very serious, injury.

He is neither happy and smiling nor hale and hearty, which would mean healthy. Nothing suggests curiosity either: he walks in, wounded and enraged, and attacks the girl.

Answer: B

The figure of speech is personification.

'The god of rain turned away his face' gives rain a god who has a face and who deliberately looks away, as a person might out of anger or indifference. Treating the failure of the rains as a human act is personification.

Alliteration needs repeated initial sounds, which are absent. Oxymoron joins contradictory terms, as in 'bitter sweet'. A transferred epithet shifts a describing word from the person to a nearby noun, as in 'a sleepless night'. None of those happens here.

Answer: B

The line signifies that poverty is increasing.

The poverty line is the threshold below which people count as poor. If it 'receded further', it moved away from the people living below it, so more of them fall under it and their distance from it grows. The line before it, 'All the plans failed', supports this: the schemes meant to lift people out of poverty did not work.

'No consequence', 'a thing of the past' and 'going down' all suggest that poverty is easing, which contradicts the poem's picture of hunger and failure.