Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 5 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

Soon some idea struck her and she went to the window and hollered, 'Roopa! Roopa!' After calling out for Roopa, she had a look at the things that she had brought for her. Roopa had to sit for her home science examination the next day and Tarawati had collected things like some kitchen items, a bucket, a mug and a stool that Roopa required for the practical examination.

While looking at the things that she had collected for Roopa, Tarawati recalled her husband who had died a few years ago. She remembered him berating her for not treating Roopa well. 'Roopa's mother! Do not think only sons deserve all love and care and not daughters'. I'm determined to give Roopa good education so that she leads a happy and meaningful life. You are not educated yourself. That's probably why you don't want her to be educated. This is not fair on your part. You must change your views and let her grow and flower into a happy, confident individual.'

Thinking of her husband's admonition on this account, Tarawati felt emotional. The fact of the matter was that Roopa's parents differed on Roopa's upbringing and fought with each other on the issue. The fight continued for days together and often it was Roopa who intervened to broker peace between them. On his death-bed too, Roopa's father had cried and pleaded with her to treat Roopa in a nice manner. Hugging Roopa, he had told Tarawati, 'Take care of Roopa. Give her good education and let her decide the course of her life herself.' While recalling the interaction, tears rolled down Tarawati's eyes.

Meanwhile, the evening shadows were getting darker. Tarawati was exhausted and had a headache too. She looked at her dust-laden feet and then around the room. In order to bring some semblance of order, she forced herself to get up and get going. Then she called her daughter again, Roopa! Roopa!'.

Direction for [ Question No: 6 To 8 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.

What was this new state like? Fortunately, we have full accounts, both Indian and Greek. Megasthenes, the ambassador sent by Seleucus, has left a record and, much more important is that contemporary account - Kautilya's Arthashastra, 'the Science of Polity'. Kautilya is another name for Chanakya, and thus we have a book written, not only by a great scholar, but a man who played a dominating part in the establishment, growth and preservation of the empire. Chanakya has been called the Indian Machiavelli, and to some extent the comparison is justified. But he was a much bigger person in every way, greater in intellect and action. He was no mere follower of a king, a humble advisor of an all-powerful emperor. A picture of him emerges from an old Indian play - the Mudra-Rakshasa - which deals with this period. Bold and scheming, proud and revengeful, never forgetting a slight, never forgetting his purpose, availing himself of every device to delude and defeat the enemy, he sat with the reins of empire in his hands and looked upon the emperor more as a loved pupil than as a master. Simple and austere in his life, uninterested in the pomp and pageantry of high position, when he had redeemed his pledge and accomplished his purpose, he wanted to retire, to a life of contemplation.

There was hardly anything Chanakya would have refrained from doing to achieve his purpose; he was unscrupulous enough; yet he was also wise enough to know that this very purpose might be defeated by means unsuited to the end. Long before Clausewitz, he is reported to have said that war is only a continuance of state policy by other means. But, he adds, war must always serve the larger ends of policy and not become an end in itself; the statesman's objective must always be the betterment of the state as a result of war, not the mere defeat and destruction of the enemy. If war involves both parties in a common ruin, that is bankruptcy of statesmanship. War must be conducted by armed forces, but much more important than the force of arms is the high strategy which saps the enemy's morale and disrupts his forces and brings about his collapse, or takes him to the verge of collapse, before armed attack.

Direction for [ Question No: 9 To 10 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.

The next morning, as I was about to leave the city, I saw peacocks on every tree, rock and hill. Their movements had the same peace, the same grace and the same beauty. As the evening shadows deepened, the air was filled with the song of peacocks. I thought they were there to both welcome and bid me farewell.

Whenever I recall that trip, my mind is filled with the images of those peacocks. I am surprised. Did I really see so many of them? Did the peacocks of Rajasthan actually come out to greet me? I wonder how they are now.

I try to imagine that city now, but all I can see is a picture of desolation. Shocked and disturbed, I am neither able to see the peacocks nor hear their song. Where have they all disappeared? In which corner of the world are they hiding? Suddenly, I have a vision of a lonely peacock on a distant hill. He seems battered and bruised. I walk quickly toward him but, before I can reach the hill, he rises into the sky screaming with terror and disappears.

Where has he gone? Where are his companions, those countless peacocks? Why is he sitting alone on that hill, the very picture of desolation? Why is he so despondent, so terrified? The sight of that dejected, bewildered peacock suddenly brings to mind another image of desolation that I had forgotten. On the far edge of a dark, oil-soaked sea, I see a forlorn duck covered with foul effluents, watching the waves in disbelief. Till yesterday, the sea was ambrosia, today it is poison. The wings of the duck are so heavy with slime that he can no longer fly. Poison flows through the veins in his body.