Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Traffic is blocked for Gangtok and Kalimpong.

The passage says that the General Reserve Engineering Force had partially cleared the highway, 'but fresh landslides again block traffic bound for Gangtok and Kalimpong'. These are also the two places said to remain cut off since July 8.

Siliguri, Darjeeling and Nepal are not named as blocked destinations. Siliguri appears only as the reference point for the distance of Likhuvir and as a town flooded by rain.

Answer: A

The Teesta was rising alarmingly.

The passage says 'The Teesta was rising alarmingly this morning posing a further threat to the railway lines at Mongpo.' The adverb is taken straight from the text.

Slowly and moderately describe the opposite of an alarming rise. 'Vigorously' sounds close, but the passage uses a word about danger, 'alarmingly', and not a word about force.

Answer: C

Likhuvir is about 50 Km from Siliguri.

The second sentence of the passage says the rain made repair of National Highway 31A 'at Likhuvir about 50 Km. from Siliguri, impossible'. The distance is measured from Siliguri.

Gangtok and Kalimpong are the places cut off by the landslides, and the Sikkim Government maintains supplies by transhipment at Likhuvir, but no distance from them is given. Darjeeling is not mentioned in the passage at all.

Answer: D

The boulders are dumped into the river to check erosion.

The passage says 'A hundred truck loads of boulders are being dumped into the river to check erosion.' The purpose is given in the same sentence.

The other options are tempting results of the work, but none is the stated purpose. Controlling flood, protecting the highway and repairing an embankment are not given as reasons for dumping the boulders.

Answer: A

The railway lines are threatened at Mongpo, printed as 'Mangpo' in the option.

The passage says the rising Teesta posed 'a further threat to the railway lines at Mongpo'. The option spells the place slightly differently from the passage, and it is the only option that names that place.

Siliguri and Gangtok appear in the passage in other connections, and Likhuvir is where the highway repair was impossible. None of them is the place where the railway lines were threatened.

Answer: D

Sleep is called a 'gentle tyrant' because there is some flexibility within limits in the distribution of the hours of sleeping.

The passage says sleep is a tyrant because nobody can escape its regimen, and gentle because there is some flexibility, within limits, in how the hours of sleeping and being awake are distributed.

(A) gives only the reason for 'tyrant', and (B) says the same thing in other words. (C), a comfortable environment, is not mentioned. The full explanation, including the word gentle, is only in option (D).

Answer: D

The longest time an individual can remain awake is 72 hours.

The passage states that the outer limit for keeping sleep at bay for the average individual is 72 hours, and that an average person cannot keep awake for longer than that.

24, 16 and 8 hours are other figures: about 15 to 16 hours is the usual waking time in a day, and 8 hours is the usual time asleep.

Answer: B

'Gentle Tyrant' refers to sleep.

The passage opens with Dr. Johnson's description of sleep as a gentle tyrant, and then explains why.

Dr. Johnson is the person who used the phrase, not the thing it describes. Arjuna and Napoleon are mentioned as exceptional individuals who could do without sleep for long.

Answer: D

Sleep and education are called 'intimate enemies' because they are together but work against each other.

The passage says that most often they go together but always work against each other, since students lose sleep through fear of failure and then sleep overcomes them when they sit to study.

(A) and (B) each give only half of the explanation. (C), that education cannot conquer sleep, is a conclusion that the passage does not state in that way.

Answer: D

The most suitable title is Sleep and Education: Intimate Enemies.

The passage begins with sleep as a gentle tyrant, but its main point is the relation of sleep and education, which it calls intimate enemies, and it ends by asking for research on education about sleep.

'Sleep: A Gentle Tyrant' covers only the opening idea, and 'Dr. Johnson's Idea on Sleep' is also too narrow. 'Education for Sleep' names only the closing suggestion.