Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Wooden castles were converted to stone castles as stone castles offer better defense.

The passage says wooden castles were highly susceptible to attacks by fire and that they were 'gradually replaced by stone, which greatly increased the strength of these fortifications'. The change was made for stronger defence.

The passage says nothing about how long wooden castles take to build, about comfort, or about temperature in summer, so options A, B and D are not supported by it.

Answer: D

Gunpowder was the nemesis of castles because cannons could knock down stone walls, so castles offered little protection.

The last paragraph says that in the 15th century artillery became powerful enough to break through stone walls, which greatly undermined the military role of castles. A castle that cannot withstand bombardment no longer protects those inside, which is option D.

Option A turns the point round: hiding in castles became useless, not unnecessary because of guns alone. Option B says artillery forts became stylish, which the passage does not say; they replaced castles because they did the military job. Option C, shooting defenders, is not in the passage, which speaks of artillery breaking walls.

Answer: C

The best title is A Short History of Castles: The Rise and Fall of Castles in England.

The passage tells how castles began with the Normans in 1066, what they were used for, how wood gave way to stone, and how gunpowder ended their role. It therefore covers their rise and decline in England.

Option A covers only the first stage, option B only the defence of castles, which is a small part of the passage, and option D, about fancy living and palaces, is a theme the passage never touches.

Answer: C

The Little Black Boy was born in the southern wild.

The first line of the extract says 'My mother bore me in the southern wild', which gives the boy's birthplace. The 'desert wastes', 'the servants' house' and 'the east coast' do not appear in the lines given; the east is mentioned only when his mother points towards the rising sun.

Answer: D

The key gives white.

The extract does not state the boy's wish in so many words. It sets his colour against the English child, 'White as an angel', and says he is 'black as if bereav'd of light', and the poem as a whole is about the boy's longing to be like the white child. Of the four options, only white follows from this contrast.

Nothing in the lines given suggests that he wanted to be educated, older or free.

Answer: A

The mother says God put people on earth to learn to endure his love.

In the third stanza she says 'we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love'. To bear the beams of love is to learn to endure God's love, which is option A.

Working off sins, preparing for trials and learning equality are not given as reasons anywhere in the extract.

Answer: D

The mother says his dark skin and face are a cloud.

The last two lines read 'these black bodies and this sun-burnt face Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.' So she calls his dark skin a cloud, a temporary covering through which light can still shine, and not a blessing, a veil or a curse.

Answer: B

The phrase 'like a shady grove' is a simile.

A simile compares two unlike things directly, using 'like' or 'as'. Here the child's dark body is compared with a shady grove through the word 'like'.

A metaphor makes the comparison without 'like' or 'as' (saying one thing is another). Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds, and personification gives human qualities to something non-human; neither describes this phrase.

Answer: D

The key gives All of the above.

'As if bereav'd of light' most plainly refers to the colour of the boy (C): his dark skin makes him look as if deprived of light. The speaker also contrasts himself with the English child who is 'White as an angel', which suggests that he thinks less of himself (A), and being bereaved suggests loss and a lack of hope (B). The key accepts all three readings.

This is an interpretive item. Read literally, the phrase speaks of colour alone, so an examinee choosing C has a fair case; the key counts the other readings as well.

Answer: B

The statement that is not the whole truth is that necessity is the mother of invention.

The passage says 'in a general way, the maxim necessity is the mother of invention is true, it is by no means the whole truth'. The other three, the desire for beauty and grace, the desire to cut down needs and the learning to be happy with what one has, are things the passage says about man, not truths it says are incomplete.