Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The true statement is the wealthier nations are pulling down the crooked streets in their capitals.

The passage says so directly: “Every day the wealthier nations are pulling down one or another in their capitals and their great towns”.

Option A misreads the opening: the author wonders why crooked streets are pulled down, and says the streets, not the wondering, are his delight. Option C is not stated; the “islands of the past” are what remains of old streets between the broad ways, not places where crooked streets were built. Option D reverses the argument: the broad ways are what commerce needs, and the author says they can be driven without destroying history, so they are not needed to protect it.

The passage is from an essay by Hilaire Belloc titled “The Crooked Streets”; the collection it appears in could not be confirmed.

Answer: C

The statement that can be inferred with certainty is that according to the World Bank, Sri Lanka does not yet have an adequate macroeconomic policy framework.

The passage says the Bank will offer no new financing "until the country has an adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place". A refusal that lasts until the framework exists can only be explained if the framework does not exist now, so the claim follows from the text alone.

A reverses the passage: it is the root causes of the crisis that have starved the country of foreign exchange, so the shortage of foreign exchange is an effect, not the root cause. B goes beyond the text: the Bank says Sri Lanka needs structural reforms, but never says that it will advise the government. D contradicts it: the Bank only repurposes resources under existing loans and declines new financing, so no additional funds are promised.

Answer: C

The most accurate statement is that Stuart's 'losing battle' refers to his inability to succeed in enabling sepoys to wear caste-marks.

The paragraph says Stuart 'continued to fight his losing battle to allow his sepoys to wear their caste-marks' and was reprimanded again. A battle he is losing is one he cannot win, which is exactly his failure to get permission for the caste-marks.

The first statement is contradicted by the last sentence: his retort 'had no effect on his superiors', so the commander-in-chief was not moved. The second fails because the reprimands show the Europeans were not accommodating. The fourth fails because Stuart himself calls the ban an instance of European prejudice, and the commander-in-chief, who enforced it, was one of the Europeans; nothing says he was exempt.

Answer: B

The statement that can be inferred is It is an adult's memory of what he or she liked as a child.

The narrator says When I was a kid, I was partial to stories about other worlds. The past tense and the phrase 'when I was a kid' show that someone who is no longer a child is looking back, so the passage is a memory, not a child's own report.

The first option is wrong for that reason: nothing is spoken by a child in the present. The third option misreads 'partial to': here it means fond of, not 'in part', and the passage says nothing about how much of any story was read. The last option states a moral about stories and children that the two sentences never draw.

Answer: C

The true statement is the pocket-knife is described as the infant of the sword.

The passage lists the things one carries in one's pocket and names one: the pocket-knife, for instance the type of all human tools, the infant of the sword. Statement (C) repeats that description, so it is the only statement the text supports.

(A) misreads reflected, which here means thought about, not mirrored; no mirror is mentioned. (B) is not stated: the author planned a book of poems about the things in his pocket, and says only that the age of the great epics is past. (D) distorts the last sentence: the book would be too long, which is not the same as epics being inconvenient to write.

The question says to use only the passage, so outside knowledge about Chesterton or epics is not needed.

Answer: A

The inference that can be drawn with the greatest accuracy is that social scientists did not question that progress was a fact.

The passage says progress was taken for granted. Something taken for granted is accepted without being questioned, and the scientists' only task, as the passage puts it, was to discover its laws and phases.

The statement that they did not approve of Biology goes further than the text: it says their theories were inspired less by Biology than by their belief in improvement, which is a difference of source, not disapproval. The statement that they framed the laws of progress is also too strong, because the passage says they only attempted to discover them. Emphasising Biology over the social sciences is the reverse of what the passage says.

Answer: C

The statement that can be inferred with certainty is that, according to the World Bank, Sri Lanka does not yet have an adequate macroeconomic policy framework.

The passage says the World Bank will not offer new financing “until the country has an adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place”. Making the lack of such a framework the condition for resuming finance means the Bank judges that Sri Lanka has no adequate framework at present.

• A is not stated. The passage says the crisis has “starved it of foreign exchange”, so the shortage of foreign exchange is a consequence of the crisis, not its root cause. The root causes are only said to need tackling.
• B goes beyond the text: the Bank says Sri Lanka needs to adopt reforms, and says nothing about advising its government.
• D contradicts the passage: the Bank will give no new financing, and is only repurposing resources under existing loans.

Answer: C

The most suitable title is 'Good Health for All'. The passage begins by defining good health, then discusses a doctor's approach, the doctor Hedge's advice on exercise, laughter and sleep, so it covers health as a whole. Yoga and meditation, laughter and sleep are each only one part of the passage, so the titles built on them are too narrow. 'Good sleep of 15 hours' is not supported, since the passage speaks of eight hours. The second option has some support, since laughter is discussed, but laughter is only one of the topics.

Answer: D

The statement that is NOT true is the fourth: the passage says a restful sleep will recharge the batteries for the following day's 'fruitful endeavour', and not for a 'cataclysmic' one, which is a disastrous event and the opposite sense. The first and third statements match the passage. The second changes 'isolation' to 'quarantine' but keeps the meaning that a patient is treated only for the immediate disease, and the official key names the fourth.

Answer: A

The tone of the passage is humanistic. It is concerned with the well-being of the whole person, body, mind and soul, and it recommends exercise, laughter and sleep as human needs. It does not argue from moral rules, so it is not ethical, it is not emotional as it gives advice and facts, and it is not cynical since it is hopeful and positive. A humanistic tone is one that is concerned with the welfare and dignity of people, which is the case in a passage urging care of body, mind and soul.