Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 171 To 173 ] :

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

We today revel in the idea that we are living in a world of science and science can work wonders for us. It is evident that science has revolutionised modern life. What our forefathers, half a century ago, could not even dream of, we have that at our beck and call. Electricity is a wonder and what it is doing would have appeared to be a fairy tale for our forefathers. A button is pressed, the room gets flooded with light; the fan moves, the AC cools or warms the room, water is boiled or cooled, even frozen, eatables can be preserved for days. Human suffering has greatly been alleviated. Science has investigated into disease and found startling cures for them. Artificial limbs can be fitted into the bodies of the disabled, and even kidney and heart transplants are being performed. Machinery has eliminated human labour and made life more mechanical and less arduous. Means of communication – the fax, the email, the mobile smart phones – are really wonderful means given to us by science. Atomic energy that if put to use for peaceful purposes can work wonders. We have begun to feel beholden to science and the scientists.

But there is the other side of the picture too. Man has become a slave to the machines. Human labour has been minimised but that has led to a more luxurious living and less of physical activity. Mankind has begun suffering from such elements that life without the modern scientific gadgets is impossible. True, that all this has happened and which our hard-working forefathers never knew of; more and more use of machines has led to large scale unemployment. We are unnecessarily using chemicals for agriculture. The pesticides and germicides used in saving the crops are sending out such alarming signals as precariously depleting the ozone layer which protects Earth from the harmful radiation of the sun’s rays. The world is getting exposed to the situations of great alarm and danger. GMOs are good for some crops and not so for others. Wild varieties cannot be allowed to go extinct. Furthermore, atomic energy is being used for destructive purposes and the nuclear explosions are causing radiations which are fatal for mankind. Can we ever forget what happened to Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan during the World War II? Do we want to live under such further threats of large-scale devastation and destruction?

Therefore, what is necessary is that we imperatively use science as our slave – take the utmost advantage from it but do not permit it to become our master. We have to keep the ‘genie’ under our control, use it for the good of mankind; cure disease with its help, explore treasures of the earth through it; communicate with one another at the quickest pace but keep its dangerous uses under check. Let science remain our ‘slave’ and not allow it to become our master. Let science, like Aladdin’s ‘genie’, remain in Aladdin’s controlling power, not to overpower and become a menace to mankind.

Direction for [ Question No: 174 To 176 ] :

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Humans have long since evolved into gods in the eyes of other species. We don't like to think too much about this because we haven't been very forgiving or just as gods. You can easily believe that lions, tigers, and other large cats that are equal to humans inhabit most of planet Earth if you watch the National Geographic channel, go to a Disney movie, or read a book of fairy tales. However, in truth, they are no longer present. The majority of people on the planet are humans and the domesticated animals they keep. Epochs like the Pleistocene, Pliocene, and Miocene are used by scientists to categorise the history of our planet. We are formally living in the Holocene period. However, it might be appropriate to refer to the previous 70,000 years as the Anthropocene epoch, or the Age of Humanity.

Because throughout these millenia, Homo sapiens emerged as the single most significant driver of change in the environment of the entire planet. This phenomenon is unusually new and changes the thrust of other creatures on the planet. Since the beginning of life, roughly 4 billion years ago, no single species has ever completely altered the planet's environment. There had been plenty of ecological revolutions and mass extinction incidents, but these weren't brought on by the behaviour of a specific lizard, bat, or fungus. Instead, powerful natural factors including climate change, tectonic plate movement, volcanic eruptions, and asteroid collisions were responsible for their creation. Homo Sapiens altered the game's rules. Within the past 70,000 years, this one ape species has been able to drastically alter the world's ecosystem. Our influence has already surpassed that of geological shifts and ice periods.

Direction for [ Question No: 177 To 180 ] :

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

The Italian mathematician and astronomer Galileo was in a dangerous situation in the early 1600s. Like all Renaissance scientists, he occasionally gave presents of his inventions and discoveries to the influential patrons of the time since he was dependent on the generosity of powerful rulers to sustain his study. For instance, he once gave the Duke of Gonzaga an original military compass. Then he wrote a book with the Medicis in mind, teaching how to use a compass. Since both kings were appreciative, Galileo was able to locate additional people to teach. No matter how important the discovery, though, his clients typically compensated him with presents rather than money. Because of this, he had to live in continual dependence. There must be a simpler method, he reasoned. When Galileo learned about Jupiter's moons in 1610, he devised a novel plan. As he had always done, he chose to concentrate only on the Medicis rather than sharing the discovery with his patrons by giving one the telescope he had used, dedicating a book to another, and so on. He chose the Medicis for one specific reason: shortly after Cosimo I founded the Medici family in 1540, he made Jupiter, the most powerful of the Gods, the Medici symbol, signifying a power that went beyond politics and finance and was connected to ancient Rome and her deities.

Galileo celebrated the magnificence of the Medicis by making his discovery of Jupiter's moons into a cosmic occasion. He claimed that the stars offered themselves in heaven to his telescope at the same time as Cosimo II's enthronement. He said that the four moons orbiting Jupiter are like the four sons of Cosimo I and demonstrated that the Medici family's rise to power was more than just a chance. Galileo ordered an emblem depicting Jupiter sitting on a cloud with the four stars circling him and offered it to Cosimo II as a symbol of his connection to the stars after dedicating the discovery to the Medicis.

Galileo was appointed as Cosimo II's official court philosopher and mathematician in 1610 and received a full salary. This was the accomplishment of a lifetime for a scientist. The time of pleading for business was over. Galileo's innovative approach allowed him to achieve more in a single move than he had through years of begging. The explanation is straightforward: All masters strive to appear more intelligent than others.