Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 181 To 181 ] :

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.

Direction for [ Question No: 182 To 183 ] :

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Democracy has its roots etched deep in the subconscious of Indian minds. India has had a long history of rich public arguments and a charged political atmosphere. It was way before the British found their abode in the subcontinent that Indians actively took decisions based on their buoyant discussions and debates. Democracy in India, therefore, does not find itself stemming from British roots but instead takes pride in a greater tradition that they were once a part of. Today, the presence of a robust, non-Western democracy is appreciated by scholars who once commented on the relentless, disunited state of the country post-Independence. The tenacious persistence of democracy as an institution in a vastly diversified country like India earns applause from every nook and corner of the world. Sustaining the world's largest democracy for more than seventy years is unusually difficult, but at the same time, the determination of Indians to weave a ‘people's country’ is strong. The nation's aspirations are still dependent on her "not-so-nascent" democracy.

However, the two misconceptions that need to be removed are – accepting democracy to be a gift given by the British once India became independent and assuming democracy as the only suited form of government for India. Scholars who have pointed out why democracy is the only form of government that works for India, fail to dislodge their natural biases that come from appreciating the presence of democracy in a country of 1.5 billion people.

Direction for [ Question No: 184 To 186 ] :

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

The recipe for success is not as easy as it looks. People are surrounded by different circumstances that shape their lives in mysterious ways. We give extraordinary importance to the hard work people perform throughout their lives to attain a particular position or place. But there lies an enigma behind every story. How often do we fail to notice the benefits of hidden advantages and cultural legacies that allow these people to work hard and make sense of the world? The tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not merely because it developed from the toughest acorn, but also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil surrounding it was rich and deep, no rabbit gnawed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack took it down before it reached maturity. Successful people are bred under favourable circumstances. Surprisingly, we fail to recognize the significance of conducive environments for people who are game changers in life, eventually emerging as natural stars to others. The culture we belong to weaves an unusual pattern to our achievements and failures throughout our lives. Thus, asking what people did is not enough; it is asking where they belong that truly reveals the logic behind their victory.

Direction for [ Question No: 187 To 190 ] :

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Science has been trying innumerable methods to prove the existence of the universe, but the biggest plight of science is its inability to produce a single theory that explains the whole universe. A two-pronged approach to the problem aids in its resolution. Firstly, there are some laws that tell us how the universe has changed over time, and secondly, there is a huge amount of uncertainty regarding the initial state of the universe. After much discourse, people insisted that science relies on the first approach and leaves the second to metaphysics or religion. The general belief is that God is omnipotent, and he could have started the universe in any way He wanted. However, the specificity of the creation poses a significant responsibility to explain why God chose to make things in a regular way, within the boundaries of some laws, rather than being arbitrary about it. Thus, it is not wrong to assume that the initial state of the universe was also governed by some laws.

But to rationally explain the dilemma, scientists break it into bits and provide a number of partial theories. These theories predict a limited class of observations, neglecting the effects of other quantities. The accuracy of these theories is unjustifiable because of the fundamental connection that exists between all things, and yet we are here solving parts of the problem that don't make sense from a macro perspective. The two partial theories that have been used to describe the universe are – the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The general theory of relativity describes the large-scale structure of the universe, with structures in the size of millions, while quantum mechanics provides a micro-perspective in the size of one-millionth of an inch. Incorporating the two theories into a single, unified theory remains a goal of science.