Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: a supernatural power of god

The phrase describes what Nehru as a scientist refused to believe in, and the next clause calls him a self-proclaimed non-believer. What a non-believer disbelieves in is a deity taking an interest in human affairs. The beauty of nature is what he did affirm, so it cannot be the same thing.

Answer: C

Correct answer: a person having varied interests

The passage proves the phrase by listing the sides: reader and writer, political fighter, scientist, humanist, lover of nature, adorer of children. Many sides means many interests; it does not imply complexity of character, secrecy or mere capability.

Answer: A

Correct answer: though he admired them, he lacked a fine physique himself

The passage gives the reason directly: it was his envy of those physically unlike himself that brought on the phase of drawing thick-necked athletes, and it ends again he was pitying himself for what he could never be. Envy and self-pity are admiration turned inward, not a love of exercise.

Answer: D

Correct answer: overcome his horror of the act

The passage says he dissected dead birds from sheer determination to overcome his horror of the operation. The reason is given in the sentence itself, so curiosity, ambition and his grandmother are all imported from elsewhere in the paragraph.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Butterflies and fossils

The passage says he kept an old interest in butterflies and fossils. The egg cabinet was a present he could not use because he would not climb trees, and the dissecting and drawing came later and for other reasons.

Answer: B

Correct answer: was scared of falling down

The passage says that although his grandmother gave him a fine bird's-egg cabinet, he could never bring himself to risk climbing trees. Risk is the word that matters: it was fear of the danger, not dislike of trees or of the activity, that stopped him.

Answer: C

Correct answer: he kept doing what gave joy and recreation at home

The opening sentence makes the comparison: he retained many of the pleasures and pursuits he had brought with him from home. The likeness is in what he did, not in his companions, his surroundings or his family's visits, none of which the passage mentions.

Answer: B

Correct answer: caused imbalance in the relationship between living beings and their environment

The passage names two prices paid for insecticides: dwindling wildlife and disturbances in the relation of living things and their surroundings. The first option takes only half of that pair, and the second reverses the passage, which treats insecticides as a cost rather than a cure.

Answer: B

Correct answer: has caused serious hazards to life

The passage opens by calling environmental damage the price that we pay for technology and then prices four benefits in turn - smog-induced disease, dwindling wildlife, radiation, water pollution. An unmixed blessing is exactly what it denies, and the benefits to developed nations are noted only to add that those nations are also the first victims.

Answer: C

Correct answer: water pollution

The passage says that by increasing agricultural production with fertilizers, we worsen water pollution. Abundance of food is the benefit fertilisers bring; the question asks for the price.