Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The Emperor called the doctor because he was feeling tired and sleepy.

The first paragraph says he was tired and sleepy and could not keep his eyes open, and he said: 'Perhaps I'm sick ... Get my doctor!' His state is what made him call.

The medicinal leaves came from the doctor and were not what the Emperor asked for. The hot water came later in the story, and a discussion about his health is not what he wanted. He wanted help with the sleepiness.

Answer: B

The wings are called sorrowful because the bird is sad as it is caged.

The speaker compares the pretty bird in the gilded cage with a free bird, and says of the caged one 'Your poor bit thing behind its bars is only half alive!' The sorrow belongs to the bird, which is shut in, and the wings that flutter inside the cage show it.

Nothing in the poem says the wings are broken or that the bird is hungry. The statement that a cage-bird cannot sing as the speaker's bird does is a separate point about the lost song, and not the reason for the word 'sorrowful'.

Answer: C

The speaker's bird can do many things because the bird is free.

It is 'free to build and thrive', sings with 'a true wood-note', and can 'wheel and soar with the sunshine on his wings'. Each ability comes from not being in a cage.

The bird is not caged, and 'sorrowful' belongs to the cage-bird. Being talented is not mentioned, and the poem credits freedom for the bird's abilities, not any special talent.

Answer: B

The caged bird is a crippled thing because it is not free to fly and soar.

The poem says 'a bird in a cage is a crippled thing', after speaking of the free bird that can 'wheel and soar'. The cage takes away flight, and that loss is the crippling.

The poem does not say a leg is broken. 'Poor' in the poem means pitiable, not lacking money, and 'wild' describes the speaker's free bird.

Answer: C

The device is a transferred epithet.

'Sorrowful' describes a feeling, and a wing cannot feel sorrow. The adjective is moved from the bird, which is sad, to its wings, which are the part that shows it. Moving an adjective from the person or creature it really describes to a nearby noun is a transferred epithet.

A metaphor would call the wings something else, and a simile would use 'like' or 'as'. Personification gives a human trait to a non-living thing, but the wings belong to a living bird, so the sorrow only moves from the bird to its wings.

Answer: D

The theme is that birds living in the open enjoy their lives.

The poem sets the free bird, which sings and soars, against the caged one, which is 'only half alive'. It argues that freedom is what lets a creature live fully and sing.

The caged bird's life is shown as poor, not fruitful, so the first option reverses the poem. The poem never says birds should be kept in cages, and it does not talk about food.

Answer: B

'But my bird sings!' denotes that my bird is free.

The line closes the poem, where the speaker contrasts the cage-bird, a 'crippled thing', with a bird that is free to soar. Its singing is the proof of that freedom, and the speaker offers it as the answer to the cage.

'Sweetly' is a quality of the song and is not what the line stresses. Nothing says the bird ever lost or regained its voice, and the third option applies to the cage-bird, not the speaker's bird.

Answer: D

The prerequisite is a sound mind in a sound body.

The first paragraph says: 'a sound mind in a sound body is a prerequisite for high efficiency and good quality work in the office, factory or field'. The question's 'effect' stands for the same high efficiency.

A good office and health clubs are never called prerequisites. Exercising and stretching are part of what some Japanese firms do each morning, but the passage names a healthy mind and body as the condition for good work and does not name exercise itself.

Answer: C

Japanese companies ensure loyalty and motivation by making workers sing the company's song.

The passage says the more successful Japanese companies start the day 'with a body-bending and stretching session and even singing the company song designed to promote loyalty and motivation among the workforce'. The song is the item the passage ties to loyalty and motivation.

Exercising is mentioned in the same sentence, but it is the body-bending session and not the song, and the passage ties exercise to health and productivity. Healthy drinks are not mentioned, and joining health clubs is what American firms do, not a Japanese morning routine.

Answer: C

Companies have health clubs because they help in better efficiency and high productivity of the workers.

The passage says that such expenditure 'has proved to be a wise investment in achieving better efficiency and higher productivity'. That is the companies' reason.

Attracting more workers and profit is not stated. The tie-up of insurance companies is a side effect the passage mentions, since better health means lower premiums, and it is not the reason companies set up the clubs.