Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The underlined expression is a principal clause.

In 'And I realised how travelling solo was such a liberating experience', the clause 'I realised' has its own subject and verb and can stand alone as a sentence: it is the main or principal clause. The rest, 'how travelling solo was such a liberating experience', is a noun clause acting as the object of 'realised'. ('And' simply links the sentence to what came before.)

'And I realised' does not work as a noun, an adjective or an adverb within another clause, so it is not a subordinate clause of any kind.

Answer: D

'But' is a conjunction.

In 'Garud had asked friends and family but found no takers', the word 'but' joins two parts of the sentence, 'had asked friends and family' and 'found no takers', and shows a contrast between them: she asked, yet no one agreed. Words that join words, phrases or clauses are conjunctions, and 'but' is a coordinating conjunction.

It is not a noun or a pronoun, since it names nothing and stands for no noun, and not an interjection, which expresses sudden feeling ('Oh!', 'Alas!').

Answer: C

The poem is addressed to a young woman.

This is Robert Herrick's 'To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time'. The speaker urges the young to gather rosebuds while they may, and the last stanza says 'be not coy' and 'go marry', which is advice to a young unmarried woman while she is in her prime.

An old unmarried woman cannot be meant, since the poem says that her prime, once lost, cannot be got back. It is not addressed to a gardener, though it talks of flowers, nor to an old friend, as nothing in it speaks of friendship.

Answer: B

The example of the sun is given to describe the fast passage of time.

The stanza says that the higher the sun gets, the sooner its race will be run, and the nearer it is to setting. The poet uses the sun's quick climb and fall to show that time flies and that youth, too, soon moves toward its end.

The sun is called glorious, yet the lines are not praising his light or warmth. They do mention setting, but as part of the picture of time passing, not as a warning of the sun's own setting.

Answer: A

The poet tells us that time will soon pass and it is a time to find one's love.

The third stanza says that the first age is best, when youth and blood are warmer, and that once it is spent, worse times follow. The last stanza turns this into advice: use your time and marry while you may. So young age is short and is the time to find love.

Options 3 and 4 each give only half of this, and option 2 says that young age is a time to work hard, which the poem never says.

Answer: D

Both statements are true: option 4.

A is true: 'gather ye rosebuds while ye may' is an invitation to enjoy life while one is young, and the poet uses the rosebud as a figure for youth and its pleasures. B is true: the sun cannot shine forever, because the poem says his race will soon be run and he is nearing his setting.

Options 1, 2 and 3 each call one of them false, which the poem does not allow.

Answer: D

The figure of speech is personification.

Personification gives human qualities or actions to something that is not human. In 'And this same flower that smiles today', the flower is said to smile, which only a person can do; the blooming flower is presented as if it were a happy human face.

There is no comparison using 'like' or 'as', so it is not a simile; no exaggeration, so it is not hyperbole; and the flower is not called by another name, as it would be in a metaphor. Giving it a human action makes it personification.

Answer: C

The figure of speech is a metaphor.

A metaphor describes one thing as another, without 'like' or 'as', to suggest a likeness between them. 'The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun' calls the sun a lamp, a lamp that lights up the sky, directly identifying the two.

A simile would need 'like' or 'as' ('the sun is like a lamp'). The line is not an exaggeration (hyperbole), and calling the sun a lamp does not give it human qualities, so it is not personification.

Answer: A

The key gives that Father dressed carefully as he wanted to follow the proper dress code.

The passage describes in detail his court dress: a dhoti, a white shirt, a turban and a neat black coat. That is the formal wear expected of an advocate in court, so the key reads the care as following the proper dress code. The passage itself does not state the reason, so this is the inference the key makes.

The other options give motives that are not in the text. Nothing says he wished to impress the judges or his family, and there is no mention of wealth or of buying good clothes.

Answer: D

The key gives C and A as true and B as false: option 4.

C is true: his papers were in a cloth bundle. B is false: the basket held hot coffee, not tea. A is accepted as true by the key: he took coffee and tiffin from home, which the key reads as his not eating in the court canteen. The passage does not say outright that he avoided the canteen, so A is an inference, and it is the statement that the key rests on.

Options 1 and 2 call A false, and options 2 and 3 call B true, which the coffee contradicts.