Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 4 ] :

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.

1. There is something we all want to do, although few of us readily admit it : Get rid of guests.

2. For nine months in the year, only my closest friends come to see me. Then, when temperatures start soaring in the plains, long-lost acquaintances suddenly remember that I exist, and people whom I am barely able to recognize appear at the front door, willing to have me put them up for periods ranging from six days to six weeks.

3. Occasionally, I am the master of the situation I inform them that the cottage is already bursting, that people are sleeping on the floor. If the hopefuls start looking around for signs of these uncomfortable guests, I remark that they have all gone out for a picnic.

4. The other day I received visitors who proved to be more thick-skinned than most. The man was a friend of a friend of an acquaintance of mine. I had never seen him before. But on the strength of this distant relationship, he had brought his family along.

5. I tried the usual ploy but it didn't work. The man and his family were perfectly willing to share the floor with any others who might be staying with me.

6. So I made my next move. 'I must warn you about the scorpions', I said. The scorpion-scare is effective with most people. But I was dealing with professionals. The man set his son rolling up the carpet. 'Sometimes centipedes fall from the ceiling', I said desperately.

7. We were now interrupted by someone knocking on the front door. It was the postman with a rejected manuscript, his arrival inspired me to greater inventiveness.

8. 'I'm terribly sorry', I said, staring hard at a rejection slip. 'I'm afraid I have to leave immediately. A paper wants me to interview the Maharishi. I hope you won't mind. Would you like the name of a good hotel ?'

9. 'Oh, don't worry about us', said the woman expansively. 'We'll look after the house while you are away.'

Direction for [ Question No: 5 To 9 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct/most appropriate options :

1. The study of handwriting is known as graphology and it has been practised for hundreds of years. Professional forensic graphologists have worked on many court cases to use handwriting to link suspects with crimes.

2. Handwriting is particularly important legally in the case of signatures and proving whether signatures are real or forged can be pivotal. Graphologists also work to verify whether autographs are real or fake.

3. Some handwriting analysts also study writing samples to determine personality types and some businesses commission this analysis before hiring new employees. The method is even sometimes used to help couples see if they are compatible. According to graphologists, there is very little you can't tell from a persons' handwriting.

4. From psychological conditions like high blood pressure and schizophrenia to personality traits like dominance and aggression : if you write by hand, graphologists can analyse you.

5. Everything from the size of your letters to how closely you space words can reveal intricate details of your personality. In general, the size of your letters can reveal whether you are shy or outgoing. Compared to a standard lined sheet of paper, if you write with tiny letters that do not reach the top line, you are likely to have a timid and introverted personality. If you write with large letters that go over the topline, you are likely to be the opposite : outgoing, confident and attention seeking.

6. Studies suggest that people who space words widely like freedom and independence, whereas those choosing to write with small spaces prefer to be among others and do not like to be alone.

Direction for [ Question No: 10 To 10 ] :

Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.