Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Q: The tone of the poet is :

The key gives Doubtful as the tone of the poet.The poet looks back on a journey that began with high hopes ('exalting minds, making all the burden light') and ended with the travellers barely knowing 'why we were there', their faces darkened and their deeds 'neither great nor rare'. The speaker is questioning what the journey was worth, which the key reads as doubt.'Pessimistic' is close, but the poem ends on a quiet resolution, 'Home is where we have to gather grace', which is not despair. 'Positive' fails because of the loss and disillusion, and 'Philosophical' names a manner of reflection and not an attitude to the events.

Q: The poet is referring to :

The key says the poet is referring to moral concerns.The pilgrimage is the surface story, but the poem is about conduct: a quarrel over how to cross a desert, the loss of a friend, deeds that were 'neither great nor rare', and a closing line that places grace in home life. These are questions of right living, so the key reads them as moral concerns.'Religious matters' is the tempting answer because of the word pilgrimage, yet the poem sets no creed or rite, and the pilgrimage is the vehicle for the lesson. Daily prayers and political issues are not mentioned at all.

Q: The poet longs for :

The poet longs for homely stay.The closing line, 'Home is where we have to gather grace', is the poem's answer to the failed journey. After the effort and quarrels of travel, grace is to be found at home, so what the poet longs for is a settled life at home.Outings and tourist places are the kind of travel the poem has just found empty. Friendship appears only as a loss on the road ('We lost a friend'), and the closing line does not turn to it.

Q: What is not a feature of human consciouness ?

The key's answer is perceived knowledge.The passage describes human consciousness as boundless freedom, as having 'supremacy over perceived human conceptions', and as reaching the 'eternity of human expression'. Freedom and eternity are therefore named features. 'Seamlessness' fits the closing picture of a limitless vision transmitted without any 'artificial enforcing machinery', a smooth, unbroken flow, though the passage never uses the word itself.'Perceived' is the one term the passage places below consciousness: consciousness has supremacy over perceived conceptions, so what is merely perceived is what consciousness overcomes, not a feature of it. This question is answered by that one phrase and by elimination.

Q: The Life Divine exalts and envisages :

The passage says The Life Divine exalts and envisages knowledge of spiritual truth.The text calls the book 'a spiritual discourse' and a 'consummate example' of Sri Aurobindo's ability to create 'the limitless vision of truth and power of human consciousness'. Truth seen through the spirit is what is exalted.'Perceived human conceptions' are what consciousness has supremacy over, so they are not exalted. The passage does not turn to the material world or to social relations anywhere: its subject is the psyche, expression and the seer's vision.

Q: The word 'expression' in the passage is not related to :

The word 'expression' is not related to rational expression.The passage ties expression to the higher, non-rational side of consciousness: 'higher aesthetics' gives aesthetic expression, 'the creative vital' gives creative expression, and the 'subtle plane' and the 'eternity of human expression' point to the transcendental.Reason or logic is never mentioned as a source of expression, which is why rational expression is the odd one out. The other three can each be traced to a phrase in the text.

Q: When can a person be truly contended ?

A person can be truly contented when he obtains what he cherishes.The poem asks: Let all living beings obtain Whatever they truly cherish. Let every person on this planet be truly contented. The two wishes are placed together, so contentment follows from obtaining what one truly cherishes.Obtaining what one did not even dream of, the destruction of enemies and living among one's kin are not mentioned anywhere in the poem as sources of contentment. The poem in fact wishes the wicked to be reformed, not destroyed.

Q: How can the wickedness of the wicked cease ?

The wickedness of the wicked can cease when the wicked themselves develop the desire to do good.The poem's second and third lines read: Let wickedness of the wicked cease. Let the desire to do good in them increase. The cure it prays for is an inner change in the wicked, a growing desire to do good.Destroying the wicked, outnumbering them by the good and the Lord drinking their poison are never suggested in the poem; the first would also contradict its prayer that all beings become friends and all be contented.

Direction for [ Question No: 61 To 64 ] :

Read the following poem and answer the questions given below it :

It started as a pilgrimage,
Exalting minds and making all
The burden light. The second stage
Explored but did not test the call.
The sun beat down to match our rage.

But when the differences arose
On how to cross a desert patch
We lost a friend whose stylish prose
Was quite the best of all our batch.
A shadow falls on us–and grows.

When, finally, we reached the place,
We hardly knew why we were there.
The trip had darkened every face,
Our deeds were neither great nor rare.
Home is where we have to gather grace.

61.

The tone of the poet is :

A.Pessimistic
B.Positive
C.Doubtful
D.Philosophical

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: C

The key gives Doubtful as the tone of the poet.

The poet looks back on a journey that began with high hopes ('exalting minds, making all the burden light') and ended with the travellers barely knowing 'why we were there', their faces darkened and their deeds 'neither great nor rare'. The speaker is questioning what the journey was worth, which the key reads as doubt.

'Pessimistic' is close, but the poem ends on a quiet resolution, 'Home is where we have to gather grace', which is not despair. 'Positive' fails because of the loss and disillusion, and 'Philosophical' names a manner of reflection and not an attitude to the events.

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62.

The poet is referring to :

A.his daily prayers
B.religious matters
C.political issues
D.moral concerns

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: D

The key says the poet is referring to moral concerns.

The pilgrimage is the surface story, but the poem is about conduct: a quarrel over how to cross a desert, the loss of a friend, deeds that were 'neither great nor rare', and a closing line that places grace in home life. These are questions of right living, so the key reads them as moral concerns.

'Religious matters' is the tempting answer because of the word pilgrimage, yet the poem sets no creed or rite, and the pilgrimage is the vehicle for the lesson. Daily prayers and political issues are not mentioned at all.

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63.

The first two lines of the last stanza deal with :

A.an irony
B.a dilemma
C.an assertion
D.an observation

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The key says the first two lines of the last stanza deal with a dilemma.

The lines read: 'When, finally, we reached the place, / We hardly knew why we were there.' The travellers arrive but cannot say what the arrival was for, and are left puzzled between the purpose they started with and the emptiness they find. The key reads that puzzlement as a dilemma.

An observation, a plain report of what happened, is the nearest alternative reading, and a candidate could defend it; the key does not. 'An irony' would need a gap between expectation and result that the lines state outright, and 'an assertion' would need a claim argued for, which these lines do not make.

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64.

The poet longs for :

A.outings
B.tourist places
C.friendship
D.homely stay

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: D

The poet longs for homely stay.

The closing line, 'Home is where we have to gather grace', is the poem's answer to the failed journey. After the effort and quarrels of travel, grace is to be found at home, so what the poet longs for is a settled life at home.

Outings and tourist places are the kind of travel the poem has just found empty. Friendship appears only as a loss on the road ('We lost a friend'), and the closing line does not turn to it.

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Direction for [ Question No: 65 To 68 ] :

Read the passage and answer the questions given below it :

The Life Divine is a masterpiece that reveals Sri Aurobindo's vivid deliberation and divine creativity about 'human consciousness'. It is the source of relentless human activity and development. This paper spotlights the literary promise of fresh contemplative ways on the work of Sri Aurobindo as a spiritual discourse. Sri Aurobindo's exposure to the higher dynamics in the philosophy of thought empowered him to deal with the interesting topic of individual and collective psyche at universal level with great ease.

The word 'eternity' in this context suggests the boundless freedom of powerful human consciousness that has supremacy over perceived human conceptions dispelling the unwanted to enter the blissful arena of eternity of human expression. Eventually, it leads all of us to reach the pinnacle of Sri Aurobindo's unfathomable expressions.

The Life Divine discusses the conception of higher aesthetics envisaged by Sri Aurobindo as a seer. The indefatigable spirit of the seer enriches every sphere of description as he explained it in his The Future Poetry. According to Aurobindo "the most pronounced force of expression" takes its flight from "the subtle plane through the creative vital" as it uses the outer mind and other external instruments for transmission only. The Life Divine is a consummate example for his ability of creating the limitless vision of truth and power of human consciousness, without employing any artificial enforcing machinery in the process of transmission.

65.

What is not a feature of human consciouness ?

A.freedom
B.eternity
C.perceived knowledge
D.seamlessness

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: C

The key's answer is perceived knowledge.

The passage describes human consciousness as boundless freedom, as having 'supremacy over perceived human conceptions', and as reaching the 'eternity of human expression'. Freedom and eternity are therefore named features. 'Seamlessness' fits the closing picture of a limitless vision transmitted without any 'artificial enforcing machinery', a smooth, unbroken flow, though the passage never uses the word itself.

'Perceived' is the one term the passage places below consciousness: consciousness has supremacy over perceived conceptions, so what is merely perceived is what consciousness overcomes, not a feature of it. This question is answered by that one phrase and by elimination.

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66.

The Life Divine exalts and envisages :

A.perceived human conceptions
B.consciousness of the material world
C.social relations
D.knowledge of spiritual truth

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: D

The passage says The Life Divine exalts and envisages knowledge of spiritual truth.

The text calls the book 'a spiritual discourse' and a 'consummate example' of Sri Aurobindo's ability to create 'the limitless vision of truth and power of human consciousness'. Truth seen through the spirit is what is exalted.

'Perceived human conceptions' are what consciousness has supremacy over, so they are not exalted. The passage does not turn to the material world or to social relations anywhere: its subject is the psyche, expression and the seer's vision.

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67.

In The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo leaves his mark as a :

A.literary artist
B.visionary saint
C.social reformer
D.historical critic

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The key's answer is that Sri Aurobindo leaves his mark as a visionary saint.

The passage names him 'a seer', with an 'indefatigable spirit of the seer', and credits him with a 'limitless vision of truth'. A seer who works through spiritual vision is a visionary saint.

'Literary artist' is the nearest rival, since the passage mentions higher aesthetics and The Future Poetry; but it presents the aesthetics as the seer's own expression, not as the mark he leaves. Nothing in the passage presents him as a social reformer or a historical critic.

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68.

The word 'expression' in the passage is not related to :

A.aesthetic expression
B.creative expression
C.transcendental expression
D.rational expression

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: D

The word 'expression' is not related to rational expression.

The passage ties expression to the higher, non-rational side of consciousness: 'higher aesthetics' gives aesthetic expression, 'the creative vital' gives creative expression, and the 'subtle plane' and the 'eternity of human expression' point to the transcendental.

Reason or logic is never mentioned as a source of expression, which is why rational expression is the odd one out. The other three can each be traced to a phrase in the text.

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Direction for [ Question No: 69 To 70 ] :

Direction :

Read the following poem and answer the questions given below it :

O Lord of the Universe
Grant me these wishes :
Let wickedness of the wicked cease
Let the desire to do good in them increase.
Let all the living beings come together
As best friends.
Let the darkness of the sin recede,
And let the whole world behold
The Sun of one's own Dharma arise.
Let all living beings obtain
Whatever they truly cherish.
Let every person on this planet be truly contented.
Let everyone in these three worlds be complete.
Let everyone eternally worship
The Primeval Man.

69.

When can a person be truly contended ?

A.When he obtains what he did not even dream of
B.When all his enemies are destroyed
C.When he obtains what he cherishes
D.When he lives among his kins.

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: C

A person can be truly contented when he obtains what he cherishes.

The poem asks: Let all living beings obtain Whatever they truly cherish. Let every person on this planet be truly contented. The two wishes are placed together, so contentment follows from obtaining what one truly cherishes.

Obtaining what one did not even dream of, the destruction of enemies and living among one's kin are not mentioned anywhere in the poem as sources of contentment. The poem in fact wishes the wicked to be reformed, not destroyed.

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70.

How can the wickedness of the wicked cease ?

A.When the wicked are completely destroyed
B.When the good outnumber the wicked
C.When the Lord drinks the poison spread by the wicked
D.When the wicked themselves develop the desire to do good

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: D

The wickedness of the wicked can cease when the wicked themselves develop the desire to do good.

The poem's second and third lines read: Let wickedness of the wicked cease. Let the desire to do good in them increase. The cure it prays for is an inner change in the wicked, a growing desire to do good.

Destroying the wicked, outnumbering them by the good and the Lord drinking their poison are never suggested in the poem; the first would also contradict its prayer that all beings become friends and all be contented.

Discuss in Forum

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Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 61 To 64 ] :

Direction for [ Question No: 65 To 68 ] :

Direction for [ Question No: 69 To 70 ] :

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