Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: no Londoner wants to be in Piccadilly circus

The passage says Londoners find it a maddening obstruction between one place and another and that few voluntarily linger there; the only locals present are those who make their living from the visitors. Nothing in the passage suggests danger, and the vice is what sightseers expect to find rather than what is there.

Answer: B

Correct answer: full of glamour

The passage says visitors have come to see the heart of London and expect to see spectacle, glamour and vice. Being the pulse of London is exactly what the passage says you cannot feel there, so that option reports the expectation the passage corrects.

Answer: C

Correct answer: an obstruction to traffic

The passage says that to Londoners it is a maddening obstruction between one place and another. Getting past it is the complaint; noise and crowding are never mentioned, and the discomfort of living above it is described as loneliness rather than as awkwardness of structure.

Answer: B

Correct answer: sightseers from provincial areas of Britain

The passage says the lingerers are primarily sightseers, with a fair sprinkling of people hoping to draw attention to themselves - both typically from the provinces. Those hoping to be noticed are the smaller group, and the locals are described as living off the lingerers rather than being among them.

Answer: C

Correct answer: clean honest society

The passage calls it the intense yearning of this class for a clean corruptionless politics and society, and notes that the yearning survives every disappointment. Better material resources are what the class wants for itself; the yearning in question is what it wants for the country.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Opportunities

The passage says that if teachers do not figure high on the list, it is not for lack of trying, but for lack of opportunities. That wording rules out any explanation resting on their character or their willingness.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Stratified

The first sentence says the middle class consists of so many strata that it defies categorisation under a single term class, which would imply a considerable degree of homogeneity. Homogeneity is precisely what the passage denies, and it denies it by pointing to the strata.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Politicians

The passage says politicians invariably and understandably top the list, and names bureaucrats, policemen, lawyers and businessmen as following them. The order is given explicitly, so the other three options are all lower down it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Persisted

The passage says the yearning has again and again surfaced with each new figure promising to eradicate corruption, and that repeated failure has not subjected it to the law of diminishing returns. What has declined is the sense of shock at corruption, not the yearning to be rid of it.

Answer: D

Correct answer: its operations need intricate technical knowledge

The passage explains the 1870 provision of mass elementary education as a response to industry's need for a literate and numerate workforce at a time when industrial processes were becoming more complex and the demand for technical skills was steadily growing. Complexity of process is the reason it gives.