Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The camps are justifiably named 'Reach Out!' because members are encouraged to collaborate with neighbourhood organizations.

On Action Day small groups go out with an adult group leader to work with organisations in the neighbourhood, and the aim of the camp is to encourage the young people to go out and make the world a better place. Reaching out to the community is what the name stands for.

Reaching the camp site, being action packed all day and working under group leaders do not express the idea of reaching out to others.

Answer: D

All the seven days at the camp are not the same routine-wise.

The camps are week-long, and the passage says that there is no average day at the camp and that the timetable is changed daily to make room for exciting events. So no two days follow the same routine.

Only one day, Action Day, is spent working with local organisations, so options 1 and 2 are wrong, and since there is no average day, 'tiring and average' cannot describe them.

Answer: A

The underlined words are an adverb and a noun.

Also modifies the verb 'meet', adding that they do this as well as their other activities, so it is an adverb. Interests is the plural noun, the object of 'have', meaning things a person enjoys or cares about.

'Also' is not a conjunction (it does not join clauses) or a preposition (it has no object). 'Interests' is not a verb here, because 'have' is the verb of the clause, and it is not an adjective, since it names something rather than describing it.

Answer: B

Mr. Upadhyay was the hostel warden.

The narrator and Patil have slipped out of the hostel, and Upadhyayji stops them on the road and asks where they are going. Later the narrator says to Mrs. Upadhyay, 'Warden Saheb is bothering you unnecessarily', and she scolds her husband with 'what kind of a warden are you ?'. The boys call him 'Sir' as students would, but his role in the institution is that of warden.

Nothing in the passage makes him a school administrator or principal, and he is not shown teaching.

Answer: D

'had managed' is in the Past Perfect tense.

The past perfect is formed with had + past participle (had managed, had gone, had seen). It describes an action completed before another point in the past. Here the narrator had got the tickets before the evening of the play that the rest of the story describes.

The past indefinite (simple past) would be 'we managed', with no auxiliary. The present perfect uses has/have + past participle ('we have managed'), and the present continuous uses am/is/are + -ing ('we are managing'). Neither has had.

Answer: C

She welcomed them.

When the narrator went into the kitchen, 'She was pleased to see me'. She asked about the play, laughed when the boys explained that they could not go, and then told her husband to let the children go and have some fun. Every act is friendly, so she was far from cold or displeased.

The options that say she received them coldly, was displeased with her husband for bringing them or was unhappy to see them all contradict her warmth. She disagreed with her husband only about holding the boys back, not about bringing them home.

Answer: C

Both statements are true, so the answer is both (A) and (B) are True.

(A): the narrator says 'We had managed to get the tickets for the play after much running around' and later shows the tickets to Mrs. Upadhyay, so they had the tickets before setting out, that is, in advance. (B): Mrs. Upadhyay listens to the boys' secret and then tells her husband, 'Why don't you let the children go and have some fun ?', so she takes their side.

The options that call either statement false therefore fail, because the text bears out both.

Answer: D

They were sneaking away to see a play.

The passage opens with Shreeram Lagoo acting in a play at Gandhi School, for which the boys had got tickets. They left the hostel quietly after dinner, the play started at 9.30 p.m. and they were hurrying to the station at 9.15 p.m. The narrator later tells Mrs. Upadhyay that both of them were going to the Gandhi School to see a play.

Their excuse of tea or coffee at the station was a cover story. They were not out for a stroll, football or a film.

Answer: B

The right choice is (B) is True but (A) is False.

(A) is false: Mr. Upadhyay did not meet the boys inside the hostel; they saw him coming from the opposite direction on the road to the station. (B) is true: the play began at 9.30 p.m. and it was already 9.15 p.m. when they were rushing along the road, still on their way to the station, so they were already getting late.

The options that call (A) true, or both false, or both true, therefore fail.

Answer: B

He took them home for coffee.

After Patil said that the boys were going to the station for tea or coffee, Upadhyay replied, 'Come with me. I'll get you some coffee.' and 'He brought us to his home.' He then asked his wife to make the coffee.

He did not walk away after talking, and he plainly reacted. He did not allow the boys to go at that point either: it was his wife who later told him to let them go.