Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The correct inference is that ultra-black skin has both advantages and disadvantages to species S.

The passage gives two advantages (avoiding predators and attacking prey unseen) and one disadvantage (less collagen, so a more fragile skin). An inference that keeps to the passage must reflect both sides.

"Only advantageous" ignores the fragile skin. "Only disadvantageous ... advantageous only to their predators" contradicts the passage, which says the skin helps the fish avoid predators. The option crediting lower collagen with the advantage reverses cause and effect: it is the black pigment that hides the fish, while the lower collagen is the cost.

Answer: C

When we run our eyes quickly over a text to find a particular piece of information such as a name or a date, we are scanning. Skimming gives the general idea, and skipping and speed reading are different. The answer is scanning, option C.

Skimming is a quick reading to get the gist of the text, while scanning is a search for a specific item such as a name or date, which is the activity the question describes.

Answer: A

The inference is that social scientists did not question that progress was a fact.

The passage says 'Progress was taken for granted'. Taking something for granted means accepting it without question, which is exactly the first option.

The other options go beyond the text. The passage says theories were inspired less by Biology, not that social scientists disapproved of it, and it says nothing that would put Biology above the social sciences. It also says they attempted to discover the laws and phases of progress, not that they succeeded in framing them.

Answer: B

The right choice is B is true and A is false.

Statement A is false: the passage says the gentleman does never impose himself upon others and lets them have a free hand, so he does not insist on helping those who do not want it. Statement B is true: he removes the hindrances in the way of those around him and provides comfort, so their lives are made comfortable.

The options saying A is true, or that both are true, are therefore wrong, and so is the option that both are false.

Answer: B

The statement that is not false is He is all praise for a gentleman.

The writer defines the gentleman as one who never inflicts pain, calls him helpful and comforting, and lists only good qualities, so the tone is wholly one of praise.

Nothing in the passage says the writer observed a gentleman from a distance, so that statement is unsupported. A gentleman is not critical of people in trouble: He always offers a helping hand to those in distress. He does not turn a blind eye to obstacles either, because he is busy removing the hindrances in the way of others.

Answer: B

The word is Distress.

Comfort and happiness mean ease and well-being. Distress is suffering, anxiety or pain, the direct opposite, and the passage uses it for people in trouble who need a helping hand.

Hindrance means an obstacle, which is a cause of difficulty, not a feeling opposite to comfort. Genteel means polite and refined. Weary means tired and describes the traveller; it is the nearest rival, but it names a state of tiredness and not the opposite of happiness.

Answer: A

The word is Impose.

The passage says the gentleman does never impose himself upon others. To impose is to force oneself or something else on a person, which is the sense of the verb to force.

Inflict is close, but it means to cause something unpleasant such as pain or damage to be suffered, and the passage uses it with pain (never inflicts pain). Provide and offer mean to supply or hold out something, which is the opposite of forcing it on someone.

Answer: A

The right choice is A is true, B and C are false.

A is true: the passage speaks of His helpful nature. B is false: the passage mentions a glass of cool water for a weary traveller, but says nothing about winter. C is false: the gentleman's helping is described as providing comfort, and the passage never says that he finds it painful. Indeed it defines him as one who never inflicts pain.

So only A holds, and the options that make B or C true, or all three true, are wrong.

Answer: C

Garud travelled alone as no one agreed to accompany her.

The second paragraph says that Garud had asked friends and family but found no takers, which means nobody was willing to go with her. Only after that did she go alone and discover how freeing it was.

The passage never says that a companion would have given unasked advice, that going alone was cheaper, or that she disliked company; indeed she says 'Travel is also about meeting people'. Those three options are guesses the text does not support.

Answer: B

A is true and B is false: option 2.

A says that initially she did not like to go alone. The passage says that before the holiday she was hesitant about travelling by herself, so A is true. B says that she wanted only a friend to go with her. She asked friends and family alike, and she later decided not to take a friend or relative to Europe either, so B is false.

Options 1, 3 and 4 each make B true or A false, which the passage does not allow.