Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Yellow pigment mixed with blue colour gives green. The passage says: ‘Most greens result from the addition of yellow pigment to the structural blue colour.’

Buff, brown and black are caused by melanins, as the passage states in its first sentence, not by this mixing.

The passage explains that blues in feathers are structural, based on a thin layer of keratin over melanin, and that greens come from adding yellow pigment to this structural blue. The question uses the same terms, so the answer is green and not one of the melanin colours.

Answer: A

Rhamphotheca means the bird's bill made of keratin. The passage says the bill is covered with a sheet of keratin, the rhamphotheca, which in petrels and a few other birds is divided into plates.

The rump of the tail is where the preen gland lies, feathers form the plumage, and the tail feathers are not the rhamphotheca.

The passage gives the word in the sentence ‘The bill is covered with a sheet of keratin, the rhamphotheca’, so the word means the keratin covering of the bill, which is option A. The bill itself is the bone, and the covering is the sheath that is divided into plates in petrels.

Answer: B

Carotenoid pigments in birds come from the food they consume. The passage says yellows, oranges and reds come from carotenoid or lipochrome pigments that originate at least in part from the food.

Offensive odour is a property of some preen gland secretions, and the porous layer of keratin and the laminated structure of the barbules give blue and iridescent colours.

The passage separates the sources of colour: melanins are made by the bird, carotenoids come from the food, and blue and iridescent colours come from the structure of the feather. This is why food is the answer and the structural features in the other options are not.

Answer: D

The preen gland's secretion is used to dress and waterproof the plumage. The passage says the secretion is about one-half lipids (fats and oils) and is probably important in dressing and waterproofing the plumage.

The passage does not link the secretion to preventing heat loss, to making flight easier, or to raising or lowering feathers.

The passage links the secretion to dressing and waterproofing the plumage, and it notes that in a few birds the secretion has a strong offensive odour, which is a separate point. The other options describe functions that the passage does not mention at all.

Answer: B

The false statement is that yellow, orange and red hues do not come from pigments in the food they eat. The passage says carotenoid pigments, which give yellows, oranges and reds, originate at least in part from the food, so the statement is false.

The other three are true to the passage: feather colours result from pigment and structure, the preen gland at the base of the tail secretes an oil that repels water (the passage says it is important in waterproofing the plumage), and scales are occasionally shed.

Answer: B

A capella, spelt acapella in the passage, signifies without instrumental accompaniment. The passage says that performers mostly sang madrigals acapella, meaning without instrumental accompaniment, so the word describes singing by voices alone.

A song for several voices is the definition of a madrigal, not of the word acapella. Secular vocal music describes the kind of music madrigals developed from. Verse in the 14th century refers to the early form from which the Renaissance madrigal developed. The meaning of the term itself is only given by the second option.

Answer: A

The origin of the Renaissance madrigal is Italy. The passage says the style originated in Italy and flourished in many other European countries, and later that in the 1520s people in Italy began to write manuscripts of madrigals.

England is where the form later became immensely popular in Elizabethan times, with a version that differed from the Italian one. France is only counted among the other European countries. Minnesota is not mentioned at all in the passage. The place of origin is Italy.

Answer: B

Madrigal became immensely popular in England in Elizabethan times. The passage says that in England the form was immensely popular in Elizabethan times, and adds that the English madrigal was the only version that differed substantially from the Italian one.

The medieval period is when the earlier forms of verse and music existed, from which the Renaissance madrigal developed. The Italian Renaissance is where the style started, but the passage uses the word immensely only for the Elizabethan period. The French Revolution is not mentioned in the passage. Elizabethan times is the answer.

Answer: C

What distinguished madrigals from earlier vocal music was that they were always secular. The passage says that previously most music had been religious, and that madrigals were among the first styles to depart from that tradition.

They were religious is the opposite of this statement. The style was traditional is also reversed: madrigals departed from tradition by using dissonance and sudden shifts of melody. The verses were not written in English as a rule; the passage says composers wrote in the vernacular, and English is only one case. The secular character is the answer.

Answer: A

The theme of madrigals was social. The passage says that their themes were social, and that composers wrote the verses in the vernacular rather than the Latin of sacred music.

Sacred is the character of the earlier music they departed from. Amateur refers to the singers for whom the music was composed, skilled amateur singers, not to the theme. Traditional is not accurate, since the passage describes madrigals as a departure from the religious tradition. Social is the answer.