Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

On the key's reading, the figure of speech in 'and whirls the mills' is onomatopoeia.

The verb 'whirls' is taken to echo the sound and motion of turning, which is how the key reads it. The question is hard to settle, because the line is part of a stanza in which the wind 'walks on the water' and 'talks to itself', which is personification, and a reader may feel that the phrase quoted belongs with that. The words alone do not prove either reading, and the key's choice could not be confirmed from a reference source.

There is no like or as, so it is not a simile, and the phrase does not use a part for a whole, so it is not synecdoche.

Answer: C

The beautiful dress worn by the Earth is made of water and grass.

The first stanza says the wonderful water is 'around you curled' and the wonderful grass is 'upon your breast', and ends 'World, you are beautifully drest'. The water and the grass are the clothes that the poet imagines on the Earth.

Mills and hills, gardens and wheat-fields, and mountains and forests all come from later stanzas about the land, and none of them is described as dress.

Answer: C

The language needs of real-life situations are fulfilled by learning on the streets.

The passage says learning on the streets and in the markets 'from experience and need can be effective', and that these students find real-life situations meaningful because their success in meeting their needs depends on their language ability. The need is met on the street itself.

Studying text-books and learning language structures are classroom activities, which the passage links with controlled, structured teaching rather than real-life needs. Proper pronunciation is not tied to real-life needs in the passage; it says mispronunciations matter little in shops.

Answer: C

Both (a) and (b) are right.

The last paragraph says that in the classroom 'the student is more likely to learn the grammatical language of educated people', and that the language learnt out of necessity 'might include informal expressions such as slang'. Statement (a) follows from the first, and statement (b) from the second.

Since each statement is supported, the options calling either one wrong, or both wrong, cannot be right.

Answer: A

On the key's reading, the best place to learn a foreign language correctly and quickly is only the classroom.

The passage says that in a classroom language learning can be controlled so that all the necessary structures are taught, and that highly motivated students can thus 'learn the language efficiently and quickly'. Learning in the market is called effective but haphazard, since the student learns only what he happens to need. The question stresses correctness and speed, which are the classroom's strengths.

The closing sentence says a combination of classroom instruction and street experience gives 'the best language learning of all', so the option naming both is also defensible; it speaks of the best learning overall and not of learning correctly and quickly, which is why the key prefers the classroom. Home is not mentioned.

Answer: A

A text-book controls language learning.

The passage says most foreign language students learn from a text-book in a classroom, 'where language learning can be controlled so that all the necessary structures are taught'. The text-book is the tool that sets what is taught and in what order.

It is highly motivated students, not the text-book, who are said to learn efficiently, so the book does not motivate them. A text-book teaches the structures set out in it, not what a student happens to need, which is how the passage describes street learning. Its cost is not discussed.

Answer: D

What is not mentioned is that the Himalayas form the backbone of the tourism industry.

The passage says the Himalayas have highly productive ecosystems, that they provide water to more than 1,000 million people, and that they provide water to millions of hectares of land. Tourism is not discussed anywhere in it.

Answer: B

The false statement is 'Climate change has little effect on the Himalayas'.

The passage calls the Himalayas a fragile resource, says they bring happiness, peace and prosperity to large parts of the world if conserved, and says some of their glaciers are the longest outside the poles. So the first, third and fourth statements follow from it. Climate change is not discussed in the passage, but the claim that its effect is little does not fit a range called highly fragile, so it is the one item not supported.

Answer: B

What is not so special about Uttarakhand's Himalayas is huge mineral deposits.

The last paragraph says the area is especially rich in water resources, with dozens of perennial streams, numerous rain-fed rivers, and rivulets, waterfalls and ponds. Many perennial streams, many rain-fed rivers and numerous waterfalls and ponds are all stated. Mineral deposits are never mentioned.

Answer: C

The statement that is not true is that water 'is considered holy by most religions'.

The passage says water is the core of life, so we cannot survive without it, and that it supplies water to millions of hectares of land, which makes it a life-line for farmers. It also says water 'must be central to our spiritual thinking', but it never says that most religions consider water holy. That claim goes beyond the text, so it is the one that is not true in the context of the passage.