Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The method that authorities do not use is persuasion.

The first paragraph lists the opposition to freedom: 'religious through Inquisition, by excommunication, tortures and banishments, and the total denial of man's search for freedom'. Inquisition, excommunication and tortures are named there, so they are used. Persuasion, a gentle method of winning people over, is never mentioned, and the forms of opposition listed are all harsh.

Answer: B

A reaction against established religion prompts people not to start a new religion.

The third paragraph says the religious reaction is 'to revolt, either by joining other religious organisations or by following some guru or leader or by joining some cult. Or one denies the whole religious endeavour.' Joining other organisations, following a guru and joining a cult are all named; starting a new religion is not among them.

Answer: B

According to the author, real freedom is inner freedom.

The last paragraph says that inner freedom is 'entirely different' from the freedom of movement sought on the surface, that its roots are 'in the reality of freedom', and that it covers all endeavours of man. The earlier paragraphs treat economic, political and religious reactions as limited, surface freedom, involving conflict, wars and violence.

Answer: A

Statement A is false and statement B is true, so the answer is A is false, B is true.

The first paragraph says 'In the capitalist countries, individual freedom exists to some degree', so A, which says it does not exist at all, is false. It also says 'in the communist world it has been denied', so B, that people do not have individual freedom in communist countries, is true.

Answer: C

The statement that is not true is 'Freedom is not one of the most important factors in life'.

The passage opens with 'Freedom is one of the most important factors in life', so the statement that denies this contradicts the passage. The other three statements, that man can enjoy life only in an environment of freedom, that material progress needs freedom, and that freedom helps man evolve morally and spiritually, fit the passage's view of freedom's value, even if the wording is not printed there.

Answer: B

On the key's reading, 'the valley of death' refers to the impending death of soldiers.

The six hundred ride into a valley covered by the enemy's guns, and the poem notes that 'someone had blundered' and that the soldiers' part was only 'to do and die'. The valley stands for the certain death that waits for them there, which is why the phrase is repeated like a refrain.

The extract describes no burial place, and no house of death. 'A nightmarish place' is the nearest rival, since the valley is a terrible place, but the poem stresses the death that is coming to the soldiers rather than how the place feels, so the key prefers the impending death.

Answer: C

The statement that is not true is that military discipline teaches soldiers to act tactfully in the battlefield.

The extract shows discipline as obedience without question: 'Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.' So discipline teaches soldiers to do and die, to obey the commander's order, and not to ask any question. Nothing in the lines speaks of acting tactfully or using their own judgement, and the whole point of the lines is that the soldiers do not.

Answer: D

The adjective that does not apply is impractical.

The soldiers ride on although they know that someone has blundered, which shows courage; they obey orders without reply, which shows discipline; and they are ready to die for their cause, which is patriotism. Nothing in the extract suggests that they act in an impractical, unrealistic way; they act as they are ordered to by their commander, however costly. Courageous, disciplined and patriotic all fit the lines, so the odd one out is impractical.

Answer: A

The figure of speech in 'the Valley of Death' is a metaphor.

Death is not a real valley, and the poet speaks of the dangerous ground the soldiers ride into as if it were one, with no word of comparison such as like or as. A comparison made without such a word is a metaphor.

A simile needs 'like' or 'as'. Synecdoche uses a part for the whole (a hand for a worker) and metonymy uses a closely linked name for the thing (the crown for the king); the phrase does neither.

Answer: B

The device in 'to do and die' is Alliteration.

Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words. 'Do' and 'die' both begin with the d sound, which gives the line its strong, rhythmic beat.

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds, a simile compares two things using like or as, and personification gives human qualities to non-human things. None of these is present in the phrase.