3 TIPS on solving Reading Comprehension Questions in Online Tests

Looking for Questions instead of tips? - You can directly jump to English Reading Comprehension Test Questions

Tip 1: Read the Question first before reading the passage

Promotion of a digital economy is an integral part of Government’s strategy to clean the system and weed out corruption and black money. It has a transformative impact in terms of greater formalization of the economy and mainstreaming of financial savings into the banking system. This, in turn, is expected to energize private investment in the country through lower cost of credit. India is now on the cusp of a massive digital revolution. A shift to digital payments has huge benefits for the common man. The earlier initiative of our Government to promote financial inclusion and the JAM trinity were important precursors to our current push for digital transactions. Already there is evidence of increased digital transactions. The BHIM app has been launched. It will unleash the power of mobile phones for digital payments and financial inclusion. 125 lakh people have adopted the BHIM app so far. The Government will launch two new schemes to promote the usage of BHIM; these are, Referral Bonus Scheme for individuals and a Cashback Scheme for merchants. Aadhar Pay, a merchant version of Aadhar Enabled Payment System, will be launched shortly. This will be specifically beneficial for those who do not have debit cards, mobile wallets and mobile phones. A Mission will be set up with a target of 2,500 crore digital transactions for 2017-18 through UPI, USSD, Aadhar Pay, IMPS and debit cards. Banks have targeted to introduce additional 10 lakh new PoS terminals by March 2017. They will be encouraged to introduce 20 lakh Aadhar based PoS by September 2017. Increased digital transactions will enable small and micro enterprises to access formal credit. Government will encourage SIDBI to refinance credit institutions which provide unsecured loans, at reasonable interest rates, to borrowers based on their transaction history. The digital payment infrastructure and grievance handling mechanisms shall be strengthened. The focus would be on rural and semi urban areas through Post Offices, Fair Price Shops and Banking Correspondents. Steps would be taken to promote and possibly mandate petrol pumps, fertilizer depots, municipalities, Block offices, road transport offices, universities, colleges, hospitals and other institutions to have facilities for digital payments, including BHIM App. A proposal to mandate all Government receipts through digital means, beyond a prescribed limit, is under consideration. Government will strengthen the Financial Inclusion Fund to augment resources for taking up these initiatives. Government will consider and work with various stakeholders for early implementation of the interim recommendations of the Committee of Chief Ministers on digital transactions.

 

Question: How many people have adopted the BHIM App?

If the question asks for a very specific value, you don’t have to read the whole passage. You can skim through it until you find the information is needed to answer the question.

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Tip 2: Use your best judgment on questions related to the Author’s motives, tone, purpose etc

Two principles are involved in the controversy about the presence of foreign controlled media in the country; the free flow of ideas and images across national borders and the need to safeguard the national interest and preserve cultural autonomy. Both are valid but both are at loggerheads because each has been used to promote less lofty goals. The first principle conforms to a moral imperative: freedom to expression cannot rhyme with restrictions imposed by any government. But the free flow rhetoric also clouds the fact that the powerful Western, and especially American media, can and often do present, subtly or brazenly, news in a manner that promotes Western political, ideological and strategic interests. Besides, Western entertainment programs present lifestyles and values that run counter to the lifestyles and values cherished by traditional societies. All this explains why so many Indian newspapers, magazines and news agencies have sought protection from the courts to prevent foreign publications and news agencies from operating in the country. Their arguments are weak on two counts. As the bitter debate on a new world information and communication order demonstrated in the late seventies and early eighties, many of those who resent Western ‘invasion’ in the fields of information and culture are no great friends of democracy. Secondly, the threat of such an ‘invasion’ has been aired by those media groups in the developing countries that fear that their business interests will be harmed if Western groups, equipped with large financial and technological resources and superior management skills, are allowed to operate in the country without let. The fear is valid but it goes against the grain of the economic reform programme. The presence of foreign newspapers and television channels will increase competition, which, in the course of time, can only lead to the up gradation of dynamic Indian newspapers and television channels, even while they drive the rest out of the market. One way to strike a balance between the two antagonistic principles would be to allow foreign media entry into the country, provided the India state treats them at par with the domestic media on all fronts. On the import of technology, for instance, foreign media cannot be allowed duty concessions denied to their Indian counterparts. Foreign media will also have to face legal consequences should they run foul of Indian laws. Why, for example, should the BBC, or Time magazine or The Economist get away by showing a map of Kashmir, which is at variance with the official Indian map? Why should they go scot-free when they allow secessionists and terrorists to air their views without giving the government the right to reply, or when they depict sexually explicit scenes, which would otherwise not be cleared by the Censor Board?

Question: Which of the following seems to be the most likely purpose of writing this passage?

a)    To criticize foreign media

b)    To highlight the steps and caution to be taken about the entry of foreign media (Correct)

c)    To make the public aware of the technological superiority of western media

d)    To prevent foreign media from entering our country

[Here, we can quickly eliminate options A and C. Although the author is critical about the entry of foreign media, he does not wish to prevent their entry but to highlight certain precautions that must be taken. Hence, B would be the right answer.]

Tip 3: Use only the passage (not your personal opinions, politics and values) in choosing the answer

The happy man is the man who lived objectively, who has free affection and wide interest, who secures his happiness through these interests and affections and through the fact that they, in turn, make him an object of interest and affection to many others. To be the recipient of affection is a potent cause of happiness, but the man who demands affection is not the man upon whom it is bestowed. The man who receives affection is, speaking broadly, the man who gives it. But it useless to attempt to give it as a calculation, in the way in which one might lend money at interest, for a calculated affection is not genuine and is not felt to be so by the recipient. What then can a man do who is unhappy because he is encased in self? So long as he continues to think about the cause of his unhappiness, he continues to be self-centered and therefore does not get outside, the vicious circle if he is to get outside it, it must be by genuine interests, not by simulated interest accepted merely as a medicine. Although this difficulty is real, there is nevertheless much that he can do if he has rightly diagnosed his trouble. If, for example, his trouble is due to a sense of sin, conscious or unconscious he can first persuade his conscious mind that he has no reason to feel sinful, and then proceed, to plant his rational conviction in his unconscious mind, concerning himself meanwhile with some more or less neutral activity. If he succeeds in dispelling the sense of sin, it is possible that genuine objective interests will arise spontaneously. If his trouble is self-pity, he can deal with it in the same manner after first persuading himself that there is nothing extraordinarily unfortunate in his circumstances. If fear is his trouble, let him practice exercises designed to give courage. Courage has been recognized from time immemorial as an important virtue, and a great part of training of boys and young men has been devoted to producing a type of character capable of fearlessness in battle. But moral courage and intellectual courage have been much less studied, they also, however, have their technique, admit to yourself every day at least one painful truth, your will find his quite useful. Teach yourself to feel that life still be worth living even if you were not, as of course you are immeasurably superior to all your friends in virtue and in intelligence. Exercises of this sort prolonged through several years will at last enable you to admit facts without flinching and will, in so doing, free you from the empire of feat over a very large filed.

Question: What happens when you think about cause of your unhappiness?

a)    You try to introspect and look critically at yourself

b)    You realize that the life can lived in different ways

c)    You try to practice exercise designed to give courage

d)    You remain a self-centered person (Correct)

[You may disagree with the opinions of the author, but while answering the question, please select the answer only based on the information provided in the passage.]

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