Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension: English Reading Comprehension Exercises with Answers, Sample Passages for Reading Comprehension Test for GRE, CAT, IELTS preparation
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English Reading Comprehension Test Questions and Answers. Improve your ability to read and comprehend English Passages
Q66. > I start with the news from Kerala. The said proposal for an
> administrative reforms commission has come from a left-wing
> government. This is significant, as the intellectuals linked to the
> communists have generally played down the will to power of the
> bureaucracy. They concentrate their energies on demonising the market.
> While it is absolutely essential following the triumphalism that has
> accompanied the collapse of the former Soviet Union to query the
> efficacy of the market mechanism, social analysis that ignores the
> role of the bureaucracy implies credulousness when it is not actually
> complicit. Perhaps the Left intellectuals avoid the critical approach
> as they fear alienating the bureaucracy on whom their party must rely
> when it eventually comes to power. From the point of view of social
> critique, however, this is deficient, as the bureaucracy in India has
> shown itself to be quite capable of slowing down, when not actually
> subverting, the programmes of democratically elected governments. This
> it is able to do with impunity given its near-exclusive control of the
> machinery of government. Attempted oversight has proved to be too
> distant to be effective. While India’s top bureaucracy is protected by
> statute, its lower echelon achieves independence by closing ranks
> whenever the action of its members is challenged; the clogged courts
> are hardly a source of redressal for the citizen having to engage with
> the latter on a daily basis.
>
> The proposal of the Kerala government is to be welcomed on two
> grounds. First, there is reason to believe that despite the enthusiasm
> of academics for the Kerala Model, the public of the State do not feel
> well served by its machinery of government. We may infer this from the
> packed attendance at the lok adalat-type meetings that were held by
> Oommen Chandy while he was the Chief Minister. Mr. Chandy’s office had
> tried to spin this to its perceived advantage as the face of a caring
> government. It could not have escaped its attention though that the
> durbar may also be read as the public having been failed in the first
> instance, thus amounting to waste of the Chief Minister’s time and the
> public’s money. Actually, it may be interpreted as another instance of
> the political class’s reluctance to fix the system as that would
> eliminate its role as a purveyor of patronage to a beleaguered
> citizenry. This is in line with the disincentive of this class to
> finally eradicate poverty as then it can no longer appear benevolent
> by distributing private goods and announcing welfare schemes. So,
> quite unusually for an Indian political party, Kerala’s Left
> Democratic Front has signalled the need for administrative reforms.
> And, going by the news reports, it has chosen the right man to head
> the proposed commission. Mr. Achuthanandan may not have sparkled as
> Chief Minister but it is clear where his heart lies. He had had the
> nerve to publicly remind the State’s civil service that they were
> servants of the people. India’s politicians rarely read the riot act
> to the bureaucracy as they rely on it to further their personal
> interests.
The idea for an administrative reforms commission has come from which stakeholders?
- an autocratic establishment
- a right-wing government
- a left-wing government.
- Indian National Congress
- None of these
Solution : a left-wing government.
Q67. > The option in India will soon apply not only to the bags that hold the
> groceries, but also to the cash used to purchase them.The Reserve Bank
> of India (RBI) is preparing to circulate 1 billion plastic notes of 10
> rupees (6 fils) in five cities to test their practicability. The
> purpose of the new notes was to increase the lifespan of the currency
> and combat counterfeiting. The five cities - Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur,
> Bhubhaneshwar and Shimla - have been chosen for their geographic
> disparity and to test the effect of their varying climates on the
> notes. No date has been announced for the start of the trials. Plastic
> currency notes - or polymer banknotes, as they are also called - were
> first issued in Australia in 1988 and have since been adopted in
> Singapore, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria, among other countries. Only a
> handful of nations have switched over entirely to polymer currency.
> They include Canada, New Zealand, Brunei and Vietnam.
>
>
> There have been no estimates in India of the cost of printing
> banknotes on paper versus plastic. But central banks in Canada and New
> Zealand have said that plastic notes cost twice as much to produce.
> However, polymer notes have an average lifespan of five years,
> compared with one year for paper notes. “You can tear paper with your
> fingers. You can’t do that with polymer notes,” Mr Jhunjhunwalla said.
> “It isn’t easy to write on polymer notes or crease them. Paper is
> affected in climate that is too cold or too warm or too rainy.” For
> the RBI, the durability of plastic cuts the expense of printing
> replacements for soiled paper notes and disposing of those taken out
> of circulation. According to the RBI’s annual report for the year from
> 2009 to 2010, 13 billion banknotes - nearly a quarter of all the notes
> in circulation - had to be destroyed. Until the mid-1990s, retracted
> banknotes were burnt. Today, as in many other countries, soiled paper
> notes are shredded. The RBI has tried to recycle shredded notes into
> novelty paperweights, bricks or cardboard. But Mr Gandhi said they
> discovered the paper was so finely shredded that they could not even
> give it away. The shredded notes now make their way to landfills and
> land reclamations.
Which of the following statement would weaken the arguments for issuing plastic currency in India ?
- The cost of the notes is going to be significantly higher; because once printed these notes will last long.
- Counting them might be bit of a task.
- The authorities might also have to bear the cost of replacing the ATMs or vending machines and other automatic payment devices that issue money.
- All of the above
- None of these
Solution : The authorities might also have to bear the cost of replacing the ATMs or vending machines and other automatic payment devices that issue money.
Q68. > I start with the news from Kerala. The said proposal for an
> administrative reforms commission has come from a left-wing
> government. This is significant, as the intellectuals linked to the
> communists have generally played down the will to power of the
> bureaucracy. They concentrate their energies on demonising the market.
> While it is absolutely essential following the triumphalism that has
> accompanied the collapse of the former Soviet Union to query the
> efficacy of the market mechanism, social analysis that ignores the
> role of the bureaucracy implies credulousness when it is not actually
> complicit. Perhaps the Left intellectuals avoid the critical approach
> as they fear alienating the bureaucracy on whom their party must rely
> when it eventually comes to power. From the point of view of social
> critique, however, this is deficient, as the bureaucracy in India has
> shown itself to be quite capable of slowing down, when not actually
> subverting, the programmes of democratically elected governments. This
> it is able to do with impunity given its near-exclusive control of the
> machinery of government. Attempted oversight has proved to be too
> distant to be effective. While India’s top bureaucracy is protected by
> statute, its lower echelon achieves independence by closing ranks
> whenever the action of its members is challenged; the clogged courts
> are hardly a source of redressal for the citizen having to engage with
> the latter on a daily basis.
>
> The proposal of the Kerala government is to be welcomed on two
> grounds. First, there is reason to believe that despite the enthusiasm
> of academics for the Kerala Model, the public of the State do not feel
> well served by its machinery of government. We may infer this from the
> packed attendance at the lok adalat-type meetings that were held by
> Oommen Chandy while he was the Chief Minister. Mr. Chandy’s office had
> tried to spin this to its perceived advantage as the face of a caring
> government. It could not have escaped its attention though that the
> durbar may also be read as the public having been failed in the first
> instance, thus amounting to waste of the Chief Minister’s time and the
> public’s money. Actually, it may be interpreted as another instance of
> the political class’s reluctance to fix the system as that would
> eliminate its role as a purveyor of patronage to a beleaguered
> citizenry. This is in line with the disincentive of this class to
> finally eradicate poverty as then it can no longer appear benevolent
> by distributing private goods and announcing welfare schemes. So,
> quite unusually for an Indian political party, Kerala’s Left
> Democratic Front has signalled the need for administrative reforms.
> And, going by the news reports, it has chosen the right man to head
> the proposed commission. Mr. Achuthanandan may not have sparkled as
> Chief Minister but it is clear where his heart lies. He had had the
> nerve to publicly remind the State’s civil service that they were
> servants of the people. India’s politicians rarely read the riot act
> to the bureaucracy as they rely on it to further their personal
> interests.
Where The lok adalat-type meetings were held?
- At Jantar Mantar
- At vidhan Shabha
- At parliament
- At Oommen Chandy’s Place while he was the Chief Minister.
- None of these
Solution : At Oommen Chandy’s Place while he was the Chief Minister.
Q69. > I start with the news from Kerala. The said proposal for an
> administrative reforms commission has come from a left-wing
> government. This is significant, as the intellectuals linked to the
> communists have generally played down the will to power of the
> bureaucracy. They concentrate their energies on demonising the market.
> While it is absolutely essential following the triumphalism that has
> accompanied the collapse of the former Soviet Union to query the
> efficacy of the market mechanism, social analysis that ignores the
> role of the bureaucracy implies credulousness when it is not actually
> complicit. Perhaps the Left intellectuals avoid the critical approach
> as they fear alienating the bureaucracy on whom their party must rely
> when it eventually comes to power. From the point of view of social
> critique, however, this is deficient, as the bureaucracy in India has
> shown itself to be quite capable of slowing down, when not actually
> subverting, the programmes of democratically elected governments. This
> it is able to do with impunity given its near-exclusive control of the
> machinery of government. Attempted oversight has proved to be too
> distant to be effective. While India’s top bureaucracy is protected by
> statute, its lower echelon achieves independence by closing ranks
> whenever the action of its members is challenged; the clogged courts
> are hardly a source of redressal for the citizen having to engage with
> the latter on a daily basis.
>
> The proposal of the Kerala government is to be welcomed on two
> grounds. First, there is reason to believe that despite the enthusiasm
> of academics for the Kerala Model, the public of the State do not feel
> well served by its machinery of government. We may infer this from the
> packed attendance at the lok adalat-type meetings that were held by
> Oommen Chandy while he was the Chief Minister. Mr. Chandy’s office had
> tried to spin this to its perceived advantage as the face of a caring
> government. It could not have escaped its attention though that the
> durbar may also be read as the public having been failed in the first
> instance, thus amounting to waste of the Chief Minister’s time and the
> public’s money. Actually, it may be interpreted as another instance of
> the political class’s reluctance to fix the system as that would
> eliminate its role as a purveyor of patronage to a beleaguered
> citizenry. This is in line with the disincentive of this class to
> finally eradicate poverty as then it can no longer appear benevolent
> by distributing private goods and announcing welfare schemes. So,
> quite unusually for an Indian political party, Kerala’s Left
> Democratic Front has signalled the need for administrative reforms.
> And, going by the news reports, it has chosen the right man to head
> the proposed commission. Mr. Achuthanandan may not have sparkled as
> Chief Minister but it is clear where his heart lies. He had had the
> nerve to publicly remind the State’s civil service that they were
> servants of the people. India’s politicians rarely read the riot act
> to the bureaucracy as they rely on it to further their personal
> interests.
Kerala’s Left Democratic Front has signalled the need for what kind of reform?
- religious reforms
- Business sector reforms
- Political reforms
- Social reform
- administrative reforms.
Solution : administrative reforms.
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Q70. > Our research finds Indian households, on average, lack access to 46%
> of the basic services they need, and the extent of their deprivation
> varies across districts. From 2004-05 to 2011-12, public spending on
> basic services rose faster than GDP, but its impact on poverty
> reduction was limited by leakage, wastage or ineffectiveness. By
> contrast, almost three-quarters of the reduction in India’s
> Empowerment Gap during this period came from jobs and productivity
> growth. Without major reforms, our research suggests, 36% of the
> population could remain below the Empowerment Line in 2022 and 12%
> would remain trapped in extreme poverty. But by focusing on job
> creation, higher productivity and improved delivery of services, India
> can reduce the population below the Empowerment Line to 7% and extreme
> poverty can be virtually eradicated by 2022. For this, three pillars
> are essential: first, India needs to add another 115 million non-farm
> jobs over the next decade, with the manufacturing and construction
> sectors, along with labor-intensive services, such as tourism, forming
> the backbone. Second, India’s farms need to double their rate of
> productivity growth rate in order to bring farm yields in line with
> those in other emerging Asian countries. These two pillars contribute
> almost three-quarters of the improvement we envision. Finally, India
> needs to revamp the way it delivers basic services so that every rupee
> of increased public spending can go further. The nationwide efficiency
> of basic services can reach 75%, up from 50% currently, if all states
> match standards already set by India’s best-performing ones. Public
> spending on basic services is an important fourth level, and this
> needs to grow at a more modest 6.7% annually.
>
> Beyond meeting food, energy and housing subsidy commitments, much of
> the increase must be channeled into expansion of healthcare, water and
> sanitation systems. Unleashing broad-based job and productivity growth
> will require reforms that remove barriers to competitiveness and
> investment — not just for large businesses, but for millions of small
> enterprises that struggle to expand. Measures can also be taken to
> make the labor market more flexible; states taking these steps have
> been more successful in creating jobs. Focused public investment can
> seed industrial clusters, tourism circuits and food processing parks,
> generating jobs in regions where the need is greatest. Similarly, farm
> yields can be raised by increasing investment in infrastructure,
> research and technology, and by streamlining agricultural bureaucracy
> to make its policies and extension services more farmer-centric. A
> shift to growth-oriented investment can pay back through higher tax
> revenues, helping achieve India’s combined fiscal deficit target of 6%
> by 2017. Better governance will also be required to transform the way
> India delivers basic services, as the poor feel these failures most
> acutely in their day-to-day lives. The time has come to put job
> creation, productivity improvement and effective public service
> delivery at the centre of India’s national agenda.
Which of the following is possibly the most appropriate title for the passage ?
- Poverty reduction in India.
- Economic growth: The impact on poverty reduction.
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
- India : from poverty to empowerment.
- Empowerment in India.
Solution : India : from poverty to empowerment.
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Solution :
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