
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
Q86. > Just as there are basic laws and principles that control your physical
> world, there are basic laws and principles that control your mental
> world as well. Before you can hope to operate your human success
> system properly, you need to know the basic laws that determine your
> behavior and affect your very being. In this regard, you have no
> choice. You cannot decide to bypass these laws in an attempt to negate
> their application. They are present in all mental working and will
> always operate successfully to bring about the results you keep
> telling your mind you want.
>
> The human mind is very much like a sophisticated electronic computer.
> When you acquire any new piece of advanced equipment, you normally
> take some time to carefully read the manual and basic operating
> instructions before turning it on to make it work. Operating
> instructions are important. They tell you how to get maximum
> performance out of the device, taking into account the specific tasks
> it was designed to perform. It should be the same with operating your
> own miraculous built-in machine. You were born as the most advanced
> living organism in the world, yet you lack the precise knowledge to
> get the most out of your internal success system. Of course, your
> automatic goal-stirring mechanism is always successful. But it is
> probably more successful at getting you what you don’t want in life
> rather than what you do want. Understanding the mental laws will help
> you get what you do want, more often.
The subject under discussion in the passage is
- an advanced computer
- all complicated machines
- human mind
- human spirit
- none of the above
Solution : human mind
Q87. > Just as there are basic laws and principles that control your physical
> world, there are basic laws and principles that control your mental
> world as well. Before you can hope to operate your human success
> system properly, you need to know the basic laws that determine your
> behavior and affect your very being. In this regard, you have no
> choice. You cannot decide to bypass these laws in an attempt to negate
> their application. They are present in all mental working and will
> always operate successfully to bring about the results you keep
> telling your mind you want.
>
> The human mind is very much like a sophisticated electronic computer.
> When you acquire any new piece of advanced equipment, you normally
> take some time to carefully read the manual and basic operating
> instructions before turning it on to make it work. Operating
> instructions are important. They tell you how to get maximum
> performance out of the device, taking into account the specific tasks
> it was designed to perform. It should be the same with operating your
> own miraculous built-in machine. You were born as the most advanced
> living organism in the world, yet you lack the precise knowledge to
> get the most out of your internal success system. Of course, your
> automatic goal-stirring mechanism is always successful. But it is
> probably more successful at getting you what you don’t want in life
> rather than what you do want. Understanding the mental laws will help
> you get what you do want, more often.
The objective of the passage is to
- help the reader in being successful
- entertain the reader
- familiarize the reader with computers
- discuss all complicated machines
- cultivate good habits
Solution : help the reader in being successful
Q88. > Just as there are basic laws and principles that control your physical
> world, there are basic laws and principles that control your mental
> world as well. Before you can hope to operate your human success
> system properly, you need to know the basic laws that determine your
> behavior and affect your very being. In this regard, you have no
> choice. You cannot decide to bypass these laws in an attempt to negate
> their application. They are present in all mental working and will
> always operate successfully to bring about the results you keep
> telling your mind you want.
>
> The human mind is very much like a sophisticated electronic computer.
> When you acquire any new piece of advanced equipment, you normally
> take some time to carefully read the manual and basic operating
> instructions before turning it on to make it work. Operating
> instructions are important. They tell you how to get maximum
> performance out of the device, taking into account the specific tasks
> it was designed to perform. It should be the same with operating your
> own miraculous built-in machine. You were born as the most advanced
> living organism in the world, yet you lack the precise knowledge to
> get the most out of your internal success system. Of course, your
> automatic goal-stirring mechanism is always successful. But it is
> probably more successful at getting you what you don’t want in life
> rather than what you do want. Understanding the mental laws will help
> you get what you do want, more often.
The word ‘negate’ in the passage means
- refuse to accept
- deny (the existence of)
- hamper
- obviate
- excruciate
Solution : deny (the existence of)
Q89. > Just as there are basic laws and principles that control your physical
> world, there are basic laws and principles that control your mental
> world as well. Before you can hope to operate your human success
> system properly, you need to know the basic laws that determine your
> behavior and affect your very being. In this regard, you have no
> choice. You cannot decide to bypass these laws in an attempt to negate
> their application. They are present in all mental working and will
> always operate successfully to bring about the results you keep
> telling your mind you want.
>
> The human mind is very much like a sophisticated electronic computer.
> When you acquire any new piece of advanced equipment, you normally
> take some time to carefully read the manual and basic operating
> instructions before turning it on to make it work. Operating
> instructions are important. They tell you how to get maximum
> performance out of the device, taking into account the specific tasks
> it was designed to perform. It should be the same with operating your
> own miraculous built-in machine. You were born as the most advanced
> living organism in the world, yet you lack the precise knowledge to
> get the most out of your internal success system. Of course, your
> automatic goal-stirring mechanism is always successful. But it is
> probably more successful at getting you what you don’t want in life
> rather than what you do want. Understanding the mental laws will help
> you get what you do want, more often.
The phrase ‘miraculous built-in machine’ refers to
- the human mind
- the human limbs
- one’s own computer
- the modern machines
- obsolete machine
Solution : the human mind
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Q90. > Right through history, imperial powers have clung to their possessions
> to death. Why, then, did Britain in 1947 give up the jewel in its
> crown, India? For many reasons. The independence struggle exposed the
> hollowness of the white man’s burden. Provincial self-rule since 1935
> paved the way for full self-rule. Churchill resisted independence, but
> the Labour Government of Atlee was anti-imperialist by ideology.
> Finally, the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny in 1946 raised fears of a second
> Sepoy Mutiny and convinced British waverers that it was safer to
> withdraw gracefully. But politico-military explanations are not
> enough. The basis of the empire was always money. The end of the
> empire had much to do with the fact that British imperialism had
> ceased to be profitable. World War II left Britain victorious but
> deeply indebted, needing Marshall Aid and loans from the World Bank.
> This constituted a strong financial case for ending the
> no-longer-profitable empire. Empire building is expensive.
>
>
> The US is spending one billion dollars a day in operations in Iraq
> that fall well short of full-scale imperialism. Through the centuries,
> empire building was costly, yet constantly undertaken because it
> promised high returns. The investment was in armies and conquest. The
> returns came through plunder and taxes from the conquered. No
> immorality was attached to imperial loot and plunder. The biggest
> conquerors were typically revered (hence titles like Alexander the
> Great, Akbar the Great, and Peter the Great). The bigger and richer
> the empire, the more the plunderer was admired. This mindset gradually
> changed with the rise of new ideas about equality and governing for
> the public good, ideas that culminated in the French and the American
> Revolutions. Robert Clive was impeached for making a little money on
> the side, and so was Warren Hastings. The white man’s burden came up
> as a new moral rationale for conquest. It was supposedly for The
> Princeton Review CAT sample paper 12 good of the conquered. This led
> to much-muddled hypocrisy. On the one hand, the empire needed to be
> profitable. On the other hand, the white man’s burden made brazen loot
> impossible.
>
> An additional factor deterring loot was the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. Though
> crushed, it reminded the British vividly that they were a tiny ethnic
> group who could not rule a gigantic subcontinent without the support
> of important locals. After 1857, the British stopped annexing one
> princely state after another, and instead treated the princes as
> allies. Land revenue was fixed in absolute terms, partly to prevent
> local unrest and partly to promote the notion of the white man’s
> burden. The empire proclaimed itself to be a protector of the Indian
> peasant against exploitation by Indian elites. This was denounced as
> hypocrisy by nationalists like Dadabhai Naoroji in the 19th century,
> who complained that land taxes led to an enormous drain from India to
> Britain. Objective calculations by historians like Angus Maddison
> suggest a drain of perhaps 1.6 percent of Indian Gross National
> Product in the 19th century.
>
> But land revenue was more or less fixed by the Raj in absolute terms,
> and so its real value diminished rapidly with inflation in the 20th
> century. By World War II, India had ceased to be a profit centre for
> the British Empire. Historically, conquered nations paid taxes to
> finance fresh wars of the conqueror. India itself was asked to pay a
> large sum at the end of World War I to help repair Britain’s finances.
> But, as shown by historian Indivar Kamtekar, the independence movement
> led by Gandhiji changed the political landscape, and made
> mass-taxation of India increasingly difficult. By World War II, this
> had become politically impossible. Far from taxing India to pay for
> World War II, Britain actually began paying India for its contribution
> of men and goods. Troops from white dominions like Australia, Canada,
> and New Zealand were paid for entirely by these countries, but Indian
> costs were shared by the British government. Britain paid in the form
> of non-convertible sterling balances, which mounted swiftly. The
> conqueror was paying the conquered, undercutting the profitability on
> which all empire is founded. Churchill opposed this, and wanted to tax
> India rather than owe it money. But he was overruled by Indian hands,
> who said India would resist payment, and paralyze the war effort. Leo
> Amery, Secretary of Sta te for India, said that when you are driving
> in a taxi to the station to catch a life-or-death train, you do not
> loudly announce that you have doubts whether to pay the fare. Thus,
> World War II converted India from a debtor to a creditor with over one
> billion pounds in sterling balances.
>
> Britain, meanwhile, became the biggest debtor in the world. It’s not
> worth ruling over people who are afraid to tax.
Which of the following was NOT a reason for the emergence of the ‘white man’s burden’ as a new rationale for empire building in India?
- The emergence of the idea of the public good as an element of governance.
- The decreasing returns from imperial loot and increasing costs of conquest
- The weakening of the immorality attached to an emperor’s looting behaviour.
- A growing awareness of the idea of equality among peoples.
- None of these
Solution : The decreasing returns from imperial loot and increasing costs of conquest
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Solution :
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