Reading Comprehension English Practice Paper-5

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Instruction: Read the following Passage and answer the questions given below. 

      Mr. Harding was not a happy man as he walked down the palace pathway, and stepped out into the close. His position and pleasant house were a second time gone from him; but that he could endure. He had been schooled and insulted by a man young enough to be his son; but that he could put up with. He could even draw from the very injuries which had been inflicted on him some of that consolation which, we may believe, martyrs always receive from the injustice of their own sufferings. He had admitted to his daughter that he wanted the comfort of his old home, and yet he could have returned to his lodgings in the High Street, if not with exultation, at least with satisfaction, had that been all. But the venom of the chaplain's harangue had worked into his blood, and sapped the life of his sweet contentment.

      'New men are carrying out new measures, and are carting away the useless rubbish of past centuries!' What cruel words these had been- and how often are they now used with all the heartless cruelty of a Slope! A man is sufficiently condemned if it can only be shown that either in politics or religion he does not belong to some new school established within the last score of years. He may then regard himself as rubbish and expect to be carted away. A man is nothing now unless he has within him a full appreciation of the new era; an era in which it would seem that neither honesty nor truth is very desirable, but in which success is the only touchstone of merit. We must laugh at everything that is established. Let the joke be ever so bad, ever so untrue to the real principles of joking; nevertheless we must laugh - or else beware the cart. We must talk, think, and live up to the spirit of the times, or else we are nought. New men and new measures, long credit and few scruples, great success or wonderful ruin, such are now the tastes of Englishmen who know how to live! Alas, alas! Under such circumstances Mr. Harding could not but feel that he was an Englishman who did not know how to live. This new doctrine of Mr. Slope and the rubbish cart sadly disturbed his equanimity. 

      'The same thing is going on throughout the whole country!' 'Work is now required from every man who receives wages!' And had he been living all his life receiving wages, and doing no work? Had he in truth so lived as to be now in his old age justly reckoned as rubbish fit only to be hidden away in some huge dust-hole? The school of men to whom he professes to belong, the Grantlys, the Gwynnes, are afflicted with no such self-accusations as these which troubled Mr. Harding. They, as a rule, are as satisfied with the wisdom and propriety of their own conduct as can be any Mr. Slope, or any Bishop with his own. But, unfortunately for himself, Mr. Harding had little of this self-reliance. When he heard himself designated as rubbish by the Slopes of the world, he had no other resource than to make inquiry within his own bosom as to the truth of the designation. Alas,alas! the evidence seemed generally to go against him. 

Adapted from: The Warden, Anthony Trollope (1855)

Reading Comprehension English Practice Paper-4

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Instruction: Read the following Passage and answer the questions given below. 

       The name of Florence Nightingale lives in the memory of the world by virtue of the heroic adventure of the Crimea. Had she died - as she nearly did - upon her return to England, her reputation would hardly have been different; her legend would have come down to us almost as we know it today - that gentle vision of female virtue which first took shape before the adoring eyes of the sick soldiers at Scutari. Yet, as a matter of fact, she lived for more than half a century after the Crimean War; and during the greater part of that long period all the energy and all the devotion of her extraordinary nature were working at their highest pitch. What she accomplished in those years of unknown labor could, indeed, hardly have been more glorious than her Crimean triumphs; but it was certainly more important. The true history was far stranger even than the myth. In Miss Nightingale's own eyes the adventure of the Crimea was a mere incident -scarcely more than a useful stepping-stone in her career. It was the fulcrum with which she hoped to move the world; but it was only the fulcrum. For more than a generation she was to sit in secret, working her lever: and her real life began at the very moment when, in popular imagination, it had ended.

      She arrived in England in a shattered state of health. The hardships and the ceaseless efforts of the last two years had undermined her nervous system; her heart was affected; she suffered constantly from fainting-fits and terrible attacks of utter physical prostration. The doctors declared that one thing alone would save her - a complete and prolonged rest. But that was also the one thing with which she would have nothing to do. She had never been in the habit of resting; why should she begin now? Now, when her opportunity had come at last; now, when the iron was hot, and it was time to strike? No; she had work to do; and, come what might, she would do it. The doctors protested in vain; in vain her family lamented and entreated, in vain her friends pointed out to her the madness of such a course. Madness? Mad -possessed - perhaps she was. A frenzy had seized upon her. As she lay upon her sofa, gasping, she devoured blue-books, dictated letters, and, in the intervals of her palpitations, cracked jokes. For months at a stretch she never left her bed. But she would not rest. At this rate, the doctors assured her, even if she did not die, she would become an invalid for life. She could not help that; there was work to be done; and, as for rest, very likely she might rest ... when she had done it. 

        Wherever she went, to London or in the country, in the hills of Derbyshire, or among the rhododendrons at Embley, she was haunted by a ghost. It was the specter of Scutari - the hideous vision of the organization of a military hospital. She would lay that phantom, or she would perish. The whole system of the Army Medical Department, the education of the Medical Officer, the regulations of hospital procedure ... rest? How could she rest while these things were as they were, while, if the like necessity were to arise again, the like results would follow? And, even in peace and at home, what was the sanitary condition of the Army? The mortality in the barracks, was, she found, nearly double the mortality in civil life. 'You might as well take 1, 100 men every year out upon Salisbury Plain and shoot them,' she said. After inspecting the hospitals at Chatham, she smiled grimly. 'Yes, this is one more symptom of the system which, in the Crimea, put to death 16,000 men.' Scutari had given her knowledge; and it had given her power too: her enormous reputation was at her back – an incalculable force. Other work, other duties, might lie before her; but the most urgent, the most obvious, of all was to look to the health of the Army.

Adapted from: Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey (1918)

Reading Comprehension English Practice Paper-3

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Instruction: Read the following Passage and answer the questions given below. 

      By the time a child is six or seven she has all the essential avoidance's well enough by heart to be trusted with the care of a younger child. And she also develops a number of simple techniques. She learns to weave firm square balls from palm leaves, to make pinwheels of palm leaves or frangipani blossoms, to climb a coconut tree by walking up the trunk on flexible little feet, to break open a coconut with one firm well-directed blow of a knife as long as she is tall, to play a number of group games and sing the songs which go with them, to tidy the house by picking up the litter on the stony floor, to bring water from the sea, to spread out the copra to dry and to help gather it in when rain threatens, to go to a neighboring house and bring back a lighted faggot for the chief's pipe or the cook-house fire.

      But in the case of the little girls all these tasks are merely supplementary to the main business of baby-tending. Very small boys also have some care of the younger children, but at eight or nine years of age they are usually relieved of it. Whatever rough edges have not been smoothed off by this responsibility for younger children are worn off by their contact with older boys. For little boys are admitted to interesting and important activities only so long as their behavior is circumspect and helpful. Where small girls are brusquely pushed aside, small boys will be patiently tolerated and they become adept at making themselves useful. The four or five little boys who all wish to assist at the important, business of helping a grown youth lasso reef eels, organize themselves into a highly efficient working team; one boy holds the bait, another holds an extra lasso, others poke about in holes in the reef looking for prey, while still tucks the captured eels into his lavalava. The small girls, burdened with heavy babies or the care of little staggerers who are too small to adventure on the reef, discouraged by the hostility of the small boys and the scorn of the older ones, have little opportunity for learning the more adventurous forms of work and play. So while the little boys first undergo the chastening effects of baby-tending and then have many opportunities to learn effective cooperation under the supervision of older boys, the girls' education is less comprehensive. They have a high standard of individual responsibility, but the community provides them with no lessons in cooperation with one another. This is particularly apparent in the activities of young people: the boys organize quickly; the girls waste hours in bickering, innocent of any technique for quick and efficient cooperation. 

Adapted from: Coming of Age in Samoa, Margaret Mead (1928)

Reading Comprehension English Practice Paper-2

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Instruction: Read the following Passage and answer the questions given below. 

      The pioneers of the teaching of science imagined that its introduction into education would remove the conventionality, artificiality, and backward-lookingness which were characteristic; of classical studies, but they were gravely disappointed. So, too, in their time had the humanists thought that the study of the classical authors in the original would banish at once the dull pedantry and superstition of mediaeval scholasticism. The professional schoolmaster was a match for both of them, and has almost managed to make the understanding of chemical reactions as dull and as dogmatic an affair as the reading of Virgil's Aeneid. 

        The chief claim for the use of science in education is that it teaches a child something about the actual universe in which he is living, in making him acquainted with the results of scientific discovery, and at the same time teaches him how to think logically and inductively by studying scientific method. A certain limited success has been reached in the first of these aims, but practically none at all in the second. Those privileged members of the community who have been through a secondary or public school education may be expected to know something about the elementary physics and chemistry of a hundred years ago, but they probably know hardly more than any bright boy can pick up from an interest in wireless or scientific hobbies out of school hours. As to the learning of scientific method, the whole thing is palpably a farce. Actually, for the convenience of teachers and the requirements of the examination system, it is necessary that the pupils not only do not learn scientific method but learn precisely the reverse, that is, to believe exactly what they are told and to reproduce it when asked, whether it seems nonsense to them or not. The way in which educated people respond to such quackeries as spiritualism or astrology, not to say more dangerous ones such as racial theories or currency myths, shows that fifty years of education in the method of science in Britain or Germany has produced no visible effect whatever. The only way of learning the method of science is the long and bitter way of personal experience, and, until the educational or social systems are altered to make this possible, the best we can expect is the production of a minority of people who are able to acquire some of the techniques of science and a still smaller minority who are able to use and develop them. 

Adapted from: The Social Function of Science, John D Bernal (1939)

Reading Comprehension Practice Paper-1

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English Practice Paper Online Test-1 Reading Comprehension

Practice paper for English Comprehension, these questions are prepared to benefit the candidate for preparing Competitive(online) exams. This is an online test for English section. You have to answer the questions and then submit your answers by clicking on the submit button(Evaluate my Test). You can get the answers instantly without any waiting.

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Directions: (1-9): 

Read the following passage carefully and answers the questions given below it. Certain words are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.  

When talks come to how India has gone for itself in 50 years of independence, the world has nothing but praise for our success in remaining a democracy. On other fronts, the applause is less loud. In absolute term, India hasn’t done too badly, of course, life expectancy had increased. So as has literacy. Industry, which was barely a fledging, has grown tremendously. And so far as agriculture is concerned, India has been transformed from a county perpetually on the edge of starvation into a success story held up for others to emulate. But these are competitive times when change is rapid, and to walk slowly when the rest of the worlds is running is almost as bad as standing still on walking backwards. Compared with large chunks of what was then the developing world South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China and what was till lately a separate Hong Kong India has fared abysmally. It began with a far better infrastructure than most of these countries had. It suffered hardly or not at all during the Second World War. It had advantages like an English speaking elite, quality scientific manpower (including a noble laureate and other who could be ranked among the world’s best) and excellent business acumen. Yet, today, when countries are ranked according to their global competitiveness, it is tiny Singapore that figures at the top. Hong Kong is an export powerhouse. So is Taiwan. If a symbol were needed to how far we have fallen back, note that while Korean Cielos are sold in India, no one is South Korea is rushing to buy and Indian car. The reasons list themselves. Topmost is economic isolationism. The government discouraged imports and encouraged self-sufficiency. Whatever the aim was, the result was the creation of totally inefficient industry that failed to keep pace with global trends and, therefore, became absolutely up competitive. Only when the trade gates were opened a little did this become apparent. The years since then have been spent in merely trying to catch up. That the government actually sheltered its industrialists form foreign competition is a little strange. For in all other respects, it operated under the conviction that businessmen were little more than crooks who to be prevented from entering the most important areas of the economy, who were to be hamstrung in as many ways as possible, who were to be tolerated whole swathes of industry for the public sector, and the granting of monopolies to the public sector firms where the principal manifestations of this astute. The government forgot that before wealth could be distributed, it had to be created. The government forgot that it itself could not create, but only squander wealth. Some of the manifestations of the old attitude have changed. Tax rates have fallen. Licensing has been all but abolished. And the grates of global trade have been opened wide. But most of these changes were forced by circumstances partly by the foreign exchange bankruptcy of 1991 and the recognition that the government could no longer muster the funds of support the public sector, leave align expand it. Whether the attitude of the government itself, or that of more than handful of minister, has changed, is open to question. In many other ways, however, the government has not changed one with. Business still has to negotiate a welter of negotiations. Transparency is still a longer way off. And there is no exit policy. In defending the existing policy, politicians betray an inability to see beyond their noses. A no- exit policy for labor is equivalent to a no entry police for new business. If one industry is not allowed to retrench labor, other industries will think a hundred times before employing new labor. In other ways too, the government hurts industries. Public sector monopolies like the department of telecommunications and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. make it possible for Indian businesses to operate only at a cost several times that of their counterparts abroad. The infrastructure is in a shambles partly because it is unable to formulate a sufficiently remunerative policy for private business, and partly because it does not have the stomach to change market rates for services. After a burst of activity in the early nineties, the government is dragging its feet. At the rate it is going, it will be another 50 years before the government realize that a pro-business policy is the best pro- people. By then of course, the world would have moved even farther ahead. 

1) The writer’s attitude towards the government is:

Critical

Ironical  

Sarcastic

Derisive  

A combination

2) The writer is surprised at the government’s attitude towards its industrialists because:

the government did not need to protect its industrialists.

the issue of competition was non-existent.  

the government looked upon its industrialists as crooks.

the attitude was a conundrum.  

None of the above

3) The government was compelled to open the economy due to.

Pressure from international markets.

Pressure from domestic market.  

Foreign exchange bankruptcy and paucity of funds with the government.

All of the above  

None of the above

4) The writer ends the passage on a note of:

Cautious optimism

Pessimism  

Optimism

Pragmatism  

Warning

5) According to the writer, India should have performed better than the other Asian nations because:

It had adequate infrastructure

It had better infrastructure  

It had better politicians who could take the required decisions

It had better policy makers with required expertise of the field  

All of the above

6) India was in better condition than the other Asian nations because:

It did not face the ravages of the Second World War.

It had an English speaking populace and good business sense.  

It had enough wealth through its exports.

Both (a) and (b) above.  

None of the above

7) The major reason for India’s poor performance is:

Economic

economic mismanagement  

Inefficient industry

All of these  

Not given in passage

8) One of the features of the government’s projectionist policy was:

Encouragement of imports

Discouragement of exports.  

Encouragement of exports.

Discouragement of imports  

All of above in parts

9) The example of the Korean Cielo has been presented to highlight:

India’s lack of stature in the international market

India’s poor performance in the international market.  

India’s lack of creditability in the international market

India’s disrepute in the international market  

None of these

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Reading Comprehension Previous Questions

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Reading Comprehension Practice Examples for Exams

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10 Important Tips to Score in Reading Comprehension

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• Reading passages are drawn from many different disciplines and sources, so you may encounter material with which you are not familiar. Do not be discouraged if you encounter unfamiliar material; all the questions can be answered on the basis of the information provided in the passage. However, if you encounter a passage that seems particularly hard or unfamiliar, you may want to save it for last.
• Read and analyze the passage carefully before trying to answer any of the questions, and pay attention to clues that help you understand less explicit aspects of the passage.
  • Try to distinguish main ideas from supporting ideas or evidence.
  • Try to distinguish ideas that the author is advancing from those he or she is merely reporting.
  • Try to distinguish ideas that the author is strongly committed to from those he or she advances as hypothetical or speculative.
  • Try to identify the main transitions from one idea to the next.
  • Try to identify the relationship between different ideas. For example:
    • Are they contrasting? Are they consistent?
    • Does one support the other?
    • Does one spell the other out in greater detail?
    • Does one apply the other to a particular circumstance?
• Read each question carefully and be certain that you understand exactly what is being asked.
• Answer each question on the basis of the information provided in the passage and do not rely on outside knowledge. Sometimes your own views or opinions may conflict with those presented in a passage; if this happens, take special care to work within the context provided by the passage. You should not expect to agree with everything you encounter in the reading passages.

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Preparing for the Competitive Exams to get into Job/ graduate school? Get off Facebook and Twitter, put some classical music on Pandora, and brush up on your reading comprehension strategies for the Competitive Exam. Apply these tips to practice tests and you’ll be on your way to get the job which you desire.

1. Focus on the opening and closing paragraphs of longer passages.–

The majority of the passages you will encounter on the reading comprehension questions of the Competitive Exams will be shorter, but one or two will be longer. If you are running out of time, read the opening and closing paragraphs and skim the middle. The first and last paragraphs contain the passage’s main theme in most passages. You can go back and read body paragraphs more carefully as questions call for it.

2. Use context to help you. –

If a question asks about a particular line, don’t go back in to the passage and read just that line. A good rule of thumb is to read at least 2 sentences before and after the line in question. This will give you an idea of where the point started and where the author is going with it.

3. Save unfamiliar passages for last. –

The Competitive Exam passages will cover a variety of subjects, from history to science to literature. Like with any question type, do the questions that are easier first and save the harder ones for last. Each question is worth the same amount, so you don’t want to waste a big chunk of time on a passage with a few questions when you could answer twice as many questions on easier passages. If science passages are confusing to you, come back to that one after you’ve completed the rest. The great thing about the Online Test is that it lets you skip around within a section, so use this to your advantage.

4. Really understand what the question is asking. –

Some people skim through the question, not really understanding what it is specifically asking, start reading the answer choices, and pick the first one that sounds true. This is not a good strategy–many times more than one answer choice will ring true or partially true with the passage, but only one will specifically and best answer that particular question.

5. Do not bring in outside knowledge. –

The Competitive Exam does not require you to have any outside knowledge for the reading comprehension passages, so check any you have at the door. Your own biases might actually hurt you when answering the questions, especially if it is an opinion passage.

Try these Reading Comprehension Question for Practice (Exercises).

6. Note how vocabulary is used in the sentence. –

You will come across some “vocabulary in context” questions where you will be given possible definitions of a vocabulary word in the passage. There may be more than one answer choice that gives a correct definition for the vocabulary word, but only one choice will fit the word in this particular context. Notice how the word is used in the sentence, and plug in the answer choices to see which one works best.

7. For “Select One or More Answer Choices” questions, consider each choice separately. –

For some of the reading comprehension questions, you will have to choose one, two, or three of the answers. This format can lead you to second-guess yourself more than with a typical multiple-choice question where you can eliminate choices decisively. To avoid these issues, consider each choice separately and only select it if you feel that it could be the only correct answer to the question.

8. Underline and take notes as you read. –

Read the passage actively. Underline key words or sentences that contain the main idea. Jot down any notes, probably just a word or two, that you think might help you. If the author is taking a side on a certain issue, write a positive or negative sign next to the passage to remind yourself later what his or her position is.

9. Avoid extreme answers. –

Generally, if an answer choice sounds very extreme in tone, it’s not the best choice. Be wary of answers that use words like never, always, completely, etc. There’s usually an exception to the rule.

10. Don’t make assumptions. –

Inferring and assuming are not the same thing. When you infer, you make an inference based on the information in the passage. When you assume, you make an assumption that brings in outside information or biases and is not based solely on the given passage. An assumption may seem valid, but if you can’t back it up with statements from the passage, it’s probably best to stay away from it.

Looking for even more strategies for reading comprehension and all other verbal content? Look at this link Prepare English Section for Competitive Exams.

Reading Comprehension Practice Exercises for Exams

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Reading Comprehension (also known as Critical Reading) questions test your ability to understand a passage and answer questions on the basis of what is stated and implied in the passage. You need to read the passage first so that you can identify the main idea of the passage and appreciate features such as the author's tone and attitude as well as the organization of the passage. Scroll back to the relevant point in the text as you do each question.

Passages on the Competitive Exams like Banks (IBPS, SBI, Others), SAT, MAT, GRE, CAT and SSC vary in length from short paragraphs that take 3 minutes to read and answer two questions, to ones that take 15 minutes to read and answer 10 questions. One section will contain two related long passages.

Be sure to read the directions at the beginning of your test, so that you wont make any mistakes and wastage of time during your exam.

There is no shortcut to improving your critical reading ability. Practice does help - but if you are making too many errors on our mini tests, consult your teacher or just choose some good books and get down to some serious reading.

Directions

The reading passage is accompanied by a set of questions based on the passage and any introductory material that is given. Answer the questions according to what is stated or implied in the passage.

In the case of a double comprehension:

The two passages are accompanied by questions based on the content of each and the relationship between them. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the reading extracts and any introductory material.

Reading Comprehension Practice Exercise-1

Reading Comprehension Practice Exercise-2

Reading Comprehension Practice Exercise-3

Reading Comprehension Practice Exercise-4

Reading Comprehension Practice Exercise-5