Reading Comprehension (Part-5) (CDS-Solved Paper)

Total Questions: 33

21. The system which appealed to the competitive spirit in the pupils was largely based on [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Correct Answer: (b) marks
Solution:

Option (b) is the right answer. Rewards took the form of marks and it appealed to the competitive spirit.

22. Directions (Q.Nos. 22-23) Read a passage carefully and answer the items based on it. [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Passage 52

On a surface which is free from obstacles, such as a clear road or a path, only two or three species of snakes can hope to catch up with a human being, even if they are foolish to try. A snake seems to move very fast but its movements are deceptive.

In spite of the swift, wave-like motions of its body, the snake crawls along the ground at no more than the speed of man’s walk. It may, however, have an advantage inside a jungle, where the progress of a man is obstructed by thorny bushes.

But in such places, the footsteps of a man are usually more than enough to warn snakes to keep away. Although they have no ears of the usual kind, they can feel slight vibrations of the ground through their bodies, and thus get an early warning of danger.

The snake has an advantage over men inside a jungle, because there

Correct Answer: (c) man’s movement is obstructed
Solution:

Option (c) is the correct option. Inside a jungle, a man’s movement is obstructed by thorny bushes.

23. What helps the snakes to receive advance warning is their sensitivity to [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Correct Answer: (d) movements of other beings
Solution:

Option (d) is the right answer. It is mentioned in the passage that the footsteps of a man are a warning to the snakes.

24. Directions (Q.Nos. 24-28) Read a passage carefully and answer the items based on it. [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Passage 53

This rule of always trying to do things as well as one can do them has an important bearing upon the problem of ambition. No man or woman should be without ambition, which is the inspiration of activity.

But if one allows ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond one's own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result. If one imagines that one can do everything better than other people, then envy and jealousy, those twin monsters, will come to sadden one’s days.

But if one concentrates one's attention upon developing one’s own special capacities, the things one is best at, then one does not worry over much if other people are more successful.

Which one of the following alternatives brings out the meaning of ‘to have a bearing upon’ clearly?

Correct Answer: (a) To have an effect on
Solution:

Option (a) is the correct choice. In this context, ‘bearing’ means ‘effect’.

25. Which one of the following statements is correct? [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Correct Answer: (a) There is a close relationship between ambition and activity
Solution:

Option (a) is the correct option. It is mentioned in the passage that, ‘No man or woman should be without ambition, which is the inspiration of activity’.

26. The statement ‘if one allows ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond one’s own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result,’ means that [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Correct Answer: (c) ambition must be consistent with one’s capacity
Solution:

Option (c) is the right choice as is clear from the line, ‘But if one concentrates .......... more successful.

27. Which one of the following statements best reflects the underlying tone of the passage? [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Correct Answer: (a) One must do everything as well as one can
Solution:

Option (a) is the correct answer.

28. Which one of the following statements can be assumed to be true? [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Correct Answer: (b) One should not imagine oneself always to be better than others
Solution:

Option (b) is the right answer.

29. Directions (Q.Nos. 29-33) Read a passage carefully and answer the items based on it. [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Passage 54

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple.

One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses which would stand up on end like ninepins. When a shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell.

If it were severe, they all fell. Thus, the rods by falling and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the direction from which it came.

But, instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record with a pen on paper the movements, of the ground or of the table, as the quake passed by.

While I write my pen moves but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could, in time, learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves.

But when table, penholder and paper are all moving how is it possible to write legibly? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made? It is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.

The passage says that early instruments for measuring earthquakes were

Correct Answer: (d) not sensitive enough
Solution:

Option (d) is the correct option.

30. Why was it necessary to invent instruments to observe an earthquake? [Morning Shift-2014 (I)]

Correct Answer: (a) Because an earthquake comes like a thief in the night
Solution:

Option (a) is the correct answer.