Three Reading Comprehensions with ANSWERS

1. Read the passage given below and write the option that you consider the

most appropriate

Many animals are able to communicate with each other very well – but none of them can talk as we do. That is, no animals use words.

Birds cry out and make sounds that other birds understand. Smells, movements, and sounds are used for communication by animals, through which they express joy or anger or fear.

Human speech is a very complicated process, which no animal can perform. One reason is that in a very special way we use a whole series of organs to produce the sounds we want to make when we utter words.  The way our vocal cords are made to vibrate, the way the throat,  mouth   and nasal cavities are adjusted, the way the lips, teeth, lower jaw, tongue,  and palate are moved – just to make vowel and consonant sounds,  is  something  animals can’t do. They cannot produce a whole series of words to make a sentence.

And there is another, perhaps more important reason why animals can’t talk. Words are only labels for objects, actions, feelings, expressions and ideas. For example, the word ‘bird’ is a label for a living, flying object. Other words describe its colour, shape, flying

and singing. Still other words would be used to tell what the speaker thinks or feels about the bird or its actions.

For human beings, therefore, the use of words means the use of labels or symbols, and then organizing them in a certain way to communicate something. This requires a degree

of intelligence and logical thinking that no animals have. So, they can’t talk the way people do.

A. Communication in animals is made through

a. smells, movements and sounds

b. smells, setting and flying

c. smells, sitting and running

d. smells, sitting and eating

B. The emotions which are expressed by birds are

a. joy, love, hate

b. joy, jealousy or zeal

c. joy, fear or anger

d. joy, cry or anger

C. Animals cannot talk like us as human speech is a

a. complete process

b. easy process

c. complex process

d. confused process

D. For using words properly human beings require

a. a degree of graduation

b. intelligence and logical thinking

c. logical thinking and vocal cords

d. logical thinking and imagination

E. The noun form of ‘communicate’ is

a. communicative

b. communicated

c. communication

d. communicating

2. Read the passage given below and write the option that you consider the

most appropriate in your answer sheets

Prafulla Chandra Ray was born on 2 August 1861 in the district of Jessore, now in Bangladesh, close to the birth place of Madhusudan Dutt, widely regarded as the Milton of Bengal. It was the best of times and the worst… The British had by now perfected their role as masters and British values permeated the Indian upper classes to the very last detail like table manners. That of course, was not the worst of the British influence. What was far more demeaning to the educated Indians – and there were several – was the fact that senior government positions were closed to them. Being forfeited of one’s right in one’s land of birth would become the rallying point for the Indian intelligentsia in the years to come .Ray’s father Harish Chandra Ray, a man of learning and taste, was closely associated with the cultural and intellectual leaders of the time and exerted great influence on his son. Ray had his early schooling in the village school founded by his father but soon his father shifted to Calcutta and at the age of nine, little Prafulla set eyes for the first time, on the bustling city that would be his home for many years to come. He was filled with wonder at the ever-changing sights and sounds – the city seemed to change moods ever so often! His formal schooling was interrupted due to illness but that did not affect his education.

A. The British perfected their role as masters because

a. they had enslaved Indians

b. they showed that they were superior

c. they were hated by the upper classes

d. upper class Indians accepted them as role models

B. The educated Indians felt insulted by the fact that

a. They had to follow British Customs

b. They were not allowed to study in institutions of higher learning

c. They were not promoted to senior government positions

d. They were forced to speak only in English.

C. Prafulla Chandra Ray was greatly influenced by…….

a. his brother

b. his uncle

c. his father

d. his cousin

D. Prafulla Chandra’s illness could not stop his

a. schooling

b. learning

c. routine

d. sportsman spirit

E. ‘Intelligentsia’ here means

a. intelligent animals

b. Intel television

c. intelligent people

d. a special detergent 

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3. Read the passage given below and choose the correct option 

Surrounded by the deep blue sea, the tiny hillock consisting of only 80 acres of land,

known as Ross Island, was the paradise from which the Commissioner ruled the 293 big

and small islands, 8,249 square kilometers in area.

Now the only permanent residents of the deserted Ross island were some deer and

peacocks. They stamped over many a buried head, of convicts and their executioners, of

those who gave orders and those who obeyed them, some good and some evil.

Silent trees spread their branches and shoots into the crumbling skeletons of once

majestic mansions in a desperate bid to stop them from totally disappearing. A million

leaves murmured against the violent gusts of wind trying to dislodge the fragments of the

structures from their intricate embrace. Wave after wave pounded the islet from all sides.

There was no other sound. Strangely, I never heard any chirping of birds.

A. Ross Island was

a. the headquarters of the commissioner

b. villa in which the commissioner lived

c. a graveyard of the rulers

d. just a tiny island.

B. On Ross island, housed deer, peacocks and

a. remains of the rulers of the island.

b. remains of the people who lived there.

c. other animals and birds

d. visiting tourists

C. The ‘crumbling skeletons of once majestic mansions’ are

a. the beautiful houses that have now broken

b. the people who have died in the houses

c. the people living in the houses

d. the palaces that are now forests

D. The only sounds heard on the island are of

a. waves and leaves

b. animals on the islands

c. skeletons that are buried

d. evil spirits

E. The noun form of ‘trying’

a. trying

b. try

c. trial

d. tried 

ANSWERS

1. (i) a - smells, movements and sounds (ii) c - joy, fear or anger (iii) c - complex process (iv) b - intelligence and logical thinking (v) c - communication 

2. (i) a – upper class Indians accepted them as role models (ii) c – they were not promoted to senior government positions (iii) c - his father (iv) b— learning (v) c - intelligent people 

3. (i) a – the headquarters of the commissioner (ii) b – remains of the people who lived there (iii) a- the beautiful houses that have now broken (iv) a – waves and leaves (v) c - trial