Reading Comprehension
Here are providing some tips to answer the comprehension passage questions of during the exam.
- Go through the entire passage thoroughly.
- Scan the passage quickly and try to find the main idea and theme on which the comprehension passage is based.
- Underline the important information in the passage.
- Now, read the question and go back to the unseen passage to find the answer.
- Avoid copy-pasting the answer from the comprehension passage. Try to frame the answer in your own words.
- To answer the vocabulary-based questions, like synonyms, antonyms, phrases, idioms etc., replace the word with the meaning. If the meaning is the same, then the answer is correct.
- To answer multiple choice questions, go through all the options and then mark the correct answer.
Example
Paragraph 1
Dolphins are regarded as the friendliest creatures in the sea and stories of them helping drowning sailors have been common since Roman times. The more we learn about dolphins, the more we realize that their society is more complex than people previously imagined. They look after other dolphins when they are ill, care for pregnant mothers and protect the weakest in the community, as we do. Some scientists have suggested that dolphins have a language but it is much more probable that they communicate with each other without needing words. Could any of these mammals be more intelligent than man? Certainly the most common argument in favor of man's superiority over them that we can kill them more easily than they can kill us is the least satisfactory. On the contrary, the more we discover about these remarkable creatures, the less we appear superior when we destroy them.
Questions
1. Why are dolphins regarded as the friendliest creatures in the sea?
2. What historical accounts support the idea that dolphins help humans?
3. How has our understanding of dolphin society changed over time?
4. In what ways do dolphins care for one another within their communities?
5. What is the scientific debate regarding dolphin communication?
Paragraph 2
It was the summer of 1936. The Olympic Games were being held in Berlin. I wasn't worried about all this. I'd trained, sweated and disciplined myself for six years, with the Games in mind. While I was going over on the boat, all I could think about was taking home one or two of those gold medals; I had my eye especially on the long jump. A year before I'd set the world record of 26 feet 8½ inches. Everyone expected me to win that Olympic event hands down (without difficulty).
I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the long jump trials, I was startled (surprised) to see a tall boy hitting the pit (jumping) at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps. He turned out to be a German named Luz Long. Every German was evidently hoping that he would win the jump. I too was determined to go out there and really prove myself.
1. What event was being held in Berlin during the summer of 1936?
2. How long had the narrator trained for the Olympic Games?
3. What was the narrator's main goal during the Olympic Games?
4. What specific event was the narrator focused on winning?
5. What world record had the narrator set a year before the Olympics?
6. How did the narrator feel upon seeing the tall boy during the long jump trials?
7. Who was the tall boy competing against the narrator in the long jump?
8. What distance was the tall boy achieving in his practice leaps?
9. What were the hopes of the German spectators regarding the long jump event?
10. What was the narrator determined to prove during the long jump competition?
Paragraph 3
In July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7, and I set sail from Plymouth, England, round the-world voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. For the longest time, Mary and I a 37-year-old businessman - had dreamt of sailing explorer (adventurer). For the past 16 years we had spent all our leisure time travelling in British waters.
Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-framed beauty. We had spent months fitting it out and testing it in the roughest weather.The first leg of our planned three-year, 1,05,000 kilometre journey passed pleasantly. We sailed down the west coast of Africa to Cape Town. There, before heading east, we took on two crewmen American Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler - to help us tackle one of the world's roughest seas, the southern Indian Ocean. -On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to encounter strong gales (storms). The size of the waves was alarming - metres, as high as our main up to 15 mast.
1. In which month and year did the narrator and his family set sail on their voyage?
2. What was the starting point of their round-the-world voyage?
3. Who was the famous explorer whose voyage they were retracing?
4. What were the names and ages of the narrator's children at the time of the voyage?
5. What was the name of the narrator's boat?
6. What were the dimensions and type of the boat mentioned in the paragraph?
7. How long had the narrator and his wife been dreaming of a sailing adventure?
