READING COMPREHENSION
PASSAGE - 1 the particular science or art, they have the precision
In 776 BC the First Olympic Games were held at the
foot of Mount Olympus to honour the Greek’s chief
God, Zeus. The Greeks emphasized, physical fitness
and strength in their education of youth. Therefore
contests in running, jumping, discus and javelin
throwing, boxing and horse and chariot raching were
held in individual cities, and the winners competed
every four years at Mount Olympus. Winners were
greatly honoured by having poems sung about their
deeds. Originally these were held as games of
friendship, and any wars in progress were halted to
allow the games to take place. The Greeks attached so
much importance to these games that they calculated
time in four-year cycles called Olympiads dating from
776 BC.
1. Where were the First Olympic Games held ?
At the foot of
(a) Mount Olympus (b) Mount Olympiad
(c) Mount Orels (d) Mount of Greeks
2. Which of the following contests was not held ?
(a) Discus throwing (b) Skating
(c) Boxing (d) Running
3. Why were the Olympic Games held ?
(a) To stop wars
(b) To crown the best athletes
(c) To honour Zeus
(d) To sing songs about athletes
4. Approximately how many years ago did these
games originate?
(a) 776 years (b) 2279 years
(c) 1207 years (d) 2787 years
5. The values connected with Olympic Games were:
(a) physical fitness, education of youth and
friendship
(b) health, contests and singing
(c) running, jumping, throwing and boxing
(d) four-year cycles, war-time, young age and
friendship
PASSAGE - 2
Every profession or trade, art and every science has its
technical vocabulary, the function of which is partly to
designate things or processes which have no names in
ordinary English and partly to secure greater
exactness in nomenclature. Such special dialects or
jargons are necessary in technical discussion of any
kind. Being universally understood by the devotees of
ENGLISH BY MK SINGH (MA,BED,UGC NET)
of a mathematical formula. Besides, they save time,
for its much more economical to name a process than
to describe it. Thousands of these technical terms are
very properly included in every large dictionary, yet,
as a whole, they are rather on the outskirts of the
English language than actually within its borders.
Different occupations, however, differ widely
in the character of their special vocabularies. In trades
and handicrafts and other vocations like farming and
fishing that have occupied great numbers of men
from remote times, the technical vocabulary is very
old. An average man now uses these in his own
vocabulary. The special dialects of law, medicine,
divinity and philosophy have become familiar to
cultivated persons.
1. It is true that
(a) Various professions and occupations often
interchange words
(b) There is always a non-technical word that may
be substituted for the technical word
(c) The average man often uses in his own
vocabulary what was once technical language
not meant for him
(d) Everyone is interested in scientific findings
2. In recent years, there has been a marked
increase in the number of technical terms in the
nomenclature of:
(a) Farming (b) Fishing
(c) Sports (d)Government
3. Special words used in technical discussion:
(a) May become part of common speech
(b) Never last long
(c) Should resemble mathematical formula
(d) Should be confined to scientific fields
4. The writer of this article is:
(a) a scientist (b) a politician
(c) a linguist (d) a businessman
5. This passage is primarily concerned with:
(a) Various occupations and professions
(b) Technical terminology
(c) Scientific undertakings
(d) A new language
PASSAGE – 3
In May 1966, the World Health Organisation was
authorised to initiate a global campaign to eradicate
smallpox. The goal was to eradicate the disease in one
decade. Because similar projects for malaria and
yellow fever had failed, few believed that smallpox
could actually be eradicated, but eleven years after
MO:9897071984 Page 1
the initial organisation of the campaign, no cases
were reported in the field.
The strategy was not only to provide mass
vaccinations, but also to isolate patients with active
small-pox in order to contain the spread of the
disease and to break the chain of human
transmission. Rewards for reporting small-pox
assisted in motivating the public to aid health
workers. One by one, each small-pox victim was
sought out, removed from contact with others and
treated. At the same time, the entire village where
the victim had lived was vaccinated. Today small-pox
is no longer a threat to humanity. Routine
vaccinations have been stopped worldwide.
1. Which of the following is the best title for the
passage?
(a) The World Health Organisation
(b) The Eradication of small-pox
(c) Small-pox Vaccinations
(d) Infectious Diseases
2. What was the goal of the campaign against
small-pox?
(a) To decrease the spread of small-pox
worldwide.
(b) To eliminate small-pox world wide in ten
years.
(c) To provide mass vaccinations against
small-pox worldwide.
(d) To initiate worldwide projects for small-pox,
malaria and yellow fever at the same time.
3. According to the paragraph what was the
strategy used to eliminate the spread of small-
pox ?
(a) Vaccination of the entire village.
(b) Treatment of individual victims.
(c) Isolation of victims and mass vaccinations.
(d) Extensive reporting of outbreaks.
4. Which statement doesn’t refer to small-pox ?
(a) Previous projects had failed.
(b) People are no longer vaccinated for it.
(c) The World Health Organisation mounted a
worldwide campaign to eradicate the disease
(d) It was a serious threat.
5. It can be inferred that:
(a) No new cases of all-pox have been reported
this year.
(b) Malaria and yellow fever have been
eliminated.
(c) Small-pox victims no longer die when they
contract the disease.
(d) Small-pox is not transmitted from one person
to another.
PASSAGE – 4
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Although Indians spend less money on allopathic
medicines than people in most Asian Countries, more
than 40,000 drug formulations are available here. All
manufactures are required by law to provide
information about their product either on the
packaging or in a pamphlet inside. But, in many cases,
this information is very meagre and hard to
understand. Many doctors, too, do not tell their
patients anything about the drugs they prescribe.
What should we be concerned about when
we take drugs? There are two areas (1) Side effects;
many people taking a drug will notice an undesirable
reaction, usually minor. But even the mildest drugs
can do harm if taken improperly, long enough or in
excessive doses. And everyone responds to a drug
differently. (2) Failure to follow directions; Many of us
disobey prescription instructions on how much to take
and when. It is easy to fall into thinking that more of
the drug will speed up the healing. It is more
common, however, for people to stop taking a drug
when they begin to feel better. This, too can be
dangerous.
What are the steps to be taken for
safety? (1) Take a drug only as recommended on the
label or by the doctor. (2) If you feel ill after taking a
drug, check it with a doctor, (3) Do not mix drugs. (4)
check whether any food or activities are to be
avoided.
1. Which one of the following statements is true?
(a) Indians use more than 40,000 allopathic
drugs
(b) Indians hate allopathic medicines
(c) Other Asian countries do not have allopathic
medicines
(d) Indians cannot afford allopathic drugs
2. How are drug users to be instructed by the
manufacturers?
(a) Doctors should give a manual of
instruction
(b) The Chemist should issue an instruction
manual
(c) Information should be printed on the carton or
in a pamphlet kept inside it
(d) Patients should keep in touch with drug
manufacturers
3. Only one of the following sentences is right.
Identify it.
(a) All medicines produce reactions of various
degrees in their users
(b) Even mild drugs are not always safe
MO:9897071984 Page 2
 (c) Medicines should be discontinued as soon as (a) Noble qualities of manking
we feel better (b) Man’s virility
(d) More than the prescribed does brings quicker (c) Bestial qualities of manking
recovery (d) Man’s fight for survival
4. Drug manufacturers: 3. What is the best advantage mountaineering
(a) Do not give instructions brings to an adventure?
(b) Give all instructions necessary (a) Art of Planning
(c) Give very little and unintelligible (b) Thinking ahead
information (c) Responsbility to towards companions
(d) Give information only when asked (d) Contact with the beauties of the universe
5. Which one of the following is true ? 4. Which is the best way to perfect health and
(a) Throw away the drug that produces side physical fitness, according to the passage ?
effects and try another (a) Fighting
(b) Drugs may be taken with all kinds of foods (b) Seek inward happiness
(c) Drugs do not inhibit our normal life style (c) Live a life of luxury
(d) Drugs should be used only according to (d) Climb hills and mountains
prescription 5. If a man leads a life in an atmosphere of ‘Saftey
PASSAGE – 5 First’ he will:
(a) Improve physically and mentally
Some people say that man’s desire for war is due to (b) Deteriorate physically and mentally
(c) Improve physically but deteriorate
his fight for survival and that war is necessary to mentally
preserve his virility. Yet war nowadays leaves a legacy (d) Improve mentally but deteriorate
of the weakest men and stimulates not the nobel but physically
the bestial qualities of mankind. PASSAGE – 6
Adventure of some kind is necessary for man; A recent investigation by scientists at the USA
he will invevitably deteriorate physically and mentally Geological Survery shows that strange animal
if his life is one of ease and luxury lived in an behaviour might help predict future earthquakes.
atmosphere of ‘Safety First’. This is the real reason Investigators found such occurrences in a ten
behind our love of sports in the open air. It is no use kilometre radius of the epicentre of a fairly recent
being a millionaire if one suffers from chronic quake. Some birds screeched and flew about wildly,
indigestion; a tramp with good innards is far happier. dogs yelped and ran uncontrollably.
Nothing that money can buy is worthwhile without
good health. There is no better way to perfect health Scientists believe that animals can perceive
and physical fitness than to walk over or climb hills these environmental changes as early as several days
and mountains. before the mishap.

But mountains give us much more than mere In 1976 after observing the animal behaviour,
physical fitness; they exercise the mental faculties as the Chinese were able to predict a devastating quake.
well. Climbing a high and difficult peak is as much a Although hundreds of thousands of people were
mental exercise as a physical exercise. It calls for killed, the government was able to evacuate millions
sense and judgement for planning and thinking ahead, of other and thus keep the death toll at a lower level.
for anticipating difficulty and danger, for responsibility
1. If scientists can accurately predict
towards one’s companions, and best of all, it brings earthquakes there will be:
the mountaineer into touch with the beauties of the (a) Fewer animals going crazy
universe. (b) A lower death rate
(c) Fewer people evacuated
1. According to the passage, Nothing that money (d) Fewer environmental changes
can buy is worthwhile : 2. What prediction may be made by observing
(a) Without love of sports animal behaviour ?
(b) Without adventure (a) An impending earthquake
(c) Without good health (b) The number of people who will die
(d) Without good mental faculties (c) The ten kilometre radius of epicenter
2. War nowadays stimulates : (d) Ecological conditions

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 3. How can animals perceive these changes (b) Because they move
when human beings cannot ? (c) Because they multiply
(a) Animals are smarter than human beings (d) Because they need warmth and light
(b) Animals have certain instincts that human 4. The atomic structure of viruses :
beings don’t possess (a) Is variable
(c) By running round the house, they can feel the (b) Is strictly defined
vibrations (c) Cannot be analysed chemically
(d) Human beings don’t know where to look (d) Is more complex than that of bacteria
4. Which of the following is not true ? 5. How does the body react to influenza virus ?
(a) Some animals may be able to sense an (a) It prevents further infection to other types of
approaching earthquake strains of the virus
(b) By observing animal behaviour scientists (b) It produces immunity to the type of strain of
perhaps can predict earthquakes virus that invaded it
(c) The Chinese failed to predict the earthquake (c) It becomes immune to types A, B, C viruses,
(d) All birds and dogs in a ten kilometer range but not to various strains within the type
went wild before the quake (d) After a temporary immunity, it becomes even
5. In this passage the word evacuate means more susceptible to the type of strain that
(a) Remove (b) Exile caused the influenza
(c) Destroy (d) Expel PASSAGE - 8
PASSAGE – 7
Faith in progress is deep within our culture. We have
The influenza virus is a single molecule composed of been taught to believe that our lives are better than
millions of individual atoms. Although bacteria can be the lives of those who came before us. The ideology
considered a type of plant, secreting poisonous of modern economics suggests that material progress
substances into the body of the organism they attack, has yielded enhanced satisfaction and well-being. But
viruses, like the influenza virus, are living organisms much of our confidence about our own well-being
themselves. We may consider them regular chemical comes from the assumption that our lives are easier
molecules since they have strictly defined atomic than those of earlier generations.
structure; but on the other hand, we must also
consider them as being alive since they are able to The lives of the so-called primitive peoples are
multiply in unlimited quantities. An attack brought on thought to be harsh-their existence dominated by the
‘incessant quest for food’. In fact, primitives did very
by the presence of influenza virus in the body
produces a temporary immunity, but unfortunately, little work. By contemporary standards we’d have to
the protection is against only the particular type of judge them very lazy.
virus that caused influenza. Because the disease can The key to understanding why these ‘stone-
be produced by any one of three types, referred to as age people’ failed to act like us increasing their work
A, B or C and since there are many strains within each effort to get more things is that they had limited
type, immunity to one virus will not prevent infection desires. In the race between wanting and having, they
by another type of strain. had kept their wanting low and, in this way ensured
1. With what topic is the passage primarily their own kind of satisfaction. They were materially
concerned ? poor by contemporary standards, but in at least one
(a) The influenza virus dimension-time-we have to count them richer.
(b) Immunity to disease
(c) Bacteria 1. What is the basis for progress and gowth
(d) Chemical molecules according to the writer ?
2. According to the passage, bacteria are: (a) Faith in progress is deep-rooted in our culture
(a) Poisons (b) We have been taught that progress is
(b) Very small necessary
(c) Larger than viruses (c) Material progress has given us strength
(d) Plants (d) We have assumed to progress
3. Why does the author say that the viruses are
2. What does the writer attribute to modern
alive ?
economics?
(a) Because they have a complex atomic
structure (a) That our lives are easier than before

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 (b) That progress is a natural process
(c) That material progress leads to higher
satisfaction and well-being
(d) That it forces us to assume progress
3. What is the key to understanding the primitive
peoples behaviour according to the passage ?
(a) They had no desires
(b) They had everything they needed
(c) They had limited desires
(d) They kept their wants high
4. How does the writer appreciate the primitives ?
(a) They have a low degree of wants
(b) They are the masters of their time owing to
their contentedness
(c) They are materially poor
(d) They are highly satisfied
5. What is the writer’s image of the primitive people
? (a) abandons science
(a) Their life was harsh
(b) They did no work
(c) They were lazy
(d) Search for food was their primary focus in life
PASSAGE - 9
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the illustrious philosopher
statesman of India, was one of the greatest sons of
our motherland. He cautioned the world against the
domination of science in society. It is erroneous to
claim that scientific knowledge would bring with it
perpetual progress and a steady improvement in
human relations. The recent period of great scientific
achievements has also increased human misery; two
world wars, concentration camps, atomic destruction,
cold war, deadly wars in the middle east, Persian Gulf
and at many other places in the world. Growth in
human wisdom has not been commensurate with the
increase in scientific knowledge and power. The fear
of universal destruction hangs over the world. There is
a feeling of disenchantment, anxiety and even
despair. Science has failed to liberate man from the
tyranny of his own nature. Mankind is passing through
a critical period and an education of the human spirit
has become essential. In order to remake society,
man has to remake himself. If humanity is to survive,
man must integrate his knowledge with a social
responsibility.
1. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan has :
(a) emphasised that science should be banished
from the society
(b) opposed the teaching of science in educational
institutions
(c) favoured scientific thinking in life
ENGLISH BY MK SINGH (MA,BED,UGC NET)
(d) counselled that preponderance of science in
life does not necessarily generate happiness
2. The recent past of tremendous scientific progress
has :
(a) made the world a very happy place
(b) led to global warming
(c) brought about internal transformation in men
(d) shown that human wisdom has not kept pace
with galloping scientific knowledge
3. Man is despaired of science because :
(a) science has given too much knowledge
(b) science has brought him excessive material
comforts
(c) he has become a captive of science
(d) he is confronted with the nightmare of total
annihilation of the world
4. Man can save humanity only if he :
(b) brings about an internal transformation in
himself
(c) makes his life more comfortable with scientific
gadgets
(d) goes back to nature and primitive times
5. In this passage, the writer has tried to show that :
(a) science is the only saviour that shall lead
humanity forward
(b) science can bring about an end to all the wars
(c) social change comes with the advancement of
science
(d) human wisdom must grow proportionately
with growth of knowledge to evolve a creative
integration to help mankind
PASSAGE – 10
Our theory and practice in the area of sentencing
have undergone a gradual but dramatic
metamorphosis through the years. Primitive man
believed that a crime created an imbalance which
could be rectified only by punishing the wrongdoer.
Thus sentencing was initially vengeance-oriented.
Gradually, emphasis began to be placed on the
deterrent value of a sentence upon future
wrongdoing.
Though deterrence is still an important
consideration, increased emphasis on the possibility
of reforming the offender – of returning him to the
community a useful citizen – bars the harsh penalties
once imposed and brings into play a new set of
sentencing criteria. Today, each offender is viewed as
a unique individual and the sentencing judge seeks to
know why he as committed the crime and what are
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the chances of a repetition of the offense. The judge’s
prime objective is not to punish but to treat.
This emphasis on treatment of the individual
has created a host of new problems. In seeking to
arrive at the best treatment for individual prisoners,
judges must weigh an imposing array of factors. I
believe that the primary aim of every sentence is the
prevention of future crime. Little can be done to
correct past damage and a sentence will achieve its
objective to the extent that if upholds general respect
for the law, discourages those tempted to commit
similar crimes, and leads to the rehabilitation of the
offender, so that he will not run a foul of the law
again. Where the offender is so hardened that
rehabilitation is plainly impossible the sentence may
be designed to segregate the offender from society so
that he will be unable to do any future harm. The
balancing of these interacting and often mutually
antagonistic factors requires more than a good heart
and a sense of fair play on the judge’s part although
these are certainly prerequisites. It requires the judge
to know as much as he can about the prisoner before
him. He should know the probable effects of
sentences upon those who might commit similar
crimes and how the prisoner is likely to react ot
imprisonment of probation. Because evealuation of
these various factors may differ from judge to judge
the same offense will be treated differently by
different judges.
(c) tell people not to commit crimes for which
they might receive unfair sentences
(d) persuade readers that it is important to
improve sentencing techniques
2. The word ‘metamorphosis’ in the first sentence
means:
(a) Restoration
(b) Interpretation
(c) Change
(d) Fault
3. Which of the following situations would be
comparable to the ancient idea of sentencing ?
(a) a lion stalking and killing a dear
(b) a child slapping a playmate who has slapped
him or her
(c) a traffic policeman putting a ticket on a
wrongly parked car
(d) a person scolding his pet that has tried to run
away
4. With which of the following statements the
author would not agree ?
(a) a judge should treat each offender as an
individual
(b) a judge should refrain from imposing harsh
penalties
(c) a judge should try to correct past damages
(d) a judge has to be a student of human nature
5. According to the passage, what is not the
objective of the sentencing in moder times ?
(a) preventing future crime
(b) avenging the victim
(c) rehabilitating the offender
(d) discouraging others from committing crimes

The task of improving our sentenceing techniques

is so important to the nation’s moral health that it
deserves far more careful attention than it now
receives from the bar and the general public. Some of
those at the bar and many civic minded individuals
who usually lead even the judges in the fight for legal
reform approach this subject with pathy or with
erroneous preconceptions. For example, I have
observed the sentiment shared by many that after a
judge has sentenced several hundred defendants, the
whole process becomes one of callous routine I have
heard this feeling expressed even by attorneys who
should know better.

1. The author’s purpose in this passage is to:

(a) inform readers about sentencing practices in
the past
(b) convince judges about sentencing practices in
the past

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