Reading Comprehension Test 48

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Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:
Even in the most primitive societies, the great majority of people satisfy a large part of their material needs by exchanging goods and services. Very few people indeed can make for themselves everything they need - all their food, their clothes, their housing, their tools. Ever since men started living in communities, they have been satisfying their needs by means of specialization and exchange; increasingly each individual has concentrated on what he can do best and has produced more of the special goods or services in which he has concentrated than he can consume himself. The surplus, he has exchanged with other members of the community, acquiring, in exchange the things he needs that others have produced.

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[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:
[/passage-header]Cozette could have been a pretty child, but she was thin and pale and her eyes were stained with weeping. She was dressed in her thin torn cotton dress and she shivered all the time. Here and there on her body were blue marks from the beatings that her mistress had given her. Her naked legs were red and rough. When she spoke, her voice trembled. Everything about the child, her looks, her behavior, her speech, her silence, every small gesture she made, showed a terrible fear. She was so afraid that, even though she was wet through, she dared not go near the fire to warm herself, but sat shivering in a corner of the room.

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Discussions on drug addiction should also be concerned with the vast majority of people who are not addicts. Their homes and lives are insecure because our narcotics laws drive such people to crime. The drug addict is almost never dangerous when he is under the influence of drugs. What makes him dangerous is the desperate need for money to buy the next dose. Drugs are available only in an illegal black market. The costs are stupendous, and this is what drives the addict to steal, rob and even kill.

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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows. [/passage-header]

One day we were becalmed among a group of small islands, most of which appeared to be uninhabited. As soon as we were in want of fresh water, the captain sent the boat ashore to bring off a cask or two. But we were mistaken in thinking there were no natives, for barely had we drawn near to the shore when a band of savages rushed out of the bush and assembled on the beach, brandishing their clubs and spears in a threatening manner.

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and complete the blank:[/passage-header]Punctually at midday, he opened his bag and spread out his professional equipment, which consisted of a dozen cowrie shells, a square piece of cloth with obscure mystic charts on it, a notebook, and bundle of Palmyra writing. His forehead was resplendent with sacred ash and vermilion, and his eyes sparkled with a sharp abnormal gleam which was really an outcome of a continual searching look for customers, but which his simple clients took to be a prophetic light and felt comforted. The power of his eyes was considerably enhanced by their position placed as they were between the painted forehead and the dark whiskers which streamed down his cheeks: even a half-wit's eyes would sparkle in such a setting. To crown the effect he wound a saffron-coloured turban around his head. This colour scheme never failed. People were attracted to him as bees are attracted to cosmos or dahlia stalks.

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[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:
[/passage-header]"Punctuality," said Louis XIV, "is the politeness of kings". It is the mark of a gentleman, and "the necessity of men in business". Washington once took his Secretary to task for being late. The secretary laid the blame upon his watch. Washington retorted, "Then, sir, either you must get a new watch or I must get a new secretary". Much of our success in life depends upon our being punctual in our undertakings and appointments. Hence the necessity of steadily cultivating this virtue in our daily life.

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows: [/passage-header]I came home from vacation to find that my brother Ron had brought a dog while I was away. A big burly, choleric dog, he always acted as if he thought I wasn't one of the family. There was a slight advantage in being one of the family. For he didn't bite the family as often as he bit strangers. Mother used to send a box of candy every Christmas to the people he bit. The list finally contained forty or more names. Nobody could understand why we didn't get rid of the dog!

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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Nowadays we are amused by professionals. Why listen to your friends singing when you can hear the great singers of the world on the gramophone or the radio? Why read even a detective story if you can see one at the cinema, and why play football with players who are not very good when you can go, by train or car, to see some of the best players in your country playing an important match; or, if you have a television set, just sit comfortably at home and watch the same without the trouble of going outside?

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