Reading Comprehension Test 9

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question below.[/passage-header]Once a hunter made a cage to catch a tiger alive. Soon a tiger was caught in the trap. A Brahmin was passing by that way. The tiger requested him to get him free. The foolish Brahmin took pity on the tiger, opened the door and set the wild animal free. The tiger was hungry as well as ungrateful and wanted to eat up his benefactor.
Just then a Jackal came up there. The Brahmin told his story to him. The clever Jackal thought of a plan to save the Brahmin. He said, "What! Did you mean the tiger was in that cage? I can't believe it." He asked the tiger if it was true. "Yes", said the tiger, "I was in that cage and this man set me free." "No", said the Jackal, "How can such a big tiger come into this small cage?"
The greedy tiger was taken in. In order to prove that he was right, he entered the cage. The door closed and the tiger remained where he was. The Brahmin thanked the wise Jackal and went his way.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question below.[/passage-header]The drink of Asia for hundreds of years, tea, is believed to have been brought to Europe by the Dutch. Today, from the remotest corner of Ladakh to Buckingham Palace, tea is synonymous with cheer.
It is rightly said that there will be no agreement on a perfect cup of tea. Though for tea drinkers the brew is addictive, the preferred method of preparation and taste differs from person to person and region to region.
Today many varieties of tea and tea brands are available in the market. An innovation is the tea-bag that is easy, quick and less messy than traditional ways of brewing tea. Green tea is popular in China and the Far East. In Japan, the tea ceremony is a traditional way of greeting guests and is a social occasion. Unlike the tea we are familiar with, green tea is not drunk with sugar or milk. It is an olive-coloured liquid served in porcelain cups. In Morocco, green tea is infused with freshly plucked mint. 
Some scientists believe tea prevents tooth decay because it is a rich source of fluoride. Tea is also a good remedy for stomach upsets, flu and diarrhoea. Research suggests that drinking tea reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer and lowers cholesterol levels in the blood. A welcome thought for inveterate tea drinkers.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question below.[/passage-header]The human body needs six nutrients. These are proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. Since most foods cannot provide all six nutrients, we need different kinds of foods. Milk provides fat, protein, carbohydrates, some vitamins, minerals and water. Milk is a food that gives us all the six nutrients. Green salad, fruit and beans provide other vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates. The nutrients work together to help our body grow. Sometimes nutrients are added to foods to make them more healthful. Breads, noodles and rice often have vitamins and minerals added.
Our body needs proteins to grow and change. Proteins also help to repair injured body parts. Meat and fish contain large amounts of proteins. Carbohydrates supply energy to the body. Starch is the main carbohydrate in some of the cereals and vegetables, such as bread, potatoes and rice. But sugar is the main carbohydrate in some fruits, such as mango, orange, and grapes. Our body also gets energy from the fat we eat. Olive and butter are rich in fat. Carbohydrates, fats and proteins that are not used right away by our body can be used later for energy.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question below.[/passage-header]It is not surprising that Delhi is poised on the brink of disaster. With two lakh people migrating to this metropolis every year, it is not difficult to see why the quality of life has deteriorated at such an alarming rate. The newspapers are full of crimes committed because of the breakdown of basic facilities and the corrosion of human values.
This brings us to slums" -the alleged breeding grounds of most of Delhi's problems. Over the years, the number of slums and unauthorised settlements have leap - frogged. There is hardly any residential colony in this city that is not hemmed in by them. Yet they too serve purpose" -- they provide cheap labour and captive vote banks. The very people who turn up their noses at the dirt, disease and fifth that festers in these areas, use these 'breeding grounds' as pool for domestic servants that can be hired and fired at will and daily wage labourers who are grateful for any kind of employment. Isn't it about time we examined our own role and acknowledged our responsibility for the proliferation of these slums?

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question below.[/passage-header]It is not surprising that Delhi is poised on the brink of disaster. With two lakh people migrating to this metropolis every year, it is not difficult to see why the quality of life has deteriorated at such an alarming rate. The newspapers are full of crimes committed because of the breakdown of basic facilities and the corrosion of human values.
This brings us to slums" -the alleged breeding grounds of most of Delhi's problems. Over the years, the number of slums and unauthorised settlements have leap - frogged. There is hardly any residential colony in this city that is not hemmed in by them. Yet they too serve purpose" -- they provide cheap labour and captive vote banks. The very people who turn up their noses at the dirt, disease and fifth that festers in these areas, use these 'breeding grounds' as pool for domestic servants that can be hired and fired at will and daily wage labourers who are grateful for any kind of employment. Isn't it about time we examined our own role and acknowledged our responsibility for the proliferation of these slums?

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and fill in the blank with a suitable option:[/passage-header]We stumbled slowly along in the darkness, with the back loom of the craggy hills around us, and the yellow speck of light burning steadily in front. There is nothing so deceptive as the distance of a light upon a pitch-dark night, and sometimes the glimmer seemed to be far away on the horizon, and sometimes it might have been within a few yards of us. But at last we could see whence it came, and then we knew that we were very close.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]I consider myself something of an authority on apologies because a quick temper has provided me with plenty of opportunities to make them. In one of my earliest memories, my mother is telling me, "Don't look at the ground when you say, 'I'm sorry'. Hold your head up and look the person in the eye, he'll know you mean it". My mother thus conveyed the first principle of a successful apology: it must be direct. You must never pretend to be doing something else. You do not leaf through a sheaf of correspondence while apologizing to a subordinate after blaming her for a mistake that turned out to be your fault. You do not apologize to a hostess, whose guest of honor you insulted, by sending flowers the next day without having mentioned your behaviour.

Given below is a set of instructions for preparing tea. Imagine that you prepared tea for some of your friends by following these instructions. Now complete the following paragraph reporting in Passive voice how you prepared the tea. The first sentence is done for you as an example. Do the rest by choosing the best option: 
Instructions
$$(1)$$ Boil some water in a kettle. 
$$(2)$$ Clean the tea-pot and put tea leaves into it. 
$$(3)$$ Now pour the boiling water into the tea-pot.
 $$(4)$$ Cover the tea-pot with a lid immediately. 
$$(5)$$ Wait for a couple of minutes. 
$$(6)$$ Now pour it into cups. 
$$(7)$$ Add milk and sugar to your taste. 
First of all, I took a kettle and some water was boiled in it. In the meantime the tea-pot $$(2)$$ ______________  into it. Then $$(3)$$ ________   and it was covered with a lid. After waiting for a couple of minutes, the tea-water $$(6)$$ __________ and $$(7)$$ ___________ and the tea was ready to be served. 

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent at a very young age. His first tool was the lapis (Spanish for pencil) and he learned to draw before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and was very good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father's pet pigeons with him. Apart from pigeons, his great love was art. When in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and life like that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13 then.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]In social life, there is an almost worldwide trend towards the weakening of community and family ties. The community life weakens under the onslaught of individualistic, self-centered living so that the focus of human relationships becomes narrower, confined largely to the nuclear family. But even within this small unit, there is an increasing crisis in the relationship of the husband and wife, in the relationship of parents and children, and so on. In the school also there is a disorientation of student-teacher relationship. Teenagers and youths are increasingly seen to be beyond control and a world unto themselves. Children are almost universally exposed to excessive sex and violence at an early age.