Reading Comprehension Test 49

[passage-header]Read the paragraph and complete the sentence given below:[/passage-header]After submitting his resignation, Albert came out and took the long narrow road leading to the railway station which was one of the busiest roads in the city. Sad, depressed, and worried about looking for a new job, Albert looked around for a cigarette shop. He walked up to the end of the road but found no tobacconist. It was odd that such a busy thoroughfare with thousands of people passing through did not even have a single cigarette shop. He suddenly felt that it was no longer necessary for him to hunt for a job. He decided to open a tobacco shop himself. It was bound to be profitable, he felt.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and fill in the blank with a suitable option:[/passage-header]In the highest sense religion is an intensely individual issue, but there is a national question also. We must hold together and we cannot hold together only on the strength of police regulations. An internal regulator of conduct is absolutely necessary. Will men be good and wise without the aid of religion? As modern life has multiplied desires without the corrective sense of spiritual values, knowledge of modern science does not reduce either greed or lust. Indeed it has nothing to do with these criminal disturbances of the mind. On the contrary, it finds fresh tools for greater indulgence in all forms of greed, lust and anger. It is true that a sense of shame by itself often prevents overt misconduct. But it does not go to the root of the mischief; it does not stop undesirable mental activities. The only thing that can prevent or refrain from these evils is the religious sense.

[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:[/passage-header]It is generally acknowledged that children learn a lot from their parents. It is not so commonly admitted that parents learn a great deal from their children. As adults, it is easy to assume that we are always right, but the laugh was on me one beautiful day. 
My daughter Kashmira knew how much I loved flowers. One day, when she was nine, she picked some branches from our neighbor's blossoming fruit tree. Realizing she intended to please me, I didn't scold her but chose a different approach, "These are lovely, dear, but do you realize that if you had left them on the tree, each of these blossoms would have become a cherry?"
"No they wouldn't have," she said firmly.
"Oh, yes, they would have. Each of these blossoms would have grown into a cherry". "Well okay, mother, if you insist," she finally conceded, "but they were plums last year". 

[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:[/passage-header]It is generally acknowledged that children learn a lot from their parents. It is not so commonly admitted that parents learn a great deal from their children. As adults, it is easy to assume that we are always right, but the laugh was on me one beautiful day. 
My daughter Kashmira knew how much I loved flowers. One day, when she was nine, she picked some branches from our neighbor's blossoming fruit tree. Realizing she intended to please me, I didn't scold her but chose a different approach, "These are lovely, dear, but do you realize that if you had left them on the tree, each of these blossoms would have become a cherry?"
"No they wouldn't have," she said firmly.
"Oh, yes, they would have. Each of these blossoms would have grown into a cherry". "Well okay, mother, if you insist," she finally conceded, "but they were plums last year". 

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]It is often said that a dying man relives his whole life in one rapid kaleidoscope. I merely thought gloomily of the squadron returning, of my mother at home and of the few people who would miss me. Outside my family, I could count them on the fingers of one hand. What did gratify me enormously was to find that I indulged in no frantic abasement or prayers to the Almighty. It is an old jibe of God-fearing people that the irreligious always change their tune when about to die: I was pleased to think that I was proving them wrong. Because I seemed to be in for an indeterminate period of waiting, I began to feel a terrible loneliness and sought for some means to take my mind off my plight. I took it for granted that I must soon become delirious, and I attempted to hasten the process: I encouraged my mind to wander vaguely and aimlessly, with the result that I did experience a certain peace.

[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:[/passage-header]The telephone rang.
"Now what?" Greta muttered as she smoothed her small white apron and picked up the receiver, "Mrs. Winters' residence."
The voice of her mistress sounded clear and musical in her ear. "Good Morning, Greta. I'm still in New York. The doctor called me here last night and told me that Mr. Winters has a bad throat. He wants him to stay in bed today."
"Mrs. Winters, I can't keep Mr. Winters in bed! He won't stay put. You coming home today like you said, no?"
"This evening, Greta. The pharmacologists' society is meeting today and I must fill in on a panel for a man who can't get here. So you must keep him in bed, Greta."

Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
It is an admitted fact that unity is strength and disunion causes ruin. For example, we may take the case of a cricket or a football team. If the teammates co-operate with each other, they will form a strong team. But if the team members think only about their own success, they will surely lose the game. The same is true with a family or a society or an army or even a nation. Napoleon's motto was, 'Divide and Rule'. He tried to split the armies fighting against him. Then he would overcome them one by one. So a united family, a united community, a united society, a united nation is always strong. But those who are disunited or split-up into fractions or groups, are all weak and succumb to destruction.

[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly fill in the blank:
[/passage-header]Most of us are not very good listeners. We tend to believe that at meetings we will be judged by the amount we contribute with regard to the sheer volume of words rather than by how much we absorb other people's ideas. When we are listening, or think we are, we find it almost impossible to stop talking to ourselves. We assume that what the other person is saying is dreary and pointless. We don't open our mouth, of course, because that is just plain bad manners; but we do tend to use our listening to work out and rehearse what we hope to say. Again and again at meetings, you will hear people hotly denouncing views that have never been put forward or defending to the last breath those that have never been attacked. We live in a competitive world and most of us are concerned with putting our own ideas across or beating the other in an argument about their ideas.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and accordingly, fill in the blank:[/passage-header]At this stage of civilization, when many nations are brought into close and vital contact for good and evil, it is essential, as never before, that their gross ignorance of one another should be diminished, that they should begin to understand a little of one another's historical experience and resulting mentality. It is a fault of the English to expect the people of other countries to react as they do to political and international situations. Our genuine goodwill and good intentions are often brought to nothing because we expect other people to be like us. This would be corrected if we knew the history, not necessarily in detail but in broad outlines, of the social and political conditions which have given to each nation its present character.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and accordingly, fill in the blank:[/passage-header]At this stage of civilization, when many nations are brought into close and vital contact for good and evil, it is essential, as never before, that their gross ignorance of one another should be diminished, that they should begin to understand a little of one another's historical experience and resulting mentality. It is a fault of the English to expect the people of other countries to react as they do to political and international situations. Our genuine goodwill and good intentions are often brought to nothing because we expect other people to be like us. This would be corrected if we knew the history, not necessarily in detail but in broad outlines, of the social and political conditions which have given to each nation its present character.