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Reading Comprehension – Unseen Passage
Chapter Significance: Reading Comprehension is compulsory in the case of banking examinations. 5-10 mark questions come in both clerk as well as PO examinations. Apart from this, students can expect the same in other competitive examinations too.
Approach:
In this topic, an unseen passage is given. The passage could be any news, any article, and any story. The student needs to read the passage and answer the questions related to it.
Questions can be direct or indirect. In the case of indirect questions, for example, the title or the mood of the questions can be asked.
# One must go through the passage carefully for answering the questions and that is the approach of attempting unseen passages.
# The students are advised not to spend more than 7minutes answering 10 questions from the passage. For this, speed is required.
# To improve speed, students are advised to read newspapers daily and practice more. Also, improved vocabulary is essential and hence newspaper reading is necessary.
Example 1: Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions.
Employment is one of the chronic issues India has been facing. Economic growth is meaningful only as long as it creates new jobs, particularly, in the non-agricultural sector. Job growth leads to an increase in consumer demand which has the effect of sustaining GDP (Gross Domestic Product) reducing volatility in output growth rate. The employment situation is becoming increasingly acute as demographic transition pulls young people into the workforce at ______________ pace. India’s biggest concern is the paucity of enough jobs to provide gainful employment to people who join the labour force every year. Well over half of the population is dependent on agriculture, which gets some 14% of national income, a clearly discriminatory situation.
1. As per the passage, economic growth is relevant if
a) Agricultural production is rising
b) Savings of individuals falls due to increase in consumption
c) Employment rate is increasing especially in the non-agricultural sector
d) The rate of population is diminishing in the country
e) Privatization of government-sector is taking place in the country
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
2. GDP stands for
a) Gross Demographic Population
b) Gross Demographic Product
c) Gross Demand of Population
d) Gross Domestic Product
e) Gross Domestic Population
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
3. ‘Employment is one of the chronic issues India has been facing’ – which of the following words can replace the word written in bold?
a) Persistent
b) Temporary
c) Occasional
d) Increasing
e) Eradicable
(It is a vocab-based question.
Chronic- Continuing or life-long
Persistent- Continuous
Eradicable- removable, stoppable)
4. The employment situation is becoming increasingly acute as demographic transition pulls young people into the work force at ______________ pace.’ Which of the following words can be best-suited for the blank?
a) A hindered
b) An accelerated
c) A Ceasing
d) A discouraging
e) A slow
(As per the context, the young population is attracted to work force at an increasing pace. Hence, option (b) fits the best)
5. ‘Job growth leads to an increase in consumer demand which has the effect of sustaining GDP reducing volatility in output growth rate’ – which of the following is the synonyms of the word volatility?
a) Definite
b) Lasting
c) Stable
d) Permanent
e) Irregularity
(It is a vocab-based question. Volatility- Irregularity, Changeability)
6. ‘Job growth leads to an increase in consumer demand which has the effect of sustaining GDP reducing volatility in output growth rate’ – which of the following is opposite in meaning of the word sustaining?
a) Comforting
b) Strengthening
c) Continuing
d) Obstructing
e) Long-lasting
(It is a vocab-based question. Sustaining- Continuing
As per the context, option (d) is opposite in meaning of ‘sustaining’)
7. As the paragraph is concerned, what can be the title of it?
a) India and its current issues
b) The employment issues of India
c) Population and Employment
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
(It is an indirect question. By reading the passage a student can understand that this is all about the employment issues of India. So, option (b) seems more relevant as compared to option (a) and (c).)
Example 2: Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions.
Pollution is a human problem. Before the 19th Century Industrial Revolution, people lived more in harmony with their immediate environment. As industrialization has spread around the globe, the problem of pollution has spread with it. How serious is the problem according to the environmental campaign organization WWF “Pollution from toxic chemicals threatens like on this planet. Every ocean and every continent from the tropics to the once-pristine polar region is contaminated.
Water pollution can be defined in many ways. Usually, it means one or more substances built up in water to such an extent that they cause problems for animals or human beings. But the question is how much of a polluted substance is released and how big a volume of water it is released into. A small quantity of a toxic chemical may have little impact if it is spilled into the ocean from a ship. But at the same time, some chemicals can have a much bigger impact pumped into a lake or river, where there is less clean water to disperse it. Water pollution almost always means that some damage has been done to an ocean, river, lake, or other water resources.
Water never pollutes itself. Most of the water is polluted by land activities. Virtually any human activity can have an effect on the quality of our water environment. When farmers _____________ the fields, the chemicals they use are gradually washed by rain into the groundwater or surface waters nearby. Sometimes the causes of water pollution are quite surprising. Chemicals released by smoke can enter the atmosphere that falls back to the earth by rain. It enters the seas, rivers, oceans, and lakes, and pollutes the water. That is called atmospheric depositions.
1. Which of the following words can substitute the word harmony in the passage?
a) Jangling
b) Incompatibility
c) Unity
d) Discord
e) None of the above
(It is a vocab-based question. Harmony- Unity. Option (a), (b), and (d) are the antonyms of Harmony)
2. Choose the word which can fill the blank – ‘When farmers _____________ the fields, the chemicals they use are gradually washed by rain into the groundwater or surface waters nearby’
a) Plough
b) Fertilize
c) Till
d) Sow seeds in
e) Wipeout weeds from
(It is a direct question. By reading the full sentence, the idea can be obtained. Here the word ‘chemicals’ give us the hint to the answer.)
3. Which incident has spread the arena of pollution?
a) World War I
b) The French Revolution
c) The discovery of atomic energy
d) The Discovery of Fire
e) The Industrial Revolution
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
4. Atmospheric deposition is an incident where
a) The pollutant mixes with rain and comes back on the water bodies of earth
b) The pollutants get emitted in the air
c) The pollutants get mixed in the soil and remain forever
d) The plastic substances remain intact in the environment and pollute heavily
e) None of the above
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
5. Which of the following is an antonym of contaminated?
a) Adulterated
b) Infected
c) Corrupted
d) Pure
e) Toxic
(It is a vocab-based question. Contaminated- Polluted
Option (a), (b), (c), (e) are the synonyms.)
Example 3: Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions.
The prices took their places around the Viceroy for the official photograph. The most important were seated on gilded chairs, with the lesser figures standing behind them on a bench. Prince Adhir was seated to the Viceroy’s right. The princes made uncomfortable small talk as the furniture was adjusted. A few tried to slip away but were shepherded back into position by harassed-looking civil servants. Eventually, the photographer called for attention. The princes duly ceased their chatter and faced forwards: flashbulbs popped, capturing the scene for posterity, and finally, they were given their freedom.
There was a spark of recognition as Crown Prince Adhir spotted Surrender-not. He extricated himself from a conversation with a rotund maharaja wearing the contents of a bank vault on his person and a tiger skin on his shoulder and made his way over. He was tall and fair-skinned for an Indian, with the bearing of a cavalry officer or a polo player. By the standards of the princes around him, he was dressed rather plainly: a pale blue silk tunic studded with diamond buttons and tied at the waist by a golden cummerbund, white silk trousers, and black Oxford brogues, polished to a shine. His turban was held in place with a clip studded with emeralds and sapphire the size of a goose egg.
If Lord Taggart was to be believed, the prince’s father, the Maharaja, was the fifth richest man in India. And everyone knew that the richest man in India was also the richest man in the world.
1. What was the position of prince Adhir at the time of taking the photograph?
a) He was sitting at the extreme right
b) He was standing at the Viceroy’s right
c) He was standing at the Viceroy’s left
d) He was sitting to the Viceroy’s right
e) He was sitting to the Viceroy’s left
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
2. Which of the following is true about the richest man in India?
a) He was the kindest person in India
b) He was a philanthropist
c) He was one of the powerful men of the world
d) He was a good Polo player
e) He was the richest man in the world too
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
3. Which of the following stones could be seen in the clip that studded the turban?
a) Diamond and emerald
b) Ruby and white sapphire
c) Emerald and sapphire
d) Moonstone and emerald
e) Blue sapphire and emerald
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
4. What is the style of the passage?
a) Narrative
b) Abstract
c) Persuasive
d) Argumentative
e) Expository
(It is an indirect question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student understand that it is a story or narration. Hence, the style is narrative.)
5. Which of the following is a synonym of extricate?
a) Entangle
b) Disengage
c) Unite
d) Compel
e) Attach
(It is a vocab-based question. Extricate- release, free. Hence, option (b) is the synonym)
Exercise: Read the passages carefully and answer the following questions.
1. Increasing the use of renewable energy supports the development of energy and other sectors. It offers social, economic, and environmental benefits. To meet energy demand and to reduce import dependencies that raise vulnerabilities to global market shifts, some economies are pushing the use of renewables to balance their energy mixes with indigenous resources. Renewable energy also offers options for energy access through decentralized applications. On-grid and off-grid renewable energy markets are expanding as private sector participation increases.
Renewables are a key component for decarbonizing economies. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have pledged to reduce carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels. In 2014, the Asia and the Pacific region was responsible for 55.2% of global emissions from fuel combustion, 66% of which were from coal. Decarbonizing the energy sector by shifting to renewable energy, thus, supports efforts to achieve climate objectives, including nationally determined contributions.
To ensure that the world truly achieves universal access to energy, renewables will have to play a crucial role. The ‘On-grid’ population in India and other countries need to look at off-grid solutions as a sustainable way of taking electricity to the last mile where the power supply is currently unreliable. If countries want to provide uninterrupted power supply to people, the potential of decentralized renewable energy solutions such as mini-grids and rooftop solar needs to be tapped.
1. Which of the following results into the expansion in the On-grid and off-grid renewable energy markets?
a) Increase in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
b) Increase in the government investments
c) Increased fund for research and developments
d) Increase in the participation of private sectors
e) Increased awareness
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
2. The major element to cause emissions from fuel combustion in the Asia-Pacific regions in 2014 was-
a) Petrol
b) Coal
c) Natural gas
d) Wastes
e) Diesel
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
3. As per the context, what was pledged by the countries under the Paris Agreement?
a) To control deforestation
b) To reduce carbon emissions from the fossil fuels
c) To shift to renewable energies
d) To rely on public transportation
e) To plant 5Million tress in next one year
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
4. Which of the following is an antonym of pledge?
a) Oath
b) Warrant
c) Vow
d) Bond
e) Breach
(It is a vocab-based question. Pledge- Oath. Only option (e) is opposite in meaning of it.)
5. Which of the following can substitute crucial?
a) Insignificant
b) Voluntary
c) Optional
d) Pivotal
e) Occasional
(It is a vocab-based question. Crucial- Important. Only option (d) can substitute the word.)
2. All these things happened several years ago at a place called Novastoshnah, or North-East Point, on the Islands of St. Paul, away and away in the Bering Sea. Limmershine, the Winter Wren, told me the tale when he was blown on to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, and I took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed him for a couple of days till he was fit to fly back to St Paul’s again. Limmerstine is a very odd little bird, but he knows how to tell the truth.
Nobody comes to Novastoshnah except on business, and the only people who have regular business there, are the seals. They come in summer months by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold, grey sea; for Novastoshnah Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of any place in all the world.
1. Which Islands Novastoshnah was located at?
a) Bali
b) Hawaii
c) Sumatra
d) St. Paul
e) Little St. Simons
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
2. Who was Limmershine?
a) An old seal
b) A little bird
c) A little odd seal
d) The narrator
e) An odd little bird
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
3. What was the only purpose for visiting Novastoshnah?
a) For holidays
b) For its calm weather
c) For business
d) For finding treasure
e) For education
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
4. Limmershine knew how to-
a) Tell the truth
b) Entertain people
c) Manipulate people
d) Sail a ship
e) Reach Novastoshnah
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
5. The Novastoshnah Beach had the finest accommodation for the-
a) Travelers
b) Businessmen
c) Migrating birds
d) Seals from all around the world
e) Children
(It is a direct question. Reading the passage carefully will help a student to answer the question)
