English: Reading Comprehension Set 7
Directions (1-7): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
There once lived a rich businessman who had a lazy and fun loving son. The businessman wanted his son to be hard-working and responsible. He wanted him to realise the value of labour One day he summoned his son and said: ‘Today, I want you to go out and earn something, failing which you won’t have your meal tonight.”
The boy was casual and not used to any kind of work. This demand by his father scared him and he went crying straight to his mother. Her heart melted at the sight of tears in her son’s eyes. She grew restless. In a bid to help him she gave him a gold coin. In the evening when the father asked his son what he had earned, the son promptly presented him the gold coin. The father then asked him to throw it into the well. The son did as he was told.
The father was a man of wisdom and experience and guessed that the source of the gold coin was the boy’s mother. The next day, he sent his wife to her parent’s town and asked his son to go and earn something with the threat of being denied the night’s meal if he failed. This time he went crying to his sister who sympathized with him and gave him a rupee coin out of her own savings. When his father asked him what he had earned the boy tossed the rupee coin at him. The father again asked him to throw it into the well. The son did it quite readily. Again the father’s wisdom told him that the rupee coin was not earned by his son. He then sent his daughter to her in-laws’ house He again asked his son to go out and earn with the threat that he shall not have anything for dinner that night.
This time since there was no one to help him out; the son was forced to go to the market in search of work. One of the shopkeepers there told him that he would pay him two rupees if he carried his trunk to his house. The rich man’s son could not refuse and was drenched in sweat by the time he finished the job. His feet were trembling and his neck and back were aching. There were rashes on his back. When he returned home, he produced the two rupee note before his father. As usual the father asked him to throw it into the well. The horrified son almost cried out. He could not imagine throwing his hard-earned money away. He said amid sobbing: “Father! My entire body is aching. My back has rashes and you are asking me to throw the money into the well.”
At this the businessman smiled. He told him that one feels pain only when the fruits of hard labour are wasted. On the earlier occasions he was helped by his mother and sister and therefore felt no pain in throwing the coins into the well. The son had now realised the value of hard work. He vowed never to be lazy and safe keep the father’s wealth. The father handed over the keys of his shop to the son and promised to guide him through the rest of his life.
- What could be an appropriate moral for the story?
A) The fruits of hard work are always bitter.
B) The power of money.
C) The rich father and the lazy son.
D) The value of hard earned money.
E) None of these.
- What did the mother’s reaction when the son went to her crying?
A) She immediately gave her the silver coin.
B) She denied him any help.
C) Her heart melted on seeing the tears in her son’s eyes.
D) She asked him to go and earn money.
E) None of these.
- Why did the father send her wife and daughter away from home?
A) His wife and daughter were sympathizing too much with the son.
B) He realized that they were spoiling the son.
C) He did not want them to help the son.
D) Both of them did not want the son to learn the value of hard work.
E) None of these.
- How did the father realize that the money was not earned by the son the first two times ?
A) The father was very wise and he knew if it were his earned money he could not have thrown it into the well without any hitch.
B) He knew his son was so lazy that he could never earn money on his own.
C) He was sure that his wife and daughter were helping the son.
D) He secretly went behind the son and watched everything.
E) None of these.
- What did the son say third time when his father asked him to throw two rupees into the well ?
A) He handed over the money to his father.
B) He threw it in the well himself.
C) He started crying and said that his entire body was aching and back had rashes.
D) He could not imagine throwing his hard-earned money away.
E) None of these.
- Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in BOLD as used in the passage.
Drenched
A) Exposed.
B) Unsaturated
C) Soaked
D) shivering
E) None of these.
- Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in BOLD as used in the passage.
Summoned
A) Called
B) abused
C) prosecuted
D) tortured
E) Enquired
Directions (8-14): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Once surrounded and protected by vast wilderness, many of the national parks are adversely affected by activities outside their boundaries. The National Park Organic Act established the national park system and empowered the Secretary of the Interior to manage activities within the parks. Conditions outside park boundaries are not subject to regulation by the Park Service unless they involve the direct use of park resources.
Several approaches to protecting the national parks from external degradation have been proposed, such as one focusing on enacting federal legislation granting the National Park Service broader powers over lands adjacent to the national parks. Legislation addressing external threats to the national parks twice passed the House of Representatives but died without action in the Senate. Also brought to the table as a possible remedy is giving the states bordering the parks a significant and meaningful role in developing federal park management policy.
Because the livelihood of many citizens is linked to the management of national parks, local politicians often encourage state involvement in federal planning. But, state legislatures have not always addressed the fundamental policy issues of whether states should protect park wildlife.
Timber harvesting, ranching and energy exploration compete with wildlife within the local ecosystem. Priorities among different land uses are not generally established by current legislation. Additionally, often no mechanism exists to coordinate planning by the state environmental regulatory agencies. These factors limit the impact of legislation aimed at protecting park wildlife and the larger park ecosystem.
Even if these deficiencies can be overcome, state participation must be consistent with existing federal legislation. States lack jurisdiction within national parks themselves, and therefore state solutions cannot reach activities inside the parks, thus limiting state action to the land adjacent to the national parks. Under the supremacy clause, federal laws and regulations supersede state action if state law conflicts with federal legislation, if Congress precludes local regulation, or if federal regulation is so pervasive that no room remains for state control. Assuming that federal regulations leave open the possibility of state control, state participation in policy making must be harmonized with existing federal legislation.
The residents of states bordering national parks are affected by park management policies. They in turn affect the success of those policies. This interrelationship must be considered in responding to the external threats problem. Local participation is necessary in deciding how to protect park wildlife. Local interests should not, however, dictate national policy, nor should they be used as a pretext to ignore the threats to park regions.
- What is the main purpose of the author in writing the passage?
A) argues that Timber harvesting, ranching and energy exploration compete with wildlife within the local ecosystem.
B) describe a plan of action to resolve an issue
C) discuss different approaches to dealing with a problem
D) suggest that interrelationship must be considered in responding to the external threats problem.
E) to assert that national parks are adversely affected by activities outside their boundaries
- The passage provides support for which of the following assertions?
A) The National Park Organic Act gave the Secretary of the Interior the right to overrule state government policy in lands adjacent to national parks.
B) The federal government has been selling national park land to state governments in order to raise money for wildlife conservation.
C) The actions of state governments have often failed to promote the interests of national park wildlife.
D) Local politicians want the federal government to turn control of national parks over to state governments.
E) None of these.
- In the context of the passage external degradation refers to which of the following:
A) threats to national parks arising from the House of Representative’s willingness to address environmental issues.
B) threats to national parks arising from state government environmental policies.
C) threats to national parks arising from local politicians‘calls for greater state involvement in national park planning.
D) threats to national parks arising from the National Park Organic Act.
E) None of these.
- According to the passage, which of the following developments is most likely if environmental cooperation between the federal government and state governments does not improve?
A) A further decline in the land area of national parks
B) A further increase in federal ownership of land adjacent to national parks
C) A further growth in the powers of the National Park Service
D) A further loss of species in national parks
E) A further increase in timber harvesting activities
- Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in BOLD as used in the passage.
Ranching
A) Sowing on a ranch.
B) Breed animals on a ranch.
C) Implanting .
D) Tilling in farm.
E) None of these.
- Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in BOLD as used in the passage.
Supremacy
A) Leading
B) lower
C) Dominion
D) controlled
E) None of these.
- Choose the word which is most nearly the OPPOSITE in meaning as the word printed in BOLD as used in the passage.
Supersede
A) Replace
B) Override
C) Overthrow
D) Accept
E) None of these.