Tag: inferences from the text

Questions Related to inferences from the text

Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, I could hear nothing, nor see anything. I went up the shore, and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot-toes, heel and every part of a foot. 


How does the author convince himself that the foot-print is a real one? 

  1. By finding the person who made it

  2. By being told about it by a witness

  3. By thinking about it for some time

  4. By examining it carefully and noticing its details


Correct Option: D
Explanation:

The author goes back to the print, to find out for certain that it was for real and not his "fancy". This time, he observes the foot-print carefully and notices all the details. This is how the author convinces himself that the foot-print is a real one. The correct answer is option D.

Read the passage and answer the question that follows:

He drooped off to sleep. The cigarette slipped out of his mouth and burnt a great black hole in his only shirt. The smell of the burn awoke him, and he got up, cursing under his breath, and fumbled in the dark for a needle in order to sew up the hole. Otherwise, his wife would see it in the morning and would nag away at him for a couple of hours. But he could not find a needle. He fell asleep again.


Which one of the following statements best sums up the man's reaction to his problem? 

  1. The man is extremely upset to find the shirt burnt and frantically tries to repair the damage.

  2. The hole in the shirt and the wife's anticipated nagging are minor problems, the greater one is that the man cannot find a needle.

  3. None of these: the shirt-hole, the nagging and the lack of a needle, are of great consequence.

  4. The man is terrified of his wife and dreads her discovering the burnt shirt.


Correct Option: C
Explanation:

The man wanted to sew the hole because he didn't want to be scolded by his wife in the morning. However, the shirt -hole, the nagging and the lack of a needle are of not much importance because even though he worried over these, he went back to sleep. So, the correct answer is option C.

Read the passage given below and choose the option that best fits the question that follows:

Deriving your authority from the government, your position would secure the respect and consideration of everyone, especially in a service where official rank carries so much weight. This would secure you every attention and comfort on your way and there, together with a complete submission to your orders. I know these things are a matter of indifference to you except so far as they may further, the great objects you have in view, but they are of importance in themselves, and of every importance to those who have a right to take an interest in your personal position and comfort. 


The person addressed in most likely a ______.

  1. social worker

  2. government servant

  3. commercial agent

  4. foreign dignitary


Correct Option: B
Explanation:

The writer is talking in the context of government service. So, the person addressed is most likely a government servant. Option B is the correct answer. 

Read the passage given below and pick the option that best fits the question that follows:

The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of do's and dont's. The same old favourites recur year in and year out with monotonous regularity. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced to frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our old bad ways. 



The author seems to imply that many are inveterate smokers because 

  1. they have not really tried to give up smoking

  2. they know from past experience that they can never succeed in their attempt to give up

  3. they want to forget the frustration of not smoking

  4. they do not have the will power to stop smoking


Correct Option: A
Explanation:

In this passage, the author has tried to illustrate humans' habit to going back to their habits and being unable to hold true to our actions, despite numerous trials and failures. Option A is correct in assuming that many have not succeeded in giving up smoking simply because they haven't tried hard enough, trying to test their limits and being confined in those limitations. Options B,C and D do not convey the same resilience that the author has tried to convey. For that, option A is the correct answer. 

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic of life, food, shelter, clothes and warmth. Then we are faced with a choice between using technology to provide and fulfil needs which have hitherto been regarded as unnecessary or, on the other hand, using technology to reduce the number of hours of work which a man must do in order to earn a given standard of living. In other words, we either raise our standard of living above that necessary for comfort and happiness or we leave it at this level and work shorter hours. I shall take it as axiomatic that mankind has, by that time, chosen the later alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment.

"Then we are faced with a choice...." what does "then" refer to? 

  1. When automation takes over many aspects of human life

  2. The present state of civilization

  3. The past stage of civilization

  4. After having provided the basic essentials of life


Correct Option: D
Explanation:

The author says that technology is now well beyond being used only for supplying the basic necessities of life. Now, the question regarding its use comes to whether we use technology to fulfill needs which till now were deemed unnecessary or to use it to reduce man hours required for a certain standard  of living. In this context, "then" ("Then we are faced with a choice") refers to "after having provided the basic essentials of life." So, the answer is D.

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Once upon a time, I went for a week's holiday to the Continent with an Indian friend. We both enjoyed ourselves and were sorry when the week was over, but on parting, our behaviour was absolutely different. He was plunged in despair. He felt that because the holiday that was overall happiness was over until the world ended. He could not express his sorrow too much. But in me, the Englishman came out strong. I could not see what there was to make a fuss about. It wasn't as if we were parting forever or dying. 'Buck up', I said, 'do buck up'. He refused to buck up and I left him plunged in gloom. 

What is the Continent in the context of the passage? 

  1. An island

  2. The countryside

  3. Africa

  4. Europe


Correct Option: D
Explanation:

Option D, Europe, is the correct answer. The speaker, being an Englishman, the Continent, to him, world mean the European mainland, And not any other place near or beyond that. The Options A and B are wrong because they refer to an island and the countryside, respectively, whereas the passage clearly refers to the Continent. Option C, Africa, is incorrect because the reference of the Continent in context of an Englishman means the European continent, which is linear to England, than Africa.

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Once upon a time, I went for a week's holiday to the Continent with an Indian friend. We both enjoyed ourselves and were sorry when the week was over, but on parting our behaviour was absolutely different. He was plunged in despair. He felt that because the holiday was overall happiness was over until the world ended. He could not express his sorrow too much. But in me, the Englishman came out strong. I could not see what there was to make a fuss about. It wasn't as if we were parting forever or dying. 'Buck up', I said, 'do buck up'. He refused to buck up and I left him plunged in gloom. 


What does the author mean by 'buck up'?

  1. Buckle yourself up

  2. Stand up

  3. Cheer up

  4. Shut up


Correct Option: C
Explanation:

Buck up" is an expression for the word cheer up. Here, a certain 'he' is "plunged in despair" and the writer is telling him to "cheer up." So, the answer is option C.

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

The psychological causes of unhappiness, it is clear, are many and various. But all have something in common. The typical unhappy man is one who, having deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, has come to value this one ' kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to the activities connected with it. There is, however, a further development which is very common in the present day. A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and oblivion. He then becomes a devotee of "pleasure". This is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive. Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide-the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness. 


Which one of the following is the correct statement? Drinking helps the unhappy only to _______. 

  1. forget their dissatisfaction

  2. get sublime happiness

  3. get the motivational needs fulfilled

  4. concentrate harder


Correct Option: A
Explanation:

The given passage explains that drinking just makes people forget about their miseries. In this context, the correct answer is option A.

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic of life, food, shelter, clothes and warmth. Then we are faced with a choice between using technology to provide and fulfill needs which have hitherto been regarded as unnecessary or, on the other hand, using technology to reduce the number of hours of work which a man must do in order to earn a given standard of living. In other words, we either raise our standard of living above that necessary for comfort and happiness or we leave it at this level and work shorter hours. I shall take it as axiomatic that mankind has, by that time, chosen the later alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment.


What does the passage suggest about the use of technology? 

  1. It creates new and essential needs for mankind

  2. It is opposed to the basic essentials of life

  3. It is complementary, to a raised standard of living

  4. It is responsible for man's love of comfort and happiness


Correct Option: C
Explanation:

The passage centers around two different uses of technology and their outcomes. In this context, when the author says that we are facing two choices regarding the use of technology: to use technology to fulfill needs that were regarded as unnecessary till date or to use it to reduce the hours of work which a man must do to raise his standard of living, he is implying that a raised standard of living is complementary to the use of technology. So, the answer to the required question is option C.

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

It is said that ideas are explosive and dangerous. To allow them unfettered freedom is, in fact, to invite disorder. But, to this position, there are at least two final answers. It is impossible to draw a line round dangerous ideas, and any attempt at their definition involves monstrous folly. If views, moreover, which imply disorder are able to disturb the foundations of the State; there is something supremely wrong with the governance of the State. For disorder is not a habit of mankind. We cling so eagerly to our accustomed ways that, as even Burke insisted; popular violence is always the outcome of a deep popular sense of wrong. 

What is the central point that the passage emphasizes?

  1. It is unnecessary to define dangerous ideas

  2. Dangerous ideas are born out of the enjoyment of freedom

  3. A well-governed State is unaffected by dangerous ideas

  4. Dangerous ideas originate from man's pre-occupation with politics.


Correct Option: C
Explanation:

Option C is the correct answer. The passage has tried to emphasize the nature of disorder that tumbles over a state. Whatever may give birth to dangerous ideas, however they may be formed,if they are able to shake the foundations of a state, the validity of the state's governance would be questionable. A well-governed state would be unaffected by any kind of dangerous ideas.The statements of options A,B and D are not supported by the text, and thus, are incorrect.