COMPREHENSION
Preparation for competitive exams is no easy task. The
approach and strategy should be well in place so that you
can achieve maximum gain in limited time. Comprehension
is an important segment that tests the ability of an indi-
vidual to understand the language, his knowledge of words
and how nicely can an examinee understand the given pas-
sage. Bigger things are difficult to handle as we do not
proceed in a directed fashion. In fact, you end up messing
up with things so it applies same when it comes to crack-
ing lengthy and difficult comprehension passages at com-
petitive exams. This part is in fact very easy but many fail
to fix it since they fail to follow the rules defined to ap-
proach it. Many of us simply leave this section or just do
guess work blindly. This happens as we stay in the con-
vention that it takes lot of time to solve.
Here are few tips that help you to find the right an-
swer choices with greater accuracy and with in relatively
less amount of time.
1. Understand the context of the passage and the situ-
ation of the passage. Capture the whom, why, when as-
pects in the passage.
2. Domain of the passage – Find out to which subject
or discipline is the passage related to e.g., is it related to
Science or Technology or Literature and so on.
3. Type of the passage – Know what the content of the
passage is whether it is an extract of an article, research
paper or an event or news.
These things help you to set your mind and think it in
those terms with in no time. Now that you have identified
what it is related to exactly, remember these standard rules
that are common and apply to levels and kinds of pas-
sages.
(i) Read the questions first and remember the things the
examiner is asking so that you read only those para-
graphs related to those. Now proceed to the reading
of the passage.
(ii) Find and understand the main outline and idea of the
passage. This can be done by reading the first two
sentences of each paragraph which tell you about what
this paragraph consists of. Read the starting and end-
ing of every part.
(iii) Now read a bit more in detail say a sentence more or
search for key words of only those asked in ques-
tions.
(iv) Do not try to analyze, make your conclusions and
answers questions. Go with the ideology and bound-
ary of the passage. Do not make assumptions.
(v) When the question asks you to guess like about your
opinion or suitable title to this passage then answer
that question based on choices which are either too
general or direct to the point.
(vi) The words that convey emotions in the passage tell
you about the opinion of the author of the passage if
it is an article based passage. You can judge about
the author’s mood and tone to answer the questions.
(vii) Keywords are the best ways to find answers if you
can scan through the lines of the passage fast. Such
words are like nouns or included as phrases. At least
find closely related words that mean the same as asked
in question.
(viii) If the question asks you for the meaning of a word or
a phrase in the passage which might you new or fa-
miliar then make use of the context. Read the whole
sentence which has that word and understand its
meaning then answer.
Besides these, it is essential for you to improve your
word power in order to understand the passage thoroughly.
Your entire answers depends on how well have you under-
stood the passage. Having a grasp over difficult words will
assist you to comprehend the passage in less time. This
will not only help you save time but also help you to answer
appropriately. Reading of newspapers, books and maga-
zines helps a candidate to increase his knowledge domain
and also aid in improving vocabulary. While reading the
passage you can underline or mar the important words so
that you can quickly summarize the comprehension. This
will be beneficial to save time and get the hang of the pas-
sage. Also, when you are answering the questions, you can
quickly go through these important words to write correct
answers. It is necessary for you to important parts of the
passage that provides answers to a lot of questions. When
you are a giving a section reading, you can just simply
focus on these important parts which will provide a clear
picture. You must answer the questions correctly there-
fore, it is very important for you to know the important
parts in a passage which gives answers to the questions.
A Few Specifics About How To Attempt Compre-
hensions: Comprehensions may contain the topic about
science, social, politics, general, financial, etc. It contains
about 5–10 questions to answer and some antonyms and
synonyms based on the passage having some bold words.
So, to give answer of those questions does not need you to
be expertise in the either field, just you have to read out
the passage with meaningfully and mark the important sen-
tences, phrases, etc.
Note down the points specified below to find out the
ways of how to tackle a comprehension at ease.
1. Read the passage and quickly jump to the short
answered questions, like antonyms, synonyms, to give title
of passage, etc. It is better to leave the questions to an-
swer at last, because antonyms and synonyms take a sec-
ond to solve and questions take a minute.
2. If you are familiar to any passage related to your
knowledge and your academics, then quickly read out that
one and solve the following questions of that passage. It
will take less time and you will be accurate.
3. By the time you are reading the passage, figure
out the tone/idea/inference/situation of the passage, it will
help to find the answers quickly. Use a pencil to under-
line the specific sentences and phrases/words.
4. There is always a question about the main idea of
the passage. Then look at the starting and end of the pas-
sage and try to summarize the paragraph to get the main
idea of the passage. It will ask about the main idea of that
passage.
5. When it is asked that to give a suitable title of the
passage then watch out for choices that are too specific
or broad. Sometimes, the title is already given in the first
paragraph of the passage. Use the narrow approach to find
out the title. Do not think beyond the passage
6. Some passage contains the questions about attitude,
mood, tone, etc. of the passage. Then look for words that
convey emotion, values and expressions. I think its not
hard question to give the answer, because any passage
cannot be concluded by emotions, moods, values, etc.
7. There can be a question about to give specific de-
tail of the passage – then spot some keywords in the ques-
tion and look out for those in the passage and may be
those words are in the form of synonym or antonym.
8. Put yourself in place of author and think, you can
apply your ideas according to the passage in the new situ-
ation. You have to find out three things from the passage,
first reason, second perceive feelings and third sense a
larger structure.
9. In order to count on unfamiliar words, you have to
be very keen about the passage saying. Your vocabulary
will be tested here. There are many unfamiliar words you
will find in a passage, for that you have to look out for
the meaning by searching the nearby clues.
10. Familiarize yourself with the technical terms used
in describing the passage. Some passages are from sci-
ence background, so be logical in thinking and organize
and understand what author is saying. May be it will be a
difficult question.
Well friends, now that you have learnt all the funda-
mental aspects of how to deal with a comprehension pas-
sage, we are sure that you can do your best in attempt-
ing the questions which will be provided along with the
comprehension. Just remember the points stated above
and keep cool to answer the questions correctly. Compre-
hension is generally presented as the first question in most
of the one day competitive examinations; however the se-
quence might vary from Board to Board.
You can also get an input about “Comprehension”, dis-
cussed in “Topic-Wise Discussion” in the beginning of the
book.
EXERCISE–1
Read the following passage carefully and answer the
questions given below it. Certain words/phrases are
printed in bold to help you to locate them while answer-
ing some of the questions.
The essence of Gandhiji’s teaching was meant not for
his country or his people alone but for all mankind and
is valid not only for today but for all the time. He wanted
all men to be free so that they could grow unhampered
into full self-realisation. He wanted to abolish the exploi-
tation of man by man in any shape or form because both
exploitation and submission to it are sin not only against
society but against the moral law, the law of our being.
The means to be compatible with this end therefore, he
said have to be purely moral, namely unadulterated truth
and non-violence. He had been invited by many foreign-
ers to visit their countries and deliver his message to
them directly but he declined to accept such invitations
as, he said, he must make good what he claimed for ;
Truth and Ahimsa in his own country before he could
launch on the gigantic task of winning or rather converting
the world. With the attainment of freedom by India, by
following his method, though in a limited way and in spite
of all the imperfections in its practice, the condition pre-
cedent for taking his message to other countries was to
a certain extent fulfilled. And although the partition has
caused wounds and raised problems which claimed all
his time and energy, he might have been able to turn his
attention to this larger question even in the midst of his
distractions. But Providence had ordained otherwise. May
some individual or nation arise and carry forward the ef-
fort launched by him till the experiment is completed, the
work finished and the objective achieved.
1. What effect did partition have on Gandhiji’s time and
energy? His time and energy—
(1) remained unaffected
(2) were wasted a lot
(3) had claimed utility
(4) were not distracted
2. Gandhiji did not accept invitations to visit foreign
countries because—
(1) he was not keeping good health
(2) he had no time from his busy schedule in India
(3) he did not like anything which was originated in
foreign countries
(4) he was busy with other important tasks
3. Which of the following was a shortcoming in the prac-
tice of Gandhiji’s method?
(1) It led to partition
(2) It distracted his attention
(3) It was not understood by the foreigners
(4) None of these
4. Which of the following statement (s) is/are TRUE re-
garding Gandhij’s teaching?
(A) His teaching was not meant for his country
(B) His teaching has a time-bound applicability.
(C) His teaching did not inspire the masses.
(1) Only A (2) Only B
(3) Only C (4) None of these
5. Gandhiji emphasized the moral purity of —
(1) means only (2) ends only
(3) both means and ends (4) truth alone
6. Gandhiji advocated that full self-realization could be
achieved through—
(1) unrestricted growth which is possible only through
freedom
(2) unhampered growth attainable through exploita-
tion
(3) submission to unhampered exploitation
(4) giving inspiring lectures to people in foreign coun-
tries
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE in the con-
text of the passage?
(1) Gandhiji wanted to abolish exploitation and encour-
age submission
(2) Gandhiji wanted every individual to achieve self-
realization
(3) To Gandhiji, moral purity of means was more im-
portant than moral purity of ends
AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE
SEE–97
(4) Gandhiji was praised even by the people who were
adversely affected by the partition
8. Which of the following statement is NOT TRUE in
the context of the passage?
(1) India’s freedom from the British Raj cannot be
entirely attributed to Gandhiji’s methods
(2) Converting the entire mankind to truth and non-
violence was a macroscopic task
(3) Gandhiji’s energy was consumed by the problems
caused by the partition
(4) Gandhiji’s teaching was relevant only to his time.
9. Gandhiji wanted to —
(1) remove poverty from India
(2) educated masses to achieve freedom for India
(3) establish a just social order
(4) oppose the partition of India
Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in
meaning as the word given in bold as used in the pas-
sage.
10. ORDAINED
(1) requested (2) wished
(3) told (4) questioned
11. DELIVER
(1) transfer (2) confer
(3) communicate (4) furnish
12. BEING
(1) existence (2) through
(3) morality (4) survival
Choose the word which is most nearly OPPOSITE in
meaning to the word given in bold as used in the passage.
13. RAISED
(1) developed (2) suppressed
(3) accelerated (4) disappeared
14. GIGANTIC
(1) immeasurable (2) massive
(3) negligible (4) trivial
15. VALID
(1) unreliable (2) undesirable
(3) timeless (4) irrelevant
ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
EXERCISE–1
1. (2) 2. (2) 3. (4) 4. (4) 5. (3)
6. (1) 7. (2) 8. (4) 9. (3) 10. (2)
11. (3) 12. (1) 13. (2) 14. (4) 15. (4)
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