General Comprehension Passages (Type: 1)
Read the following passage and answer the questions given below it.
Lightning is a spark of electricity which travels from cloud-to-air or cloud-to-ground. It is usually seen when there is a lot of water vapour in the air. So it is often seen just before rain. Lightning can travel at a speed between 160 and 1600 km per second. It can also heat up the air to a temperature of 5400 degree centigrade.
This electric spark, that we call lightning, heats the air it is passing through, until it glows, causing the flash that we see. The heat given out by the spark causes the air to expand; then it cools suddenly, and the air contracts. When air expands and contracts so suddenly, it causes the thunderclap that we hear after the flash.
Actually, both the flash and the thunderclap happen at the same time, but we see the flash first because light travels faster than sound.
When lightning goes cloud to ground, the energy looks for the shortest route to earth. If somebody is out in the open, this shortest route may be through him or her. But everybody struck by lightning does not die. If the lightning passes through the shoulder, down one side of the body, through the leg into the ground, it may cause pain, shock or burns, but most of the energy will go into the ground. But if the lightning touches the heart or the spinal column, the victim will probably die.
1. Why is lightning seen just before rain?
2. What causes the thunderclap?
3. What are the main qualities of lightning?
4. Why do we see the flash first and hear the thunderclap later though both happen at the same time?
5. How is that everybody struck by a lightning does not die?
Answers:
1. Lightning is seen just before rain because there will be a lot of water vapour in the air then.
2. The sudden expansion and contraction of air causes the thunderclap.
3. i) Lightning can travel at a speed between 160 and 1600 kms per second.
ii) It can also heat up the air to a temperature of 5400 degrees centigrade.
4. Because light travels faster than sound.
5. When lightning passes through anyone down one side of the body, most of its energy will ultimately go into the ground. It may
cause some pain, shock or burns but not death. The victim dies only when lightning touches the heart or the spinal column.
Reading comprehension (Type: 2)
Read the following passage: Percussion instruments form one family of
musical instruments. The word ‘percussion’ means ‘striking’. Percussion instruments make sound when you strike them.
A drum is a percussion instrument. It is a thin piece of material, called a ‘drum-head’, stretched over a hollow piece of wood or metal.
When you strike the drum-head, it vibrates. This makes the air around the drum vibrate. It also makes the air inside the drum vibrate. The vibrations inside the drum bounce back and forth, somewhat like on echo. These vibrations are the sound that we hear.
Cymbals are also percussion instruments. They make a loud, clashing sound when they are hit together.
Now read the following statements and find Six of them which are in agreement with the passage. Write only the letters of the true
statements.
a) Percussion instruments make sound when you strike them.
b) A drum makes a sound when you strike it.
c) The drum-head is a piece of wood or metal.
d) When you strike the drum – dead the air inside the drum vibrates.
e) The vibrations inside the drum are similar to an echo.
f) The vibrations of the air around the drum produces the sound we hear.
g) Cymbals, like drums are also percussion instruments.
h) The sound produced by cymbals is similar to the sound produced by drums.
i) Cymbals produce sound when they are hit together.
j) Percussion instruments belong to a family of musical instruments.
Answers: a, b, e, g, i, j.
Reading comprehension (Type: 3)
Read the following text and answer the questions that follow.
The traditional theory about sleep is that our brain needs to rest for several hours to refresh itself and to ‘file’ in our memory everything that has happened to us during the day. We can put off sleeping for a limited period, but sooner or later we have to sleep. If we are not allowed to sleep, we suffer hallucinations, and eventually die.
However, Ray Meddis, a scientist suggest that we sleep only because our brain is ‘programmed’ to make us do so. According to Dr. Meddis, the ‘tiredness’ we feel at the end of the day is produced by a chemical mechanism in the brain which makes us sleep. We are ‘programmed’ to feel ‘tired’ or ‘sleepy’ at midnight even if we have spent the day doing nothing. Dr. Meddis believes that the unpleasant symptoms we suffer when we don’t sleep enough are not because we have not rested but because we have disobeyed our brain’s programming. Now complete the following statements. In each case, write down the number of the statement and your choice in your answer book.
1. If you are not allowed to sleep for a long time…
a) your memory will be effected.
b) you may die.
c) your brain cannot refresh itself.
2. Dr. Meddis thinks that we sleep only because…
a) the body needs to rest.
b) the brain needs to rest.
c) we are programmed to do it.
3. We feel tired even when we have done no work because…
a) we get bored when we are inactive.
b) the brain has been working even if the body hasn’t.
c) something in the brain produces a feeling of tiredness.
Answers: 1-b, 2-c, 3-c.