UPSC CSAT : Reading Comprehension Exercises with Answers for UPSC in English, | PASSAGE – 1

Sunday 3 September 2023

Reading Comprehension Exercises with Answers for UPSC in English, | PASSAGE – 1

 Read the following passages and answer the questions given below:

1. Though top leaders of the nationalist movement were the policy makers, the immediate day-to-day leadership was provided by the middle-class intellectuals. The rural origin of the industrial labour force together with rampant illiteracy and their simplistic docility attracted social workers, mainly drawn from the middle-class intellectuals. They had an obvious advantage. Not being employees, the leaders were free from fear of victimisation and immune towards the risks of leadership. Being generally well educated, they had a better perspective and sense of organisation. They could see the issue in a broader context. They belonged to a higher social plane than the workers and with good education and intellectual development comparable to the best among the employers they could meet the employers on their own plane and carry on negotiations on an equal footing. According to the Royal Commission on Labour in India, ‘the effect of this surge was enhanced by the political turmoil which added to the prevailing feelings of unrest and assured to provide willing leaders of a trade union movement’. But outside leadership had led to the politicisation of the movement.

What conclusion can be drawn based on the passage given above?

I. The middle class intellectuals were active participants in the Nationalistic movement because the workers did not want to choose a leader among themselves.

II. The integration of middle class intellectuals as political leaders caused the movement to become politicised.

a. Only (I)

b. Only (II)

c. Both (I) and (II)

d. Neither (I) and (II)

2. Inequality is visible, even statistically measurable in many instances, but the economic power that drives it is invisible and not measurable. Like the force of gravity, power is the organising principle of inequality, be it of income, or wealth, gender, race, religion and region. Its effects are seen in a pervasive manner in all spheres, but the ways in which economic power pulls and tilts visible economic variables remain invisibly obscure.

On the basis of the above passage, which of the following best articulates the crux of the passage?

a. Economic power can be analysed more through its effects than by direct empirical methods

b. Inequality of different kinds, income, wealth, etc. reinforces power.

c. The nature of economic power, the driving force behind all kinds of inequality, is obscurity.

d. Economics power is the only reason for the existence of inequality in a society.

3. A majority of the TB infected in India are poor and lack sufficient nutrition, suitable housing and have little understanding of prevention. TB then devastates families, makes the poor poorer, particularly affects women and children, and leads to ostracization and loss of employment. The truth is that even if TB does not kill them, hunger and poverty will. Another truth is that deep-sealed stigma, lack of counselling, expensive treatment and lack of adequate support from providers and family, couples with torturous side-effects demotivate patients to continue treatment- with disastrous health consequences.

On the basis of the passage above, which one of the following assumptions can be made?

a. The circumstances in India makes TB an incurable disease in India.

b. Basic amenities like proper nutrition, housing can alleviate the current TB situation in India.

c. The stigma caused by TB is worse than the disease itself.

d. The poverty stricken people of India are unwilling to seek medical help to cure TB because of the harmful side effects and high cost of treatment.

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