COMPREHENSION TEST
of war. He was there only to carry out what the superiors         Directions (1213–1217) : A passage is given with 5
would decide. So it was useless to worry. When he took       questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose
that stand he slept soundly without worry. Here, the writer  the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
had some real reason to worry. But he could get rid of it                (SSC CGL Tier-I (CBE) Exam. 04.09.2016 (IInd sitting)
when he found it was useless to worry.                            Until he was ten, young Alexander Fleming attended
     He followed the same principle when he was a prisoner   the nearby Loudoun Moor School. He was then transferred
of war and he was in Asiatic Turkey. There, too, he banished to Darvel School which he attended with his brothers.
his worries because nothing of his future depended on             Alexander learned a good deal about nature during that
himself. The future of the prisoners of war would depend     four mile downhill hike to school and the four mile uphill
on the various governments. Thus he was able to live there   return trip. He was a quick student and at twelve, the age
without much worry though he was a prisoner.                 limit prescribed for Darvel school, he was sent to
     But his deliberate suppression of worry during the war  Kilmarmock Academy. Two years later he joined his brothers
and as a prisoner did not wholly eradicate his worries. The  John and Robert at the home of his elder brother Thomas,
fear had gone to his subconscious mind and remained there    who was to become a successful occultist in London.
buried. After the war the writer was at home. But whenever   However, the economic success of the family was yet to be
a member of his family was absent he feared all sorts of     and Alexander was forced to leave school for economic
mishap happening to him or her. Moreover, he had a           reasons. When he was sixteen, he obtained a job in a
recurring nightmare that he had become a prisoner of war     shipping company. Good fortune, however, was on his side
and the war was not going to end. The worries without any    and on the side of humanity. In 1901, he received a share
real cause here were the manifestations of the fears that    in a legacy which made it possible for him to return to
he had banished deliberately earlier.                        school. He decided to study medicine.
1208. Why was the writer able to live in jail without much   1213. Alexander trekked _______ miles every day to attend
       worry?                                                        Darvel school.
       (1) Because nothing of his future depended on                 (1) Four                   (2) Eight
       himself                                                       (3) Twelve                 (4) Sixteen
       (2) He was comfortable in jail                        1214. He was a ‘quick student’ means that Alexander
       (3) Because he was a prisoner of war                          (1) Reached school before his brothers
                                                                     (2) Was a lively student
       (4) Because worry is a common thing
                                                                     (3) Ran the races
1209. What was the fear of the writer in his childhood?
                                                                     (4) Was a fast learner
       (1) That his parents might drive him out of home      1215. “... and at twelve, the age limit prescribed for Darvel
       (2) That his parents would die suddenly at night              school... ” in this context means that children were
       (3) That he might fail in the examinations                    (1) Admitted to school at the age of twelve
       (4) That he might be made a prisoner                          (2) Allowed to remain in the school only up to the
                                                                         age of twelve
1210. Where was the writer when he concluded that worry
       was useless?                                                  (3) Admitted to the school any time after the age of
                                                                         twelve
       (1) The writer was in Asiatic Turkey
                                                                     (4) Not admitted to the school before they were twelve
       (2) The writer was at home
                                                             1216. Alexander became well off
       (3) The writer was on the war front in Mesopotamia            (1) By working in a shipping company
       (4) The writer was in prison                                  (2) When his brother became a successful occultist
1211. What was the recurring nightmare of the writer after           (3) Because he studied medicine
       the war was over?                                             (4) By receiving a share in a legacy
       (1) He dreamt that he was a prisoner in a war that    1217. Alexander left school
           was not going to be over                                  (1) To study economics
       (2) He dreamt that his wife was in hospital                   (2) To work with his brother
       (3) He dreamt that a member of his family had a               (3) To study medicine
           mishap                                                    (4) Due to financial problems
       (4) He dreamt he was a prisoner of war in Asiatic          Directions (1218–1222) : A passage is given with 5
           Turkey                                            questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose
1212. How does a cause of worry trouble us if we suppress    the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
       our worry deliberately?                                                                         (SSC CGL Tier-I (CBE)
                                                                                               Exam. 04.09.2016 (IIIrd sitting)
       (1) Causes of worry trouble us in various
           circumstances                                          A guest speaker was addressing the faculty and the
                                                             students in the college auditorium. I had joined the faculty
       (2) Causes of worry remain in the subconscious mind
                                                             the year before, and was already drawing attention. I was
           and trouble us through bad dreams
                                                             27, full of assumptions about myself, quick with a comment
       (3) Causes of worry cause imaginary anxiety           on everything, and expected people to pay attention to all
       (4) We cannot take actions cautiously and carefully   that I had said.
                                                        SEE–1024