COMPREHENSION TEST
1253. What was the tone of the essay at the beginning?              1259. Hordes of rats invaded Egypt. They came from ___ .
        (1) Celebrative                                                     (1) Europe                 (2) Asia
        (2) Emotionally charged                                             (3) Asia Minor             (4) Africa
        (3) Gloomy                                                  1260. The cat was considered to be a _____ .
        (4) Lighthearted                                                    (1) sacred animal          (2) goddess
1254. How did the arrival of the dog change the atmosphere                  (3) symbol of peace        (4) symbol of fertility
        of the event?                                               1261. What is the opposite of the word ‘votaries’ ?
        (1) It caused the people to scatter                                 (1) Enthusiast             (2) Critic
                                                                            (3) Adherent               (4) Fanatic
        (2) It allowed the prisoner to escape
                                                                    1262. The word ‘deification’ in the passage means _____ .
        (3) It saddened the prisoner even more
                                                                            (1) highly valuable
        (4) It stunned everyone present there
                                                                            (2) take pride
1255. What was the emotion displayed by the dog?                            (3) act of treating as God
        (1) Fear                    (2) Joy                                 (4) devotees
        (3) Anger                   (4) Alarm                             Directions (1263–1267) : A passage is given with 5
1256. What was surprising about the actions of the dog?             questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose
        (1) It ran up and down the path                             the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
                                                                                                               (SSC CGL Tier-I (CBE)
        (2) It bit the guards                                                                        Exam. 10.09.2016 (IInd sitting)
        (3) It barked at the magistrates                                  Namita is from the state of Kerala. She has come to
        (4) It licked the prisoner’s face                           Dubai to serve as a governess for the only child of the
1257. How did the author respond to the appearance of               Nairs. The Nairs are nice and gentle and Namita has no
        the dog?                                                    cause to complain. One day she overhears something that
                                                                    makes her jittery. Mr. Nair is not employed in an American
        (1) He jumped at the dog and collared it
                                                                    company as she has been told. The nature of his business
        (2) He ignored the dog and pretended it was not there       is illegal. She is shocked and wants to go back to her home
        (3) He was taken aback as the others                        town to her own people.
        (4) He yelled at the dog to silence its barking                   Gopal is from a very poor family. His family owns a
     Directions (1258–1262) : A passage is given with 5             very small piece of land that can hardly meet their food
questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose       requirement. One day, Gopal gets a nice offer to work in
the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.      the Emirates with a construction contractor. In order to
                                                                    meet the expenses on travelling, the family decides to sell
                                           (SSC CGL Tier-I (CBE)
                                                                    their own land and send Gopal to the foreign country, to
                                   Exam. 09.09.2016 (IIIrd sitting)
                                                                    make money. On arrival, the contractor confiscates Gopal’s
     Man’s attitude to various animals changed many times           passport and gives him a small place to live in with ten
in the course of centuries. From indifference or practicality,      others like him. Gopal has little idea what he must do.
he went on to adoration and deification, and then to hatred.
                                                                    1263. Which word from the ones given below, best
Ancient Egyptians, for example, highly appreciated the cat’s
                                                                            describes Namita’s relationship with her employers
ability to destroy rodents. The cat was much superior in
                                                                            in the beginning?
this respect to the grass-snakes and weasels they had kept
                                                                            (1) Cordial                (2) Friendly
in their houses before. These proved unable to cope with
hordes of rats which invaded Egypt from Asia. So the cat,                   (3) Sympathetic            (4) Complaining
a very useful animal, was ranked as a sacred animal and             1264. What does the phrase, ‘makes her jittery’ imply?
one of the most important animals, too. The goddess of the                  (1) Sadness                (2) Anger
Moon, fertility and childbirth, Bast herself was portrayed                  (3) Trauma                 (4) Anxiety
by the Egyptians as a woman with a cat’s head.                      1265. Namita and Gopal are in a similar situation, because
     Sumptuous temples were built to this goddess, where                    they
cats were kept in luxury and fed the choicest of foods.                     (1) love their families
They had their own priests and votaries, more numerous                      (2) are happy with their situations
as a matter of fact than any other sacred animal could                      (3) are from impoverished families
boast. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the
                                                                            (4) are stranded in a foreign country
festival in the city of Bubastis, which had a temple dedicated
to cats, was attended by as many as 700 thousand, who               1266. Namita’s situation is better than that of Gopal, because
brought their offerings to the goddess in the shape of                      she
figurines of her made of gold, silver and bronze and adorned                (1) has a well behaved employer
with precious stones.                                                       (2) knows what she wants to do
1258. Egyptians appreciated the cat’s ability to destroy                    (3) loves the new place and the child
        _____ .                                                             (4) now knows about her employer
        (1) snakes                  (2) weasels                     1267. The conclusion that can be drawn from both
        (3) houses                  (4) rodents                             situations is that people should
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