Latest English “Comprehension Passage” Solved Exercise-3.
Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow:
1. Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames, an admirable vantage ground for us to make a survey. We are here to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the procession-the procession of the sons of educated men. There they go, our brothers who have been educated at public schools and universities, mounting those steps, passing in and out of those doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching, administering justice, practising medicine, transacting business, making money. It is a solemn sight always-a procession, like a caravan crossing a desert… But now, for the past twenty years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of time, at which we can look with merely an aesthetic appreciation.
2. For there, traipsing along at the tail end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that makes a difference. We who have looked so long at the pageant in books, or from a curtained window watched educated men leaving the house at about nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house at about six-thirty from an office, need to look passively no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount those steps, pass in and out of those doors…make money, and administer justice.
3. Nobody will dare contradict us then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine spirit-a’s solemn thought, is it not? We are here, on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions. And they are very important questions; and we have very little time in which to answer them. The questions that we have to ask and to answer about that procession during this moment of transition are so important that they may well change the lives of all men and women forever. For we have to ask ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the procession of educated men?
4. As you know from your own experience, and there are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men have always done their thinking from hand to mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the cradle. It was thus, that they won us the right to our brand-new six pence. It falls to us now to go on thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while we are standing in the crowd, watching Coronations and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think…in the gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts; let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
(Approx. 465 words)
(Adapted from ‘Three Guineas’, Virginia Woolf)
2.1. On the basis of your understanding of the passage, complete the statements given below by choosing the most appropriate option:
1. The main purpose of the passage is to:
(a) emphasize the value of a tradition.
(b) stress the urgency of an issue.
(c) highlight the severity of social divisions.
(d) question the feasibility of an undertaking.
Ans. (b) stress the urgency of an issue.
2. The author uses the word “we” throughout the passage mainly to
(a) reflect the growing friendliness among a group of people.
(b) advance the need for candor among a group of people.
(c) establish a sense of solidarity among a group of people.
(d) reinforce the need for respect among a group of people Ans.
(c) establish a sense of solidarity among a group of people.
2.2 Answer the following briefly:
(a) Why is the author jubilant on looking at the procession?
Ans. The author is jubilant on looking at the procession as it is no longer a sight of the procession of sons of educated men. She can see women, too, are visible at the tail end of the procession.
(b) What/who did the procession traditionally consist of?
Ans. The procession traditionally consisted of sons of educated men, men and young boys who had been educated at public schools and universities.
(c) According to the author what is the purpose for the women to be on the bridge?
Ans. According to the author, the purpose for the women to be on the bridge was either to survey or to consider the facts about the procession. The main purpose was to look at the procession.
(d) How have women learnt to think as differently to men?
Ans. Men have had the privilege to study under green lamps at study tables in the cloisters of secluded colleges. On the other hand, women have learnt to think as different to men while they stirred the pot, rocked the cradle and doing household chores.
(e) What do the range of places and occasions in paragraph 4 emphasize?
Ans. The range of places and occasions in paragraph 4 emphasises the need for critical reflection is very pervasive.
(f) What does ‘sixpence’ mean?
Ans. ‘Sixpence’ implies ‘opportunity’.
2.3. Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following:
(i) ceremonial occasion (para 2)
(ii) spokespersons (para 3)
Ans. (i) pageant, (ii) mouthpieces.
