Page 137 - GMAT 2017b_Neatb

Reading Comprehension Test

READING COMPREHENSION TEST

100 QUESTIONS
60 MINUTES

In the following exercises, you have passages, with questions following
each passages. Read each passage carefully and choose the best answer
to each question and mark it in the Answer Sheet.

Passage 1
(A) We have lost the means of building up houses on
In our boyhood we beheld the dying rays of that intimate the European standards.
sociability which was characteristic of the last generation. (B) Complete imitation of the West is not possible
Neighbourly feelings were then so strong that informal owing to different climatic conditions.
gatherings were a necessity, and those who could contribute ( C) While we have lost interpersonal intimacy and
to its amenities were in great request. People now-a-days sociability, we do not have the means to build up
call on each other on business, or as a matter of social duty, afresh on European standards.
but not to fore-gather by way of informal gatherings. They (D) Most people are bare-bodied and half-starved.
have not the time, nor are there the same intimate relations!
What goings and comings we used to see, how merry were 2. Why does the author feel that the rooms and verandahs
the rooms and verandahs with the hum of conversation and have lost their charm?
the snatches of laughter ! The faculty our predecessors had (A) The rooms and verandahs have been deserted by
of becoming the centre of groups and gatherings, of starting the people.
and keeping up animated and amusing gossip, has vanished. (B) They have been crowded by gatherings of
Men still come and go, but those same verandahs and rooms gossiping people.
seem empty and deserted. ( C) The conversational quality our predecessors had
has now vanished.
In those days everything from furniture to festivity was (D) Unlike in the past, no facilities for arranging
designed to be enjoyed by the many, so that whatever of meetings are available.
pomp or magnificence there might have been did not savour
of hauteur. These appendages have since increased in 3. Which of the following is ‘social miserliness’
quantity but they have become unfeeling, and know not the according to the author?
art of making high and low alike feel at home. The (A) Diminishing intimate sociability.
barebodie, the indigently clad, no longer have the right to (B) Increasing social inequality.
use and occupy them, without a permit, on eh strength of ( C) Bare-bodied, half-starved masses.
their smiling faces alone. Those whom we now-a-days seek (D) We do not wish to incur expenditure merely yo
to imitate in our house-building and furnishing, they have get people together.
their own society, with its wide hospitality. The mischief
4. The approach of the author of this passage seems to be
with us that we have lost what we had, but have not the
(A) extremely critical about our indifference towards
means of building up afresh on the European standard, with the past generation.
the result that our home-life has become joyless. We still (B) emphatic about the need for informal social
meet for business or political purpose, but never for the
pleasure of simply meeting one another. We have ceased to interaction.
contrive opportunities to bring men together simply because ( C) cynical about our blindly imitating the Western
we love our fellowmen. I can imagine nothing more ugly style.
than this social miserliness; and when I look back on those (D) pessimistic about our business and political
whose ringing laughter, coming straight from their hearts, avenues.
used to lighten for us the burden of household cares, they 5. How is the meeting of people of the present generation
seem to have been visitors from some other world. different from the meeting of the people of the past?
(A) Intimate sociability has now crept in.
1. Why, according to the author, has our home life
become joyless? (B) Neighbourly feeling have now been strengthened
( C) Informal gossiping is not considered ethical these
days.

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