Reading Comprehension for NMAT Questions PDF:
Download Reading Comprehension Questions for NMAT PDF. Top 10 very important Reading Comprehension Questions for NMAT based on asked questions in previous exam papers.
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Instructions
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given
Will a day come when India’s poor can access government services as easily as drawing cash from an ATM? . . . [N]o country in the world has made accessing education or health or policing or dispute resolution as easy as an ATM, because the nature of these activities requires individuals to use their discretion in a positive way. Technology can certainly facilitate this in a variety of ways if it is seen as one part of an overall approach, but the evidence so far in education, for instance, is that just adding computers alone doesn’t make education any better. . . .
The dangerous illusion of technology is that it can create stronger, top down accountability of service providers in implementation-intensive services within existing public sector organisations. One notion is that electronic management information systems (EMIS) keep better track of inputs and those aspects of personnel that are ‘EMIS visible’ can lead to better services. A recent study examined attempts to increase attendance of Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANMs) at clinics in Rajasthan, which involved high-tech time clocks to monitor attendance. The study’s title says it all: Band-Aids on a Corpse . . . e-governance can be just as bad as any other governance when the real issue is people and their motivation.
For services to improve, the people providing the services have to want to do a better job with the skills they have. A study of medical care in Delhi found that even though providers, in the public sector had much better skills than private sector providers their provision of care in actual practice was much worse.
In implementation-intensive services the key to success is face-to-face interactions between a teacher, a nurse, a policeman, an extension agent and a citizen. This relationship is about power. Amartya Sen’s . . . report on education in West Bengal had a supremely telling anecdote in which the villagers forced the teacher to attend school, but then, when the parents went off to work, the teacher did not teach, but forced the children to massage his feet. . . . As long as the system empowers providers over citizens, technology is irrelevant.
The answer to successfully providing basic services is to create systems that provide both autonomy and accountability. In basic education for instance, the answer to poor teaching is not controlling teachers more . . . The key . . . is to hire teachers who want to teach and let them teach, expressing their professionalism and vocation as a teacher through autonomy in the classroom. This autonomy has to be matched with accountability for results—not just narrowly measured through test scores, but broadly for the quality of the education they provide.
A recent study in Uttar Pradesh showed that if, somehow, all civil service teachers could be replaced with contract teachers, the state could save a billion dollars a year in revenue and double student learning. Just the additional autonomy and accountability of contracts through local groups—even without complementary system changes in information and empowerment—led to that much improvement. The first step to being part of the solution is to create performance information accessible to those outside of the government. . . .
Question 1: According to the author, service delivery in Indian education can be improved in all of the following ways EXCEPT through:
a) access to information on the quality of teaching.
b) elimination of government involvement.
c) recruitment of motivated teachers.
d) use of technology.
Question 2: In the context of the passage, we can infer that the title “Band Aids on a Corpse” (in paragraph 2) suggests that:
a) the nurses attended the clinics, but the clinics were ill-equipped.
b) the clinics were better funded, but performance monitoring did not result in any improvement.
c) the nurses who attended the clinics were too poorly trained to provide appropriate medical care.
d) the electronic monitoring system was a superficial solution to a serious problem.
Question 3: The author questions the use of monitoring systems in services that involve face-to-face interaction between service providers and clients because such systems:
a) do not improve services that need committed service providers.
b) are ineffective because they are managed by the government.
c) improve the skills but do not increase the motivation of service providers.
d) are not as effective in the public sector as they are in the private sector.
Question 4: The main purpose of the passage is to:
a) argue that some types of services can be improved by providing independence and requiring accountability.
b) analyse the shortcomings of government-appointed nurses and their management through technology.
c) critique the government’s involvement in educational activities and other implementation-intensive services.
d) find a solution to the problem of poor service delivery in education by examining different strategies.
Question 5: Which of the following, IF TRUE, would undermine the passage’s main argument?
a) If it were proven that increase in autonomy of service providers leads to an exponential increase in their work ethic and sense of responsibility.
b) If it were proven that service providers in the private sector have better skills than those in the public sector.
c) Empowerment of service providers leads to increased complacency and rigged performance results.
d) If absolute instead of moderate technological surveillance is exercised over the performance of service providers.
Instructions
Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions
NOT everything looks lovelier the longer and closer its inspection. But Saturn does. It is gorgeous through Earthly telescopes. However, the 13 years of close observation provided by Cassini, an American spacecraft, showed the planet, its moons and its remarkable rings off better and better, revealing finer structures, striking novelties and greater drama. . . .
By and large the big things in the solar system—planets and moons—are thought of as having been around since the beginning. The suggestion that rings and moons are new is, though, made even more interesting by the fact that one of those moons, Enceladus, is widely considered the most promising site in the solar system on which to look for alien life. If Enceladus is both young and bears life, that life must have come into being quickly. This is also believed to have been the case on Earth. Were it true on Enceladus, that would encourage the idea that life evolves easily when conditions are right.
One reason for thinking Saturn’s rings are young is that they are bright. The solar system is suffused with comet dust, and comet dust is dark. Leaving Saturn’s ring system (which Cassini has shown to be more than 90% water ice) out in such a mist is like leaving laundry hanging on a line downwind from a smokestack: it will get dirty. The lighter the rings are, the faster this will happen, for the less mass they contain, the less celestial pollution they can absorb before they start to discolour. . . . Jeff Cuzzi, a scientist at America’s space agency, NASA, who helped run Cassini, told the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston that combining the mass estimates with Cassini’s measurements of the density of comet-dust near Saturn suggests the rings are no older than the first dinosaurs, nor younger than the last of them—that is, they are somewhere between 200m and 70m years old.
That timing fits well with a theory put forward in 2016, by Matija Cuk of the SETI Institute, in California and his colleagues. They suggest that at around the same time as the rings came into being an old set of moons orbiting Saturn destroyed themselves, and from their remains emerged not only the rings but also the planet’s current suite of inner moons—Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas. . . .
Dr Cuk and his colleagues used computer simulations of Saturn’s moons’ orbits as a sort of time machine. Looking at the rate at which tidal friction is causing these orbits to lengthen they extrapolated backwards to find out what those orbits would have looked like in the past. They discovered that about 100m years ago the orbits of two of them, Tethys and Dione, would have interacted in a way that left the planes in which they orbit markedly tilted. But their orbits are untitled. The obvious, if unsettling, conclusion was that this interaction never happened—and thus that at the time when it should have happened, Dione and Tethys were simply not there. They must have come into being later. . . .
Question 6: Based on information provided in the passage, we can infer that, in addition to water ice, Saturn’s rings might also have small amounts of:
a) methane and rock particles.
b) helium and methane.
c) helium and comet dust.
d) rock particles and comet dust.
Question 7: Based on information provided in the passage, we can conclude all of the following EXCEPT:
a) none of Saturn’s moons ever had suitable conditions for life to evolve.
b) Thethys and Dione are less than 100 million years old.
c) Saturn’s lighter rings discolour faster than rings with greater mass.
d) Saturn’s rings were created from the remains of older moons.
Question 8: The phrase “leaving laundry hanging on a line downwind from a smokestack” is used to explain how the ringed planet’s:
a) rings lose mass over time.
b) rings discolour and darken over time.
c) moons create a gap between the rings.
d) atmosphere absorbs comet dust.
Question 9: Data provided by Cassini challenged the assumption that:
a) new celestial bodies can form from the destruction of old celestial bodies.
b) all big things in the solar system have been around since the beginning.
c) there was life on earth when Saturn’s rings were being formed.
d) Saturn’s ring system is composed mostly of water ice.
Question 10: The main objective of the passage is to:
a) highlight the beauty, finer structures and celestial drama of Saturn’s rings and moons.
b) establish that Saturn’s rings and inner moons have been around since the beginning of time.
c) provide evidence that Saturn’s rings and moons are recent creations.
d) demonstrate how the orbital patterns of Saturn’s rings and moons change over time.
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Answers & Solutions:
1) Answer (B)
In the last line of the passage, the author mentions about the availability of information which should be the first step towards solving the service delivery in the Indian education system.
In the penultimate paragraph, the author says that the key is to hire those teachers who want to teach. In other words, the author supports the recruitment of motivated teachers.
In the first paragraph, the author states that technology can facilitate better service delivery in Indian education.
The author has nowhere talked about the elimination of government involvement. He wants that the autonomy and accountability of the teachers should be increased.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.
2) Answer (D)
The author has explained the phrase “Band Aids on a Corpse” by stating that ” e-governance can be just as bad as any other governance when the real issue is people and their motivation.” From this, we can infer that the solution was not intended to tackle the real cause of the problem which was the motivation of the people. If people are not motivated, forcing them to come on time will act only as a specious way to deal with the issue.
Hence, option D is the correct answer.
3) Answer (A)
In the third paragraph, the author has given the example of a school where the villagers forced the teachers to come to school, but the teacher instead of teaching indulged in various other non-productive activities. Further, the author also mentions that as long as the system empowers providers over citizens, technology is irrelevant.
So, the author wants to convey that commitment and motivation are the primary requirements in systems which involve face-to-face interaction between service providers and clients. Therefore, using technology to monitor in such scenarios will be ineffective.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.
4) Answer (A)
The author has explained in the passage that without increasing the autonomy and accountability of the person involved in a job, monitoring systems will be ineffective in improving the services. So, the author has advocated for making the persons more responsible and give them more independence. Option A is the most relevant in this context.
Option B is narrow in the sense that the passage does not only focus on the case of nurses.
Option C is irrelevant as the author does not criticize the involvement of government.
Option D is incorrect because the author is not trying to find a solution, but he has proposed a solution to deal with the problem.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.
5) Answer (C)
The author has argued in the passage and proposed some ways to increase productivity and to make the systems more effective. Option C which states “Empowerment of service providers leads to increased complacency and rigged performance results.” will undermine the author’s main argument because if empowerment of the service providers leads to rigged performance results, the whole purpose will be defeated.
Option A supports the passage’s main idea.
Option B is irrelevant.
Option D does not talk about the effect of implementing absolute surveillance on the performance of service providers.
Hence, option C is the correct answer.
6) Answer (D)
In the fourth paragraph, it is mentioned that “they suggest that at around the same time as the rings came into being an old set of moons orbiting Saturn destroyed themselves, and from their remains emerged not only the rings……”. From this, we can infer that the rings were formed from the moons. Also, from the third paragraph, it can be inferred that Saturn’s rings consist of comet dust.
Hence, option D is the correct answer.
7) Answer (A)
In the last paragraph, it is given that about 100m years ago, Thethys and Dione were not there. From the last line of the passage we can conclude that Thethys and Dione are less than 100 million years old. Option B can be concluded.
In the third paragraph, it is mentioned “The lighter the rings are, the faster this will happen”. Option C can be concluded.
From the fourth paragraph, option D can be concluded.
Sufficient information has not been provided from which we can conclude that none of Saturn’s moons ever had suitable conditions for life to evolve.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.
8) Answer (B)
The phrase explains how clothes would darken over time if left hanging and facing smokestack. The phrase refers to the darkening of the Saturn’s rings under the influence of comet dust.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.
9) Answer (B)
Referring to the first paragraph and first few lines of the second paragraph, it was believed that the celestial bodies had been existing from the beginning. However, the data provided by Cassini gave an insight that the rings and moons of Saturn are newly created. Thus, it challenged the earlier held notion.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.
10) Answer (C)
Refer to the lines from the passage – “The suggestion that rings and moons are new is,” “One reason for thinking Saturn’s rings are young is that they are bright.”, “Cassini’s measurements of the density of comet-dust near Saturn suggests the rings are no older than the first dinosaurs, nor younger than the last of them.”
Throughout the passage, the author has emphasized on the fact that the rings and the moons of Saturn are recent phenomena. Option C is the most relevant in this context.
Option A is not the primary objective of the passage otherwise the author would not have detailed the timeline of the formation of the moons and the rings of Saturn.
Option B is factually wrong as per the information given in the passage.
Option D is out of context.
Hence, option C is the correct answer.
We hope this Reading Comprehension Questions for NMAT pdf for NMAT exam will be highly useful for your Preparation.
