Short Advanced Reading Comprehension Test 24 With MCQs and Answers

(Please note: The following questions are related to a specific reading passage, available solely before the first question. Remember, referring back to the reading text while answering the questions may be helpful to ensure accuracy.)

The paradox of the American gun culture is that it is undermining the very values it was meant to protect. Do you remember Franklin Roosevelt's famous "Four Freedoms"? These were what America ostensibly fought World War II over. One of them was "freedom from fear." That battle has been lost. Even outside the main cities, the US is now a land of real freedom only during daylight. We have reached a point in recent years where people believe they have to constantly peer over their shoulders as if being pursued by the KGB. This routine fear is now so much part of life in the US that Americans have begun to take it for granted. We instinctively avoid large sections of cities, using mental maps in our heads that are unavailable to tourists. Last year I was in Japan. It is a worse place to live than the US in many respects. But it is possible to walk in a park in Tokyo at midnight fearlessly just as it was in America as recently as the 1950s. This freedom felt strange to me as if a state of fear about physical safety is normal. And it is. Barricading oneself at home all night is now natural; wandering around freely and alone - once the quintessential American experience - is now foolhardy.

What has been lost is _____.

In many American cities, _____.

Tourists are more in danger as _____.

People struggling against starvation, ignorance and disease value political ideology only to the extent that it affects their own desperate condition. Similarly, the evils of the drug trade are relative. Peasants, struggling to put food on the table for their children, see income from coca leaf production as their salvation. Narco traffickers, taking advantage of the desperation of poverty and the seemingly insatiable North American demand for drugs, often provide a welcome means of economic stability for those unfortunates for whom there are few alternatives. Many people in Latin America, actually, argue passionately that it is far more preferable to send cocaine north for the gringos than to allow their own children to starve. The consequences, they say with a shrug, are a North American problem.

It is stressed in the passage that _____.

Coca farmers deny any responsibility for probable bad results of this trade _____.

A stable amount of money earnable by the production of coca is regarded by Latin Americans in miserable conditions as _____.

The problems which the Third World will experience in the coming decades are immense. Many nations there will continue to face economic stagnation fuelled by weak world commodity prices, a shortage of investment capital, debt, ecological decay, underdeveloped infrastructure, population pressure and the absence of available and appropriate technology. The movement toward democracy which exploded in the 1980s will experience fits and starts as sectarian, military involvement in politics and international tensions will hinder political reforms. Uneven economic development and stifled political reform, combined with ever-increasing public demands, will set the stage for violent conflict.

_____ is not estimated to cause an economic recession.

What characterises Third World countries is _____.

In the process of democratisation, administrative irregularities will be experienced on account of _____.

Although they are obviously different in length, the paragraph and the essay have structural similarities. For instance, the paragraph is introduced by a topic sentence controlling the whole paragraph. In the essay, the first paragraph provides introductory material and reflects the topic focus. The other thing is that the sentences in the body of a paragraph develop its introductory sentence. Likewise, the framework of the essay consists of a number of paragraphs that expand and support the ideas presented in the introductory paragraph. Lastly, a restatement or observation of a conclusive nature ends the paragraph. The essay, too, has an ending paragraph inclusive of a logically and psychologically satisfying completion.

The major idea expressed in the passage is _____.

It would be wrong to say _____.

In a good paragraph, _____.

For terrorists that reckon the U.K. among their enemies, two options are possible. One is to strike targets within Britain. For various reasons, covering meticulously prepared counterterrorist measures enforced by government agencies is difficult. The other option is to increase the level of destruction. It is obvious that chemical, biological and eventually nuclear weapons provide the greatest opportunities. The capability is there, even in the nuclear arena where terrorists can substitute technologically simple, deliberate atomic pollution for technologically more complicated atomic weapons. The absence of long-range delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction, which limits their utility for non-superpowers, is not a factor for terrorists. An immobile, warehouse-size nuclear device would be acceptable to them.

The utility of weapons of mass destruction for technologically undeveloped nations is limited as _____.

It can be concluded from the passage that _____.

The first option mentioned is nearly impossible due to the fact that _____.

Almost totally devoid of natural resources of commercial value, Israel in its early years focused on agricultural production. Chemical manufacturing, diamond cutting and polishing, and developing high-technology products with commercial and military applications have surpassed agriculture as the most important areas of Israel's modern economy. One out of four Israeli workers today is employed directly or indirectly by the arms industry. Even the kibbutzim, the socialist agricultural co-operatives which were the most prominent expression of the Jews' "Return to the land," now earn more of their income through manufacturing than agricultural production.

The most appropriate conclusion to be drawn from the passage is that _____.

It seems that the most significant constituent of Israel's modern economy is _____.

The arms industry _____.

Military research has of course brought about the development of beneficial by-products, such as stronger plastics and metals, sophisticated electronics and other invaluable technical advancements which are used in many commercial products today. But non-military scientific research and advances only for the sake of knowledge of man's world have been pitifully underfinanced. As a response to threats that may be developed by other nations, military programs have been absorbing a great share of government funds to expand U.S. technology as rapidly as possible. With the growing appetite for military priorities, few sources of research funding are left that are not being allocated to the protection of national security.

Non-military research has been underfinanced _____.

According to the passage, it is wrong to say that _____.

It is stressed in the passage that _____.

An English company called Katcha Products has devised a humane and environmentally friendly way to dispose of spiders, flies and wasps. Guaranteed not to harm the insect, the trap is composed of a long handle with a transparent pyramidal chamber at one end. The user allows the insect to land and then places the chamber over the insect. Twisting the handle causes a gravity-controlled shutter to close, trapping the insect inside. To release the bug, the user holds the trap horizontally and twists the shutter open. The trap may also be used by students and entomologists who wish to catch insects in the field for later examination.

The device introduced by the English company Katcha Products _____.

If the trap is taken from the ground without the handle being twisted, _____.

The device is invaluable for entomologists since _____.