Short Advanced Reading Comprehension Test 27 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.)

Real depression cannot be as easily overcome as some people often suppose. It generally passes with time but the time can seem endless. Activities giving companionship and a new interest can help. However, for the sufferer to talk again and again about the causes of the depression helps most. People with depression need to be listened to and encouraged to find their own solutions, not made to feel yet more inadequate by good advice. They might need professional counselling as well as the support of family and friends.

According to the passage, in overcoming depression the support of friends and family _____.

The author suggests that people with depression _____.

It is understood from the passage some people _____.

Several art museums and galleries and many individuals in the art world faced financial problems in 1975 as the effects of the world recession deepened. On the surface, things seemed to continue as before, with important exhibitions in major museums attracting large crowds. But smaller galleries, and the artists whose work was shown by their resourceful proprietors, fared less well, and over the long term, it is the work of young artists that determines the course of art for the future.

According to the passage, the point made in the passage is that the recession in the 1970s _____.

One can understand from the given passage that if a generation of young artists is lost _____.

The passage gives the idea that the people in the art world who were most strongly affected by the recession _____.

Computers should never have acquired the exalted status they now have. Fascinating and invaluable as they are, even the most advanced have less brain power than a three-year-old. But, they do, score on single-mindedness. The three-year-old uses his brain not only to think but also to do tasks like seeing, hearing and running about, which need incredibly rapid and sophisticated electromechanical interactions we too run on electricity. However, the computer just sits there and sends spacecraft to the moon or re-organizes the world banking system which is very much easier. That's why man's dream of robot servants is still a long way off.

The basic point made by the given passage is that the human brain _____.

It is mentioned in the passage that the efficiency of the computer _____.

The writer feels that computers _____.

The dramatic growth of the world's population in the twentieth century has been on a scale without parallel in human history. Most of that growth has occurred since 1950 and is known as the population ''explosion''. Between 1950 and 1980, the world population increases from 2.5 to over 4 billion and by the end of the century, that figure will have risen to at least 6 billion. Growth of this size cannot continue indefinitely. Recent forecasts suggest that the total population will level out at between 10 and 15 billion in the mid-twenty-first century. Already there are encouraging signs that the rate of increase in several less-developed countries is beginning to slow down.

According to the given passage above, at no period in human history has there been _____.

It is emphasized in the passage that the increase in the world population _____.

The passage says that it has been forecast that by the middle of the next century, _____.

Many substances, whether man-made or natural, can cause harm to man or the environment. Some of these reach the environment in waste streams but emission limits and environmental quality standards can, in some instances, reduce the amounts released. However, some other substances cannot be controlled in this way because they are released, not in industrial waste streams, but through the use or disposal of products that contain them. In many cases, these substances pose little or no threat if the product containing them is used and disposed of properly. The right way to deal with them is generally through controls over their supply, use and disposal.

The passage gives the idea that the threat of certain substances to the environment _____.

The writer emphasizes that the danger posed to man by many substances _____.

The passage above is related to the question of _____.

No one knows when fiction began. Perhaps the first storyteller was a prehistoric mother trying to explain the world to her children. Or perhaps it was a hunter telling about his adventures around the campfire. Who can tell? What we do know, though, is that story-telling was a purely oral activity until around 800 BC. Myths and tales were passed down by word of mouth and had to be memorized by each new generation of storytellers. That oral tradition only changed when ancient people started to keep written records of certain stories. The earliest surviving examples of those are the epics of Homer, a blind professional storyteller, who lived in the eighth century BC.

It is pointed out in the passage that story-telling _____.

The passage says that the Homeric epics _____.

The passage gives the idea that throughout the oral tradition, professional story-telling _____.

The printing press was invented by Gutenberg in the city of Mainz, Germany. He built and operated the printing press with movable metal letters. In fact, simple printing methods had existed for centuries, however, they had to be done by hand and took a long time. What made Gutenberg's press so different was that the individual letters themselves could rapidly and easily be moved to create different pages. That made it possible to print entire books more cheaply and more quickly than ever before.

It is emphasized in the passage that the basic new feature of Gutenberg's printing press _____.

It is understood from the passage that actually, the history of printing _____.

It is obvious from the passage that the printing techniques introduced by Gutenberg _____.

In several countries in the process of industrialization, overcrowded cities present a major problem. The overpopulation of towns is mainly caused by the drift of large numbers of people from the rural areas. The only long-term solution is to make life in the rural areas more attractive, which would encourage people to stay there. This could be achieved by providing incentives for people to go and work in the villages. Moreover, facilities in rural areas, such as transportation, health and education services should be improved.

The passage says that one significant outcome of industrialization has been _____.

The author emphasizes that one way in which rural life might be made from attractive _____.

The writer suggests that so as to solve the problem of overcrowding in cities, _____.