Short Advanced Reading Comprehension Test 29 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.)

Ever since Nobel Prize winner Dr. Morris first advocated vitamin C as a common cold war weapon more than 30 years ago, researchers have been busy trying to verify that claim. But so far, they’ve found little evidence that vitamin C prevents colds - in fact, there are more studies that say it doesn’t. However, there is evidence that it can keep coughing and sneezing to a minimum and that low levels of vitamin C in the body may be related to bronchitis.

In the passage, we learn that Dr Morris’s view as regards vitamin C _____.

As said in the passage, coughing and sneezing _____.

During the last three decades, there has been a great deal of scientific effort made to _____.

Since early times, it has been thought that the actions of animals are unconscious. Behaviour, in this view, stems almost exclusively from instinct. If animals behave in ways that seem pretty clever, they do so without thinking about it. Animals can know things, the argument goes, but they don't know that they know. Or do they know? Recent research reports suggest an astonishing depth of intelligence among animals. Although no one can yet prove the existence of animal consciousness, the data offered make a compelling case for at least considering it.

It can be understood from the passage that traditionally, animals are believed to _____.

It is told in the passage that modern research forces one to consider _____.

The passage says that in the light of modern research, our traditional assumptions about animal behaviour _____.

The first universities developed in Europe in the second half of the 12th century. By 1550, Europe boasted 115 institutions of higher learning, many of which had gained special privileges from existing regimes because of their close association with the Church. In most European countries, universities were designed mainly for the sons of nobility and gentry. Scholarly standards were low, and scholarship was irrelevant for most professions. Education for earning a livelihood in, say, medicine or law could be acquired after college by serving as an apprentice.

In the passage, we learn that in the early years of the universities, _____.

According to the passage, since most of the early universities enjoyed the support of the Church _____.

As one can understand from the passage, real professional skills _____.

The effects of sleep loss are subject to a great many popular misconceptions. The belief that everyone must sleep 8 hours a night is a myth. According to the results of a recent survey on the subject, adults average about 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep per night, and many individuals function effectively with 5 to 6 hours of sleep. In fact, 30 per cent of the population (slightly more in men) sleep less than 5 hours per night. Another significant fact is that sleep time decreases with age.

According to the passage, the popular assumption that eight hours of sleep per night is essential _____.

The survey referred to in the passage indicates that as people get older _____.

It is pointed out in the passage that a sleep time under 8 hours _____.

Until recently, many archaeologists thought that civilized communities first appeared in Egypt, though only a very short time before a similar development in Mesopotamia: a more recent opinion is now that the earliest advances may have taken place in Mesopotamia. Whichever view is followed, it is important to keep in mind that geographical conditions in both regions were not the same, and it can in fact be stated that in Mesopotamia environmental factors were not as wholly favourable as in the valley of the Nile.

A more recent view states that the beginnings of the development of civilization _____.

It is pointed out in the passage that the Nile valley and Mesopotamia _____.

One can understand from the passage that _____.

Dates and periods are important to the study and discussion of history because all historical phenomena are conditioned by time and are produced by the sequence of events. Periods, especially, are retrospective conceptions that we form about past events; they are useful to focus discussion, but very often they lead historical thought astray. Therefore, while it is certainly useful to speak of the Middle Ages and of the Victorian Age, those two abstract ideas have deluded many specialists and millions of newspaper readers into supposing that during certain decades called the Middle Ages, and again during certain decades called Age of Victoria, everyone thought or acted more or less in the same way till at last Victoria died or the Middle Ages came to an end. But in fact, there was no such similarity.

The passage suggests that contrary to common assumption; the behaviour of people _____.

As can be understood from the passage, the division of history into periods _____.

As we can understand from the passage, the study of history _____.

The famous American detective Thomas Osborne was actually a great lover of music; he often played the violin and even composed some music. He would sometimes spend a whole afternoon, listening to music, and this would make him extremely happy. On such occasions, he grew gentle and dreamy, quite unlike the sharp, clever and rather frightening detective that everybody knew him to be. But such a mood rarely lasted long and when it left him, he was more alert and businesslike than ever.

The writer describes a side of detective Osborne's character which _____.

The writer points out that after a quiet afternoon spent listening to music, Osborne _____.

We can understand from the passage that Osborne was generally regarded as _____.

During the Crimean War, Mary Portsmouth showed extraordinary qualities of determination and organisational ability. In the English hospital where she worked, conditions at first were terrible; dirt and disease probably caused more deaths among the soldiers than did the wounds received in battle. Still, under these circumstances, Mary Portsmouth gradually built up a highly disciplined nursing staff and, together with more adequate medical supplies, she was able to improve adequate conditions and be of real service to soldiers. However, the work was hard, and, as a result, her own health suffered.

One important point the passage makes is that Mary Portsmouth _____.

It is clear from the passage that, because Mary Portsmouth was a determined person, with a gift for organizing, she _____.

As the writer points out in the passage, conditions in the military hospital were, in the beginning, so bad that _____.