Paragraph Based Reading Comprehension Questions

Reading Comprehension Practice Test. Reading Comprehension based on different editorial like; The Hindu, Economic Times, Times of India, etc. If you are preparing for Banking and Insurance Exams, you will come across Paragraph Based Reading Comprehension Test in the English language section. Here we are providing you English Paragraph Based Reading Comprehension Test for Banking Exams, based on the latest pattern of your daily practice.

Paragraph Based Reading Comprehension will help you learn concepts on important topics in English Section. This “English Reading Comprehension Test for Banking Exams” is also important for other banking exams such as SBI Clerk, IDBI Executive and Syndicate PO, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, SBI Clerk, IBPS RRB Officer, IBPS RRB Office Assistant, IBPS SO, SBI SO and other competitive exams.

Paragraph Based Reading Comprehension for Banking Exams | Set –10


Directions:(1-10) Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions. Certain words are in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

Paragraph 1: India has a major child malnutrition problem. The Rapid Survey on Children (2012-13) found that about 4 in 10 children are stunted. On average, children who are stunted do less well in school, earn less, and die sooner than children who are not.

Paragraph 2: There are many causes of child stunting. Addressing poverty and improving education would help, but development is not the only factor. Research shows that poor sanitation spreads diseases that sap children’s energy and stunts their growth. Also, the health of a child’s mother matters critically for whether or not the child is stunted.

Paragraph 3: The first two years of life are the most important time for a child’s physical and cognitive growth. During this time, she depends heavily on her mother for nutrition. As a growing foetus, she gets all her food from her mother’s bloodstream, and after birth, is ideally breastfed for at least six months.

Paragraph 4: Unfortunately, research shows that many Indian women start pregnancy underweight and gain little weight during pregnancy. This leads to low birth weight babies, high rates of neonatal mortality, and less successful breastfeeding. Women’s undernourishment contributes substantially to India’s unacceptably high rates of child stunting.

Paragraph 5: Poverty and sanitation play a role in the high rate of malnutrition among Indian women. But a recent survey that I conducted with a team of economics and sociology researchers suggests that widespread discrimination against women in their own homes likely plays an important role too.

Paragraph 6: Social Attitudes Research for India (SARI) is a new phone survey that seeks to interview representative samples of 18-65-year-olds. Recently, we interviewed 1,270 adults in Delhi and 1,470 adults in Uttar Pradesh. One of the things SARI measures is discrimination against women.

Paragraph 7: In India, girls are less likely to survive infancy than boys, and if they do, parents invest less in their education. Women are far less likely to work outside the home and have their own bank accounts than men. Many report little decision-making power over their own lives.

Paragraph 8: One aspect of discrimination against women that matters for health is whether women eat less or worse quality food than men. In order to measure discrimination in women’s food intake, SARI used a question that was previously tested and used by the India Human Development Survey (2011): “When your family eats lunch or dinner, do the women usually eat with the men? Or do the women usually eat first? Or do the men usually eat first?” Answers to these questions have implications for nutrition because in households with a limited food budget, or where there is no refrigerator to store leftover food, the person who eats last very often gets less or lower quality food than people who eat before her.

Paragraph 9: The IHDS 2011 survey interviewed married women aged 15-49 and found that one in five women in Delhi and half of the women in Uttar Pradesh said they ate after men did. When we decided to include the same question in the SARI survey five years later, we found even higher numbers. One in three adults in Delhi, and six in ten adults in U.P. said they lived in households where men eat first. Why are these numbers even higher than what the IHDS found in 2011?

Paragraph 10: Part of the reason is that SARI and the IHDS asked different people. The IHDS asked only women, while SARI asked both women and men. In U.P. (but not in Delhi) men were significantly more likely to say that they eat first. We do not know why men in U.P. reported more often than women that women eat last. Studies of discrimination in other contexts suggest that where discrimination is severe, it is often easier to get people to admit to engaging in acts of discrimination than to experiencing it.

Paragraph 11: Nor do we know for sure why even among women, the SARI figures are higher than the IHDS figures. It may have to do with how respondents react to a phone survey versus a face-to-face survey. The women surveyors who conducted IHDS interviews may have been seen by respondents as progressive women having jobs and moving around without their family members. For a respondent in a conservative household, it may be easier to admit discrimination to a stranger on the phone than to a progressive woman sitting in front of her.

Paragraph 12: No matter what the exact figures, it is clear that the practice of making women eat last is widespread in Delhi and U.P., and that it has important implications for a child’s health. What is unclear is how to address the problem.

Paragraph 13: While the government cannot force people to give women an equal share of food, it could do a lot more to promote gender equality. It could publicize and condemn this practice. It could also more aggressively pursue policies to address discrimination against women in other domains. Encouraging girls’ education, discouraging dowry, supporting marriage choice, and encouraging female labour force participation would all give women more power to challenge this damaging practice.

1. Which of the following describes the seventh paragraph of the passage?

I. it narrates the ordeal of a women belonging to the rural India

II. it describes ways in which women are discriminated against

III. it lists the ways in which women ignore their health while taking care of the others

A. Only (III)
B. None of (I), (II) or (III)
C. Only (I)
D. Both (I) and (II)
E. Only (II)

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Correct Answer: E. Only (II)

2. How does women’s undernourishment contribute substantially to India’s unacceptably high rates of child stunting?

A. due to the whole physical development of the child taking place before birth inside the mother’s womb
B. due to child’s high dependence on her mother for nutrition in the first two years
C. due to the genetic links between child’s and mother’s health
D. due to the same food being consumed by the child as consumed by the mother
E. More than one of the above

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Correct Answer – B. due to child’s high dependence on her mother for nutrition in the first two years

3. What was the reason behind the disparity in the extent of discrimination against women in the country highlighted by the surveys conducted by SARI and IHDS?

I. due to different modes of survey used

II. due to different sets of respondents

III. due to different methods of recording the data adopted

A. Both (I) and (II)
B. Both (I) and (III)
C. Both (II) and (III)
D. Only (II)
E. Only (III)

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Correct Answer – A. Both (I) and (II)

4. How is the second paragraph in the passage related to the first paragraph?

I. it explains the reasons leading to the issue raised in the first paragraph

II. it lists the possible measures which can be taken to address the issue raise in the first paragraph

III. it narrates an incident where the issue raised in the first paragraph cannot be resolved

A. Only (II)
B. Only (III)
C. Only (I)
D. Both (I) and (III)
E. None of (I), (II) or (III)

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Correct Answer – C. Only (I)

5. Which of the following gives the similarity between the India Human Development Survey (2011) and the survey conducted by the Social Attitudes Research for India (SARI)?

I. they both used the same methodology for analysing the response

II. they both gave exactly the same result at the end of the study

III. they both used the same question for assessing the situation

A. Both (I) and (II)
B. Both (II) and (III)
C. Only (III)
D. Only (II)
E. All (I), (II) and (III)

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Correct Answer – C. Only (III)

6. What does the author suggest to deal with the issue of women malnutrition in the country?

A. supporting marriage choice
B. encouraging girls’ education
C. discouraging dowry
D. encouraging female labour force participation
E. All of the above

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Correct Answer – E. All of the above

7. What are the reasons behind the malnutrition of Indian women?

I. discrimination against women in households

II. limited availability of nutritional food products

III. poverty and sanitation issues

A. Both (II) and (III)
B. Only (III)
C. Only (I)
D. Both (I) and (III)
E. Only (II)

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Correct Answer – D. Both (I) and (III)

8.Which of the following is farthest in meaning from the word “Condemn” as used in the passage?

A. Replicate
B. Praise
C. Amend
D. Evaluate
E. Reflect

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Correct Answer – B. Praise

9.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word “Sap” as used in the passage?

A. Amber
B. Yearn
C. Comprehend
D. Defuse
E. Exhaust

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Correct Answer – E. Exhaust

10.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word “Severe” as used in the passage?

A. Abrupt
B. Coveted
C. Grave
D. Stipulated
E. Wryly

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Correct Answer – C. Grave

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