Reading Comprehension: Main Idea, Structure, Tone & Inference

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

1. Passage: "Antibiotics were once called miracle drugs, and for two generations they were. But bacteria reproduce in minutes and mutate freely, so every course of treatment is also a selection event that favours the resistant. The miracle, in other words, was always going to be temporary; the only question was how quickly we would spend it." The central idea of the passage is that:

   1. Antibiotics have stopped working against all bacterial infections
   2. Bacteria mutate faster than any other living organism
   3. Resistance was inevitable because antibiotic treatment itself selects for resistant bacteria
   4. Doctors have prescribed antibiotics irresponsibly for decades
   Show answer

   Answer: C — Resistance was inevitable because antibiotic treatment itself selects for resistant bacteria

   The turn is "But bacteria reproduce… so every course of treatment is also a selection event", and the last sentence generalises it: the loss of effectiveness was built into the mechanism, not an accident. The option about resistance being inevitable because treatment selects for it captures exactly that and nothing more. The claim that antibiotics have stopped working against all infections is extreme — the passage says the miracle was temporary, not that it has ended. The option about bacteria mutating faster than any other organism is a comparison the passage never makes and is too narrow even if true. The option blaming doctors imports outside knowledge: the passage says "we" spent the miracle but names no profession and no irresponsibility.

2. Passage: "Critics of standardised testing say it measures little beyond a family’s income. There is something in this: scores do track household wealth closely. Yet the alternatives — teacher recommendations, interviews, portfolios — track it more closely still, because they reward exactly the polish that money buys." The second sentence ("There is something in this…") functions to:

   1. Concede part of the critics’ case before the author turns against it
   2. State the author’s main conclusion about testing
   3. Introduce the alternatives to standardised testing
   4. Reject the critics’ claim as entirely unfounded
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   Answer: A — Concede part of the critics’ case before the author turns against it

   Read the neighbours: the sentence before reports the critics, the sentence after begins with "Yet" and argues that the alternatives are worse. A sentence that grants the opponent a point and is immediately followed by "yet" is a concession, so the option about conceding part of the critics’ case before turning against it names the move correctly. The option calling it the main conclusion is the classic error of taking the concession for the thesis — the conclusion is on the far side of "yet". The option about introducing the alternatives describes the third sentence, not the second. The option about rejecting the claim as unfounded is the opposite of what "there is something in this" does.

3. Passage: "In the 1880s several European cities replaced horse-drawn trams with electric ones within a decade. The change was driven less by speed than by cost: a horse worked four hours a day, ate whether it worked or not, and had to be replaced every five years." Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

   1. Electric trams were introduced primarily because passengers demanded faster journeys
   2. Tram companies mistreated the horses they owned
   3. Electric trams required no maintenance once installed
   4. Operating a horse tram involved costs that continued even when the tram was not running
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   Answer: D — Operating a horse tram involved costs that continued even when the tram was not running

   "Ate whether it worked or not" states a cost incurred during idle hours, so the option about costs continuing when the tram was not running cannot be false while the passage is true — it is a dull restatement, which is what a safe inference looks like. The option about passengers demanding speed contradicts "driven less by speed than by cost". The option about mistreatment imports a moral judgement from outside; the passage lists costs, not conditions. The option about electric trams needing no maintenance is extreme and unsupported — the passage compares costs but says nothing about the upkeep of the electric system.

4. Passage: "The Roman road network is usually admired as engineering. It should also be read as a statement: a legion could reach any province in weeks, and every provincial knew it. The roads carried grain and letters, certainly, but their first cargo was the idea of Rome." The author mentions grain and letters in order to:

   1. show that the Roman economy depended on its roads
   2. acknowledge the roads’ practical uses before insisting that their symbolic function mattered more
   3. list the goods that Rome exported to its provinces
   4. argue that the roads were under-used for military purposes
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   Answer: B — acknowledge the roads’ practical uses before insisting that their symbolic function mattered more

   The construction is "X, certainly, but Y": "certainly" grants the practical cargo and "but" subordinates it to "the idea of Rome". Grain and letters are therefore a concession that sets up the author’s real point, which is what the option about acknowledging practical uses before insisting on the symbolic function says. The option about the economy depending on roads treats the concession as the thesis and adds a dependence claim the passage never makes. The option about listing exports mistakes an illustrative pair for an inventory. The option about under-use for military purposes contradicts the second sentence, which makes the military reach the whole point of the roads as a statement.

5. Passage: "The report runs to four hundred pages, cites two hundred studies, and arrives, with great ceremony, at the conclusion that more research is needed. One admires the thoroughness. One wonders what the thoroughness was for." The author’s tone is best described as:

   1. Laudatory
   2. Nostalgic
   3. Sardonic
   4. Ambivalent
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   Answer: C — Sardonic

   "With great ceremony" attached to a conclusion that says nothing, followed by praise ("one admires") that is immediately undercut ("one wonders what… for"), is mockery through understatement — the definition of sardonic. The tempting near-miss is ambivalent, because the passage appears to hold two views; but genuine ambivalence leaves the two unresolved, whereas here the second sentence exists to demolish the first, and the "admiration" is not sincere. Laudatory takes the mock-praise at face value, which is the misreading the construction is designed to produce. Nostalgic has no support at all: nothing in the passage looks back to a better past.

6. Passage: "Museums increasingly justify themselves by visitor numbers and design exhibitions accordingly. The result is not bad exhibitions but similar ones: the same blockbuster names, the same interactive screens, the same shop. A museum that measured itself instead by what a visitor could see nowhere else would look very different, and might well be emptier." With which statement would the author most likely agree?

   1. Popularity is an inadequate measure of what makes a museum valuable
   2. Museums should stop recording visitor numbers altogether
   3. Interactive screens have made modern exhibitions bad
   4. An emptier museum is always a better museum
   Show answer

   Answer: A — Popularity is an inadequate measure of what makes a museum valuable

   The author’s complaint is that measuring by visitor numbers produces sameness and crowds out uniqueness; the option about popularity being an inadequate measure of value is the mildest statement of that view and the author could not reject it while holding the passage’s position. The option about stopping the recording of visitor numbers is extreme — the passage objects to numbers as the justification, not to counting. The option blaming interactive screens contradicts "not bad exhibitions but similar ones". The option about an emptier museum always being better converts "might well be emptier", a cost the author accepts, into a criterion of merit, which is a distortion with an added "always".

7. Passage: "It is said that the printing press caused the Reformation. The claim is not so much wrong as idle: presses also printed indulgences, papal bulls and Catholic catechisms in enormous quantities. What the press changed was not the direction of religious argument but its speed and reach, and speed and reach favour whoever is already organised to exploit them." The primary purpose of the passage is to:

   1. deny that the printing press had any effect on religious life
   2. describe the technical workings of early printing presses
   3. argue that the Reformation would have occurred without printing
   4. replace a simple causal claim about printing with a more precise account of its effect
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   Answer: D — replace a simple causal claim about printing with a more precise account of its effect

   The shape is set-up ("It is said"), turn ("not so much wrong as idle"), evidence (Catholic printing), and a refined thesis (speed and reach, not direction). The option about replacing a simple causal claim with a more precise account describes exactly that movement. The option about denying any effect is the opposite of the last sentence, which specifies the effect. The option about technical workings is off-topic — no mechanism of printing is described. The option about the Reformation occurring without printing is a counterfactual the passage never asserts; "not so much wrong as idle" pointedly declines to say the causal claim is false, so a purpose that requires its falsity cannot be the author’s.

8. Passage: "The committee’s report was studiously neutral — so neutral that it managed to describe a famine without once using the word." In the context of the passage, the word "studiously" most nearly means:

   1. In a scholarly and academic manner
   2. Deliberately and with great care
   3. Reluctantly and under pressure
   4. Briefly and superficially
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   Answer: B — Deliberately and with great care

   Substitute each option into the sentence. "Deliberately and carefully neutral — so neutral that it avoided the word famine" preserves the point: the neutrality was an effort, and the second clause shows how far the effort went. The scholarly reading is the dictionary trap — "studious" relates to study, but a report that dodges the word "famine" is not being praised for scholarship, and the sentence is about intention rather than learning. Reluctantly and under pressure adds a motive the sentence does not supply. Briefly and superficially contradicts the effortful avoidance the second clause describes.