Comprehension


Direction: You have a passage with 10 questions following the passage. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
Jazz had its beginnings in song. Its roots lie deep in the tradition of Negro folk singing that once flourished throughout the rural Southland of the United States before the Civil War. The Negro, in those days, owned only a few crude musical instruments which he made for himself from boxes, barrels and brooms. His voice was his principal means of musical expression. Songs of work and play, trouble and hope, rose on rich and rhythmic voices everywhere in the South - from peddlers crying their wares to the countryside, from work gangs on the rail roads, from families gathered at the days’s end to sing away their weariness in their unpainted cottages overlooking the cotton fields, from the wayside churches singing with the sounds of Sabbath praise. These were the voices which the early Negro musicians imitated and transferred to their horns when they taught themselves to play the discarded band instruments that come into hands at the close of the Civil War in the eighteensixties. As played by their proud Negro owners, the instruments became extensions of the human voice - “singing horns” which opened the way to Jazz. For this reason there has always been a strong, singing quality to Jazz.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
crude : simple and not very accurate
peddler : a person who travels from place to place to sell small objects
wares : things sold in the streets/at a market weariness : tiredness wayside :the area at the side of a road/path
Sabbath : the holiday of the week that is used for resting and worshipping God. (Jews ⇒ Saturday : Christians ⇒ Sunday)
discarded : got rid of something that you no longer wanted/needed.

  1. Which of the following is the most appropriate title for the passage?









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    The early origins of Jazz

    Correct Option: C

    The early origins of Jazz


  1. The phrase sing away in the passage means









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    sing songs to forget

    Correct Option: B

    sing songs to forget



  1. Which of the following statements is false in the context of the passage?









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    The Negro’s voice was not his principal means of musical expression.

    Correct Option: D

    The Negro’s voice was not his principal means of musical expression.


  1. What opened the way to Jazz?









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    “Singing horns”.

    Correct Option: D

    “Singing horns”.



  1. Which of the following statements is true in the context of the passage? The early Jazz musicians









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    knew about the rules of music.

    Correct Option: C

    knew about the rules of music.