Comprehension


Direction: In the following questions, you have brief passages with 10 questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
Passage
Manuel and the little boy stood in the gateway to watch her go. She did not even turn to wave them farewell. But when she had ridden about a mile, she left the wild road and took a small trail to the right, that led into another valley, over steep places and past great trees, and through another deserted mining settlement. It was September, the water was running freely in the little stream that had fed the now-abandoned mine. She got down to drink, and let the horse drink too. She saw natives coming through the trees, away up the slope. They had seen her, and were watching her closely. She watched in turn. The three people, two women and a youth, were making a wide detour, so as not to come too close to her. She did not care. Mounting, she trotted ahead up the silent valley, beyond the silver-works, beyond any trace of mining. There was still a rough trail that led over rocks and loose stones into the valley beyond. This trail she had already ridden, with her husband. Beyond that she knew she must go south. Curiously she was not afraid, although it was a frightening country, the silent, fatal-seeming mountain slopes, the occasional distant, suspicious, elusive natives among the trees, the great carrion birds occasionally hovering, like great flies, in the distance, over some carrion of some ranch-house or some group of huts. As she climbed, the trees shrank and the trail ran through a thorny scrub, that was trailed over with blue convolvulus and an occasional pink creeper. Then these flowers lapsed. She was nearing the pine trees. She was over the crest, and before her another silent void, greenclad valley. It was past midday. Her horse turned to a little runlet of water, so she got down to eat her midday meal. She sat in silence looking at the motionless, unliving valley, and at the sharp-peaked hills, rising higher to rock and pine trees, southwards. She rested two hours in the heat of the day, while the horse cropped around her. Curious that she was neither afraid nor lonely. Indeed, the loneliness was like a drink of cold water to one who is very thirsty. And a strange elation sustained her from within. She travelled on, and camped at night in a valley beside a stream, deep among the bashes. She had seen cattle and had crossed several trails. There must be a ranch not far off. She heard the strange wailing shriek of a mountainlion, and the answer of dogs. But she sat by her small camp-fire in a secret hollow place and was not really afraid. She was buoyed up always by the curious, bubbling elation within her. It was very cold before dawn. She lay wrapped in her blanket looking at the stars, listening to her horse shivering, and feeling like a woman who has died and passed beyond. She was not sure that she had not heard, during the night, a great crash at the centre of herself, which was the crash of her own death. Or else it was a crash at the centre of the earth, and meant something big and mysterious. With the first peep of light she got up, numb with cold, and made a fire. She ate hastily, gave her horse some pieces of oil seed cake, and set off again. She avoided any meeting-and since she met nobody, it was evident that she in turn was avoided. She came at last in sight of the village of Cuchitee, with its black houses with their reddish roofs, a somber, dreary little cluster below another silent, longabandoned mine. And beyond, a long, great mountain- side, rising up green and light to the darker, shaggier green of pine trees.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) trail (N.) : a path through the countryside
(2) deserted (Adj.) : abandoned
(3) detour (N.) : a longer route that you take in order to avoid a problem/to visit a place
(4) mounting (V.) : to get on a bicycle, horse, etc. in order to ride it
(5) trotted (V.) : to ride a horse (faster than a walk but slow)
(6) elusive (Adj.) : difficult to find, define/achieve
(7) carrion (N.) : the decaying flesh of dead animals
(8) carrion birds (crows) (N.) : a type of medium-sized crows
(9) hovering (V.) : to stay in the air in one place
(10) ranch-house (N.) : a house built in a large farm
(11) scrub (N.) : small bushes and trees
(12) convolvulus (N.) : a creeper (plant)
(13) lapsed (V.) : to gradually become weaker/come to an end
(14) crest (N.) : the top part of a hill/wave
(15) void (N.) : a large empty space
(16) runlet (N.) : a rivulet (a small river)
(17) elation (N.) : a feeling of great happiness and excitement
(18) buoyed up (Phr.V.) : to make somebody feel cheerful/confident
(19) shaggier (Adj.) : more untidy

  1. She was over the crest, and before her another silent void, green-clad valley expresses









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    her fascination for the scenic beauty

    Correct Option: B

    her fascination for the scenic beauty


  1. The fact that she was not afraid conveys that









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    she was too detached and strong to be overcome with fear.

    Correct Option: B

    she was too detached and strong to be overcome with fear.



  1. Mounting, she trotted ahead up the silent valley ...... Mounting here means









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    getting on the horse

    Correct Option: D

    getting on the horse


  1. She did not care. This means









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    She was indifferent

    Correct Option: C

    She was indifferent



  1. What kind of a terrain was she passing through?









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    A lonely area

    Correct Option: B

    A lonely area