Short Advanced Reading Comprehension Test 19 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.)

Real depression cannot be as easily overcome as some people often suppose. It usually wears off with time, but the time can seem endless. Activities giving companionship and a new interest can be helpful. However, for the sufferer to talk again and again, about the causes of the depression helps most. People with depression need to be listened to and encouraged to find their own solutions, not made to feel yet more inadequate by good advice. They may need professional counselling as well as the support of family members and friends.

In coping with depression, the support of friends and family members _____.

The writer states that people with depression _____.

In accordance with the passage, some people _____.

Most of the art museums and art galleries and many people in the art world had financial problems in 1975 as the effects of the world recession deepened. On the surface, things seemed to continue as before, with important exhibitions in major museums attracting large crowds. However, smaller galleries, and the artists whose work was shown by their resourceful proprietors, fared less well, and over the long term, it is the work of young artists that determines the course of art for the future.

The point shown in the passage is that the recession in the 1970s _____.

One can conclude from the passage that if a generation of young artists is lost, _____.

In accordance with the passage, the individuals in the art world who were most strongly affected by the recession _____.

Computers should never have received the significant status they now have. Fascinating and invaluable as they are, even the most developed ones have less brain power than a three-year-old. They do, however, score on single-mindedness. The three-year-old uses her brain not only to think but also to do certain tasks, like seeing, hearing and cunning, which need incredibly fast and sophisticated electromechanical interactions. But the computer just sits there and sends spacecraft to the moon or re-arranges the world banking system which is very much easier. That's why man's dream of robot maids is still a long way off.

The main point shown by the passage is that the human brain _____.

It is emphasized in the passage that the efficiency of the computer _____.

The author thinks that computers _____.

The rapid growth of the world's population in the twentieth century has been on a scale without parallel in human history. Most of this growth has taken place since 1950 and is known, as the population explosion. Between 1950 and 1980 the world population went up from 2.5 to over 4 billion, and by the end of the century, this figure will have risen to at least 6 billion. Growth of this size cannot carry on indefinitely. Recent forecasts suggest that the total population will remain steady between 10 and 15 billion in the mid-twenty-first century. Already there are encouraging signs that the rate of rising in many underdeveloped countries is beginning to slow down.

In accordance with the passage, at no period in human history has there been _____.

It is stated in the passage that the increase in the world population _____.

It has been anticipated that by the middle of the next century, _____.

Most substances, either artificial or natural, can cause harm to man or the environment. Some of these reach the environment in waste streams; however, emission limits and environmental quality standards can, in some instances, reduce the amounts released. However, some other matters cannot be controlled in this way because they are released, not in industrial waste streams, but through the use or disposal of products that contain them. In many cases, these substances pose little or no threat if the product containing them is used and disposed of properly. The accurate way to deal with them is through controls over their supply, use and disposal

In accordance with the passage, the threat of some certain substances to the environment _____.

The author expresses that the danger posed to man by some substances _____.

The passage is related to the question of _____.

The Peter Principle is derived from the analysis of the hundreds of cases of incompetence in organizations which can be seen anywhere. The principle points out that in a hierarchy every employee tends to reach his level of incompetence and it applies to all organizations. The Principle assumes a constant quest for high performance. Hence people competent at their jobs are promoted so that they may do still better. Competence in each new position qualifies for promotion to the next until each individual reaches a job beyond his abilities and therefore no longer performs in a way that gains further promotion. This is his level of incompetence Given two conditions enough ranks in the hierarchy to provide promotions and enough time to move through them all employees reach and remain at their level of incompetence. This can be stated as Peter's Principle: In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.

The level of incompetence _____.

That the competence is essential _____.

The conclusion shown from the Peter Principle _____.

Doctors began treating malaria long before they knew what caused it. The first recorded breakthrough came in the 17th century when European missionaries learned that the bark of South- American cinchona trees contained the potent but toxic remedy now known as quinine. By the time pharmaceutical companies developed reliable supplies, in the 1920s, a better treatment was imminent. Chloroquine, introduced in 1943 by the U.S. Military, was as potent as quinine -yet it was longer active, cheaper to produce and so well-tolerated that people no longer had to wait passively for malaria to strike. They could take regular doses in order to prevent the disease.

Before 1943, _____.

The first remedy for the disease dates as far back as 300 years ago even though _____.

Chloroquine is different from quinine in that _____.

The death rate from heart disease has dropped by half since the mid-1960s. Moreover, studies consistently find that the improvement is more attributable to changes in diet and lifestyle than to treatment. In a 1988 study, Dr Lee Goldman, a Harvard cardiologist, analyzed the decline in cardiac death between 1968 and 1976. Even though he could not account for all of it, he traced more than half to the drop in cigarette smoking and cholesterol intake. Roughly 20 per cent of the drop was due to heart and blood-pressure drugs, and only 3.5 per cent to bypass surgery. Goldman has lately updated his study, and he says the same basic lesson still holds: "The impact of the costliest interventions is minimal."

The recent drop in deaths from cardiac diseases _____.

What is meant by "The impact of the costliest interventions is minimal."?

According to Dr. Lee Goldman's findings _____.