NDA Reading comprehension previous year questions with solutions

Answer: (b) Due to the increased cost of agricultural production

Method. Reason stated

"Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable": the increased cost of production (b). The other options are not given as reasons in the passage.

Answer: (a) Population growth

Method. Cause in the passage

"Global population growth … has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture." Desertification and water scarcity are later consequences, not the push.

Answer: (d) World War II

Method. NOT true: World War II is a time marker

Population growth (pushing into unsuitable land), chemical runoffs and desertification are named as degradation. World War II appears only as a date: "Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II"; it is not a cause.

Answer: (a) The author is both hopeful and sceptical of the prospects of agriculture

Method. Author's conclusion

Last sentence: "we may remain hopeful about humankind's agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically": both hopeful and doubtful. (b) and (c) give only one side.

Answer: (a) invasion

Method. 'Incursion' = invasion

The passage uses 'Invasion of natural habitats'; 'incursion' means a hostile entry or invasion. 'Intervention' is interference, not entry; 'intensive' and 'severe' are different in sense.

Answer: (c) the weather had been unpleasant

Method. Cause in the dialogue

Magda says 'I haven't been out much lately. I don't like this weather a bit. Why, we haven't had a dry day for weeks.' Illness (a) is only Mrs. Smiles's guess about her paleness; her sister has not yet arrived (d).

Answer: (b) her sister was coming over

Method. Reason for staying

'I'm not going back yet. My sister's coming over first … I shan't go back home until she's settled down.' Rain, studies and health are not given as reasons.

Answer: (a) expecting with pleasure

Method. 'Look forward to' = expect with pleasure

In the sentence 'looking forward to' means awaiting with pleasure; Magda replies 'I am looking forward to it very much'. (c) lacks the pleasure and (b) and (d) change the sense.

Answer: (d) pursue her studies

Method. Stated purpose

Mrs. Smiles asks 'She's coming over here to study?' and Magda answers 'Yes, that's right.' Visiting (a) is not the purpose; (b) and (c) are not mentioned (England is not named).

Answer: (c) neighbours

Method. Relationship by elimination

They chat about the weather and Magda's family as acquaintances, with Mrs. Smiles asking about her sister and plans; nothing suggests classmates, school friends or sisters-in-law (she is not Magda's relative, as Magda's sister is new to her). Neighbours is the only plausible option.

Answer: (c) know the name of the station

Method. Explicit detail

The passage says 'I roused myself in order to hear the name of the station'. Getting off, meeting someone or staying awake are never mentioned; he was in fact 'falling asleep again'.

Answer: (b) one of the wheels was broken

Method. Cause of the stoppage

'The engine with one wheel broken was lying across the track' and the van 'likewise, derailed': the broken wheel derailed it. No driver's stop, halt or fuel shortage is mentioned.

Answer: (c) it could make no effort to stand upright

Method. Point of the simile

The simile closes 'seems incapable of making the smallest effort to struggle on to its legs again': the engine, like the horse, cannot rise. Lying across the track (b) is where it lay, not the point of likeness.

Answer: (d) A long ridge

Method. description of the terrain

He cuts steps around corners along a ridge that rose 'monotonously' until it dropped away; only after 'a narrow ridge running up to a snowy summit' do they reach the top, so the area traversed was a long ridge, not yet a peak.

Answer: (b) he had to cut the steps out of snow before climbing up which was necessarily a slow process

Method. Inference from 'cutting steps'

Cutting steps in snow before each foot-hold is necessarily slow, which is why Tenzing too 'was moving very slowly'. Nothing says he was unskilled (a), that steps were refilled (c) or that he hung from a ledge (d).

Answer: (a) that after the long exertion he was feeling so weak that any further climbing meant a hard struggle with the forces of nature

Method. Meaning of 'grim struggle'

'I was beginning to tire' and 'our original zest had now quite gone': the climb had become a hard fight against fatigue and the mountain. Tenzing making it harder (b), a wind (c) and wanting to give up (d) are not in the passage; he 'wondered how long we could keep it up' but does not quit.

Answer: (c) For pleasure, enhanced capability and holistic growth

Method. Purpose stated in the passage

The opening line: "Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability." Delight = pleasure, ability = enhanced capability; the later lines on perfecting nature and judgment give growth. (a) and (b) are not the stated purposes; (d) 'only worldly wise' is contradicted by the three-fold use.

Answer: (a) Because it reflects idleness

Method. Reason given for excess of study

"To spend too much time in studies is sloth": sloth = idleness. (c) health of the mind is never mentioned; (d) crafty men condemn studies, studies do not make men crafty.

Answer: (d) By experience

Method. How studies are perfected

"They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience"; studies 'give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience'. Observation is mentioned, but not 'application' or 'reflection'.

Answer: (b) Cunning

Method. Crafty = cunning

"Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them." 'Crafty' = cunning (b). 'Innocent' is the nearest to 'simple', but simple men admire studies, they do not condemn them.

Answer: (c) evaluate and understand

Method. Last sentence of the passage

"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; … but to weigh and consider." Weigh and consider = evaluate and understand. (a), (b) and (d) are exactly what the author says not to do.

Answer: (c) has always been one nation along with differences

Method. Author's thesis

'I do not wish to suggest that because we were one nation we had no differences' and 'India was one undivided land … it must be one nation': one nation along with differences. (a), (b) and (d) are views he rejects: 'we Indians are one as no two Englishmen are'.

Answer: (b) Because they could observe the underlying unity of the country as made by nature

Method. Purpose of the pilgrimages

'They saw that India was one undivided land so made by nature. They, therefore, argued that it must be one nation. Arguing thus, they established holy places.' Worship could be done at home, so religion (d) was not the aim; (a) and (c) are not stated.

Answer: (a) critical

Method. Attitude from the closing lines

'It was after the advent of railways that we began to believe in distinctions', compared to an opium-eater's reasoning, and 'consider well what I had said on the railways': he condemns them. Not sympathetic, indifferent or apathetic.

Answer: (a) One need not visit the Ganges to take holy bath

Method. Meaning of the Ganges-at-home remark

The sentence follows 'worship of God could have been performed just as well at home': the righteous need not travel to the Ganges to bathe. (d) states a wider principle than the passage argues; (b) and (c) are contradicted.

Answer: (a) dialogic style

Method. Style of the passage

The writer addresses an interlocutor throughout ('What do you think …?', 'You will admit', 'you are at liberty now to say', 'I would ask you to consider'), anticipating replies: a dialogic style. It is not a list of instructions (b), not a description (c), and (d) is generic.

Answer: (c) was rather angry

Method. 'Clouded brow' = frown of displeasure

'A gathering frown' on a clouded brow shows growing annoyance, since the Quick Man keeps spoiling his tricks. Pleased (a) is the opposite; sad (b) and afraid (d) are not suggested.

Answer: (b) people were unconvinced

Method. Effect of the Quick Man's whisper

Passage: 'for thirty-five seconds the audience began to think that he was wonderful. Then the Quick Man whispered … He-has-a-hen-up-his-sleeve.' The audience lost its wonder and was unconvinced; the eggs were not broken (a) and the trick had been performed (d). The conjuror's disappointment (c) is a result, not the meaning.

Answer: (c) had things in the large sleeves of his coat

Method. The Quick Man's explanation

His whisper each time is that things were 'up his sleeve': the conjuror had them in his sleeves. (a) goes beyond what he says, and (b) and (d) are the magic claims he denies.

Answer: (a) foolish

Method. Author's irony

His explanation grows absurd: hens, 'a live guinea pig' and 'a rocking chair' are said to have been concealed up a sleeve, and it ruins a performance the audience was enjoying. The author mocks him as foolish. (b) and (d) take the Quick Man at his word; (c) is a weaker description of the same fault.

Answer: (c) one gentleman from the audience

Method. Detail check

'Will some gentleman kindly lend me his hat? Ah, thank you': the hat was lent by a gentleman in the audience. It was not the Quick Man's (a) and not his own (b).

Answer: (d) restricted individual freedom to ensure freedom for all

Method. Central idea

'The liberties of everybody must be curtailed' so that 'the liberties of all may be preserved': restricted individual freedom to secure freedom for all. (a) is only the literal traffic rule and (c) the opposite.

Answer: (c) protecting the liberty of all to use the road

Method. Policeman as symbol of liberty

He is 'the symbol not of tyranny but of liberty': the curb on you makes 'a social order which makes your liberty a reality'. (b) is the view the author rejects.

Answer: (c) try to strike a sensible balance between our individual liberty and our social liberty

Method. Balance of the two liberties

'We must have a judicious mixture of both': individual and social liberty. The passage rejects both extremes (a, b) and prefers neither (d).

Answer: (b) educating or not educating his child is also a matter of social liberty

Method. Education as a social concern

'If I say that my child shall have no education at all, then society will firmly tell me that my child must have education': whether to educate is a matter of social liberty. Choice of school and of subject are 'personal' (c, d), and (a) is contradicted by the same sentence.

Answer: (c) Importance of Liberty

Method. Title from the theme

The passage uses the rule of the road and education to argue how individual and social liberty must be balanced; its subject is liberty. (a) and (b) name only the illustration, (d) only one example.

Answer: (d) People who speak the language do not claim their language

Method. NOT a reason for difficulty

Stated difficulties: new languages are still being discovered (a), regions unexplored (b), a new language mistaken for a dialect of a known one (c). The passage never says speakers fail to claim their own language; their language is just unidentified by outsiders, who are met with a lingua franca.

Answer: (d) By conducting a survey of all languages of the region

Method. Establishing a new language

"It takes a language survey to establish the facts." Contact (a) and similarities (b) only lead investigators to a first assumption or an eventual realisation; the survey establishes it.

Answer: (b) There is hardly any language to be discovered in the world

Method. Test each statement against the text

"A few new languages do continue to be discovered", so hardly any remain: (b). (a) is false, 'many countries' surveys are incomplete'; (d) contradicts 'continue to be discovered'; (c) is not stated.

Answer: (a) People are recognised as different ethnic groups but not necessarily their language

Method. Interpreting the sentence

The people are known (recognised as an ethnic group) but the identity of their language is not (it may be thought a dialect, or hidden behind a lingua franca). (b) says the language is recognised, which is the opposite.

Answer: (a) transpire

Method. Word-in-context: 'transpire'

"It transpires that the speech is so different…": comes to be known, becomes clear. 'Straight' and 'variant' have unrelated senses and 'lingua franca' is a common language.

Answer: (a) 1 only

Method. Passage identifies unwelcome globalisation

"Laurie Garrett … describes an unwelcome form of globalisation: the globalisation of disease." Elusive goal refers to globalisation of health, history of diseases is just her subject, and antibiotic use is 'unwise', not 'selective'. So 1 only.

Answer: (a) the globalisation of diseases

Method. Reason globalisation of health is needed

The passage sets the globalisation of health against the globalisation of disease, which spreads emerging and resurgent diseases worldwide, so health must be global too. (b) is a remedy, (d) explains only resurgent disease.

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

Method. Causes of resurgent diseases

Resurgence is "a consequence of the widespread and unwise use of antibiotics" and "a creation of our medical practice" (1, 2); antibiotics "select strains that are immune" and pass on resistance, i.e. new resistant strains emerge (3).

Answer: (a) humans are coming in contact with unfamiliar viruses

Method. Why land-use change brings new diseases

"Changes in land use, which brings humans into close contacts with rodents or other animals that harbour viruses previously unknown to medicine." (a) unfamiliar viruses. (c) mixes up plasmid transfer (a bacterial route) with humans; (b), (d) are not said.

Answer: (b) The scientific study of the spread and control of diseases

Method. 'Epidemiology' as used in the passage

Epidemiologists are on the frontlines, recognising new diseases and doing "public-health intervention": scientific study of the spread and control of diseases. (a) lacks control and is merely historical.

Answer: (a) Water

Method. Biotic vs abiotic

The biotic community is "plants, animals and microbes": protozoa (microbe), human (animal) and bush (plant) belong. Water is listed as an abiotic factor ("the amount of water or moisture").

Answer: (b) 2 only

Method. Abiotic factors determine the community

"The particular kind of biotic community found in a given area is, in large part, determined by abiotic factors" (water, temperature, salinity, soil). Biotic components are what the community is made of, not what determines its nature, so 2 only.

Answer: (c) Algae

Method. Abiotic factors listed

Abiotic factors named: water or moisture, temperature, salinity, soil. Humidity is moisture in air; algae are part of the plant portion ("microscopic algae"), hence biotic.

Answer: (b) Biotic community found in water

Method. Passage sense of 'aquatic community'

"The presence of water is the major factor that sustains aquatic communities": a biotic community found in water.

Answer: (c) Both similarities and differences

Method. Definition of species

"A given species includes all those individuals which have a strong similarity in appearance to one another and which are distinct in appearance from other such groups": similarity within and difference from others.

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

Method. Conditions that defeat prudent use

All three conditions are given: (1) "their control over the resource base is tenuous, so that others may, at any time, deplete a resource"; (2) "possibilities of substitution as any one resource element is depleted"; (3) "resource catchments are vast", i.e. abundance. Each makes people unmotivated, so 1, 2 and 3.

Answer: (c) When the resources use has little impact

Method. Exhaustive use conditions

"Exhaustive use is highly likely when any one of these three conditions obtains"; the first is vast catchments, "so that degradation of any particular portion affects them very little" = use has little impact (c). (a) misprints 'facilitated' as 'felicitated'; the passage speaks of substitution being open to people, never of NGOs facilitating it, and (b) and (d) have no support.

Answer: (b) erratically

Method. Effect of self-interest, by elimination

The passage says self-interest yields exhaustive use when catchments are vast, substitution is easy or control is tenuous, yet prudent use when catchments are limited and control secure. The effect thus varies with conditions: 'erratically'. (a) and (c) are synonyms (both cannot be right) and say it always helps; (d) is wrong because self-interest decisively affects use.

Answer: (c) believe in conservation and re-production of resources

Method. Last sentence of the passage

People rooted in a locality with control over their resources "are most likely to fulfil all three prerequisites for sustainable resource use; and therefore to behave in ways conducive to the conservation" of biodiversity. So they favour conservation and renewal (c). (a) and (d) are the opposite.

Answer: (a) exhaust

Method. 'Deplete' = exhaust

'Deplete' = use up, exhaust (the passage: 'as any one resource element is depleted', 'exhausted resource elements'). 'Replete' (c) means full, the opposite; 'complete' and 'desperate' are only similar in sound.

Answer: (a) 1 only

Method. Statement-code test against the text

(1) 'flies in low, like a dive-bomber': true. (2) Only 'all the bats I have seen' keep near the ceiling and this one does not, so 'like all bats' is false. (3) 'Has his radar gone wrong?' is only a question, not asserted. (4) No intention to entertain is stated. So 1 only.

Answer: (b) to eat the moths round the lamps

Method. Stated purpose

'His object in entering the house is to snap up the moths that cluster around the lamps.' He prefers the door to the window, but that is the way in, not the reason (d); there is no 'no alternative' (a) and he is not said to be mad (c).

Answer: (d) unable to give the correct explanation for its behaviour

Method. Author's puzzlement

After noting that other bats keep high but this one dives low, he asks 'Has his radar gone wrong, I wondered, or is he just plain crazy?': he has no explanation. He is not sure (a) of anything, and nothing says he judges the bat an expert (c).

Answer: (c) this bat has peculiar qualities

Method. Sense of 'interesting' as used

He is 'most interesting' because of the odd habit of flying low, unlike the other bats, i.e. peculiar qualities. Coming at night (a) is only a circumstance; the bat's interest in moths (b) is not what the author means.

Answer: (c) My Nocturnal Visitor

Method. Title

The bat comes at night, so 'My Nocturnal Visitor' fits the passage's first sentence. (a) is vague, (b) suggests mystery not found, and (d) misjudges the author's puzzled but interested tone.