PREPARATORY QUESTIONS

READING COMPREHENSION

PREPARATORY PAPER-34

Direction (Qs.1 to 6): Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie Erskine never realised. Poor Hughie! Intellectually, we must admit, he was not of much importance. He never said a brilliant or even an ill-natured thing in his life. But then he was wonderfully good-looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear-cut profile, and his grey eyes. He was as popular with men as he was with women and he had every accomplishment except that of making money. His father had bequeathed him his cavalry sword and a History of the Peninsular War in fifteen volumes. Hughie hung the first over his looking-glass, put the second on a shelf between Ruff’s Guide and Bailey’s Magazine, and lived on two hundred a year that an old aunt allowed him. He had tried everything. He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months; but what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears? He had been a tea-merchant for a little longer, but had soon tired of pekoe and souchong. Then he had tried selling dry sherry. That did not answer; the sherry was a little too dry. Ultimately he became nothing, a delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession.

To make matters worse, he was in love. The girl he loved was Laura Merton, the daughter of a retired Colonel who had lost his temper and his digestion in India, and had never found either of them again. Laura adored him, and he was ready to kiss her shoe-strings. They were the handsomest couple in London, and had not a penny-piece between them. The Colonel was very fond of Hughie, but would not hear of any engagement.

‘Come to me, my boy, when you have got ten thousand pounds of your own, and we will see about it,’ he used to say; and Hughie looked very glum in those days, and had to go to Laura for consolation. One morning, as he was on his way to Holland Park, where the Mertons lived, he dropped in to see a great friend of his, Alan Trevor. Trevor was a painter. He was a strange rough fellow, with a freckled face and a red ragged beard. However, when he took up the brush he was a real master, and his pictures were eagerly sought after. He had been very much attracted by Hughie at first, it must be acknowledged, entirely on account of his personal charm. ‘The only people a painter should know,’ he used to say, ‘are people who are bête and beautiful, people who are an artistic pleasure to look at and an intellectual repose to talk to. Men who are dandies and women who are darlings rule the world; at least they should do so.’ However, after he got to know Hughie better, he liked him quite as much for his bright, buoyant spirits and his generous, reckless nature, and had given him the permanent entry to his studio.

Question No : 1

Which of the following is the OPPOSITE in meaning to the given word as used in the passage? BEQUEATHED

(1) Entrusted  

(2) Imparted   

(3) Gifted        

(4) Ceded       

(5) Disinherited

Question No : 2

Which of the following correctly explains the meaning of the line, ‘what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears?’, as mentioned in the passage?

(1) A butterfly may get hurt among bulls and bears.

(2) Bulls and bears get angry seeing a butterfly.

(3) An unemployed person does not fit among a bunch of idiots.

(4) A good looking person is always envied by people without any class.

(5) The vulnerability of the tea merchant among Stock Exchange experts.

Question No : 3

According to the passage what are the only things that Hughie’s father left for him?

(1) His cavalry sword and the Ruff’s Guide.

(2) The Ruff’s Guide and the Bailey’s Magazine.

(3) His cavalry sword and a History of the Peninsular War in fifteen volumes.

(4) His cavalry sword and the Bailey’s Magazine.

(5) All of the above

Question No : 4

Why Hughie was popular among men and women?

(1) As he was a brilliant orator.

(2) As he was rich, it was easy for him to draw attention.

(3) As he had no work he used to entertain people. 

(4) As he was wonderfully good-looking people loved him.

(5) None of these

Question No : 5

A sentence with a blank has been given. You have to choose a correct word which will fit in the gap. Her brilliant hair topped a _____ face and mile-wide smile.

(1) tired          

(2) rugged      

(3) freckled     

(4) adored      

(5) glum

Question No : 6

Why Alan Trevor liked Hughie so much?

(I) For his bright, buoyant spirits.

(II) For his personal charm.

(III) For his generous, reckless nature.

(1) Only (I)                                    

(2) Only (II)                                     

(3) Both (I) and (III)

(4) All (I), (II) and (III)

(5) Both (II) and (III)