Read the given passage and answer the six questions that follow.
When I was in my late teens and still undecided about which language I should write in, he told me that the language one is born into, one’s mother tongue, can be the only possible medium of creative expression. For most of his life, my father, Sripat Rai, had been a Hindi editor and critic. Off and on, he translated writings into English from Hindi. He was fond of saying that a failed writer becomes a critic. The weight of his literary expectation came, eventually, to rest on me. He seemed happy that I was showing an inclination for writing. ‘‘She will go far,’’ he told my mother after reading the first story that I sent him from Melbourne. My father’s pronouncement on the mother tongue stayed with me when I later started writing fiction in Hindi. Another thing that I barely acknowledged even to myself was that I felt something like shame whenever I thought of writing in English. It seemed wrong for a granddaughter of Premchand even to be thinking so. Our family had a certain linguistic pride. I knew that Premchand was famous, but I had not at that time realised the extent of his popularity. The fact that I was the granddaughter of Premchand, followed me everywhere. Everyone had a story to tell about their personal engagement with his fiction — the shopkeeper, the long time cook in my father’s Delhi house, a tea vendor, etc. The list was long, for there was practically no one who had not read something by him that had moved them. However, it was this very ubiquity, the reverence and love that he inspired in people, that made of him something too large for me to comprehend in the early years of my life. It led also to the strange feeling that, without having read him and just by being related to him, I had somehow inhaled his writing. The reading happened much later.
The author grew up with the expectation that she would take up __________.
- editorship of a magazine
- translation of literary pieces
- creative writing
- the job of a critic
The Correct Option is C
Approach Solution - 1
The author grew up with the expectation that she would take up creative writing. This conclusion can be drawn from the passage where the author discusses her inclination towards writing and her father's happiness regarding her writing endeavors. The passage emphasizes her family's literary background and expectations, especially with references to her father and grandfather, indicating a strong expectation for her to engage in creative writing.
Approach Solution -2
The passage indicates that creative writing was the expected path for the author.
Context: In the passage, the author mentions how creative writing was initially seen as the natural or expected direction for their career or personal growth. This suggests that writing, particularly in a creative form, was considered to be their chosen or assumed path.
Meaning of the Passage: The passage suggests that creative writing, with its focus on imagination, expression, and storytelling, was anticipated as the author’s primary outlet for their skills and aspirations, fitting within societal or personal expectations.
Final Thought: The passage emphasizes how creative writing, as the expected path, shapes the author’s journey and highlights the role of external or internal expectations in influencing career or creative choices.
When her father said, "She will go far," he meant that __________.
- she will travel widely
- she will achieve great heights in life
- she will go too far, one of these days
- she will settle in a far-off place
The Correct Option is B
Approach Solution - 1
In the given passage, when the father said, "She will go far," he was expressing his belief that the narrator would achieve great success or make significant accomplishments in life. This interpretation aligns with the context where the father shows approval and pride after reading his daughter's first story. The phrase "go far" in such contexts is typically used metaphorically to denote reaching great heights or achieving notable success.
Thus, the correct answer is: she will achieve great heights in life.
Approach Solution -2
"Go far" here refers to achieving success and great heights.
Context: The phrase "go far" is often used to describe someone who reaches significant levels of success, progress, or recognition. It implies that a person has the potential to achieve great things or rise to prominent positions in their field or life.
Meaning of "Go Far": "Go far" refers to reaching great heights in one’s career, personal life, or endeavors. It suggests a journey of success and advancement, where the individual attains recognition or accomplishment over time.
Final Thought: The phrase "go far" is a positive expression, often used to encourage someone, indicating that they have the ability to achieve substantial success and make significant progress in their chosen path.
Choose a statement which is not true with respect to the passage:
- The author felt pressurized to write in Hindi because of her father.
- She felt obligated to carry on the legacy of Premchand.
- Her family was chauvinistic about the English language.
- She was in awe of the extensive reach of her grandfather’s writings.
The Correct Option is C
Approach Solution - 1
To determine which statement is not true with respect to the passage, we must carefully analyze the text provided and compare it with each of the given options:
- The author felt pressurized to write in Hindi because of her father.
The passage reveals that the author's father believed that the mother tongue is the only possible medium of creative expression. Additionally, he was happy to see his daughter writing, hinting at a subtle pressure or expectation to write in Hindi. This statement appears valid based on the passage. - She felt obligated to carry on the legacy of Premchand.
The passage mentions the author's awareness of her relation to Premchand and her feelings of shame when thinking of writing in English. This indicates an obligation to carry on the legacy of using the Hindi language, which makes this statement true. - Her family was chauvinistic about the English language.
The passage suggests the opposite, where the author felt shame about writing in English and there was a linguistic pride associated with Hindi. Therefore, this statement is false. - She was in awe of the extensive reach of her grandfather’s writings.
The passage states that Premchand’s works were widely read and beloved, leaving the author feeling that her grandfather was too large for her to comprehend. This aligns with being in awe, indicating that this statement is true.
From the analysis, the statement that is not true with respect to the passage is: Her family was chauvinistic about the English language.
Approach Solution -2
The family was not chauvinistic about English, the pressure came from a pride in Hindi.
Context: The term "chauvinistic" refers to an excessive or prejudiced loyalty or support for one’s own group or cause. In this sentence, it is used to clarify that the family was not overly biased or excessively loyal to the English language. Instead, the pressure to prioritize Hindi came from their strong pride in their native language.
Meaning of the Sentence: The sentence suggests that the family's preference for Hindi was driven by pride and cultural identity, rather than a negative bias against the English language. The pressure was not from a dislike of English but from a desire to honor and uphold Hindi.
Final Thought: This statement emphasizes how cultural pride and identity can shape language preferences, highlighting the positive influence of pride in one's native language, rather than fostering an aggressive stance against another language.
Premchand became too large for her to understand mainly because of _____________ .
(A) his ability to connect with people from all walks of life.
(B) the fact that she feared him.
(C) the kind of love and reverence that he inspired in people.
(D) her constant anxiety of failing him.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
(A) his ability to connect with people from all walks of life.
(B) the fact that she feared him.
(C) the kind of love and reverence that he inspired in people.
(D) her constant anxiety of failing him.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
- (A) and (D) only
- (A) and (C) only.
- (B) and (C) only.
- (C) and (D) only.
The Correct Option is B
Approach Solution - 1
To determine why Premchand became too large for her to understand, we need to examine the given comprehension passage. The passage describes the author's experience and thoughts about Premchand, a renowned literary figure. The passage highlights that:
- Premchand's popularity is vast, with almost everyone having a personal connection to his work.
- This wide appeal and the reverence he inspired in people made him seem larger than life to the author.
Given these observations, it's clear that the primary reason for Premchand becoming too large for her to comprehend was due to:
- His ability to connect with people from all walks of life, evidenced by how everyone had a story about his fiction.
- The kind of love and reverence he inspired in people, making her unable to fully grasp the extent of his influence and impact.
Now, let's align this understanding with the options:
- (A) His ability to connect with people from all walks of life.
- (C) The kind of love and reverence that he inspired in people.
These reasons correlate with option (A) and (C), making the correct answer: (A) and (C) only.
Approach Solution -2
The correct reason was his ability to connect with people and the overwhelming admiration he received.
Context: The sentence highlights two key factors that contributed to the individual's success or popularity: his remarkable ability to build connections with others and the intense admiration he garnered from those around him.
Meaning of the Sentence: The phrase suggests that the individual's ability to relate to others on a personal level and the respect or admiration he earned from people were the primary reasons for his success, making him well-liked or influential.
Final Thought: This statement emphasizes the power of interpersonal relationships and admiration in achieving success, showing that personal connections and respect from others can play a significant role in one's accomplishments.
"Inhaled his writing" refers to:
Choose the correct option from the following.
Choose the correct option from the following.
- imbibing his style subconsciously
- being compelled to write like him
- being influenced by what people said about him
- her father’s expectation from her
The Correct Option is A
Approach Solution - 1
In the given comprehension, the phrase "inhaled his writing" indicates a process that occurs subconsciously and instinctively. The author describes how, without having read Premchand's works initially, they felt as though they had absorbed his style just by the virtue of their relation to him. This implies an unconscious assimilation of his literary style. Among the options provided, "imbibing his style subconsciously" closely matches this meaning.
Therefore, the correct option is "imbibing his style subconsciously".
Approach Solution -2
"Inhaled his writing" means absorbing his style unconsciously.
Context: The phrase "inhaled his writing" suggests that the individual absorbed the essence or style of the writer's work effortlessly and naturally, almost as if it became an intrinsic part of their own thoughts or writing habits.
Meaning of "Inhaled his writing": "Inhaled his writing" metaphorically refers to deeply understanding or internalizing the writer's style and ideas, doing so almost passively or without conscious effort. It implies a strong influence that shapes one's own approach to writing or thinking.
Final Thought: This expression highlights how a writer's style can leave a lasting impact on a reader, to the point where it becomes second nature and flows unconsciously in their own work or actions.
Choose the correct meaning of the word "Ubiquity" as it appears in the passage.
- Occasional
- Restricted
- Omnipresence
- Unwanted
The Correct Option is C
Approach Solution - 1
The word "Ubiquity" refers to the concept of being present everywhere. In the passage, the word is used to describe a widespread reverence and love that Premchand inspired in people, being "practically no one who had not read something by him that had moved them." This extensive reach and presence in people's lives align with the meaning of "Omnipresence," which is the correct choice.
Thus, the correct meaning of "Ubiquity" in the context of this passage is "Omnipresence."
Approach Solution -2
"Ubiquity" means omnipresence, or being present everywhere.
Context: The word "ubiquity" is used to describe the state of being everywhere or present in all places at the same time. It is often used to convey the idea that something is so widespread that it is almost impossible to escape or avoid.
Meaning of Ubiquity: Ubiquity is derived from the Latin word "ubique," meaning "everywhere." It refers to the quality of being present everywhere, often used to describe things or phenomena that are found in many places simultaneously, such as the internet or a global brand.
Omnipresence: The term "omnipresence" is synonymous with ubiquity, often used in religious or philosophical contexts to describe the idea that a deity or force is present everywhere. In everyday usage, it similarly refers to something that exists or appears universally.
Final Thought: The word "ubiquity" captures the idea of widespread presence, making it a useful term to describe anything that can be found in multiple places or seems to be everywhere at once.
Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
- Shown below are letters ‘e’ taken from four popular logos, arranged in a sequence. Which of the options is the correct sequence?
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- Shown below are four options, each showing consecutive frames representing the movement of a pendulum of an old-style wall clock for an animation movie. Which is the correct option?
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- Acrucial moderating factor in how people experience comparisons is self-esteem. Individuals with high self-esteem are more likely to interpret upward comparison as informative rather than threatening. They are more resilient in the face of others’ success and more likely to believe they can reach their own goals. In contrast, people with low self-esteem are more prone to interpret comparison as judgment, reinforcing negative self-views and triggering feelings of inadequacy.
This dynamic creates a self-reinforcing loop. People with high self-esteem are less vulnerable to upward comparison, which intensifies those doubts. Those with a secure sense of self are more likely to use comparison as a learning tool. The same external stimulus—a colleague’s achievements, a friend’s popularity—can have radically different effects depending on internal stability.
Self-esteem also influences how people choose their comparison targets. Research has found that individuals often engage in “selective comparison,” seeking out those who confirm their existing beliefs about themselves. This can become a subtle form of self-sabotage. Someone who feels unworthy may subconsciously seek out targets that reinforce that sense, perpetuating a narrative of inferiority. One of the most promising antidotes to social comparison is temporal comparison—evaluating oneself not against others, but against one’s own past. This method has been shown to increase motivation and satisfaction, especially when individuals can see concrete progress. Temporal comparison activates the same reward circuits as social comparison but avoids the threat systems associated with social ranking. It also reinforces agency: individuals focus on what they can control and improve rather than what others control. In therapeutic and coaching settings, temporal comparison is used to help clients build self-efficacy and track growth over time.
Moreover, people who focus on self-improvement rather than social dominance are less likely to fall into cycles of envy or self-pity. They can still use others as inspiration, but they do so without attaching their self-worth to the outcome. This is not to say they never compare—but that they focus on learning, rather than judgment. The most skilful approach to comparison may lie in eliminating it, but in reframing it as feedback. When we interpret comparison as information rather than a verdict, we can ask, “What can I learn from this?” This shift turns comparison into a growth tool. Teachers mentor their students, not as rivals. Psychologists emphasize that the key variable here is mindset.
A fixed mindset sees comparison as a threat. If someone else is better, it means we are worse. A growth mindset sees comparison as a map. If someone else has reached a certain level, it means the path exists. This reframing is not just a cognitive trick. It changes the emotional tone of comparison, making it more likely to inspire than to wound. Reframing also requires emotional regulation—the ability to notice an initial pang of envy or shame without reacting impulsively. With practice, individuals can learn to pause, reflect, and reinterpret their emotional responses. Over time, this builds resilience and self-trust, allowing comparison to become a learning tool rather than a cage.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
When people who are talking don’t share the same culture, knowledge, values, and assumptions, mutual understanding can be especially difficult. Such understanding is possible through the negotiation of meaning. To negotiate meaning with someone, you have to become aware of and respect both the differences in your backgrounds and when these differences are important. You need enough diversity of cultural and personal experience to be aware that divergent world views exist and what they might be like. You also need the flexibility in world view, and a generous tolerance for mistakes, as well as a talent for finding the right metaphor to communicate the relevant parts of unshared experiences or to highlight the shared experiences while demphasizing the others. Metaphorical imagination is a crucial skill in creating rapport and in communicating the nature of unshared experience. This skill consists, in large measure, of the ability to bend your world view and adjust the way you categorize your experiences. Problems of mutual understanding are not exotic; they arise in all extended conversations where understanding is important.
When it really counts, meaning is almost never communicated according to the CONDUIT metaphor, that is, where one person transmits a fixed, clear proposition to another by means of expressions in a common language, where both parties have all the relevant common knowledge, assumptions, values, etc. When the chips are down, meaning is negotiated: you slowly figure out what you have in common, what it is safe to talk about, how you can communicate unshared experience or create a shared vision. With enough flexibility in bending your world view and with luck and charity, you may achieve some mutual understanding.
Communication theories based on the CONDUIT metaphor turn from the pathetic to the evil when they are applied indiscriminately on a large scale, say, in government surveillance or computerized files. There, what is most crucial for real understanding is almost never included, and it is assumed that the words in the file have meaning in themselves—disembodied, objective, understandable meaning. When a society lives by the CONDUITmetaphor on a large scale, misunderstanding, persecution, and much worse are the likely products.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
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Later, I realized that reviewing the history of nuclear physics served another purpose as well: It gave the lie to the naive belief that the physicists could have come together when nuclear fission was discovered (in Nazi Germany!) and agreed to keep the discovery a secret, thereby sparing humanity such a burden. No. Given the development of nuclear physics up to 1938, development that physicists throughout the world pursued in all innocence of any intention of finding the engine of a new weapon of mass destruction—only one of them, the remarkable Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, took that possibility seriously—the discovery of nuclear fission was inevitable. To stop it, you would have had to stop physics. If German scientists hadn’t made the discovery when they did, French, American, Russian, Italian, or Danish scientists would have done so, almost certainly within days or weeks. They were all working at the same cutting edge, trying to understand the strange results of a simple experiment bombarding uranium with neutrons. Here was no Faustian bargain, as movie directors and other naifs still find it intellectually challenging to imagine. Here was no evil machinery that the noble scientists might hide from the problems and the generals. To the contrary, there was a high insight into how the world works, an energetic reaction, older than the earth, that science had finally devised the instruments and arrangements to coart forth. “Make it seem inevitable,” Louis Pasteur used to advise his students when they prepared to write up their discoveries. But it was. To wish that it might have been ignored or suppressed is barbarous. “Knowledge,” Niels Bohr once noted, “is itself the basis for civilization.” You cannot have the one without the other; the one depends upon the other. Nor can you have only benevolent knowledge; the scientific method doesn’t filter for benevolence. Knowledge has consequences, not always intended, not always comfortable, but always welcome. The earth revolves around the sun, not the sun around the earth. “It is a profound and necessary truth,” Robert Oppenheimer would say, “that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them.”
...Bohr proposed once that the goal of science is not universal truth. Rather, he argued, the modest but relentless goal of science is “the gradual removal of prejudices.” The discovery that the earth revolves around the sun has gradually removed the prejudice that the earth is the center of the universe. The discovery of microbes is gradually removing the prejudice that disease is a punishment from God. The discovery of evolution is gradually removing the prejudice that Homo sapiens is a separate and special creation.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
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