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CSS Screening Test Reading Comprehension

Sample Screening Test Paper (Reading Comprehension Section) for Central Superior Services (CSS) Competitive Examination

SAMPLE PAPER: CSS SCREENING TEST (READING COMPREHENSION)
Total Marks: 200 (Number of MCQs: 200)
Time Allowed: 3 hours


SCREENING TEST FOR CSS COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION

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Reading Comprehension
Instructions:
Read the following paragraphs carefully. Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

These huge waves wreak terrific damage when they crash on the shores of distant lands or continents. Under a perfectly sunny sky and from an apparently calm sea, a wall of water may break twenty or thirty feet high over beaches and waterfronts, crushing houses and drowning unsuspecting residents and bathers in its path.

How are these waves formed? When a submarine earthquake occurs, it is likely to set up a tremendous amount of shock, disturbing the quite waters of the deep ocean. This disturbance travels to the surface and forms a huge swell in the ocean many miles across. It rolls outward in all directions, and the water lowers in the centre as another as another swell looms up. Thus a series of concentric swells are formed similar to those made when a coin or small pebble is dropped into a basin of water. The big difference is in the size. Each of the concentric rings of basin water traveling out toward the edge is only about an inch across and less than a quarter of an inch high. The swells in the ocean are sometimes nearly a mile wide and rise to several multiple of ten feet in height.

Many of us have heard about these waves, called "tsunami". Nothing was done about tsunamis until after World War II. An underwater earthquake in the Aleutian Islands could start a swell that would break along the shores and cause severe damage. These waves travel hundreds of miles an hour, and one can understand how they would crash!

  1. One surprising aspect of the waves discussed in the passage is the fact that they
    1. are formed in concentric patterns
    2. often strike during clear weather
    3. arise under conditions of cold temperature
    4. are produced by deep swells

  2. It is believed that the waves are caused by
    1. seismic changes
    2. concentric time belts
    3. underwater earthquakes
    4. storms

  3. The normal maximum width of the waves is approximately
    1. one mile
    2. five miles
    3. five feet
    4. ten feet

  4. Nothing was done about the waves until
    1. deaths occurred
    2. a solution was found
    3. millions of dollars worth of damage was incurred
    4. the outbreak of World War II

  5. The movement of the waves has been measured at a speed of
    1. 1 mile an hour
    2. 50 miles an hour
    3. 100 miles an hour
    4. more than a hundred miles an hour

Instructions:
Read the following paragraphs carefully. Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Unemployment is an important index of economic slack and lost output, but it is much more than that. For the unemployed person, it is often a damaging affront to human dignity and sometimes a catastrophic blow to family life. Nor is this cost distributed in proportion to ability to bear it. It falls most heavily on the young, the semiskilled and unskilled, the black person, the older worker, and underemployed person in a low income rural area who is denied the option of securing more rewarding urban employment…. The concentrated incidence of unemployment among specific groups in the population means far greater costs to society that can be measured simply in hours of involuntary idleness or dollars of income lost. The extra costs include disruption of the careers of young people, increased juvenile delinquency, and perpetuation of conditions which breed racial discrimination in employment and otherwise deny equality of opportunity. There is another and more subtle cost. The social and economic strains of prolonged underutilization create strong pressures for cost-increasing solutions…. On the side of labor, prolonged high unemployment leads to “share-the-work” pressures for shorter hours, intensifies resistance to technological change and to rationalization of work rules. On the side of business, the weakness of markets leads to attempts to raise prices to cover high average overhead casts and to pressures for protection against foreign and domestic competition.

  1. According to the passage, unemployment is an index of
    1. over utilization of capacity
    2. economic slack and lost output
    3. diminished resources
    4. the employment rate

  2. While unemployment is damaging to many, it falls most heavily upon all except the
    1. black
    2. semiskilled
    3. unskilled
    4. white middle class

  3. The cost to society of unemployment can be measured by all except
    1. lost incomes
    2. idleness
    3. juvenile delinquency
    4. the death rate

  4. Serious unemployment leads labor groups to demand
    1. more jobs by having everyone work shorter hours
    2. higher wages to those employed
    3. “no fire” policies
    4. cost-cutting solutions

  5. According to the passage, a typical business reaction to a recession is to press for
    1. higher unemployment insurance
    2. protection against imports
    3. government action
    4. restrictive business practices

    ANSWERS: CSS SCREENING TEST READING COMPREHENSION

    1. B
    2. C
    3. A
    4. D
    5. D
    6. B
    7. D
    8. D
    9. A
    10. B

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