English Reading Comprehension Questions for Bank Exams
In Bank exams IBPS PO, SBI PO/Clerk, English Reading Comprehension Questions (RCQs) help the aspirants to score more marks in English language section. English Reading comprehension questions test a candidate’s ability to understand, analyze, and interpret written passages. Solving RCQs effectively requires a combination of reading skills, strategic thinking, and practice.
In this article, we will provide English Reading Comprehension Questions with Solutions. English Comprehension Questions often carry a significant weightage in the reasoning section. Scoring well in these questions can significantly boost your overall score. You can attempt these questions & boost your preparation for your examination.
English Reading Comprehension Questions | Set-10
Practicing English Reading Comprehension Questions (RCQs) enhances your vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension skills, which are essential for effective communication in the workplace. In exams like IBPS/SBI PO and IBPS Clerk, they can account for 10-15 questions, making them a decisive factor in your overall score.
Direction (1-10) Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions. Certain words/ phrases are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Paragraph 1: Existing advances in technology from smartphones to new car services affect our everyday lives. Yet aggregate productivity has been growing very sluggishly. The disconnect between productivity growth and the technology revolution has triggered a sharp debate in economics. A scintillating new paper by Adair Turner of the Institute for New Economic Thinking suggests that rather than presenting a puzzle, the combination of technological innovation and low measured productivity growth is exactly what we should expect.
Paragraph 2: Before turning to Turner’s argument, it’s worth revisiting previous attempts to resolve the apparent puzzle. One perspective argues that slow productivity growth is at least partly a mirage. For example, if new inventions improve the quality of goods and services but the improvements are not properly incorporated into the economic statistics, the result would be that measured productivity is lower than actual productivity. The challenge is to determine whether the measurement errors are any bigger today than in the past and how large they plausibly are in any case. Some new research suggests that the errors may be growing meaningfully larger, but most studies suggest that any effect is too small to explain the bulk of the productivity slowdown.
Paragraph 3: A second argument is that there is a lag before new technologies raise productivity, because businesses need to adjust operations to take advantage of them and that takes time. According to this perspective, we are still in the interregnum. A third perspective attributes the phenomenon to sand in the wheels of the economy, as reflected in the decline in geographic mobility and the rising gap between leading firms and others in the same sector. At frontier firms, productivity growth has not declined, which raises the question of why those advances are not spilling over to other companies.
Paragraph 4: After all the important arguments enter Turner, who has punctured many economic debates, from pensions to climate change. He writes that “it is quite possible that an acceleration in underlying technological progress, which allows us to achieve dramatic productivity improvement in existing production processes, can be accompanied by a decline in total measured productivity”. The core of Turner’s argument is that the impact of new technology on total productivity growth depends on who accrues the income from the new inventions; what additional consumption they choose to enjoy with that income; and the nature of productivity advances in the sectors that workers are shifted into as a result. In particular, if those who directly accrue income from the new inventions choose to consume more services (such as personal services or artistic ones) in which it is hard to replace people with machines, the net result could be the coexistence of rapid technological progress and slow or non-existent overall productivity growth.
Paragraph 5: So technological progress and productivity growth have tended to coexist in the past because the workers shifted from one sector (say, farming) to another (manufacturing) and in both the sender and recipient sector rapid productivity growth was occurring. However, if the recipient sectors suffer from “Baumol’s disease”, which features limited potential for productivity improvements because it is hard to replace people with machines in those areas, then, overall productivity growth will be slow or non-existent. Furthermore, as our incomes rise, we may demand more services with Baumol’s disease characteristics. The employment projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlight the point. The top four occupations ranked by the number of new jobs projected to be created between 2016 and 2026, for example, are personal care aides, cooks and servers, registered nurses and home health aides.
Paragraph 6: There’s no doubt that Turner may be right in theory, the question is how important this phenomenon is to the aggregate productivity puzzle. One piece of evidence comes from a recent McKinsey report, which estimates that productivity growth declined by 0.2 percentage points per year between 1987 and 2014. The McKinsey numbers suggest that, at least until recently, Turner’s argument does not fully eliminate the empirical productivity puzzle. But Turner is focused on the next several decades, and over that period he may prove to be increasingly correct.
1. Why is it necessary to determine how bigger are the measurement errors today in comparison to that in past for the argument to hold true?
A. To demonstrate that the slowdown in productivity is just an illusion.
B. As if they are not bigger they could not explain the deceleration in measured productivity.
C. To determine how credible are the measurement of errors.
D. To comprehensively explain the reason for the entire slowdown in the productivity.
E. None of these
2. What is the probable reason for slow or non-existent economic growth according to Turner’s argument given in para 4? 3. What can be the possible impact(s) with the increase in the services with Baumol’s disease characteristics? (i) Aggregate productivity growth will not march in lockstep with technological progress. A. Both (i) and (ii) 4. What does the author want(s) to imply by the phrase “ we are still in the interregnum” given in bold in the third paragraph of the passage? 5. Which of the following statement is not true in context of the passage? A. Impact of sector shifting is an important pillar of Turner’s argument. At Let’s Study Together (LST) we understand our students’ requirements and keeping it in mind, The LST Team created a Very special “Banking English Topic-wise Booster Tests 2025” to crack upcoming Banking and Insurance Exams. These tests are available on our Exam Preparation Mobile App/Web named “Ixammr”. These questions are made by our experts after carefully examining previous years’ question papers. If you prepare this thoroughly, you can very easily crack the Banking Exams. 6. The author is in a position to draw parallels between New Imperialism and New Mercantilism because- A. both originated in the developed Western capitalist countries.
A. The workers have shifted from farming to manufacturing sectors.
B. Technological advances achieve dramatic productivity improvement in existing production processes only.
C. The potential for productivity improvement is limited in the manufacturing sector.
D. The consumption of services which are hard to automate.
E. None of these
(ii) Employment transitioned from high-productivity manufacturing sectors to lower-productivity sectors.
(iii) Automation will dramatically change how services ranging from personal care to education to healthcare can be delivered.
B. Only (i)
C. Only (ii)
D. Both (ii) and (iii)
E. All are correct
A. We are far from resolving the productivity puzzle.
B. It takes a considerable time to be able to sufficiently harness new technologies.
C. We are still far from the technological advancement which will increase our productivity.
D. We are in a period where there is a gap(lag) between technology and productivity.
E. None of these
B. Rise in the income can indirectly contribute to slow productivity.
C. None of the arguments given in the passage have resolved the productivity puzzle.
D. According to Turner low productivity is not a puzzle but an expected outcome.
E. All are correctEnglish Topic-Wise Questions Sets 2025
B. New Mercantilism was a logical sequel to New Imperialism.
C. they create the same set of outputs- a labour force, middle classes and rival centres of capital.
D. both have comparable uneven and divisive effects.
E. None of these
7. According to the author, the British policy during the ‘New Imperialism’ period tended to be defensive because –
A. it was unable to deal with the fallouts of a sharp increase in capital.
B. its cumulative capital had undesirable side effects.
C. its policies favoured developing the vast hinterland.
D. it prevented the growth of a set-up which could have been capitalistic in nature.
E. None of these
8. In the sentence, “They are prisoners of the taste patterns and consumption standards set at the centre.” (fourth paragraph), what is the meaning of ‘centre’? 9. Under New Mercantilism, the fervent nationalism of the native middle classes does not create conflict with the multinational corporations because they (the middle classes)- 10. What does the author mean by “ revived the paraphernalia of the landed aristocracy it had just destroyed” as given in 1st paragraph of the passage? English Reading Comprehension Questions are designed to evaluate a candidate’s ability to read and understand a given passage. These questions typically follow a paragraph or a set of paragraphs, and candidates are required to answer questions based on the information provided in the text. In banking and insurance exams, RCQs often include: In today banking and insurance exams, English Reading Comprehension Questions are blend of logic, patience, and strategy. Regular practice of these questions, coupled with smart techniques, can transform this challenging topic into a scoring forte. Candidates must focus on accuracy first, and then speed, and soon this section will become your ally in cracking banking and insurance exams!
A. National government
B. Native capitalists
C. New capitalists
D. Both (b) and (c)
E. None of these
A. negotiate with the multinational corporations.
B. are dependent on the international system for their continued prosperity
C. are not in a position to challenge the status quo.
D. do not enjoy popular support.
E. All of the above
A. It revived the aristocratic regime which was destroyed completely in the Edwardian government.
B. Atavistic policy culture which was recently destroyed was revived again in the Edwardian government.
C. All the perils associated with the authoritarian regime were revived once again revived.
D. All the liabilities associated with this ‘new imperialism’ were revived once again after being comprehensively destroyed in the Edwardian government.
E. Britain’s policies gave rise to the asymmetry in the expansion which is ironic as they had destroyed it recently.What Are English Reading Comprehension Questions in Bank Exams?
