Reading Comprehension

Direction: The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

As we re-open our economy and workers gradually return to workplaces, overall travel will increase. However, the need to maintain social distancing means public transport can't operate at usual capacity. And fears of crowded public transport will lead to commuters making a much higher proportion of trips in private vehicles – unless they are offered viable alternatives.

Initial analysis (as yet unpublished) of Australia's major cities suggests a shift to cars will produce severe traffic congestion if even a modest proportion of the workforce returns to their usual workplaces during the COVID-19 recovery.
Globally, this trajectory is already becoming apparent. As lockdowns are eased, car use is rising much more quickly than public transport use. The latest figures from cities as diverse as Berlin, Los Angeles, Chicago, Auckland and Sydney all show this.

First, the shift to private vehicles will be a bigger problem in cities with centres traditionally served by public transport than dispersed, car-dominated regions. Modelling by Vanderbilt University in the US showed an 85% shift of mass transit riders to cars would increase daily commute times by over sixty minutes in New York, but merely four minutes in Los Angeles. This is because public transport serves a mere 5% of journeys to work in Los Angeles but 56% in New York.

In cities that rely heavily on public transport, or even those with car-dominated suburbs but transit-dominated centres such as Sydney and Melbourne, a shift to cars for CBD trips will very quickly overwhelm the capacity of the road network. Pre-pandemic, 71% of trips to the Sydney CBD and 63% to Melbourne's CBD were on public transport. So, while travel volumes may remain well below pre-pandemic levels for some time, road traffic is recovering faster than other travel modes.

Sydney's and Brisbane's road traffic volumes have already returned largely to pre-pandemic levels even while most CBD offices remain empty. Melbourne isn't far behind. Returning commuters are in for a shock.

Several commentators suggest now may be the time to apply congestion pricing – charging a fee to use roads in peak periods. However, when many people are making travel decisions based on health risks, such policy may not produce the desired behaviour change.

The alternative is to improve commuters' public transport options, rather than trying to price congestion away. The aim should be to allow it to operate more effectively while still providing room for on-board social distancing.

This is no easy task, yet it may be politically and technically easier than rapidly bringing in a comprehensive road-pricing regime. Even with social distancing restrictions, public transport will use roads more efficiently than private cars.

The return to work must be gradual and supported by considerable flexibility in working hours. This will help manage peak demands. But on its own, it's not enough if frequent public transport services continue to be offered only during a limited commuter peak.

In the longer term, a fast and frequent metropolitan transit network will leave a lasting positive legacy, supporting carbon reduction and city-shaping investments such as Sydney's Metro and Brisbane's Cross River Rail. Failure will lead to crippling congestion that erodes the economic and social strength of our previously vibrant cities.

The author has used the word 'trajectory' in the third paragraph to indicate

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Financial services and financial accounting are the areas of finance that rely on and benefit from Excel spreadsheets the most. In the 1970s and early 1980s, financial analysts would spend weeks running advanced formulas either manually or (beginning in 1983) on programmes like Lotus 1-2-3. Now, you can perform complex modelling in minutes with Excel. Walk through the finance or accounting department of any major corporate office, and you will see computer screens filled with Excel spreadsheets crunching numbers, outlining financial results, and creating budgets, forecasts, and plans used to make major business decisions.

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

New Journalism, American literary movement in the 1960s and '70s that pushed the boundaries of traditional journalism and nonfiction writing. The genre combined journalistic research with the techniques of fiction writing in the reporting of stories about real-life events. The writers often credited with beginning the movement include Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, and Gay Talese.

As in traditional investigative reporting, writers in the genre immersed themselves in their subjects, at times spending months in the field gathering facts through research, interviews, and observation. Their finished works were very different, however, from the feature stories typically published in newspapers and magazines of the time. Instead of employing traditional journalistic story structures and an institutional voice, they constructed well-developed characters, sustained dialogue, vivid scenes, and strong plotlines marked with dramatic tension. They also wrote invoices that were distinctly their own. Their writing style, and the time and money that their in-depth research and long stories required, did not fit the needs or budgets of most newspapers (a notable exception was the New York Herald Tribune), although the editors of Esquire, The New Yorker, New York, and other prominent magazines sought out those writers and published their work with great commercial success. Many of those writers went on to publish their stories in anthologies or to write what became known as “nonfiction novels,” and many of those works became best sellers.

The New Journalists expanded the definition of journalism and of legitimate journalistic reporting and writing techniques. They also associated journalism with fiction when they described their work with phrases such as “nonfiction novel” and “narrative techniques of fiction.” In so doing, they ignited a debate over how much like a novel or short story a journalistic piece could be before it began violating journalism's commitment to truth and facts.

Some observers praised the New Journalists for writing well-crafted, complex, and compelling stories that revitalized readers' interest in journalism and the topics covered, as well as inspiring other writers to join the profession. They feared that reporters would be tempted to stray from the facts in order to write more dramatic s Others, however, worried that the New Journalism was replacing objectivity with a dangerous subjectivity that threatened to undermine the credibility of all journalism stories, by, for example, creating composite characters (melding several real people into one fictional character), compressing dialogue, rearranging events, or even fabricating details. Some New Journalists freely admitted to using those techniques, arguing that they made their stories readable and publishable without sacrificing the essential truthfulness of the tale. Others adamantly opposed the use of those techniques, arguing that any departure from facts, however minor, discredited a story and moved it away from journalism into the realm of fiction.

In engaging in the debate over what counts as truth in journalism, the New Journalists were contributing to a wider discussion of the nature of truth and the ability to know and present it objectively in stories, paintings, photographs, and other representational arts. Their works challenged the ideology of objectivity and its related practices that had come to govern the profession. The New Journalists argued that objectivity does not guarantee the truth and that so-called “objective” stories can be more misleading than stories told from a clearly presented personal point of view.

What meaning of 'anthologies' could be derived after reading the following lines “Many of those writers went on to publish their stories in anthologies.”?

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Financial services and financial accounting are the areas of finance that rely on and benefit from Excel spreadsheets the most. In the 1970s and early 1980s, financial analysts would spend weeks running advanced formulas either manually or (beginning in 1983) on programmes like Lotus 1-2-3. Now, you can perform complex modelling in minutes with Excel. Walk through the finance or accounting department of any major corporate office, and you will see computer screens filled with Excel spreadsheets crunching numbers, outlining financial results, and creating budgets, forecasts, and plans used to make major business decisions.

Direction: The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

As we re-open our economy and workers gradually return to workplaces, overall travel will increase. However, the need to maintain social distancing means public transport can’t operate at usual capacity. And fears of crowded public transport will lead to commuters making a much higher proportion of trips in private vehicles – unless they are offered viable alternatives.

Initial analysis (as yet unpublished) of Australia’s major cities suggests a shift to cars will produce severe traffic congestion if even a modest proportion of the workforce returns to their usual workplaces during the COVID-19 recovery.
Globally, this trajectory is already becoming apparent. As lockdowns are eased, car use is rising much more quickly than public transport use. The latest figures from cities as diverse as Berlin, Los Angeles, Chicago, Auckland and Sydney all show this.

First, the shift to private vehicles will be a bigger problem in cities with centres traditionally served by public transport than dispersed, car-dominated regions. Modelling by Vanderbilt University in the US showed an 85% shift of mass transit riders to cars would increase daily commute times by over sixty minutes in New York, but merely four minutes in Los Angeles. This is because public transport serves a mere 5% of journeys to work in Los Angeles but 56% in New York.

In cities that rely heavily on public transport, or even those with car-dominated suburbs but transit-dominated centres such as Sydney and Melbourne, a shift to cars for CBD trips will very quickly overwhelm the capacity of the road network. Pre-pandemic, 71% of trips to the Sydney CBD and 63% to Melbourne’s CBD were on public transport. So, while travel volumes may remain well below pre-pandemic levels for some time, road traffic is recovering faster than other travel modes.

Sydney’s and Brisbane’s road traffic volumes have already returned largely to pre-pandemic levels even while most CBD offices remain empty. Melbourne isn’t far behind. Returning commuters are in for a shock.

Several commentators suggest now may be the time to apply congestion pricing – charging a fee to use roads in peak periods. However, when many people are making travel decisions based on health risks, such policy may not produce the desired behaviour change.

The alternative is to improve commuters’ public transport options, rather than trying to price congestion away. The aim should be to allow it to operate more effectively while still providing room for on-board social distancing.

This is no easy task, yet it may be politically and technically easier than rapidly bringing in a comprehensive road-pricing regime. Even with social distancing restrictions, public transport will use roads more efficiently than private cars.

The return to work must be gradual and supported by considerable flexibility in working hours. This will help manage peak demands. But on its own, it’s not enough if frequent public transport services continue to be offered only during a limited commuter peak.

In the longer term, a fast and frequent metropolitan transit network will leave a lasting positive legacy, supporting carbon reduction and city-shaping investments such as Sydney’s Metro and Brisbane’s Cross River Rail. Failure will lead to crippling congestion that erodes the economic and social strength of our previously vibrant cities.

The author has used the word ‘trajectory’ in the third paragraph to indicate

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Cats primarily eat meat, so they are considered obligate carnivores, and this should be reflected in the food we feed them. A lot of research has been done to determine the dietary needs of a house cat, so the food options that are available to cat owners are plentiful. But not all foods are created equal. Adult cats cannot digest large amounts of carbohydrates, so these are unnecessary ingredients in their food. Carbohydrates can even decrease how much protein is digested, so they are in fact harmful to a cat. Proteins, on the other hand, are very important to a cat. Cats require a large amount of protein when compared to dogs due to their unique digestive systems. This means the average cat needs to consume at least twenty grammes of protein each day and often much more. Essential amino acids are also very important to cats.

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Financial services and financial accounting are the areas of finance that rely on and benefit from Excel spreadsheets the most. In the 1970s and early 1980s, financial analysts would spend weeks running advanced formulas either manually or (beginning in 1983) on programmes like Lotus 1-2-3. Now, you can perform complex modelling in minutes with Excel. Walk through the finance or accounting department of any major corporate office, and you will see computer screens filled with Excel spreadsheets crunching numbers, outlining financial results, and creating budgets, forecasts, and plans used to make major business decisions.

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Cats primarily eat meat, so they are considered obligate carnivores, and this should be reflected in the food we feed them. A lot of research has been done to determine the dietary needs of a house cat, so the food options that are available to cat owners are plentiful. But not all foods are created equal. Adult cats cannot digest large amounts of carbohydrates, so these are unnecessary ingredients in their food. Carbohydrates can even decrease how much protein is digested, so they are in fact harmful to a cat. Proteins, on the other hand, are very important to a cat. Cats require a large amount of protein when compared to dogs due to their unique digestive systems. This means the average cat needs to consume at least twenty grammes of protein each day and often much more. Essential amino acids are also very important to cats.