NBT Reading Comprehension 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A passage describes a policy as "well-intentioned but poorly executed." What does this suggest about the policy?
- It had good goals but failed in implementation (Correct answer)
- It was both successful and carefully designed
- It was created without any thought
- It was neither good in intention nor in execution
Correct answer: It had good goals but failed in implementation
"Well-intentioned" means the goals were good; "poorly executed" means the implementation was flawed. Together they suggest the policy failed not in its aims but in how it was carried out.
Question 2: A writer describes economic hardship with the phrase: "families counting every rand." What language technique is being used?
- Onomatopoeia
- Alliteration
- Concrete imagery / idiom (Correct answer)
- Personification
Correct answer: Concrete imagery / idiom
"Counting every rand" is a concrete, idiomatic expression that vividly illustrates financial difficulty. It uses specific detail (rand = South African currency) to make the abstract concept of poverty tangible.
Question 3: An author writes: "One cannot overstate the importance of early childhood education." What is the author doing?
- Understating the importance of early childhood education
- Emphasising the extreme importance of early childhood education (Correct answer)
- Questioning the value of early childhood education
- Offering a balanced view of early childhood education
Correct answer: Emphasising the extreme importance of early childhood education
"Cannot overstate" means there is no exaggeration too great — it is a rhetorical emphasis affirming that the importance is very high. This is a common academic intensifier.
Question 4: A passage compares two economic models using the phrase "on the one hand...on the other hand." What is the purpose of this structure?
- To show that one model is clearly superior
- To indicate the author's personal preference
- To present a balanced comparison of two positions (Correct answer)
- To argue that neither model is valid
Correct answer: To present a balanced comparison of two positions
"On the one hand...on the other hand" is a discourse structure used to present two contrasting perspectives fairly — a classic technique for balanced academic comparison.
Question 5: A student reads: "The correlation coefficient was r = 0.92." What does this value most likely indicate?
- A weak negative relationship
- A moderate positive relationship
- A strong positive relationship (Correct answer)
- No relationship between variables
Correct answer: A strong positive relationship
A correlation coefficient close to +1 indicates a strong positive relationship. r = 0.92 is very close to 1, showing a strong positive correlation between the two variables.
Question 6: The phrase "in lieu of" in an academic text most closely means:
- In addition to
- Instead of (Correct answer)
- As a result of
- Similar to
Correct answer: Instead of
"In lieu of" is a formal phrase meaning "instead of" or "in place of." It is commonly used in academic and professional writing.
NBT Reading Comprehension 3
A passage describes a policy as "well-intentioned but poorly executed." What does this suggest about the policy?