English Reading Comprehension Test-1 For IBPS PO 2020
English Reading Comprehension Test-1 For IBPS PO 2020
Passage
In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over ten percent of the Black population of
the United States left the South, where the preponderance of the Black population had been
located, and migrated to northern states, with the largest number moving, it is claimed,
between 1916 and 1918. It has been frequently assumed, but not proved, that the majority of
the migrants in what has come to be called the Great Migration came from rural areas and were
motivated by two concurrent factors: the collapse of the cotton industry following the boll
weevil infestation, which began in 1898, and increased demand in the North for labor following
the cessation of European immigration caused by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
This assumption has led to the conclusion that the migrants‘ subsequent lack of economic
mobility in the North is tied to rural background, a background that implies unfamiliarity with
urban living and a lack of industrial skills.
But the question of who actually left the South has never been rigorously investigated.
Although numerous investigations document an exodus from rural southern areas to southern
cities prior to the Great Migration, no one has considered whether the same migrants then
moved on to northern cities. In 1910 over 600,000 Black workers, or ten percent of the Black
work force, reported themselves to be engaged in ―manufacturing and mechanical pursuits,‖
the federal census category roughly encompassing the entire industrial sector. The Great
Migration could easily have been made up entirely of this group and their families. It is perhaps
surprising to argue that an employed population could be enticed to move, but an explanation
lies in the labor conditions then prevalent in the South.
About thirty-five percent of the urban Black population in the South was engaged in skilled
trades. Some were from the old artisan class of slavery—blacksmiths, masons,
carpenters—which had had a monopoly of certain trades, but they were gradually being pushed
out by competition, mechanization, and obsolescence. The remaining sixty-five percent, more
recently urbanized, worked in newly developed industries—tobacco, lumber, coal and iron
manufacture, and railroads. Wages in the South, however, were low, and Black workers were
aware, through labor recruiters and the Black press, that they could earn more even as
unskilled workers in the North than they could as artisans in the South. After the boll weevil
infestation, urban Black workers faced competition from the continuing influx of both Black and
White rural workers, who were driven to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs.
Thus, a move north would be seen as advantageous to a group that was already urbanized and
steadily employed, and the easy conclusion tying their subsequent economic problems in the
North to their rural background comes into question.
1. The author indicates explicitly that which of the following records has been a
source of information in her investigation?
(A) United States Immigration Service reports from 1914 to 1930
(B) Payrolls of southern manufacturing firms between 1910 and 1930
(C) The volume of cotton exports between 1898 and 1910
(D) The federal census of 1910
(E) Advertisements of labor recruiters appearing in southern newspapers after 1910
2. In the passage, the author anticipates which of the following as a possible
objection to her argument?
(A) It is uncertain how many people actually migrated during the Great
Migration.
(B) The eventual economic status of the Great Migration migrants has not been
adequately traced.
(C) It is not likely that people with steady jobs would have reason to move to
another area of the country.
(D) It is not true that the term “manufacturing and mechanical pursuits” actually
encompasses the entire industrial sector.
(E) Of the Black workers living in southern cities, only those in a small number
of trades were threatened by obsolescence.
3. According to the passage, which of the following is true of wages in southern
cities in 1910?
(A) They were being pushed lower as a result of increased competition.
(B) They had begun t to rise so that southern industry could attract rural workers.
(C) They had increased for skilled workers but decreased for unskilled workers.
(D) They had increased in large southern cities but decreased in small southern
cities.
(E) They had increased in newly developed industries but decreased in the older
trades.
4. The author cites each of the following as possible influences in a Black worker‟s
decision to migrate north in the Great Migration EXCEPT
(A) wage levels in northern cities
(B) labor recruiters
(C) competition from rural workers
(D) voting rights in northern states
(E) the Black press
5. It can be inferred from the passage that the “easy conclusion” mentioned in line
53 is based on which of the following assumptions?
(A) People who migrate from rural areas to large cities usually do so for
economic reasons.
(B) Most people who leave rural areas to take jobs in cities return to rural areas as
soon as it is financially possible for them to do so.
(C) People with rural backgrounds are less likely to succeed economically in
cities than are those with urban backgrounds.
(D) Most people who were once skilled workers are not willing to work as
unskilled workers.
(E) People who migrate from their birthplaces to other regions of country seldom
undertake a second migration.
6. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) support an alternative to an accepted methodology
(B) present evidence that resolves a contradiction
(C) introduce a recently discovered source of information
(D) challenge a widely accepted explanation
(E) argue that a discarded theory deserves new attention
7. According to information in the passage, which of the following is a correct
sequence of groups of workers, from highest paid to lowest paid, in the period
between 1910 and 1930?
(A) Artisans in the North; artisans in the South; unskilled workers in the North;
unskilled workers in the South
(B) Artisans in the North and South; unskilled workers in the North; unskilled
workers in the South
(C) Artisans in the North; unskilled workers in the North; artisans in the South
(D) Artisans in the North and South; unskilled urban workers in the North;
unskilled rural workers in the South
(E) Artisans in the North and South, unskilled rural workers in the North and
South; unskilled urban workers in the North and South
8. The material in the passage would be most relevant to a long discussion of which
of the following topics?
(A) The reasons for the subsequent economic difficulties of those who
participated in the Great Migration
(B) The effect of migration on the regional economies of the United States
following the First World War
(C) The transition from a rural to an urban existence for those who migrated in
the Great Migration
(D) The transformation of the agricultural South following the boll weevil
infestation
(E) The disappearance of the artisan class in the United States as a consequence
of mechanization in the early twentieth century
