Unseen passage comprehension (Apathit Gadyansh)
अपठित गद्यांश: what is tested
An unseen prose passage, usually 150–200 words, followed by four to six questions. It tests comprehension, not memory: शीर्षक, मुख्य भाव, 'गद्यांश के अनुसार' short answers, contextual शब्दार्थ, विलोम/पर्यायवाची drawn from the passage, and occasionally a sentence using a phrase from it.
Core rules
- Read the passage once without stopping; read the questions next; then re-read the passage with the questions in mind.
- Answer strictly from the passage. Outside knowledge, however true, is marked wrong when the instruction says 'गद्यांश के अनुसार'.
- Keep answers to one or two sentences; a lifted full sentence rarely fits the mark.
- For शब्दार्थ, give the meaning the word carries in that passage, not its full dictionary range.
- For the title, write a phrase of two to five words covering the subject and its message, not merely the first line.
Worked example
Passage: a village boy walks eight kilometres daily to a library and later becomes a teacher. Question: suggest a title. Candidates: (a) 'एक गाँव' - too broad, names only the setting; (b) 'लगन की राह' - covers the daily struggle and the achievement. Choose (b) and justify in one line: the title names the effort, which is the passage's central idea.
Traps
Lifting whole sentences as answers; adding personal opinion to a factual question; swapping विलोम and पर्यायवाची; misspelling words copied from the passage; leaving a question blank instead of writing a one-line attempt.