Reading Comprehension Questions & Answers - 6 | English Language for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Based on the Passage, answer the following questions:
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 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 towards the 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 

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Ans: (d)
Sol: In the passage, the author states that ten percent of the Black workers in the South were employed in “manufacturing and mechanical pursuits” and then identifies “manufacturing and mechanical pursuits” as the general federal census category for industrial occupations in 1910. Thus, she indicates that she used the federal census as a source of information.

Q2: 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. 

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Ans: (c)
Sol: To answer this question, you must first identify the author’s argument. The author argues that it is possible that Black migrants to the North were living and working in urban areas of the South rather than in rural areas, as researchers had previously assumed. In the passage, the author states that it may be “surprising” that an employed population would relocate. Thus, the author anticipates an objection to her argument on the grounds that Black urban workers in the South would have been unlikely to leave an economically secure existence. She meets that objection by stating that “an explanation lies in the labor conditions then prevalent in the South”, and discusses the low wages that may have motivated Black workers to migrate north for higher pay.

Q3: According to the passage, which of the following is true about the wages in southern cities in 1910?
(a) They were being pushed lower as a result of increased competition. 
(b) They had begun 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. 

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Ans: (a)
Sol: The author discusses wages in southern cities in the third paragraph. Lines state that an increase in the number of rural workers who migrated to southern cities after the collapse of the cotton industry led to increased competition for jobs and resulted in wages being pushed lower.

Q4: 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 

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Ans: (d)
Sol: This question asks you to identify the possible influences that motivated Black workers in their decision to migrate north, and then to recognize which of the choices is NOT mentioned as an influence on Black workers. This is the only option not mentioned in the passage as an influence that may have motivated southern Black workers to move north.

5. 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 

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Ans: (d)
Sol: The first paragraph describes a common assumption about the Great Migration, that the majority of migrants came from rural areas. It also restates the conclusion that is based on this assumption, that the subsequent economic difficulties of Black migrants in the North were a result of their unfamiliarity with urban life. In the second paragraph, the author states that the “question of who actually left the South” has never been adequately researched. She goes on to argue that Black migrants may actually have been from urban areas rather than rural areas, and thus that their subsequent economic problems in northern cities were not caused by their rural background. In making this argument, the author is challenging the “widely accepted explanation” presented in the first paragraph.