Reading Comprehension

Flipping through a Perry Mason thriller or an intriguing Sidney Sheldon bestseller, we are blissfully ignorant of the complex mechanisms involved in reading. Of course we get hooked to the plot at the very outset and the narrative is full of twists and turns. We understand everything without any conscious effort. Wait a minute. Do we really understand everything as clearly as we tend to claim? When we come to think about it, many subtle issues prop up. There can be problem zones. What makes us confident and complacent is the reality that nobody is going to quiz us about the motives and actions of Perry Mason, Della Street or Mary Ashley.
Examinations pose an entirely different picture when it comes to reading comprehension. We are understandably tense and more than aware that some not-so-comfortable questions crouch at the end. But again this is not such a big deal. All we need is a bit of nerve and a clear strategy. Though we have no golden rules, the following tips may not be entirely useless.
├ÿ Every passages has many details
├ÿ But we need only a few
├ÿ Our success lies distinguishing between the wanted and the redundant
├ÿ DonΓÇÖt question the authenticity of the information; you may come across a sentence like ΓÇ£Barrack Obama was born in 1901 in India as the sixth son of a poor agrarian couple and spent three years as a prisoner in the erstwhile USSR before running the president and making it.ΓÇ¥ Never mind an Indian, for than matter any non-US citizen, can be the president. As far a candidate is concerned, the final truth is what is stated in the passage (as long as he remains in the examination hall)
├ÿ DonΓÇÖt get carried away by the linguistic beauty of (or errors in) the passage
├ÿ Cast a glance over it and try to figure out the content
├ÿ Then read and memorize the questions as best as you can
├ÿ Now scan the passage with the sole focus of locating those areas that answer the questions

Look at these lines:
Nature is full of surprises. When atoms were first proved to exist (and that was a mere century ago), they were thought to be made only of electrons and protons. That explained a lot, but it did not quite square with other observations. Then, in 1932, James Chadwick discovered the neutron. Suddenly everything made senseΓÇöso much sense that it took only another 13 years to build an atomic bomb. It is no exaggeration to say that biology is now undergoing its ΓÇ£neutron momentΓÇ¥. For more than half a century the fundamental story of living things has been a tale of the interplay between genes, in the form of DNA, and proteins, which the genes encode and which do the donkey work of keeping living organisms living. The past couple of years, however, have seen the rise of a third type of molecule, called RNA. The analogy is not perfect. Unlike the neutron, RNA has been known about for a long time. Until the past couple of years, however, its role had seemed restricted to fetching and carrying for DNA and proteins. Now RNA looks every bit as important as those two masters. It may, indeed, be the main regulator of what goes on in a cellΓÇöthe cellΓÇÖs operating system, to draw a computing analogyΓÇö as well as the author of many other activities. As important, molecular biologists have gone from thinking that they know roughly what is going on in their subject to suddenly realizing that they have barely a clue. That might sound a step backwards; in fact, it is how science works.

Now can you give the gist of the passage? Which of the following do you think is closest in its gist?
a. Biology and physics are totally different subjects now
b. Biology and physics are treading the same path now
c. Biology and physics are trying to explain the world

Hope you have hit the bullΓÇÖs-eye. After all it is a mere beginning. Now read the following passage, a rehash of what you read:

The discovery of neutron made sense in the attempts to explain the world in terms electrons and protons. Similarly, in biology, RNA has been rediscovered as a regulator, not an auxiliary to, of genes and proteins. This has redefined the existing concepts of molecules and living organisms.

Of course this is a skeleton devoid of flesh and blood and emotions. Still, this might do the trick. At least it helps you navigate better and faster through the muddy waters of words.