Comprehension
Generally, people experience stress in their day-to-day lives, but more than thirty million Americans suffer from something more intense than that. Anxiety disorders are the second-most-common mental health problem in the country, and they can be paralyzing. Sometimes, day-to-day stress and anxiety are hard to tell apart, but the easiest way to distinguish them is that stress is brought on by actual events, and then dissipates, whereas anxiety is a more pervasive worry, that often attaches itself to specific areas of your life, like your relationship, job or health, says psychologist Terry Mooney.
This anxiety does not dissipate, and in fact, it can increase to the level where it begins to change your behavior. That’s when it’s characterized as an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can keep you safe, helping you recognize danger, and cope with it, says Mooney. But if you begin to see danger lurking around every corner, or worry over and over again about the same events, then you might be dealing with something more substantial, like an anxiety disorder. 
People with anxiety disorders often begin to avoid activities or circumstances that make them anxious, said John Forsyth, associate professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany and director of the Anxiety Disorders Research Programme at the university. People may stop driving, or stop going to parties. They may stop travelling or even avoid leaving the house. It’s this curtailing of activities that causes the suffering, Forsyth said, making you feel that ‘life is shrinking around you.’
 Anxiety disorders come in a variety of forms and manifest themselves in different ways. Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by ongoing worry about everyday tasks, even when there is no clear reason to worry. People with social anxiety disorder experience intense worry over social interactions, and often feel judged by people or worry that they will embarrass themselves. Post-traumatic stress disorder, which is characterized by people re-living a frightening event over and over again, is also considered an anxiety disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is when people take on obsessive rituals that help them maintain the illusion of control. Often repetitive in nature, obsessive compulsive rituals can include cleaning, checking and rechecking something, counting or endlessly reviewing conversations in their mind. Treatment is available for anxiety disorders. People can use a variety of approaches, including therapy, medication and exercise.
Question: 1

What distinction does the author make between stress and anxiety?

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • Compared to anxiety, stress is experienced only by a few people
  • Americans are more prone to anxiety than stress
  • Stress is the second most common health problem, which distinguishes it from anxiety
  • Anxiety is more intense than stress
  • Anxiety leads to stress
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The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (D):
Anxiety is more intense than stress

The correct answer is "Anxiety is more intense than stress." This is because the author differentiates between the two based on their severity or the depth of the experience. While both stress and anxiety involve mental and emotional strain, anxiety is generally understood to be a more profound and overwhelming experience. The other options are incorrect because: the passage does not discuss the prevalence of stress versus anxiety across different populations; it does not indicate whether Americans are more prone to one versus the other; it does not explicitly state that stress is the second most common health problem, thus distinguishing it from anxiety, and it does not necessarily imply that anxiety causes stress, although the relationship can be complex.
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Question: 2

What is the positive effect of anxiety according to Mooney?

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • It improves one’s health
  • It helps to recognize danger
  • It brings in mental peace
  • It sometimes brings happiness
  • It helps to overcome dangers
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The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (B):
It helps to recognize danger

The correct answer is "It helps to recognize danger." According to Mooney, and generally within psychological understanding, anxiety, despite its often negative connotations, can serve a beneficial purpose. This positive aspect lies in its ability to act as an early warning system. Anxiety can heighten our awareness of potential threats in our environment, prompting us to be vigilant and take steps to protect ourselves. It essentially signals that something might be wrong and encourages us to pay attention to potential dangers. The other options are incorrect because anxiety does not directly improve health, bring mental peace, or consistently lead to happiness. While it may sometimes motivate us to overcome challenges, its primary positive function, as Mooney recognizes, is in facilitating the recognition and awareness of danger.
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Question: 3

Anxiety disorder can best be described as

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • Change in eating habits
  • Ill-treating others for no reason
  • Often bursting of anger
  • Feeling anxious over trivial things
  • Change in one’s behavior
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The Correct Option is

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (E):
Change in one’s behavior

The best answer is "Change in one’s behavior" because anxiety disorders manifest in a variety of ways that fundamentally alter a person's actions, thoughts, and feelings. While "Feeling anxious over trivial things" is a common symptom, it's not the encompassing definition. Anxiety disorders can present with physical symptoms, changes in sleep, withdrawal from social situations, difficulty concentrating, avoidance behaviors, and more. All these contribute to a demonstrable change in how a person behaves and functions in their daily life. The other options describe possible symptoms or consequences, but don't represent the core defining characteristic of the disorder.
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Question: 4

People with anxiety disorder avoid

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • Travelling
  • Going to parties
  • Leaving the house
  • Activities that make them worried
  • All the above
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The Correct Option is

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (E):
All the above

The correct answer is "All the above." This is because anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive worry and fear, which can lead individuals to avoid a wide range of situations and activities that trigger these feelings.

* Traveling: Traveling can involve uncertainty, new environments, and potential disruptions to routine, all of which can exacerbate anxiety symptoms.
* Going to parties: Social situations, such as parties, can be overwhelming for people with social anxiety disorder. They may fear judgment, embarrassment, or social interactions.
* Leaving the house: Agoraphobia, a type of anxiety disorder, involves fear of places or situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment. This can lead to avoiding leaving the house altogether.
* Activities that make them worried: The core of anxiety is the feeling of worry and apprehension. Therefore, any activity that provokes these feelings, regardless of what it is, is likely to be avoided. This is a broad category encompassing various triggers.

Therefore, because all the listed options represent potential avoidance behaviors in individuals with anxiety disorders, "All the above" is the most comprehensive and accurate response.
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Question: 5

How do the people with social anxiety disorder behave?

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • They experience intense worry over social interactions
  • They worry about everyday tasks
  • They sit idle at home
  • They worry for no clear reason
  • They judge others in a wrong way
Show Solution

The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (A):
They experience intense worry over social interactions

The correct answer is "They experience intense worry over social interactions" because this directly describes a core symptom of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), also known as social phobia. Individuals with SAD experience significant and persistent fear or anxiety in social situations. This fear stems from concerns about being negatively evaluated, judged, or humiliated by others. This leads to avoidance of social situations or enduring them with significant distress.
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Question: 6

Re-living a frightening event over and over again is known as

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • Generalized anxiety disorder
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • Social anxiety disorder
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Excess anxiety
Show Solution

The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (D):
Post-traumatic stress disorder

The correct answer is Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. One of the key diagnostic criteria for PTSD is experiencing intrusive symptoms, which include recurrent, distressing memories, flashbacks, nightmares, and intense psychological distress or physiological reactions when exposed to reminders of the traumatic event. These intrusive symptoms essentially involve re-experiencing the frightening event over and over again, as described in the question.

The other options are incorrect because:

* Generalized anxiety disorder involves excessive worry and anxiety about a variety of things, but not specifically re-experiencing a traumatic event.
* Obsessive-compulsive disorder involves obsessions (intrusive thoughts, images, or urges) and compulsions (repetitive behaviors or mental acts), but not necessarily a focus on reliving a past trauma.
* Social anxiety disorder is characterized by fear and avoidance of social situations due to fear of negative evaluation by others.
* Excess anxiety is a very general term and doesn't specify the re-experiencing of a traumatic event.
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Question: 7

What are the different approaches available for treating anxiety disorder?

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • Meditation, exercise and massages
  • Training, controlling and rest
  • Therapy, exercise and medication
  • Self control, commitment and acceptance
  • None of the above
Show Solution

The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (C):
Therapy, exercise and medication

The correct answer, "Therapy, exercise, and medication", provides a comprehensive overview of the primary approaches used to treat anxiety disorders.

* Therapy: This encompasses various forms of psychological treatments, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which helps individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors contributing to anxiety. Other types of therapy, like exposure therapy, can help individuals confront their fears in a safe environment.
* Exercise: Regular physical activity has been shown to reduce anxiety symptoms. Exercise releases endorphins, which have mood-boosting effects, and can also help individuals manage stress and improve sleep quality.
* Medication: Certain medications, such as antidepressants (e.g., SSRIs) and anti-anxiety drugs, can be prescribed by a doctor to help manage the chemical imbalances in the brain that contribute to anxiety symptoms.

The other options are either incomplete or not directly relevant to the treatment of anxiety disorders. For example, while meditation, rest and massages can be helpful for relaxation and stress reduction, they are not typically considered the core components of anxiety disorder treatment. Similarly, self-control, commitment, and acceptance are important aspects of managing any illness or disorder, including anxiety, but they are not treatment approaches in themselves.
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Question: 8

What is the technical name given to the new treatment by Forsyth?

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder therapy
  • Acceptance and commitment therapy
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder therapy
  • Physiotherapy
  • Behavior control therapy
Show Solution

The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

The correct answer is option (B):
Acceptance and commitment therapy

The correct answer is Acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT. The question implies that a specific new treatment is being referenced, and given the options, ACT is the most likely and accurate choice. ACT is a well-established form of psychotherapy often used for a variety of psychological conditions and would be considered a valid "new treatment" in a hypothetical scenario. The other options, while relevant to mental and physical health, are not typically associated with the name Forsyth, and do not fit the established treatment modality of ACT.
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Top Questions on Reading Comprehension

Questions Asked in IBSAT exam

Although cynics may like to see the government’s policy for women in terms of the party’s internal power struggles, it will nevertheless be churlish to deny that it represents a pioneering effort aimed at bringing about sweeping social reforms. In its language, scope and strategies, the policy document displays a degree of understanding of women’s needs that is uncommon in government pronouncements. This is due in large part to the participatory process that marked its formulation, seeking the active involvement right from the start of women’s groups, academic institutions and non-government organizations with grass roots experience.
The result is not just a lofty declaration of principles but a blueprint for a practical programme of action. The policy delineates a series of concrete measures to accord women a decision-making role in the political domain and greater control over their economic status. Of especially far-reaching impact are the devolution of control of economic infrastructure to women, notably at the gram panchayat level, and the amendments proposed in the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 to give women coparcenary rights.
 An enlightened aspect of the policy is its recognition that actual change in the status of women cannot be brought about by the mere enactment of socially progressive legislation. Accordingly, it focuses on reorienting development programmes and sensitizing administrations to address specific situations as, for instance, the growing number of households headed by women, which is a consequence of rural-urban migration. The proposal to create an equal-opportunity police force and give women greater control of police stations is an acknowledgement of the biases and callousness displayed by the generally all-male lawenforcement authorities in cases of dowry and domestic violence. While the mere enunciation of such a policy has the salutary effect of sensitizing the administration as a whole, it does not make the task of its implementation any easier. 
This is because the changes it envisages in the political and economic status of women strike at the root of power structures in society and the basis of man woman relationships. There is also the danger that reservation for women in public life, while necessary for their greater visibility, could lapse into tokenism or become a tool in the hands of vote seeking politicians. Much will depend on the dissemination of the policy and the ability of elected representatives and government agencies to reorder their priorities.
  • IBSAT
  • Reading Comprehension
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I am the family face; flesh perishes. I live on, projecting trait and trace through time to times anon, and leaping from place to place over oblivion.
So wrote Thomas Hardy in his poem, Heredity, describing direct descent of life from one generation to the next. Indeed, the poem reflects the DNA in our genome. Dr.Drew Endy of MIT quoted this when he described how people at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) bypass nature’s constraint of direct descent. Scientists there have used chemistry and biochemistry to produce the first synthetic genome in the laboratory. They chemically synthesized many fragments of the DNA, encoding the 582,970-units-long genome of a bacterium called Mycoplasma genitalium. Next, they assembled these fragments in perfect order to generate the genome of the bacterium.
The DNA sequence of the synthetic one was confirmed to be identical to the natural one. While the DNA pieces were synthesized chemically, the stitching together was done using the biochemical machinery of a host cell. About 100 pieces of the genome, each 5000-7000 units long in DNA sequence, were first joined to produce 25 sub-assemblies, each about 24000 base pairs long. These were then introduced into the bacterium E. coli to produce sufficient DNA for the next steps. Next, they repeated the procedure to generate large fragments comprising l/4th of the whole genome of M.genitalium.
Now, they used the clever trick of exploiting the process called homologous recombination. This is a basic essential process in every cell, which physically rearranges the two strands of DN The JCVI researchers inserted the synthesized DNA fragments into yeast and utilized its homologous recombination ability to generate the whole 580,000 long genome of M.genitalium in one step. 
This is clearly a landmark work that leads into the brave new world of synthesizing life itself in the laboratory. It was hardly 200 years ago when Friedrich Wohler synthesized urea, an organic molecule, in the chemical laboratory, thus throwing out the notion of ‘vital forces’ involved in the components of living organisms. What is the next step, making life itself in the lab, bypassing nature? With single cell organisms like M.genitalium, it might not be far away. It is now possible in the lab to do so, by inserting the genome into a ‘host’ cell and asking the latter to make the bacterium of your choice. If only we find a way to insert the bacterial genome into this proto-cell, and somehow trigger it to make the bacterium itself! We would have chemically created life in the la This is not a pipedream; JCVI scientists are already on the job, and my bet is they will do it within a few years. 
This surely raises ethical questions, a matter that JCVI is keenly aware of and is already engaged in with ethicists. Even their present work on M.genitalium was done with prior approval of ethical experts. But then, today it is M.genitalium, tomorrow it could be a more advanced, multi-cellular organism, and that could flummox even the ethicist. Assisted reproduction, which is the other side of the coin and truly a recently initiated technology, has become ethically and morally acceptable. Cloning of Dolly, the sheep, has not raised any outrage, but cloning a human certainly does.
  • IBSAT
  • Reading Comprehension
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The technological trajectory traversed in communications and transport from pigeon mail and pony expressto e-mail and videoconferencing is almost as great as the intellectual space between Noah's Ark and the biotechnological revolution in the preservation and improvement of the species. Dreams are multi-hued today and soar beyond the hitherto accepted bounds of human endeavor.
The first bimolecular motors with tiny metal propellers to reach inside our cells and probe their secrets have been built and pilot-tested and scalpels fitted with probes that can instantly reveal whether cells are cancerous may soon help surgeons operating on tumours to detect cancer at the earliest stages, perhaps even replacing biopsies. That Einstein ousted Gandhi as Time's Man of the Century clearly reflects the Zeitgeist. As Stephen Hawking writes, The world has changed far more in the last 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic, but technological - technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science.
The reflection of the Zeitgeist, even as it stands witness to the enormity of man's reach, is also a warning: that when man's reach exceeds his grasp, it is time to pause and ponder over priorities. From time to time, a natural disaster might push us back to oil lamps and cooking by wood fire but a baby born a whole hundred hours after the mother was trapped under heavy rubble will also establish the sovereignty of other forces. Baby buying on the Internet illustrates the lowest human motivations at work, but harnessing its reach to attract global aid for earthquake victims reflects higher human impulsions.
  • IBSAT
  • Reading Comprehension
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