Daily Reads-46 (Level-1): Sources for Reading Practice Online

From where should I do Reading Practice Online?

“Practice makes a man perfect”

This is a popular saying which actually applies to all parts of life, including doing reading practice online. Now, if you have to appear for an online exam which features questions from Reading Comprehensions, doing reading practice online is the key. The technology and internet boom has given a huge boost to the online world. You can find everything online and this also applies to doing reading practice online.
There are many sources of reading practice online; every famous or even upcoming national or international publication has online presence. To help you out with reading practice online, in this section of ‘Daily Reads’ we present to you the following articles from various areas like Society , Politics, Technology. It is very important to maintain variety in reading, the following articles talk about various topics from IPL and the Cannes film festival to Artificial Intelligence.

Reading Suggestion-1

Article Name: Nothing is what it seems to be
Author Name: Pritish Nandy
Source: Times of India
Category: Society

Summary for this article:

The writer here says how the two big events – one being the IPL that opened recently and the other being the Cannes film festival that had concluded recently had two faces to it.
While in the former – the main objective is to promote and celebrate cricket but in actuality it sustains a far bigger ecosystem– the illegal betting industry. In the latter – the intention is to celebrate good cinema but taking a good look at it one realises how little it has to do with film making. As per the writer it is the “world’s most subversive gender display where women hog all the limelight and men hang around on leashes, as coy as toy poodles”. Glamour has overtaken serious cinema.
Nothing is what it seems to be!

Words to learn from this article:

Underbelly: The part of the society that is corrupt.

Reading Suggestion-1: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-2

Article Name: God, the games that Artificial Intelligence plays!
Author Name: Venky Vembu
Source: Business Line
Category: Technology

Summary for this article:

Is AI the next step in evolution? Why is artificial Intelligence the next big breakthrough? These questions are getting people into talking.
Here’s an article that talks about how AlphaGo one of the most complex board games victory can be the next milestone moment in the evolution of AI.
AlphaGo, an artificial Intelligence program devised by Google’s subsidiary DeepMind Technologies achieved a breakthrough as until last year AlphaGo’s game was human-like, but this year, it played “like the God of Go.” This could be seen as a milestone moment in the evolution of the AI as per the futurists. Go is arguably one of the most complex board games. Given its 19×19 grid, Go is more complex than chess, which is played on an 8×8 grid. We can argue here that machines calculate faster than humans and this maybe the reason but Go requires intuition and creativity as well says the writer
AlphaGo’s architecture is the nearest simulation of the human brain and the nervous system. The machine learning algorithm that underlies AlphaGo will be channeled to address real-world issues. Scholars see the evolution of AI rewriting some foundation economic theories as well.
The author concludes saying that although absolutely perfect rationality maybe unbelievable yet this maybe breached someday.

Words to learn from this article:

Ginormous: something that is very large
Luddite: someone who dislikes new technology
Technophobe: someone who dislikes new technology

Reading Suggestion-2: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-3

Article Name: The case against abolitionists
Author Name: Malavika Rajkotia
Source: The Indian Express
Category: Politics

Summary for this article:

The writer in this article says how ending a practice such as triple talaq is not a solution. India being a plural nation, arguments against the tripal talaq could end up jeopardizing our pluralistic society. Moreover interfering in the rights of a minority community may end up making the Muslim women more vulnerable says the writer.

Words to learn from this article:

Castigate: to censure something or someone
Abolitionist: someone who favours or supports the abolition of a practice that is harmful to the society or a group of people.

Reading Suggestion-3: Click to read full article

Key Learning: Reading Practice Online

To sum up, we can say that for doing reading practice online, it is imperative to maintain a variety in your reading. Online exams feature RCs from a wide variety of topics: From Science to Philosophy and Ethics and Religion to Technology. Always remember to read from varied sources while doing reading practice online.