Haryana State Board HBSE 12th Class English Solutions Reading Unseen Passages Question-Answer Type Exercise Questions and Answers.
Haryana Board 12th Class English Reading Unseen Passages Question-Answer Type
Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow:
Passage 1
1. Wages for housework would reinforce occupational stereotyping by freezing women into their traditional roles. Unless women and men are paid equally in the labour force and there is no division of labour based on sex, women’s work in the home will have no value.
2. Since it is not clear what constitutes housework, and we know that house work standards very greatly, it would be difficult to know how to reward it.
3. Pay for housework might place home-makers (mainly wives) in the difficult position of having their work assessed by their husbands, while in the case of single home-makers, it is not clear who would do the assessing.
4. Wages housework, derived from spouse payments overlook the contribution women make to the society by training children to be good citizens and assume that their work is only beneficial to their own families.
5. Finally, payment for housework does not address itself to the basic reason why women with family responsibilities work : to increase family income over that which the employed husband father makes. Also, single women with family responsibilities work because they are the family bread winners.
6. It may seem puzzling that the hours of U.S. Women’s home activities have not declined because of the availability of many appliances (washing machines, gas and electric ranges, blenders etc.) The truth is that appliances tend to be energy-saving, rather than time-saving, and lead to a rise in the standards of house-keeping. Hence women today spend more time than their grandmothers, doing laundry, since family members demand more frequent changes of clothing today than in earlier generations.
Husbands and children expect more varied meals. Advertising encourages women to devote an inordinate amount of time and money to waxing floors, creating rooms free of ‘odour-causing’ germs and seeking to meet other extraordinary standards of cleanliness. Furthermore, the increasing concern with good nutrition means that many home-makers are now spending more time preparing foods that are not available in the market place or which are only available at great costs.
Questions:
(i) Why does woman’s work have no value ?
(ii) Who assesses the work of home-makers?
(iii) Does the author approve of his attitude to wages for homework ?
(iv) What is the division of labour based on in the modern set up ?
(v) Why do women with family responsibilities work ?
(vi) Why do women spend more time in laundry?
(vii) What is the increasing concern of good nutrition of women?
Answers:
(i) Woman’s work has no value because she does the traditional jobs in the house.
(ii) Husbands assesses the work of home makers.
(iii) No, the author does not approve of his attitude to wages for homework.
(iv) In the modem setup the division of labour is based on sex.
(v) Women with family responsibilities work to increase the income of their family.
(vi) Women of today spend more time in laundry because family members demand more frequent changing of clothing today than in their earlier generations.
(vii) The increasing concern of good nutrition of women is that many of them are now spending more time preparing foods.
Passage 2
1. About one in five of all the people in the world follow the teachings of the Buddha, who lived about 2600yearsago. (He was born in 563 BC) “The Buddha” is a title,not a name. Itmeans ‘the Enlightened one who knows’. The Buddha’s real name was Siddhartha. He was the son of a Sakyaking in Northern India. He and his family were all Hindus and belonged to the Gautama clan.
2. Gautama Siddhartha was brought up in luxury. He lived in his father’s palace and saw nothing of the outside world until he was a young man. Then, one day, accompanied by his charioteer Channa, Prince Siddhartha went round the city. On his way, he saw some sights that he had never seen before. First, he saw a man who was very old and was bent with age. Then he saw a man who was suffering from a terrible disease, possibly leprosy. And then he saw a dead man who was beingtaken to the cremation ground. These sights made the prince very sad.
3. Now, a complete change came in Gautama Siddhartha’s life. He was filled with a longing to find the cause and cure of human sufferings. He wanted to find the true meaning of life and help his fellow men. Although he was married and had a baby son, he left his home in search of truth. He was then only 28.
4. First of all, Gautama went to the Hindu priests. He wanted to know from them the cause of human sufferings. But the priests could not give him any satisfactory answers. Now Gautama tried to live the life of an ascetic. For six years he tortured himself so that he could become indifferent to any kind of pain.
5. He was reduced to a mere skeleton. But eventually he realized that all this was foolish and useless. Now he sat in deep meditation under abo tree near Gaya (in Bihar). Here at last he attained enlightenment and found the answers to his questions. He was then 35 years old.
Questions:
(i) How many people in the world follow the teachings of the Buddha? ‘
(ii) What does Buddha literally mean ?
(iii) What did Prince Siddhartha not know as a young man?
(iv) Name Prince Siddhartha’s charioteer.
(v) What effect did
(a) the sight of an old man with bent age
(b) man suffering from terrible disease
(c) dead man being carried to the cremation ground, have on the Prince?
(vi) What did Gautama decide at the age of 28 ?
(vit) Find word from the passage which mean the same as : “Really”.
Answers :
(i) About twenty percent people in the world follow the teachings of the Buddha.
(ii) Buddha literally means “the Enlightened one who knows.”
(iii) As a young man Prince Siddhartha did not know anything of the outside world.
(iv) The name of his charioteer was Channa.
(v) All these sights made him very sad.
(vi) At the age of 28 Gautama decided to leave his home in search of truth.
(vii) “Eventually.”
Passage 3
The intermediate and highly developed countries are now in control of world affairs, but the fact that two-third of the world’s people are in underdeveloped countries gives to them a potential influence of enormous magnitude. Furthermore, as we look at the characteristics of this great segment of mankind, we begin to understand the gap that separates them from the peoples who have greater economic advantages. For the most part, the underdeveloped world is desperately poor by Western standards; much of it is chronically hungry; it is weighted down with the burdens of poor health, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical care. It has a high rate of illiteracy, a generally low educational level, and it is technologically poor. In many of the underdeveloped countries there is a small, wealthy, upper class, but the privileges of this group are not generally shared by the masses. A middle class is often small or non-existent.
Although here are wide differences between the old civilizations of Asia and the non-literate cultures of Oceania and Africa these various non-Western peoples have many things in common besides those factors that place them in the underdeveloped category. Perhaps the two things that do most to give them a sense of unity can be summed up as colonialism and colour.
We now know that an individual’s pigmentation is not an important factor in his behaviour. But since the majority of non-Western peoples are dark, and they live in the less favoured areas of the world, it is not surprising that many Westerners consider colour a symbol of backwardness and inferiority. And because, at one time or another, most of the non-Western peoples have been the victims of Western discrimination based on colour, it is not surprising that many of them consider white skin a symbol of arrogance and an object of hatred.
Colonialism, too is heavily weighted with racial connotations. During the period of exploration and conquest most of the non-Western world came under the control of European government’s; even the countries that remained politically independent were subject to varying degrees of economic control.
Many of the subject peoples reeled under the blow of too sudden, too violent, or too prolonged impact and were either annihilated or absorbed. What is now the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were taken from the hands of aboriginal populations. The majority of the Latin American countries have been, in varying degrees, colonized and Europeanized.
In some of them, such as Argentina and Cuba, there are no aboriginals left. In others, the Indians still form a high proportion of the population; and in still others, the population represents varying degrees of mixture of Europeans, aboriginal Indians, and Negro peoples imported from Africa during the period of the slave trade.
Questions :
(i) Who are in control of world affairs?
(ii) Where does the two-third population of the world live?
(iii) From which three things do the underdeveloped countries suffer from?
(iv) Why the Westerners consider the people of a particular colour as the symbol of backwardness?
(v) Where do most of the Non-western people Uve?
(vi) What are most of the Non-westerners the victims of ?
(vti) What does the population of India represent?
Answers:
(i) Developed countries are in control of world affairs.
(ii) The two-thirds population of the world lives in underdeveloped countries.
(iii) The underdeveloped countries suffer from poor health, poor sanitation and inadequate medical care.
(iv) The Westerners consider the people of dark colour as the symbol of backwardness because they live in the less favoured areas.
(v) Most of the Non-western people in the less favoured areas of the world.
(vi) Most of the Non-westems are the victims of Western discrimination based on colour of their skin.
(vii) The population of India represents varying degrees of mixtures of Europeans, aboriginal Indians, and Negro peoples imported from Africa during the period of the slave trade.
Passage 4
So great is our passion for doing things for overselves, that we are becoming increasingly less dependent on specialized labour. No one can plead ignorance of a subject any longer, for there are countless do-it-yourself publications. Armed with the right tools and materials, newlyweds gaily embark on the task to decorating their own homes. Men of all ages spend hours of their leisure time installing their own fireplaces, laying out their own gardens; building garages and making furniture.
Some really keen enthusiasts go so far as to make their own record players and radio transmitters. Shops cater for the do-it-yourself craze not only by running special advisory services for novices but by offering consumers bits and pieces which they can assemble at home. Such things provide an excellent outlet for pent up creative energy, but unfortunately, not all of us are bom handymen.
Wives tend to believe that their husbands are infinitely resourceful and versatile. Even husband who can hardly drive a nail in straight are supposed to be bom electricians, carpenters, plumbers and mechanics. When lights fuse, furniture gets rickety, pipes get clogged, or vacuum cleaners fail to operate, wives automatically assume that their husbands will somehow put things right. The worst thing about the do-it-yourself game is that sometimes husbands live under the delusion that they can do anything even when they have been repeatedly proved wrong. It is a question of pride as much as anything else.
Last spring my wife suggested that I call in a man to look at our lawn-mower. It had broken down the previous summer, and though I promised to repair it, I had never got round to it. I would hear of the suggestion and said that I would fix it myself. One Saturday afternoon I hauled the machine into the garden and had a close look at it. As far as I could see, it only needed a minor adjustment: a turn of a screw here, a little lightning up there, a drop of oil and it would be as good as new. Inevitably the repair job was not quite so simple. The mower firmly refused to mow, so I decided to dismantle it.
The garden was soon littered with chunks of metal which had once made up a lawn mower. But I was extremely with myself. I had traced the cause of the trouble. One of the links in the chain that drives the wheels had snapped. After buying a new chain I faced the insurmountable task of putting the confusing jigsaw puzzle together again. I was not surprised to find that the machine still refused to work after I had reassembled it, for the simple reason that I was left with several curiously shaped bits of metal which did not seem to fit anywhere.
I gave up in despair. The weeks passed and the grass grew. When my wife nagged me to do something about it, I told her that either I would have to buy a new mower or let the grass grow. Needless to say that our house is now surrounded by a jungle. Buried somewhere in deep grass there is a rusting lawn mower which I have promised to repair one day.
Questions:
(i) What particular passion is the writer talking about in this passage?
(ii) How do men of all ages spend the hours of their leisure time?
(iii) What do wives believe about their husbands?
(iv) What do the newlywed wives do?
(v) How do business organisations encourage people to do things for themselves?
(vi) What was the cause of the trouble in lawn mower?
(vii) What is the delusion in the mind of the husbands about “do-it-yourself game”?
Answers:
(i) In this passage the writer is talking about the particular passion for doing all our jobs with our own hands.
(ii) Men of all ages spend the hours of their leisure time installing their own fireplaces, laying-out their own gardens, building garages and making furniture.
(iii) They believe that their husbands are infinitely resourceful and versatile.
(iv) The newly wed wives gaily embark on the task of decorating their own homes.
(v) Business organisations offer the consumers bits and pieces which they assemble at home.
(vi) One of the links in the chain that drives the wheels had snapped.
(vii) The delusion in the mind of the husbands about the “do-it-yourself’ game is that they can do any job with their intelligence.
Passage 5
All of us do some kind of work to ward off starvation or to gain sufficient material wealth with a view to maintaining that standard of living which our physical and intellectual powers have helped us to reach. But there is another kind of work which is completely divorced from the burdensome process of our livelihood and which is undertaken for the sake of amusement or interest or the direction of our surplus stores of energy in some new and useful channels of refined tastes. This delightful occupation, combining work with pleasure or hobby, as it is properly termed, calls for the application of our highest faculties, and gives proper form to our healthy instincts, purposeful habits and disciplined behaviour.
In our carefree and vacant hours it allows these faculties to perform their natural functions and to display their instinctive greatness. We devote our leisure to the pursuit of this pleasant task and derive advantages which compare favourably with those we obtain from the bread-earning routine of our daily life. Hobbies widen the sphere of our cultural activities, give refinement to our tastes and show us the path that leads to our systematic mental and moral development. Our tendencies and inclinations also find in them an outlet for a healthy and progressive expression.
“A hobby is a favourite subject or occupation that is not one’s main business.” In this age of machinery which has taken upon itself most of the laborious duties of physical exertion formally performed by man, then creating for him pleasant intervals of rest and leisure, it should not be difficult for him to devote some time to the pursuit of a new interest that can add some charm, colour or zest to his life.
The spare time must not be frittered away in idleness or spent on such work as overtaxes his mind and body after they have performed their normal function for the day. The new interest will be worthwhile only if it provides relaxation and change from ordinary occupation, banishes the drabness of routine work and produces a feeling that life is both charming and meaningful.
The choice of hobbies, like the choice of books, purposes of reading, is not an easy task. Some hobbies demand a little guidance from experienced persons. Our sudden attachment to them without the backing of this preliminary knowledge may result in wasting of our resources of time and money, and in the end compel us to abandon them. Some hobbies are rather expensive, and therefore beyond the means of ordinary people who can ill afford to spend large sums of money on them.
Not a few are incompatible with our temperament and taste. We must not, therefore, allow the glamour of certain hobbies to blind us to their reality, howsoever tempting they may appear to us, nor should we begin to cherish them thoughtlessly because we find other people so devotedly attached to them. In the first flush of enthusiasm, many have rushed into unsuitable hobbies only to find themselves turning away from them in a state of great disillusionment.
In a few rare and exceptional cases a sudden and instinctive choice of some hobby sometimes proves to be the right one. We must not, however, forget that tinkering with the hobby is joyless and wasteful process, unattended by any appreciable gains. Scattered interest in half a dozen or more odd hobbies is also not a desirable end.
Questions :
(i) Why do all of us do some kind of work?
(ii) What do you call the work which is undertaken for the sake of pleasure?
(iii) When do the people get the pleasure of executing their hobbies?
(iv) In the age of machinery, who has taken most of the laborious jobs of man today?
(v) What should be kept in mind while selecting a hobby?
(vi) When is a man compelled to abandon a hobby? –
(vii) How should we begin to cherish a hobby?
Answers :
(i) All of us do some kind of work to ward off starvation.
(ii) The work which is undertaken for the sake of pleasure is called hobby.
(iii) The people get the pleasure of executing their hobbies in carefree and vacant hours.
(iv) In the age of machinery, machines have taken most of the laborious jobs of man today.
(v) While selecting a hobby it should be kept in mind that it should not overtax our mind.
(vi) A man is compelled to abandon a hobby when it becomes a waste of time and money for him.
(vii) We should begin to cherish a hobby thoughtfully.
Passage 6
Day after day and night after night, we see sun, moon and stars rising in the east, moving in stately procession across the sky and sinking in the west; and ever since the dawn of human intelligence men must have noticed the same thing. But so long as they thought of the earth as a flat plain, it was easier to picture the dome of heaven as turning over the earth than to imagine that the earth might be turning under the dome of heaven.
Even Pythagoras, who believed that the earth was a globe floating in space, did not suspect that it turned round under the stars. He imagined that it stood at rest at the centre of the universe, and that the stars were attached to a sphere which turned round it from east to west. So far as we know, Heraclides of Pontus (about 388-315 B.C.) was the first to state perfectly clearly that it was the earth itself which turned round, and that this was why the heavenly bodies appeared to move across the sky.
It is not difficult to prove for ourselves that it is we who are moving round under the stars, and not the stars that are moving round above our heads. Now that we all drive cars, we are all familiar with the property of matter that we describe as “inertia”. About a century after Christ, Plutarch explained it in the words “Everything is carried along by the motion natural to it, if it is not deflected by something else.” Fifteen hundred years later, Issac Newton described the same property of matter by saying that every body perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed on it. When our car is running freely, stopping the engine does not stop the car; the momentum of the car still carries it forward, and to stop it we must either put on the brakes or wait until friction and air resistance brake the motion in a more leisurely manner.
Not only every object, but every part of an object, seems to want to continue its present motion, and will only make a change if something pulls on it and compels it to do so. If we turn the steering wheel of our car, we can make the lower part of the car follow the front wheels, but the upper part will seem to want to continue on its old course; if we turn the wheel too abruptly, there is danger, as we know, that the car will overturn. Or, if the road is icy or muddy so that the wheels get no grip on the road, the whole back part of the car will tend to follow its old course, so that the car may skid. We shall encounter this property of inertia very often on our journey through time and space.
It is important to us at the moment because it provides us with the simplest and most convincing proof that the earth actually is rotating. If we swing a heavy ball or weight, pendulum-wise, at the end of string, we shall find that it keeps on swinging in the same direction in space, no matter how much the top of the string is twisted or turned about: we can no more steer the swing of the pendulum in space by turning the top of the string than we can steer a car on ice by turning the steering wheel.
Now let us our pendulum swinging in such a direction that it swings towards and away from some clearly defined landmark, such as a church tower. As we want the motion to continue for a long time, we had better take a really heavy weight and suspend it from a high roof; if we try the experiment on a less massive scale the pendulum will be stopped too soon by air resistance.
Questions :
(i) What is the routine route of the heavenly bodies in the sky?
(ii) Who was Pythagoras?
(iii) What did Pythagoras imagine about the earth?
(iv) Name the first scientist who proved that the earth moved round the heavenly bodies.
(v) Write about Newton’s law of motion.
(vi) What did Plutarch say?
(vii) What is the most convincing proof of the earth rotating? ..
Answers:
(i) The routine route of heavenly bodies in the sky is from east to west.
(ii) Pythagoras was a great mathematician.
(iii) Pythagoras imagined that the earth was a globe floating in space.
(iv) Heraclides was the first scientist who proved that the earth moved round the heavenly bodies.
(v) Newton’s law of motion says that everybody perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed on it.
(vi) Plutarch said that everything is carried along by the motion natural to it.
(vii) A swinging ball or a pendulum-wise is the most convincing proof of the earth rotation.
Passage 7
1. Smoking is the major cause of mortality with bronchogenic carcinoma of the lungs and is one of the factors causing death due to malignancies of larynx, oral cavity, oesophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, stomach and uterine cervix and coronary heart diseases.
2. Nicotine is the major substance present in the smoke that causes physical dependence. The additives do produce damage to the body-for example, ammonia can result in a 100-fold increase in the ability of nicotine to enter into the smoke.
3. Levulinic acid, added to cigarettes to mask the harsh taste of the nicotine, can increase the binding of nicotine to brain receptors, which increases the ‘kick’ of nicotine.
4. Smoke from the burning end of a cigarette contains over 4000 chemicals and 40 carcinogens, it has long been known that tobacco smoke is carcinogenic or cancer-causing.
5. The lungs of smokers collect an annual deposit of 1 to IV2 pounds of the gooey black material. Invisible gas phase of cigarette smoke contains nitrogen, oxygen and toxic gases like carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, acrolein, hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen oxides. These gases are poisonous and in many cases interfere with the body’s ability to transport oxygen.
6. Like many carcinogenic compounds, they can act as tumour promoters or tumour initiators by acting directly on the genetic make-up of cells of the body leading to development of cancer.
7. During smoking within the first 8-10 seconds, nicotine is absorbed through the lungs and quickly ‘moved’ into the bloodstream and circulated throughout the brain. Nicotine can also enter the bloodstream through the mucos membranes that line the mouth (if tobacco is chewed) or nose (if snuff is used) and even through the skin. Our brain is made up of billions of nerve cells. They communicate with each other by chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.
8. Nicotine is one of the most powerful nerve poison and binds stereo-selectively to nicrotinic receptors located in the brain, autonomic ganglia, the medulla, and nemo-muscular junctions. Located throughout the brain, they play a critical role in cognitive processes and memory.
9. The nicotine molecule is shaped like a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine which are involved in many functions including muscle movement, breathing, heart rate, learning and memory. Nicotine, because of the similar structure with acetylcholine when it gets into the brain, attaches itself to acetylcholine sites and produces toxic effect.
10. In high concentrations, nicotine is more deadly. In fact one drop of purified nicotine on the tongue will kill a person. It has been used as a pesticide for centuries.
11 . Recent research studies suggest that acute nicotine administration would result in increased dopamine release from the brain, producing perceptions of pleasure and happiness, increased energy and motivation, increased alertness, increased feeling of vigour during the early phase of smoking.
12. However, notwithstanding these superficial effects, research shows that the relationship between smoking and memory loss is strongest in people who smoke more than 20 cigarettes each day and this is not specific to the socio-economic status, gender and a range of associated medical conditions. Smoking may speed up age-related memory loss and the details are not yet clear. Some studies suggest that repeated exposure to high nicotinic smoke related to the ‘Brain-wiring’ is nothing but neuro-biochemistry that deals with complex interaction among genetic experience and biochemistry of brain cells.
13. ‘No’ is a unique molecule which plays a role in a number of beneficial and some ofthe harmful brain and body mechanisms, for example, synapse formation, drug tolerance and local regulating of cerebral blood flow, Parkinson’s disease, etc. It is also found that people who smoke more cigarettes a day have poorer memories in middle age than non-smokers.
14. Some experts say that smoking is linked to memory problems because it contributes to narrowed arteries that restrict blood flow to the brain. One of the causes of memory decline in relation to the brain function could be the nerve cell death or decreased density or interconnected neuronal network due to loss dendrites, the tiny filaments which connect one nerve cell to another. Abstinence from smoking is essential, not only to avoid this systemic effect but also reduce the ill-effects on the environment.
Questions:
(i) How is smoking the major cause of mortality?
(ii) What in a cigarette makes the people addicted to it?
(iii) What are neurotransmitters?
(iv) How does nicotine produce toxic effect?
(v) According to the experts, how is smoking linked to memory?
(vi) What will be the result of nerve cell death?
(vii) Find words from the passage which have the same meaning as each word or phrase given below: (a) death (Para I), (b) energy (Para II)
Answers:
(i) Smoking is the major cause of mortality because it causes bronchogenic carcinoma lungs, malignancy of larynx, oral cavity, oesophagus and heart diseases.
(ii) The nicotine and levulinic make the people addicted to it.
(iii) Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers which help nerve cells to communicate with each other.
(iv) Nicotine poisons the nerves and affects the brain memory, cognitive ability, muscle movement, lungs and breathing, etc.
(v) Smoking increases nicotin levels in our body, narrows arteries, restricts blood flow to the brain causing death and leads to many memory problems.
(vi) The result of nerve cell death will be the decline of memory.
(vii) (a) Mortality, (b) Vigour.
Passage 8
1. Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed, for everyone thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess. And in this it is not likely that all are mistaken, the conviction is rather to be held as testifying that the power of judging a right and of distinguishing truth from error, which is properly what is called’good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men; and that the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects.
2. For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aber-rations; and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it.
3. No other qualities that contribute to the perfection of the mind; for as to the reason or sense, in as much as it is that alone which constitutes us men, and distinguishes us from the brutes. It is to be found complete in each individual; to adopt the common opinion of philosophers, who say that the difference of greater and less holds only among the accidents, and not among the forms or natures of individuals of the same species.
4. Those in whom the faculty of reason is predominant, and who most skillfully dispose their thoughts with a view to render them clear and intelligible, are always the best able to persuade others of the truth of what they lay down.
Questions:
(i) How is good sense distributed among men?
(ii) Do you think all are mistaken about good sense?
(iii) HOW do we conduct our thoughts?
(iv) What is the prime requisite?
(v) What makes the greatest minds great?
(vi) What distinguishes us from brutes?
(vii) Who are the best able to persuade others?
Answers:
(i) Good sense is equally distributed among men.
(ii) Yes, all are mistaken about good sense.
(iii) We conduct our thoughts along different ways.
(iv) The prime requisite is rightly to apply a vigorous mind.
(v) Applying vigorous mind rightly makes the greatest mind great.
(vi) The quality of reason or sense distinguishes us from brute.
(vii) Those in whom the faculty of reason is predominant are the best able to persuade others.
Passage 9
1. “All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door. When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting atten¬tively, he cleared his throat and began: “Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later, I have something else to say first.
I do not think, Comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty u pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life. I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.
2. “Now, Comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are bom, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength, and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.”
3. “But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it ? No, Comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cow s, hundreds of sheep-and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining.
Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings. There, Comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word – Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.”
Questions:
(i) Why was Moses absent from the meeting of animals?
(ii) Why was the meeting convened ?
(iii) How much food were animal given?
(iv) What is the life of an animal?
(v) What is beyond the imagining of the animals?
(vi) Where does the answer to all their problems lie?
(vii) Find word from the passage which has the same meaning as each word or phrase given below: bird’s resting place (Para 1)
Answers: .
(i) Moses was absent from the meeting of animals because at that time he was sleeping on a perch behind the back door.
(ii) The meeting was Convened by the Major to give some wisdom to the other animals.
(iii) They were given food that could keep them survive.
(iv) The life of an animal is misery and slavery.
(v) It is beyond the imagining of the animals that when their land is so much fertile why they are not given proper food to eat.
(vi) The answer to all their problems lies in a single word-Man.
(vii) Perch
Passage 10
1. “Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings ?” Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do ? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades. Rebellion! I do not know when that rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.
2. “And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be prefect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.”
3. “At this moment there was a tremendous uproar. While Major was speaking four large rats had crept out of their holes and were sitting on their hindquarters, listening to him. The dogs had suddenly caught sight of them, and it was only by a swift dash for their holes that the rats saved their lives. Major raised his trotter for silence.”
4. “Comrades”, he said, “here is a point that must be settled. The wild creatures, such as rats and rabbits – are they our friends or our enemies ? Let us put it to the vote. I propose this question to the meeting: Are rats comrades ?”
5. The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades. There were only four dissidents, the three dogs and the cat, who was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides. Major continued : “I have little more to say. I merely repeat, remember always your duty of enmity towards Man and all his ways.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And remember also that, in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal must ever liye in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the habits of man are evil. And above all, no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal.”
Questions :
(i) What do, according to the speaker, the evils of their life spring from ?
(ii) What advice does the speaker give to his comrades ?
(iii) Who are ‘they’ in para 2 ? What will they tell animals ?
(rv) What does the speaker know for certain ?
(v) What does the speaker repeat ?
(vi) What should animals not do when they have conquered Man ?
(vii) Find word from the passage which has the same meaning as each word or phrase given below: cruel or unjust use of power (Para 1)
Answers:
(i) According to the speaker the evils of their life spring from the tyranny of human-beings.
(ii) The speaker gives an advice to his comrades to work night and day, body and soul for the overthrow of the human race.
(iii) In para 2 ‘they’ are the human beings. They will tell animals that the interests of the human beings and animals are common.
(iv) The speaker knows that it is certain all men are the enemies of animals.
(v) The speaker repeats that all men are the enemies of animals and all animals are comrades.
(vi) When animals have conquered Man, they should not accept his vices.
(vii) Tyranny
Passages For Practice (Unsolved)
Passage 1
1. Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anythig about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language-so the argument runs-must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.
2. Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.
3. The point is that the process is reversible. Modem English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.
Questions:
(i) What is admitted to be in a bad way ?
(ii) What is declining ?
(iii) What is taken to be sentimental archaism ?
(iv) We shape language for our own purpose ? How is language taken here ?
(v) Who has been exempted from the charge of being a cause of the decline of language ?
(vi) What is the ultimate result of drinking ?
(vii) What do you understand by ‘frivolous’ in para 3 ?
Passage 2
1. No invention has been more timely than the telephone. It arrived at the exact period when it was needed for the organization of great cities and the unification of nations. The new ideas and energies of science, commerce, and cooperation were beginning to win victories in all parts of the earth. The first railroad had just arrived in China; the first parliament in Japan, the first constitution in Spain.
2. It is not easy for us to realize to-day how young and primitive was the United States of 1876. The age of specialization and community of interest was in its dawn. The cobbler had given place to the elaborate factory, in which seventy men cooperated to make one shoe. The merchant who had hitherto lived over his store now ventured to have a home in the suburbs. No man was any longer a self¬sufficient Robinson Crusoe. He was a fraction, a single part of a social mechanism, who must necessarily keep in the closest touch with many others.
3. A new interdependent form of civilization was about to be developed, and the telephone arrived in the nick of time to make this new civilization workable and convenient. It was the unfolding of a new organ. Just as the eye had become the telescope, and the hand had become machinery, and the feet had become railways, so the voice became the telephone. It was a new ideal method of communication that had been made indispensable by new conditions.
4. To make railways and steamboats carry letters was much, in the evolution of the means of communication. To make the electric wire carry signals was more, because of the instantaneous transmission of important news. But to make the electric wire carry speech was MOST, because it put all fellow-citizens face to face, and made both message and answer instantaneous. The invention of the telephone taught the Genie of Electricity to do better than to carry messages in the sign language of the dumb.
Questions:
(i) How was the advent of the telephone taken as ?
(ii) Why did great cities need it ?
(iii) What arrived in Japan first of all ?
(iv) What was the state of the United States of 1876?
(v) What was happening in the elaborate factory ?
(vi) How was the telephone conceived in this new civilization ?
(vii) What is meant by ‘instantaneous’ in para 4 ?
Passage 3
1. If I become a Vice-Chancellor, my first act would be to abolish all secrecy that surrounds question papers. Instead of permitting wild speculation or, as it happens nowadays, advance sale of questions in the black market, I would take advertisement space in newspapers and publish the questions in every subject, adding under each a credit line: ‘Set by Professor so and so’. I would not hesitate to announce with courage the names of those who are going to evaluate the answers and decree failures and successes. I would add a postscript to every question paper : ‘If you cannot answer any of the above questions, do not despair.
Remember your examiners are not infallible and may not do better if placed in your predicament. Your inability to answer will in no way be a reflection on your intelligence. We apologize for the embarrassment. Also remember, if you expect a first class and do not secure even passing marks, do not rave against your examiner, he is also a human being subject to fluctuating moods caused by unexpected domestic quarrels or a bad digestion just when he is sitting down to correct your papers; also, not being an adding machine, occasionally he may slip and arrive at 7 while totalling 8 and 3. Please forgive him.’
2. At a certain university in America I met an advanced soul. He taught Political Science. One month before the annual examination, he cyclostyled (or ‘Xeroxed’) the questions and distributed them among his students, who thereafter spent nearly twelve hours a day in the library in the ‘assigned reading room’. I described to him our habit of hiding the questions till the last moment. He remarked, “Why on earth keep the boys in the dark over questions that after all concern them ?” I explained, ‘We believe in mugging up; on an average 200 pages per subject and fifteen subjects in a year.
One who can demonstrate that he can recollect three thousand pages in the examination hall will be considered a first-class student in our country, although he need not understand a word of what he reads, or remember a syllable of what he has read after the examination. The whole aim of our education is to strain the faculty of memory ’
3. ‘Your system must have been devised before Caxton, when there was no printed book, and handwritten books were chained and guarded. Memory is not so important today. Our need is for more libraries and multiple copies. The only condition I make for my boys is that they spend at least six hours a day in the library a month before the examination, and while writing their answers I permit them to refer to the books. My only condition is that they should write their answers within the given time.
Questions:
(i) If the speaker were a Vice-Chancellor, what would his first act be?
(ii) What advice does the speaker give to the examinee who expects a first class but does not secure even passing marks?
(iii) What did the teacher of Political Science do one month before the examination?
(iv) How much time did the students spend in the library?
(v) What is the teacher’s only condition in the examination?
(vi) What does he say about memory?
(vii) Find word from the passage which has the same meaning as each word or phrase given below: pass judgement or order (Para 1)
Passage 4
People travelling long distances frequently have to decide whether they would prefer to go by land, sea, or air. Hardly anyone can positively enjoy sitting in a train for more than a few hours. Train compartments soon get cramped and stuffy. It is almost impossible to take your mind off the journey. Reading is only a partial solution, for the monotonous rhythm of the wheels clicking on the rails soon lulls you to sleep. During the day, sleep comes in snatches. At night when you really wish to go to sleep, you rarely manage to do so.
If you are lucky enough to get a couchette, you spend half the night staring at the small blue light in the ceiling, or fumbling to find your passport when you cross a frontier. Inevitably you arrive at your destination almost exhausted.
Long car journeys are even less pleasant, for it is quite impossible even to read. On motor-ways you can at least travel fairly safely at high speeds, but more often than not, the greater part of the journey is spent on narrow, bumpy roads which are crowded with traffic. By comparison, trips by sea offer a great variety of civilized comforts. You can stretch your legs on the spacious decks, play games, swim, meet interesting people and enjoy good food-always assuming, of course, that the sea is calm. It is not, and you are likely to get sea sick, no form of transport could be worse. Even if you travel in ideal weather, sea journeys take a long time. Relatively few people are prepared to sacrifice up to a third of their holidays for the pleasure of travelling on a ship.
Aeroplanes have the reputation of being dangerous and even hardened travellers are intimidated by them. They also have the grave disadvantage of being the most expensive form of transport. But nothing can match them for speed and comfort. Travelling at a height of 30,000 feet, far above the clouds, and at over 500 miles an hour is an exhilarating experience.
You do not have to devise ways of taking your mind off the journey, for an aeroplane gets you to your destination rapidly. For a few hours, you settle back in a deep armchair to enjoy the flight. The real escapist can watch a free film show and sip a hot or cold drink on some services. But even when such refreshments are not available, there is plenty to keep you occupied.
An aeroplane offers you an unusual breathtaking view of the world. You soar effortlessly over high mountains and deep valleys. You really see the shape of the land. If the landscape is hidden from view, you can enjoy the extraordinary sight of unbroken clouds, plains that stretch out for miles before you, while the sun shines brilliantly in a clear sky. The journey is so smooth that there is nothing to prevent you from reading or sleeping. However you decide to spend your time, one thing is certain: you will arrive at your destination fresh and uncrumpled. You will not have to spend the next few days recovering from a long and arduous journey.
Questions:
(i) Why is it difficult to read on a train in long distance journeys ? Give two reasons.
(ii) What are the two disadvantages of travelling by sea ?
(iii) What are the two disadvantages of travelling by air ?
(iv) What are the pleasures of air flight, according to the writer ?
(v) Why does the writer dislike long car journeys ?
(vi) What is the usual speed of an aeroplane?
(vii) Find words from the passage which have the same meaning as : (i) dull, (ii) comparatively.
Passage 5
We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm than good. Man continually wages war on them, for they contaminate his food, carry diseases, or devour his crops. They sting or bite without provocation; they fly uninvited into our rooms on summer nights, or beat against out lighted windows.
We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. Reading about them increases our understanding without dispelling our fears. Knowing that the industrious ant lives in a highly organised society does nothing to prevent us from being filled with revulsion when we find hordes of them crawling over a carefully prepared picnic lunch.
No matter how much we like honey, or how much we have read about the uncanny sense of direction which bees possess, we have a horror of being stung. Most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are difficult to erase. At the same time, however, insects are strangely fascinating.
We enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that, like the praying mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives. We enjoy staring at them, entranced as they go about their business, unaware (we hope) of our presence. Who has not stood in awe at the sight of a spider pouncing on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly bearing home an enormous dead beetle ?
Last summer, I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am especially proud of it, not only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it occasionally produces luscious peaches. During the summer I noticed that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither.
Clusters of tiny insects called aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a large colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. I immediately embarked on an experiment which, even though it failed to get rid of the ants kept me fascinated for twenty-four hours.
I bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for the ants to reach the aphids. The tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it. For a long time, I watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even went out at midnight with a torch and noted with satisfaction (and surprise) that the ants were still swarming around the sticky tape without being able to do anything about it.
I got up early next morning hoping to find that the ants had given up in despair. Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. They were climbing up the wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been completely defeated by their ingenuity. The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific methods!
Questions:
(i) What is our attitude to insects?
(ii) Why does man try to exterminate insects?
(iii) Why does the writer say that knowing about the insects does not make man change his attitude to insects ?
(iv) Do you think that the attitude of man to insects as described herein is right ? Why or why not? Give two reasons in support of your answer.
(v) What do you think the writer wanted to prove by the experiment he conducted on ants ? Quote words/expressions to support your answer.
(vi) By what had the writer been defeated?
(vii) Select words from the above passage which convey the similar meaning as the following :
(i) drive away (ii) sudden attack.