Comprehension Test for advanced level

   COMPREHENSION TEST

  EXERCISE –1

Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:

The West Bengal Government has not accomplished much in the fields of pollution control and municipal activities owing to shortage of funds, the State Minister for Environment said. Inaugurating a seminar on ‘Environment pollution, Afforestation and Urban Development jointly organized by the State Social Forestry Development and s local club in Barisha, the Minister said that though industries were mainly responsible for water and pollution and entrepreneurs were generally apathetic to pollution control measures , common people should also be conscious about the health hazards caused by pollution.

He stated that the Government has taken up various schemes for pollution control and urban development . He applauded the Union Government Scheme to clean the Ganga.

Dr. Tarak Mohan Das, eminent environmentalist said that inordinate use of pesticides and fertilizers was decreasing the medicinal properties of many plants and herbs.

Mr. Aiyar, Director of the Indian Institute of management , Joka said that urban development and town planning were the two main challenges before the country. He said that as fund shortage was the main obstacle to proper housing activities the sector should be nationalized. On town planning he said that planners’ main task was to ensure a green environment for the citizens. These Activities should be based on the users’ requirements, and industries should be located far from the areas to avoid air and water pollution.  

1. Select the correct alternative.

i) The seminar was addressed, among others, by the Minister for-

1. Social forestry

2. Town planning

3. Environment

ii) It was organized by

1. Environment Department.

2. Social Forestry Department in cooperation with a local  club.

iii) The Minister said that various pollution control schemes could not be executed for want of -

1. Popular Interest

2. man -power

3. funds

iv) Dr. Das observed that villages were 

1. free from air and water pollution

2. equally victims of pollution

v) Mr. Aiyar wanted industries to be 

1. encircle by green belt

2. located far from the towns.

B Find words from the passage meaning:

1. Beginning or opening with ceremony _______________

2. Planting of trees in and area to convert it into a forest ___________________

3. One who undertakes an enterprise ________________

4. An expert who makes scientific study of the surroundings __________________

5. A group of advanced persons working on a specific subject of study under an expert __________________

EXERCISE- 2

Read the following passage and answer the question that follow:

One day when I was in the fifth standard at the Rameswaram Elementary School, a new teacher came to our class. I  used to wear a cap which marked me as a muslim and I always sat in the front row next to Ramanadha Sastry, who worethe sacred thead. The new teacher could not stomach a hindu priest’s son sitting with a muslim boy. In accordance with our social ranking, as the new teacher saw it, I was asked to go and sit on the back bench. I felt very sad, and so did Ramanadha Sastry. He looked utterly downcast as I shifted to my seat in the last row. The image of him weeping when I shifted to the last row left a lasting impression on me.

After school , we went home and told our respective parents about the incident. Lakshmana Sastry, our headmaster , summoned the teacher ,and in our presence,told the teacher that he should not spread the poison of social inequality and communal intolerance in the minds of innocent children . He bluntly asked the teacher to either apologize or quit the school and island. Not only did the teacher regret his behavior, but the strong sense of conviction that Lakshmana Sastry conveyed, ultimately reformed this young teacher.

A.Select the right answer:

i) When the incident took place Ramanadha was a student of -

1. the 4th standard

2. the 5th standard

3. the 6th standard

4. the 7th standard

ii) The narrator used to wear a -

1. hat 

2. turban

3. cap

4. crown

iii) In the class narrator always sat beside 

1. the new teacher

2. Lakshmana Sastry

3. Ramanadha Sastry

4. Rameswaram

iv) The new teacher was summoned by -

1. the narrator’s father

2. Ramanadha Sastry

3. Lakshmana Sastry

4. A muslim guardian

B.Answer the following questions

1. Why did Lakshmana Sastry summon the teacher ?

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2. What could not the teacher tolerate ?

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3. Give a suitable title for the passage.

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C. Find out the words from the passage meaning:

1. tolerate_______________

2. occurance_____________

3. repent _______________

4. level __________________

EXERCISE -3

Read the following passage and answer the following question as directed:

A Bengal tiger was found dead with a wire snare around its waist - indicating poaching on Monday in the Sunderbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site that has also been recently recognised as a Ramsar site.

This is the first reported tiger death in the mangroves in the last four years and the first unnatural death of a big cat in the terrain since 2008, when the carcass of a tiger, with bullet injuries in its head, was found floating on the jhila river.

The death of the tiger- an endangered species , accorded the highest level of protection under the Wildlife Protection Act , 1972, and in such a highly protected environment like the Sundarbans - has once again raised questions about the vulnerability of the national animal.

It is being speculated that the tiger was not the intended victim, and that it got caught in a deer - poaching trap. Officially, it is not being called a case of poaching yet, until more details emerge.

A senior forest department official said the snare, made of galvanized iron,is typically used to hunt deer and wild boar. “Tiger got trapped in it. The snare was found around its waist when the carcass was recovered. The incident took place inside compartment 1 of Ajmalmari, which falls under the South24 Parganas forest division,’ said GR Santosha, the divisional forest officer of the zone. No arrest has yet been made in this connection, he added.

Ravi kant Sinha, the state’s wildlife warden , said the age and sex of the animal could not be determined because the carcass, more than 15 days old, was decomposing. “ We are not officially calling it poaching since its body parts were intact. we have sent samples for post-mortem'’, he added .

Source said the buffer zone,, when the carcass was found, is very close to Madhya Gurguria village. “A narrow river channel separates the village from the nearby forest, where poachers often sneak into search for deer. Though the forest department received the information on Monday morning , they had to press into service Ikna, the sniffer dog stationed in Sajnekhali, to finally locate the carcass later in the afternoon,” said an official.

Sinha said tiger deaths are very difficult to detect or report in the Sunderbans because of the hostile terrain. It was last officially reported from the mangroves in August 2015 , when two cubs were found dead in as many days.

Sources said the trap was placed inside the forest to kill deer. A recent report on the population of tigers in both Indian and Bangladeshi Sunderbans has sounded the alarm about poaching , mainly of prey animals.

Human interference was higher in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, the report had said,adding that the mangroves in Bangladesh have low tiger density compared with the Indian part.Scientists had  attributed this to poaching of prey animals in the Sunderbans.

A source revealed that poachers in the mangroves use snares made of both nylon wires and galvanized iron. The traps made of nylon wires are used mostly by local crab-catchers, cattle smugglers and fishermen from Bangladesh rely most on traps made of galvanized iron. They place a trap by tying its two ends to tree trunks.  “ The moment a deer approaches it while looking for food, it gets stuck in the snare. The more it tries to free itself, the noose gets tightened around its neck or feet, said a villager. ( Times of India dated April 10,2019)

A.Tick the right answer:

i) The snares is typically used to hunt -

1. deer

2. tiger

3. wild boar

4. both deer and wild boar

ii) The carcass was more than-

1. 15 days old

2. 20 days old

3. 25 days old

4. 30 days old

iii) The traps were made of -

1. iron wire

2. bamboo wire

3. nylon wire

4. steel wire

iv) The state wildlife warden is -

1. Rabi Kant Sharma

2. Ravi Kant Sinha

3. Ishant Sharma

4. Ravi Kant Alulia

v) In 2008 the carcass of a tiger was found floating on the -

1. Tapti River

2. Jhila River

3. Narmada River

4. Tista River

B. Answer the following question:

1. What was the snare made of?

___________________________________________

2. Where did the incident take place?

_______________________________________________

3. Why could the age and sex of the animal not be determined? 

_______________________________________________

4. Why are tiger deaths very difficult to detect or report ?

C. Find out the words from the passage above:

1. Deadbody of animal ____________________

2. Trap _______________________

3. Adverse ______________________

4. Imperilled _____________________

[ Ans. a) carcass, b) snare, c) hostile, d) endangered.] 

 EXERCISE 4:

Read the following text and answer the questions given below:

Built between 1799 and 1803 and modelled on the Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, the ancestral house of Lord Curzon, Raj Bhavan is a magnificent piece of architecture complemented by sprawling gardens that includes a patch where medical plants are grown.

The structure was completed on January 18, 1803, and Governor Generals and later Viceroys lived there until the capital shifted to Delhi in 1912.

Governor General Lord Wellesley, the first occupant of the building, took up residence in Government House,as it was then called , in 1803, even before the last of the workers had vacated the mansion.

The residential suites are in the four corners of the second floor while the main suite - the Prince of Wales suite used by visiting dignitaries - is on the northwest corner of the first floor.The central area on the ground floor is called the Marble Hall and comprises the Throne room, Banquet Hall and the Blue Drawing and Brown Dining rooms.

The northwest corner of the first floor houses the Council Chamber, in which major Government decisions used to be discussed during British rule. The Second floor has the Governor’s apartments and the ballroom.

The Throne Room, which got its name from the practice of receiving royalty in that section of the heritage structure, has crimson velvet draperies.The silver throne with lion arms that is kept there belonged to Hastings.

A low gilded stool of oriental pattern, said to be Tipu Sultan's seat on elephant back, stands in one corner. The walls flaunt striking paintings, including a life-size portrait of Indira Gandhi by Bikash Bhatttacharjee and oil paintings of Jawaharlal Nehru and Bidhan Chandre Roy by Ashesh Mitra.

A small but historically significant item is the urn that contained the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi before Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the then Governor of west Bengal, immersed them in the Ganga at what is now called Gandhi Ghat.

A.Write ‘T’ for true and ‘F’ for false statements with supporting statements:

1. Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire was modeled on Raj Bhavan, Kolkata. [  ]

2. The Governor ‘s apartment and the ballroom were on the first floor [  ]

3. Raj Bhavan was called Government House when Wellesley lived there.[  ]

4. In the throne Room there is a silver throne with leopard arms [  ]

5. The Marble Hall comprises the Throne Room, Banquet Hall and the Brown Drawing and Blue Dining rooms [  ]

B. Find words :

Distinguish personalities :_______________.

Wonderful: _______________________.

EXERCISE 5

Read the following passage and answer the following questions:

Paris, 24 March: a German airliner crashed near a ski resort in the French Alps today , killing all 150 people on board, in the worst plane disaster in mainland France in four decades.France’s junior transport minister said there were “no survivors” from the crash of the Germanwings Airbus A 320, a low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa, in a remote part of the Alps that is extremely difficult to access.

Civil aviation authorities said they lost contact with the plane, which was carrying 144 passengers and six crew, and declared it was in distress at 10:30 am(1500 IST). “ The distress signal showed the plane was at 5,000 feet in an abnormal situation.” said Alain Vidalies, Minister of state for transport.

Spanish King Felipe VI cut short his state visit to France on news of the tragedy, with a number of Spanish nationals believed to be among the dead along with Germans and possibly Turks.French President Francois Hollande said the plane crashed in an area very difficult to access and rescuers would not be able to reach the site for several hours.

The plane was traveling from the Spanish coastal city of Barcelona to the German city of Duesseldorf when it went down in the ski resort area of Barcelonnette. [ Adapted from a report published in The Statesman, dated 25 March 2015]

1. Answer the question briefly:

i) In which country did the plane crash take place?

___________________________________________

ii) How many were killed?

___________________________________________

iii) How many passengers was the plane carrying?

_____________________________________________

iv) How many crew members were there ?

_____________________________________________

v) From where did the plane take off and what was the destination ?

_______________________________________________

2. Select the most suitable title for the passage:

a)A German flight missing

b) A German plane burnt to ashes in Paris

c) Deadly crash of a German airliner in France

d) A German aircraft fell into the sea, killing 150 

3. Find words from the passage:

1. Calamity:__________________

2. Vacation Place: _____________________

3. Development and use of aircraft :________________ 

4. Specialized staff on ship , aircraft or spaceship:_______________________