Reading skill English (Language & Literature) - Reading skill

1. The river flows on. but sluggishly. Its surface is calm and smooth. It turns a bend at a clump of bamboo, gently passes a grove of coconut, and now drifts along with scarcely a murmur. It is wide, too. The engineers had needed unspeakable amounts of concrete and rupees to build a. bridge across and when that went into disrepair with age and neglect, they had needed even more to build another.

2. A white flock of river terns appears. The terns energetically flap their pointed wings but mill around in an effort to go slow with the flow. They swoop and pick off the surface of the river small silvery fish, floating strangely immobile on their side. It is easy work, for the fish are already dead. Dozens of dead fish follow, sprinkled and sparkling on the river, killed by poison or by the shock of a dynamite blast upriver. Some feed the terns, others drift here and there and below the culverts and into the nearby fields.

3. The waters had travelled far to get here. Blown by winds from across the ocean, meeting the great escarpment of the Western Ghats, rising as vapours and clouds, and bringing wafting mists and torrential rains, they had drenched the slopes of the mountains a hundred miles away. Not all the rain had travelled to the ocean, though much had arisen from the forest itself, ascending through millions of roots and stems and transpiring through billions of leaves and leaflets. The forests pump hundreds of thousands of litres of water into the air, and the air returns some of it, falling as rain condensing as dew.

4. Some water flows overland, much sinks in, sponged by the leaf litter and soil. Below the surface, the water travels through pipes and aquifers far and wide, recharging ground waters, emerging as springs, and draining into streams feeding the wide river.

5. The clear waters from the forest join other waters; waters that gather the dust and carry the soil from the road-scars and the mine-wounds on the hill slopes. Waters deadened by passage through dams and reservoirs, through stagnant pools and ponds with hyacinth and algae. Waters carrying earth from furrowed and exposed soils under alien plantations of acacia and eucalyptus and from forests whose litter-blankets are harvested to enrich the nearby fields with nutriment. Waters course in with the wastes of villages, towns, and cities, the effluents of factories and the oil and fuel spilled from lorries washed on the banks.

6. The river passes a rice mill. The mill faces away from the river, with a neat garden in front and a mound of waste dumped at the back, on the banks.

7. The story of the river seems so familiar. The river gives us water for irrigation, drinking, washing, bathing, navigation, and power. It provides us fish and fertile plains, reeds and recreation. But, does the river really give to us all this or do we just take it? And what do we give back, if anything?

17.1. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions in 30–40 words each:

(a) What is the course that a river takes?

(b) What are terns? What do they pick from the river that is strange?

(c) The river is a combination of different waters. What are these?

(d) The writer says at the end ‘whether the river gives us or we take it’. What is the difference between the two?

17.2. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer of the following:

(a) In para 5, the synonym of ‘motionless’ is .................................. .

(i) dirtily

(ii) moving

(iii) stagnant

(iv) muddy

(b) In para 5, the antonym of ‘deplete’ is .................................. .

(i) carry

(ii) spilled

(iii) gather

(iv) enrich

(c) The strange thing in case of the water birds, terns is that they catch only those fish which are alive.(True/False)

(d) The river not only gives us water for irrigation, drinking, bathing, power, etc. but also provides us .................................. .

1. Henry Ford was convinced that belief in self, whether positive or negative, always showed results. So if you believe you are capable, it’s true for you. Likewise, if you believe you’re incapable, that’s true for you as well.

2. Ford spoke from experience. For his humble beginnings as an apprentice machinist, when he had nothing with him except his passion for mechanics, to successfully founding the Ford Motor Company, his life was a fine example of belief in self. When Ford was working on designing a gasoline-powered car, his friend, the great Thomas Edison was not convinced about it. But Ford believed in his idea and carried on until he succeeded. A century later, cars still run on gasoline.

3. It is easy to see how positive beliefs work for us: when we believe we can achieve a goal, we work diligently and do what it takes until it sees the light of day — like Ford did.

4. There are those who look for reasons why things won’t go their way. And there are others who are only concerned about how they’ll make it work, and they do. This is because self-doubt and self-belief are products of the same mind.

5. Before 1970, experts believed that a man could not lift more than 500 pounds. Then along came Russian Olympian Vasily Alexeev, who decided to break the 500 pounds barrier. Initially, he could not lift more than 499 pounds. Then one day. his trainers put 501.5 pounds on his par without his knowledge, which he lifted thinking it was 499. Within a week of Vasily’s record-breaking lift, Serge Redding of Belgium and Ken Patera of USA also lifted more than 500 pounds.

6. So what was preventing these great weight lifters from crossing the 500-pound mark before 1970? It was their self-limiting belief. Once a new belief replaced the old one, there was no doubt left in their minds about their ability. William Shakespeare said: “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

7. Shakespeare uses the word ‘traitors’ to describe our doubts. He knew that despite being created by our own mind, our doubts cripple us, immobilise us and prevent us from reaching our potential. And just as a positive belief works in our favour, doubt — a negative belief — works against us. When you don’t have faith in your abilities, you have little motivation to-accomplish your goals. Consequently, you end up putting little, if any, effort towards making them a reality — and your goals never materialise.

16.1. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions in 30–40 words each:

(a) How do our beliefs affect us?

(b) What was that unique character trait that made Ford a successful businessman?

(c) What was happening to the weight lifter?

(d) ‘Our doubts are traitors”. Explain these words of Shakespeare.

16.2. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer of the following:

(a) In para 3, the synonym of ‘earnestly’ is .................................. .

(i) dilignetly

(ii) achieve

(iii) positive

(iv) crazily

(b) In para 7, the antonym of ‘strengthen’ is .................................. .

(i) traitors

(ii) cripple

(iii) accomplish

(iv) potential

(c) Here ‘traitors’ imply doubts that are positive blief in us and enhance our working to our full potential.(True/False)

(d) ‘Self doubt’ in this context means .................................. .

1. Work is something that we do, all through life. More important than the work we do, is our attitude to it. From the moment we are born, till we die, work is being done all the time, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not. Even sitting idle or lying in bed is an activity, a work. Breathing, digesting, sleeping, waking up, blinking, keeping up our muscles tone, the slow process of formation of new cells and destruction of old ones— all these activities are work that goes on, with or without our consent. It is only in death that’ work truly ceases. Many people feel that they would like to retire at the age of 60 and do ‘nothing’. But as long as we are alive, it is impossible to do ‘nothing’.

2. Having agreed that work is unavoidable, we need to look at how we do the work. Whether it is a child who is playing, a mother who is feeding her child, a house help who is sweeping the floor, or a physician who is saving lives — what is important in all these activities is our attitude. Are you doing your work with a happy, creative, cheerful outlook, or are you constantly complaining and wishing for ‘something’ else to do? Because if you are miserable doing the work allotted to you, rest assured that you’ll remain miserable in whatever work you do.

3. Since work and activity is unavoidable, why not do it with pleasure, with interest, with involvement, with joy? What is in our hands, is how to react to the work that we do. When you are, standing in the queue to pay your child’s fees, or waiting at a government office to renew your licence or passport, you have only two choices: either spend the time relaxing and making friends with others standing in line, or spend the time irritated, angry and frustrated.

4. What is worship? It is offering something to God. Here, we are offering our work to God. We normally work only for our own benefit, for our own profits. When we are ready to give up this benefit, this profit, and accept anything and everything that comes our way as a blessing from God, then, our work becomes worship.

15.1. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions in 30–40 words each:

(a) What is more important work or attitude and why?

(b) What are the various things happening inside our body which we are not aware of?

(c) What kind of attitude should we possess towards our work?

(d) What are the choices we have when there is some urgent work that we have to complete?

15.2. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer of the following:

(a) The synonym of ‘advantage’ in para 4 is .................................. .

(i) after

(ii) profit

(iii) benefit

(iv) blessings

(b) The antonym of ‘cheerful’ in para 2 is .................................. .

(i) happy

(ii) miserable

(iii) complaining

(iv) unavoidable

(c) Work becomes worship when we worry about its fruits and profits, and do it with our personal interest. (True/False)

(d) Attitude is more important than work because it is our attitude that makes the work ................................. .

1. Once upon a time, there lived a poor farmer with his wife and son in a small village. He toiled a lot in his field but the fruits of his labour were meagre. One day, exhausted by the heat, he laid down under the shadow of a tree to take a nap. All of a sudden, he saw a giant cobra crawling out of an ant-hill.

2. The farmer thought to himself, “Sure, this snake must be a deity guarding my field. So far I have not noticed it and that is why all my farming is in vain. Let me pay my respects to it now and worship it hereafter.” He then made up his mind, brought some milk in a bowl and placed it before the ant-hill. He said aloud, “O! Lord! Guardian of my field! I did not know that you dwell here. Please forgive me for not paying respects to you.” He left the milk bowl there and went back to his house. The next morning, he was surprised to see a gold coin in the bowl.

3. Since then, the farmer placed a bowl of milk every day and got back a gold coin the next morning. Soon the farmer became rich and happy. This continued for sometime. One day, the farmer had to go to a nearby city for a few days and so he directed his son to place the milk bowl near the ant-hill every day. The son kept the milk bowl and left, only to find a gold coin next day. He then thought to himself, “This ant-hill must be full of gold coins; I’ll kill the serpent and take all of them”.

4. The next day, while placing the bowl of milk, the farmer’s son struck the snake with a club. But the serpent escaped and bit him with his sharp fangs instead. He was dead at once. When the farmer returned, he learnt about his son’s fate and grieved. The next morning, he took the bowl of milk and went to the ant-hill.

5. The snake came out and said, “Your greed made you overlook even the loss of your son. Your son struck me in ignorance and I had bitten him to death. I cannot forget the blow on my head and you cannot forget the loss of your son. Hereafter, the friendship between us is not possible.” So saying, the snake gave a costly coin and disappeared. The farmer returned home cursing the foolishness of his son.

14.1. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions in 30–40 words each:

(a) Why did the farmer think of the snake as a deity?

(b) Was it right on the part of the farmer to presume that the snake was guarding the field?

(c) Did the farmer’s son get all the gold coins? Why?

(d) Why did the farmer give milk to the snake even after his son’s death? How did the snake react to the farmer?

14.2. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer of the following:

(a) In para 2, the antonym of ‘neglecting’ is .................................. .

(i) guarding

(ii) deity

(iii) farming

(iv) paying

(b) In para 1, the synonym of ‘abundant’ is .................................. .

(i) toiled

(ii) exhausted

(iii) meagre

(iv) deficient

(c) Farmer’s son also placed a bowl of milk for snake and got back a gold coin the next morning.(True/False)

(d) The farmer was a greedy person because even his son’s death did not deter him ...................... .

1. Every form of human activity upsets or changes the wildlife complex of the area unceasingly and unavoidably. Man has destroyed many forms of wildlife for no reasonable purpose. Small sections of the community, for their own narrow, selfish ends, have destroyed many things of general interest. Expediency has often led man to make grave blunders in land use, habitat destruction, and the extermination of many forms of wildlife.

2. In his everyday life, man’s attitude is determined in the main by purely practical considerations; ethical or moral considerations come afterwards. Looked at in this way, the disappearance from Britain of such animals as the wolf and wild boar can be more easily understood. In our intensively cultivated and over-populated country there was no room for such large mammals, the one a predator of big livestock and the other a pest to agriculture. Thus, man’s first attitude to animals is the result of their effect on his own survival, or what he considers to be their effect on his survival.

3. Then there is his concern with sport. The animals he sets aside for this purpose are given special protection and war is waged unceasingly on any other creatures that may be a danger to them. This creates many problems and man has made serious errors in his destruction of predators. Until recent years all hawks and falcons were destroyed as “vermin” by game preservers. This meant the destruction of kestrels, which are useful to the farmer: it meant the destruction of owls, which are useful to the farmer; so here you had sport acting against the interests of food production. The tragedy of all this is that all the killing of predators did not in any way improve man’s sport. It has been clearly shown by modern research that eagles, hawks, falcons and predatory mammals have not the slightest effect on the numbers of game birds anywhere.

4. Broadly speaking, man wages war against the creatures which he considers harmful, even when his warfare makes little or no difference to the numbers of his enemies. And he encourages those creatures which are useful, even though their attacks on pests make little difference to the numbers of those pests. It would be true to say, therefore, that our attitude to song-birds, to most birds of prey and to many of our predatory animals, arises from the fact that they have either been proved useful or of no consequence. Either way, from this, we have developed the idea of conservation which means preserving what we have left of our heritage of wildlife and even finding room for rarities which may do a little damage on the side.

13.1. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions in 30–40 words each:

(a) What has been man’s attitude towards wildlife?

(b) How is the justification given for the killing of wolves and wild boar in Britain?

(c) Why has man been killing predators?

(d) In the last paragraph the writer talks about contradictory opinions. Explain.

13.2. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer of the following:

(a) In para 1, the synonym of ‘opportunism’ is .................................. .

(i) interest

(ii) expediency

(iii) extermination

(iv) blunders

(b) In para 4, the antonym of ‘endangering’ is .................................. .

(i) heritage

(ii) preserving

(iii) consequences

(iv) predatory

(c) Conservation is an idea to preserve our heritage of wildlife from the damaging effect of human activity.(True/False)

(d) Killing of predators by the man, who are a danger to the birds useful in sports has had no effect .................................. .