Unseen Passage
Unseen Passage
Unseen Passage
On the basis of the reading of the passage, answer the following questions in brief:
1. Why did Akbar arrange a grand feast? What was the courtiers’ only desire?
2. What was Akbar’s prank?
3. Why did everyone turn to look at Birbal?
4. How did Birbal tackle the embarrassing situation?
II. VOCABULARY:
1. Give another word for ‘flocked’.
2. Pick out a word from the above passage which means ‘a piece of mischief’.
3. Pick out a word from the above passage which is opposite to ‘deny’.
4. Give the noun form of ‘embarrassed’.
C. Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow:
It may seem puzzling that the hours of U.S. women’s home activities have not declined in spite
of the availability of many appliances (washing machine, 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 housekeeping. 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 for good nutrition means that many home-makers are now
spending more time preparing foods that are not available in the marketplace or which are only
available at great costs.
D. Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow:
All-round development of man is the true aim of education. It should train not only the head, but
also the hands and the heart but or present system of education has miserably failed to achieve
this aim. It suffers from many grave defects.
The present system of education was founded by the British for their own convenience. Lord
Macaulay was the father and founder of this system. He wanted it to produce clerks to help the
British in running their administration. Today the English have gone but the same old system of
education still continues. We are free but we are still slavishly following the system evolved by
the British.
This system of education has many defects. It must be changed and overhauled. The greatest
defect in our present system of education is that it is too theoretical.
An educated man has only bookish knowledge. He knows nothing about practical things. He
finds that his education has not made him fit to do any useful work for his society.
Solutions
A.
1. The branches of trees give shelter to birds and forests give shelter to wild animals.
2. Forests are valuable for their beauty too. They have a way to refreshing the eye and also
refreshing
the mind. The rishiestherefore made forests their homes.
3. With the growth of population, trees began to be cut down on a large scale. By destroying
forests man
began to satisfy his various needs such as accommodation.
4. By planting more and more trees we can replace the loss of forests.
5. ‘Shanti Niketan’ means ‘the home of peace’. Rabindranath Tagore started it.
6. Van Mahotsava is organised time to time to spread awareness among people about the
importance of
trees.
7. We should protect trees because they are country’s wealth. We should plant more and more
trees.
8. ‘Trees and their Importance’.
B.
1. Akbar arranged a grand feast to make it the most talked about affair in his kingdom. The
courtiers’
only desire was to catch the emperor’s eye.
2. Akbar and Birbal were talking together over a bowl of dates. While talking they kept throwing
the
dates seeds under their chairs. Suddenly Akbar hit an idea. He thought of having fun at Birbal’s
expense. He pushed his heap of dates under Birbal’s chair and began calling him a greedy man.
3. Akbar called Birbal a greedy man. He told publicly that he should not eat so many dates.
Since
nobody was aware of Akbar’s prank, they turned to look at Birbal. They were surprised how
Birbal
dared to eat so many dates.
4. Birbal was wise enough to understand Akbar’s prank. So without being unnerved, he told
emperor
that he was undoubtedly a greedy man. But he had eaten only the fruit having thrown away the
seeds while his emperor had eaten the seeds along with fruits. His witty answer made Akbar
embarrassed.
II. 1. gathered
2. prank
3. admit
4. embarrassment
C.
1) (a)
2) (b)
3) (b)
4) (d)
5) (b)
D.
1) (d)
2) (d)
3) (c)
4) (c)
5) (b)