I year Reading Comprehension 2018-19

1.

The notion that if people would just get to know one another they would be friends and
everything would be all right is a dangerous as it is sentimental. Getting to know people is a
necessary prelude to understanding and respect, but such knowledge alone will not resolve
our differences or insure our liking people whose ways are alien to us. Persons may know one
another very well and yet be bitter rivals and equally bitter enemies. Nor does a common
race, religion, language, nationality, or culture insure friendliness or good will as numerous
civil wars, rebellions, and intergroup conflicts attest. The sober truth is that different peoples
must learn to get along together whether they like one another or not.

No matter how different other peoples may seem, their ways are not peculiar, unnatural or
incomprehensible. The more we know of other cultures the more evident it becomes that no
society could hold together unless its patterns of thinking, feeling and acting were reasonably
systematic and coherent. The first principle of anthropology is that cultures must be studied
as wholes, and no custom or belief can be properly understood unless seen in the context
within which it operates. To understand other peoples, then, we must have some idea of what
culture is and how it functions and have some knowledge of the variety of ways in which
different human groups have gone about solving universal problems.

There was a time when an understanding of other peoples was important mainly to diplomats,
military personnel, missionaries and businessmen with overseas interests. Today, the various
cultures of the world are everybody's business, and the behaviour of almost any individual
may have important ramifications in world affairs. People now take vacations in distant and
formerly inaccessible places, and enormous numbers of Americans go abroad to live and
work. Thousands of persons from other cultures come to this country each year, many of
them students who return home to become leaders in their own countries. The day to day
experience of these person's with ordinary Americans is likely to determine whether we part
with feelings of warmth or of animosity for one another.

Reading Comprehension.
Please answer the following questions. Questions 1,4 and 5 must be answered in your own
words as far as possible. (30 marks)

1. Why is getting to know people of other cultures not enough to make us get along
with them or like them?
2. “Prelude” means a) music b) initial basis c) before d) sequel
3. “Insure” means a) prevent b) cause c) guarantee d) allow
4. What, according to the passage, holds a society peacefully together?
5. Why is understanding other cultures “everybody’s business” today?

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 READING PASSAGE 2
Arranged marriage exists in all parts of the world. The degree to which the
marriage is arranged varies. In the West for many centuries the marriages involving
royalty were for the most part arranged. Only people belonging to lower income groups
were allowed to choose their own spouses. In many countries parents or close relatives
still introduce their children to potential mates. Then it is up to the couple to decide
whether to marry or not. At the other extreme there are still marriages conducted in
India where the bride and the groom only meet on the day of their wedding. It is rare but
it still happens.

Arranged marriage is about families coming together and making sure that their
interests and the interest of the individuals getting married are protected. The question
of whether the individuals are compatible emotionally, sexually or in other ways is less
important. On the other hand love marriage is about freedom, independence and
personal choice.

The reality is that most marriages in the world are a combination of arranged and
love marriages. In the West people fall in love and over a period of time often make
serious compromises in their careers, where they live and so on before they marry or
after their marriage. In India these compromises are made as part of the marriage
“negotiations”.

Manisha Koirala’s statements regarding her marriage highlight the hybrid aspect
of most marriages. She said “Yes, our families know one another for some years now.
So there was a comfort level between me and Samrat for a very long time. Gradually the
bonding grew from friendship to love. And when Samrat asked me to marry him, I
agreed”. Some Westerners would not consider this as love marriage because for them
marriage involves long periods of dating and living together and not just knowing each
other.

She then talked about her move from Mumbai to Kathmandu (Nepal) after her
marriage “That’s where Samrat is based. He is into many kinds of business ventures
including a project in alternate energy. So yes, one thing will change. Mumbai used to be
my first home. Now Kathmandu will be my first home. But I’ll continue to be a Mumbai
girl at heart and will have a home here”. Is this love marriage or is this arranged
marriage?

But the debate between arranged and love marriage is increasingly not relevant
because the trend is clearly towards not getting married at all. In 2006 for the first time
in American history the Census Bureau reported that only 49.7% of the nation’s
households were made up of married couples. This means that the majority of
Americans are living in households where the couples are not married!!

Marriage rates in European nations are even worse and have fallen to the lowest
rates in countries like England and Wales since the 18 th century when they first started
recording this data. The writing on the wall for both arranged marriages and love
marriages is loud and clear. So if you think that you are hip and want to marry a person
you love then think again. There is nothing wrong with marrying a person you love but
remember marriage itself is not fashionable anymore!

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Reading Comprehension (30 marks) Please answer the following questions. Questions 3, 4 and 5
are to be answered in your own words as far as possible.

1. ‘highlight’ means a) emphasize b) cancel c) upward d) lower

2. ‘hip’ means a) joined b) happiness c) fashionable d) unlucky
3. ‘the writing on the wall’ means………………….
4. To what extent does arranged marriage also exist in the West?
5. Why is the debate between arranged and love marriage becoming less relevant?

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 READING PASSAGE 3
The idea that travel widens people's horizons, promotes international
understanding and turns us all into renaissance persons is absurd. You only
have to see American tourists taking flash photos of Big Ben to realise that.

It may have been a good idea for Marco Polo to have sailed to Beijing,
although it did not do the Chinese much good. It may even have been a good
thing to send the educated elite of Britain on Grand Tours of the continent in
the 18th and 19th centuries. But we have television and the Internet now. If it
is learning you want, you can do it at home.

There is nothing wrong about going abroad (overseas). But you can only
really learn anything about foreign countries by working in them, as opposed
to sight-seeing. Living and working in foreign countries should be encouraged,
within limits.

It is tourism which is objectionable, especially the desire to go to the

remotest and wildest places in the world and build four-star hotels in them. It
does not do the locals any good, as opposed to filling their pockets - highly
selectively - with money. It encourages the demand for Coca-Cola and
accelerates the homogenisation of world culture.

Travel abroad is no longer a luxury and nowadays most people have had
at least one foreign holiday. This has benefited our society in a number of
ways.

Firstly, it enables us to observe and value other cultures and discover that
ours is not the only way of life. Consequently, this helps combat ignorance and
narrow-mindedness, which so often lead to racial prejudice and even violence.

Secondly, foreign tourists can learn from and borrow those aspects of
other cultures which are better than in their own country. For example, the
improvement in some countries’ eating habits is thanks to/owes a great deal
to/was helped by/is due to foreign travel.

Another benefit is that more people can now see the world’s most
spectacular natural sights and visit its most important historic monuments. As
a result, we discover our planet and become more knowledgeable in a way
which is simply not possible with the Internet or television.

In conclusion, if one travels with an open mind, one’s horizons will be

widened even more.

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 Please answer the following questions. Questions 3,4 and 5 are to be answered in your own words as
far as possible.

1. ‘Widens’ means to a) closes b)shortens c)expands d)lengthens

2. ‘Enables’ means a) allows b) prevents c) tells d) forces
3. ‘Owes a great deal to’ means…………………………………
4. Why is tourism ‘objectionable’?
5. In what ways does travel make us more knowledgeable?

4.

‘I don’t have an accent!’ wails the friend indignantly. And we are all amused because the
pronunciation of the utterance itself demonstrates to our ears that the claim is false. The speaker who
voices this common refrain believes absolutely that his or her speech is devoid of any distinguishing
characteristics that set it apart from the speech of those around them. We listeners who hear it are for
our part equally convinced that the speaker’s accent differs in some significant respect from our own.
The key to understanding this difference of opinion is not so much in the differences in speech
sounds that the speakers use but in the nature of ‘own-ness’ – what does it mean to be ‘one of us’ and
to sound like it? It all comes down to a question of belonging.

Accent defines and communicates who we are. Accent is the map which listeners perceive through
their ears rather than through their eyes to ‘read’ where the speaker was born and raised, what gender
they are, where they might have moved during their life, where they went to school and what
occupation they have taken up.

The fact is that everyone has an accent. It tells other people who we are because it reflects the places
we have been and the things we have done. But the construct of accent, like so many other things, is
relative. We may only realise that others think we have an accent when we leave the place we come
from and find ourselves among people who share a different background from our own, or when a
newcomer to our local area stands out as having a distinctly different pronunciation from most of
those in our group, that is, relative to us. The closer we are to our native place and the more people
that are there who grew up like us, the more likely we are to sound like those people when we talk. In
other words, we share their local accent.

Some countries have one accent which is accepted as ‘standard’ and which enjoys higher social
prestige than any other. This is true of RP (Received Pronunciation) in the UK. We may feel that this
national standard is accentless and that non-standard speakers, by contrast, have accents.
Nevertheless, it has to be recognised that standards that have evolved in the broadcast industry have
their roots in language varieties that already exist in distinct social groups and their institutions. To
use one particular group’s accent in broadcasting is to give that accent a wider reach than perhaps it
had before, but the accent is no ‘less’ of an accent than any other.

Wails=cries refrain=a phrase that is often repeated construct=idea

Reading Comprehension
Please answer the following questions. All questions are to be answered within the context of the passage. For
questions 5-8, make sure you write in your own words as far as possible.

1. ‘Devoid of’ means

a) full of b) absent to c)responsible for d) lacking in

2. From a person’s accent, we can learn many things about his/her

a)reading habits b) map collection c) background d) school marks

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3. ‘Relative’ means
a) infinite b) a parent c) defined in relation to something else d) different

4. RP has
a) a high social prestige b) a standard social prestige c) no accent d) no place in broadcasting
industries

5. What does an accent tell us about someone?

6. In what situations are we a) least aware of and b) most aware of our accent?

7. Where does the national standard of an accent come from?

8. Summarise the passage in about 120 words. Please write the number of words at the end of the
summary.

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5.

When Monica Dalmia was looking to casually connect with other Michigan State University (MSU) students
through LiveJournal, an online network, she hardly expected to meet Dan. After talking online, Dan and Monica
decided to meet for dinner in her dorm’s (dorm=dormitory) cafeteria. Although the two were just friends before
they started dating (seeing each other; going out), Dan and Monica have now been together for over two and a
half years.

Dalmia's story probably does not sound unfamiliar to college students. Relationships sparked off by a charming
“poke” on Facebook are not unheard of. However, the fact that Monica, who studies English, is Indian and
Hindu, and her boyfriend Dan McGrath, who studies physics , is Irish, makes theirs a cross-cultural relationship.

It is important to remember, though, that while most judgments passed on cross-cultural

relationships are based upon differing physical appearances, especially skin color, culture
extends well past pigmentation. “Cross-cultural does not mean people look different. People
can be from the same race but be from very different cultures - a Catholic dating a Protestant,
an African-American from Alabama dating an African-American from Michigan - these are
all cross-cultural relationships,” said Dr John Lee, assistant director of the student counseling
center of MSU.
While the realm of cross-cultural dating encompasses a wide array (range) of characteristics, the question
remains as to how socially acceptable it is and whether it is becoming more or less accepted over time. Even
while college students are often considered liberal on just about every issue ever presented, it remains
questionable how willing students are to act upon the open-mindedness they proclaim.

“I think people often think of themselves as open and willing inside their head, but that doesn’t give us an idea
of how much open-mindedness exists. You don’t see it too often,” said Tim Hillman, who is white and is dating
an African American male. While gauging the level of open-mindedness in the college-aged generation is
impossible, the media has placed interracial and cross-cultural couples on television and in movies, and in turn
has confirmed that while cross-cultural relationships may be considered taboo in some areas, they in fact do
exist and work.

“Culturally there has been a gain, and I think you can credit the media for that,” Lee said. Grey’s Anatomy, a
show with a huge following, shows Dr. Cristina Yang, played by Sandra Oh who is of Asian descent and grew
up in Canada, dating Dr. Preston Burke, an African-American. A movie that was all the rage (extremely
popular) a few years ago, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, tells the story of a man’s struggles to assimilate to his
fiancé’s intense Greek family. Celebrity couples like Heidi Klum, white and of German descent, and Seal, of
African descent, who find themselves plastered all over news stands, also promote the idea of cross-cultural
relationships. Even Gwenyth Paltrow and Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, married cross-culturally (she is
American and he is British), as did Madonna, also American, and Guy Ritchie, British. This progress has not
gone unnoticed.

Please answer the following questions. Questions 1,4 and 5 are to be answered in your own words as far as
possible.

1. How is “cross-cultural” defined in the article?

2. “encompasses” means a) excludes b) includes c) compares d) hides

3. “gauging” means a) lowering b) raising c) measuring d) cancelling

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4. “to act upon” means……………………………………………..

5. According to the article, what is most responsible for promoting the idea of cross-cultural
relationships?