UK Board 10 Class English – (Reading) – Reading : Unseen Comprehension
UK Board 10 Class English – (Reading) – Reading : Unseen Comprehension
UK Board Solutions for Class 10th English – (Reading) – Reading : Unseen Comprehension
READING: UNSEEN COMPREHENSION
1. Meaning of Comprehension
Comprehension ( कम्प्रीहेन्सन) का अर्थ है- ‘अपठित ‘अवतरण’ । प्रश्न पत्र में तीन Unseen Passages ( अपठित गद्य खण्ड) दिए होते हैं। इन गद्य खण्डों के नीचे कुछ प्रश्न दिए होते हैं, जिनका उत्तर देना होता है। इन प्रश्नों में से कुछ प्रश्न तो Unseen Passage (अपठित गद्य खण्ड) में दिए गए Matter (सामग्री) से सम्बद्ध होते हैं और एक-दो प्रश्न Vocabulary (शब्द ज्ञान) सम्बन्धी पूछे जाते हैं। अतः इन प्रश्नों का उत्तर पूरी सावधानी के साथ दिया जाना चाहिए।
2. The way to answer the questions of the passage
- गद्य खण्ड को ध्यानपूर्वक धीरे-धीरे पढ़िए जिससे कि उसका भाव समझ में आ जाए।
- यदि एक बार पढ़ने से गद्य खण्ड का भाव समझ में न आए तो उसको पुनः एक या दो बार पढ़िए। आपको समझना यह है कि गद्य खण्ड का विषय क्या है और उसका मुख्य भाव क्या है।
- गद्य खण्ड में कुछ ऐसे कठिन शब्द भी हो सकते हैं जिनका अर्थ आपकी समझ में न आए। ऐसे कठिन शब्दों का अर्थ वाक्य के भाव से समझने का प्रयास कीजिए ।
- फिर प्रश्नों को एक-एक करके ध्यानपूर्वक पढ़िए। इन प्रश्नों के उत्तर गद्य खण्ड के जिस भाग में हों, उस भाग को रेखांकित कर लीजिए।
- यह भी हो सकता है कि कुछ प्रश्नों के उत्तर गद्य खण्ड के विशेष भाग को Overlap (ढक) कर लें। ऐसी दशा में गद्य खण्ड, और उन प्रश्नों को पुनः पढ़कर अपनी शंका का निवारण कर लीजिए ।
- जब आप आश्वस्त हो जाएँ तो प्रश्नों के उत्तर अपनी भाषा में उत्तर पुस्तिका में लिखना शुरू कर दीजिए ।
- उत्तर लिखने के बाद उनको पुनः दोहराइए और यदि किसी भी प्रकार की कोई त्रुटि दिखाई दे तो उसे दूर कीजिए ।
- आपकी भाषा सरल, शुद्ध व प्रवाहपूर्ण होनी चाहिए।
- आपके द्वारा दिए गए प्रश्नों उत्तर स्पष्ट व छोटे होने चाहिए।
- उत्तर में Verb का Tense वही रहना चाहिए जो प्रश्न का है।
- अपने प्रश्नों का उत्तर Because, So, Therefore आदि शब्दों से शुरू मत कीजिए। उत्तर देते समय वाक्य में Subject, Verb और Object का क्रम होना चाहिए ।
- Grammar (व्याकरण) की गलतियों के प्रति सावधान रहिए। Punctuation Marks का ध्यान रखिए। अपने उत्तर लिखने के पश्चात् उन्हें पुन: पढ़िए ताकि Spellings तथा Grammar सम्बन्धी गलतियाँ न रह जाएँ। ध्यान रहे ‘बार-बार आपके द्वारा वर्तनी दोष या व्याकरण दोष करने से परीक्षक आपके अंक कम कर देंगे।
- मुख्य शब्द Passage की भाषा से लिए जा सकते हैं। उत्तर को पूर्ण वाक्य या Phrases में भी दिया जा सकता है;
- प्रत्येक प्रश्न का उत्तर अलग पैरा में लिखिए और प्रश्न क्रमांक डालते जाइए, ताकि वे एक-दूसरे में मिल न जाएँ।
- प्रश्नों का उत्तर लिखते समय घबराइए नहीं, अपने में आत्म विश्वास पैदा कीजिए और एकाग्रचित्त होकर प्रश्नों का उत्तर दीजिए।
A1: FACTUAL PASSAGES
Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow:
SOLVED EXERCISES
Passage – 1
The sure way of making and keeping friends is to be a good listener. Take great care to listen to a person with interest. Also make sure that when you speak yourself, you say only as much as is needed to open up some fresh topic for the other person to start conversation. People don’t like to be interrupted by others while speaking. They wish to put their views forward. So one is delighted with the company of some one who is content to listen attentively. Most of the friendships begin by little acts of kindness, sympathy and understanding to lonely folk. Sincerity is the keynote for friendship, for sincerity includes loyalty, sympathy and trust. A common interest will draw you very close to some friends.
[Difficult Words: interrupt ( इन्टरप्ट) = obstruct बात काटना। delighted (डिलाइटेड) = pleased आनन्दित हुआ। content (कन्टेन्ट) = satisfied सन्तुष्ट | sincerity (सिन्सियरिटी) = truthfullness दिल की सच्चाई | included (इनक्लूडेड) = contained शामिल, अन्तर्गत । ]
On the basis of your reading the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions :
(1) How can we make good friends ?
(2) What is the right time of conversation?
(3) What is the keynote of friendship ?
(4) How can you come close to someone?
(5) Pick out from the passage word similar in meaning to ‘carefully’.
Answers:
(1) We can make good friends by becoming a good listener.
(2) The right time of conversation is when someone is content to listen attentively.
(3) Sincerity is the keynote of friendship.
(4) We can come close to someone if we have a common interest.
(5) The word ‘attentively’ means ‘carefully’.
Passage – 2
The name ‘Eskimo’ comes from the language of the Northern Red Indians and means a person who eats raw meat. It is an appropriate name because the Eskimos live mainly hunting and fishing and in winter do not always cook the animals they catch. This is because it is impossible to find any fuel for a fire in the icy waste that they inhabit. The only form of fire they have is produced by burning the oil of seals or walrus in shallow, saucer shaped lamps made from pottery or stone. These lamps are used primarily to give light but the Eskimos can also boil their meal and fish over them. These foods are also frozen or dried. There is another reason why the Eskimos sometimes eat raw meat in this way they get the greatest possible nourishment. The Eskimos make up for the lack of vitamins from vegetables by eating the kidneys and liver of their prey raw. These organs have an abundant store of all vitamins needed by the human body.
On the basis of your reading of the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions:
(1) Why is the name ‘Eskimo’ an appropriate one?
(2) What are the two main occupations of the Eskimos?
(3) Why do the Eskimos eat raw meat? Give two reasons.
(4) How do the Eskimos make up for the lack of vitamins from vegetables?
(5) How do they produce fire?
(6) Which word in the passage means ‘plentiful’?
Answers:
(1) Eskimos means a person who eats raw meat. It is an appropriate name because the Eskimos live mainly by hunting and fishing. They do not always cook the animals they catch.
(2) Hunting and Fishing.
(3) Eskimos eat raw meat because it is impossible to get any fuel for a fire for cooking there. By eating raw meat they get the richest nourishment.
(4) They make up for the lack of vitamins from vegetables by eating the kidneys and liver of their prey raw.
(5) They produce fire by burning seals or walrus oil in shallow, saucer shade lamps. (6) The word ‘abundant’ means ‘plentiful’.
Passage – 3
Mahatma Gandhi once remarked, “The earth provides enough to satisfy everyone’s need, but not for anyone’s greed.” It means that if we take only that much which we really need and nothing more, there would be no misery in the world. The rich have superfluous store which they do not need. It goes waste while millions starve and die. It is very true, Gandhiji admitted, that human body too needs possession. It creates desires for enjoyment but real happiness in life comes when we are able to get rid of unnecessary desires and live only to serve. This principle of non-possession is equally applicable to thoughts. If a man fills his brain with useless knowledge, his thought get in the way of his realization of truth.
On the basis of your reading the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions:
(1) How do the rich drive the people to starvation and death?
(2) How can human misery be removed from this world?
(3) How, according to Gandhiji, can we attain real happiness in life?
(4) Which word in the passage means ‘suffer due to lack of food”?
(5) What does Gandhiji mean by “non-possession of thoughts”?
Answers:
(1) The rich waste the superfluous stores which could feed the poor.
(2) Human misery can be removed if everyone takes what he needs.
(3) We can attain real happiness if we get freedom from unnecessary desires and live only to serve.
(4) The word ‘starve’ means ‘suffer due to lack of food’.
(5) By it he means “not keeping unnecessary thoughts.”
Passage – 4
Happy is the man who acquires habit of reading when he is young. He has secured a life-long source of pleasure, instruction and inspiration. Ruskin calls books, “King’s treasures”-treasuries filled, not with gold and silver and precious stones but with riches much more valuable than these knowledge, noble thoughts and high ideals. Poor indeed is the man who ‘does not read, and empty is his life.
The blessings which the reading habit confers on its possessor are many. Provided we choose the right kind of books, reading gives the highest kind of pleasure. Some books we read simply for pleasure and amusement-for example, good novels. And novels and books of imagination must have their place in everybody’s reading.
But to read nothing but books of fiction is like eating nothing but cakes and sweetmeats. As we need plain, wholesome food for the body, so we must have serious reading for the mind. And here we can choose according to our taste. There are many noble books on history, biography, philosophy, religion, travel and science which we ought to read and which will give us not only pleasure but an education.
Nor should poetry be neglected, for the best poetry gives us noble thoughts and beautiful imaginings clothes in lovely and musical language.
On the basis of your reading the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions:
(1) What is more valuable than gold, silver and precious stones?
(2) What type of reading is required for the mind?
(3) What is the benefit of reading poetry?
(4) Find words from the passage which mean the following:
(i) valuable
(ii) happiness.
Answers:
(1) Habit of reading is more valuable than gold, silver and precious stones.
(2) Serious type of reading is required for the mind.
(3) Benefit of reading poetry is that it gives us noble thoughts.
(4) (i) ‘precious’ means valuable.
(ii) ‘pleasure’ means happiness.
A 2 LITERARY PASSAGES
Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow:
SOLVED EXERCISES
Passage – 1
A man-eating tiger is a tiger that has been compelled, through stress of circumstances beyond its control, to adopt a diet which it has never tested before. The stress of circumstances is, in nine cases out of ten, wounds, and in the tenth case old age. The wound that has caused a particular tiger to take to man-eating might be the result of a carelessly fired shot and failure to follow up the recover the wounded animal, or be the result of the tiger having lost his temper when killing a porcupine. Human beings are not the natural prey of tigers, and it is only when tigers have become weak, through wounds or old age that, in order to live, they are compelled to take to a diet of human flesh.
A tiger when killing its natural prey, which it does either by stalking or lying in wait for it, depends for the success of its attack on its speed and, to a lesser extent, on the condition of its teeth and claws. When, therefore, a tiger is suffering from one or more painful wounds, or when its teeth are missing or defective and its claws worn down, and it is unable to catch the animals it has been accustomed to eating, it is driven by necessity to killing human beings. The change-over from animal to human flesh is, I believe, in most cases accidental. As an illustration of what I mean by ‘accidental’ I quote the case of the Muktesar man-eating tigress. This tigress, a comparatively young animal, in an encounter with a porcupine, lost an eye and got some fifty quills, varying in length from one to nine inches, embedded in the arm and under the pad of her right foreleg. Jim Carbett: On Man-Eating
On the basis of your reading the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions:
(1) When does a tiger become man-eating one? Give two reasons.
(2) How does a tiger receive a wound?
(3) On which two things does the tiger depend for the success of its attack?
(4) How was the Muktesar tigress wounded?
(5) Find a word from the passage which is opposite in meaning to ‘greater’.
Answers:
(1) A tiger becomes a man-eating one due to wounds and old age.
(2) (a) A tiger receives a wound which may be the result of a carelessly fired shot. (b) It may be the failure to follow up and recover the wounded animal. (c) It may be the result of the tiger having lost his temper when it kills a porcupine.
(3) The tiger depends for the success of its attack on his speed. Secondly it depends on the condition of its teeth and claws.
(4) The Muktesar tigress was wounded in its encounter with a procupine. Some fifty quills had endered its body. These got embedded in the arm and under the pad of her right foreleg.
(5) The word ‘lesser’ is opposite in meaning to ‘greater’.
Passage – 2
Several times in the history of the world particular countries and cities, or even small groups of people, have attained a high degree of civilization. Yet none of these civilizations, important as they were, have lasted; and one of the reasons why they did not last was that they were confined to a very few people. They were like little oases of civilization in a desert of barbarism. Now it is no good being civilized if everybody round about you is barbarous, or rather, it is some good, but it is very risky. For the barbarians are always liable to break in on you, and with their greater numbers and rude vigour scatter your civilization to the winds. Over and over again in history comparatively civilized peoples living in cities have been won in this way by barbarians coming down from the hills and burning and killing and destroying whatever they found in the plains. In the thirteenth century most of Europe was overrun in this way by the Mongols from Central Asia, and such civilization as then existed was nearly destroyed. Thus any people which has advanced in civilization too far beyond its neighbours has always been liable to be set upon and pulled back by the others, just as if you build a high tower without proper supports, it is always liable to fall down to the level of the lower building round about it.
On the basis of your reading the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions:
(1) Why do advanced civilizations not last for long?
(2) Why is being civilized very risky?
(3) Who destroyed civilization in most of Europe in the 13th century?
(4) Use the following in your sentences-‘liable to’, ‘set upon’.
Answers:
(1) Advanced civilizations could not lost for long because they were limited to a very few people.
(2) Being civilized is very risky. It is because likely to be attacked and civilized societies are destroyed by the barbarians near them.
(3) The Mongols from Central Asia destroyed civilization in most of Europe.
(4) (a) You are liable to fine if you are absent from your classes.
(b) He was set upon by dacoits who took all his money.
Passage – 3
Mankind has undoubtly progressed since medieval times. The earliest men lived like brutes. Individuals fought among themselves and the strong destroyed the weak, for that is the law of the jungle, the law of irrational life. But man was not an animal. He possessed rational faculties. These faculties gradually developed and appeared in his actions, and man gave up the law of the jungle and made his own rational laws. Men saw that the law of physical strength was not applicable to their lives. They realized that they had souls and the strength of being with a soul can consist in a variety of capabilities other than the power to cut and kill, tear and bite. For instance, a man can be strong in fashioning tools, or in controlling the actions of other rational beings by the power of song or speech. Thus men realized that they should not be fighting among themselves. But they should be working together and giving one another opportunities to develop their respective strengths. This was the first step in man’s progress. By these means men gained such control over the forces of nature. They made each other so much wiser and more comfortable that they were convinced that they were the best creation of God.
On the basis of your reading the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions:
(1) What do you mean by the law of jungle?
(2) How was man different from animals?
(3) How could man gain control over the forces of nature?
(4) What did man realize when his rational faculties were fully developed?
(5) Use the words in your own sentences (a) give up, (b) applicable.
Answers:
(1) The law of jungle is the use of physical strength for fighting. It is also the use of this strength for destroying the weak.
(2) Man was different from animals because he had rational faculties. He was also blessed with a soul. B
(3) Man could get control over the forces of nature by cooperating with others.
(4) Man realized the value of working in cooperation with other fellow beings.
(5) (a) My brother has given up smoking. (b) These rules are not applicable in your case.
Passage – 4
Vegetable oil has been known from antiquity. No household can get on without it, for it is used in cooking. Perfumes may be made from the oils of certain flowers. Soaps are made from vegetable and animal oils.
To the ordinary man, one kind of oil may be as important as another. But when the politician or the engineer refers to oil, he almost always means mineral oil, the oil that drives tanks, aeroplanes and warships, motor-cars and diesel-locomotives. This is the oil that has changed the life of the common man. When it is refined into petrol it is used to drive the internal combustion engine. To it we owe the existence of the motor-car, which has replaced the private carriage drawn by the horse. To it we owe the possibility of flying. It has changed the methods of warfare on land and sea. This kind of oil comes out of the earth. Because it burns well, it is used as fuel and in some ways it is superior to coal in this respect. Many big ships now burn oil instead of coal. Because it burns brightly, it is used for illumination. Because it is very slippery, it is used for lubrication. Two metal surfaces rubbing together cause friction and heat. But if they are separated by a thin film of oil, the friction and heat are reduced. No machine would work for long if it were not properly lubricated. The oil used for this purpose must be of the correct thickness; if it is too thin it will not give sufficient lubrication, and if it is too thick it will not reach all parts that must be lubricated.
On the basis of your reading the above passage, answer the following questions:
Questions:
(1) What are the main uses of vegetable oil?
(2) Which oil does the politician or the engineer refer to? And why?
(3) In what way is petrol important?
(4) Why do we use oil for lubrication?
(5) Why should the lubricating oil be of correct thickness?
(6) Find words from the passage which mean the following:
(i) long past (ii) lighting up
Answers:
(1) Vegetable oil is used in household articles. It is used for cooking. Perfume and soaps are made from it.
(2) Politician or the engineer refers to mineral oil, because this oil has changed the life of man.
(3) In so many ways petrol is important. It drives tanks, aeroplanes, warships and motor-cars. It is superior to coal. It is used for illumination.
(4) This oil is slippery, therefore we use it for lubrication.
(5) Lubricating oil should be of correct thickness otherwise a machine will not work for long.
(6) (i) ‘antiquity’ means long past,
(ii) ‘illumination’ means lighting up.