Reading Comprehension/ Passage

Reading Comprehension – XII – Past Paper Questions

Passage 1 (2019)

Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:

Sometimes indeed the neighbours thought it was strange that the rich Miller never gave Little Hans anything in return, though he had a hundred sacks of flour stored away in his mill, and six milch cows, and a large flock of woolly sheep. but Hans never troubled his head about these things, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to listen to all the wonderful things the Miller used to say about the unselfishness of true friendship.

i) Identity the title and the writer of the above message.

ii) State whether each of the statement below is True or False.

iii) Identify the word classes of the following:

a) sometimes b) hundred c) troubled d) true

Passage 2 (2018)

Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:

"This is a new fact which I think that even Asia has not yet adequately realized, for centuries, Asia has suffered under the insolence of the white man, I have myself seen this insolence displayed in ways that made my blood boil and that if I had been an Asian and not a European, would have roused me to fury. This long experience of European domination has naturally produced a mood of resistance and as always happens in such cases, there is a danger lest the fight for independence should become a desire for conquest".

i) Give the meaning of the underlined words.

ii) Identify the part of speech of the following words:

realized, indolence, adequately

iii) What made the author's blood boil?

iv) Why is there a danger of fight for independence?

Passage 3 (2017)

Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:

There are some thing, which though in many ways regrettable it is necessary to accept as condition of survival in modern world. The most important of these is the growth of Industrialization. The power of England in the early Nineteenth century was based upon a virtual monopoly of machine production, and the power of Russia and the United States in the present day is due to their supremacy in this respect. It is useless to talk against mechanization because it is the source of power and because who leg being have difficulty in preserving independence.

i) What are the things on which the supremacy of the west is based?

ii) Why does the author consider it useless to talk against industrialization ?

iii) Give the meaning of underlined words.

iv) Identify the part of speech of the following words: (a) many (b) necessary (c) who

Passage 4 (2016)

Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:

Crops also need water. We have to make sure that they do not have too little or too much water. To control the amount of water that they get, we irrigate land. By irrigation, we can water the thirsty plants excessively. We can also control flood waters by irrigation systems. To save water which comes during the rains so that we can use it during dry season, we build big reservoirs and dams, as well as many small tanks.

(i) Why do we irrigate the land?

(ii) What is the purpose of irrigation system?

(iii) Why are the dams constructed?

(iv) Suggest a suitable title to the passage.