English Reading Comprehension

Find out the appropriate word and fill blank (v).

Directions: The following passage has some blanks, each of which has been numbered.

There are two ____ (i)____ sources of energy, renewable and non-renewable. ____(ii)____ electric power is a major energy source. This is electricity generated by turbines turned by water. Solar energy is energy ____(iii)____ from the sun. Sun is a very important energy source. Renewable energy sources are clean and ____ (iv)____. They can be ____ (v)____ too

Directions: The last sentence in the following passages has been deleted. Select the sentence, out of the available options, that best suits the end of the passage. While the lethal H5N1 virus has been marching from one country to another, infecting birds and, in some cases, humans, one fact is becoming apparent - as long as the virus persists in birds, be it poultry or wild birds, avian flu outbreaks are bound to recur.

Which name was given to the Queen's teacher, by the people?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

The Land of the Blue Flower was not called by that name until the tall, strong, handsome King Amor came down from his castle on the mountain crag and began to reign. Before that time it was called King Mordreth's Land, and as the first King Mordreth had been a fierce and cruel king this seemed a gloomy name.

A few weeks before Amor was born, his weak, selfish boy-father--whose name was King Mordreth also--was killed while hunting, and his fair mother with clear eyes died when he was but a few hours old. But early on that day she sent for her venerable friend and teacher, who was said to be the oldest and wisest man in the world, and who long ago had
fled to a cave in the mountains, so that he might see no more of the famine and disorder and hatred in the country spread out on the plains below. He was a marvellous old man, almost a giant in size, and had great blue eyes like deep sea-water. They, too, were clear eyes like the fair Queen's--they seemed to see all things and to hold in their depths no single thought which was not fine and great. The people were a little afraid of him when they saw him go striding majestically through their streets. They had no name for him, but 'The Ancient One'. The lovely Queen drew aside the embroidered coverlet of her gold and ivory bed and showed him the tiny baby sleeping by her side.

Which word means the same as marvellous?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

The Land of the Blue Flower was not called by that name until the tall, strong, handsome King Amor came down from his castle on the mountain crag and began to reign. Before that time it was called King Mordreth's Land, and as the first King Mordreth had been a fierce and cruel king this seemed a gloomy name.

A few weeks before Amor was born, his weak, selfish boy-father--whose name was King Mordreth also--was killed while hunting, and his fair mother with clear eyes died when he was but a few hours old. But early on that day she sent for her venerable friend and teacher, who was said to be the oldest and wisest man in the world, and who long ago had
fled to a cave in the mountains, so that he might see no more of the famine and disorder and hatred in the country spread out on the plains below. He was a marvellous old man, almost a giant in size, and had great blue eyes like deep sea-water. They, too, were clear eyes like the fair Queen's--they seemed to see all things and to hold in their depths no single thought which was not fine and great. The people were a little afraid of him when they saw him go striding majestically through their streets. They had no name for him, but 'The Ancient One'. The lovely Queen drew aside the embroidered coverlet of her gold and ivory bed and showed him the tiny baby sleeping by her side.

How did King Amor's father die?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

The Land of the Blue Flower was not called by that name until the tall, strong, handsome King Amor came down from his castle on the mountain crag and began to reign. Before that time it was called King Mordreth's Land, and as the first King Mordreth had been a fierce and cruel king this seemed a gloomy name.

A few weeks before Amor was born, his weak, selfish boy-father--whose name was King Mordreth also--was killed while hunting, and his fair mother with clear eyes died when he was but a few hours old. But early on that day she sent for her venerable friend and teacher, who was said to be the oldest and wisest man in the world, and who long ago had
fled to a cave in the mountains, so that he might see no more of the famine and disorder and hatred in the country spread out on the plains below. He was a marvellous old man, almost a giant in size, and had great blue eyes like deep sea-water. They, too, were clear eyes like the fair Queen's--they seemed to see all things and to hold in their depths no single thought which was not fine and great. The people were a little afraid of him when they saw him go striding majestically through their streets. They had no name for him, but 'The Ancient One'. The lovely Queen drew aside the embroidered coverlet of her gold and ivory bed and showed him the tiny baby sleeping by her side.

The name of the Land of the Blue Flower was changed after_____________.

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

The Land of the Blue Flower was not called by that name until the tall, strong, handsome King Amor came down from his castle on the mountain crag and began to reign. Before that time it was called King Mordreth's Land, and as the first King Mordreth had been a fierce and cruel king this seemed a gloomy name.

A few weeks before Amor was born, his weak, selfish boy-father--whose name was King Mordreth also--was killed while hunting, and his fair mother with clear eyes died when he was but a few hours old. But early on that day she sent for her venerable friend and teacher, who was said to be the oldest and wisest man in the world, and who long ago had
fled to a cave in the mountains, so that he might see no more of the famine and disorder and hatred in the country spread out on the plains below. He was a marvellous old man, almost a giant in size, and had great blue eyes like deep sea-water. They, too, were clear eyes like the fair Queen's--they seemed to see all things and to hold in their depths no single thought which was not fine and great. The people were a little afraid of him when they saw him go striding majestically through their streets. They had no name for him, but 'The Ancient One'. The lovely Queen drew aside the embroidered coverlet of her gold and ivory bed and showed him the tiny baby sleeping by her side.

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Long ago, there lived a family of fisherman, in a village near the sea. The father was very cruel and he used to rule the household. All the family members obeyed his commands. Lisa, the youngest daughter, was sent to the forest each day to gather wood for the kitchen fire. Near the edge of the forest was a cave under some rocks. A stream of water fell over the rocks into a basin in the cave. This was a delightfully cool place, and Lisa often rested here on her way home after gathering wood in the forest. She would lie on the mossy bank of the stream for hours and dream. One morning, as Lisa ran along the grassy path that led to the cave, she saw a little fish in the stream. Its scales flashed out all the colours of the rainbow."I am going to keep the fish for a pet," said the girl to herself. "I will call it Rainbow." She caught the pretty fish and put it into the basin in the cave and served it food everyday. So, she got a new friend.

Lisa lived in a __________.

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Long ago, there lived a family of fisherman, in a village near the sea. The father was very cruel and he used to rule the household. All the family members obeyed his commands. Lisa, the youngest daughter, was sent to the forest each day to gather wood for the kitchen fire. Near the edge of the forest was a cave under some rocks. A stream of water fell over the rocks into a basin in the cave. This was a delightfully cool place, and Lisa often rested here on her way home after gathering wood in the forest. She would lie on the mossy bank of the stream for hours and dream. One morning, as Lisa ran along the grassy path that led to the cave, she saw a little fish in the stream. Its scales flashed out all the colours of the rainbow."I am going to keep the fish for a pet," said the girl to herself. "I will call it Rainbow." She caught the pretty fish and put it into the basin in the cave and served it food everyday. So, she got a new friend.

The basin was a __________.

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.

Long ago, there lived a family of fisherman, in a village near the sea. The father was very cruel and he used to rule the household. All the family members obeyed his commands. Lisa, the youngest daughter, was sent to the forest each day to gather wood for the kitchen fire. Near the edge of the forest was a cave under some rocks. A stream of water fell over the rocks into a basin in the cave. This was a delightfully cool place, and Lisa often rested here on her way home after gathering wood in the forest. She would lie on the mossy bank of the stream for hours and dream. One morning, as Lisa ran along the grassy path that led to the cave, she saw a little fish in the stream. Its scales flashed out all the colours of the rainbow."I am going to keep the fish for a pet," said the girl to herself. "I will call it Rainbow." She caught the pretty fish and put it into the basin in the cave and served it food everyday. So, she got a new friend.

What did Lisa see in the stream?

Why is Bangladesh probably the world leader in NGOs?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answer the question.

Bangladesh, a country numbering almost 140 million, whose population is 90 percent Muslim, is a prime example of a nation under siege from a deluge of NGOs. Since 1981, foreign NGOs have created an indigenous mercenary army and set up a parallel government of their own in the country. Given handsome salaries, bribes, awards, vehicles, machinery and huge funds, the nouveau riche mercenaries pretending to be writers, lawyers, teachers, artists and human–right activists, among others, have set up factories, printing presses, and publishing houses.

Bangladesh is probably the world leader in non–governmental organizations, NGOs, perhaps because economically it is near the bottom of the heap. The 20,000 or so NGOs there operate mainly in the country's 86,000 villages, providing education, health, small loans and agricultural development far more efficiently than the corrupt and inefficient government. Yet, while outsiders have lavished praise on the NGOs, Bangladeshis themselves are ambivalent. Some fear the organizations are becoming a parallel State, financed by foreigners and accountable to nobody.

Most of the foreign money (around \$ 250m a year) goes to a handful of famous NGOs such as the Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Proshika and the Association for Social Advancement. These are among the biggest rural–development organizations in the world, and they have an awesome reach.

BRAC alone has 1900 full–time employees, 34,000 part–time teachers, and 2.3m members (96% female) in 66,000 villages. Its schools admit only those who do not attend or have dropped out of government schools, and at least 70% of these must be girls. It hires teachers from each village, of whom 96% are women without teaching qualifications. They run schools in rented thatched huts, set neither exams nor homework, and have flexible school hours that enable children to work in the fields with their parents, reducing the incentive to drop out. Teachers are paid 600 taka (\$ 12) a month and reach children that government teachers (paid six times as much) cannot.

The Grameen Bank has pioneered small loans to the poor. Commercial banks say it is too risky to make loans of around $100 to people without assets. But Grameen organizes borrowers into groups which guarantee a loan to any member (exerting peer pressure for repayment). Its repayment rate is over 95%. Other NGOs have followed this route, and now more than poor people (almost all women) have obtained small loans for shops, sewing machines, chicken farming and the like.

Micro–credit is one reason for the fall in poverty in Bangladesh, from 59% of the population in 1991–92 to 53% in 1995–96. A more important reason is the attention to women that NGOs have given. By directing education, jobs and credit at women, the NGOs have created a social revolution in a conservative Muslim society. This is mainly why the fertility rate in Bangladesh has crashed from 6.1 births per woman in 1960 to 3.4 births today. It is expected to decline to 2.5 births by 2010. The mullahs hate NGOs for eroding the traditional male–dominated structure, and occasionally attack their offices.

Resentment also comes from politicians, bureaucrats and leftists, all of whose shortcomings have been exposed by the success of NGOs. Leftwing critics accuse NGOs of exploitative rates of interest: BRAC charges 15%, Grameen up to 22%. Yet the high rate of repayment is the best evidence of affordability. In fact, in labour–intensive work, interest charges are a small proportion of total costs.

Grameen Bank has a policy of only giving its loans to women. This has led to calls that its effects are weakening the institution of the family. It is interested in pursuing a policy that will lead Bangladesh to a situation to that we see in the West where the institution of marriage is on the retreat (marriage break down is at an all time high). When one examines who the patrons of the Grameen Bank are things become much clearer. The World Bank, ADB together with the UN, sets the whole agenda of the Grameen Bank. The World Bank is of course the best example of an NGO, whose abject failures at alleviating poverty are all too well documented.

Politicians complain that NGOs have money and power without accountability, embezzle foreign funds and cook their books. The NGOs reply that their accounts are audited, and sometimes not just in Bangladesh but also, to satisfy donors, by auditors abroad. They say they are accountable both to donors and the villagers they serve. The easy availability of donor funds has encouraged some crooks to set themselves up as NGOs. But corruption among NGOs is a trickle compared to the rivers in government.

The westerners treat death as a

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answer the question.

My father died twice. The first time was in an ambulance as he rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. His heart had stopped beating for several minutes before the paramedics were able to revive him. Afterwards, he described a vision he had as he lay without a pulse in the speeding ambulance. He saw his brother Joe, who had passed away some years earlier, dressed in flowing white robes sitting on a kind of throne at the top of hill. As my father approached, Joe was laughing uproariously and waving his hand, urging him to turn around and go back. The second time my father died was about three years later. Again it was his heart that failed him. This time, though his brother Joe wasn¢t there to wave him back to this world.

What my father encountered in the back of that ambulance was a classic example of a near death experience (NDE). According to statistics compiled by the International Association for Near-Death studies some 35-40% of people who have had a close brush with death later report a NDE. They commonly tell of a feeling that the self has left the body a sensation of moving through a dark space or tunnel a vision of golden or white light and the receipt in some form of the message "your time has not yet come."

Are NDEs evidence for life after death or are they just the last, desperate projections of the dying brain? While modem science can explain why we age, it tells us very little about why we die, much less about what happens if anything after death. "In death, science is pitted against an impenetrable information barrier", says David Darling, an astronomer and physicist who has written several books on death and dying. "When we die, each of us makes a solo flight across that barrier and gives up all possibility of sending back news of what we find."

Many people don't require hard evidence about what's on the other side. They are satisfied with the explanations provided for millennia by the world's religions. But for those not blessed with religious faith, science may never be able to prove whether the NDE is a news flash from the hereafter or just one of the mind's grandest illusions. Darling suggests there are two events that approximate death: the near death experiences itself and the memory loss suffered by victims of Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. "Losing your memory is perhaps as close as we can come to death without actually dying", he says. "The person is dead because the memories are gone. And memories are the only things that give meaning and identity to our lives."

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

The idea is not as far-out as it seems. According to Chris Winter, Peter Cochrane and Ian Pearson, futurologists at British Telecom's Advanced Research Department, computers (or “soulcatchers") with storage and processing capacities equivalent to the human brain will be developed within the next 20 years. "We will be able to transfer human minds into some machine form", says Pearson. Perhaps our only chance of making full use of such technology is to become part of the technology itself.

But are these intimations of immortality real? The silicon soul described by Leary is actually not a captured consciousness at all, but an elaborate interactive home video of history. As useful and entertaining as that might be, it’s a far cry from life after death. And how big an improvement is it over say the good old-fashioned book? We can already make contact with some of the world's great lost simply by dipping into the novels of James Joyce or the poems of John Donne.

In his book, ‘Dancing on the Grave’, British anthropologist Nigel Barely describes a trip to Africa during which a group of tribal elders explain their idea of reincarnation by visiting a local brewery. “You could see returned bottles through a plate glass window", Barely writes “entering via one door, whirling from machine to machine being endlessly refilled with squirting beer relabelled and pushed out through another door.... life, death, spirit and body”. Now you have seen (the elders) said. Though it comes from Africa, this little episode is a fitting metaphor for Western attitudes towards death: the body is a machine and death is a spanner in the works. But you don't have to postulate the existence of an eternal soul to acknowledge that there may be some things in the universe, like death, that we just can't fix. Let's not be too proud that our technological prowess may one day bring immortality. “Never send to know for whom the computer crashes, it crashes for thee”.

Which of the following approximates a NDE?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answer the question.

My father died twice. The first time was in an ambulance as he rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. His heart had stopped beating for several minutes before the paramedics were able to revive him. Afterwards, he described a vision he had as he lay without a pulse in the speeding ambulance. He saw his brother Joe, who had passed away some years earlier, dressed in flowing white robes sitting on a kind of throne at the top of hill. As my father approached, Joe was laughing uproariously and waving his hand, urging him to turn around and go back. The second time my father died was about three years later. Again it was his heart that failed him. This time, though his brother Joe wasn¢t there to wave him back to this world.

What my father encountered in the back of that ambulance was a classic example of a near death experience (NDE). According to statistics compiled by the International Association for Near-Death studies some 35-40% of people who have had a close brush with death later report a NDE. They commonly tell of a feeling that the self has left the body a sensation of moving through a dark space or tunnel a vision of golden or white light and the receipt in some form of the message "your time has not yet come."

Are NDEs evidence for life after death or are they just the last, desperate projections of the dying brain? While modem science can explain why we age, it tells us very little about why we die, much less about what happens if anything after death. "In death, science is pitted against an impenetrable information barrier", says David Darling, an astronomer and physicist who has written several books on death and dying. "When we die, each of us makes a solo flight across that barrier and gives up all possibility of sending back news of what we find."

Many people don't require hard evidence about what's on the other side. They are satisfied with the explanations provided for millennia by the world's religions. But for those not blessed with religious faith, science may never be able to prove whether the NDE is a news flash from the hereafter or just one of the mind's grandest illusions. Darling suggests there are two events that approximate death: the near death experiences itself and the memory loss suffered by victims of Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. "Losing your memory is perhaps as close as we can come to death without actually dying", he says. "The person is dead because the memories are gone. And memories are the only things that give meaning and identity to our lives."

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

The idea is not as far-out as it seems. According to Chris Winter, Peter Cochrane and Ian Pearson, futurologists at British Telecom's Advanced Research Department, computers (or “soulcatchers") with storage and processing capacities equivalent to the human brain will be developed within the next 20 years. "We will be able to transfer human minds into some machine form", says Pearson. Perhaps our only chance of making full use of such technology is to become part of the technology itself.

But are these intimations of immortality real? The silicon soul described by Leary is actually not a captured consciousness at all, but an elaborate interactive home video of history. As useful and entertaining as that might be, it’s a far cry from life after death. And how big an improvement is it over say the good old-fashioned book? We can already make contact with some of the world's great lost simply by dipping into the novels of James Joyce or the poems of John Donne.

In his book, ‘Dancing on the Grave’, British anthropologist Nigel Barely describes a trip to Africa during which a group of tribal elders explain their idea of reincarnation by visiting a local brewery. “You could see returned bottles through a plate glass window", Barely writes “entering via one door, whirling from machine to machine being endlessly refilled with squirting beer relabelled and pushed out through another door.... life, death, spirit and body”. Now you have seen (the elders) said. Though it comes from Africa, this little episode is a fitting metaphor for Western attitudes towards death: the body is a machine and death is a spanner in the works. But you don't have to postulate the existence of an eternal soul to acknowledge that there may be some things in the universe, like death, that we just can't fix. Let's not be too proud that our technological prowess may one day bring immortality. “Never send to know for whom the computer crashes, it crashes for thee”.

Choose the word most opposite in meaning to the word 'Fragile', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answer the question.

My father died twice. The first time was in an ambulance as he rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. His heart had stopped beating for several minutes before the paramedics were able to revive him. Afterwards, he described a vision he had as he lay without a pulse in the speeding ambulance. He saw his brother Joe, who had passed away some years earlier, dressed in flowing white robes sitting on a kind of throne at the top of hill. As my father approached, Joe was laughing uproariously and waving his hand, urging him to turn around and go back. The second time my father died was about three years later. Again it was his heart that failed him. This time, though his brother Joe wasn¢t there to wave him back to this world.

What my father encountered in the back of that ambulance was a classic example of a near death experience (NDE). According to statistics compiled by the International Association for Near-Death studies some 35-40% of people who have had a close brush with death later report a NDE. They commonly tell of a feeling that the self has left the body a sensation of moving through a dark space or tunnel a vision of golden or white light and the receipt in some form of the message "your time has not yet come."

Are NDEs evidence for life after death or are they just the last, desperate projections of the dying brain? While modem science can explain why we age, it tells us very little about why we die, much less about what happens if anything after death. "In death, science is pitted against an impenetrable information barrier", says David Darling, an astronomer and physicist who has written several books on death and dying. "When we die, each of us makes a solo flight across that barrier and gives up all possibility of sending back news of what we find."

Many people don't require hard evidence about what's on the other side. They are satisfied with the explanations provided for millennia by the world's religions. But for those not blessed with religious faith, science may never be able to prove whether the NDE is a news flash from the hereafter or just one of the mind's grandest illusions. Darling suggests there are two events that approximate death: the near death experiences itself and the memory loss suffered by victims of Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. "Losing your memory is perhaps as close as we can come to death without actually dying", he says. "The person is dead because the memories are gone. And memories are the only things that give meaning and identity to our lives."

If the difference between life and death is a question of memory, could death's sting be parried by replacing the fragile human memory with an infallible computerized one? In his book Design for Dying completed earlier this year before he died from prostate cancer, psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary explored various strategies for achieving immortality. One of the most promising tactics, he suggested is to transfer an individual's consciousness into a supercomputer before death. This could be done by using multimedia technologies (video, audio, CDs) to record all your thoughts, feelings and experience onto a computer equipped with artificial intelligence. The result: a real life ghost in the machine. Endowed with all your memories, the new computerized you would be able to chat and interact with people just as you would-except it would be doing so long after you had died.

The idea is not as far-out as it seems. According to Chris Winter, Peter Cochrane and Ian Pearson, futurologists at British Telecom's Advanced Research Department, computers (or “soulcatchers") with storage and processing capacities equivalent to the human brain will be developed within the next 20 years. "We will be able to transfer human minds into some machine form", says Pearson. Perhaps our only chance of making full use of such technology is to become part of the technology itself.

But are these intimations of immortality real? The silicon soul described by Leary is actually not a captured consciousness at all, but an elaborate interactive home video of history. As useful and entertaining as that might be, it’s a far cry from life after death. And how big an improvement is it over say the good old-fashioned book? We can already make contact with some of the world's great lost simply by dipping into the novels of James Joyce or the poems of John Donne.

In his book, ‘Dancing on the Grave’, British anthropologist Nigel Barely describes a trip to Africa during which a group of tribal elders explain their idea of reincarnation by visiting a local brewery. “You could see returned bottles through a plate glass window", Barely writes “entering via one door, whirling from machine to machine being endlessly refilled with squirting beer relabelled and pushed out through another door.... life, death, spirit and body”. Now you have seen (the elders) said. Though it comes from Africa, this little episode is a fitting metaphor for Western attitudes towards death: the body is a machine and death is a spanner in the works. But you don't have to postulate the existence of an eternal soul to acknowledge that there may be some things in the universe, like death, that we just can't fix. Let's not be too proud that our technological prowess may one day bring immortality. “Never send to know for whom the computer crashes, it crashes for thee”.