Q2 of 30 Page 26

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:

'Luckily, the question does not often arise in practice owing to the fact that the wasp and bee have more or less the same habits of nocturnal rest.' (Para 2)


i) What is the question?


ii) Why does the author use 'luckily' in this context?


iii) Give the meaning of 'nocturnal'.


i) The ‘question’ here refers to the situation of a wasp sitting on the neck of a person late at night, when he is relaxing in his bedroom and how the person can avoid being stung in such a situation.


ii) The author uses the word ‘luckily’ in this context because the fact that wasps are unlike mosquitoes and more like humans in their habit of nocturnal rest is something that has saved one and all from the possibility of waking all night in fear of a wasp sitting on one’s neck, which would lead to added caution, motionless breathing necessities and sacrifice of an entire night’s sleep, only to prevent the wasp from biting.


iii) ‘Nocturnal’ refers to anything that is done or occurs at night, or anyone who is active at night.


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2

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:

'Either its note is in itself offensive or we dislike it as the voice of an unscrupulous enemy.'


(Para 1)


i) Identify 'it' in the line.


ii) Why is 'it' referred to as an ‘unscrupulous enemy’?


iii) Give the opposite of 'offensive'.

 2

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:

'I do not admit that the bee would have been justified in stinging even the human being – who after all, is master of this partially civilized planet.' (Para 1)


i) Who is 'the human being' mentioned here?


ii) Explain the reference to a 'partially civilized planet'?


iii) Why does he describe it as 'partially civilized'?

 2

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:

'… and these are the millionfold chorus of life-the magnified echo of his own pleasure in being alive.' (Para 3)


i) What does the author refer to as the 'millionfold chorus of life'?


ii) What do the sounds in nature echo?


iii) Give the adjectival form of 'chorus'.

 2

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:

We had the illusion in those days that it was going to last for ever' (Para 3)


i) Identify 'we'. What does 'those days' mean'?


ii) What illusion did they nurse?


iii) Why does he call it an 'illusion'?