English Practice Set From The Hindu: Part 3

Reading Comprehension

The extraordinary sight of a lake in Bengaluru on fire, with a massive plume of smoke that could be seen from afar, is a warning sign that urban environments are crashing under the weight of official indifference. If wetlands are the kidneys of the cities, as scientists like to describe them, Karnataka’s capital city has entered a phase of chronic failure. No longer the city of lakes and famed gardens, it has lost an estimated 79% of water bodies and 80% of its tree cover from the baseline year of 1973. Successive governments in the State have ignored the rampant encroachment of lake beds and
catchment areas for commercial exploitation, and the pollution caused by sewage, industrial effluents and garbage, which contributed to the blaze on Bellandur lake. The neglect is deliberate, since some of the finest urban ecologists in the city have been warning that government inaction is turning Bengaluru into an unliveable mess. It is time the State government took note of the several expert recommendations that have been made, including those of the Centre for Ecological Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science. The priority, clearly, is to end pollution outfalls into the water bodies, which will help revive them to an acceptable state of health. Identifying all surviving wetlands and demarcating them using digital and physical mapping will help communities monitor encroachments, while removal of land-grabbers and restoration of interconnecting channels is crucial to avoid future flooding events.
Loss of natural wetlands is an ongoing catastrophe in India. A decade ago, when the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History released a conservation atlas for all States using space applications, it reported the tragic fact that 38% of wetlands had already been lost nationally; and shockingly, in some districts only 12% survived. The Centre has since issued rules for conservation and management, and chosen 115 water bodies in 24 States for protection support, but this is obviously too little. Moreover, research studies show that the concentration of heavy metals in such sites is leading to bioaccumulation, thus entering the plants and animals that ultimately form part of people’s food. It should worry not just Bengaluru’s residents, for instance, that soil scientists have found higher levels of cadmium in green vegetables grown using water from Bellandur. More broadly, the collapse of environmental management because of multiple, disjointed agencies achieving little collectively and legal protections remaining unimplemented pose a serious threat to public health. Every city needs a single lake protection authority. India’s worsening air quality is now well documented, and most of its wetlands are severely polluted. Citizens must assert themselves to stop this perilous course.

1. What sort of environmental issues is Bengaluru facing?
A. It is no longer a city of lakes.
B. It has lost all its water bodies and tree coverage.
C. Industrial discharge is contributing to pollution
D. Both A and B
E. Both A and C

2. What is entering in the food as per research studies?
A. Concentration of heavy metals
B. Bioaccumulation
C. Plants and animals
D. Both A and B
E. None of these


3. What is the major cause of degradation of the environment in cities?
A. Unawareness of the citizens
B. Worsening air quality
C. Absence of single lake protection authority
D. Wetlands are severely polluted.
E. None of these


4. What is the most suitable title of the passage?
A. Weak official response to the pollution of Bengaluru's wetlands.
B. Warning lessons to learn from worsening condition of Bengaluru.
C. Results of the environmental protection survey carried out in Bengaluru
D. Unawareness of people threatening the environment.
E. None of these


5. Choose the word most OPPOSITE in meaning to the given word, as used in the passage.
Rampant
A. Hampered
B. Flourishing
C. Uncontrolled
D. Pervasive
E. Spreading


6. Choose the word most OPPOSITE in meaning to the given word, as used in the passage.
Deliberate
A. Purposeful
B. Careful
C. Planned
D. Unintentional
E. Cautious

7. Choose the word most SIMILAR in meaning to the given word, as used in the passage.
Catastrophe
A. Disaster
B. Blessing
C. Problem
D. Protest
E. None of these


8. Choose the word most SIMILAR in meaning to the given word, as used in the passage.
Perilous
A. Secure
B. Damage
C. Unsafe
D. Measurable
E. Protective

Spot the error

Directions(1-5 ): In these questions, read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The number of that part is the answer, if there is no error, the answer is (d). (Ignore errors of Punctuation, if any.)

1. The U.K.’s Vodafone and Aditya Birla group (A)/ firm Idea Cellular on Monday announce that (B)/ they have kickstarted a mega merger deal (C).
a. A
b.B
c.C

2. Promoters of Idea have right to buy up (A)/ to 9.5% additional stake of Vodafone under agreed mechanism (B)/ with view of equalising shareholdings over time (C).

a. A
b. B
c. C


3. Among MLAs who were sworn in (A)/ on Saturday, four are Rajputs, (B) four are Brahmins and two are Dalits (C).
a. A
b. B
c. C

4. The former Congress MLAs of the Cabinet also include Harak Singh Rawat and Subodh Uniyal (A)/ who had rebelled against the Harish Rawat government, last year, and had caused a political instability (B)/ that had brought the State under President’s Rule (C).
a. A
b. B
c. C

5. While few BJP leaders said that the former Congress MLAs were “rewarded” (A)/for supporting the BJP, but few others said that accommodating them in the Cabinet (B) was a way to “avoid problems, if any, in future” (C).
a. A
b. B
c. C