SSC Seen Comprehension CQ Question Solution PDF

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

Ameen is seventeen when the war breaks out. One Monday, after supper, he announces he will go to war. Sonabhan shrieks in surprise. You want to leave me alone?
It won't take long, Ma, he assures her. I'll be back soon after the training.That night Sonabhan cannot sleep.
After sun-up, she opens the duck coop. The flock streams out, stretches and quacks around her for their morning meal. She takes longer than usual. She mixes water with rice husks in an earthen bowl and. puts it down. They gobble it up in five minutes and head for the pond.
Ameen has let out the chickens by then. He lifts his 12-week-old cockerel, Moti, and sits on the veranda. During his breakfast he doesn't strike up any conversation. Having noticed Sonabhan's puffy eyes, he knows not to mention last night's subject. He casts his glance to the side, down at the cockerel eating rice in silence.
Today is haat bar, market day. Sonabhan has arranged the things Ameen will take to the bazaar to sell. Two dozen eggs, a sheaf of areca nuts, a bottle gourd. The bazaar is about a mile away.
Ameen wears his short-sleeved floral shirt over his lungi. He whistles as he looks into the cloudy mirror to comb his hair.
Placing the rattan basket on his head before setting-off, he hollers: I'm off, Ma.
Sonabhan watches him go along the bank of the little river. For the first time it occurs to her that Ameen has grown up. He has reached the height of his dead father, has his long neck and straight shoulders.
In that moment, Sonabhan realizes it's not the war, it's the fighting that Ameen is fascinated with. Like his dead father, he is crazy about bullfighting, cockfighting and boat racing. The same stubbornness flows in his blood. Once he decides on something, nothing can stop him.
Her little son! Now a man. Even up to his fifteenth birthday barely a day passed without neighbours appearing with a slew of complaints. Sometimes one or two turned up from other villages. They peeked into the house and asked, Does Ameen live here?
Sonabhan would sigh. What did he do?
Your son stole my date juice! Emptied the juice pots hanging on the date trees!
Sonabhan would sigh again. Then ask the visitor to pardon him. She hated saying that she'd raised her son alone. If she could spare them, she would bring half a dozen eggs and hand them to the visitor: Please take these for your children.
At night, Sonabhan climbs out of her bed, clutches the hurricane lamp and tiptoes into Ameen's room. She stands by his bed, looks at her sleeping son. He snores like his father. He has her light skin and button nose. She touches his cheek. His broad forehead. She suppresses a desire to lie beside him. Like the old days, when she slept cuddling her baby.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum in it, because that way it won't hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don't eat fruits on the street-flies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a orease; this is how you iron your father's khaki pants so that they don't have a crease; this is how you grow okra far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don't squat down to play marbles you are not a boy, you know; don't pick people's flowers you might catch something; don't throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don't like, and that way something bad won't fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn't fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it's fresh; but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

Meherjan lives in a slum on the Sirajgonj Town Protection Embankment. The whispering wind from the river Jamuna makes the fire unsteady. The dancing flames remind Meherjan of the turmoil in her life.
Not long ago Meherjan had everything--- a family, arable land and cattle. The erosion of the Jamuna gradually consumed all her landed property. It finally claimed her only shelter during the last monsoon. It took the river only a day to devour Meher's house, trees, vegetable garden and the bamboo bush. She had a happy family once. Over the years, she lost her husband and her family to diseases that cruel hunger and poverty brought to the family. Now, she is the only one left to live on with the loss and the pain. The greedy Jamuna has shattered her dreams and happiness.
There are thousand others waiting to share the same fate like Meherjan. Bangladesh is a land of rivers, some of whose banks overflow or erode during monsoon. Erosion is a harsh reality for the people living along the river banks. During each monsoon many more villages are threatened by the mighty rivers like the Jamuna, the Padma and the Meghna. It-is estimated that river erosion makes at least 100,000 people homeless every year in Bangladesh. In fact, river erosion is one of the main dangers caused by climate change. If we can't take prompt actions to adapt to climate change, there will be thousands of more Meherjans in our towns and villages every year.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

Bangladesh is now in the grip of all sorts of pollution like air pollution, soil pollution and water pollution. The dwellers of the urban areas are the worst sufferers of such pollution. The indiscriminate industrialisation process in Bangladesh over the past decades has created significant environmental problems. We will now read about some of the most common types of environmental pollutions and ways of coping with them.

Air pollution

Air pollution comes from a wide variety of sources. In Bangladesh poisonous exhausts from industrial plants, brick kilns, old or poorly-serviced vehicles and dust from roads and construction sites are some of the major sources of air pollution. We can minimise this type of pollution by making less use of motor vehicles and avoiding the use of vehicles older than 20 years. We may also use proper lubricants to lessen the level of emission and pollutants. We can encourage people to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) for fuelling their cars. The government may relocate hazardous industries like brick kilns to areas away from human habitations.

Water pollution

Water pollution can occur in oceans; rivers, lakes, ponds and underground reservoirs. As different water sources flow together, the pollution can spread easily and quickly. Causes of water pollution include:

• increased sediment from soil
• erosion
• improper waste disposal and littering
• leakage of soil pollution into water supplies
• organic materials that decay in water supplies

In fact, polluting the land means polluting the water. Throwing away a toxic substance on the ground near a water source means it eventually reaches the body of water. As a result, the water is polluted. Industrial wastes must not be disposed in rivers or lakes. We need to be more careful about disposing household wastes too. Use of pesticides means that when it rains, chemicals used in the lawn or garden wash into the water bodies. Therefore, we must be aware of the dangers of using pesticides as they may pollute our rivers, canals and lakes.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

Humans can neither change the sun's radiation nor the earth's orbit around the sun. But they can control the increase in the amount of greenhouse gases and its effect on the atmosphere. Only during the last hundred years the carbon dioxide concentration has been raised alarmingly in the atmosphere and we humans can be held responsible for this.
The main cause of the increase in-carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels. Since the end of the 19th century, industrial activities increased rapidly giving rise to many factories. These factories required energy, which was produced through the combustion of coal. Besides coal, other sources of energy such as mineral oil and natural gas were also burned to heat our houses, run cars and airplanes or to produce electricity. Nowadays, about 85 million barrels of crude oil are burned daily. Every time a fossil raw material is burned, it releases carbon dioxide into the air.
Therefore, it is clear that more and more greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are being generated worldwide by humans. Moreover, we are also strengthening the greenhouse effect by deforestation, which means, cutting down trees. Every year enormous areas of forests are destroyed by people to obtain wood and to clear regions for mining and to create pasture. This loss of the forest causes dual problems. Trees that are burned up release large volumes of carbon dioxide gas into the air. On the other hand, as forests absorb a lot of carbon dioxide from the air and deliver oxygen instead, we also destroy an important storehouse of carbon dioxide when we clear forests.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

On the afternoon of March 17, 1978, the weather took an odd turn in north Delhi. Mid-March is usually a nice time of year in that part of India: the chill of winter is gone and the blazing heat of summer is yet to come; the sky is clear and monsoon is far away. But that day dark clouds appeared suddenly and there were squalls of rain. Then followed an even bigger surprise: a hailstorm.

I was thon studying for an MA at Delhi University while also working as a part-time journalist. When the hailstorm broke, I was in a library. I had planned to stay late, but the unseasonal weather led to a change of mind and I decided to leave. I was on my way back to my room when, on an impulse, I changed direction and dropped in on a friend. But the weather continued to worsen as we were chatting, so after a few minutes, I decided to head straight back by a route that I rarely had occasion to take.

I had just passed a busy intersection called Maurice Nagar when I heard a rumbling sound somewhere above. Glancing ovor my shoulder I saw a gray, tube-like extrusion forming on the underside of a dark cloud: it grew rapidly as I watched, and then all of a sudden it turned and came whiplashing down to earth, heading in my direction.
Across the street lay a large administrative building. I sprinted over and headed toward what seemed to be an entrance. But the glass-fronted doors were shut, and a small crowd stood huddled outside, in the shelter of an overhang. There was no room for me there so I ran around to the front of the building. Spotting a small balcony, I jumped over the parapet and crouched on the floor.

The noise quickly rose to a frenzied pitch, and the wind began to tug fiercely at my clothes. Stealing a glance over the parapet, 1 saw, to my astonishment, that my surroundings had been darkened by a churning cloud or dust. In the dim glow that was shining down from above, I saw an extraordinary panoply of objects flying past-bicycles, scooters, lampposts, shoets of corrugated iron, even ontire teastalls. In that instant, gravity, itself seemed to have been transformed into a wheel spinning upon the fingertip of some unknown power.

I buried my head in my arms and lay still. Moments later the noise died down and was replaced by an eerie silence. When at last I climbed out of the balcony, I was confronted by a scene of devastation such as I had never before beheld. Buses lay overturned, scooters sat perched on treetops, walls had been ripped out of buildings, exposing interiors in which ceiling fans had beon twisted into tulip-like spirals. The place where I had first thought to take shelter, the glass-fronted doorway had been reduced to a jumble of jagged debris. The panes had shattered and many people had been wounded by the shards. I realised that I too would have been among the injured had I remained there. I walked away in a daze.

Long aftorward, I am not sure exactly when or where I hunted down the Times of India's New Delhi edition of March 18, I still have the photocopies I made of it. "30 dead", says the banner headline, "700 Hurt As Cyclone Hits North Delhi."

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

LET'S SAVE OUR PLANET!

Everyone must play a part in protecting the environment. There are many things you can do on your own every day to help save the planet. Here are some suggestions.

REDUCE!

Really, the best thing we can do for the planet is to use its resources properly. Our unplanned activities are mainly responsible for the environmental crisis. Here are some questions you can ask yourself before buying something, "Do I really need this?" or "Is there another product which would do the same thing but is more sustainable?" Or ask the question, "Will this last a long time?" Some other questions may be, “Do I know how this item was made, how it will be used and how it will be disposed of?”

REUSE!

What do you think of using your own ceramic cup or mug at your school or local club? It means there are no plastic cups to throw away. You can wash it and reuse it every day. Unfortunately, we are encouraged to buy a new "improved" item even if the one we have can be repaired or reused. When we buy things, we should buy those that are durable; we should use them properly, and have them repaired when necessary. If we practise this, many things will not only last a life-time, but also be passed on for future use. However, if something is truly unusable for its original purposes, try to be more creative and think of how else it might be used. When you're done with it, think of whether someone else might be able to use it. You can donate some of the things to the poor. You may also sell some of your used items through personal advertisements in a local newspaper or in social media.

RECYCLE!

Rather than throwing an item out when neither you nor anyone else can make use of it, have it recycled. And if recycling is not possible, it is better to send goods to a landfill or have them burned up. Find out what types of materials can be recycled in your area. Clean and sort the materials before putting them out in the bin. Recycling your drink and food cans means there will be less trash in a resource recovery facility or landfill. Moreover, a company can use the old cans to make new ones.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.

Traditional childhood pastimes of climbing trees and playing conkers are in decline, according to a survey by the RSPB Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). It's a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales.

( The survey shows that people under 34 recall far fewer such childhood outdoor experiences than people over 55, according to a survey by RSPB.

People were asked which of the twelve childhood outdoor experiences they could remember. The answer included making dens, daisy chains, climbing trees, playing conkers and feeding birds. Four out of five boys climbed trees and the same number of girls made daisy chains. But the survey showed the numbers declining among the newer generations.

Some 15% more of those aged over 55 had these outdoor experiences in their childhood, compared with those between 15-34 years old. Some 92% of the public agreed that experiences of nature were still important to children, and 82% agreed that schools should play a role in providing them to all children.

The survey has highlighted the positive impact of contact with nature on a child's education, health, wellbeing and social skills. At the same time, there has been a decline in these opportunities, with negative consequences for children, families and society- a condition now known as nature deficit disorder.

Mike Clarke, chief executive of the RSPB, will meet parliament members to urge the government to join other organisations in providing children with first-hand experiences of the natural environment. "We believe this guidance should include the many positive impacts to children of having contact with nature and learning outside the classroom."

Read the following text carefully and answer the question no. 4 and 5:

Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa, on 18th July 1918. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies. In November 1962 he was sentenced to five years in prison & started serving his sentence at Robben Island prison in 1963. From 1964 to 1982, he was again imprisoned at Robben Island prison & then later moved to Polls Moor prison, during which his reputation as a potent symbol of resistance to the antiapartheid movement grew steadily. Released from prison in 1990, Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 & was inaugurated as the first democratically elected-president of South Africa in 1994. He is the author of the international bestseller "Long walk to Freedom & conversations with myself." Nelson Mandela was the first black President of South Africa. He was in prison from 1962 to 1990. He became President of South Africa in 1994 & retired in 1999. He spent 27 years in prison for trying to overthrow the pro-apartheid government. After he left prison, he worked to achieve human rights & ensure a better future for everyone in South Africa. Nelson Mandela died on 5th December 2013 following a lung illness.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below.
May Day or International Workers' Day is observed on May 1 all over the world today to commemorate the historical struggle and sacrifices of the working people to establish an eight-hour workday. It is a public holiday in almost all the countries of the world.

Since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe and the US, the workers in mills and factories had been working a long shift, fourteen or even more hours a day.

On May 1" in 1886, inspired by the trade unions, half of the workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago went on strike demanding an eight-hour workday. Two days later, a workers' rally was held near the McCormick Harvester Machine Company and about 6000 workers joined it. The rally was addressed by the labour leaders. They urged the workers to stand together, to go on with their struggle and not to give in to their bosses. At one point of the rally, some strikebreakers started leaving the meeting place. The strikers went down the street to bring them back. Suddenly about 200 policemen attacked them with clubs and revolvers. One striker was killed instantly, five or six others were seriously wounded and many others were injured.

The events of May 1, 1886 are a reminder that workers will continue to be exploited until they stand up and speak out to gain better working conditions, better pay and better lives.