Where can i download CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage A?

You can download PDF of CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage A from StudiesToday.com

CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage A

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with Answers

1 At the end of 2019, a new type of corona-virus started spreading in China. This type of corona-virus is often called 2019-nCoV, novel corona-virus, or COVID-19. It is believed that the virus was transmitted from animals to humans. Some of the first cases were diagnosed in people who had visited a market selling live seafood and animals. Unfortunately, when viruses are transmitted from animals to people, it can take scientists a lot of time before they can develop a vaccine or medicines to cure it.

Some of the symptoms of the corona-virus are fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, headache, and trouble breathing. These symptoms are very much like those people have with a cold or the flu. The virus can be more serious in some people, especially if they are sick or have health problems.
While it is early to have a definite picture of the disease because scientists are still collecting the data, some patterns have already emerged. Some early reports reveal that children seem to be getting corona-virus at much lower rates than adults. Even if they get infected, the symptoms are milder. However, most people who get severely infected are those with a weak immune system, like the elderly. Corona-virus may be life-threatening for these people. They may develop more serious respiratory tract illnesses that may be fatal.
The virus appears to spread mainly from person to person. The transmission occurs when someone comes into contact with an infected person. For example, a cough, sneeze or handshake could cause transmission. The spread may also be caused by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes. There is no specific vaccine or medication to cure the disease, but generally, symptoms will go away on their own. However, experts recommend seeking medical care early if symptoms feel worse than a standard cold. Doctors can relieve symptoms by prescribing pain or fever medication. As far as antibiotics are concerned, they are useless to treat corona-virus.
People who think they may have been exposed to the virus should contact their healthcare provider immediately. A set of preventive measures are usually followed in case someone gets infected. This includes keeping infected people in quarantine for a certain period, generally fourteen days.
To protect you from the virus, here are six recommendations that we need to follow. We should avoid contact with people who are already infected. Secondly, we should wash our hands well and regularly for at least 20 seconds with soap and water or use hand sanitizer. We should avoid touching our eyes, nose, and mouth if we haven't washed our hands. The surfaces and objects should be clean and disinfect that people touch a lot. We should stay home when we are sick. We should cover our cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.

Answer the following questions:

Question. New Corona virus is also known by the names
(a) 2019-nCoV
(b) novel corona-virus
(c) COVID-19
(d) All of the above.
Answer : D

Question. What are the common symptoms of the virus?
(a) fever and cough
(b) runny nose and sore throat
(c) headache, and trouble breathing
(d) All of the above
Answer : D

Question. For whom the virus can be deadly?
(a) A person having weak immune system
(b) A person travelled from foreign country
(c) A person having high fat in his body
(d) A person having an age of above 70 years
Answer : A

Question. How does the virus spread man to man?
(a) It spreads from blood transfusion
(b) it spreads from vaccination
(c when someone comes into contact with an infected person
(d) When someone comes for admission in the hospital.
Answer : C

Question. How can we protect ourselves from the virus?
(a) We should avoid contact with people who are already infected.
(b) By washing our hands well and regularly for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.
(c) By using hand sanitizer.
(d) All of the above.
Answer : D

Discursive Passage for Class 12

Today’s woman is a highly self-directed person, alive to the sense of her dignity and the importance of her functions in the private domestic domain and the public domain of the world of work. Women are rational in approach, careful in handling situations and want to do things as best as possible. The Fourth World Conference of Women held in Beijing in September 1995 had emphasized that no enduring solution of society’s most threatening social, economic and political problems could be found without the participation and empowerment of the women. The 1995 World Summit for Social Development had also emphasised the pivotal role of women in eradicating poverty and mending the social fabric.

The Constitution of India had conferred on women equal rights and opportunities political, socia l, educational and of employment with men. Because of oppressive traditions, superstitions, exploitation and corruption, a majority of women are not allowed to enjoy the rights and opportunities, bestowed on them. One of the major reasons for this state of affairs is the lack of literacy and awareness among women. Education is the main instrument through which we can narrow down the prevailing inequality and accelerate the process of economic and political change in the status of women.

The role of women in a society is very important. Women’s education is the key to a better life in the future. A recent World Bank study says that educating girls is not a charity, it is good economics and if developing nations are to eradicate poverty, they must educate the girls. The report says that the economic and social returns on investment in education of the girls considerably affect the human development index of the nation. Society would progress only if the status of women is respected and the presence of an educated woman in the family would ensure education of the family itself. Education and empowerment of women are closely related

Various Committees and Commissions have been constituted before and after the independence to evaluate the progress in women’s education and to suggest ways and means to enhance the s tatus of women. The female literacy rate has gone up in the 20th century from 0.6 per cent in 1901 to 39.29 per cent in 1991 but India still possesses the largest number of illiterate women in the world. The female literacy index for the year 1991 shows that there are eight States which fall below the national average. The most populous States of the country, UP, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan fall in the category of most backward States as far as female literacy is concerned.

The prevailing cultural norms of gender behaviour and the perceived domestic and reproductive roles of women tend to affect the education of girls. Negative attitude towards sending girls to schools, restrictions on their mobility, early marriage, poverty and illiteracy of parents affect the girl’s participation in education. Women’s political empowerment got a big boost with the Panchayati Raj Act of 1993 which gave them 30 per cent reservation in Village Panchayats, Block Samities and Zila Parishads throughout the country. The National Commission for Women was also set up in 1992 to act as a lobby for women’s issues. The educational system is the only institution which can counteract the deep foundations of inequality of sexes that are built in the minds of people through the socialization process. Education is the most important instrument of human resource development. Educational system should be used to revolutionize the traditional attitudes and inculcate new values of equality.

(A) Answer the following questions:

Question. Name the attributes of a modern woman.
(a) self-dependent and rationality
(b) careful in handling situations
(c) want to do things as best as possible
(d) All of the above
Answer : D

Question. Why are women’s participation and empowerment considered necessary?
(a) For eradicating poverty
(b) for mending the social fabric.
(c) Both a & b
(d) None of the above
Answer : C

Question. Which factors adversely affect the education of girls?
(a) Gender behaviour
(b) The perceived domestic and reproductive roles of women
(c) restrictions on the mobility of girls, early marriage of girls
(d) All of the above.
Answer : D

Question. What are the benefits that the women get with the enactment of the Panchayati Raj Act of 1993?
(a) Gave liberty to move anywhere
(b) Got 30 % reservation in Village Panchayats, Block Samities and Zila Parishads.
(c) Got 100% Education rate
(d) None of the above
Answer : B

Question. By what process can we remove the sense of inequality of sexes from the minds of the people?
(a) By the process of education
(b) By election
(c) By court of law
(d) By UNO
Answer : A

(B) Give the synonym of the following expressions:
Question. cruel and unfair
(a) Hatred
(b) oppressive
(c) Judicious
(d) Unlawful
Answer : B

Question. remove
(a) eradicate
(b) Throw
(c) Deny
(d) Liberate
Answer : A

Question. full of people
(a) Gather
(b) Suffocating
(c) populous
(d) None of the above
Answer : C

Unseen Passage with multiple choice questions for Class 12

Health is the general condition of a person's mind, body, and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury, or pain. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in 1946 as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
Generally, the context in which an individual’s life is of great importance on health status and quality of life. It is increasingly recognized that health is maintained and improved not only through the advancement and application of health science, but also through the efforts and intelligent lifestyle choices of the individual and society. According to the WHO, the main determinants of health include the social and economic environment, the physical environment, and the person's individual characteristics and behaviors. In fact, an increasing number of studies and reports from different organizations and contexts examine the linkages between health and different factors, including lifestyle, environment, health care organization, and health policy.
Focusing more on lifestyle issues and their relationships with functional health, data from different studies suggested that people can improve their health by observing the following activities. Regular e xercise, enough sleep, maintaining healthy body weight, limiting alcohol use and avoiding smoking.
In addition to that, the ability to adapt and to self manage has been suggested as core components of human health. Personal health also depends partially on the social structure of a person's life. The maintenance of strong social relationships, volunteering, and other social activities have been linked to positive mental health and even increased longevity. In contrast, prolonged psychological stress may negatively impact health, and has been cited as a factor in cognitive impairment with aging, depressive illness, and expression of disease.

Answer the following questions:

Question. What is definition of health in general?
(a) Health is the general condition of a person's mind, body, and spirit
(b) Free from any kind of illness
(c) Sleeping and taking rest with good food
(d) None of the above.
Answer : A

Question. How health can be maintained and improved?
(a) By staying away from the sick people in general
(b) By keeping ourselves isolated
(c) by the efforts and intelligent lifestyle choices of the individual and society.
(d) by avoid getting hurt and sick.
Answer : C

Question. Name the factors that are responsible for good health.
(a) Lifestyle
(b) environment
(c) Health care organization and health policy
(d) All of the above.
Answer : D

Question. How can we improve our health?
(a) By regular exercise
(b) By enough sleep and maintaining healthy body weight
(c) By limiting alcohol use and avoiding smoking.
(d) All of the above
Answer : D

Question. Name the element on which personal health depends.
(a) On human anatomy
(b) It depends partially on the social structure of a person's life.
(c) On the genetic structure of a man
(d) None of the above
Answer : B

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with answers pdf

Read the below:-

The therapeutic value and healing powers of plants were demonstrated to me when I was a boy of about ten. I had developed an acute persistent abdominal pain that did not respond readily to hospital medication. My mother had taken me to the city's central hospital on several occasions, where different drugs were tried on me. In total desperation she took me to Egya Mensa, a well-known herbalist in my home-town in the Western province of Ghana. This man was no stranger to the medical doctors at the hospital. He had earned the reputation of offering excellent help when they were confronted with difficult cases where western medicine had failed to effect a cure.

After a brief interview, not very different from what goes on daily in the consulting offices of many general medical practitioners in the United States, he left us waiting in his consulting room while he went out to the field. He returned with several leaves and the bark of a tree and one of his attendants immediately prepared a decoction. I was given a glass of this preparation, it tasted extremely bitter, but within an hour or so I began to feel relieved. The rest of the decoction was put in two large bottles so that I could take does periodically. Within about three days, the frequent abdominal pains stopped and I recall gaining a good appetite. I have appreciated the healing powers of medicinal plants ever since.

My experience nay sound unusual to those who come from urban area of the developed world, but for those in the less affluent nations such experiences are a common occurrence. In fact, demographic studies by various national governments and inter-governmental organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that for 75 to 90 per cent of the rural populations of the world, the herbalist is the only person who handles their medical problems.

In African culture, traditional medical practitioners are always considered to be influential spiritual leaders as well, using magic and religion along with medicines. Illness is handled with the individual's hidden spiritual powers and with application of plants that have been found especially to contain healing powers.

Over the years I have come to distinguish three types of medicinal practitioners in African societies and to classify the extent to which each uses medicinal plants. The first is the herbalist, who generally enjoys the prestige and reputation of being the real traditional medical professional. The second group represents the divine healers. They are fetish priests whose practice depends upon their purported supernatural powers of diagnosis. Thirdly, the witch doctor, the practitioner who is credited with ability to intercept the evil deeds of a witch.

All three kinds of practitioners have managed to keep the rural and urban populations in reasonable health. The practitioners have done well by relying almost exclusively on herbs for actual treatment, while serving as the people's spiritual leaders, and psychologists.

From the drug-stores in New Delhi I picked up some well packaged bark and roots of Rauwolfia Serpentines, a plant that was very well-known in ancient Asiatic medicine. The store-keeper said that it cures hypertension. This plant has the power to lower the blood pressure and pulse. It is used to calm down mad people because alkaloids in the plant have a specific influence on the mind. I later learnt that the store-keeper had a medical degree from one of the Indian universities, but chose to administer herbal medicine because he felt his people were better off with local medicines than with the expensive imported, synthetic drugs that had no traditional, social or psychological meaning.

In the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, at the Royal Drug Research Laboratory, an impressive program of medicinal plant research is being conducted.

The People's Republic of China is perhaps the leading country in systematically amalgamating herbal medicine into natural health-care systems. On the outskirts of Peking, for example, there is an experimental plantation for the Institute of Materia- Medica.

For health, social and economic reasons, it seems clear that developing countries should begin an extensive program aimed at an examination of the most important medicinal plants. In most countries, the information on such plants is dispersed and unorganized. Much of it is in the heads of aging herbalists, who represent a dying breed. The approaches of these traditional healers should not be overlooked or described as simplistic.

I.Read the passage carefully and choose the most appropriate option from those which are given below:

1.The approaches of traditional healers should not:
(a) be taken seriously.
(b) be described as complexity
(c) be overlooked or described as simplistic.
(d) be applied.
Answer : C

2.the herbalist is the only person who handles their:
(a) chemical problems.
(b) medical problems.
(c) technical problems.
(d) mathematical problems.
Answer : B

3.Roots of Rauwolfia Serpentine cures:
(a) headache
(b) kidneys
(c) high blood pressure
(d) heart diseases
Answer : C

II.(a) Answer the following questions briefly:
1.Where did the mother of narrator take him?
2.In which sector does People’s Republic of China is leading country?
3.The status of traditional medical practitioners in African culture ____________.
4.For health, social and economic reasons, developing countries should _____________.

Answer : 1. Narrator’s mother had taken him to Egya Mensa, a well-known herbalist in his home-town in the Western province of Ghana.
2.The People's Republic of China is the leading country in systematically amalgamating herbal medicine into natural health-care systems.
3.In African culture, traditional medical practitioners are always considered to be influential spiritual leaders as well, using magic and religion along with medicines.
4.begin an extensive program aimed at an examination of the most important medicinal plants.

(b) Fill in the blanks with one word only:
The witch (a) ________ is credited with ability to (b) _________ the evil (c) _________ of a (d) _________.

Answer : (a) doctor
(b) intercept
(c) deeds
(d) witch

III. Find words from the passage which mean the following:
(a) a concentrated liquor resulting from heating or boiling of substances (para 2)
(b) determine the nature of disease from observation (para 5)

Answer : (a) decoction
(b) diagnosis

More Unseen Passage for Class 12 English with Answers......

Short Unseen Passage Class 12 with questions and answers

1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

We sit in the last row, bumped about but free of stares. The bus rolls out of the dull crossroads of the city, and we are soon in open countryside, with fields of sunflowers as far as the eye can see, their heads all facing us. Where there is no water, the land reverts to desert. While still on level ground we see in the distance the tall range of the Mount Bogda, abrupt like a shining prism laid horizontally on the desert surface, it is over 5,000 meters high, and the peaks are under permanent snow, in powerful contrast to the flat desert all around. Heaven Lake lies part of the way up this range, about 2,000 metres above sea-level, at the foot of one of the higher snow-peaks.

As the bus climbs, the sky, brilliant before, grows overcast. I have brought nothing warm to wear: it is all down at the hotel in Urumqi. Rain begins to fall. The man behind me is eating overpoweringly smelly goat’s cheese. The bus window leaks inhospitably but reveals a beautiful view. We have passed quickly from desert through arable land to pasture, and the ground is now green with grass, the slopes dark with pine. A few cattle drink at a clear stream flowing past moss-covered stones; it is a Constable landscape. The stream changes into a white torrent, and as we climb higher I wish more and more that I had brought with me something warmer than the pair of shorts that have served me so well in the desert. The Stream (which, we are told, rises in Heaven Lake) disappears, and we continue our slow ascent. About noon, we arrive at Heaven Lake, and look for a place to stay at the foot, which is the resort area. We get a room in a small cottage, and I am happy to note that there are thick quilts on the beds.

Standing outside the cottage we survey our surroundings. Heaven Lake is long, sardineshaped and fed by snowmelt from a stream at its head. The lake is an intense blue, surrounded on all sides by green mountain walls, dotted with distant sheep. At the head of the lake, beyond the delta of the inflowing stream, is a massive snow-capped peak which dominates the vista; it is part of a series of peak that culminate, a little out of view, in Mount Bogda itself.

For those who live in the resort there is a small mess-hall by the shore. We eat here sometimes, and sometimes buy food from the vendors outside, who sell kabab and naan until the last buses leave. The kababs, cooked on skewers over charcoal braziers, are particularly good; highly spiced and well-done. Horse’s milk is available too from the local Kazakh herdsmen, but I decline this. I am so affected by the cold that Mr. Cao, the relaxed young man who runs the mess, lends me a spare pair of trousers, several sizes too large but more than comfortable. Once I am warm again, I feel a pre-dinner spurt of energy – dinner will be long in coming – and I ask him whether the lake is good for swimming in.

'Swimming?” Mr. Cao says. “You aren’t thinking of swimming, are you?”

“I thought I might,” I confess. “What’s the water like?”

He doesn’t answer me immediately, turning instead to examine some receipts with exaggerated interest. Mr. Cao, with great offhandedness, addresses the air. “People are often drowned here,” he says. After a pause, he continues. “When was the last one?” This question is directed at the cook, who is preparing a tray of mantou (squat white steamed bread rolls), and who now appears, wiping his doughy hand across his forehead. “Was it the Beijing athlete?” asks Mr. Cao.

On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, complete the statements given below with the help of options that follow:

(a) One benefit of sitting in the last row of the bus was that :
(a) the narrator enjoyed the bumps.
(b) no one stared at him.
(c) he could see the sunflowers.
(d) he avoided the dullness of the city.

Answer : B

(b) The narrator was travelling to :
(a) Mount Bogda
(b) Heaven Lake
(c) a 2000 metre high snow peak
(d) Urumqi

Answer : B

(c) On reaching the destination the narrator felt relieved because :
(a) he had got away from the desert.
(b) a difficult journey had come to an end.
(c) he could watch the snow peak.
(d) there were thick quilts on the bed.

Answer : D

(d) Mount Bogda is compared to :
(a) a horizontal desert surface
(b) a shining prism
(c) a Constable landscape
(d) the overcast sky

Answer : D

Answer the following question briefly :

(e) Which two things in the bus made the narrator feel uncomfortable ?

(f) What made the scene look like a Constable landscape?

(g) What did he regret as the bus climbed higher?

(h) Why did the narrator like to buy food from outside?

(i) What is ironic about the pair of trousers lent by Mr. Cao?

(J) Why did Mr. Cao not like the narrator to swim in the lake?

(k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following :
(i) sellers (para 4)
(ii) increased (para 7)

Answer : (e)The two things in the bus, which made the narrator feel uncomfortable were the inhospitably leaking window and the over-powering smell of goat cheese being eaten by the man behind him.

(f) The ground green with grass, the slopes dark with pine, few cattle drinking at a clear stream flowing past moss-covered stones; it all made the scene look like a Constable landscape.
(g) As the bus climbed higher, the narrator regretted not having something warmer to wear.
(h) The narrator liked to buy food from outside because they sold highly spiced kababs, cooked nicely on charcoal braziers, with naan.
(i) The pair of pants, which Mr. Cao sent for the narrator were several sizes too large but more than comfortable.
(j) Mr. Cao did not like the narrator to swim in the lake because there had been incidents of people drowning in it.
(k) (i) Vendor (ii) Exaggerated

Case based factual Passage for Class 12

I. Read the passage given below:

(1) “Who doesn’t know how to cook rice? Cooking rice hardly takes time,” said my father. So, I challenged myself.
I switched from news to You Tube and typed, “How to cook rice?” I took one and a half cups of rice. Since I didn’t have access to a rice cooker, I put the rice in a big pot. Firstly, the rice has to be washed to get rid of dust and starch. I thought I won’t be able to drain the rice and that it will fall out of the pot. I observed the chef as I swirled the rice around and
used my dexterous hands to drain it, not once, not twice, but three times. I looked down at the sink and saw less than 50 grains that made their way out of the pot. Suffice to say, I was up to the mark.
(2) The video stated that the key to perfect rice is equal amount of rice and water. I have heard that professionals don’t need to measure everything; they just know what the right amount is. But as this was my first time in the kitchen, I decided to experiment by not measuring the water needed for boiling the rice. I wanted the rice to be firm when bitten,
just like pasta. I don’t enjoy the texture of mushy rice. It has to have that chutzpah; it has to resist my biting power just for a bit before disintegrating.
(3) After what seemed like 10 minutes, all the water disappeared. I went in to give it a good stir. To my surprise, some of the rice got stuck to the pot. I tried to scrape it off but to no avail. At the same time, there was a burning smell coming from it. I quickly turned the stove off. “What have you done to the kitchen?” My mother shouted while coming towards the kitchen. I managed to ward her off.
(4) Finally, when the time came to taste my creation, I was surprised! It wasn’t bad at all. The rice had the desired consistency. Sure, a little more salt would’ve been better, but I just added that while eating. The experience was fairly rewarding and memorable. It taught me a new sense of respect for those who cook food on a regular basis at home or are engaged in gourmet creations professionally.
Based on your understanding of the above passage, answer any eight of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option:

Question. Pick the option that correctly states what DID NOT happen after the writer checked on the rice.
(a) Turning the stove off
(b) Being taken aback at the condition of rice
(c) Forgetting to scrape the stuck rice
(d) Smelling the delicious aroma of cooked rice
Answer : D

Question. Based on your understanding of the passage, choose the option that lists the correct sequence of the process.
1. Use water to wash the rice.
2. Repeat the process three times.
3. Drain the water off.
4. Put rice in a utensil.
5. Swirl the rice around in water.
(a) 4,2,1,3,5
(b) 1,3,2,5,4
(c) 4,1,5,3,2
(d) 5,1,2,4,3
Answer : C

Question. The narrator says that he has dexterous hands. He would have had a problem had it been the opposite. NOT BEING dexterous means, being.
(a) uncomfortable
(b) clumsy
(c) unclear
(d) clueless
Answer : B

Question. Father’s question to the narrator, about knowing how to cook rice, was intended to
(a) criticize the narrator’s lack of abilities.
(b) make the process sound simple.
(c) encourage the narrator to take up cooking.
(d) showcase his own expertise in cooking rice.
Answer : B

Question. Pick the option showing the CORRECT use of the word ‘chutzpah’.
(a) It is the court’s duty to dispense chutzpah to everyone irrespective of caste or creed.
(b) The speaker may not have much of a stage presence, but you’ve got to admit she’s got chutzpah.
(c) I could crack the code easily which proved me to be a chutzpah and I was the only one who could do so.
(d) After his father’s demise, the daughter took over the family’s chutzpah to save it from disaster.
Answer : B

Question. Pick the option that correctly lists the final feelings of the writer with reference to the cooking experience.
1. frustrating 2. amusing
3. satisfying 4. disillusioning
5. exacting 6. enlightening
(a) 1 and 4
(b) 2 and 5
(c) 3 and 6
(d) 1 and 3
Answer : C

Question. Which option represents the correct ratio of water to rice for cooking ‘perfect rice’?
(a) Image 1
(b) Image 2
(c) Image 3
(d) Image 4
Answer : A

Question. The narrator’s creation was
(a) almost perfect to taste.
(b) way off from what he wanted.
(c) overly seasoned.
(d) quite distasteful.
Answer : A

Question. “I switched from news to You Tube …” Pick the option in which the meaning of ‘switch(ed)’ is NOT the same as it is in the passage.
(a) He switched on the radio to listen to the news while having dinner.
(b) “Forget these diet supplements and switch to yoga, if you want a true sense of well-being.”
(c) Mom switched to reading fiction recently because she was bored with cook-books.
(d) The company will switch the trucks to other routes to bring down city pollution.
Answer : A

Question. According to the passage, the fact that the narrator risked experimentation, on his maiden attempt in the kitchen, shows that he was ___.
(a) conscientious
(b) nervous
(c) presumptuous
(d) courteous
Answer : C

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with answers

II. Read the passage given below:

Donated Organs and their Transportation
(1) Once an organ donor’s family gives its consent and the organs are matched to a recipient, medical professionals are faced with the onerous challenge of transporting organs while ensuring that the harvested organ reaches its destination in the shortest possible time. This is done in order to preserve the harvested organs which involves the police especially the traffic police department.
(2) The traditional method of transporting organs by road is referred to as a “green corridor”. The first green corridor in India was created by Chennai Traffic Police in September 2008, when they accomplished their task of enabling an ambulance to reach its destination within 11 minutes during peak hour traffic. That organ saved a nineyear- old girl whose life depended on the transplant. Similarly, such green corridors have been created by traffic police of various cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Delhi NCR etc.
(3) Experts point out the lack of a robust system to transport organs to super-speciality hospitals in least possible time. National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), the country’s apex organ donation agency, is now framing a proposal to airlift cadaver organs and will send a report to the Union Health Ministry. “Cadaver organs have a short life and so transplant should be done within a few golden hours.” Director (NOTTO) expressed, “Therefore, we are preparing a proposal for airlifting organs at any given moment.”
(4) Most states do not have enough well-trained experts to retrieve or perform transplant procedures. Also, there is an acute shortage of advanced healthcare facilities to carry out a transplant. So, it is referred to other big centres in metropolitan cities. Organs retrieved from Aurangabad, Indore, Surat and Pune are sent to Mumbai as these cities do not have super-speciality healthcare centres, informed officials.
(5) “In India, about fifty thousand to one lakh patients are suffering from acute heart failure and need heart transplant at any point of time. In a private set-up, a heart transplant costs ` 15-20 lakhs, which is followed up by postoperative medication of about ₹ 30,000 per month lifelong.” Moreover, the risk factor is great hindrance.
Based on your understanding of the above passage, answer any eight of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option:

Question. Most of the people do not go for the heart transplant as:
(a) it is very risky.
(b) it is very painful.
(c) it may cause death of the recipient.
(d) the cost is prohibitive.
Answer : D

Question. What does the author mean by ‘a few golden hours’?
(a) Time between patient’s admission in a hospital and surgery.
(b) The crucial time available for transplant of the organ after harvesting it.
(c) The time of 24 hours post operation.
(d) The time of two days before admission in a hospital.
Answer : B

Question. Apart from Chennai, where were other green corridors created?
(a) Delhi NCR
(b) Pune
(c) Mumbai
(d) All of the above
Answer : D

Question. The first green corridor in India was created in:
(a) New Delhi
(b) Chennai
(b) Mumbai
(d) Pune
Answer : B

Question. The onerous task that the author is talking about in para 1 is :
(a) finding organ donors.
(b) finding doctors capable of performing transplants.
(c) to carry the harvested organ in the shortest possible time.
(d) to arrange the requisite facilities for the transplant.
Answer : C

Question. Pick out the word/phrase from the passage which is opposite in meaning to ‘destructed’ (Para 2)
(a) accomplished
(b) created
(c) transplanted
(d) advanced
Answer : B

Question. Most states refer organ transplant cases to big hospitals because:
(a) they don’t have well trained experts.
(b) the patients don’t trust local doctors.
(c) the state hospitals are very crowded.
(d) they don’t have a pool of harvested organs.
Answer : A

Question. Pick out the word/phrase from the passage which is similar in meaning to ‘save’ (Para 1)
(a) onerous
(b) preserve
(c) harvest
(d) retrieve
Answer : B

Question. What is meant by the word ‘retrieve’ (Para 4)
(a) get back
(b) recover
(c) set right
(d) regain
Answer : B

Question. How much does a heart transplant cost a patient in a private hospital?
(a) Rs. 15-20 lakhs
(b) Rs. 20 lakhs
(c) Rs. 20-25 lakhs
(d) None of these
Answer : A

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with questions and answers pdf

III. Read the passage given below:

(1) All of Earth’s oceans share one thing in common “plastic pollution”. When people litter, or when the trash is not properly disposed off, things like plastic bags, bottles, straws, foam and beverage cups get carried to the sea by winds and waterways. About 80 percent of ocean plastic originates on land. The rest comes from marine industries such as shipping and fishing.
(2) In 2015, engineer Jenna Jambeck at the University of Georgia and other researchers calculated that at least 8 million tons of plastic trash are swept into the ocean from coasts every year. That’s the equivalent of a full garbage truck of plastic being dumped into the sea every minute. If current trends in plastic production and disposal continue, that figure will double by 2025. A report published by the World Economic Forum last year predicts that by 2050, ocean plastic will outweigh all the fish in the sea.
(3) In today’s world, plastic is everywhere. It’s found in shoes, clothing, household items, electronics and more.
There are different types of plastics, but one thing they all have in common is that they’re made of polymers-large molecules made up of repeating units. Their chemical structure gives them a lot of advantages: they’re cheap and easy to manufacture, lightweight, water-resistant, durable and can be moulded into nearly any shape.
(4) Sea turtles eat plastic bags and soda-can rings, which resemble jellyfish, their favourite food. Seabirds eat bottle caps or chunks of foam cups. Plastic pieces may make an animal feel full, so it doesn’t eat enough real food to get the nutrients it needs. Plastic can also block an animal’s digestive system, making it unable to eat.
(5) Plastic and its associated pollutants can even make it into our own food supply. Scientists recently examined fish and shellfish bought at markets in California and Indonesia. They found plastic in the guts of more than a quarter of samples purchased at both locations; in organisms that people eat whole, such as sardines and oysters, that means we’re eating plastic too. In larger fishes, chemicals from plastic may seep into their muscles and other tissues that people consume.
(6) One way to keep the ocean cleaner and healthier is through clean-up efforts. A lot of plastic waste caught in ocean currents eventually washes up on beaches. Removing it prevents it from blowing out to sea again. Beach clean-up is ocean clean-up.
(7) Clean-up efforts can’t reach every corner of the ‘ocean or track down every bit of micro-plastic’. That means it’s critical to cut down on the amount of plastic that reaches the sea in the first place. Scientists are working towards new materials that are safer for the environment. For example, Jambeck and her colleagues are currently testing a new polymer that breaks down more easily in seawater.
Based on your understanding of the above passage, answer any eight of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option:

Question. Plastic is not biodegradable because it is made up of __________.
(a) low atomic particles
(b) tiny particles
(c) strong big particles
(d) large molecule polymers
Answer : D

Question. Which properties make plastic great for consumer goods?
(a) Biodegradability.
(b) Durability.
(c) The dyes and flame retardants.
(d) Ability of chemical absorption.
Answer : B

Question. Scientists are working towards new material to replace plastics. Which material is being looked for?
(a) Material that is safer for the environment.
(b) Material that breaks down more easily in seawater.
(c) Material that does not harm marine life.
(d) All of the above.
Answer : D

Question. Which articles made of plastic generally cause pollution in the sea?
(a) Discarded plastic bags.
(b) Beverage cups.
(c) Soda can-rings.
(d) All of these.
Answer : D

Question. What is the biggest impact of plastic pollution on sea life?
(a) Plastic eating makes them feel full.
(b) Plastic blocks the animal’s digestive system.
(c) Plastic cuts sea animal’s skin.
(d) All of these
Answer : D

Question. Scientists bought fish and shellfish for examination at markets in __________.
(a) China and Russia
(b) Pakistan and Afghanistan
(c) California and Indonesia
(d) Australia and Brazil
Answer : C

Question. How are larger fish affected by plastic?
(a) They can get entangled in plastic netting.
(b) Plastic may lead them to starvation.
(c) Plastic is found in their guts.
(d) Plastic may go into their muscles and other tissues.
Answer : D

Question. Which features do all kinds of plastic have?
(a) Easy to manufacture and easy to dispose.
(b) Water resistant.
(c) Difficult to mould into any shape.
(d) Non-durability.
Answer : B

Question. Percentage of ocean plastic that originates from land is __________.
(a) 20%
(b) 50%
(c) 80%
(d) 25%
Answer : C

Question. What is the ultimate way to clean up an ocean?
(a) The beach clean-up.
(b) Ban of plastic items.
(c) Prohibition of seabirds.
(d) No food supply in surrounding area.
Answer : A

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with questions and answers

IV. Read the passage given below:

(1) The sage of science, Einstein, was sitting in a depressive and pensive mood one evening. His eyes were brimming with tears. The pain was evident on his face. He peeped out of the window of his room. The sun had set a few minutes back. The sky was filled with a reddish glow. At this sunset, he felt that it was humanity that had sunk into devilish darkness and the reddish glow in the sky was the blood of humanity spilling all over the sky from earth.
With tired steps, he walked back to his chair and settled down. It was the 9th of August, 1945. Three days back, he had felt the same agony as if someone had torn him apart. He was deeply hurt and depressed when he heard on the radio that America had dropped an atom bomb on the Japanese city, Hiroshima. Today, within three days, another bomb was
dropped on another city, Nagasaki and lakhs of people had been killed.
(2) He had heard that the blast released so much energy that it had paled all past destructions in comparison and death had played out a pitiable dance of destruction. The flames that broke out of the bomb were burning, melting and exploding buildings. Scared of the heat of the bomb, people had jumped into lakes and rivers, but the water was boiling and the people too were burnt and killed. The animals in the water were already boiled to death. Animals, trees, herbs, fragrant flowering plants were all turned into ashes. The atomic energy destruction had just not stopped there. It had entered the atmosphere there and had spread radiation that would affect people for generations to come and would also bring about destructive irreversible biological change in animals and plants.
(3) As the news of the atomic attack reached Einstein, and he became aware of the glaring horror of the abuse of atomic energy, his distress and restlessness knew no bounds. He could not control himself and picked up his violin to turn his mind on to other things. While playing the violin, he tried to dissolve his distress in its sad notes, but couldn’t.
He was burning on the embers of destruction; his heart was filled with an ocean of agony and tears just continued streaming uncontrollably out of his eyes. Night had fallen. His daughter came up and asked him to eat something as he had not taken anything for the last four days. His voice was restrained and he said, “I don’t feel like eating.”
(4) He could not sleep that night. Lying down, he was thinking how he had drawn the attention of the then American President Roosevelt towards, the destructive powers of an atomic bomb. He had thought that this would be used to scare Hitler and put an end to the barbarism that Hitler was up to. However, Roosevelt kept him in the dark and made false promises. Eventually, he had abused Einstein’s equation of E= mc2 that resulted in the destructive experiments. His actions had made science and scientists as murderers. Einstein kept on thinking for a long time.
Eventually, he slipped into sleep. When he woke up at dawn, there was a new dawn in him too. The atomic threat had transformed his heart.
(5) The next day, he decided to disassociate himself from the scientific policy of the government and all governmental institutions. He decided to open educational institutions for children, adolescents, and youth-institutions where along with science, spirituality will be compulsorily taught.
(6) To inaugurate this institution, he had invited two great philosophers, Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweitzer.
Ten other great scientists who had won Nobel Prizes in different fields were also invited. They all saw a different Einstein, not a great scientist but a sage in him. The institution was opened by garlanding a photo of Mahatma Gandhi.
While garlanding the Mahatma, he became emotional and said with a lump in his throat, ‘I bow down to the great man who fought for the Independence of his country through non–violence. He could do so because he was a truthful man and a true spiritualist’.
(7) Those who teach science should be taught spirituality too. Without harmony between science and spirituality, the destruction would continue unabated. A few years after this institution was built, a Japanese delegation came to meet him. Einstein broke down in the meeting and said, ‘You can give me any punishment and I will accept it. Anyway,
I have decided to lead my life in penitence’. The Japanese were moved by his sincerity and forgot their grief.
Based on your understanding of the above passage, answer any eight of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option:

Question. Einstein said to the Japanese delegation,
(a) ‘You can give me any punishment and I will accept it.’
(b) ‘I am not at fault.’
(c) ‘What could I do?’
(d) ‘The President didn’t agree to my advice.’
Answer : A

Question. Einstein invited which philosopher to inaugurate the new institution?
(a) Bertrand Russell
(b) Albert Schweitzer
(c) Both (a) and (b)
(d) Neither (a) nor (b)
Answer : C

Question. Einstein came to know that America had dropped an atom bomb on the Japanese city, Hiroshima through.
(a) television
(b) newspaper
(c) radio
(d) a telephonic message
Answer : C

Question. Which event in 1945, according to Einstein, turned science and scientists into murderers?
(a) The wrong use of Einstein’s equation.
(b) False promises of Roosevelt.
(c) The dropping of atom bombs on the two Japanese cities.
(d) None of these.
Answer : C

Question. The depressive mood of Einstein was compared to:
(a) Sunrise
(b) Sunset
(c) Devilish darkness
(d) Tired steps
Answer : B

Question. Pick out the event after which Einstein could not control himself and tried to play instrument to divert his mind.
(a) After getting the news of atomic attack.
(b) By inventing sad notes.
(c) Over barbarism of Hitler.
(d) When he was pained by false promises.
Answer : A

Question. Which musical instrument did Einstein play when he was in grief?
(a) Harmonium
(b) Guitar
(c) Violin
(d) Flute
Answer : C

Question. Those who teach science should be taught spirituality too. Why it is good to teach spirituality with science?
(a) Spirituality will make science easier to understand.
(b) Spirituality will help the scientists to make deadly weapons.
(c) Spirituality will give more power to scientists.
(d) Spirituality will enable scientists to use science for the welfare of others.
Answer : D

Question. What did Einstein do to show his displeasure over the atomic attack?
(a) He decided to open a science laboratory.
(b) He decided to establish an Educational Institution.
(c) He disassociated himself from Governmental Institutions.
(d) He invited two great philosophers.
Answer : C

Question. What made Einstein restless and sleepless?
(a) When America was hit by atomic bomb.
(b) When Nagasaki was hit by atom bomb.
(c) When atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by America.
(d) Both (b) and (c).
Answer : D

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with Answers

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow :

1. The seasons bring variety to my morning walk around Mumbai’s Five Gardens. The quality of light changes, new flowers splash across the branches, and different bird-song filters out of the dense foliage.

2. However, my eyes are usually lowered as I walk. This has little to do with my non-existent humility and everything to do with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s inability to lay and maintain a single level pavement. That, and the

inability of dogs, stray and pet, to keep their poo off it.

3. Thus it was that as I walked with downcast eyes, I came upon a swathe of purple prose, No, call it poetry. The pavement and the road beyond it had been dyed like a royal robe, though not evenly. Here, it was of deep rich hue, there, the fuchsia segued into a paler mauve. I marvelled over this unfamiliar beauty. The end-ofsummer breezes cover the pavements with the golden blooms of the copper pod tree, and the first showers do the same with the resplendent gulmohur, spreading out a red carpet which might be the envy of Cannes. But that recent morning, the night’s rainfall had changed the accustomed palette. It had brought down hundreds of jamuns.

4. And that’s how I discovered how many jamun trees there are in Five Gardens. I had never noticed them before. Now, as I gingerly skirted the slippery purple, I looked up to behold the magnificent tree that had nestled this benevolence. A philosophical amble does not normally accompany me as I stride through this sylvan enclave, but this time, I found myself pondering over the lessons that had dropped from those mystic branches.

5. The jamun was too crushed to eat. And only when it had fallen had I become aware of its existence. Wasn’t this the same as only realising the value or even presence of someone or something after he, she or it has gone out of our reach ? It need not be death. It could simply be going away, or a friendship that has withered from neglect. Or even a long-departed aunt’s hand-embroidered sari which has frayed beyond repair by the time her bachelor son decides to take it out of the cupboard and gift it to one of the women in the family.

6. A second truth stared at me out of that crushed carpet of jamuns. It is only when we perforce have to look down that we deign to look upwards. If the pavement had not turned into a slithery mass of patchy purple, I would never have raised my eyes to see that there was a resplendent tree up there. Didn’t this reflect the fact that we think of higher things and beings only when we are down and out ?

7. When the sun shines and we have our health, happiness and praise from peers and strangers, when we have designer labels in our wardrobe and party invitations to show them off, we don’t bother to give a passing thought to whichever version of divinity we call our own. It is only when we lose any of these that we realise that we should have been less self-obsessed, that we owe what we have to something far bigger.

8. There was a third lesson. As I looked from the fallen fruit to the tree that once held these purple riches, I saw the branches reaching for the sky without the slightest trace of handwriting over having been beggared overnight. Bounty comes, bounty goes. The tree had simply shed its burden, and continued with the business of living and growing without a backward glance.

9. I now pass the jamun trees with respect, and even when a prolonged dry spell has bleached the cautionary purple on the pavement, I look up and nod in acknowledgement of what these trees so silently told me that morning.

Answer the following questions :

(a) How do seasons bring variety to the narrator’s morning walk ?

(b) Why does the narrator walk with downcast eyes ?

(d) What are the two most common weaknesses of human nature which the narrator realizes on seeing the crushed jamuns lying on the pavement ?

(e) How does the tree continue with the business of living & growing ?

(f) Find words similar in meaning :

(i) Wondered (para 3)

(ii) Generosity (para 4)

(iii) brightly coloured (para 6)

English Unseen Passage for Class 12 pdf with answers

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow :

1. A COMMON claim made by critics of the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement is that, ultimately, it can’t really be about powering light bulbs. The fun fact always cited : the Indian government’s own projection that nuclear power won’t

contribute more than 3 percent of the country’s energy requirements in the near future.

2. This figure is more than wonky. On the down-side, it assumes no private capital, no imported nuclear fuel. And on the upside, it expects the Department of Atomic Energy’s (DAE) thorium-cycle gamble to pay off. All three are suspect variables. Let’s turn to the past for a better indication. History shows a country can ramp up nuclear production once it gets the right policies and politics in place.

3. The most famous example is France. France is the pin-up girl of nuclear power, generating 70 percent of its electricity from glow-in-the-dark fuel. Less known is how fast this was accomplished. The figures are stunning. In a 10 year period from 1989 to 1999, France was able to get 42,000 MW of nuclear-based power up and running. In one year, 1985, the country operationalised over 7,000 MW of nuclear power capability. In comparison, India’s total nuclear power capacity today is less than 3,800 MW.

China is threatening France’s record. Tote up the construction sites and completion targets. They show that between 2010 and 2015 Beijing will bring 22,300 MW of nuclear energy on stream. It has drafted plans to add yet another 19,400 MW between 2014 and 2018. The Left in New Delhi claims nuclear power is too expensive. Chinese communists share their dialectic, but clearly not their mathematics.

4. Vinay Rai, energy fellow at Stanford University, has shown that nuclear energy is competitive with coal and natural gas. The problem, he says, is that India’s lack of nuclear fuel access “has had the effect of making nuclear power appear

more expensive”. In an environment similar to which exists in the West, nuclear power costs between 6.7-4.2 cents per kilowatt-hour and is comparable to the 10.1-3.9 cents price range for coal and natural gas in India.

5. Indian nuclear power has been constrained by more than just fuel. Capital has been lacking : nuclear energy is cheap over time but initial costs are high. Then there’s technology. Thanks to sanctions, Indian engineers have had to develop

expensive home-bred replacements. The nuclear deal will lift all these barriers.

6. Undo these shackles and what France accomiplished in the 1980s could be repeated here. It would actually be easier to do this these days. Reactors in those days were small, largely in the 900 MW range. Today, one could nearly double

India’s nuclear power capability with just two 1,500 MW reactors. France had to finance the reactors from its own pocket. Today, exporting and building reactors is a well-oiled business. France and Russia have off-the-shelf package deals for

customers combining fuel, reactor and finance.

7. Finally, modern reactors are more safe, less waste-producing and come up faster than they did even 15 years ago. “New reactors take an average six years to build, have one year of trials, and link up to the grid on the eighth year,” says

Anupam Srivastava, a technology expert at the University of Georgia. The real constraint on nuclear expansion, say some experts, is a global shortage of trained engineers.

8. So what is an optimistic but realistic scenario for Indian nuclear power after the deal is done ? Under the existing government-only system, the constraint is capital. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has cash reserves of $2-3 billion. Given that infrastructure projects normally require the government to provide 20-25 percent of the cost, this could be leveraged to as much as $15 billion. This would pay for 10,000 MWs of reactors.

9. Revolution can only come from privatisation. A suitably amended atomic Energy Act would allow the NPCIl to license reactor building and operating to the private sector Unsurprisingly, the Tatas, Reliance and other Indian firms have already been talking with foreign firms about acquiring technology. Given time,

India Inc will probably master the technology and get into the line itself. Look at the China. Its second generation reactors are already 50 percent local. The next lot, says the World Nuclear Association, will be 75 percent indigenous. See a

trend ?

10. There are a lot of ifs regarding a nuclear renaissance in India. The privatisation amendment could become stuck. The DAE is, in the end, a government bureaucracy. And the Indo-US nuclear deal has plenty of hoops to jump through.

But if all the tumblers fall into place, a 20 percent nuclear component to India’s electricity production by 2030 is a distinct possibility. “There is no limit on the amount of nuclear power India can generate, providing it invests the right amount of resources,” says Manohar Thyagaraj of the US-India Business Alliance.

11. The people who say there are no nukes in India’s energy future echo the ones who said the 1991 economic reforms would be a disaster, that infotech was a lot of bunkum, and generally suffer from indo-pessimism. It all depends, to

paraphrase a famous leftist, whether India can seize the coming year.

I. Answer the following questions :

(a) What are the three suspected variables with regard to nuclear energy ?

(b) Which two countries are rapidly progressing in nuclear energy and how ?

(d) In present times production of Nuclear Energies is much more facilitated. How ?

(e) What are the constraints of the expansion of Nuclear power?

(f) What do you think is the opinion of the writer regarding Indo-US nuclear deal ?

II. Find words from the passage which mean the same as :

(a) to be restricted or limited(para 5)

(b) revival (para 10)

III. Look up the dictionary for the meaning of the following words :

(a) optimistic

(b) amendment

Comprehension Passages for Class 12

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow :

1. Education is modern India’s greatest leveler and its redemption. It is the tide that lifts every boat. We are all prisoners of birth, but education has the power to snap the meanest bonds of economic and social enslavement. It is the route out of the caste ghetto, the path out of the slum, the road to the high table. A degree in engineering or medicine gives the child of a mill hand as much opportunity as any son or daughter of privilege.

2. At home and at work, chances are that your domestic help, driver, dhobi, liftman, watchman and peon are doing whatever it takes to send their children to an ‘English-medium’ school, buy them a second-hand computer, pay for their tuition, get them trained in IT. They dream of empowering their child with the kind of ambition they never dared have. And when the child excels in a board exam, gets into big college or lands a good job, all those years of hardship and uncertainty melt away. In that defining moment there is a reinforcement of faith in the future—that it is possible to break the cycle of inequity by honourable means.

3. It is a well-worn cliché that ours is a country of glaring contradictions. Yes, we have one of the biggest education systems in the world—1.2 million schools, 6.3 million teachers and 290 million students, which is itself is more than the

population of every country in the world except China, India and the US. And yes, literacy has grown from 28% in 1961 to 68% today. But the other end of the scale is crumbling. We still have over 287 million illiterate people (from the age

of five)—the largest in any country, and larger than the population of Indians (five and above) at the time of Independence.

4. If India is today considered an emerging super power and if the stereotype has shifted from snake-charmer to IT whiz, some of the credit must go to our education system, to our IITs and IIMs, and to grassroots initiatives like the midday meal scheme and the Navodaya Vidyalayas. This system has produced one of the world’s largest pools of science and tech graduates and created a robust middle class. And with well-educated Indians in influential positions in the developed world, notably the US, India has a voice that commands respect and attention on the global stage.

5. And yet, the many successes cannot hide the system’s sprawling underbelly.

• Millions of underprivileged youth have no access whatsoever to any form of schooling of the 460 million between 6 and 24 years, 170 million are not in the education system.

• The drop-out rate is depressing : a staggering 90% don’t make it to college.

• There are thousands of schools and colleges, both state-run and private, that provide no real education, and we don’t need empirical proof to bear this out.There is enough and more anecdotal evidence.

• There’s a massive deficit of teachers. And of the 4.7 million-odd who teach between classes I and VIII, almost half have not studied beyond senior seconday.

• Infrastructure is dismal : almost a third of primary and middle schools don’t have pucca buildings, 87% have no computers.

6. Ironically, our greatest source of strength is threatening to become our biggest weakness. Our education system is choking. Strategically, we are in danger of losing our global competitive advantage. Entrepreneurs have found that education is a great new business, and there’s nothing wrong with that so long as there is a genuine intent to provide quality education. But private education comes at a price, and the question is, can it reach children in slums and villages?

If it can, can they afford it ? The answer quite simply is no. As aspirations rise and disparities widen, and as the need for equity assumes even greater urgency, there is only one solution : to redeem the classroom.

I. Answer the following questions :

(a) Why do you think illiterate parents put in years of hardship ? (Answer in a sentence)

(b) How is education modern India’s greatest leveller ?

(d) Who/ what are responsible for shift in image from snake charmer to IT whiz ?

(e) How is our greatest strength becoming our biggest weakness ?

II. Find words similar in meaning :

(a) make free/ make amends for (para 1)

(b) relying on observation & experimentation (para 5)

III. For Additional Practice :

(a) melt away

(b) crumbling {para 1}

Solved Unseen Passages for Class 12

1.Long before the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) decided to investigate the long working hours of participants on reality shows on television, there was a show called Boogie Woogie on Sony (at 500 episodes and counting, over 12 years, perhaps the longest running in the genre) featuring tiny boys and girls. No one protested then. When Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs finale scored a TRP of 11.1 in its first season in 2006, no one protested then too. Now, when the platforms have multiplied and the rewards are all too evident for pushy parents and clamorous children, the NCPCR seems to have woken up to the issue of guidelines.

2. And about time too. Two big-ticket children’s reality shows have already been wrapped up this year (Li’l champs and its clone Star Voice of India Chhote Ustad, which was crafted on Star Plus by the originator of the series on Zee TV, Gajendra Singh). Currently, two such shows are on air and another is all set to follow soon. Just as controversy erupted last year when CSS ran Kid Nation—a reality show where children try to create a functioning society in a town shot in New Mexico—the lid seems to have blown off television’s best-kept secret. That the shows that get the small screen some of its highest ratings are no better than one long drudge where children, some as young as eight, are forced to behave like adults in front of the camera, lose their innocence and work in at least 12-hour shifts a day, but gain in big bucks. It’s causing breakdowns, as when the 12-year-old Anamika Choudhary, who won Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs in 2007, broke down in the middle of her performance because she couldn’t handle the news of cocontestant Smita Nandi’s father suffering a heart-attack after his daughter was eliminated from the show. Indeed, children are being used, as a Variety columnist said earlier, as fodder for fun and profit.

3. It wasn’t always so, says Ravi Behl, one of the three founders of Boogie Woogie. They started the show at a time when there was no platform for dancers and says even now, “we correct the parents when the kids are given adult songs and adult moves to perform.” But being in the limelight has its compensations, he says, giving the example of Jai Nayar and Hrishikesh Jogdan, both teenagers, who were selected to be part of the Mithun Chakraborty-starrer Fast Forward after the actor visited the sets as a celebrity judge. Apart from that, of course, there is a hefty cash prize of up to Rs. 5 lakh and a car, or Rs. 10 lakh to lap up, depending on the season and the age of performers.

4. Glamour has become all-too-easily attainable and dreams are being transformed into reality at a lightening speed. Tanu participated in the first and second season of Li’l Champs and Antakshari for Kids respectively, says her mother Neelam, and already is the proud owner of a make-up kit because she doesn’t like going out without her lipstick in place. “I think I have that something special in me that will make me an actress,” she says, instantly chipping in that she’s always wanted to be famous. But screen idols are not what she’s hankering after. “Main apni favourite hoon (I’m my favourite),” is her spitfire reply, stumping adults all around. Aided by an entourage of choreographers, make-up artists, dress designers and production people, these little energy bundles can put their years of experience and professionalism to shame. They wake up religiously at 9 a.m. head for dance practice, for their next performance, and from 10 a.m. to at least 6 p.m. and sometimes 9 p.m., stay closeted in the practice hall, perfecting their 1, 2, 3, 4s. But pack-up for the choreographes doesn’t mean pack-up for them. After returning to the flat, the children switch on the CD player again and get back to business.

5. And it is to escape elimination monster that 13-year-old Loria Dhosi, also from Udaipur, practiced despite fever, 12-year-old Depak Tirkey from a village in Jharkhand performed after popping a Crocin and Nagchoudhury wore a ightlywound pagdi around her head for close to eight hours despite the fact that her skin reacted to the material and broke out in a rash. “I hope this gets over soon. But since the shoot has started late, it looks like we’ll be here till 5 a.m.,” says Tirkey, who just like the majority on the show wants to be famous. Actor Raveena Tandon, one of the judges on the show, says that though children in general are aping adults, one cannot discount the platform television gives to contestants, especially from small towns. “They would have remained in their villages if it weren’t for television. Through these shows, they get to be celebrities,” she says, adding that it is sad that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy might soon be just a mirage.

Just like the ideal of an innocent childhood ?

I. Answer the following questions :

(a) Which line in para 1 suggests that NPCR delayed its investigations ? 1

(b) How are children being used as fodder for fun and profit ? 2

(d) Write very briefly how most reality shows are shot on gruelling dead lines ? 2

(e) What does the passage say in support of these reality shows ? 2

II. Find words from the passage which mean the same as :

(a) Long hard boring job (para2)

(b) Group of people who travel with an important person (para 4)

III . Additional Exercise :

Try to work out the meaning of the following words with the help of a Dictionary :

(a) Pushy (para1)

(b) Clamorous (para1)

(d) Chipping (para4)

(e) Spitfire (para 4)

More Unseen Passage for Class 12 English with Answers......

Case based Unseen Passage for Class 12

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

Millions of men and women, thousands of leaders, a succession of social, religious and political movements - it is impossible to draw up a full list of the makers of India even on a limited 1000-year basis. “All that can be attempted here is to present a few representative names, some of them inspirational still. All of them remind us of the course we have traversed, and how we have come to where we are. Let us make a start with the best ever Indian.

Implied in Toynbee’s assessment was the deduction that Gandhi was not just an Indian phenomenon. No doubt India derived unequalled benefit from his leadership. By fitting the freedom struggle into the framework of a philosophy of justice and fairness, he achieved for India a stature that was denied to other countries, including China, that won independence around the same time. That the stature was quickly lost by the governments that came to power on the labours of Gandhi is a different matter. The decline of India did not amount to any repudiation of Gandhi. Indeed, it was seen as a consequence of the betrayal of Gandhi by his supposed followers.

The true measure of his impact on history is that it is not dependent on the successful completion of his mission in India. The others who soldiered on with him in the epic war of independence - Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel included - will be remembered for what they did in India and for India, they were essentially Indian personalities. So, for that matter, was Jinnah whose life’s work boiled down to the creation of a state on what rapidly proved to be a dubious premise.

Gandhi soared above them all because he dealt essentially with ideas and theories relevant to all mankind. Like Buddhism, Gandhism lost ground in the land out of which it evolved. But, like Buddhism, it has been embraced by distant people who see in its tenets the promise of a meaningful life. It was as though Gandhi’s involvement with India was merely incidental to his larger involvement with what he persistently called Truth. Raja Rao put it pithily when he wrote: “For Gandhi India was only the symbol of a universal principle. All countries were, for Gandhi, India.” When we look at him in this perspective, we realise that it was his universality, the transcendent quality of his life and thought, that made Gandhi, Gandhi.

He will be greater than not just Stalin and Hitler - two characters who are rather too onedimensional to be contrasted with the vastness that was Gandhi. Gandhi personifies the greatness of the time-honoured proposition that Love is superior to Hatred, that Good is better than Evil. Great personages of history who based their “greatness” on Hatred and Evil, on conquests and oppression, have all gone under. The Byzantines and the Ottomans, the Mongols and the Mughals, the British and the Spanish once strode the earth as if they owned it. Today only Britain and Spain survive, and that as second-class entities confined to Europe. Alexander, the first king in history to be called “The Great,” died a lonely death as a disillusioned and defeated man at the incredible age of 33. Nothing of his greatness remains today even in his native Macedonia which is now but an appendage to the horrible tragedy of Yugoslavia.

Greatness built on murder and acquisition passes. Greatness rising out of compassion and service abides. The Buddha abides. Christ abides. The great unknown thinkers of the Upanishads abide. Gandhi carried that tradition through to our times. He might have been let down by the “Gandhians” who, armed with political power, have turned India into a mess. That too is parallel to the way quarrelling Buddhists, exploitative Christians and latelyintolerant Hindus have been letting down their preceptors. But their smallness does not detract from the true greatness of the sages who opened the path of enlightenment for them and for the world. They abide because they gave without taking. They were not men of arms. They were men of ideas. Parithranaya sadhunam, they appear from age to age. They appear to teach us that the world can be conquered, not with force, but with ideas. It was the lesson of this Millennium too - taught by the Man of the Millennium.

(a) (i) What did Gandhi achieve through his philosophy of justice and fairness?

(ii) How will Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Patel be remembered ?
(iii) According to Raja Rao, what did Gandhi represent ?
(iv) The author talks of two types of greatness. Which one is much appreciated and admired ?
(v) What was the lesson of this millennium?

(b) Pick out one word from the passage that means the same as :
(i) continuous decrease/fall (para 2)
(ii) strong effect (para 3)
(iii) rose quickly (para 4)

Suggested Answers for the above mentioned question:

(a)
(i) Gandhi, through his philosophy of justice and fairness, achieved a stature for India, which was denied to other countries, including China that won independence around the same time.
(ii) Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Patel will be remembered as essential Indian personalities who, among others, soldiered on with Gandhi in the epic war of independence.
(iii) According to Raja Rao, Gandhi represented – symbol of universal principle.
– the transcendent quality of life and thought.
– universality.
– ideas and theories related to all mankind. (give any one)
(iv) Out of the two types, greatness rising out of compassion and service is much appreciated and admired.
(v) The lesson of the millennium was that the world can be conquered, not with force, but with ideas.

(b) (i) Decline

(ii) Impact
(iii) Soared

Class 12 Solved Unseen Passage

1.For seven-year-old Gopal Tanaji Vanwe, home is not one place. With his parents, migrant farm labourers, Gopal moves from district to district. It’s Beed one season, Jalgaon in another. Millions of nomadic families such as his are not covered by the National Sample Survey. Given that none of these families live in one place for more than a few months, the Government’s largesse evades them, whether it is primary education for their children or shelter for themselves.

2. But thanks to one man’s efforts at providing these children with a choice, Gopal and many of his friends now happily recite rhymes and tables under a tree in a remote village in Bhenda (Maharashtra). Founded by Pravin Mahajan, Janarth, a not-for-profit organisation operating in Maharashtra, has come up with an innovative alternative education solution for children of seasonal migrants.

3. Almost 6.5 lakh families with 2 lakh children migrate to sugarcane cooperatives in Maharashtra alone. Given that the sugarcane harvesting season starts in April, which coincides with the academic year, most children of migrant parents are left out of the education system even if there is a school in the village they come from. So in 2000, Janarth took it upon itself to address their needs. After much cajoling, the first sakhar shala or sugar school was born at the Mula sugarcane factory in Naggar district, which now provides primary education to children of migrant farm labourers. Janarth’s 126 sakhar shalas across 39 sugar factories in Maharashtra now cover 15,000 children. To ensure that older children don’t have to drop out of school in their critical years. Janarth also built hostels in the villages from where families migrate so that children can stay back even if their parents move.

4. These educational institutions provide oral learning to children from pre-school to Class VII. The sugar factories allot land for schools and a labour officer appointed by the sugar factory supervises the running. The factory education board is represented by parents, the district education officer and senior factory officials. These schools are close to factories so that parents can look up on their kids whenever they want. Explains Mahajan : “We wanted to give children the freedom to choose a better life. Under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, there is a provision for alternative education formats. Sakhar shalas are partially funded (about Rs. 30 lakh per year) under that scheme.”

5. Children at these schools get books, slates and even a mid-day snack as an incentive. Through the sakhar shalas scheme, sugarcane cooperatives receive financial incentives from the Government to set up on-site sugar schools, thereby creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders. Currently, Janarth spends up to Rs. 1,100 per child, which includes snacks, books and additional educational material.

6. Children like Gopal may not be able to read or write their names but can recite nursery rhyms like “Johnny, Johnny………” and tables effortlessly, while older children can explain the complex chemical process of sublimation with ease. The schools deliver learning that is relevant to the context of village children, which is why the emphasis is not on reading and writing, but on oral learning and counting.

7. Like all ambitious projects, it has not been easy to get sakhar shalas off the ground. The biggest challenge that Janarth had to overcome was convincing the Government about the actual number of migrant children. “Nobody believed us when we quoted the number of migrant families and their affected children,” says Mahajan. For any sort of remedial action by the Government or local bodies, they have to believe that this invisible population has problems that need to be addressed in focusing attention on the invisible underclass.

8. Having expanded the capacity to 15,000 children. Janarth is now feeling stretched as no other agency has come forward to offer help. With many more Gopals wandering aimlessly out of school, it’s time this happened.

I. Answer the following questions :

(a) What project is Pravin Mahajan working on ? (only in one sentence)

(b) Why is government unable to do much for this segment of society ?

(d) Which critical years is the author referring to ? Why are they critical ?

(e) What is alternative education ?

(f) List the facilities offered by “these educational institutions”.

(g) Who are the stakeholders here ? How is a win-win situation created ?

II. Find words similar in meaning :

(a) generous or excessive giving (para 1)

(b) two events happening at the same time (para 3)

III. Additional Exercise :

Find out the meaning with the use of a dictionary :

(a) NOMADIC

(b) INCENTIVE

(d) SUBLIMATION

(e) UNDERCLASS

More Unseen Passage for Class 12 English with Answers......

Unseen Passage for Class 12

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

The word ‘depressed’ in common usage means sad, frustrated, fed up, bored up and pessimistic. The mood of a depressed person is much lower at his or her best moments than the mood of the normal person at his or her worst. Depression is a state of mind, it is specifically a mental disorder characterised by a lowering of the individual’s vitality, his mood, desires, hopes, aspirations and of his self-esteem.Email

Depression arising out of environmental factors is called reactive depression whereas depression arising out of some biochemical changes in the brain is called endogenous depression. If depression is mild or moderate and if the individual is in touch with his surroundings it is known as neurotic depression. If the individual is severely disturbed and is not able to comprehend what is happening around, such a state is called psychotic- depression.

Old age is one of the stages of human development, where a person attains wisdom, maturity, social and economic stability with social recognition and emotional fulfilment. Generally, societies show a great respect and consideration for the aged. In ancient times old people were considered as the guiding stars in Indian families, since they were symbols of tradition, respect, wisdom and experience. In primitive, ancient and medieval cultures, old persons had a recognized social role. They were of great value because they could impart knowledge and skill to youngsters. The old people were considered as repositories of wisdom and traditions and were not perceived as problems.

At present, social structures and values are undergoing transformation from traditional to modern. There is a rapid stride in urbanization and industrialization leading to the breaking up of joint families and property. This has ultimately weakened the traditional families, social position and status of the aged in the family. From time to time changes in the institutions of marriage and family have diminished the control of parents over their children. It has increased the freedom of children and they view the aged as a useless and non-productive entity. Modernization has eventually led to the degradation of their status and authority. Consequently the integrity of the family and the existence of the elderly as an integral part of the family are being uprooted. The importance of their functional positions thus declines and consequently their authority and much of the respect and prestige that they enjoyed earlier get faded. These changes generally bring about depression in older people.

As old age advances events at home may also contribute more to their problems. The ‘empty nest’ feeling arising as a result of the grown up children leaving the home, daughters departing as a result of wedlock and sons leaving station in pursuit of higher education or jobs may make the aged more lonely. The loneliness also arises because of premature loss of spouse. This would deprive the person of a long standing emotional bond that had provided plenty of emotional succour and security. The loss wherever it might occur in the later years leaves the individual terribly lonely and at the mercy of the sons and daughters-in-law. Added to these the increasing gap and interactional stress and strain in the family may leave the elderly without peace of mind. The elderly as a result of these developments feel marginalised, alienated and left out of the main stream. The foregoing are the common problems faced by most of the elderly. These either directly or indirectly lead to a state of depression and make ageing for many an unwanted and unpleasant event to be abhorred.

Usually the mild depression which is caused due to environmental factors is temporary. The person reconciles within a short time and tries to forget the loss. Kind words, and timely support of friends, relatives and family members help one recover from depression.

(a) (i) What does ‘depressed’ mean in common usage?
(ii) What is reactive depression?
(iii) What was the status of the old people in ancient India?
(iv) What are the causes for disintegration of joint family system?
(v) How does one recover from mild depression?

(b) Pick out the words from the passage that mean the same as the following :
(i) decreased (para 4)
(ii) to feel that they do not belong to a group (para 5)
(iii) a husband or wife (para 5)

Suggested Answers for the above mentioned question:

(a) (i) ‘Depressed’ in common usage means sad, frustrated, fed up, bored and pessimistic.

(ii) Reactive depression is that which arises out of environmental factors.
(iii) In ancient India, old people were considered as repositories of wisdom and traditions.
(iv) The causes for disintegration of joint family system are transformation of social structures and values from traditional to modern and rapid stride in urbanisation and industrialisation.
(v) For one to recover from mild depression, kind words and timely support of friends, relatives and family members often help.

(b) (i) Diminished (ii) Alienated (iii) Spouse

Short Unseen Passage Class 12 with questions and answers

1. Piya Ghose, 25, thought a friend was playing a prank on her when a text message on her mobile phone suggested she visit a website to find herself a partner. It was no prank. Her friend, in fact, was one of the many mobile users who volunteer space in their mobile text messages for advertisements in exchange for several incentives such as lesser tariff for value-added services and enhanced features on their mobile phones.

2. With an ever-growing population of mobile phone users in India, advertisers see the handset as a potential medium for reaching consumers with their targeted messages. “Unlike television and print, mobile phones provide a much more

focussed and assured access to consumers,” says Subho Ray, President of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, or IAMAI. “One always knows that one’s ad had been seen by the consumer, which is not the case with TV or print.”

3. To be sure, mobile phones are not a new phenomenon in India and advertisers have been experimenting with the medium, albeit cautiously. “We realize that the mobile is a powerful tool in targeting consumers but we are cautious in tapping the medium because it could amount to intrusion in consumers’ private space,” says Sajid Shamim, executive director, marketing, Reebok India Co.

4. “Historically, mobile marketing companies have had a reputation of being intrusive as they spam users with content they don’t care about and share database without permission,” says Beerud Sheth, co-founder and president of Webaroo’s GupShup. “But we offer users the option to choose the kind of messages they would want to get. That way, we are no different from a newspaper or television since these mediums, too, provide content along with ads.”

5. Affle’s SMS 2.0 technology, which once a consumer downloads free from its website, replaces the phone’s existing SMS system with a default browser that installs features such as colours, emoticons, icons, and signature in the user’s text

messages. In return, users have to lend the bottom space in their message box for advertisements.

6. The company says these messages relate to interests users registration. “By installing SMS 2.0 technology, customers get to upgrade their SMS. In return we get space in their message box to sell to advertisers,” says Anuj Kumar, executive director for South Asia at Affle.

7. SMS GupShup, another mobile marketing company, offers users the option to create their own mobile communities. The company allows these user created communities to send SMSs or micro-blogs to the entire group for the price of one. In return, the consumers have to agree to accept advertisements.

8. “It’s a unique arrangement where advertisers get an opportunity to target specific group of consumers with specific interests and consumers, besides getting the kind of commercial information they want, save money on messaging,” says Sheth.

9. Similarly, SMS MyToday offers consumers a free messaging service that provides consumers daily updates in areas of their interest. In these updates, however, it smartly incorporates ads and consumers don’t complain about it because the service is free. “On an average, SMS updates will contain 160 characters, of which 70 characters belong to an ad,” says Abhijit Mukherjee, chief executive of Netcore Solutions.

10. Affle claims to have built a consumer base of 5,00,000 in the past six months, and has signed 16 leading advertisers such as Nike Inc., Britannia Industries Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, PepsiCo Holdings, and Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Indian Premier League.

11. Mobile advertising is cost-effective as well, besides providing advertisers a targeted access to consumers.

12. The mobile marketing companies charge advertisers anything between Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh a month for their campaigns.

13. Even as advertisers become more comfortable with the idea of reaching consumers through the platform, some experts sound out a word of caution.

14. “The mobile is a very personalized instrument and it is easy for consumers to have a negative impression of a brand if its message is not right or is not perceived in the right light,” said IAMAI’s Ray. “Marketing companies will have to be careful as they move forward to exploit the handset for advertising.”

I. Answer the following questions :

(a) Why did Piya Ghosh think that the text message was a prank ? 1

(b) Do you agree that mobile phones have an edge over Television and print ? (Give 2 valid reasons from the passage to support your answer.) 2

(d) How are Customers benefited by the mobile marketing companies ? (Give 2 reasons) 2

(e) What are the demerits of mobile advertising ? 2

(f) Write one phrase which explains that mobile advertising is equally beneficial to both, the advertiser and the consumer. 1

II. Write words from the passage which means the same as :

(a) fixed charges(para 1& 2)

(b) though (para 3)

III. For Additional Practice :

Consult dictionary and find out the meanings :

(a) Prank

(b) Intrusion

More Unseen Passage for Class 12 English with Answers......

Case based factual Passage for Class 12

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

The role friends play in our lives has become significantly greater than at any other time in our history. Today many of us live and work at great distances from where we were born or grew up and are separated from our original families. The pain we feel when we are away from our families can be significant.

The happiness of the individual relies on friendships which form a necessary human connection. It is perfectly normal to need and want friends and depression is more prevalent among those who lack friends. They lack the intimacy and richness friends can bring into our lives. Frequently friends reflect similar values to us. Yet these values are often different from the ones we grew up with; they are the values we created for ourselves in our adult lives.

Communication skills are fundamental in all friendships. The more friends and acquaintances one has, the greater are one’s communication skills. Some call these, people skills.

Like watering a plant, we grow our friendships by nurturing them. Friendships need the same attention as other relationships if they are to continue. These relationships can be delightfully non-judgemental, supportive, understanding and fun.

Sometimes a friendship can bring out the positive side that you never show in any other relationship. This may be because the pressure of playing a ‘role’ (daughter, partner or child) is removed. With a friend you be yourself and are free to change. Of course you are free to do this in all other relationships as well but in friendships you get to have lots of rehearsals and discussion about changes as you experience them. It is an unconditional experience where you receive as much as you give. You can explain yourself to a friend openly without the fear of hurting a family member. How do friendships grow? The answer is simple. By revealing yourself; being attentive; remembering what is most important to your friend and asking them about it; putting yourself in their position: showing empathy; seeing the world through the eyes of your friend, you will understand the value of friendship. All this means learning to accept a person from a completely different family to your own or perhaps someone from a completely different cultural background. This is the way we learn tolerance. In turn we gain tolerance and acceptance for our own differences.

Friendships are made by being considerate which means all the communication skills come into play: active listening skills, questioning skills, negotiation skills, reflecting content skills, reflecting emotion skills, and editing yourself.

Friendships offer a great opportunity to learn about yourself because a friend can reflect back to you ‘how you come across in the world’. They also allow you to practice skills in dealing with ‘personal boundaries’ by looking after yourself as well as your friend. They help you develop resilience in relation to the wider social world beyond your family.

(a) (i) Why do friends play a more significant role today than ever before ?

(ii) Why is friendship considered an essential human need ?

(iii) How is friendship different from other relationships ?

(iv) Mention two essential human values that help friendship to grow.

(v) Which communication skills help in building friendship ? [2 marks] (b) Pick out words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following :

(i) basic/essential (para 3)

(ii) mutual discussion to reach an agreement (para 6)

(iii) chance (para 7)

Suggested Answers for the above mentioned question:

(a) (i) Friends play an important role in our life today than ever before because the life today has become very busy and we are separated from our original families due to our busy schedules or
work commitments. Thus, friends are the ones on whom we can rely on in the absence of our family.
They are a family away from a family.

(ii) Today when everybody is engrossed in their lives so much, friendship is considered as an essential human need because people are suffering from depression, and friends bring intimacy and
richness in their lives.

(iii) Friendship is different from other relationships because it never pressurises any role on us. A person can remain his or her true self, but at the same time is free to change too. It is an unconditional relation where we receive as much as we give. It brings about a positive side in us, which we never show in any other relationship.

(iv) The two essential human values that help friends to grow are, remaining attentive towards your friend and accepting the friend the way he or she is.

(v) Active listening skills, questioning skills, negotiation skills, reflecting content skills, reflecting emotion skills and editing oneself are some of the communication skills that help in building friendship.

(b) (i) Fundamental (ii) Negotiation (iii) Opportunity

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with answers

Read the passage below:

Smoking is the major cause of mortality with bronchogenic carcinoma of the lung and is one of the factors causing death due to malignancies of larynx, oral cavity, oesophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, stomach and uterine cervix and coronary heart diseases.

Nicotine is the major substance present in the smoke that causes physical dependence. The additives do produce damage to the body- for example; ammonia can result in a 100-fold increase in the ability of nicotine to enter into the smoke.

Levulinic acid, added to cigarettes to mask the harsh taste of the nicotine, can increase the binding of nicotine to brain receptors, which increases the 'kick' of nicotine.

Smoke from the burning end of a cigarette contains over 4000 chemicals and 40 carcinogens. It has long been known that tobacco smoke is carcinogenic or cancer-causing.

The lungs of smokers collect an annual deposit of 1 to 1.5 pounds of the gooey black material. Invisible gas phase of cigarette smoke contains nitrogen, oxygen and toxic gases like carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, acrolein, hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen oxides. These gases are poisonous and in many cases interfere with the body's ability to transport oxygen.

Like many carcinogenic compounds, they can act as tumour promoters or tumour initiators by acting directly on the genetic make-up of cells of the body leading to development of cancer

During smoking within the first 8 - 10 seconds, nicotine is absorbed through the lungs and quickly 'moved' into the bloodstream and circulated throughout the brain. Nicotine can also enter the bloodstream through the mucous membranes that line the mouth (if tobacco is chewed) or nose (if snuff is used) and even through the skin. Our brain is made of billions of nerve cells. They communicate with each other by chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.

Nicotine is one of the most powerful nerve poisons and binds stereo-selectively to nicotinic receptors located in the brain, autonomic ganglia, the medulla, neuro-muscular junctions. Located throughout the brain, they play a critical role in cognitive processes and memory.

The nicotine molecule is shaped like neurotransmitters called acetylcholine which are involved in many functions include muscle movement, breathing, heart-rate, learning and memory. Nicotine, because of the similar structure with acetylcholine when it gets into the brain, attached itself to acetylcholine sites and produces toxic effect.

In high concentrations, nicotine is more deadly. In fact one drop of purified nicotine on the tongue will kill a person. It has been used as a pesticide for centuries.

Recent research studies suggest that acute nicotine administration would result in increased dopamine release from the brain, producing perceptions of pleasure and happiness, increased energy and motivation, increased alertness, increased feeling of vigour during the early phase of smoking.

However notwithstanding these superficial effects, research shows that the relationship between smoking and memory loss is strongest in people who smoke more than 20 cigarettes each day and this is not specific to the socio-economic status, gender and a range of associated medical conditions. Smoking may speed up age related memory loss and the details are not yet clear. Some studies suggest that repeated exposure to high nicotinic smoke related to the Brain-wiring' is nothing but neuro-biochemistry that deals with complex interaction among genetic experience and bio-chemistry of brain cells.

‘NO' is a unique molecule which plays a role in a number of beneficial and some of the harmful brain and body mechanisms, for example, synapse formation, drug tolerance and local regulation of cerebral blood flow, Parkinson's disease etc. It is also found that people who smoke more cigarettes a day have poorer memories in middle age than non-smokers.

Some experts say that smoking is linked to memory problems because it contributes to narrowed arteries that restrict blood-flow to the brain. One of the causes of memory decline in relation to the brain function could be the nerve cell death or decreased density of interconnected neuronal network due to loss of dendrites, the tiny filaments which connect one nerve cell to another. Abstinence from smoking is essential, not only to avoid this system effect but also to reduce the ill-effects on the environment.

Read the passage carefully and choose the most appropriate option from those which are given below:
Which is the major substance that is present in smoke that causes physical dependence:
a) Methanol
b) Nicotine
c) nEthanol
d) Boro

2.Smoke from burning end of cigarette contains over:

a) 4000 chemicals and 40 carcinogens
b) 400 chemicals and 40 carcinogens
c) 400 chemicals and 4 carcinogens
d) 40 chemicals and 40carcinogens

3.In high concentration, nicotine is more:

a) Lively
b) Active
c) Deadly
d) Inactive

II.(a) Answer the following questions briefly:

1.Which acid is added to cigarette and why?

2.Does smoking is linked to memory?

3.Smoking is major___________ .

4.Nicotine molecule is shaped like neurotransmitters called____________.

(b) Fill in the blanks with one word only:

‘NO' is a unique (a) _____which plays a role in a number of beneficial and some of the (b) _____ brain and body mechanisms, for example, (c) _______, drug tolerance and local regulation of blood flow, Parkinson's disease etc.

III.Pick out the words from the passage which mean the same as the following:

a.Poisonous (para 9)

b.Causes sleep (para 11)

Suggested Answers for the above mentioned question:

I.(b) Nicotine

(a) 4000 chemicals and 40 carcinogens

(c)Deadly

II.(a) 1. Levulinic acid, added to cigarettes to mask the harsh taste of the nicotine, can increase the binding of nicotine to brain receptors, which increases the ‘kick’ of nicotine.

2.Smoking is linked to memory problems because it contributes to narrowed arteries that restrict blood-flow to the brain.

3.cause of mortality.

4.acetylcholine

(b) (a) molecule

(b) harmful

(d) cerebral

III.(a) Toxic

(b) Dopamine

More Unseen Passage for Class 12 English with Answers......

Unseen Passage for Class 12 with questions and answers pdf

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

Today’s woman is a highly self-directed person, alive to the sense of her dignity and the importance of her functions in the private domestic domain and the public domain of the world of work. Women are rational in approach, careful in handling situations and want to do things as best as possible. The Fourth World Conference of Women held in Beijing in September 1995 had emphasised that no enduring solution of society’s most threatening social, economic and political problems could be found without the participation and empowerment of the women. The 1995 World Summit for Social Development had also emphasised the pivotal role of women in eradicating poverty and mending the social fabric.

The Constitution of India had conferred on women equal rights and opportunities — political, social, educational and of employment—with men. Because of oppressive traditions, superstitions, exploitation and corruption, a majority of women are not allowed to enjoy the rights and opportunities, bestowed on them. One of the major reasons for this state of affairs is the lack of literacy and awareness among women. Education is the main instrument through which we can narrow down the prevailing inequality and accelerate the process of economic and political change in the status of women.

Women’s education has not received due care and attention from the planners and policy makers. The National Commission for Women has rightly pointed out that even after 50 years of independence, women continue to be treated as the single largest group of backward citizens of India. The role of women in overall development has not been fully understood nor has it been given its full weight in the struggle to eliminate poverty, hunger, injustice and inequality at the national level. Even when we are at the threshold of the 21st century, our society still discriminates against women in matters of their rights and privileges and prevents them from participating in the process of national and societal progress. Various Committees and Commissions have been constituted before and after the independence to evaluate the progress in women’s education and to suggest ways and means to enhance the status of women. The female literacy rate has gone up in the 20th century from 0.6 per cent in 1901 to 39.29 per cent in 1991 but India still possesses the largest number of illiterate women in the world. The female literacy index for the year 1991 shows that there are eight states which fall below the national average. The most populous states of the country, UP, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan fall in the category of most backward states as far as female literacy is concerned.

The prevailing cultural norms of gender behaviour and the perceived domestic and reproductive role of women tend to affect the education of girls. Negative attitude towards sending girls to schools, restrictions on their mobility, early marriage, poverty and illiteracy of parents affect the girl’s participation in education.

Women’s political empowerment got a big boost with the Panchayati Raj Act of 1993 which gave them 30 per cent reservation in Village Panchayats, Block Samities and Zila Parishads throughout the country. The National Commission for Women was also set up in 1992 to act as a lobby for Women’s issues.

The educational system is the only institution, which can counteract the deep foundations of inequality of sexes that are built in the minds of people through the socialization process. Education is the most important instrument of human resource development. Educational system should be used to revolutionise the traditional attitudes and inculcate new values of equality.

(a) (i) Mention any two attributes of a modern woman.
(ii) Why are women’s participation and empowerment considered necessary?
(iii) Which factors adversely affect the education of girls ?
(iv) What benefits did the women get with the enactment of the Panchayati Raj Act of 1993?
(v) By what process can we remove the sense of inequality of sexes from the minds of the people?

(b) Pick out words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:
(i) cruel and unfair (para 2)
(ii) remove (para 3)
(iii) full of people (para 4)

Suggested Answers for the above mentioned question:

(a)

(i) (a) Highly self-directed person and alive to the sense of her dignity.
(b) Women are rational in approach careful in handling situations and want to do things as best as possible.

(ii) Women’s participation and empowerment are considered necessary because no enduring solution of society’s most threatening social, economic and political problems like eradicating poverty, etc. could be solved without women.

(iii) (a) Deep foundation of inequality of sexes.
(b) Early marriage, poverty, etc.
(c) Negative attitude towards sending girls to schools.
(d) Oppressive traditions, superstitions, exploitation and corruption. (give any two)

(iv) It gave them 30 per cent reservation in Village Panchayats, Block Samities and Zila Parishads throughout the country.

(v) With the help of education the sense of inequality of the sexes can be removed from the minds of the people.

(b) (i) Oppressive (ii) Eradicate (iii) Populous

Unseen Passage with questions and answers for Class 12

Read the passage below:

Today, India looks like it is on course to join the league of developed nations. It is beginning to establish a reputation not just as the technology nerve centre and back-office to the world, but also as its production centre. India's secularism and democracy serve as a role model to other developing countries. There is great pride in an India that easily integrates with a global economy, yet maintains a unique cultural identity.

But what is breathtaking is India's youth. For despite being an ancient civilization that traces itself to the very dawn of human habitation, India is among the youngest countries in the world. More than half the country is under 25 years of age and more than a third is under 15 years of age.

Brought up in the shadow of the rise of India's service industry boom, this group feels it can be at least as good if not better than anyone else in the world. This confidence has them demonstrating a great propensity to consume, throwing away asceticism and thrift. Even those who do not have enough they have the capability and opportunity to do so.

The economic activity created by this combination of a growing labour pool and rising consumption demand is enough to propel India to double-digit economic growth for decades. One just has to look at the impact that the baby boomers in the US had over decades of economic activity, as measured by equity and housing prices. This opportunity also represents the greatest threat to India's future. If the youth of India are not properly educated and if there are not enough jobs created, India will have forever lost its opportunity. There are danger signs in abundance.

Fifty-three per cent of students in primary schools drop out, one-third of children in Class V cannot read, three quarters of schools do not have a functioning toilet, female literacy is only 45 per cent and 80 million children in the age group of 6-14 do not even attend school.

India's IT and BPO industries are engines of job creation, but they still accounts for only 0.2 per cent of India's employment. The country has no choice but to dramatically industrialize and inflate its domestic economy. According to a forecast by the Boston Consulting Group, more than half of India’s unemployed within the next decade could be its educated youth. We cannot allow that to happen.

India is stuck in a quagmire of labour laws that hinder employment growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Inflexible labour laws inhibit entrepreneurship, so it is quite ironic that laws ostensibly designed to protect labour actually discourage employment.

Employment creation needs an abundant supply of capital. Controls on foreign investment have resulted in China getting five times the foreign direct investment, or an advantage of $200 billion over the past five years. The growing interest in India by global private equity firms augurs well as they represent pools of patient and smart capital, but they too face many bureaucratic hurdles.

When it comes to domestic capital availability, budget deficits adding up to 10 percent of the national GDP impede capital availability for investment and infrastructure.

Raising infrastructure spending, coupled with rapid privatisation, may not only create employment but also redress the growing gaps in infrastructure. China has eight times the highway miles and has increased roads significantly in the past few years while India has only inched along. Freight costs at Indian ports are almost double the worldwide average, just to give two examples.

Moreover, like the Lilliputians that kept giant Gulliver tied down, there are some 30,000 statutes in India, of which only a portion are even operational, and these keep the employment creation engine tied down. Since there are no sunset provisions in any laws, the regulatory morass only grows every year.

In the meantime, we as citizens of the world and descendants of India have to make a difference. We have to ensure that India and its youth attain that potential, both through our business pursuits and the support of educational charities, on-the-ground proponents of participative democracy as well as other deserving organizations and initiatives.

I believe that hope can triumph and that this can be India's century - not one that will happen as surely as the sun will rise each day, but one that many willing hands need to create together.

I.1.Read the passage carefully and choose the most appropriate option from those which are given below:

1.What is great pride of India:

a) It is developing country.
b) It easily integrate with global economy, yet maintain a unique cultural identity.
c) It is competing with other countries.
d) It has a great heritage.

2.India is among the ______ countries in the world:

a) youngest
b) oldest
c) modern
d) traditional

3.India IT and BPO industries are engine of:

a) Job exitor
b) Job creation
c) Job destroyer
d) Job evaluator
(a) Answer the following questions briefly:

1) What is breathtaking in India?

2) Where India is being stuck?

3) Employment creation needs an ___________ .

4) There is no sunset provisions in any law, the ____________.

(b) Fill in the blanks with one word only:

As citizens of the world and (a) ____ of India have to make a difference. We have to ensure that India and its youth attain that potential, both through our business pursuits and the support of (b) ____, on-the-ground proponents of (c) _____ democracy as well as other deserving organizations and (d) ______.

III. Pick out the words from the passage which mean the same as the following:

1) Soft wet ground (para 7)

2) Advocate (para 12)

Suggested Answers for the above mentioned question:

I.(a) It easily integrate with global economy, yet maintain a unique cultural identity.

(b) Youngest

II.(a) 1. Despite being an ancient civilization that traces to the very dawn of human habitation, India is among the youngest countries in the world. More than half the country is under 25 years of age and more than a third is under 15 years of age.

2.India is stuck in a quagmire of labour laws that hinder employment growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Inflexible labour laws inhibit entrepreneurship, so it is quite ironic that laws ostensibly designed to protect labour actually discourage employment.

3.abundant supply of capital.

4.regulatory morass only grow every year.

(b) (a) descendants

(b) educational charities

(d) initiatives

III.(a) Quagmire

(b) Proponents

More Unseen Passage for Class 12 English with Answers......

English Unseen Passage for Class 12 pdf with answers

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

For many years now the governments have been promising the eradication of child labour in hazardous industries in India. But the truth is that despite all the rhetoric, no government so far has succeeded in eradicating this evil, nor has any been able to ensure compulsory primary education for every Indian child. Between 60 and 100 million children are still at work instead of going to school, and around 10 million are working in hazardous industries. India has the biggest child population of 380 million in the world, plus the largest number of children who are forced to earn a living.

We have many laws that ban child labour in hazardous industries. According to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, the employment of children below the age of 14 in hazardous occupations has been strictly banned. But each state has different rules regarding the minimum age of employment. This makes implementation of these laws difficult.

Also, there is no ban on child labour in non-hazardous occupations. The act applies to the organised or factory sector and not the unorganised or informal sector where most children find employment as cleaners, servants, porters, waiters, etc. among other forms of unskilled work. Thus, child labour continues because the implementation of the existing laws is lax.

There are industries, which have a special demand for child labour because of their nimble fingers, high level of concentration and capacity to work hard at abysmally low wages. The carpet industry in U.P. and Kashmir employs children to make hand-knotted carpets. There are 80,000 child workers in Jammu & Kashmir alone. In Kashmir because of the political unrest, children are forced to work while many schools are shut. Industries like gem cutting and polishing pottery and glass want to remain competitive by employing children.

The truth is that it is poverty, which is pushing children into the brutish labour market. We have 260 million people below the poverty line in India, a large number of them are women. Poor and especially woman-headed families, have no option but to push their little ones in this hard life in hostile conditions, with no human or labour rights.

There is a lobby which argues that there is nothing wrong with children working as long as the environment for work is conducive to learning new skills but studies have shown that the children are made to do boring, repetitive and tedious jobs and are not taught new skills as they grow older. In these hell-holes like the sweet shops of the old, there is no hope.

Children working in hazardous industries are prone to debilitating diseases which can cripple them for life. By sitting in cramped, damp and unhygienic spaces, their limbs become deformed for life. Inside matchstick, fire works and glass industries they are victims of bronchial diseases and T.B. Their mental and physical development is permanently impaired by long hours of work. Once trapped, they can’t get out of this vicious circle of poverty. They remain uneducated and powerless. Finally, in later years, they too are compelled to send their own children to work. Child labour perpetuates its own nightmare.

If at all the government was serious about granting children their rights, an intensive effort ought to have been made to implement the Supreme Court’s Directive of 1997 which laid down punitive action against employers of child labour. Only compulsory primary education can eliminate child labour.

Surely, if 380 million children are given a better life and elementary education, India’s human capital would be greatly enhanced. But that needs, as former President Abdul Kalam says, “a Second Vision”.

(a) (i) On which two counts has the government not succeeded so far in respect of children?
(ii) What makes the implementation of child labour law difficult?
(iii) Why do the industries prefer child labour?
(iv) What are the adverse effects of hazardous industries on children? Give any two.
(v) What does the Supreme Court’s Directive of 1997 provide?

(b) Find words from the passage which means the same as the following :
(i) risky/dangerous (para 1)
(ii) very unfriendly (para 5)
(iii) intended as punishment (para 8)

Suggested Answers for the above mentioned question:

(a) (i) No government so far has succeeded in eradicating child labour or ensuring compulsory primary education for every Indian child.
(ii) (a) Each state has different rules regarding the minimum age of employment.

(b) No ban on child labour in no-hazardous occupations.

(d) Implementation of existing laws is lax (give any two).
(iii) Industries have special demand for child labour because of their nimble fingers, high level of concentration, capacity to work hard at low wages.
(iv) (a) Prone to debilitating diseases, which can cripple them for life

(b) Limbs become deformed because of working in cramped, damp and unhygienic spaces

(d) Mental and physical development is permanently impaired

(e) Remain uneducated and powerless

(f) No escape from the vicious circle (give any two)

(v) The Supreme Court’s Directive of 1997 provides punitive action against employers of child labour.
(b) (i) Hazardous (ii) Hostile (iii) Punitive

More English Study Material ›

Class 12 English Note Making with Answers
CBSE Class 12 English Note Making Passage

Class 12 English Unseen Passage with Answers
CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage A
CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage B
CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage C
CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage Intellect And intelligence Know the difference
CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage Scientists Set Forth Proposals to Tame Climate
CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage The Challenge of Change
CBSE Class 12 English Unseen Passage The Speaking Tree