Comprehension Examples Page 21

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternative.

Click on the options to check whether it is right or wrong.

 

     When flowers bloom in the lush bamboo plantations in the hills of the northeast, the tribesmen are thrown into a state of panic. The rare phenomenon of the flowering of a dwarf-sized bamboo species triggers a boom in the rat population. They devour the crops in nearby farmland. The result is famine.

     The mauve-coloured flowers sprouting in the hill-slopes in the sprawling Seppa valley in east Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh, are a palpable threat to the state Government. The worries are justified, if the catastrophe caused by the flowering of a bamboo species named Mau in Mizoram in 1959 is anything to go by Rodents had multiplied in millions during the flowering of bamboos and ravaged the crops in the foothills.

     The flowering of the bamboo species in Arunachal Pradesh was first noticed in September this year. The depredations by the rats in the paddy, maize and millet fields from Bhalukpong on the Assam border to Seppa valley in the north were reported soon. As the agriculture department rushed its field-staff to the affected areas to fight the rampaging rodents with rattraps and zinc phosphate, fresh alarms were sounded with flowering reported from the Tezu circle.

     According to the local MLA much of the crops in Kameng had been destroyed by October. The State Veterinary Minister also confirms the report of a near-famine condition in that inaccessible district. The rats, feeding on the flower seedlings, continue to multiply. Till today, 33,000 rats, of the 26 varieties in the State have been trapped with the help of indigenous devices. The Chief Minister has sent an SOS to the Centre for both supplies and expertise in combating the rat menace.

 

1. In the opening passage (2nd sentence) the phrase ‘triggers a boom’ means

  1. brings about a change
  2. causes an increase
  3. causes an upheaval
  4. starts an exodus

 

2. The destruction in Bhalukpong was reported, according to the passage

  1. in September
  2. in August
  3. in October
  4. in November

 

3. A near-famine condition was reported

  1. in the Seppa valley
  2. in Kameng
  3. in the Tezu circle
  4. at Bhalukpong

 

4. The flowering of the bamboo made the people

  1. cautious
  2. hungry
  3. anxious
  4. panicky

 

5. What is the writer’s attitude to the tribal people’s problem?

  1. Sympathetic
  2. Critical
  3. Harsh
  4. Neutral

 

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