Reading

Reading 1 : Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Immigration from the countryside to big cities naturally leads to many problems. The most obvious one is overpopulation, which has become a heavy burden on schools, hospitals and transport systems lately. The countryside is also adversely affected. As it is usually the young and healthy who leave the countryside, this creates a shortage in the workforce for farming and other rural activities. The best solution to the problem would clearly be to ensure that rural life has more to offer to the young. 

1) The writer points out that immigration to big cities _________________________________.

2) The writer maintains that as a result of the movement from the countryside to the city, people left behind _________________________________.

3) The writer points out that immigration to big cities _________________________________.

Reading 2 : Read the passage and answer the following questions.

ln about 2000 B.C. a great flood occurred in Mesopotamia. The disaster had such an immense effect on the humans who lived in that area that several flood myths developed. There are many similarities between these myths. In all of them, there is always a leader who is warned to prepare for a flood. The leader builds a ship, stores the necessities of life on board, and survives the flood. After the flood he lands safely on a mountainside, and the human race continues. There are also some small differences in the details of the myths of course, one of which is as to the cause of the flood. In some myths, the flood comes as punishment from God for man’s bad behaviour; in others there is no explanation given.

4) As we can infer from the passage, the flood that hit ancient Mesopotamia ______________________.

5) The writer points out that the most striking similarity between the myths of the flood is _________________________________.

6) As one can understand from the passage, if the leader had received no warning of the coming flood _________________________________.

Reading 3 : Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Malaria disease is still found in most tropical and subtropical parts of the world. It remains a major reason for illness and death among people living in these areas and is the chief threat to the health of visitors from nonmalarious nations. The disease is carried by a parasite through the bite of certain species of mosquito. The lifecycle of the parasite is completed partly in the human host and partly in the mosquito. The control of malaria, hence, depends on either destroying mosquitoes or by the suppression of malaria in infected people. A great deal of progress was made along both these lines during the 1950s and 1960s, but since then increasing resistance of the mosquito to insecticides and of the parasite to the drugs for treatment and prevention of the disease has retarded progress.

7) According to the text, people’s health in tropical and subtropical countries of the world _________________________________.

8) It is pointed out in the passage that the destruction of mosquitoes ________________________.

9) One can infer from the passage that since the 1950s little progress has been made in the treatment and prevention of malaria ___________________________.

Reading 4 : Read the passage and answer the following questions.

The seventeenth century is known as a period of joyful activity, of experiment in politics, in religion and in the natural sciences. With the help of the telescope the space was examined, with the help of the microscope doctors learned more about the human body. Inventors were busy on a variety of things ranging from more reliable watches to more destructive guns and explosives. For the first time, people went to more and more distant places; and traders followed their example. In fact, everyone had the chance of doing something new.

10) According to the text, it was in the seventeenth century that people _______________________.

11) The writer maintains that in the seventeenth century _________________________________.

12) The writer implies that some of the inventions of the seventeenth century _______________________.

Reading 5 : Read the passage and answer the following questions.

In the early eighteenth century, the population of Tokyo had grown about 1 million, making it the largest city in Japan and one of the most populous in the world. An especially popular section of the city was along the Sumida River, where pleasure boats and parties were common and the banks were lined with fashionable teahouses. Tea was central to the Japanese not only in their homes but also in public life. In the bustling urban centres of the 18th century, Japanese teahouses served a role similar to the one played by coffeehouses in Europe, which were centres of negotiation and entertainment.

13) We can infer from the passage that the Sumida River _________________________________.

14) The writer states that in the eighteenth century, there was _________________________________.

15) It can be understood from the passage that no city in the 18th-century Japan ___________________.