FOR FYBA COMMUNICATION SKILLS

COMPREHENSION PASSAGES FOR CLASS PRACTICE

PASSAGE I:

The Tuamotus are made up of two mountainous islands and 76 atolls. Each atoll
traps and holds a piece of ocean, a lagoon that acts like a giant soup tureen for
plankton. The lagoons also protect and nourish the black-lipped pearl oyster.

The black pearl oyster is four times the size of the Japanese akoya pearl oyster,
which produces most of the pearls in the world. Black pearls are rarer, thicker,
and bigger than other pearls. They are also richer in orient, the reflection of the
light beneath the surface of the pearl.

In the lagoons the oysters act as barometers, registering the health of their
environment. When the lagoon declines, so do the oysters; they require clear,
unpolluted water. Most Japanese oysters are maricultured in a hatchery where
egg and sperm are artificially combined. But here in the Tuamotus, the lagoon is
the true parent of the oysters, which spawn naturally. The egg and sperm drift as
the lagoon rises and falls with the tide, then combine to produce a larva. This is
French Polynesia, after all, where even oysters begin life with a touch of
romance.

At the turn of the century the pearl fisheries of Polynesia harvested oysters just
for the iridescent inner shell, mother-of-pearl for the world’s buttons. Back then a
pearl was an exotic windfall. Today nearly every pearl on the world market is
cultured, grown by man.

The pearl farmers use plastic garlands suspended in the lagoon to provide an
anchorage for the drifting pinhead-size larvae. In a few months each garland is
choked with little oysters which soon grow to the size of silver dollars. At six
months the oysters are placed in hanging baskets where they grow for another
year and a half. Then the oysters are removed and wedged open, one by one.
With surgical precision, a grafting operator makes a slit with a scalpel near the
oyster’s gonad and inserts a snippet of mantle tissue, followed by a nucleus – a
bead carved from the shell of an American fresh-water mussel. The mantle tissue
forms a sac where nacre – the pearlescent substance that coats the nucleus to
form a pearl – is generated. After surgery the oysters are returned to the lagoon.
In three years the pearls will be ready to harvest.

1. The black-lipped pearl oyster stands apart because

A. it produces the largest number of pearls in the world.
B. the Japanese use it to make pearls.
C. it is larger than other oysters.
D. it is rich-looking and attractive. (1)

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2. An atoll is a mountain. Yes/No.
Quote a sentence in support of your answer. (1½)

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

3. The word ”orient” in the passage means the reflection of

A. eastern radiance and light
B. mysterious beauty of the east
C. light shining on a pearl
D. light under the surface of a pearl (1)

4. If the lagoon is polluted, the oysters

A. fall down
B. become fewer
C. slide lower
D. measure pressure like barometers (1)

5. According to the passage, a “hatchery” is a place where larvae are naturally

produced. Yes/No.
Quote a phrase to support your answer. (1½)

_________________________________________________________

6. The approximate amount of time that is required to form a black pearl is

A. five years
B. three years
C. three years six months
D. four years six months

7. Indicate whether the following statements are true or false by writing T or F in the
space provided. (3)
a. A cultured pearl is fully created in a workshop. ______
b. The nacre of a pearl is made of the shell of American mussels. ___
c. Larvae of black lipped oysters are very tiny. ___
d. Barometers are used to make certain that the lagoons are clean. __
e. The material which helps the oyster to create a cultured pearl has
to be put in surgically. ____
f. Garlands suspended in the lagoon become a place for oysters to grow.
____

8. The passage can be called

A. argumentative
B. affirmative

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C analytical
D. informative (1)

9. Explain in your own words the phrase, “…the lagoon is the true parent of the
oysters…” (1)

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

10 Match the following words in Column A with the correct meaning from the
phrases in Column B, and write the correct letter in the blank space provided.
Column B has some extra items. (3)

Column A Column B
(i) iridescent ________ a) bucket
(ii) snippet __________ b) large dish
(iii) tureen ___________ c) strong support
(iv) larva ___________ d) membranous pouch
(v) sac _____________ e) newly-hatched creature
(vi) anchorage ________ f) small piece
g) cutter
h) opaque

11. Rewrite the sentence “In a few months …dollars.”, replacing the words “is
choked” with the word “choke” and making all the other changes necessary.
(1)

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

PASSAGE 2:

It is always the same. As the bombers move south across the country at night,
the people who hear them become strangely silent. For those women whose
men are with the planes, the moment is not an easy one to bear.

Now they had gone, and the woman lay back in the armchair and closed her
eyes, but she did not sleep. Her face was white and the skin seemed to have
been drawn tightly over her cheeks and gathered up in wrinkles around her eyes.
Her lips were parted and it was as though she were listening to someone talking.

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Almost she could hear the sound of his voice as he used to call her from outside
the window when he came back from working in the fields. She could hear him
saying he was hungry and asking what there was for supper, and then when he
came in he would put his arm around her shoulder and talk to her about what he
had been doing all day. She would bring in the supper and he would sit down
and start to eat and always he would say, why don’t you have some and she
never knew what to answer except that she wasn’t hungry. She would sit and
watch him and pour out his tea, and after a while she would take his plate and go
out into the kitchen to get him some more.

It was not easy having only one child. The emptiness when he was not there and
the knowing all the time that something might happen; the deep conscious
knowing that there was nothing else to live for except this; that if something did
happen, then you too would be dead. There would be no use in sweeping the
floor or washing the dishes or cleaning the house; there would be nor use in
gathering wood for the fire or in feeding the hens; there would be no use in living.

Now, as she sat there by the open window she did not feel the cold; she felt only
a great loneliness and a great fear. The fear took hold of her and grew upon her
so that she could not bear it, and she got up from the chair and leaned out of the
window again, looking up into the sky. And as she looked the night was no
longer beautiful; it was cold and clear and immensely dangerous. She did not
see the fields or the hedges or the carpet of frost upon the countryside; she saw
only the depths of the sky and the danger that was there.

1. “It is always the same” – What remains the same? (1)

_______________________________________________________________

2. The relationship between the two people is one of (1)

A. close friends
B. husband and wife
C. mother and son
D. two siblings

3. In paragraph 3, the phrase “something might happen” refers to which eventuality?

(1)
_______________________________________________________________

4. The setting of the story is URBAN / RURAL. (Circle the answer of your choice)

(1½)
Give two phrases to support your answer.

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(i) ___________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________

5. What are the chores that the woman routinely performs? (1)
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

6. a) Give two adjectives that describe the night as it really is (1)

i) ______________________ ii) ________________________
b) Give two phrases that describe the night as perceived by the woman. (1)
i) _________________________________
ii) __________________________________

7. Fill in the gaps in the following table: (2½)

NOUN ADJECTIVE VERB

dangerous
silence
knowledge knew

PASSAGE 3:

There is nowhere else on earth quite like the Komodo archipelago. Its forbidding cliffs
and parched plains are the only habitat of the Komodo dragon, the world’s largest living
lizard. The surrounding seas are as fertile as the islands are barren. Individual reefs
contain more species of coral than the entire Caribbean – and scientists think there are
still many more to be discovered. The reefs also host a kaleidoscope of fish, turtles and
even passing whales. And Komodo is only one of the many national parks scattered
across Indonesia from the jungles of Sumatra to the mountains of New Guinea.

Unfortunately, there are also few places on earth quite as chaotic, cash-strapped and
corrupt as Indonesia. Under-paid and ill-equipped rangers have little incentive to do
their jobs properly. Indeed, they often connive in the practices – illegal logging,
poaching and encroachment on land, and dynamite and cyanide fishing – that are fast
destroying Indonesia’s parks, wildlife and coral reefs. In desperation, Indonesia’s

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Forestry Department, which is in charge of the parks, has begun experimenting with
alternative ways of protecting them.

In Komodo, the Nature Conservancy (TNC), an American NGO, is spearheading one

such experiment. Since 1995, it has provided the park management with training,
equipment and advice, both to enforce environmental regulations and to provide a
livelihood for the villagers who used to break them. To deter cyanide fishing, for
example, the group has set up a farm that will hire locals to raise the species they used
to fish for. It has also encouraged locals to turn in outsiders who make forays into the
part to fish with dynamite or to poach deer, the dragon’s favourite food.

The effort is paying off. TNC says coral cover has increased by 30% since 1997. The
same goes for the deer: a stroll across Rinca, one of the islands in the park, reveals
dozens of them, along with wild buffalo, pigs and three-metre-long Komodo dragons.

But the scheme has its weaknesses. For one thing, it relies on the support of
Indonesia’s heavy-handed security services to help catch those who break
environmental laws. An over-zealous naval crew killed two suspected poachers in
2002, supposedly in self-defence. Even if crooks are caught red-handed, they can
escape punishment. Park officials complain, for example, that prosecutors in the
province near the park are in the pocket of industrial-scale illegal fishing rackets. But
the biggest problem is paying for the programmes.

1. The author offers two contrasts to the fertile and kaleidoscopic seas around
the Komodo islands. They are (1)

a) ___________________________________________________

b) ___________________________________________________

2. List three forms of environmental damage/crime mentioned in the passage.

(1½)

a) ________________________________________________

b) ________________________________________________

c) ________________________________________________

3. Fill in the following table about TNC’s activities. (2)

AIMS METHODOLOGY
A.

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B.

4. Give two examples of official corruption mentioned in the passage. (2)

a. _______________________________________________________

b. _______________________________________________________
5. The author suggests that security officials often overstep their duties. Yes/No.
Give one example to support your opinion. (1½)

_______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

6. Match the words in Column A with their meanings in Column B. Write the
answers in the space provided next to Column A. Column B has some extra
items. (2)

A B
i) archipelago a) pioneering
ii) spearheading b) approach
iii) poach c) collection of islands
iv) forays d) cook by dropping into boiling water
e) illegally hunt and kill
f) incursions

PASSAGE 4:

We are a raucous republic, a “functioning anarchy”, as John Kenneth Galbraith

termed it, distinguished most of all by, as Amartya Sen says, our
argumentativeness. Each of us has an opinion on anything under the sun, and
we are willing to let the world know it. For thousands of years, we have seen
ideologies rise and fall, belief systems come and go, truths dawn and die. Our
adaptability is infinite, as is our resilience. We can absorb every cultural wind
blowing in, and mould it to fit our basic frameworks. No people have ever been
better suited for democracy than us.

And we pursue our democratic rights with gusto. An illiterate widow in India’s
most economically backward district knows the power of her vote. Yes, we have
been turned into a cynical lot by the constant betrayals of our politicians, but
every time we get the chance to make our fingers do the talking, we gleefully

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vote them out of power. We turn our elections into festivals of pride, pomp and
circumstance. We dance unashamedly in joy in the streets when the results
come in, just as we cry ourselves silly watching maudlin dramas about stupid
misunderstandings in super-wealthy families. We worship our heroes, and never
forgive them when they fail us. We are, to understate it vastly, a tough
constituency in all senses of the term.

We are “chalta hai”, yet we always find a way to get things done with the means
at hand. As I write this, in the parking lot outside my office, two boys play cricket
with a broom as bat and a small piece of wood as ball. The meat of the bat is the
metal ring at the base of the broom. We are an inventive people, used to not
having enough, and we have learnt to enjoy life by tweaking what we have.

It’s the same spirit that’s reflected in the way we have seized the opportunities
unleashed by economic reforms. I hardly have any friends left who haven’t quit
their corporate jobs in the past few years and turned entrepreneur. Some have
done extremely well, some middlingly, and some have failed, returning to the
safety of a paycheque. But not a single one of them regrets his trip into the
unknown.

1. This passage may best be described as

A. ironical
B. reflective
C. descriptive
D. argumentative (1)

2. In paragraph 1, the author suggests that Indians are

A. noisy and unruly
B. enthusiastic and argumentative
C. opinionated but adaptable
D. articulate and resilient. (1)

3. Explain in your own words, what Galbraith means when he calls India a
“functioning anarchy”. (1)

_________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

4. Paragraph 2 is
A. a contradiction
B. a celebration
C. a concrete example
D. a continuation
of the main ideas in paragraph 1 (1)

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5. The term “make our fingers do the talking” refers to
A. speaking with gestures
B. typing a letter
C. registering one’s vote
D. dialling a telephone number (1)

6. Mention four words/phrases in the second paragraph that suggest that

Indians are an emotional people. (2)

(i) _____________________________ (ii) ________________________

(iii) ____________________________ (iv) ________________________

7. The author cites two examples to illustrate his main points. Mention these.

(1)

a) _______________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

b) ________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

8. The author believes that Indians make good democrats. Yes/No.

Give three reasons for this opinion. (2)

a) _______________________________________________________

b) _______________________________________________________

c) _______________________________________________________