Q. 1.2 Find the word in the passage which means the same as each of the following: 3
(i) single/alone (Para 1)
(ii) absence of interest (Para 2)
(ii) brought into use again (Para 6)
Ans. (a) India’s fi rst individual gold medal at the Olympics 2008 gave India a great joy because this gold medal came after we have participated in 21 Olympic Games.
(b) Abhinav Bindra, who brought India, its fi rst individual gold medal at the Olympics has made India feel very proud.
(c) The two reasons for India’s poor showing in the Olympics are government apathy and lack of sporting culture.
(d) The Chinese model and the American model are the two models which India can look upto if it wants to improve its medals-tally in Olympics.
(e) India could easily focus on a few sports among the 28 Olympic disciplines It can revive its hockey and football club structure to improve the medal-tally in future Olympics.
(f) China has managed to win so many medals in the last Olympics by focussing on lesser-known but medal-rich sports like weightlifting, shooting and rowing.
1.2 (i) solitary (ii) apathy (iii) revived
Q. 2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: 8
I was ten years old then, and my brother, Nick, was fourteen. For both of us this buying of a gift for our mother on Mother’s Day was a time of excitement and great importance. It was our fi rst gift to her. We were very poor. It was just after the First World War and we lived in diffi cult times of trouble. Our father worked now sometimes as a waiter. Birthday and Christmas gifts were taken care of by him as well as he could, but such a thing as a Mother’s Day gift was out-of-the-ordinary luxury. But we had been lucky, Nick and myself. A second-hand furniture store had opened on the block, and deliveries were made by means of loading the furniture on a pushcart which we carefully pushed through traffi c, to the customer‘s home. We got a nickel each and, perhaps, a tip. I remember how Nick’s thin, dark face lighted up with the joy of the present. He had fi rst thought of it in school; and the thought of surprise and giving grew in him, and myself, and we were highly excited.
(a) How old is the narrator? 1
(b) What work did the father do? Was it a regular job? Pick out the word that gives you the answer. 2
(c) Why couldn’t the family afford a Mother’s Day gift? 1
(d) Which gifts were bought by the father? 1
(e) What made the boys feel lucky? 2
(f) How much were they paid for their work? 1
Ans. (a) The narrator is ten years old.
(b) The father worked as a waiter. No, it was not a regular job. The word ‘sometimes’ gives us the answer.
(c) The family couldn’t afford a Mother’s Day gift as they were very poor and it was an out-of-the ordinary luxury for them.
(d) Birthday and Christmas gifts were bought by the father.
(e) The boys felt lucky as a second-hand furniture store had opened on the block and deliveries were made by loading the furniture on a pushcart. The boys were able to make some money by delivering the furniture to a customer’s house.
(f) They were paid a nickel each for their work.
