Reading Comprehension Test 8

[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question given below it:[/passage-header]

[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question given below it:[/passage-header]

At every stage, SLV-3 team was blessed with some extraordinary courageous people. Along with Sudharkar and Sivarama-krishanan, there was also Sivakaminathan. He was entrusted with bringing the C-Band transponder from Trivandrum to SHAR for integration with the SLV-3. The transponder is a device fitted with the rocket system to give the signals which are powerful enough to help it track the vehicle from the take off site to the final impact point. The SLV-3 launch schedule was dependent on the arrival and integration of this equipment. On landing at the Madras airport, the aircraft which Sivakami was travelling in, skidded and overshot the runway. Dense smoke engulfed the aircraft. Everyone jumped out of the aircraft through emergency exists, and desperately fought to save themselves - all except Sivakami, who stayed in the aircraft till he removed the transponder from his baggage. He was among the last few persons, the others being mostly aircraft crew, to emerge from the smoke and he was hugging the transponder close to his chest.

At every stage, SLV-3 team was blessed with some extraordinary courageous people. Along with Sudharkar and Sivarama-krishanan, there was also Sivakaminathan. He was entrusted with bringing the C-Band transponder from Trivandrum to SHAR for integration with the SLV-3. The transponder is a device fitted with the rocket system to give the signals which are powerful enough to help it track the vehicle from the take off site to the final impact point. The SLV-3 launch schedule was dependent on the arrival and integration of this equipment. On landing at the Madras airport, the aircraft which Sivakami was travelling in, skidded and overshot the runway. Dense smoke engulfed the aircraft. Everyone jumped out of the aircraft through emergency exists, and desperately fought to save themselves - all except Sivakami, who stayed in the aircraft till he removed the transponder from his baggage. He was among the last few persons, the others being mostly aircraft crew, to emerge from the smoke and he was hugging the transponder close to his chest.

At every stage, SLV-3 team was blessed with some extraordinary courageous people. Along with Sudharkar and Sivarama-krishanan, there was also Sivakaminathan. He was entrusted with bringing the C-Band transponder from Trivandrum to SHAR for integration with the SLV-3. The transponder is a device fitted with the rocket system to give the signals which are powerful enough to help it track the vehicle from the take off site to the final impact point. The SLV-3 launch schedule was dependent on the arrival and integration of this equipment. On landing at the Madras airport, the aircraft which Sivakami was travelling in, skidded and overshot the runway. Dense smoke engulfed the aircraft. Everyone jumped out of the aircraft through emergency exists, and desperately fought to save themselves - all except Sivakami, who stayed in the aircraft till he removed the transponder from his baggage. He was among the last few persons, the others being mostly aircraft crew, to emerge from the smoke and he was hugging the transponder close to his chest.

Directional growth of a plant, or part of a plant, in response to an external stimulus such as gravity or light are called tropical movements. If the movement is directed towards the stimulus, it is described as positive; if away from it, it is negative. Geotropism, for example, the response of plants to gravity, causes the root (positively geotropic) to grown downwards, and the stem (negatively geotropic) to grow upwards. Phototropism occurs in response to light, hydrotropism to water, chemotropism to a chemical stimulus, and thigmotropism, or haptotropism, to physical contact, as in the tendrils of climbing plants when they touch a support and then grow around it. Tropic movements are the result of greater rate of growth of growth on one side of the plant organ than the other. Tropism differs from a nastic movement in being influenced by the direction of the stimulus.

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it:

Power and Possession have been central pursuits of modern civilisation for a long time. They blocked out or distorted other features of the western 'renaissance' (revival) which promised so much for humanity. What people have been and are still being taught to prize are money, success, control over the lives of others acquisition of more and more objects. Modern social, political and economic systems, whether capitalist, fascist or communist, reject in their working the basic principal that the free and creative enfoldment of every man, woman and child is the true measure of the worth of any society. Such enfoldment requires understanding and imagination, integrity and compassion, cooperation among people and harmony between the human species and the rest of the nature. Acquisitiveness and the pursuit of power have made the modern man an aggressor against everything that is non-human, an exploiter and oppressor of those who are poor, meek and unorganised, a pathological type which hates and distrusts the world and suffers from both acute loneliness and false pride. The need for a new renaissance is deeply felt by those sensitive and conscientious men and women who not only perceive the dimensions of the crisis of our age, but who also realise that only through conscious and cooperative human effort may this crisis be met and probably even overcome.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

Years ago, people woke up to find sparrows chirping in their backyard. A noisy lot, they took grains right from your hand if you had befriended them. They got over their fear easily and demanded food or water with their loud chirping if you had forgotten to give them their regular share of food. Tiny pink beaks opened to morsels of food or worms sometimes regurgitated by the parent birds. We had a splendid time watching the bird family bond and as children sat gazing at them as they picked up grain or splashed about us in muddy water. Many people have written poems and lyrics on sparrows, their noisy chirps, their friendly nature, and their spotty feathers. Sparrows were a menace on the fields. There were guards with slings and stones to chase them away as they ate grain from standing crops. Now people are trying to woo them back to nature.

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it:
Dr. Carver was an American Negro slave, who by dint of his ability became a scientist and educator of world-wide fame. A national monument had now been erected to honour him. This monument has been built at his birthplace in the United States of America. Carver's life and achievements prove the American saying: "You can't keep a great man down." From childhood, he showed qualities that gave promise of his genius. He would get up before sunrise to study the wonders of nature before the break of dawn in the east. His guardians wanted to educate him but were too poor to do so. So he left home. He was hardly ten when he began to work at small jobs to earn a little money for his school expenses. He continued to do so even when he was at college. Thus, he passed his M.Sc. examination and became a professor. There he wrote several books on science subjects. His chief desire was to do the greatest good to the greatest number of people. He left all his life's savings to found scholarships for research in Agricultural Chemistry. He knew this research was bound to benefit farmers all over the world. Though world famous, he never felt proud of his discoveries. "I discovered nothing," he once said, "I am God's agent -- the instrument through which he works."

Read the following passage and answer the question given after it.
Fleas are perfectly designed by nature to feast on anything containing blood. The bodies of these tiny parasites are extremely hardy and well-suited for their job. A flea has a very hard exoskeleton, which means the body is covered by tough, tile-like plate called sclerite. Because of these plates, fleas are almost impossible to squish. The exoskeleton of fleas are also waterproof and shock resistance, therefore fleas are highly resistant to the sprays and chemicals used to kill them.
Fleas are some of the best jumpers in natural world. A flea can jump seven inches, or 150 times its own length, either vertically or horizontally. Fleas can jump 30,000 times in a row without stopping, and they are able to accelerate through the air at an incredibly high rate-a rate which is over ten times what humans can withstand in an air plane. Fleas have very long real legs with huge thigh muscle and multiple joints. When they get ready to jump, they fold their long legs up and crouch like a runner on starting block. Several of their joints contain protein called resilin, which helps catapult fleas into the air as they jump, similar to the way a rubber band provides momentum to slingshot. Outward facing claws on the bottom of their legs grip anything they touch when they land. The adult female flea mates after her first blood meal and begins producing eggs in just 1 to 2 days. One flea can lay up to 50 eggs in one day and over 2,000 in her lifetime. Flea eggs can be seen with naked eye, but they are about size of grain of salt. Shortly after being laid, the eggs begin to transfer into cocoons. In the cocoon state, fleas are fully developed adults, and will hatch immediately if condition are favourable.