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

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Comprehension:
A great water scarcity looms over India; by 2025 Indians will get just over half the water they get today. This grave problem has a simple solution. Catch the rain as it falls, and the water crisis will disappear. However, about 80 per cent of India’s rainfall buckets down during the three months of the monsoons. As yet, no government programmer has discovered how to store this water.
‘Dying Wisdom’, a seven-year countryside study by Delhi’s Centre for Science and Environment, reveals that ruins of amazing ancient technologies survive in every corner of India. Drip-irrigation systems of bamboo pipes in Meghalaya; ‘kunds’, underground tanks in Rajasthan; ‘pynes’, water channels built by tribals in Bihar; and thousands of open-water bodies down south are all superb examples of rain water harvesting systems. Even today, tanks called ‘eris’ in Tamil Nadu water one-third of the state’s irrigated area. Unfortunately, governmental planners mostly refuse to acknowledge the potential of these low-cost systems, concentrating on costly dams and canals.
Few cities have lost touch with their ecological traditions as fast-and with as damaging results-as Bangalore. Only 17 of its water bodies struggle to survive in a city where once 200 lakes, ponds and wetlands cooled the city and recharged its ground water. The threats continue unabated as the relentless march of urbanization shows no sign of stopping.

151)

The people in ancient India had amazing technology to harvest water. This shows that

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A)

they understood the significance of water.

B)

it used to rain heavily.

C)

they did not know how to build dams.

D)

water was scarce at that time.

Instructions:
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Comprehension:
Dust storms of May 2018, in Northern India, contributed to the deteriorating air quality in the region and the capital city of Delhi, with implications for human health, a study found. The high death toll from the severe dust storms that lashed the region was mainly attributed to the intense winds, which surprised even scientists and meteorologists. But apart from the immediate damage to life and property, drastic changes in air quality from the dust engulfing the region affected far more people with potential implications for human health, stated a team of researchers who analysed the impact of the spell of dust storms that struck the region that month. They
reported increases in particulate matter, mainly in Delhi and urged for an early warning system.
Dust storms commonly occur in the Indo-Gangetic Plains - the fertile plains in northern India that stretch all the way to the East - from March to May, the pre-monsoon season. Westerly winds typically bring loose sand and soil particles, picked up from the Arabian Peninsula or the Thar Desert in North Western India, to the Indo-Gangetic Plains. The dust tends to worsen air quality over the Indo-Gangetic Plains, home to around 900 million people, which can have far-reaching effects on human health. While dust storms are a regular feature in the region, the May 2018 dust storms specifically had a death toll of about 100 people, with around 200 people injured.
“We are concerned that the dust impacts the health of people who get exposed,” said a senior professor. However, he also observed that scattered rains occurring soon after the dust storms tend to clean up the dust, improving air quality. During October-November, densely populated cities like Delhi and Kanpur in the Indo-Gangetic Plains are vulnerable to wind borne long-range air pollution from crop residue burning in the North, and now this study “shows the effect of dust storms during the March-May time frame,” Sarkar pointed out. “This really puts the Indo-Gangetic valley in a unique spot in terms of it being targeted by these different hazardous conditions which are mostly outsourced from other areas.”

152)

Dust storms in Delhi are a cause of concern as they

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A)

cause strong winds.

B)

affect Delhi alone.

C)

challenge scientists.

D)

are a health hazard.

153)

Dust storms are caused by

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A)

winds from the North.

B)

winds from the South.

C)

Westerly winds.

D)

Easterly winds.

154)

The notable fact about pollution in Oct to Nov is that _____

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A)

Westerly winds bring loose sand and soil particles

B)

dust storms are a regular feature.

C)

it is caused by crop burning in North India.

D)

it is caused by the winds from Thar Desert.

155)

By saying, ‘This really puts the Indo-Gangetic valley in a unique spot’ the writer refers to the fact that

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A)

the Indo- Gangetic valley receives its pollution from other areas or factors.

B)

the valley is affected by pollution caused by hazardous industries.

C)

intense winds in the valley surprise even scientists and meteorologists.

D)

studies find that only the valley faces pollution all year round.

156)

Choose the correct sequence in which events take place -

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A)

Strong winds- poor air quality -dust storms- - death and disease

B)

Dust storms- poor air quality- strong winds -death and disease

C)

Dust storms - death and disease-strong winds- poor air quality

D)

Strong winds- dust storms- poor air quality- death and disease

Instructions:
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Comprehension:
Parents all over Iceland’s capital Reykjavik embark on a two-hour evening walk around their neighbourhood every weekend, checking on youth hangouts as a 10 pm curfew approaches. The walk in Reykjavik is one step toward Iceland’s success into turning around a crisis in teenage drinking.
Focusing on local participation and promoting more music and sports options for students, the island nation in the North Atlantic has dried up a teenage culture of drinking and smoking. Icelandic teenagers now have one of the lowest rates of substance abuse in Europe.
The Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis, the institute pioneering the project for the past two decades, says it currently advises 100 communities in 23 countries, from Finland to Chile, on cutting teenage substance abuse. “The key to success is to create healthy communities and by that get healthy individuals, ” said Inga Dora Sigfusdottir, a sociology professor who founded t he Youth of Iceland programme, which now has rebranded as Planet Youth.
The secret, she says, is to keep young people busy and parents engaged without talking much about drugs or alcohol. That stands in sharp contrast to other anti-abuse programmes, which try to sway teenagers with school lectures and scary, disgusting ads showing smokers’ rotten lungs or eggs in a frying pan to represent an intoxicated brain.
“Telling teenagers not to use drugs can backlash and actually get them curious to try them,” Ms Sigfusdottir said. In 1999, when thousands of teenagers would gather in Reykjavik every weekend, surveys showed 56% of Icelandic 16-year-olds drank alcohol and about as many had tried smoking.
Years later, Iceland has the lowest rates for drinking and smoking among the 35 countries measured in the 2015 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.
On average, 80% of European 16-year-olds have tasted alcohol at least once, compared with 35% in Iceland, the only country where more than half of those students completely abstains from alcohol.
Denmark, another wealthy Nordic country, has the highest rates of teenage drinking, along with Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic, where 92% to 96% have consumed alcohol.
In the US, teen drinking is a significant health concern, because many US teenagers are driving cars and do not have access to good public transport like teenagers in Europe.
Reykjavik mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson said the Icelandic plan “is all about society giving better options” for teens than substance abuse. He believes the wide variety of opportunities that now keep students busy and inspired has dramatically altered the country’s youth culture.
Local municipalities like Reykjavik have invested in sport halls, music schools and youth centres.To make the programmes widely available, parents are offered a 500 US dollar annual voucher toward sports or music programmes for their children.
Researchers say the Planet Youth prevention model is evolving constantly because it is based on annual surveys to detect trends and measure policy effectiveness. By law, introduced when Icelandic police routinely dealt with alcohol-fuelled street gatherings, children under 12 are not allowed to be outside after 8pm without parents and those 13 to 16 not past 10pm.
“We tell the kids if they are out too late, polite and nice, and then they go home,” said Heidar Atlason, a veteran member of the patrol. Over Iceland’s harsh winter, one parent admits, evenings sometimes pass without running into any students.

157)

Parents in Reykjavik take an evening walk at night in order to

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A)

remain fit and healthy by avoiding drinking at night

B)

keep a watch on teenagers to ensure they don’t get into the habit of drinking

C)

meet other parents to know and discuss how to control teenagers

D)

enjoy the evening stroll with other parents after dinner

158)

What is dramatic about the figures of teenage drinking in Iceland?

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A)

They’ve remained the same over the years

B)

They’ve become the lowest in Europe

C)

They’ve gone up by 36%

D)

They’ve shot down by 96%

159)

The Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis does the work of

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A)

showing teenagers anti-abuse programmes, which stop teenagers from drinking.

B)

advising many countries on controlling use of drugs etc. by young adults

C)

legally allowing children 12 years and more to remain outside their homes after 6 pm.

D)

going around at night with patrolling groups in many European countries.

160)

Teenage drinking in many countries like Denmark, Greece, Hungary, etc has been reported as

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A)

completely eradicated.

B)

the lowest in the world.

C)

low compared to Iceland.

D)

the highest in the world.