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.
SSC CGL 2019161)"Cutting teenage substance abuse" refers to
reducing consumption of drugs and alcohol among young adults.
SSC CGL 2019162)The programme Planet Youth was started by
Inga Dora Sigfusdottir
SSC CGL 2019163)Which of the following does not contribute to the success of Planet Youth programme?
Arranging street gatherings of teenagers
SSC CGL 2019164)From the passage one can conclude that
bad habits can be checked by engaging teens in alternative activities.
SSC CGL 2019165)The word from the passage that means ‘change the image of an organisation or program’ is
rebrand
SSC CGL 2019166)‘Over Iceland’s harsh winter, one parent admits, evenings sometimes pass without running into any students.’ This means -
the programme is having the right impact on teenagers.
Instructions:
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow
Comprehension:
Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8,848 metres, draws adventurers from all over. But the mountain on the Nepal-China border is fast becoming a dangerous place to visit even for the hardened mountaineer. The inherent risks were highlighted with a photograph by Nirmal Purja, a Gorkha ex-soldier. The image, which went viral and altered the manner in which people worldwide imagine what it is to scale Mt. Everest, showed a long queue awaiting a final tilt at the summit, with all the dangers such a wait holds. In the 2019 season, at least 11 climbers have died or gone missing, including four Indians. Experts have been calling for Nepal to restrict the number of permits. It awarded a record 381 for this spring each fetching $11,000 (climbing from the Tibet side is more expensive). On 22nd May, 200 climbers ascended the summit, a new record for a single day. Last year, 807 managed to reach the summit. In 2012, the United Nations estimated that there were more than 26,000 visitors to the Everest region, and this figure has grown manifold since then. Nepal officials argue that permits are not issued recklessly, and that jams such as this year’s near the summit are on account of spells of bad weather, which result in mountaineers being compelled to reach the summit within a narrow time frame. Waiting in sub-zero temperatures at rarefied altitude can be fatal--- this season’s deaths were mostly due to frostbite, exhaustion, dehydration and lack of oxygen.
This year’s drama has caught public imagination, as happened in 1996 when eight persons died in a single day amid an unexpected storm - events of and around that day were the subject of Jon Krakauer’s bestselling book ‘Into Thin Air’. The adventure industry that is built around the human desire to scale the peak has meant many amateurs take up the challenge, confident that support teams and specialized equipment will make up for their lack of adequate mountaineering experience. The fallout is that in case of a disaster not only are some of them unable to manage but they also hold up others, putting them in harm’s way. The commercial operations have led to the Everest being called the world’s highest garbage dump as many climbers discard non-critical gear, used oxygen cylinders, plastic bottles, cans, batteries, food wrappings, fecal matter and kitchen waste on the mountains. It is unlikely, however, that this season’s tragedies will deter future summiteers, as the hypnotic lure remains intact. But the authorities must learn from this year’s tragedies and work out an optimum number of climbers and strengthen safety measures.
SSC CGL 2019167)What is the theme of this newspaper editorial?
Select the most appropriate combination of factors given below.
a. Overcrowding of Mount Everest on 22nd May, 2019.
b. The urgent necessity to introduce and implement adequate safety measures to prevent man-made disasters.
c. Not to treat the ascent of the highest peak as an adventure sport.
d. Refuse permits to amateur climbers.
e. Disallow tour operating companies from crowding the base-camp.
a & b
SSC CGL 2019168)Fill in the blank to complete the statement.
In 2019 ______ people have lost their lives on Mt. Everest.
eleven
SSC CGL 2019169)What image has Nirmal Purja’s viral photograph captured?
A long queue of climbers on the final stretch of a steep slope.
SSC CGL 2019170)Why was the Nepal Government criticized recently?
For issuing 381permits to aspiring climbers.