Question

Question 4.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:-

We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm

than good. Man continuously wages war on them, for they contaminate his food, carry diseases or

devour his crops. They sting or bite without provocation, they fly uninvited into our rooms on summer

nights, or beat against our lighted windows. We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders

or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. Reading about them increases our understanding

without dispelling our fears. Knowing that the industrious ants live in a highly organized society does

not prevent us from being filled with revulsion when we find hordes of them crawling over a carefully

prepared picnic lunch.

No matter how much we like honey, or how much we have read of the uncanny sense of direction which

bees possess, we have a horror of being stung. Most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are difficult

to erase. At the same time, however, insects are strangely fascinating. We enjoy reading about them,

especially when we find that like the Praying Mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives. We enjoy staring

at them, as they go about their business, unaware -we hope – of our presence. Who has not stood in

awe at the sight of a spider pouncing on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly carrying home an

enormous dead beetle?

Last summer, I spent many days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my

prized peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am

specially proud of it, not only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it occasionally

produces luscious peaches. During the summer I noticed that the leaves of the tree had begun to wither.

Clusters of tiny insects called Aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited

by a large column of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. I immediately embarked on an

experiment which, even though it failed to get rid of the ants, kept me fascinated for twenty four hours.

I bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for the ants to reach the Aphids. The

tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it. For a long time, I watched them scurrying around

the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even went out at midnight with a torch and noted with

satisfaction and surprise that the ants were still swarming around the sticky tape without being able to

do anything about it. I got up early next morning to find the ants were climbing up the wall of the house

and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been completely defeated by

their ingenuity. The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific methods.


(a) Three words or phrases are given below. Give the meaning of each word as used in the passage.

One word answer or short phrases will be accepted. [3]

i. Dispelling

ii. Pouncing

iii. Ingenuity

(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.

I what is our attitude towards insects? [2]

ii. Why does man try to exterminate insects? [2]

iii. Why was the writer especially proud of his peach tree? [1]

iv. What was the reason that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither in summer?

[2]

v. What did the writer do to prevent the ants from reaching the Aphids?

Was it successful? [2]

(c) Describe in not more than 50 words the behaviour that we show towards insects. [8]​

Answer 1

Answer:

(a) i. to drive away or cause to vanish by scattering. ii. to jump or move quickly in order to catch or take hold of something. iii. the quality of being clever.

(b) i. Our attitude towards insects are we have been brought up to fear insects and regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm than good.

ii. Man tries to exterminate insects because they contaminate his food, carry disease or devour his corps.

iii. The writer was especially proud of his peach tree because it has survived several winter and it occasionally produces luscious peaches.

iv. Because in summer leaves convert sunlight into energy in a process, during that process the trees lose a lot of water that when winter arrives the trees are no longer to able to get enough water to replace it.