Question

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: (20)

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, entrance 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

Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.

i. What is our attitude towards insects? 1

ii. Why does man try to exterminate insects? 2

iii. Why does the writer say that knowing about insects does not make man

change his attitude towards insects? 2

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?​

Answer 1

Answer:

sorry

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