Through human history, weather has altered the march of events and caused some mighty
cataclysms. Since Columbus did not know where he was going or where he had arrived when
he got there, the winds truly deserve nearly as much credit as he for the discovery of America.
Ugly westerlies helped turn the 1588 Spanish Armada away from England in a limping panic.
Napoleon was done in twice by weather: once by the snow and cold that forced his fearful
retreat from Moscow, later by the rain that bedevilled him at Waterloo and caused Victor Hugo
to write: "A few drops of water ... an unseasonable cloud crossing the sky, sufficed for the
overthrow of a world." In 1944 the Allied invasion of Normandy was made possible by a narrow
interval of reasonably good weather between the bad. It was so narrow, in fact, that Supreme
Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower later expressed gratitude to "the gods of
war". Paganism dies hard.
Every year brings fresh reminders of the weather's power over human life and events in the form
of horrifying tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. These leave behind forgettable statistics
and unforgettable images of devastated towns and battered humanity that can only humble
people in the face of such wrath. Farmers often suffer the most, from the drought and plagues
of biblical times to the hailstorms or quick freezes that even today can wipe out whole crops
in minutes. Icy assaults serve as reminders of the inescapable vulnerability of life and social
well-being to the whims of the weather. And history is packed with reminders of far worse.
The weather, for example, provoked a major social dislocation in the United States in the 1930's
when it turned much of the South-west into the Dust Bowl.
No wonder, then, that man's great dream has been some day to control the weather. The first
step toward control, of course, is knowledge, and scientists have been hard at work for years
trying to keep track of the weather. The United States and other nations have created an
international apparatus that maintains some 100 000 stations to check the weather round the
clock in every sector of the globe and, with satellites, in a good deal of the more than 16 billion
cubic kilometres of the atmosphere. With computers on tap and electronic eyes in the sky,
modern man has thus come far in dealing with the weather, alternately his nemesis and
benefactor. Yet man's predicament today is not too far removed from that of his remote
ancestors. For all the advances of scientific forecasting, in spite of the thousands of daily
bulletins and advisories that get flashed about, the weather is still ultimately capricious and
unpredictable. Man's dream of controlling it is still just that -- a dream.
1. The writer is of the opinion that Columbus
(A)did not discover America.
(B)stole the credit for the discovery of America from someone else.
(C)does not deserve to be known as the man who discovered America.
(D)was not aware he had discovered America.
2. According to the passage, what helped the Allies to carry out a successful invasion of
Normandy in 1944 ?
(A)It was a spell of bad weather.
(B)It was a short period of fairly good weather.
(C)It was good weather followed by bad weather.
(D)It was the excellent weather conditions.
3. What is the main topic of the first paragraph ?
(A)It is the development of history up to modern times.
(B)It is the part weather played in the progress of events in history.
(C)It is the way fate influenced the outcome of events in history.
(D)It is the idea that success in all past undertakings depended on the weather.
4. In the second paragraph weather is seen as
(A)a capricious and an unpredictable force.
(B)man's benefactor.
(C)man's chief enemy.
(D)a powerful destroyer of human life and property.
5. How did the weather cause great upheaval in America a few decades ago ?
(A)It devastated towns in the form of tornadoes, hurricanes and floods.
(B)It destroyed crops in the form of hailstorms and quick freezes.
(C)It turned cold so suddenly that it caught millions of people unprepared.
(D)It created a large area of arid land from which people had to move out.
6. How can man stop being a victim of the whims of the weather ?
(A)He must find ways to control it.
(B)He must learn all he can about it.
(C)He must learn to live with it.
(D)He must protect himself against it.
7. In order to be able to control the weather man must first
(A)fight it.
(B)know how to escape from it.
(C)be able to manipulate it.
(D)study it.
8. Today, man
(A)has the weather under control.
(B)is still far from being able to control the weather.
(C)has made no advance whatsoever towards the control of weather.
(D)can forecast the weather with great accuracy.
9. Weather brings
(A)only benefits to man.
(B)only disadvantages to man.
(C)both benefits and disadvantages to man.
(D)nothing but inconvenience to man.
Answers
The correct answers to the given questions are as follows:-
1. The writer is of the opinion that Columbus
(D)was not aware he had discovered America.
(Because when he set out on the expedition, his aim was to discover India. Instead, he ended up in America.)
2. According to the passage, what helped the Allies to carry out a successful invasion of Normandy in 1944?
(B)It was a short period of fairly good weather.
(The span of time for the good weather was so short that the Commander of the Allied forces Dwight Eisenhower thanked the "gods of war" because it was indeed a miracle)
3. What is the main topic of the first paragraph?
(B)It is the part weather played in the progress of events in history.
(Weather has played a vital role in the making of many historic events)
4. In the second paragraph weather is seen as
(D)a powerful destroyer of human life and property.
(weather has an overwhelming amount of control and power to destroy anything and everything in a matter of minutes)
5. How did the weather cause great upheaval in America a few decades ago?
(D)It created a large area of arid land from which people had to move out.
(In 1930s, a major social dislocation had occurred in the United States in the South-west region due to the creation of weather-induced arid land)
6. How can man stop being a victim of the whims of the weather ?
(B)He must learn all he can about it.
(Knowledge is the key to controlling weather in turn benefiting humanity)
7. In order to be able to control the weather man must first
(D)study it.
(studies through huge investment instruments and across many countries can help us make progress little by little)
8. Today, man
(B)is still far from being able to control the weather.
(even with the high end technology of this generation, it is still difficult to exactly predict and control weather)
9. Weather brings
(C)both benefits and disadvantages to man.
(weather is the man's benefactor and nemesis, both at the same time.)
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