CBSE Class 10 English Reading Assignment Set B

CBSE Class 10 English Reading Assignment Set B. Students are advised to refer to the attached assignments and practice them regularly. This will help them to identify their weak areas and will help them to score better in examination. Parents should download and give the assignments to their children for practice.

Q1. Read the passage given below and answer the following questions :-

(i) What's wrong with ageing? A recent article in a US newspaper said many people were embarrassed at being called "grandma" and "grandpa" because it made them sound old. They were apparently encouraging their grandchildren to continue calling them by their childhood nicknames. Actor Goldie Hawn was thrilled, we are told, when her grandchild called her "glam-ma", which sounded more like "glamour". The vision of people desperately clinging on to their youthful image is not only pitiable and laughable but at the same time alarming. The alarmist would point that what is good for them, may not be good for us and since many western trends trickle down to our country sooner or later, fashions come to us at lightning speed while social trends percolate drop by drop-the 'paati' of the year 2030 may well be known as 'Pat' and 'ajja' as 'Ajax' not to mention Don and Di, the new 'dada' and 'daadi' and they would all come trooping out into the street with coloured hair and pale, smooth faces like a scene from the fifth remake of "Night of the Living Dead."

(ii) It’s not gross exaggeration, as some might think. Our obsession with looks might be getting out of hand. Take a look at Indian cosmetics industry. The increase in popularity of its products is in inverse proportion to the health of its customers. While tomorrow's glammas and glampas are busy conquering the five enemies of hair damage and six enemies of fairness, their sun-starved bodies, are crumbling from within. A doctor I met recently was fuming, "Twenty year olds are getting osteoporosis! They're eating rubbish, the sugar in their soft drinks is leaching the calcium from their bones, and they're indoors all the time, getting no sunlight," Today's girl would probably noble about on cruches by the age of 40. If she had allowed sunlight to act on her skin, particularly her face and arms, it would have produced the vitamin D she needed to strengthen bones and keep all sorts of disease at bay. But she is showed older by the advertising blizzard that obsecures the goodness of the sun and highlights the dangers of skin cancer. The sunscreen ads with high SPF numbers keep away the sunlight and with it, the vitamin as well. But it claims to protect her skin from darkening and wrinkling, and this is what matters to her the most.

(iii) "Old is gold" is one of those patronizing expressions meant to make the ageing population feel special and valuable. Frankly, I don't take kindly being compared with the over rated yellow metal. "You're only as old as you feel" is another cliche to fool people. The truth is you're exactly as old as the number of years you've lived on this earth. You might say, "I'm 45, but after losing eight kilos I feel 10 years younger," but you're only fooling yourself. You're still 45, though perhaps a more vigorous 45. Old is bold. Now I like the sound of that. Besides, it’s true. I've seen how some of the meekest people, once they attain a certain age, grow more confident about themselves. To grow old is to care less about how you appear to others, and to speak your mind without caring too much about the consequences. In short, be bindaas!

I. Answer the following questions 

(a) What is considered as alarming?

(b) What are the reasons for early osteoporosis?

(c) Why are sunscreens harmful?

(d) Old is gold. How?

Please click the link below to download CBSE Class 10 English Reading Assignment Set B