CBSE Class 12 English Comprehension Passage

PASSAGE 1

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follows:

1. New Delhi : It seems the common house sparrow has disappeared from the city. But ornithologists maintain that while sparrow numbers are dwindling, the bird has not disappeared entirely from the city and only shifted to more inhabitable parts. Conservationists are now trying to understand why some areas have managed to hold back sparrows and what has driven them away from others.

2. A recent countrywide survey initiative called 'Citizen Sparrow' is now roping in residents who want to report about their experience with sparrows. So far this unique sparrow survey organized by the Bombay National History Society (BNHS) and ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has received close to 410 responses from Delhi. Of these, 86 have claimed they have not seen any sparrows at all. But the majority seems to have sighted the bird, which gives new hope to conservationists.

3. "I have seen lots of sparrows in Ghaziabad, in Sheikh Sarai where I live but hardly any in say the Greater Kailash area. What is different in GK and other parts is still a mystery. But certain factors drawing the birds have become clearer, such as they nest more around old buildings, houses or may be in houses where there are old electricity meters, kitchen gardens, shrubs," says co-in-vestigator, BNHS Citizen Sparrow Project, Koustubh Sharma.

4. Another conservationist and birder, Ananda Banerjee says she has seen lots of sparrows in parts of Lutyens’ Delhi, Mayur Vihar, parts of old Delhi and parts of Noida. He cites urban landscape to be the reason behind the decline in the sparrow population.

5. "Urban architecture, tall glass buildings that lack nesting spaces for the sparrow, pesticides used in farming that kill the worms that sparrows feed on are some of the reasons. Even our markets have changed. There are not many open markets where they can get grains. But you can see lots of sparrows in Khari Baoli open grain market," he says.

6. But there is no doubt among conservationists that sparrows are fast disappearing. Declining number of sparrows and their complete absence from some parts of the city isn't just about missing the tiny bird. It is an indicator of something much graver.

7. Ecologist and forestry expert, Neeraj Khera, who has been studying the sparrow population in Delhi, feels that sparrows are an important indicator species. "There is always a threshold level. Big changes like an epidemic outbreak for instance will not happen overnight, but when we cross the buffer line then changes take place in our ecosystem. Sparrows as an indicator species is very sensitive to change. So it's obvious that a lot must have changed in our ecology to have driven them away," says Khera.

8. Some of the important factors responsible are air and water pollution, loss of native herbs and shrubs.

9. Another trend being noticed by experts is the increase of rock pigeons in most parts of Delhi. They seem to have almost replaced the sparrows that used to nest in the same places.

10. "Rock pigeons have almost grown out of proportion and taken up the space of sparrows. They can be seen nesting in houses and other buildings. Studies have shown that it is not a welcome change as the excreta of rock pigeon carries a lot bacterial pathogens," said Khera.

11. She says that sparrow population is moderate in places where there are old government buildings, water bodies or green spaces. Saving the sparrow, she says is not a lost cause yet. It is the right time to intervene and check further decline. It will take 'Citizen Sparrow' survey a couple of more months to come up with the preliminary analysis of the results from their - survey and may offer a stronger argument on why the sparrows are disappearing from the city

Source : The Times of india

A. (a) What is 'Citizen's Sparrow' and who has initiated it? 2

(b) What has increased the hope of conservationists? 2

(c) According to survey study, which type of house is sparrow's first choice of nesting? 2

(d) How use of pesticides in farming responsible for decrease in sparrow's population? 2

(e) What did the ecologist Neeraj Khera observe? 1

B. Find out words from the passage which means the same as the following: (1x3) = 3

(a) becoming less or smaller (Para 1)

(b) secret/observe/impossible to understand (Para 3)

(c) picture of inland scenery (Para 4)

1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :
1. Republic is essentially a nation-state in which supreme political power vests in the people and in elected representatives given a mandate to govern, by those people. Most importantly–and this is the principal point of difference from a monarchy’ republics have an elected or nominated head of state, usually a president, not a hereditary monarch. In effect, all sovereignty, power and authority in a republic are vested in the people.

2. ‘Republic’ is derived from the Latin phrase res publica–“a public thing”. Ancient Romans used this to describe the wellspring of their governance system for their city-state by about 500 BC. Inspired by notions of Athenian democracy, Rome’s republic was a noble experiment. The inscription ‘SPQR’, emblazoned on all Roman standards and public buildings, expanded to “The Senate and People of Rome”. It touted to the world that Roman political power was vested in a great many, not concentrated in one ruler or family. Rome"s republican tryst, sustained by public elections and classical debate, lasted until Julius Caesar seized control in 44 BC. Being succeeded by his wily nephew, Augustus–who founded a famous empire that lasted a while longer–300 consigned the republican ideal to the dustbin of the world.

3. Rome took much of its republican template from Greece. In particular, from Athens, most luminous of ancient Greece–s many city-states. The notion of moving political power away from an individual to the masses sparang from the need to safeguard the then ‘new’ notion of personal and individual freedom. It meant citizens would willingly join any battle to safeguard this freedom from any aggressor. But it was a troubled ideal. Athens ran on slave labour, democracy became limited to narrower sections as time went by. Tyranny and mobrule reared their ugly heads; Athenian imperialism overstretched the city-state so much so that even Plato and Aristotle, in effect, argued for enlightened oligarchies in their political philosophy.

4. Aristotle’s star pupil, Alexander of Macedon, soon put paid to all notions of republicanism by conquering large parts of Eurasia to establish an empire so large that it would only truly be eclipsed by Rome’s later rise.

5. Besides the many obvious fruits of Renaissance and Reformation–Europe’s two most epochal events in the second millennium"the republican ideal owes much to Niccolo Machiavellie and John Locke. Machiavelli, a 15th century Italian statesman-writer, located sovereignty in a collective exercise of power. The governed would guide actions of their ideal governor, he argued forcefully. Little wonder that Rousseau later referred to Machiavelli–s ‘The Prince’ as "a handbook for Republicans".

6. Locks, 17th century England–s most notable philosopher, cut through mythological mumbo-jumbo to argue that true power must formally lie with the people. A ‘contract’ existed between rulers and people, that bound both to establish "directed to no other end but the peace, safety, and public good of the people".

7. The rise of England–s parliament soon after injected a strong republican element into its bodhpolitic Modern liberalism“which sprang from Locke–s work”did the same in most of the western world.

8. Two revolutions, one decade and two continents apart, brought forth two republican models the world still looks to. The American, in 1776, and French in 1789. The first saw England lose its earliest colony. Monarchy was sternly repudiated and the ideas behind the Declaration of Independence exploded onto the western world as a serious alternative whose time had come.

9. The declaration laid the basis for much republican-democratic ideation. The US–s new constitution firmly located power with the people by stating that governments derived “their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

10. The French Revolution brought French monarchy, and all its attendant power structures, to a violent end, sending shockwaves through European kingdoms. The new republic–s bloody convulsions and military campaigns– for liberty, equality, and national self-aggrandizement–spread the spirit of revolution. Even under Napoleon Bonaparte. France would flirt with monarchy again but remained firmly democratic and republican is spirit ever after.
11. Nationalism soon proved a potent new force, redrawing Europe"s map several times over. Old power structures were found severely wanting. All big European monarchies made room for democratic representation.

12. Given India–s long history of fractious monarchies and mighty empires, the freedom movement set itself in democratic tradition. That wish came to final culmination of January 26th, 1950, when the nation was declared a republic and given the world–s most comprehensive Constitution to abide by. But India may not be a stranger to this “western-inspired” system. Historical research has shown, but not proven, that some city-states in north India between 500 BC and 400 AD might have actually been ancient republics of a sort. The Licchavi state, a Buddhist Kingdom with ganas and sanghas "normally translated as republics, but best referred to as “selfgovernment multitudes–was the most prominent. A good to hold as India basks in 60 years of republican glory. After all, that–s no mean achievement.

A. Questions
(a) How is a republican state different from Monarchy? 

(b) How did Julius Caesar change the face of a republican state? 

(c) What are the major gifts of French Revolution? 

(d) Mention the different forms of Republics started. 

(e) How did India get its first Republican state. 

B. Find out the words which mean the same as the following : 

(a) ruler (para 1) (b) student

(c) powerful 

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