CBSE Class 8 English Question Paper Set 32

CBSE Class 8 English Question Paper Set L. Students can download the last year question papers using the link below. Free download of examination question papers with solutions. Last 10 year question papers should be practised to get better marks in examinations.

SECTION – A (READING)

1. Read the following passage and answer the questions given below

THE SILK ROUTE

The ancient Silk Road is the world‟s oldest trading route and link between the East and the West. It was a network of the trade routes between Asia and Europe connecting China with Syria and other points. The Silk Road stopped serving as a shipping route for silk in around 1400 AD. It was Ferdinand von Richtghofen, the German geographer, who labeled this network of primary and secondary overland routes of commercial and cultural exchanges across Central Asia, the “Silk Route”. The primary trade route between China and the West, it was a 4,000 mile caravan route through South Asia and the Middle East. The Silk Road was also a route for the exchange of information and ideas. Buddhism travelled from the Indian subcontinent to China by the Silk Road. Very few people travelled the entire length of this road. Goods passed from one trader to another in short segments. Trade resembled a chain, with each trader and segment of the trade route representing a link in the trade. The silk road was often very dangerous to travel on. Muslim turks seized much of the land along it in the 110th century. Mongol armies used the Silk Road in the 3rd century to expand their empire. The Silk Road lost its importance after Vasco de Gama circumnavigated Africa to find a water route to India. It then became easier to travel between Europe and China by sea. Many artefacts demonstrate long distance trade connections and cultural transmissions between China, Khotan on the southern Silk Route, and the northwestern frontiers of the Indian subcontinent. Khotan was the regional commercial and religious center of the southwestern Tarim Basin (China) as well as the connecting point between China, India, Western Central Asia, and Iran. Fragments of finely woven tabby silk from China reflect long distance trade or attribute relations with Khotan during the third or early fourth centuries of AD. Long distance trade in highly valued Buddhist items (such as manuscripts, small sculptures, miniatures stupas) pre figured later connections between Buddhist communities in Khotan and Gilgid. The economic prosperity of agricultural oases and trading centres on the southern Silk Routes enabled Buddhist communities to establish stupas and monasteries. Buddhist sculptures from Miran and Khotan display many similarities with the artistic tradition of Gandhara, Swat, and Kashmir in the Indian subcontinent. Mural painting at Miran reflect ties. 

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