INSECTS
Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do 3/more harm than good. Man continually wages war on them, for they contaminate his food, carry diseases, or devour his crops. They sting or bite without provocations; 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 and lives in a highly organized society does nothing to 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 about 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, entranced 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 bearing home an enormous dead beetle?
Last summer, I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am especially 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 were beginning to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a large colony of ants which obtained as 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 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 the next morning hoping to find that the ants had given up in despair. Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. They 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!
(CBSE Board Papers)
1. Why does man kill insects?
2. Does reading about insects change our attitude towards them? Justify your answer.
3. What did the writer watch in the garden?
4. What is the writer proud of and why?
5. Why did the leaves wither?
6. What did the writer do to get rid of the ants?
7. Was the writer finally successful in his endeavour? Justify your answer.
8.Which words in the passage mean the same as
(a) to begin a course of action ……………………………………………
(b) the sense of disgust and loathing ……………………………………….
(c) an absence of hope …………………………………………………………..
(d) moving hurriedly with small quick steps ………………………
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