Appendix -II

Reading Comprehension Tasks

To strengthen Reading skills and to imbibe values in students the following types
of Reading comprehension tasks were given.

Task 1
THE LITTLE MONGOOSE
Once upon a time in India there was a little mongoose. One half of his body was a
beautiful golden colour, but the other half was a plain brown. This little mongoose went
wandering about in many different parts of the country, and wherever he went he rolled
on the ground and then looked at his body to see if the brown half had become golden,
like the other half. But, no. It never had. He was still half golden and half brown. He was
very sad.
‘I must find a place,’ he thought to himself, ‘where people have been kind and unselfish.
It will be a place where people have made a great sacrifice, where they have given away
even their own food in order to help those who had none. If I roll on the ground in such a
place the brown half of my body will become golden, like the other half. ’
One day the little mongoose reached Kurukshetra. The great battle of Kurukshetra
was over, and the five Pandava brothers wanted to do something to show how happy they
were that they had won the battle. They decided to show their happiness by giving food
and gifts to poor people. So they called all the poor people together and gave them a great
feast. More and more poor people came and the Pandava brothers sent more and more
food. Then, all the people had eaten enough, the Pandava brothers sent them money and
clothes and jewels. So the poor people were no longer poor, and they all felt very happy.
The little mongoose stood in one corner beside a very old man. Together they watched all
that was happening.
‘This is wonderful,’ the old man said to the little mongoose. ‘How kind and
unselfish the Pandava brothers are! What a great sacrifice they have made to help these
poor people. Such a great sacrifice the world has never seen before.’
‘Is that so?’ replied the little mongoose. ‘Is it a great sacrifice? Have they given
away their own food? Have they nothing left for themselves? If that is true, then when I

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roll on the ground here the brown half of my body will become golden, like the other
half.’
The little mongoose then rolled and rolled on the ground.
‘Have I become golden, have I become golden all over?’ he cried.
The old man looked at the little mongoose. ‘No,’ he said, ‘no, you have not. You
are just as you were before, half golden and half brown. ’
The little mongoose was very disappointed.
‘Then what you say is not true,’ he said to the old man. ‘This is not a great
sacrifice. It is not a sacrifice at all.’
The old man was shocked. ‘How can you say this is not a sacrifice?’ he asked.
‘You have seen for yourself how much money has been spent. Money and food, clothes
and jewels, all were just poured out for those poor people. No one has ever before given
away so much. It was, indeed, a great sacrifice.’
The little mongoose looked at the old man. “Sacrifice” means giving up
something,’ he said. ‘It means taking something away from yourself in order to help
others. ’
The little mongoose sat on the ground in front of the old man. ‘I once saw a very
great sacrifice,’ he continued, ‘and it was when I rolled on the ground at that place that
one half of my body became golden. That is why I am searching for another great
sacrifice. When I find one I shall roll on the ground there, and then the other half of my
body will become golden, and I shall be golden all over.’
‘Please tell me about that sacrifice,’ the old man replied, ‘I would like to know
how you became half brown and half golden.’
‘Come, sit down beside me,’ answered the little mongoose. ‘I shall be happy to
tell you that story.’
The old man sat down, and the little mongoose told him the following story :

THE GUEST
‘I was living,’ said the mongoose, in a small village far away from here, and in
that village there lived a Brahmin whose name was Haridas.
Haridas lived with his wife, his son and his son’s wife. They were very poor, so
poor that often they did not have enough to eat. Haridas had some holy books, and he

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read stories in those books about great men and women who lived long, long ago. Then
he visited the village people in their houses and told them those stories so that they would
learn how to be kind and helpful to each other. In return the village people gave him
small gifts, sometimes they gave him some rice or flour, and sometimes some vegetables
and fruits. Whatever the village people gave him he took home to his family and carefully
divided it into four parts, so that he and his wife, his son, and his son’s wife each had an
equal share. In this way Haridas and his family were able to live.
There came a time, when the village people themselves did not have enough food.
There was no rain and the crops in the fields dried up and withered away. For three years
there was no rain, so all the wells dried up too, and day after day the people had nothing
to eat. Also, they had nothing to give to Haridas, so Haridas and his family were starving
too. They grew thin and weak, and as the days passed they grew weaker and weaker, and
it seemed that they would die.
One day some travellers passed through the village, and when they found that the
people there had no food they gave them a big bag of flour. The village people were very
happy, but they did not forget Haridas, their teacher and friend. They sent him a little of
the flour.
‘Look, wife,’ cried Haridas, ‘here is some flour. At last we can have something to
eat.’
His wife looked at the flour. ‘There’s not much, is there?’ she said. ‘It’s not
enough for four people. I’ll make chapattis for you three.’
‘No, no,’ said Haridas. ‘We are all starving, and now that we have some flour we
must all eat. So make four small chapattis all exactly the same size.’
‘Very well,’ his wife replied, smiling, ‘I shall do as you say.’
She and her son’s wife then took the flour and made four small chapattis, all
exactly the same size.
‘The chapattis are ready,’ cried Haridas’s wife, excitedly. ‘Let us eat them
quickly, for we are all so hungry. ’
She then gave one chapatti each to her husband, her son, and her son’s wife, and
kept one for herself. Just as they were about to eat their chapattis, however, there came a
knock at the door.

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 ‘Who can it be?’ said Haridas, as he put down his chapatti and went to the door.
Haridas opened the door, and there stood a man, a poor man with torn clothes. Haridas
did not know this man, for he did not belong to the village, and Haridas had not seen him
before.
‘What can I do for you sir?3 asked Haridas.
‘I am on my way to Varanasi, sir,’ the stranger replied. ‘I asked some children
down the lane to show me the house of a good man, and they brought me to you. I am
tired and hungry, sir. May I rest with you for a while? I am really very hungry.’
Haridas looked carefully at the man’s face. Yes, he looked tired and weak. He
needed food.
‘Come in, sir. You are our guest. To serve a guest is to serve God. You are
welcome,’ Haridas replied. He took the guest into the room and gave him a place to sit.
‘We ourselves haven’t much to eat,’ said Haridas, ‘but today we happen to have some
chapattis. See, here is a chapatti for you. ’
Haridas then picked up his own chapatti and gave it to the guest.
Haridas’s wife, his son, and his son’s wife were still holding their chapattis. They
watched the guest as he quickly ate up the chapatti Haridas had given him.
‘Ah, that was good,’ he said to Haridas. ‘But, sir, one small chapatti makes a
hungry man feel hungrier. Oh, I am so hungry, and my stomach is burning. I think I am
going to die! ’
And the guest put his hands on his stomach and groaned with pain. Haridas’s wife
looked at her husband. ‘Give him this,’ she said, and held out her chapatti.
‘No, no dear wife,’ replied Haridas. ‘That is yours. It is for you. You must eat it.’
‘But we are house holders, aren’t we?’ replied the wife, gently. ‘And here we have with
us a poor man who is very hungry. It is our duty as householders to see that he is fed.
You have already given him your own chapatti, so now it is my duty, as your wife, to
give him my chapatti. You have nothing more to give him, so I must give him what I
have. ’
Then Haridas’s wife gave her chapatti to the guest. The guest took the chapatti
eagerly, and quickly ate it up.
‘Do you feel better now?’ asked Haridas’s wife.

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 ‘No, no, I don’t feel better,’ cried the guest. I feel worse! Oh, oh, I am so hungry!’
And again he put his hands on his stomach and groaned with pain.
‘I am hungry,’ he shouted. ‘I am burning with hunger.’
Haridas’s son gave his chapatti to the guest.
‘It is my duty to help my father do his duty to a guest,’ he said. ‘Eat this, my
friend, eat this. You are our guest.’
The guest took the chapatti and quickly ate it up.
‘Do you feel better now?’ asked the son’s wife.
‘Not much,’ replied the guest. ‘I am still very hungry.’
‘Oh, then eat this,’ replied the son’s wife. And she gave her chapatti to the guest.
At last the guest felt satisfied.
‘Now I am all right,’ he said, ‘ I must continue my journey.’
The guest stood up. ‘May God bless you all,’ he said.
Haridas opened the door, and the guest went on his way.
That night Haridas, his wife, his son, and his son’s wife all died for lack of food.
The little mongoose and the old man were still sitting in a comer of the field in
Rurukshetra. As the story ended, the little mongoose fell silent. He seemed to be thinking
of something far away.
‘Go on,’ said the old man. ‘That’s not the end of your story. You haven’t told me
yet how you became half golden and half brown.’
‘Ah,’ replied the little mongoose. ‘Those four people made a great sacrifice,
didn’t they? To help a poor man they gave up their food, and they gave up their fives. I
was there, hiding in the room, and I watched it all. I was very happy to see their sacrifice.
In fact, I felt quite excited about it, for I had never before seen a sacrifice like that. I was
so excited that I joyfully rolled on the flour. A little of the flour, just a very little of the
flour from those chapattis, had fallen on the floor and I rolled myself in that flour. There
was so little that only one half of my body picked up the flour, and at once that half of my
body became golden. Since then, I have travelled far and wide, looking for another
sacrifice like that. But nowhere have I found one. Nowhere else has the other half of my
body become golden.’
(‘Pictorial Parables of Sri Ramkrishna’ Feb. 1977 Adavaita Ashram, Calcutta)

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Answer the following.
I. How did the half body of the little mongoose turn golden?
II. Who according to you can turn the remaining half body of the little mongoose
golden? How? .
ITT Narrate one incident of sacrifice that you have witnessed.

Discussion :
Students were asked to present the answers for part III one after another. The
class was deeply moved to share such experiences.

Task 2
Naren’s Prayer
Sri Ramakrishna loved Naren very much, and Naren also loved him with all his
heart. It is only when there is a great and pure love between a Guru and his disciple, he
can be taught about God. The Guru awakens God in the disciple.
Naren became a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, and he was very, very happy. He
used to go to Dakshineswar very often, and hear about God. About this time, a very sad
thing happened. Naren’s father died. The family was now very poor. Sometimes they did
not even have enough to eat. He decided to try to get a job.
Naren was a brilliant student. He had his B. A. degree. Still he could not find any
work. He walked from one office to another, but he could not get work. He thought:
‘What will become of my mother, sisters, and brothers if I cannot earn some money?’
One day, he told everything to Sri Ramakrishna.
‘Naren, today is Tuesday,’ Sri Ramakrishna replied, ‘Whatever you ask of Mother
today, She will give you. You ask Her.’
That evening, Naren went to the temple of Kali to pray. When he came back, Sri
Ramakrishna asked him, ‘What did Mother say?’
‘Oh, I forgot to ask her!’ cried Naren.
‘You forgot? Go back at once. Hurry!; said Sri Ramakrishna.
This time also the same thing happened!

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 The third time Naren returned, looking very peaceful. He told Sri Ramakrishna:
‘How could I ask Mother for money? It would be like asking a great king for a pumpkin!
I could only ask Her for devotion, for selfless love, and for the power to understand Her!’
Afterwards, Sri Ramakrishna told Naren that his family would never lack the bare
necessities of life. Only then did Naren feel that it was right for him not to try to earn

money.
That night, Sri Ramakrishna taught Naren a beautiful song about the Mother.
Naren sang that song the whole night through, while Sri Ramakrishna sat in deep
meditation.
(‘Stories for children’ by Swami Vivekananda. Sept. 1999 Adavaita Ashram, Calcutta)

Answer the following:

I. Why was Naren unable to ask for anything from Mother?
II. What according to you is the most precious thing in life?
Ill If God agrees to grant you three boons, which three things will you ask for?
Discussion : When students were asked to share their answers, the III part created a lot of
excitement as everybody had a different demand. The investigator asked them to make a
list of all the demands which was then read out before the class, omitting the common
ones. To their surprise, they noticed that only two of them were left out. One of them was
by a boy who had expressed his desire to serve his country. Another was by a girl who
wanted to be like Mother Teressa. Many of them, then wanted to do rethinking and
changed their minds. The final list of their demands was however very promising where
some of them had expressed a desire to serve mankind in different ways. At the end, a
student expressed his desire to sing the prayer - “Itni Shakti hame dena Data.............. ”.
Several other students also joined him.

Task 3
Read this passage. Complete the notes in the outline which follows it.

ANIMALS AT NIGHT
The animal kingdom can be divided into four categories. The first category
comprises the diurnal animals, which are active during the day. In the second category,
we have the nocturnal animals, which move about night. Then we have two less well-

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known varieties, the crepuscular animals, which are active during twilight hours, and the
arhythmic animals, which go about during both day and night. Probably such a division
began when simple and weak animals began to come out in the dark to escape from
diurnal predators. Today, although we associate the night with peace and silence, two-
thirds of the mammals of the world move about at night, such mammals as mice, bats,
foxes, flying squirrels and leopards.
How do the nocturnal animals find their way in the dark? Domestic cats, as we
know, have eyes that can adapt to darkness. But in the wild, the mechanisms are more
sophisticated. The eyes of an owl, for example, contain large number of rods and nerve
cells. These cells respond to dim light and to changes in light intensity. Would you
believe it if you are told that an owl can detect a moving mouse in one millionth of a
candle power of light? Snakes make use of the sense of smell at night. Their tongue picks
up small particles from objects around them and sensors at the roof of the mouth smell
the particles. Another sense that helps animals to find their way is the sense of heat.
The snake, again, can record the heat emitted by objects around it and move in on
the objects with deadly precision. Some animals have a sort of kinaesthetic sense which
helps them to move about at night in familiar territory. It is the sense of the movements of
the body involved in a particular action. Many of us walk down the stairs in the dark,
open a cupboard and pick an object from inside with precision. It is this kind of sense that
an owl uses to cover familiar territory. What do you know about a bat’s ability to fly at
night?
Most of us imagine that the main activities of animals at night consist of chasing
and capturing their prey. To a certain extent this is true. Many animals seek and find their
food at night. Owls pick up mice; tigers go out to feed upon animals which they have
caught and stowed away earlier. But there are other activities at night. Animals play at
night: raccoons, for example, play and gambol, as our pet dogs do in our garden. Male
animals can be observed courting the females of their species. Spiders and toads court
and mate at night: such behaviour has been observed by animal watchers.
But how does one watch animal in darkness? What are the techniques used for
observing and taking pictures of animals at night?

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 Any bright light will scare away the animals. Here scientists take advantage of the
fact that most animals are blind to red light. They, therefore, use a torch with a red mask.
Infrared telescopes have also been used to observe animals at night. Today, with very
sophisticated cameras and lighting devices, it is possible to photograph and make
recordings of the cries of animals in their dark and inaccessible forest haunts.
(£ A Textbook of English for Engineers and Technologists’, 1999 Orient Longman.)
Animals at night
A.
1. diurnal animals =

2. =

3. = out in twilight
4. =
B.
1. eyesight:

2 . '

3. sensitivity to heat:

4.

5. sound:

C. activities at night

1. ________________

2.________________
3._________
D.

1._________
2._________________
3.

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Discussion : Students liked this reading task. The task was successful in generating
discussion regarding various animals and their habits.

Task 4
Reading - ‘A fable for tomorrow’

SILENT SPRING
There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in
harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of
prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white
clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up
a blaze of colour that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked
in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall
mornings.
Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted
the traveller’s eye through much of the year. Even in winter the roadsides were places of
beauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of dried
weeds rising above the snow. The countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and
variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and
fall, people travelled from great distances to observe them. Others came to fish in the
streams which flowed clear and cold out of the hills and contained shady pools where
trout lay. So it had been from the days many years ago when the first settlers raised their
houses, sank their wells and built their barns.
Then a strange blight crept over the area and every thing began to change. Some
evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of
chickens: the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere there was a shadow of
death. The farmers spoke of much illness among their families. In the town the doctors
had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness appearing among their
patients. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults
but even among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a
few hours.

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 There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example - where had they gone?

Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards

were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and

could not fly. It was a spring without voices. The mornings that had once throbbed with

the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices,

there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.

On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained

that they were unable to raise any pigs - the litters were small and the young survived

only a few days. The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the

blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit.

The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered

vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by all living things.

Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had

died.

In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs, a white

granular powder still showed a few patches; some weeks before it had fallen like snow

upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams.

No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken

world. The people had done it themselves.

This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts

in America or else where in the world. I know of no community that has experienced all

the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened

somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of

them. A grim spectre has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may

easily become a stark reality we shall all know.

Rachel Carson, Silent spring. 1962

(‘A Textbook of English for Engineers and Technologists’, 1999 Orient Longman.)

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After reading the story, Silent Spring, answer the following questions.
a. The author’s main purpose in writing this story is
- to entertain readers.
- To present important information.
- To give a warning.
b. Look at the organisation of the writing. Can you divide the text into three parts?
Point out the place where the author moves from one part to the next.

c. Which paragraph describes the colours of spring? Which paragraph describes the
sounds of spring?
d. Guess the meaning of the following phrases, with the help of another student, if

necessary:
- checkerboard of farms
- white clouds of bloom
- backdrop of pines
- mists of the fall morning

e. What happened to
- the birds?
- The farmer’s relatives?
- The town’s children?
- The apple blossom?
d. The words ‘Science’ and ‘technology’ are not used in the story. Find a place in the
story where the author seems to refer indirectly to science and technology.
g. Find the phrases used by the author (in paragraph 3, 8 and 9) to describe the ‘tragedy’.

h. How does the author argue that these are not imaginary suffering?
i. Read the first sentence of the fable again. How does it describe life in early days in
America? Rewrite the sentence, using some of the same words with the necessary
modifications, to describe life in the same American town after the tragedy.

Discussion : Students enjoyed reading this story. However, they found it somewhat
difficult as they do not know the meanings of some of the words. They also shared some
stories on the similar lines, which may come true in future if man persists on his
foolishness.

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Discussion : Students enjoyed reading the jokes. The investigator then asked them to tell
any joke that they knew translating it into English. As they came out with all kinds of
jokes the session turned out to be a real ‘gag bag’.

Overall Impression about Reading Comprehension Tasks :

Students were quite responsive. Their interest in Reading was aroused due to
these tasks. Many of them started reading magazines, newspaper articles and any other
books of their interest. One more remarkable feature was that they started sharing it with
their classmates. The investigator noticed that the students were most vocal during
Reading Comprehension tasks and most of the time they spoke spontaneously. The tasks
were quite successful in moulding their personalities and changing their attitudes and
ways of thinking.

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