1. Read the passage below and answer the questions A & B.
Adolescents constitute a nation’s core resource for national renewal and growth. Adolescence is a period in life when transition from childhood to adulthood takes place and behaviours and life styles are shaped. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence is the period which shapes the future of boys’ and girls’ lives. There are 28 million adolescents in Bangladesh. 13.7 million of them are girls and 14.3 million boys.
The situation of adolescent girls in Bangladesh is characterized by inequality and subordination within the family and society. This inequality leads to widespread practice of child marriage, marginalisation or exclusion from health, education and economic opportunities, and vulnerability to violence and sexual abuse.
In Bangladesh, the legal age of marriage is 18 for girls and 21 for boys. However, 33 per cent of adolescent girls are married before the age of 15 and 60 percent become mothers by the age of 19. Research finds that adolescents with higher level of education and from more affluent families tend to marry at a later age. However the adolescent boys become ready for marriage only after several years of adolescence and young adulthood.
A. Choose the correct answer from the alternatives.
(a) What does the word ‘constitute’ in line-1 mean?
(i) take (ii) form (iii) condition (iv) add
(b) What does the phrase ‘take place’ in line-2 stands for?
(i) occur (ii) go to a place (iii) vagueness (iv) recur
(c) Which of the following statements is false?
(i) Adolescents form core resource of a nation.
(ii) Adolescence comes after adulthood.
(iii) Adolescence occurs after childhood and before adulthood.
(iv) None is false.
(d) What is the difference between the marriage age of boys and girls?
(i) 3 years (ii) 5 years (iii) 21 years (iv) 16 years
(e) Which of the followings is the antonym of ‘affluent’?
(i) rich (ii) educated (iii) peace (iv) poor
B. Answer the following questions.
(a) What do you mean by adolescence?
(b) What is the condition of adolescent girls in Bangladesh?
(c) What does inequality do?
(d) Why are adolescents important?
(e) What does an adolescent girl usually face?
3. Write the summary of the following poem.
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
5. Fill in the blanks with appropriate word in each gap.
Sports are a popular form of entertainment. Many international sporting events are (a) —— from time to time. Most of these sporting events are sponsored (b) —— many multinational companies and (c) —— firms. They pay (d) —— the events in exchange for the right to (e) —— their products. These events are (f) —— worldwide by numeral channels and people watch them (g) ——. As a (h) ——, sponsors’ products receive maximum (i) —— coverage. Thus, sports help the spread of trade and (j) ——.
6. Rearrange the following sentences to make a coherent order.
(a) “Just the same way as mice can eat away balance and weights,” said the fruit seller.
(b) Then one day the fruitseller said to the grocer, “I am going to town to do some shopping. Please, send your son with me to carry my things.”
(c) After a few days the fruitseller asked the grocer to return his balance and weights.
(d) The next day, the fruitseller came back alone from the town.
(e) One day a grocer borrowed a balance and weights from a fruitseller.
(f) “You, a liar, how can a crow carry away such a big boy?” said the grocer.
(g) The grocer said, “The mice ate away your balance and weights.”
(h) “Where is my son?” asked the grocer.
(i) The lame excuse of the dishonest grocer made the fruitseller very angry.
(j) “A crow carried your son away,” replied the fruitseller.
7. Write a paragraph by answering the following questions in about 150 words.
(a) What do you mean by child labour?
(b) What is your feeling about child labour?
(c) What are the causes of child labour?
(d) Who are the worst victims of child labour?
(e) What is your suggestion?
8. Complete the following story in your own words in 80 words. Give it a title also.
Once there lived a poor woodcutter. Everyday he used to cut wood in the forest. He earned his livelihood by selling wood in the market. One day while he was cutting wood beside a river, his axe slipped into the river …………………..
9. Suppose, you are Aruna. Now, write an email to your friend, Nafiza inviting her to attend your birthday party.
