For Grades 7, 8 & 9    

Read the following passage and answer the questions a, b, c, and d given below:

We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm than good. Man continuously wages war on them, for they contaminate his food, carry diseases or devour his crops. They sting or bite without provocation, they fly uninvited 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 ants live in a highly organized society does not 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 of 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, entrance 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 carrying home an enormous dead beetle?

Last summer, I spent many days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my prized peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am specially 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 had begun to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called Aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a large column of ants which obtained a 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, making it impossible for the ants to reach the Aphids. The tape was so sticky 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 next morning to find the ants 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.

(a)    Three words or phrases are given below. Give the meaning of each word as used in the passage. One word answer or short phrases will be accepted.                                           [3]

                i.          Dispelling

               ii.          Pouncing

              iii.          Ingenuity

(b)   Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.                                                                                                                                        [10]

          i.    What is our attitude towards insects?

         ii.    Why does man try to exterminate insects?

        iii.    Why does the writer say that knowing about insects does not make man      change his attitude towards insects?

        iv.    What was the reason that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither in summer?

        v.    What did the writer do to prevent the ants from reaching the Aphids? Was it successful?

(c)    Describe in not more than 60 words  a summary of the above passage describing       the behaviour that we show towards insects.           [10]

(d)   Give an apt title to your summary and justify the choice of the title.                                                                                                                                         [2]