English Language & Literature

Discursive Passage

Class 10

Multiple Choice Questions Type

Discursive Passage 01

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:

  1. In the second week of August 1998, just a few days after the incidents of bombing the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, a high-powered, brain-storming session was held near Washington D.C., to discuss various aspects of terrorism. The meeting was attended by ten of America’s leading experts in various fields such as germ and chemical warfare, public health, disease control and also by the doctors and the law enforcing officers.
  2. Being asked to describe the horror of possible bio-attack, one of the experts narrated the following gloomy scenario. A culprit in a crowded business centre or in a busy shopping mall of a town empties a test tube containing some fluid, which in turn creates an unseen cloud of germ of a dreaded disease like anthrax capable of inflicting a horrible death within 5 days on any one who inhales it. At first 500, or so victims feel that they have mild influenza which may recede after a day or two. Then the symptoms return again and their lungs start filling with fluid. They rush to local hospitals for treatment, but the panic-stricken people may find that the medicare services run quickly out of drugs due to excessive demand. But no one would be able to realize that a terrorist attack has occurred.
  3. One cannot deny the possibility that the germ involved would be of contagious variety capable of causing an epidemic. The meeting concluded that such attacks, apart from causing immediate human tragedy, would have dire long-term effects on the political and social fabric of a country by way of ending people’s trust on the competence of the government. The experts also said that the bombs used in Kenya and Tanzania were of the old-fashion variety and involved quantities of high explosives, but new terrorism will prove to be more deadly and probably more elusive than hijacking an aeroplane or a gelignite of previous decades.
  4. According to Bruce Hoffman, an American specialist on political violence, old terrorism generally had a specific manifesto to overthrow a colonial power or the capitalist system and so on. These terrorists were not shy about planting a bomb or hijacking an aircraft and they set some limit to their brutality. Killing so many innocent people might turn their natural supporters off. Political terrorists want a lot of people watching but not a lot of people dead.
  5. Old terrorism sought to change the world while the new sort is often practised by those who believe that the world has gone beyond redemption, he added. Hoffman says, New terrorism has no long term agenda but is ruthless in its short-term intentions. It is often just a cacophonous cry of protest or an outburst of religious intolerance or a protest against the West in general and the US in particular. Its perpetrators may be religious fanatics or diehard opponent of a government and see no reason to show restraint. They are simply intent on inflicting the maximum amount of pain on the victim.

Question.1.
According to Hoffman, what, from the following, is the greatest threat from new terrorism?

(a) political display for public support.
(b) ruthlessness and their disregard to long-term implications.
(c) inconvenience to the economy.
(d) taking many human lives.

(b) ruthlessness and their disregard to long-term implications.

Question.2.
Select the option that suitably completes the dialogue with reference to paragraph 2.
Raj: With all the advancement and awareness in science, I fear there’s a good chance someone might misuse it with major implications.
Rahul: That’s a possibility of biological warfare which can be __________________

(a) deadlier and have prolonged effects than usual terrorism.
(b) not as grave and dangerous than usual terrorism.
(c) controllable and containable to a confined space.
(d) studied as a case for understanding terrorist ideology.

(a) deadlier and have prolonged effects than usual terrorism

Question.3.
Choose the option that best conveys the message in -‘cacophonous cry of protest’.

(a) Protesting by crying with tears
(b) Demand for seeking attention at a political motive
(c) Hushed and harmonious opposition
(d) Harsh and loud display of dissent and objection

(d) Harsh and loud display of dissent and objection

Question.4.
What qualities does the germ in a possible bio-attack can have? Choose one option from the following:

(a) Controlled form of infection.
(b) Targeting certain age group of people only.
(c) Contagious and capable of causing an epidemic.
(d) Short-lived with not much lethality.

(c) Contagious and capable of causing an epidemic

Question.5.
Select the option with the underlined words that can suitably replace the word redemption (paragraph 5).

(a) It is publicly known that his policies are beyond stupid and counter-productive.
(b) The doctors refused to operate further because his body was damaged beyond saving.
(c) She always told me to stop looking for answers at wrong places.
(d) They were all disappointed that they were getting detention for something so insignificant.

(b) The doctors refused to operate further because his body was damaged beyond saving

Question.6.
An alliteration is when two or more words that start with the same sounding alphabets are used repeatedly in a sentence or a phrase.
From the options given below, select an Alliteration that appears in the para 5.

(a) short-term intentions
(b) panic-stricken people
(c) cacophonous cry
(d) religious intolerance

(c) cacophonous cry

Question.7.
Select the qualities from paragraph 4, that the old terrorism portrays. Being:
(1) revolutionary motive
(2) limited brutality
(3) empathetic humans
(4) lacking restraint
(5) politically driven

(a) (2), (3) and (5)
(b) (1), (2) and (5)
(c) (1), (3) and (4)
(d) (3), (4) and (5)

(b) (1), (2) and (5)

Question.8.
Which of the following is possible in a bio-attack?

(a) panic-stricken chaos in people.
(b) organised control of disease spread.
(c) people uniting to fight terrorism.
(d) crowded places being the safest.

(a) panic-stricken chaos in people

Question.9.
What do the experts conclude, in paragraph 3?

(a) Terrorist acts can be controlled with proper awareness and military control.
(b) The political and social fabric of a country remains largely unaffected by terrorism.
(c) Terrorist acts make people lose trust on the competence of the government.
(d) New terrorism will likely be hijacking of an aeroplane or a gelignite of previous decades.

(c) Terrorist acts make people lose trust on the competence of the government.

Question.10.
Choose the option that lists the quote best expressing the central idea of the passage.

(a) How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism? —Howard Zinn
(b) If we destroy human rights and rule of law in the response to terrorism, they have won. —Joichi Ito
(c) New terrorism is the anti-order of the new world order of the 21st century. —Mark Juergensmeyer
(d) Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace. —Dalai Lama

(c) New terrorism is the anti-order of the new world order of the 21st century.—Mark Juergensmeyer

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