READING COMPREHENSION WITH ANSWERS

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that

follow:

1. By the time a child is six or seven she has all the essential avoidances well

enough by heart to be trusted with the care of a younger child. And she also

develops a number of simple techniques. She learns to weave firm square balls

from palm leaves, to make pinwheels of palm leaves or frangipani blossoms, to

climb a coconut tree by walking up the trunk on flexible little feet, to break

open a coconut with one firm well-directed blow of a knife as long as she is tall,

to play a number of group games and sing the songs which go with them, to tidy

the house by picking up the litter on the stony floor, to bring water from the sea,

to spread out the copra to dry and to help gather it in when rain threatens, to go

to a neighboring house and bring back a lighted faggot for the chief's pipe or the

cook-house fire.

2. But in the case of the little girls all these tasks are merely supplementary to the

the main business of baby-tending. Very small boys also have some care of the

younger children, but at eight or nine years of age they are usually relieved of it.

Whatever rough edges have not been smoothed off by this responsibility for

younger children are worn off by their contact with older boys. For little boys

are admitted to interesting and important activities only so long as their behavior

is circumspect and helpful.

3. Where small girls are brusquely pushed aside, small boys will be patiently

tolerated and they become adept at making themselves useful. The four or five

little boys who all wish to assist at the important, business of helping a grown

youth lasso reef eels, organize themselves into a highly efficient working team;

one boy holds the bait, another holds an extra lasso, others poke

eagerly about in holes in the reef looking for prey, while still another tucks the

captured eels into his lavalava. The small girls, burdened with heavy babies or

the care of little staggerers who are too small to adventure on the reef,

discouraged by the hostility of the small boys and the scorn of the older ones,

have little opportunity for learning the more adventurous forms of work and

play.

4. So while the little boys first undergo the chastening effects of baby-tending and

then have many opportunities to learn effective cooperation under the

supervision of older boys, the girls' education is less comprehensive. They have

a high standard of individual responsibility, but the community provides them

with no lessons in cooperation with one another. This is particularly apparent in

the activities of young people: the boys organize quickly; the girls waste hours

in bickering, innocent of any technique for quick and efficient cooperation. (473

words)

Adapted from: Coming of Age in Samoa, Margaret Mead

(1928)

2.1 On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the

following questions by choosing the most appropriate option

a) The primary purpose of the passage with reference to the society under

discussion is to

i. explain some differences in the upbringing of girls and boys

ii. criticize the deficiencies in the education of girls

iii. give a comprehensive account of a day in the life of an

average young girl

iv. delineate the role of young girls

b. The list of techniques in paragraph one could best be described as

i. household duties

ii. rudimentary physical skills

iii. important responsibilities

iv. useful social skills

2.2 Answer the following as briefly as possible:

a) What is the prime responsibility of a girl child by the time she is six or

seven?

b) What simple techniques does she learn at this stage?

c) What household chores is she responsible for?

d) In what way is a boy’s life different?

e) What qualities ensure that the boys move on to a higher responsibility?

f) Why do small girls have little opportunity for learning the more adventurous forms of work and play?

g) In what way is the girls’ education less comprehensive?

h) How is this apparent?

2.3 Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following:

(i) brusquely (para 3)

(ii) scorn (para 3)

ANSWERS

2.1

a) i

b) iv

2.2

a. baby tending

b. walking up the trunk on flexible little feet/to break open a

coconut with one firm well-directed blow of a knife as long as

she is tall/ to play a number of group games and sing the

songs which go with them(any 2)

c. to tidy the house by picking up the litter on the stony floor/ to

bring water from the sea/ to spread out the copra to dry and to

help gather it in when rain threatens/ to go to a neighboring

house and bring back a lighted faggot for the chief's pipe or

the cook-house fire.(any 2)

d. at eight or nine years of age they are usually relieved of baby

tending and are given more interesting and important

(1x2 = 2)

(1x6=6)

activities.

e. their behavior is circumspect and helpful.

f. burdened with heavy babies or the care of little staggerers who

are too small to adventure on the reef/ discouraged by the

the hostility of the small boys and the scorn of the older ones.

g. They have a high standard of individual responsibility, but the

community provides them with no lessons in cooperation with

one another.

h. the boys organize quickly; the girls waste hours in bickering,

innocent of any technique for quick and efficient cooperation.

2.3

a. abruptly

b. ridicule