English Passage for Class-9

---

Passage-1

---

I was born into a middle-class Tamil family in the Island town of Rameswaram in the erstwhile Madras State. My father Jainulabdeen had neither much formal education nor much wealth; despite these disadvantages, he possessed great innate wisdom and true generosity of spirit. He had an ideal helpmate in my mother, Ashiamma. I do not recall the exact number of people she fed every day, but I am quite certain that far more outsiders ate with us than all the members of our own family put together.

Questions

1. Where was the speaker born? 1
2. Who was an ideal helpmate here? 1
3. What would the mother do every day? 1
4. Write two disadvantages of his father? 2 

---

Passage-2

---

Socrates lived in Athens about four hundred years before Jesus Christ was born. Like other boys of his age, he went to school where the most important lessons were music and gymnastics. He also learned some Science and Mathematics and a little about the stars, but not nearly so much history and geography as children learn today. This strange little creature with the short neck and plains face was a thoughtful child. He allowed very few things to escape his notice and watched his companions with the closest attention.

Questions

1. How many years ago did Socrates live? 1
2. What did Socrates study at school? 1
3. How did he watch his companions? 1
4. Where did Socrates live? 1
5. Write the name of subjects which he did not learn? 1

---

Passage-3

---

Paper is one of the most important articles that we use in our day to day life. If there had been no paper, our Civilization would not have progressed so fast. Great Scientists write their thoughts on paper first and then carry out their experiments Great engineers draw their plan on paper first and then build houses, bridges, dams and so on, Great thoughts are written or printed on paper for everyone to read. Without paper, it would be difficult for people to know about the people of other countries.

Questions

1. Mention the uses of paper? 2
2. Why is paper the most essential thing for mankind? 1
3. What would have happened if there were no paper? 2

---

Passage-4

---

As five years old, Bismillah Khan played gill-danda near a pond in the ancient estate of Dumrano in Bihar. He would regularly go to the nearby Bihariji temple to sing the Bhojpuri “Chatta”, at the end of which he would earn a big laddu weighing 1.25 kg, a prize given by the local Maharaja. This happened 80 years ago, and the little boy has traveled far to earn the highest civilian award in India-the Bharat Ratna.

Questions

1. Where did Bismillah Khan play gilli-danda?1
2. How is Gilli-danda played? 1
3. Why would Bismillah Khan regularly goes to the Bihariji temple? 1
4. What was the weight of the laddu-prize given by the local Maharaja? 1
5. What is the highest civilian award in India? 1 

---

Passage-5

---

The cobra is the most dangerous snake. There are many species of cobras. These species vary in color and length. The Indian cobra may be anything from black to yellowish-brown, and it reaches two meters in length. The Egyptian Cobra and African Cobra are black and are considerably longer snakes, reaching about three meters. But this is nothing compared to the notorious king cobra, which is sometimes over five meters long. It is the longest and the most poisonous snake in the world. It is found in India.

Questions

1. What is the color of the Egyptian Cobra? 1
2. Which species of Cobra is the shortest in the world? 1
3. Which is the longest poisonous snake in the world? 1
4. Find words from the above passage that mean------- kinds, change. 1
5. Of the following statement, only two are True Write out these two statements---

              a) The Egyptian Cobra is the biggest Cobra in the world.

              b) The King Cobra is the most poisonous.

              c) There are black Cobras in India.

---

Passage-6

---

Every child is born with some inherited characteristics into a specific socio-economic and emotional environment and trained in certain ways by figures of authority. I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father, from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness and so did my three brothers and sisters. I have three close friends in my childhood Ramananda Sastry, Aravindan, and Sivaprakasana. All these boys were from orthodox Hindu Brahmin families. As children, none of us ever felt any differences amongst ourselves because of our religious differences and upbringing. In fact, Ramananda Sastry was the son of the Rameswaram temple, later he took over the priesthood of the Rameswaram temple from his father. Aravindan went into the business of arranging transport for visiting pilgrims and Sivaprakasana became a catering contractor for the southern railways.

Questions

1. What did the speaker inherit from his father? 1
2. What good qualities did the speaker get from the mother? 1
3. How many brothers did the speaker have? 1
4. Who was Laksmana Sastry? 1
5. What did Sivaprakasana become later? 1

---

Passage-7

---

There was an incident that occurred in the examination during my first year at high school. Mr. Giles the Inspector of schools had come on a visit to Inspection. He had set up five words to write as a spelling exercise. One of the words was "Kettle". I had misspelled it. The teacher tried to prompt me but I would not be prompted. I would not copy the spelling from my neighbor's slate. The result was that all the boys except my self were found to have spelled each word correctly only I had been stupid. The teacher tried to bring the stupidity home to me but without effect. I never could learn the art of copying.

Questions

1. What did the teacher want the speaker to do? 1
2. What work did Mr. Gile set to the boys? 1
3. Give the opposite of: Stupid, Correctly. 1