ICSE 2011: Practice Passage for Comprehension
Posted on: January 17, 2011
Read the passage given below and answer the question a, b, c, and that follow: La Nina is an atmospheric phenomenon when the equatorial waters of eastern Pacific Ocean turn unusually cold. It is the opposite of El Nino when the eastern waters are warmer than usual. Both events create the greatest global impact in winter time. La Nina — The Little Girl —has enormous adverse effect globally since showing itself in mid-2010. La Nina and its equally unruly relative, El Nino, occur when the waters of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean along the equator become uncommonly cold or warm. These changes in the Pacific bring forth changes in atmospheric pressure, winds, temperature, and rainfall that have a worldwide influence. These conjugated with changes in the ocean and atmospheres are jointly called the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). For India, an El Nino is of grave concern as it negatively affects the south-west monsoon. La Nina, on the contrary, is frequently advantageous for the monsoon, particularly in the second half. The La Nina that happened in the Pacific in 2010 possibly assisted last year’s south-west monsoon in its last half advantageously. Yet, it also brought in the flood in Australia, which turned out to be one of worst natural disasters with large regions of the north-east under water and also caused similar mayhem in south-eastern Brazil and actively caused the heavy rains and accompanying deluging in Sri Lanka. The impact of ESNO is obviously aggravated by global warming The Indian Ocean is warming quickly. We can already observe the glimpses of the sinister influence of a La Lina of the rising warming along with the increase in temperature of the western Pacific. In all probability the increased ocean temperature might have influenced the weather associated issues in the past few months. In spite of the beneficial aspects of the La Nina that evolved in mid-2010 to the south-west monsoon, the high temperature of the tropical Indian Ocean may have impeded a more evenhanded distribution of rainfall in some of the northern Indian states. The warming up of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific almost certainly supplied the additional moisture and energy for the inordinately heavy rains that Australia and Sri Lanka went through. That might be the cause for the excess of rain India the north-east monsoon which, as is commonly witnessed, checked by a La Nina. From this it possible conclude that the climatical changes brought ushered by agents like ESNO will be aggravated by the global warming rendering severe weather phenomena such as droughts and floods more regular. a. Give the meaning of the following words as used in the passage: [3] 1. Assisted 2. Influenced 3. aggravated b. Answer briefly in your own words the following questions: 1. What is a La Lina? [2] 2. Who is its relative? How do they occur? [2] 3. What was the impact of La Lina that happened in the Pacific in 2010? [2] 4. What does ESNO stand for? Explain the phenomenon. [2] 5. What is La Lina of great concern to India? [2] 6. How has El Nino influenced the monsoon in different parts of India? [2] c. Write in not more than 60 words the effect of La Lina on the weather conditions. [8] d. Give a suitable title to your summary and justify the choice of the title. [2]
ICSE ENGLISH 
Leave a comment