Unseen Passage for Class 5 – Festivals and Places

Reading comprehension lesson 18: Festivals and places of India · Set 253 · 12 questions

Reading tip (Facts by place and time): Find the place, the time of year and what people do. Answer from the passage, even if you know more about it. For word meanings, read the sentence around the word.

1. 1.In Goa, Christmas is a big festival celebrated on 25 December. Weeks before, families clean and paint their homes. They hang paper stars outside their windows. Many homes make a crib, a small model of the place where Jesus was born. On Christmas Eve, people go to church for midnight Mass. Families share special sweets like kulkuls and neureos with neighbours. Streets glow with lights, and choirs sing carols. Friends of all faiths join in the fun.
   
   What are kulkuls and neureos? (a) Sweets (b) Songs (c) Lights (d) Decorations
2. 2.Baisakhi is a harvest festival celebrated mainly in Punjab. It falls on 13 or 14 April every year. By this time, the wheat crop is ripe and ready to be cut. Farmers thank God for a good harvest. For Sikhs, the day is also important because the Khalsa was founded on Baisakhi. People visit gurdwaras and share a free meal called langar. Men and women dance the bhangra and giddha to the beat of the dhol. Fairs with swings and food stalls are held in many villages.
   
   What is langar? (a) A free meal (b) A drum (c) A dance (d) A fair
3. 3.Onam is the harvest festival of Kerala. It falls in August or September, after the monsoon. People believe that the kind King Mahabali visits his people at this time. To welcome him, families make pookalam, a carpet of flower petals, in front of their homes. A grand meal called sadya is served on a banana leaf. It has more than twenty dishes. Snake boat races are held on the rivers. Everyone wears new clothes, and the whole state is full of joy.
   
   On what is sadya served? (a) A coconut shell (b) A steel plate (c) A banana leaf (d) A clay pot
4. 4.The Hornbill Festival is held in Nagaland every year from 1 to 10 December. It is named after the hornbill, a large bird with a big curved beak. The bird is important in the stories and songs of the Naga people. The festival takes place at a heritage village called Kisama, near Kohima. Many tribes of Nagaland come together to show their dances, songs and crafts. Visitors can watch traditional games and taste local food. The festival helps keep old traditions alive.
   
   How many days does the festival last? (a) Ten (b) Two (c) Fifteen (d) Five
5. 5.Durga Puja is the biggest festival of West Bengal. It is held in autumn, usually in October. Artists spend months making clay idols of Goddess Durga. The idols are placed in large decorated tents called pandals. For five days, people visit pandals, pray and enjoy music and food. Many pandals are built to look like palaces or temples. On the last day, the idols are carried to a river and immersed in the water. People say goodbye and hope the goddess returns next year.
   
   What are the idols made of? (a) Clay (b) Wood (c) Metal (d) Stone
6. 6.Baisakhi is a harvest festival celebrated mainly in Punjab. It falls on 13 or 14 April every year. By this time, the wheat crop is ripe and ready to be cut. Farmers thank God for a good harvest. For Sikhs, the day is also important because the Khalsa was founded on Baisakhi. People visit gurdwaras and share a free meal called langar. Men and women dance the bhangra and giddha to the beat of the dhol. Fairs with swings and food stalls are held in many villages.
   
   In which state is Baisakhi mainly celebrated? (a) Kerala (b) Assam (c) Punjab (d) Goa
7. 7.Diwali is called the festival of lights. It is celebrated in October or November, on the darkest night of the month. Before Diwali, people clean their homes and buy new clothes. In the evening, rows of small clay lamps called diyas are lit everywhere. Many families draw rangoli patterns with coloured powder at the door. People share sweets with neighbours and friends. Many people now choose green celebrations without loud crackers. The lights stand for the victory of good over evil.
   
   What do the lights stand for? (a) The end of winter (b) A new school year (c) Good winning over evil (d) A good harvest
8. 8.Kaziranga National Park is in Assam, on the banks of the Brahmaputra river. It is famous for the one-horned rhinoceros. More than half of all one-horned rhinos in the world live here. The park has tall elephant grass, swamps and forests. Tigers, wild elephants and wild buffaloes also live in the park. Every year, floods cover parts of the park, and animals move to higher ground. Visitors can see the animals from an open jeep.
   
   What do animals do during floods? (a) Hide in caves (b) Climb trees (c) Swim to the sea (d) Move to higher ground
9. 9.Shimla is a hill station in Himachal Pradesh. It is built on the slopes of green hills covered with pine and deodar trees. In summer, the weather is cool, so many families visit to escape the heat of the plains. In winter, snow often covers the roofs and roads. A small toy train climbs up to Shimla from Kalka. It passes through more than a hundred tunnels. The main street, called the Mall Road, has no cars. People walk there and enjoy the views of the mountains.
   
   Why do families visit Shimla in summer? (a) To see the desert (b) To swim in the sea (c) To see the snow (d) To escape the heat
10. 10.Pongal is a harvest festival of Tamil Nadu. It is celebrated in the middle of January and lasts for four days. Families thank the Sun God for a good harvest. They boil fresh rice with milk and jaggery in a new clay pot. When the pot boils over, people shout, “Pongalo Pongal!” The overflowing pot is a sign of plenty. On the third day, cattle are washed and decorated with paint and bells. Houses are decorated with colourful kolams at the door.
    
    How many days does Pongal last? (a) Seven (b) Four (c) Ten (d) Two
11. 11.Ladakh is a cold desert high in the Himalayas. It gets very little rain or snow, so the mountains are mostly bare and brown. Winters are freezing, and temperatures can drop far below zero. The air is thin at this height, so visitors must rest on their first day. People grow barley and apricots in the short summer. Yaks give milk, wool and help to carry loads. Buddhist monasteries, called gompas, stand on hilltops. Pangong Lake changes colour from blue to green during the day.
    
    What are gompas? (a) Yak farms (b) Mountain lakes (c) Woollen coats (d) Buddhist monasteries
12. 12.The Thar Desert lies mostly in Rajasthan, in the north-west of India. It is a land of sand dunes, thorny bushes and very little rain. Days in summer are extremely hot, but nights can be cool. Camels are useful here because they can walk on sand and go without water for days. That is why the camel is called the ship of the desert. People store rainwater in tanks and step-wells. Jaisalmer, a city of golden stone, stands in this desert.
    
    Which word in the passage is the opposite of “cool”? (a) Thorny (b) Golden (c) Hot (d) Little

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