Unseen Passage for Class 5 – Life Stories

Reading comprehension lesson 19: Life stories · Set 173 · 12 questions

Reading tip (Follow the person): Find the person and the problem they saw. Follow what they did, in order. Find what changed in the end, and why.

1. 1.Noor Bano learned sewing from her grandmother in Lucknow. After her husband fell ill, she needed to earn money for the family. She started stitching school uniforms on an old sewing machine at home. Her work was neat, and soon many parents came to her. She taught five women from her lane to sew as well. Together, they opened a small shop called Noor Stitches. Now they make uniforms for three schools. Noor Bano says that a skill grows when it is shared.
   
   How many women did she teach? (a) Three (b) Ten (c) Two (d) Five
2. 2.Fatima lived in a village in Rajasthan where the nearest doctor was forty kilometres away. When she was eleven, her little brother fell very sick. They had to travel all night to reach a hospital. That night, Fatima decided to become a doctor. She studied by a kerosene lamp and walked five kilometres to school. Her teachers helped her prepare for the medical exam. She became a doctor at twenty-six. Then she came back and opened a small clinic in her own village.
   
   Who helped her prepare for the exam? (a) A doctor (b) Her neighbours (c) Her teachers (d) Her brother
3. 3.Joseph Pinto was the postman of a group of hill villages in Goa for thirty years. He walked about fifteen kilometres every day, because there were no roads for vehicles. In the rains, he wrapped the letters in plastic to keep them dry. Many old people could not read, so he read their letters aloud to them. He also wrote replies for them. When he retired, the villagers held a party under the big mango tree. They gave him a walking stick carved with all their names.
   
   What did the villagers give him? (a) A watch (b) A bicycle (c) A mango tree (d) A walking stick
4. 4.Ammini Amma lived beside a river in Kerala but never learned to swim. When she was sixty, floods came to her village. She was scared and had to be rescued in a boat. After the floods, she decided to learn swimming. Every morning, she practised in the river with a young coach named Arun. Within three months, she could swim across the river. Now, at sixty-five, she teaches swimming to village children for free. She says it is never too late to learn.
   
   How old was she when the floods came? (a) Sixty (b) Fifty (c) Seventy (d) Sixty-five
5. 5.Uncle Shankar has driven the school bus in Mysuru for twenty-two years. He knows the name of every child who rides with him. He keeps a notebook with all their birthdays. On each birthday, he plays a song and gives the child a toffee. He never drives fast, even when the bus is late. Once, he stopped the bus to help an old woman cross the road. Many of his first students now send their own children on his bus. They say he is part of their family.
   
   What does he give on a birthday? (a) A book (b) A toffee (c) A balloon (d) A cake
6. 6.Uncle Shankar has driven the school bus in Mysuru for twenty-two years. He knows the name of every child who rides with him. He keeps a notebook with all their birthdays. On each birthday, he plays a song and gives the child a toffee. He never drives fast, even when the bus is late. Once, he stopped the bus to help an old woman cross the road. Many of his first students now send their own children on his bus. They say he is part of their family.
   
   For how many years has Shankar driven the bus? (a) Thirty (b) Twenty-two (c) Twenty (d) Twelve
7. 7.Lalita Ben lived at the foot of a bare, rocky hill in Gujarat. When she was young, the hill had many trees, but people had cut them for firewood. Lalita Ben decided to plant one sapling every week. She carried water up the hill in two pots every morning. Goats ate many of her young plants, so she built fences of thorny branches. After twenty years, a small forest covered the hill. Birds and rabbits came back to live there. Children now call it “Lalita’s Forest”.
   
   What were the fences made of? (a) Bricks (b) Iron wire (c) Bamboo (d) Thorny branches
8. 8.Every morning, Rupa rows a boat across the wide river in her village in Assam. Before, children had to wait for a ferry that came only twice a day. Many of them missed school. Rupa had grown up rowing with her father, who was a boatman. She decided to take the children across herself. She leaves at seven every morning and comes back for them at three. She asks for no money. Parents say their children have not missed a day since.
   
   How often did the ferry come before? (a) Twice a day (b) Every hour (c) Once a day (d) Once a week
9. 9.Kamala Devi grew up in a village in Bihar where there were no books. She learned to read only after she got married, with help from her daughter. Reading made her feel she could see the whole world. In 2005, she cleared one room of her house and filled it with old books. She asked people in the town to give away books they did not need. Soon, children came every evening to read and do homework. Today the library has over three thousand books. The village calls her “Kitab Amma”.
   
   Where did Kamala Devi grow up? (a) In a town in Assam (b) In a city in Bihar (c) In a village in Bihar (d) In Delhi
10. 10.Every evening, Mohan closed his tea stall near the railway station in Kanpur. Then he spread a mat under a street light. Children who could not go to school came there to learn. Mohan had studied only up to Class 10, but he taught them reading and simple maths. He bought chalk and slates with the money he earned from selling tea. Some of his students later joined the government school nearby. One of them, Ravi, is now a teacher himself. Mohan still runs his stall and his evening class.
    
    What did Mohan sell? (a) Fruit (b) Toys (c) Books (d) Tea
11. 11.Every evening, Mohan closed his tea stall near the railway station in Kanpur. Then he spread a mat under a street light. Children who could not go to school came there to learn. Mohan had studied only up to Class 10, but he taught them reading and simple maths. He bought chalk and slates with the money he earned from selling tea. Some of his students later joined the government school nearby. One of them, Ravi, is now a teacher himself. Mohan still runs his stall and his evening class.
    
    Up to which class had Mohan studied? (a) Class 5 (b) Class 8 (c) Class 10 (d) Class 12
12. 12.Savitri sold vegetables from a cart in the lanes of Bhopal. She could not read, so she found it hard to keep accounts. Her granddaughter Komal taught her numbers and letters every night. Within a year, Savitri could read prices and write her own accounts. She started keeping a notebook of what she sold each day. With the money she saved, she bought a bigger cart with a shade on top. Now Savitri helps other sellers learn to count and write.
    
    What did Savitri sell? (a) Vegetables (b) Clothes (c) Fruit (d) Flowers

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