Unseen Passage for Class 5 – Life Stories

Reading comprehension lesson 19: Life stories · Set 445 · 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.Suresh worked as a guard in a factory in Ranchi. On Sundays, he coached cricket in an empty field near his home. At first only boys came. One day, a girl named Salma asked if she could play too. Suresh gave her a bat and watched her hit the ball over the fence. Soon more girls joined, and he started a girls’ team. He bought balls and pads with his own savings. Last year, his team won the district cup.
   
   Which girl asked if she could play? (a) Priya (b) Anita (c) Rekha (d) Salma
2. 2.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.
   
   Why did he walk every day? (a) He had no bicycle (b) Doctors told him to (c) There were no roads (d) He liked walking
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 bicycle (b) A watch (c) A mango tree (d) A walking stick
4. 4.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”.
   
   In which year did she start the library? (a) 2005 (b) 2000 (c) 2010 (d) 1995
5. 5.Dasan was a fisherman in a coastal village in Tamil Nadu. He knew the sea better than anyone in his village. One stormy night, a small boat with three young fishermen was caught in big waves. Everyone else was too scared to go out. Dasan tied a rope to his own boat and rowed into the storm. After an hour, he came back pulling the small boat behind him. All three young men were safe. Since then, Dasan has trained many villagers to swim and save lives at sea.
   
   How many young fishermen were in the small boat? (a) Two (b) Five (c) Four (d) Three
6. 6.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) Seventy (b) Sixty-five (c) Fifty (d) Sixty
7. 7.Rekha always loved fixing things. As a girl in Indore, she opened up old radios and clocks to see how they worked. After school, she joined a training course for motor mechanics. She was the only girl in a class of thirty. At first, some customers did not trust her to repair their scooters. Rekha did not give up and worked carefully. Slowly, people saw that her repairs lasted longest. Today she runs her own garage and trains other girls.
   
   Which words in the passage mean “stop trying”? (a) Fix (b) Work (c) Trust (d) Give up
8. 8.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) Toys (b) Tea (c) Books (d) Fruit
9. 9.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.
   
   Where did Ammini Amma live? (a) In a desert (b) Beside a river (c) In a big city (d) Near a mountain
10. 10.As a child in Kochi, Sherin loved watching the big blue buses go by. Her uncle was a bus driver, and he sometimes let her sit in the front seat. People laughed when she said she would drive a bus one day. Sherin learned to drive a scooter, then a car, and then a heavy vehicle. She practised for months and passed a difficult driving test. At twenty-four, she became the first woman bus driver in her depot. She says, “Never let anyone laugh away your dream.”
    
    What did people do when she spoke of her dream? (a) They clapped (b) They laughed (c) They helped (d) They cried
11. 11.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 cake (c) A balloon (d) A toffee
12. 12.Bhimrao was a farmer in a dry village in Maharashtra. For many years, his wells dried up before summer. He watched the rainwater rush away down the hill every monsoon. One year, he dug a small pond at the low end of his field. He also planted trees along the edges to hold the soil. The pond filled with rain and slowly soaked into the ground. The next summer, his well still had water. Soon, ten other farmers in the village dug ponds too.
    
    What happened the next summer? (a) His well had water (b) His well dried up (c) He sold his farm (d) His trees died

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