Unseen Passage for Class 5 – Life Stories

Reading comprehension lesson 19: Life stories · Set 863 · 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.Tsering Dorje was an electrician in a small village in Ladakh. In winter, the village often lost power for days. Tsering learned how to set up solar panels at a training camp in Leh. He fixed panels on the roof of the village school first. Now the classrooms have lights even on the coldest days. Then he helped every home in the village get a solar lamp. Children can study after dark. The villagers call him the man who brought the sun indoors.
   
   What did every home get? (a) A solar lamp (b) A heater (c) A fridge (d) A radio
2. 2.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 was the problem with his wells? (a) They were too deep (b) They dried up (c) They were dirty (d) They overflowed
3. 3.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.”
   
   Where did Sherin grow up? (a) Mysuru (b) Kochi (c) Mumbai (d) Chennai
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”.
   
   How did she get more books? (a) The school sent them (b) People gave old books (c) She wrote them (d) She bought new ones
5. 5.Tsering Dorje was an electrician in a small village in Ladakh. In winter, the village often lost power for days. Tsering learned how to set up solar panels at a training camp in Leh. He fixed panels on the roof of the village school first. Now the classrooms have lights even on the coldest days. Then he helped every home in the village get a solar lamp. Children can study after dark. The villagers call him the man who brought the sun indoors.
   
   Where did he learn about solar panels? (a) In Delhi (b) From his father (c) At school (d) At a camp in Leh
6. 6.Gopal was a potter in a small town in West Bengal. People had started buying plastic pots, and his business was slow. One day, his son suggested making clay water bottles and lamps with painted designs. Gopal was unsure, but he tried. His son showed the new pots at a town fair. Many visitors liked them because clay keeps water cool naturally. Soon orders came from other cities. Now Gopal teaches young people in his town to make pottery.
   
   Why did visitors like the clay bottles? (a) They were plastic (b) They were light (c) Clay keeps water cool (d) They were cheap
7. 7.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.
   
   True or false: Shankar drives fast when the bus is late. (a) False (b) True
8. 8.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.
   
   What has Dasan trained villagers to do? (a) Swim and save lives (b) Sell fish (c) Make nets (d) Build boats
9. 9.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 was Joseph Pinto’s job? (a) Postman (b) Driver (c) Teacher (d) Farmer
10. 10.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 she buy with her savings? (a) A scooter (b) A shop (c) A phone (d) A bigger cart
11. 11.Thangam lived in a village in the Nilgiri hills of Tamil Nadu. Her family grew vegetables, but the plants gave few beans. A visitor from the farm college told her that bees help plants make fruit and seeds. Thangam learned to keep bees in wooden boxes. She placed the boxes at the edge of the fields. That season, the plants gave many more beans. She also sold honey at the weekly market. Now many families in her village keep bees too.
    
    Where did Thangam live? (a) In the Thar desert (b) In the Nilgiri hills (c) In a big city (d) Near the sea
12. 12.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.
    
    What did some customers not trust her to do? (a) Teach girls (b) Run a garage (c) Drive a car (d) Repair their scooters

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