Unseen passages for Class 5 — with questions and answers

In the middle of the small village of Rampur stood a huge banyan tree. Nobody knew exactly how old it was, but the grandmothers said it had been there when their own grandmothers were children. Its long roots hung down from the branches like ropes, and some of them had become new trunks.

Every evening, the farmers rested in its cool shade after working in the fields. Children swung on its roots and played hide-and-seek between the trunks. Parrots, mynas and squirrels made their homes high in its branches.

One summer, some people wanted to cut the tree down to build a wider road. The children of Rampur wrote letters to the village head. "This tree gives us shade, clean air and a home for birds," they wrote. The village head read the letters and agreed. The road was built around the tree, and the banyan still stands in Rampur today.

Kavya was nine years old and she was afraid of water. When her cousins jumped into the pool during the summer holidays, she stood at the edge and watched. "I will never learn," she told her father sadly.

Her father took her to a swimming coach named Mr Rao. On the first day, Mr Rao did not ask her to swim at all. He only asked her to sit on the steps and splash the water with her feet. On the second day, she held the side of the pool and blew bubbles. Slowly, day by day, she learned to float, to kick and to move her arms.

At the end of the month, Kavya swam the whole length of the pool without stopping. Her cousins clapped and cheered. "The water did not change," she said with a smile. "I did."

Water is one of the most precious things on Earth. Although most of our planet is covered with water, only a very small part of it is fresh water that we can drink. In many parts of India, people have to walk a long way every day to fetch water for their families.

We can all help to save water at home. We can turn off the tap while brushing our teeth, use a bucket instead of a shower, and fix leaking taps quickly. The water used to wash vegetables can be given to plants. Some families collect rainwater from their roofs in large tanks — this is called rainwater harvesting.

If every family saves a few buckets of water each day, a whole city can save millions of litres. Small habits, done by many people, make a big difference.

Last Saturday, the students of Class 5 went on a trip to the science museum. As soon as they entered, they saw a giant model of the solar system hanging from the ceiling. The planets moved slowly around a glowing yellow Sun.

In the next hall, Arjun pressed a button and a small robot waved at him. Fatima stood in front of a special mirror that made her look very tall and very thin, and everyone laughed. The guide showed them how a magnet can lift iron pins without touching them, and how electricity lights up a bulb.

The best part was the planetarium. The children lay back in their seats as the dome above them turned into a night sky full of stars. On the bus back to school, everybody agreed that science is not only something to read about — it is something to see, touch and wonder about.