English Compriheshion

Reading Comprehension-1

Read the passage carefully and answer the questions below

Exactly 70 years ago, on August 6, 1945, at 08:15, a United States Air Force B-29 Super fortress bomber, Enola Gay, dropped a 16 kiloton atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.

Unlike most bombing campaigns, Little Boy was not targeting any sensitive industrial or military infrastructure. Instead, it was dropped near the geographical centre of the city with the deliberate aim to maximize Japanese civilian casualties.

In that it was successful; at least 70,000 perished almost instantaneously, being obliterated by the detonation or burning to death in the fires that raged afterwards, while thousands more perished in the weeks after the bomb due to the lingering effects of radiation poisoning.

By the end of 1945, the death toll had risen to about 140,000 and Hiroshima, and later Nagasaki, once-modestly sized towns, were reduced to rubble and destined to be haunted by irregular levels of radiation for decades to come.

Yet, 70 years later, there is still no apology from the United States for this horrific, indiscriminate attack on civilian life.

The United States President at the time, Harry S. Truman, preferred to label the bomb as a “marvel” and an “achievement of scientific brains” and considered the bombing as nothing more than a repayment of debt for the Japanese attack on a military facility at Pearl Harbor.

Another more recent US President, George H.W. Bush, stated quite bluntly in 1991, “No apology is required, and it will not be asked of this President, I can guarantee you.”

Even the supposedly revolutionary President, Barack Obama, has yet to give a formal apology for the bombings.

Instead, a brief glance at the politics surrounding the Iran nuclear deal today, seven decades after the atomic decimation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, reveals a case of bitter irony – a situation where the United States, the only country in the world to have ever used an atomic bomb on a civilian population, is trying to bully Iran into not developing nuclear weapons, the rationale being that Iran could potentially use such a bomb on civilians.

The irony in this scenario would be a bit humorous if it were not so wrapped up in a power structure in the world today, where possession of nuclear weapons is a privilege allowed only to a select few countries which benefit from the prestige and defence offered by them.

These countries are the bullies of international security, the self-appointed protectors of the world by virtue of their capability to cause immense harm to others, and the US, with its supremely sophisticated nuclear arsenal, is the undisputed leader and bully-in-chief of this group of countries.

And so, as the world marks this 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the US juggernaut rolls on; the country that invented, used and advanced the threat of nuclear weapons is still somehow being allowed to dictate the moral guidelines on the possession and use of nuclear energy by other lesser, supposedly “evil” nations.

Q1.Atomic bombing of Hiroshima reveals America‘s double standard for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

• America leads the movement of making world nuclear weapons free

Q2.  USA justifies her use of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima BECAUSE: 2/

• USA considers that revenge has been taken

Q3.  Describe the destruction of Hiroshima caused by atomic bombing.2/

70,000 people were killed instantly by the bombing of Hiroshima, and by the end of 1945 the death toll had risen to 140,000. The ill effects of this bombing still continue today.

Q4. All the countries should destroy their nuclear weapons. Do you agree? Give reasons.2/

All countries should destroy their nuclear weapons. I believe this because if all countries were free of nuclear power, then we could all live equally and not have to fear being bullied by a country with more power.

Q5. Identify the synonym of the word Detonation.  1/

• Explosion

Q6. Identify the antonym of the word Rubble.  1/

• Neatness

                                           Reading Comprehension-2

Read the passage carefully and answer the questions below

Two of the most neglected concepts in Pakistan are education and health, and this can be seen in the amount of effort our government invests in these sectors. It may sound clichéd to say that we shouldn’t blame the government for everything and that the responsibility also lies with us, but the fact remains that we do need to self-evaluate and work on our own lacking as well. 

Education has never topped our priority list as a nation and it fails to receive the attention it truly deserves. While the world is integrating the latest developments in all walks of life, we are still dealing with the same old questions,

“Should I opt for science or arts for my matriculation?”

We, therefore, lack an understanding of the changes it’s undergoing around the world and, as a result, are still stuck in the 19th century era, when it comes to schooling.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s population grows rapidly but we have failed miserably when it comes to growing in terms of resources, education, and standards of living. The number of children out of school is so alarming – according to the official statistics, 6.2 million children are out of school – that we should hang our heads in shame. Furthermore, those who are in school are not necessarily receiving quality education either. That is probably because education, in its real sense, does not exist here.

Since the past few years, there’s been an increase in the marks scored by our students in exams; what is worrying, however, is that these individuals who master rote-learning everything in the book are unable to enhance general knowledge. That’s why majority of the people lack in everything other than scoring the so-called ‘aces’ in these exams.

If such grades are truly useful then why do we have a low number of achievers in extracurricular activities? Why do these high-scoring individuals lack social and interpersonal skills? Is our education system teaching us anything about community service? How many of these high-scorers actually read books other than those mandatory at school or college?

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