1.

Section A (Grade VI)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
1 Chameleons may look grumpy and their skin may feel bumpy, but scientists
can’t take their eyes off them. Why? Because chameleons are such interesting
lizards. Not only do chameleons have an amazing talent for changing colours,
but they also have one of the fastest and most powerful tongues in the animal
kingdom.
2 When a chameleon is hungry, it sits still on a tree branch. With one eye it looks
back over its shoulder, and with the other eye it checks the branches ahead.
When it finds something tasty, such as a cricket, the lizard fixes both eyes on it.
Then the chameleon opens a gap in its mouth and slap! In one-fiftieth of a
second, the lizard’s tongue shoots out, catches the prey, and snaps back into
the mouth.
3 Chameleons can perform this amazing trick because they have an extraordinary
tongue. It is not short like ours. It is about one and a half times as long as the
chameleon’s body.
4 The chameleons move their tongues so fast due to powerful muscles. Two
strong muscles inside the tongue move it in and out of the mouth. One of these
muscles makes the tongue shoot out of the chameleon’s mouth with lightning
speed. And when the other muscle contracts, it brings the tongue back into the
mouth.
5 Two things give the tongue its super grip. The first is a sticky kind of mucus that
covers the tongue. The second is a rough surface. The chameleon’s tongue has
a lot of tiny bumps, pits and ridges. A rough tongue, covered in sticky mucus,
can easily grab the crickets and flies that small chameleons eat.
1.1 Attempt any eight of the following questions based on the passage that you
have read.
 (a) How do the chameleons look?
(b) Why can’t scientists take their eyes off chameleons?
(c) What does a chameleon do when it is hungry?
(d) What happens when the chameleon finds its prey?
(e) Which two things give the chameleon’s tongue its super grip?
(f) Describe the tongue of a chameleon.
(g) How is a chameleon’s tongue different from our tongue?
(h) What helps the chameleons move the tongues with a lightning speed?
(i) Which word in paragraph no ‘3’ means the same as ‘something unusual’
2. Read the passage given below.
1 I had never thought there was much to be found in the rainwater pond behind
our house except for quantities of mud and the occasional water buffalo. It was
grandfather who introduced me to the pond’s diversity of life.
2 When Grandfather first showed me the pond-world, he chose a dry place in the
shade of an old peepul tree, where we sat for an hour, gazing steadily at the
water. The buffaloes had not arrived for their afternoon dip, and the surface of
the pond was undisturbed.
3 For the first ten minutes we saw nothing. Then a small black blob appeared in
the middle of the pond. Gradually it rose higher until we could make out a
frog’s head, its big eyes staring hard at us. He did not know if we were friend or
enemy and kept his body out of sight. When he had made sure that we were
not herons, his mortal enemies, he passed this information to his friends and
neighbours, and very soon there were several big heads and eyes on the surface
of the water. Throats swelled and there began a chorus which went, “wurk, wurk,
wurk”.
4 In the shallow water near the tree we could see a dark shifting shadow. When
we touched it with the end of a stick, the dark mass immediately became alive.
Thousands of little black tadpoles wriggled into life, pushing and hustling one
another.
5 “What do tadpoles eat?” I asked Grandfather. “They eat one another much of
the time,” said Grandfather, who had once kept a few in an aquarium. “It may
seem an unpleasant custom, but when you think of thousands of tadpoles that
are hatched, you will realize what a useful system it is. If all the young tadpoles
in this pond became frogs, they would take up every inch of ground between us
and the house!” “Their croaking would certainly drive Grandmother crazy,” I
said, to which Grandfather agreed.
2. 1 On the basis of your reading the passage, answer any four of the following
questions in about 30-40 words each:
i. Why does the author say that he never thought there was much to be found in
the pond?
ii. Describe the sight of the pond when the grandfather first showed the pond-
world.
iii. What happened after the author and his grandfather saw a small black blob in
the middle of the pond?
iv. How did the author and his grandfather see the black tadpoles?
v. Why does grandfather say that tadpoles eating one another is a useful system?
2.2 On the basis of your reading the passage, fill any two of the following blanks
with appropriate words/phrases.
i. It was grandfather who introduced me .
ii. Then a small black blob appeared .
iii. Thousands of little black .
2. 3 Attempt any two of the following. Find out the word that mean the same as
under:
a. variety (paragraph 1)
b. eternal (paragraph 3)
c. mad (paragraph 5)