📚 Class 10 Board Exam Unseen Passages

The choices we make on a daily basis—wearing a seatbelt, lifting heavy objects correctly or purposely staying out of any dangerous situation—can either ensure our safety or bring about potentially harmful circumstances.

You and I need to make a decision that we are going to get our lives in order. Exercising self-control, self-discipline and establishing boundaries and borders in our lives are some of the most important things we can do. A life without discipline is one that's filled with carelessness.

We can think it's kind of exciting to live life on the edge. We like the image of "Yeah! That's me! Living on the edge! Woo-hoo!" It's become a popular way to look at life. But if you see, even highways have lines, which provide margins for our safety while we're driving. If we go over one side, we'll go into the ditch. If we cross over the line in the middle, we could get killed. And we like those lines because they help to keep us safe. Sometimes we don't even realize how lines help to keep us safe.

I'm not proud of this, but for the first 20 years of my life at work, I ignored my limits. I felt horrible, physically, most of the time. I used to tell myself, "I know I have limits and that I've reached them, but I'm going to ignore them and see if or how long I can get by with it." I ran to doctors, trying to make myself feel better through pills, vitamins, natural stuff and anything I could get my hands on. Some of the doctors would tell me, "It's just stress." That just made me mad. I thought stress meant you don't like what you do or can't handle life, and I love what I do. But I kept pushing myself, travelling, doing speaking engagements and so on— simply exhausting myself.

Finally, I understood I was living an unsustainable life and needed to make some changes in my outlook and lifestyle.

You and I don't have to be like everyone else or keep up with anyone else. Each of us needs to be exactly the way we are, and we don't have to apologize for it. We're not all alike, and we need to find a comfort zone in which we can enjoy our lives instead of making ourselves sick with an overload of stress and pressure.

Subhash Chandra Bose passed through quarters inhabited by Englishmen and also met a large number of them in the tram cars. The British using these cars were purposely rude and offensive to Indians in various ways. The sensitive mind of Subhash revolted against such insulting and rude behavior of the British. On many occasions, there was an exchange of hot words between him and misbehaving British. Majority of the students of the Presidency College, where he studied, were free thinkers. The college continued to be a storm centre and was looked upon by the British Government "as a hotbed of sedition, rendezvous of revolutionaries" and was frequently searched by the police. The first two years of his life were greatly influenced by the group, which styled itself as the neo-Vivekananda group and Subhash developed intellectually during this period. The group generally followed the teachings of Rama Krishna and Vivekananda with special emphasis on social service as means of spiritual development and was non-aligned to a revolutionary group. The shock of the Great World War roused his political consciousness. He graduated at the age of 22 and enrolled himself for the postgraduate with experimental psychology as a special subject.

His father, however, wanted him to go to England to appear for the Indian Civil Services. In spite of his mental reservations, Subhash took it as a challenge. In England, he was greatly impressed with the freedom allowed to students at Cambridge. Every student behaved in a dignified manner. Notwithstanding his preoccupation with his studies, he displayed his public spirit and fearlessness throughout his stay in England. He and K. L. Gouba were selected by the Indian Majlis, to represent the British Government the difficulties the Indian students encountered for admission to the University Officers' Training Corps. Though he took a harsh view of the British high handedness and racial arrogance, he did admire their qualities which exacted him. He himself behaved there in a dignified way and was of the view that Indians who go abroad, must consider themselves to be unofficial ambassadors of the country, who should uphold their country's prestige. He was quite serious in purpose and disliked anybody wasting time on trivialities.

Cataract is the major cause of blindness, which is also caused by damage to the cornea. It occurs more often in old age. As one starts growing old, the lens of the eye hardens, loses its transparency and becomes opaque. It obstructs the light rays from entering the eye.

The onset of cataract blurs the vision. Sometimes, the cataract patient sees multiple images instead of a single object image. Because of the gradual development of cataract, the afflicted person loses his/her vision, and the world becomes dark to him/her.

The development of cataract is a complex process. However, the following factors can be attributed to its formation. Cataract generally develops in old age but sometimes, children are born with cataract because of hereditary defect. Eye injuries too, can cause cataracts.

People exposed to sun rays for longer periods develop cataract earlier than others. Researchers opine that the smoke inhaled while smoking carries substances internally damaging the eyes.

Ultraviolet radiation, invisible to the human eye, is linked to skin cancer. The victim loses vision and the world becomes dark to him.

One day Nandu rode his horse to the village fair. On his way back he met Somendra, the merchant. The merchant was a crafty man, ready to do anything to earn some money. The villagers knew this. In fact no one knew what trick he would be up to next. Now, Nandu was poor and had no one in the world to call his own except a beautiful, white horse. He loved it more than anything else in the world. The merchant had his eye on the horse for a long time and tried to think of a way to get it for himself. Seeing Nandu, the merchant thought, Nandu is a simpleton. Let me see if I can trick him out of his horse. So he said to Nandu, You live all alone. How do you manage? What does a young boy like you need with a horse? Sell it to me and I shall make you rich in return. Nandu replied, "No I don't want to sell my horse."

But the merchant refused to give up so easily. He offered Nandu more money. Finally, when the offer reached five hundred gold coins, Nandu paused and said. Five hundred gold coins seems like a good price. But I have a condition. If you agree to it, I shall give you my horse. "What is it?", the merchant asked impatiently. "Give me the money right now and I shall give you my horse when I have given you ten lashes." After all he would resell the horse for over a thousand gold coins in the market. He would take twenty lashes for such a gain. He agreed instantly. He ran home and got the money for Nandu and brought along his whip as well. Nandu counted the money carefully. He then took the whip and the lashes fell on the merchant's back in quick succession. By the eighth lash the merchant was almost in tears but he told himself that there were only two lashes to go and the horse would be his. The merchant held his breath waiting for the final lashes. But Nandu had mounted his horse and was riding off. "Wait!", shouted the merchant in anger. "What about the last lashes? Where are you going with the horse? We had a deal.

Nandu stopped and said, "I agree to give you the horse only after I had given you ten lashes. But it is upsetting my horse. I'll give you the last lashes later. Till then goodbye!" "Come back you cheat!", the merchant shouted. But the crowd that had gathered around agreed with Nandu. A deal was a deal. Till the last lash was given, the horse could not belong to the merchant. Nandu rode away richer by five hundred gold coins and Somendra waited in vain for several days for the final lash which never came.

Then all the windows of the grey wooden house (Miss Hilton used to live here. She expired last week) were thrown open, a thing I had never seen before.

At the end of the day, a sign was nailed on the mango tree: FOR SALE.

Nobody in the street knew Miss Hilton. While she lived, her front gate was always locked, and no one ever saw her leave or saw anybody go in. So, even if you wanted to, you couldn't feel sorry and say that you missed Miss Hilton.

When I think of her house, I see just two colours. Grey and green. The green of the mango tree, the grey of the house and the grey of the high iron fence prevented you from getting at the mangoes.

If your cricket ball fell in Miss Hilton's courtyard, you never got it back. It wasn't the mango season when Miss Hilton died. But we got back about ten or twelve of our cricket balls.

The house was sold, and we were prepared to dislike the new owners even before they came. I think we were a little worried. Already we had one resident on the street who kept on complaining about us to our parents. He complained that we played cricket on the pavement, and if we were not playing cricket, he complained that we were making too much noise anyway.

One afternoon when I came back from school Pal said, "Is a man and a woman. She pretty, but he ugly like hell." I didn't see much. The front gate was open, but the windows were shut again. I heard a dog barking in an angry way.

One thing was settled pretty quickly. Whoever these people were, they would never be the sort of people to complain that we were making noise and disturbing their sleep.

A lot of noise came from the house that night. The radio was going at full volume until midnight, when the radio station closed down. The dog was barking, and the man was shouting. I didn't hear the woman.

1. India is home to an estimated 10% of the global Snow Leopard population spread across five Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh which is only 5% of the available global habitat for the animal.

2. Project Snow Leopard was introduced in India by the Project Snow Leopard Committee instituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, in the year 2009 to safeguard and conserve India's unique natural heritage of high-altitude wildlife populations and their habitats by promoting conservation through participatory policies and actions.

3. Project Tiger and Project Elephant are prevalent in India with the former introduced in 1973 garnering worldwide attention.

4. The Snow Leopard usually occurs at an altitude of >2700m above sea level and is the apex predator in the Himalayan Region along with the Tibetan Wolf. The project is not only to protect the Snow Leopard, but as with Project Tiger, it is considered an umbrella species and with its protection, comes the protection of other species and the habitat which they are all a part of.

Top 3 National Parks in India where the Snow Leopard can likely be seen

• Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary – Himachal Pradesh
• Ulley Valley – Ladakh
• Hemis National Park – Himachal Pradesh

The reasons for introduction of Project Snow Leopard are as follows

• i) High altitudes of India > 3000m including the Himalayan & Trans-Himalayan biogeographic zones support a unique wildlife assemblage of global conservation.
• ii) There has been relatively less attention on the region from the viewpoint of wildlife conservation.
• iii) The region represents a vast rangeland system supporting important traditional pastoral economic and lifestyles.
• iv) The region provides essential ecosystem services and harbours river systems vital for the nation's food security.
• v) India has ratified international agreements promoting the conservation of high-altitude wildlife species such as the snow leopard.
• vi) The region is important for the country's national security as well as international relations.
• vii) The high-altitude wildlife in India today faces a variety of threats.
• viii) The existing high altitude protected areas in India require considerable strengthening.
• ix) Wildlife Management in the region needs to be made participatory.