Select Board & Class

Login
Vishal asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 24/10/15
Cherilyn asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 18/9/16
Read the text below and summarise it.
Green Sahara
The Great Desert Where Hippos Once Wallowed

The Sahara sets a standard for dry land. It’s the world’s largest desert. Relative humidity can drop into the low single digits. There are places where it rains only about once a century. There are people who reach the end of their lives without ever seeing water come from the sky.

Yet beneath the Sahara are vast aquifers of fresh water, enough liquid to fill a small sea. It is fossil water, a treasure laid down in prehistoric times, some of it possibly a million years old. Just 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a much different place.

It was green. Prehistoric rock art in the Sahara shows something surprising: hippopotamuses, which need year-round water.

“We don’t have much evidence of a tropical paradise out there, but we had something perfectly liveable,” says Jennifer Smith, a geologist at Washington University in St Louis.

The green Sahara was the product of the migration of the paleo-monsoon. In the same way that ice ages come and go, so too do monsoons migrate north and south. The dynamics of earth’s motion are responsible. The tilt of the earth’s axis varies in a regular cycle — sometimes the planet is more tilted towards the sun, sometimes less so. The axis also wobbles like a spinning top. The date of the earth’s perihelion — its closest approach to the sun — varies in cycle as well.

At times when the Northern Hemisphere tilts sharply towards the sun and the planet makes its closest approach, the increased blast of sunlight during the north’s summer months can cause the African monsoon (which currently occurs between the Equator and roughly 17°N latitude) to shift to the north as it did 10,000 years ago, inundating North Africa.

Around 5,000 years ago the monsoon shifted dramatically southward again. The prehistoric inhabitants of the Sahara discovered that their relatively green surroundings were undergoing something worse than a drought (and perhaps they migrated towards the Nile Valley, where Egyptian culture began to flourish at around the same time).

“We’re learning, and only in recent years, that some climate changes in the past have been as rapid as anything underway today,” says Robert Giegengack, a University of Pennsylvania geologist.

As the land dried out and vegetation decreased, the soil lost its ability to hold water when it did rain. Fewer clouds formed from evaporation. When it rained, the water washed away and evaporated quickly. There was a kind of runaway drying effect. By 4,000 years ago the Sahara had become what it is today.

No one knows how human-driven climate change may alter the Sahara in the future. It’s something scientists can ponder while sipping bottled fossil water pumped from underground.

“It’s the best water in Egypt,” Giegengack said — clean, refreshing mineral water. If you want to drink something good, try the ancient buried treasure of the Sahara.
JOEL ACHENBACK
Staff Writer, Washington Post
Ankita Mondal asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 7/9/22
The problem of unemployment is a serious problem in our country. If millions of people are without any jobs, its effect is very bad. A man without any employment is a burden on others. If he has got to maintain a family, the situation is worse. Such unemployed persons are reduced to poverty. It demoralises them and they are forced to do undesirable things. They may commit crimes. They may create trouble and spread discontent. In fact, they are a source of danger to society and the state.

The causes of unemployment are mainly the rapid growth of population, the prevailing system and under?development of industry and trade. The population of India is growing very rapidly. It is very difficult to get jobs for all who are in need of it. The British Government had introduced a system of education in this country for carrying on administration only. It is being continued in free India also with very slight changes. The system of education prepares most young men to be clerks. But neither the Government nor private firms can absorb all the educated unemployed persons in their offices for clerical work. Industry and trade have not yet properly developed.

Cottage industries in the villages have been ruined owing to the establishment of large mills and factories in towns. Consequently, many artisans have been thrown out of employment. There has been great pressure on agricultural land because of the growth of population; consequently, many cultivators have got no land for cultivation. All these are mainly responsible for this acute problem of unemployment.

The acute problem of unemployment is a cause of unrest in the country. So the Government is seriously thinking over the matter and trying to find out a remedy. The remedy is to find work for the people. The Government had earlier undertaken five-year plans for the material prosperity of the country. For carrying out these plans many mills and factories had been set up both by the Government and by industrialists. Many new offices had been started. Many educated young men were absorbed in offices as clerks and in mills and factories as skilled workers. Uneducated and unskilled men were being absorbed in mills and factories as labourers. But these measures have been proved inadequate.Our government is now encouraging the revival of cottage industries in the villages. This will help many villagers to earn a living. Our Government is also trying to develop agriculture. But as yet, it has not been able to cope with the situation fully. The number of unemployed persons is increasing. So our Government should allow establishment of a large number of large and small technical and vocational institutions in the country. Only a limited number of bright young men should try to get higher education in the universities. Most young men try to enter technical or vocational institutions.

After coming out of these, they may find jobs in factories and commercial firms. For this, of course, more factories must be set up throughout the country. Unskilled labourers should be taught various traits in technical institutes. They may find jobs in factories as skilled labourers. They may also set up cottage industries in their villages. Government will have to help them with loans to start their work. It is heartening to find that our Government has already taken some steps in this direction. Nationalised banks are now giving lump sum loans to intending young persons under self employment schemes.
Kindly experts make the summary of the above passage
Adu Ewajesu asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 17/10/22
Arpita Rai asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 3/9/18
Lund asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 5/3/15
Dishank Gupta asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 14/2/16
Arpit Kapoor asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 30/3/19
Krishna asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 26/6/18
Angel Angelina asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 9/9/19
Jerin Mathew asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 19/7/17
Angel Angelina asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 7/5/19
Angel Angelina asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 8/5/19
Jiya asked a question
Subject: English, asked on on 14/9/19
What are you looking for?

Syllabus