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AMITY GLOBAL SCHOOL NOIDA
GRADE: IG 1 SUBJECT: English TOPIC : Reading Comprehension
NAME: DATE: 29/05/2024 DATE OF SUB: 24/07/2024
Worksheet: 1
Read the Passage carefully, and then answer the questions that follow.
Passage: Working Underground
This passage describes the feelings and experiences of a young pitman, or coal miner,
working in dangerous conditions underground.
Unhurried, the miners are squatting on their haunches, half-leaning, half-sitting against a
wall. There’s the last desperate gasp of fresh air. Having already picked up their identity
checks, they hand in the number on one round tab and attach the other to their oil lamp. This
simple safety procedure is a way of registering the men underground. It is a routine which
makes no attempt to conceal the daily potential for disaster.
A lot of men joke, making light of going down the pit and actually just try to change the
subject, not to think about it. But about four years ago, it started to get really bad for me and I
started to dread it: when I got on the cage, when it first dropped away, my heart used to go. I
was just terrified by the whole situation, especially after the incident where the brakes failed.
I’d always believed things were intrinsically safe, but then they fitted a new winder at our
colliery. It was a sporadic machine; it used to go very quickly to begin with, and there were
different bumps on the drum, so the rope fell off more quickly in some places. In the three
weeks after it was fitted, we walked out many times, one solid chorus of disapproval. There
must have been a dozen strikes at the colliery over that winder. People used to stagger off the
cage vomiting when it reached the bottom.
Of course, it’s not just me. Most people don’t like the journey down into a cavity big enough
to take three double-decker buses. People go very quiet in the cage. You’ll find people in
animated discussion just prior to, and then actually stepping on the cage; but as soon as they
know everybody is on, it changes – I always go quiet at that time. Other people tell jokes,
trying to get away from the thought of it, you know. And when the cage lifts up and basically
hangs at the surface with no support, you have a minute to steel yourself. You know it’s
going to come. At that moment it’s a terrible thing.
One time, men were being wound down our shaft when an electric circuit on the new winder
malfunctioned and the automatic stop came on. The men felt themselves falling, maybe seven
meters. You can imagine the consternation in that small, packed iron box as they hurtled
down the shaft. On rushing over to see the management about this incident, I was assured that
it was all hysterics: to them it was a silly incident which had given us an excuse to come out
of the pit and hope to be paid our wages. The fact that many men would not return to work
for many days escaped them.
However one seeks to, one cannot escape the dread, the loitering presence of death, the
tragedy of the dust, a thick, impenetrable deluge of dust. Oddly the unwitting concentration
on physical discomforts helps to allay imaginary ones – carelessly-buckled kneepads for
example, their straps constantly rubbing, irritate the skin. Sometimes, this occupies the senses
and it’s possible even to forget why and where and what could happen.
Working in the pit, I was in a seam that averaged a metre. That means you’re working on
your knees all day. In that dingy graininess, the underground world seems curiouser and
curiouser. Great boulders above your head are being held by nothing at all other than the
whim of the earth. Hundreds of metres deep, so deep that numbers don’t matter anymore, the
earth is pried open for our industrial convenience. How long will it accept the indignity?
Unremitting shadowy images trigger fears of the dark or being caught in cramped spaces.
Childhood horrors scarcely recalled peer out from the unconscious. An ageing miner
explained the fears would pass. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘The first forty years are the hardest.’
On the basis of your reading, answer the following questions.

Q1. A) According to the Passage, what did the miners find frightening or distressing about
the working
conditions in the mine? Write the answer in your own words in 150 words.
B) List the meanings of the underlined words. Write their synonyms and create at least one
original sentence with each of the words with the same kind of usage.
C) What is the irony about the last sentence- Don’t worry. The first forty years are the
hardest. In your answer, also explain the meaning of the literary device ‘irony’.
D) Create a table with a list of adjectives used in the passage in one column and the
object/person/situation it describes in the second column.
Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

GRADE: IG 1 SUBJECT : English TOPIC : Reading Comprehension
Worksheet: 2
GRADE: IG 1 SUBJECT: English TOPIC : Reading Comprehension
Worksheet: 3
Read and answer the following questions:

Into the Delta
Questions:
(a) Identify a word or phrase from the text which suggests the same idea as the words
underlined.
(i) Susan attended a short meeting to receive information before getting into the boat.
................................................................................................................................
(ii) A wooden mokoro is skilfully made by carving out a mature tree.
................................................................................................................................
(iii) To pass their licensing examinations, polers would need to show that they were able
to meet the needs of a wider variety of visitors.
................................................................................................................................
(iv) One poler passionately and forcefully argued against the suggestion in the book.
................................................................................................................................
(b) Using your own words, explain what the writer means by each of the words
underlined:
Our poler explained that all fifty members of the OPT were local men. Many owned their
own boat and had learnt their poling skills as children, catching fish and travelling between
villages by water. To preserve the delicate ecological balance of the delta, fishing was now
tightly controlled, but as poling was more lucrative, few were complaining. When more
polers could afford to convert to fibreglass canoes, fewer mature trees would need to be cut
down.
(i) preserve
(ii) lucrative
(iii) convert
(c) Use one example from the text below to explain how the writer suggests Susan’s
attitude towards hippos:
Use your own words in your explanation.
Travel was through channels made by hippos. These channels were often clogged with
vegetation, so polers had to push hard to get through. Sometimes a male hippo decided that
he didn’t want commuters using ‘his’ channel, rising unexpectedly out of the water, huge
mouth gaping and honking warnings at the traffic. Hippos always had right-of-way and polers
had to be alert. Sometimes they’d spend days opening up new channels to avoid aggressive
hippos. There were some terrifying near-misses!
(d) Re-read paragraphs 4 and 5.
• Paragraph 4 begins ‘I will never forget …’ and describes Susan’s memories of the
morning’s journey.
• Paragraph 5 begins ‘Late afternoon …’ and is about the hippo safari.
Explain how the writer uses language to convey meaning and to create effect in these
paragraphs. Choose three examples of words or phrases from each paragraph to support your
answer. Your choices should include the use of imagery.
Write about 200 to 300 words.
Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

GRADE: IG 1 SUBJECT: English TOPIC : Speech Writing
Worksheet: 4
* Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

GRADE: IG 1 SUBJECT: English TOPIC : Narrative Writing
Worksheet: 5
Narrative Writing
Write a story which includes the words, ‘… I had a feeling I might be wrong …’.
OR
Write a story with the title, ‘The watch’.
* Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

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AMITY GLOBAL SCHOOL NOIDA

GRADE: IG 1 SUBJECT: English TOPIC : Reading Comprehension

NAME: DATE: 29/05/2024 DATE OF SUB: 24/07/2024

On the basis of your reading, answer the following questions.

Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

NAME: DATE: 29/05/2024 DATE OF SUB: 24/07/2024

NAME: DATE: 29/05/2024 DATE OF SUB: 24/07/2024

Read and answer the following questions:

Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

NAME: DATE: 29/05/2024 DATE OF SUB: 24/07/2024

* Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

NAME: DATE: 29/05/2024 DATE OF SUB: 24/07/2024

* Please note that the assignment needs to be done in English notebook.

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