AQUINAS COLLEGE OF HIGHER STUDIES- COLOMBO 08

DIPLOMA IN ENGLISH
INTERMEDIATE COMPREHENSION
APRIL -WEEKDAY MORNING BATCH
AUGUST 2021

Student ID No: ………………………………………………………………………

NIC No : ……………………………………………………………………….

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 AQUINAS COLLEGE OF HIGHER STUDIES – COLOMBO 8
DIPLOMA IN ENGLISH
INTERMEDIATE – COMPREHENSION
APRIL -WEEKDAY MORNING BATCH
AUGUST -2021

Student ID No : ……………………………. Marks: ………………

NIC No : …………………………… Duration: 02 hours

PART A
Q. No. 01
A. Read the following passage and answer the questions.
POWERFUL RIVER
Within the human body flows a river unlike any other earthly river – a crimson stream
that courses through every organ, twists past every cell on a journey that stretches sixty
thousand miles, enough to circle the planet two and half times. Earthly rivers refresh the land
with water; the body’s stream nourishes and cleanses, delivering food and oxygen to every cell
removing waste, regulating the human environment. Earth’s rivers flow through inorganic rock
and sand; the body’s river travels through living tissue. The powerful heart that propels this
stream and the vessels that guide it are all alive. The human river can regulate its own velocity,
its banks widening or narrowing to control the shifting tides. And it can change its own course,
instantly channelling its swift currents to meet new demands: swimming or sleeping,
contemplating, celebrating, running a race or rocking an infant—each alters the flow of this
powerful river.
Every 60 seconds, 1,440 times a day, our blood cycles through the body; traveling the
double loop—from heart through lungs and from heart through body—known as the
cardiovascular system. Fresh oxygenated blood begins its voyage to the body’s tissues by
bursting from the left side of the heart into the arching aorta, the body’s largest artery. Even
the average resting heartbeat hurls about two ounces of blood against the aorta walls with great
force. These tidal waves of blood smash against the aorta 70 times a minute, delivering their
blows 2-5 billion times during the average life span.
Rigid metal pipes could not withstand this battering for long, but the living tissues of our
blood vessels have evolved with just this function. Artery walls have three layers: a smooth
inner lining, a thick middle layer of elastic membranes and muscle, and an outer layer of fibrous
connective tissue. The aorta’s elastic membranes stretch with the impact of each surge of blood;
its strong muscle fibre then recoil, channelling the intermittent waves into one continuous

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stream. The resilient muscles also act as subsidiary pump, propelling blood through our larger
arteries at a rate of one foot a second.

As arteries divide and subdivide, the elastic membranes in their walls diminish, and the
proportion of muscle grows. A single muscle cell may wrap two or three times around each of
the smallest arteries, the last short branches of the arterial tree. Rhythmically squeezing and
relaxing, these muscled rings force blood into the ten billion capillaries that fan throughout the
body.
Most tissues—brain, intestine, heart, blood vessel—are laced with so dense a network of
capillaries that no cell lies more than a millionth of an inch from a blood supply. Capillaries,
with gossamer walls only one cell thick, are so fine that even red cells must bend and twist to
squeeze, one at a time.
(From The Incredible Machine by the National Geographic Society staff copyright 1992)

1. According to the writer, how long is the journey of this powerful river? (2 marks)
………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………............................
2. What do you understand by the phrase ‘crimson stream’? (2 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

3. What is the duty of this stream? (3 marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………….
4. How does the human river regulate? (3 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………….
5. What is the main function of the cardiovascular system? (3 marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
6. How often does the tidal waves of blood bang against the aorta? (2 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
15 marks)

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B. Find synonyms for these words from the text. (5 marks)

1. filmy -……………………………………………………………………
2. reduce -……………………………………………………………………
3. irregular -…………………………………………………………………....
4. throw -……………………………………………………………………
5. speed -……………………………………………………………………

(Total – 20 marks)

A. Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.

Farmer’s Boy

He waits all day beside his little flock

And asks the passing stranger what’s o’clock.
But those who often pass his daily tasks
Look at their watch and tell before he asks.
He mutters stories to himself and lies
Where the thick hedge the warmest house supplies.
And when he hears the hunters far and wide
He climbs the highest tree to see them ride-
He climbs till all the fields are bleak and bare
And makes the old crow’s nest an easy chair
And soon his sheep are got in other grounds
He hastens down and fears his master come.
He stops the gap and keeps them all in bounds
And tends them closely till it’s time for home.
John Clare

1. Who is the speaker of this poem? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………

2. What does the phrase ‘what’s o’clock’ in line 2 mean? (2 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………

3. Why does the boy climb up the trees? (3 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………

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 4. What does ‘them’ in line 13 refer to? (2 marks)
………………………………………………………………………………………

5. What does he do while lying on thick hedge? (2 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………….

6. Why do the sheep wander where they should not? (3 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………

7. Where does he sit to look out? (2 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………..
(15 marks)

B. Find synonyms from the poem: (5 marks)

1. mumble - ……………………………………….
2. trappers - ………………………………………
3. exposed -……………………………………….
4. lean -………………………………………….
5. provide - …………………………………………

(Total – 20 marks)
Q. No. 03

A. Select TWO out of A, B, C and answer the questions.

A. “When you return you will be as famous as your uncle and we shall be
Married.”

1. Who does ‘your uncle’ refer to? (1 mark)

……………………………………………………………………………………….

2. Who is this person? (2marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………….

3. Where are they planning to go? (2 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………….

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B. “You get me a file and some food. If you don’t, I will kill you.”

1. Who asked for a file? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………........................
2. What is a file? (2 marks)
………………………………………………………………………………………

3. Why did he ask for it? (2 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………

C. “At last his enemies had him arrested, and he was condemned to death.”

1. Who was condemned to death? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Who are the ‘enemies’? (2 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………..

3. Why did they condemn him to death? (2 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………...
(Total – 10 marks)

Q. No. 04
A. Answer all the questions.
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches,
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles

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 All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road,
Lumping along with man and load;
And there is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!
R. L. Stevenson

1. What is this poem about? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………

2. What does the poet see from a railway carriage? (2 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………

3. What is the speed of the railway carriage compared to? (1 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………

4. What does the child do as the speaker pass? (1 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………

5. How does the homeless person look at the train? (1 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………

6. Does the speaker feel sorry for the cart? What are the words he has used? (1 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………

7. Why are these glimpses gone forever? (2 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………

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B. Fill in the blanks with a suitable word from the poem. (5 marks)
1. She turned away, but he saw the tears ……………………. in her eyes.
2. With his return to work, things at the house shifted to a …………………... pace.
3. Government ………………………. have succeeded in capturing the rebel leader.
4. Judge not men and things at first …………………………………………
5. Below us you could ………………………. the rooftops of a few small villages.

(Total – 14 marks)

Part B – Literature
Q. No. 05
A. Answer all the questions.
a. “So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to Satyr; so loving to….”

1. From where is this line taken? Who wrote it? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Who said this to whom? (1 mark)

……………………………………………………………….................................................

3.Who is referred to ‘Satyr’? (2 marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

b. “Please God make him think that I am still pretty.”

1. From where is this line taken? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

2. Who said this to whom? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

3.What made the speaker say this? (2 marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

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c. “Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,”
1. From where is this line taken? (1 mark)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Who said this to whom? (1 mark)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

3.What does it refer to ‘too much of water’? (2 marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………
d. “Della let fall her beautiful hair and it looked like a cascade of brown water”

1. From where is this line taken? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

2. Who said this to whom? (1 mark)

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

3.What is her hair compared to? (2 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………………...
(4x4 = 16 marks)

Q. No. 06

A. Answer ONE question only (7 marks)

1. How did hamlet manage to re-check the truthfulness of the information he got, about
the death of his father?
2. Write a short account of Polonius’ death in the drama of Hamlet. What are the reasons
for his death?
3. “Claudius is a hypocrite and a schemer.” Comment

B. Write short note on ONE of the Following: (3 marks)

1. King Claudius 2. Polonius
3. The Ghost 4. Ophelia

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Q. No. 07
A. Answer ONE question only. (7 marks)
1. The short story ‘A Gift for Christmas’ highlights extreme love and sacrifice. Do
You agree?
2. What are the two possessions of Dillingham? How did they regard them?
3. The short story ‘A Gift for Christmas’ has a surprise ending. Comment.

B. Write a short note on ONE of the following: (3 marks)

1. O’ Henry 2. Jim
3. Della 4. Mme Sofronie

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