Read the passage: The Dhaka book fair is held every February and attracts publishers from across the country. Unlike many fairs, it places special emphasis on new writers. A separate pavilion is reserved for authors publishing their first book, and each of them is given a short slot on a small stage to read aloud from their work. Organisers say the readings often draw bigger crowds than the stalls of famous publishers. Visitors can also attend free workshops on poetry, translation and children's writing, held every afternoon in a tent near the main gate.
Correct answerA. A short slot to read from their work on a small stage
Read the passage: Many people believe that talent is something we are born with. Yet studies of musicians, athletes and chess players suggest that what looks like natural gift is often the result of years of focused practice. A young violinist who plays beautifully at fifteen has usually spent thousands of hours on scales and exercises, many of them dull. This does not mean that anyone can become a champion simply by practising. Differences in body, opportunity and early support matter too. But it does mean that hard work deserves more credit, and inborn ability less, than we usually give them.
Correct answerA. Focused practice plays a larger part in skill than people usually assume
Read the passage: Arjun's grandmother was a woman of few words. At family gatherings, while others argued loudly about cricket and politics, she sat in her corner, peeling oranges for the children. Yet when she did speak, the room fell silent. Her remarks were brief and often humorous, and they usually settled the argument at once. Arjun once asked her why she spoke so little. "Words are like salt," she replied. "A pinch improves the food. A handful ruins it." Everyone agreed she was the most reticent member of the family, and also the wisest.
Read the passage: Plastic shopping bags are cheap, light and convenient, which is exactly why they have become such a problem. They block drains, choke animals and remain in the soil for centuries. Some shopkeepers argue that customers will not accept cloth bags. But experience in several towns shows otherwise: when a small charge was placed on plastic bags, most shoppers began bringing their own within months. The lesson is clear. People are not unwilling to change; they simply need a reason. A modest fee, backed by cheap reusable alternatives, can achieve what years of posters and slogans could not.
Correct answerB. A small charge on plastic bags can successfully change shoppers' habits
Read the passage: The dodo was a large, flightless bird that lived only on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. For thousands of years it had no natural predators there, so it nested on the ground and showed little fear of other animals. Dutch sailors arrived on the island in 1598. They hunted the birds for food, but the greater threat came from the animals they brought with them. Rats, pigs and monkeys raided the dodos' ground nests and ate their eggs. Within less than a century of the sailors' arrival, the dodo had disappeared completely. Its fate is now often used as an example of how quickly human activity can wipe out a species.
Correct answerD. Its lack of fear left it poorly prepared for the dangers that arrived with humans.
Read the passage: Mr Aslam, a retired teacher in Gujranwala, installed six solar panels on his roof last year after growing tired of power cuts during the summer. The panels are connected to a set of batteries, so the fans and lights keep running even when the electricity supply fails. On sunny days the system produces more power than his household needs, and the spare energy charges the batteries for the evening. He cleans the dust off the panels every two weeks with a soft cloth and water, because he noticed that dirty panels produced noticeably less power. His only regret, he says, is that he did not install the system years earlier, when his children were still living at home.
Correct answerA. Dirty panels produce noticeably less power.
Read the passage: Microplastics are pieces of plastic smaller than five millimetres across. Some are made deliberately small, but most form when larger items such as bottles and bags break into fragments under sunlight and waves. Washing clothes made from synthetic fabrics releases tiny fibres, and car tyres shed particles as they wear down on roads. Rain and rivers carry these particles into the sea. Scientists have now found microplastics almost everywhere they have looked, from deep ocean trenches to Arctic sea ice. Small sea creatures often mistake them for food, and the particles can pass up the food chain. Researchers are still studying what effects this may have on wildlife and on the people who eat seafood.
Correct answerD. Where tiny plastic particles come from and how widely they have spread
Read the passage: Patients at a busy outpatient clinic in Rajshahi used to crowd around a single window, pushing to hand in their papers, and arguments broke out almost every morning. Last year the clinic introduced a token machine at the entrance. Each patient now takes a numbered slip and waits on benches until the number appears on a screen. A volunteer helps elderly visitors who cannot read the display. Staff report that the waiting room is far calmer and that they spend less time settling disputes. Interestingly, the average waiting time has hardly changed, yet patient surveys show that satisfaction has risen considerably since the machine arrived.
Correct answerB. Patients value an orderly, fair process even if they do not wait less.
Read the passage: Malaria is caused not by a virus or a bacterium but by a tiny parasite. The parasite is carried from person to person by certain mosquitoes. Only female mosquitoes bite, because they need the protein in blood to produce their eggs. When an infected female feeds, she can transmit the parasite into a person's bloodstream, where it travels to the liver and later attacks red blood cells, causing fever and chills. Simple measures can greatly reduce the risk of infection. Sleeping under nets treated with insecticide, removing standing water where mosquitoes breed, and seeking prompt treatment when fever appears have helped many regions cut malaria cases sharply.
Read the passage: Paper is one of China's most important gifts to the world. According to traditional accounts, a court official named Cai Lun presented an improved method of papermaking to the emperor in the year 105 CE, although simpler forms of paper had existed earlier. His recipe used tree bark, hemp, old rags and worn-out fishing nets, which were soaked, beaten into a pulp and spread thinly on screens to dry. The resulting sheets were cheaper than silk and lighter than the bamboo strips previously used for writing. Knowledge of papermaking spread slowly westward over the following centuries, reaching the Islamic world and eventually Europe, where it later made the printing revolution possible.
Correct answerC. Old rags and worn-out fishing nets
Read the passage: Earthworms may seem humble, but farmers and gardeners have good reason to welcome them. As they tunnel through the ground, worms loosen the soil, allowing air and rainwater to reach plant roots more easily. They drag fallen leaves down into their burrows and feed on them, helping to break down dead plant material. The waste they leave behind, known as casts, is rich in nutrients that plants can readily absorb. By constantly mixing the upper and lower layers of soil, worms also spread these nutrients evenly. A field with a healthy worm population usually drains better after heavy rain and supports stronger crops than one where worms are scarce.
Correct answerD. The Hidden Helpers Beneath Our Feet
Read the passage: One afternoon Nasreen received a text message congratulating her on winning a brand-new car in a lucky draw. To claim the prize, the message said, she only had to send a 'processing fee' of fifteen thousand rupees to a mobile account within two hours. Nasreen could not remember entering any draw, and the message was full of spelling mistakes. When she called the number, a man pressed her to pay quickly before the offer expired and refused to give the name of his company. She hung up and showed the message to her son, who searched online and found dozens of people describing almost identical messages. Nasreen blocked the number and warned her friends.
Correct answerC. It was very probably an attempt to cheat her out of money.
Read the passage: Tooth enamel, the thin outer layer of each tooth, is the hardest substance in the human body. Yet it can still be damaged, and unlike bone, it cannot repair itself once it is badly worn away. The main threat comes from plaque, a sticky film of bacteria that builds up on teeth. When we eat or drink sugary foods, these bacteria feed on the sugar and produce acids that slowly dissolve the enamel, eventually creating holes known as cavities. Brushing twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste helps in two ways: it removes plaque, and the fluoride makes enamel more resistant to acid. Cutting down on sugary snacks between meals also reduces the number of acid attacks teeth must endure.
Correct answerB. Bacteria in plaque feeding on sugar
Read the passage: Thomas Edison is often described as the inventor of the light bulb, but the story is more complicated. Several inventors had already produced lamps that glowed when electricity passed through a thin thread, or filament. The problem was that the filaments burned out quickly. In England, Joseph Swan demonstrated a working carbon-filament lamp at around the same time that Edison was developing his own in the United States. Edison's team tested a huge range of materials, finally settling on carbonised filaments that lasted far longer than earlier versions. Just as importantly, Edison designed a whole system of generators and wiring to supply homes with power. The two men later joined forces to form a company in Britain.
Correct answerC. To show that Edison was not the only person developing electric lamps
Read the passage: Every evening, after the last customer has left her small bakery in Sialkot, Rubina sits down with a notebook and records exactly how many loaves, cakes and biscuits were sold. She notes the weather, any local holidays and even the cricket matches on television, since she has found that all of these affect her sales. Using these meticulous records, she can predict with surprising accuracy how much to bake the next day. As a result, she rarely runs out of popular items and seldom has to throw stale bread away. Her nephew, who studies business, has suggested she move her records onto a computer spreadsheet, but Rubina insists that her notebook has never let her down.
Read the passage: Most substances become denser when they change from liquid to solid, so their solid form sinks. Water is an important exception. As water freezes, its molecules arrange themselves into an open, six-sided pattern that takes up more space than liquid water does. Ice is therefore less dense than water and floats on top of it. This unusual behaviour matters enormously for life. In winter, lakes and ponds freeze from the surface downwards, and the layer of ice acts like a blanket, slowing further heat loss from the water beneath. Liquid water at the bottom, which is at its densest at about four degrees Celsius, allows fish and other creatures to survive until spring.
Correct answerC. Its molecules form an open pattern that makes it less dense than liquid water.
Read the passage: When Ravi's family moved to a new apartment block in Ahmedabad, his mother signed up for a free loyalty card at the nearby supermarket. Each time she shopped, the cashier scanned the card and she earned points that could be exchanged for small discounts. After a few months Ravi noticed that the vouchers printed on her receipts were oddly specific: money off the brand of tea she always bought, a discount on nappies shortly after his baby sister was born, and offers on school stationery just before term began. His mother was pleased with the savings. Ravi, however, began wondering exactly how much the supermarket now knew about their family.
Correct answerA. The supermarket was using records of the family's purchases to tailor its offers.
Read the passage: In the 1840s, a Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis was working in a large maternity hospital in Vienna. He was troubled that mothers in the ward run by doctors and medical students were dying of fever far more often than those in a ward run by midwives. Semmelweis noticed that the doctors often came straight from examining dead bodies. He suspected they were carrying something harmful on their hands and ordered staff to wash in a chlorine solution before seeing patients. Deaths fell dramatically. Yet many senior doctors rejected his ideas, partly because germs had not yet been identified as the cause of disease. Only years later did his work receive the recognition it deserved.
Correct answerB. A doctor showed that handwashing saved lives, but his idea was not accepted at first.
Read the passage: Every year before Diwali, Meera books train tickets to visit her parents in Jaipur. She used to stand in a long queue at the railway station, sometimes for an hour, only to find the train already full. Now she books online from her laptop. Bookings for her train open two months before the date of travel, so she sets a reminder on her phone and logs in early that morning. Within minutes she has her seats confirmed and an electronic ticket on her phone. Last year she was late by just one day and found only waiting-list places left, so she now treats the reminder as seriously as an appointment with her doctor.
Correct answerD. Only waiting-list places were left.
Read the passage: The rise and fall of the sea along coastlines is caused mainly by the gravitational pull of the Moon. As the Earth rotates, most coasts experience two high tides and two low tides roughly every day. The Sun also pulls on the oceans, though its effect is less than half that of the Moon because it is so much farther away. When the Sun, Moon and Earth line up, at new moon and full moon, their pulls combine to produce especially high and low tides, called spring tides. When the Sun and Moon pull at right angles to each other, the difference between high and low water is smaller, and these gentler tides are known as neap tides.
