Practice Reading Comprehension (Part - 3) | English Class 8 PDF Download

1. At a time when the use of fossil fuels to the power vehicles is making the environmentalists angry, an alternative source of fuel ‘the bio-diesel’ has emerged as a useful solution. Additionally, its use solves a disposal problem. 

2. The fuel is nothing but use of vegetable oil which has been tested satisfactorily. It has made a vehicle called the VEGGIE van ( a motor home) run more than 16,000 km across the United States. Also it has visited 20 major various restaurants in America and the bio-diesel was used along the entire journey. The novel experiment was started as a college project by two students Joshua and Kaia. It eventually ended in a massive awareness programme. 

3. The idea of using vegetable oil as fuel for a diesel engine first occurred to them when they visited a traditional farm in picturesque southern Germany where vehicles fuelled by vegetable oil were in use. While studying agriculture and living on these farms, they noticed that farmers were always filling tanks with a yellow liquid. “This fuel came from the canola plants which grow on our farms and nearby areas. We put in the diesel and it smells good,” farmers said. 

4. The process of converting vegetable oil into bio-diesel fuel is cheap and easy to find. Any vegetable oil, such as used cooking oil, methanol or clear alcohol can be used as fuel. The diesel engine which is being used, however, can run on altered vegetable oil or bio-diesel requires zero modifications to the engine. This fuel works either by itself or blended with petroleum diesel. Bio-diesel has since been recognized as an official alternative fuel in the US. Its use by the bus and truck fleet has soared by more than 1000 percent.

On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions: 

(a) The alternative fuel suggested in the passage is ____________.
 (b) Name given to the vehicle that first used this fuel ____________.
 (c) The inventors of the bio-fuel are ____________.
 (d) A word in the passage which means the same as ‘good enough’ is ____________.
 (e) Give an appropriate title for this passage?

Answers:

(a) The alternative fuel suggested in the passage is ____________.
 Ans.  the bio-diesel 

(b) Name given to the vehicle that first used this fuel ____________. 
 Ans. VEGGIE van

(c) The inventors of the bio-fuel are ____________. 
 Ans. Joshua and Kaia

(d) A word in the passage which means the same as ‘good enough’ is ____________. 
 Ans. satisfactorily 

(e) Give an appropriate title for this passage? 
 Ans. The Bio-diesel : An alternative Source of Fuel