Practice Reading Comprehension (Part - 5) | English Class 8 PDF Download

Ours is a land where female form has been worshipped as a deity or a Sita, an epitome of virtue and sacrifice. In Vedic India, no religious or social function was considered auspicious until a woman was present in it. 

However ours is also the land where female infanticide was practised in the past and where female foeticide is not considered a crime even in modern times. We have paid lip sympathy to the liberation of women. We have laws giving equal opportunity to both sexes. In practice, however, this equality remains on paper only. Little notice is taken of her emotional needs, fears, dreams and aspirations. Boys take rest after earning their living. But girls are expected to bear responsibility of running the home, welcoming guests and bringing up children even when they earn equal to or even more than the males in some cases.

In poor families, girls are still sold to the highest bidder or married early to end the parents’ responsibilities quickly. In rich families, girls are projected more as showpieces rather than as a human being equally worthy or useful to the society as boys.

This does not mean that shackles of old prejudices haven’t been broken at all in any field. Women have equal rights in voting, job opportunities and pay scales. Girls are academically better than boys. However whether it is conjugal rights, pleasures of job opportunities, she is expected to sacrifice her wishes and interests in favour of her brother or husband. She is still expected to play a background role of a nurturer, playing a nurse to the sick and of soothing emotional wounds of the male; rather than projecting herself as a bread winner, as a peer or an important person in the family or in the social group as she sometimes deserves. 

Perhaps, this duplicity and this differential treatment will disappear in the future. The female does deserve a chance to develop her potential, special skills and prove useful to the society.

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

(a) What are the two qualities that make women respectable?
 (b) Although we have laws giving equal opportunities to female, we ______________.
 (c) What is fate of the girl child in rich families?
 (d) The shackles of old prejudices have been broken ______________.
 (e) Find a synonym of the word, ‘ capability’ from the passage?

Answers:

(a) What are the two qualities that make women respectable?
 Ans. Women are virtuous and always ready to sacrifice which make them respectable.

(b) Although we have laws giving equal opportunities to female, we ______________. 
 Ans. do not give them equal opportunities in practice.

(c) What is fate of the girl child in rich families? 
 Ans. In rich families, girls are looked after well but they are not considered as worthy as the boys.

(d) The shackles of old prejudices have been broken ______________. 
 Ans. in some fields. They have been given equal rights in voting, job opportunities and pay scales

(e) Find a synonym of the word, ‘ capability’ from the passage? 
 Ans.  potential