Factual Passage - 15 | English Grammar Advanced - Class 10 PDF Download

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.

1. Both water and energy are integral parts of the human body. By weight, about 60% of an adult’s human body is water and dehydration is one of the biggest single killers of children in the modern world. Life without water is unthinkable.

2. The human body needs its daily intake of food to meet its energy requirements, which according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations is about 1,800 kcal per day. Life without energy is equally unthinkable.

3. The energy that we take in through food again depends, amongst other things, on the water for agriculture, and often that water is pumped with electrical or other forms of energy. The interdependence of energy and water is evident.

4. The world at large seeks both water and energy security. The Worldwatch Institute estimates that about 1.1 billion people (one–fifth of the world population) live in areas of physical water scarcity and another 1.6 billion are facing economic water shortage (when existing water sources cannot be used because of a lack of investment in water-related infrastructure). We will probably have a world population of 9 billion by 2050 and this will put further stress on the water sourcing and supply systems. Here again the connection between energy and water is evident: globally about 70% of water consumption is for the agricultural sector. No water, no food, no energy.

5. Actions needed on the waterfront include a reduction in water usage for agriculture (pump efficiencies, drip irrigation instead of flood irrigation, change in crop patterns), recycling of water, extensive rainwater harvesting programmes, stoppage of run–offs and water pollution.

6. We need to remind ourselves that the fossil-based energy that we rely on so much for almost everything we do is stored solar energy. And while the sun took over 150 million years to store its energy in the form of fossil fuels, we are busy discharging that huge solar battery in a matter of a few hundred years.

Attempt the following questions on the basis of the passage you have read:
(a) By weight, an adult human body contains about ___________ water.
(i) 60%
(ii) 65%
(iii) 70%
(iv) 75%

Correct Option is (i) 60%

(b) The interdependence of ___________ is evident.
(i) energy and food
(ii) food and water
(iii) energy and light
(iv) energy and water

Correct Option is (iv) energy and water

(c) By 2050, the increase in population will put stress on the water and supply system. (True/False)

True

(d) Human beings are utilizing fossil fuel very fast. (True/False)

True

(e) Not many children die of dehydration in today’s age and time. (True/False)

False

(f) Fuel found under the ground such as coal is called ___________ fuel.

fossil

(g) We get  ____________ from food.

energy

(h) Find the word from the passage which means the same as “clear/easily seen”. (para 3)

evident