1. Read the passage and answer the questions A and B One of the sources of water in our country are the rivers. Rivers are everywhere in our life, literature, economy and culture. But are the rivers in good shape? Unfortunately, they are not. A few are already dead and several are going through the pangs of death. The river Buriganga is an example of a dying river. A report published in the Daily Sun describes what has happened to the river Buriganga and why. It’s water is polluted and a perpetual stench fills the air around it. But that is not what it was like before. The report says that the river had a glorious past. Once it was a tributary of the mighty Ganges and flowed into the Bay of Bengal through the river Dhaleshwari. Gradually, it lost its link with the Ganges and got the name Buriganga. The Mughals marveled at the tide level of the Buriganga and founded their capital Jahangirnagar on its banks in 1610. The river supplied drinking water and supported trade and commerce. Jahangirnagar was renamed Dhaka which grew into a heavily populated city with a chronic shortage of space. The city paid back the bounty of the river by sucking life out of it! According to newspaper report, the Buriganga is dying because of pollution. Huge quantities of toxic chemicals and wastes from mills and factories, hospitals and clinics and households and other establishments are dumped into the river everyday. The city of Dhaka discharges about 4500 tons of solid waste everyday and most of it is directly released into the Buriganga. According to the Department of the Environment (DoE), 20.000 tons of tannery waste, including some highly toxic materials, are released into the river everyday. Experts identified nine industrial areas in and around the capital city as the primary sources of river pollution: Tongi, Tejgaon, Hazaribagh, Tarabo, Narayanganj, Savar, Gazipur, Dhaka Export Processing Zone and Ghorashal. \\ \boxed{\mathbf{~A~}} Choose the correct answer from the alternatives. a. What could be the closest meaning for ‘shape’? (i) Condition (ii) Form (iii) Model (iv) Body \\ b. Which one of the following statements is false? (i) The rivers are the only sources of water in our country. (ii) The tide-level of the Buriganga was surprising. (iii) It was connected with the river Dhaleshwari. (iv) The humans are responsible for pollution. \\ c. How are the rivers related to ‘literature”? (i) are being polluted (ii) are a very important water source (iii) can inspire the poets, novelists, etc. (iv) constitute two-thirds of our country \\ d. Buriganga is on deathbed due to – (i) water vehicles (ii) pollutions (iii) the Mughals (iv) the report published in the newspaper \\ e. The Buriganga ---– the Ganges. (i) has a link with (ii) has nothing to do with (iii) was a branch of (iv) was once called \\ \boxed{\mathbf{~B~}} Answer the following questions. (a) Do you think rivers attract people to urbanization? How? (b) In what sense rivers are going through the pangs of death? (c) What should we do to bring back the glorious past of the rivers? (d) Do you think industrialization is responsible for river pollution? (e) We, the people are responsible for the catastrophe of our rivers. Do you agree? Why/why not?